A lesbian couple, Michelle Hart and Kelly Gonyer, were dining at Dockside Restaurant in Malden, north of Boston, on Wednesday night, when a man assaulted them.

According to Boston News 7, the couple claims that the man (a stranger) was sitting at the restaurant’s bar when he saw them kiss and began yelling homophobic slurs.

“I kissed her,” Gonyer said. “That is what provoked everything… he came around and said, ‘you want to act like a man, you’re going to get beat like a man.’”

Gonyer was punched several times and suffered a gash above her right eye, which was sealed shut using glue.

Hart was taken to the hospital on a stretcher. She suffered injuries to two ligaments in her ankle and has a fractured cheek bone. Hart said she was in “excruciating pain.”

A representative of Dockside Restaurant stated that

The police are still reviewing the restaurant’s security footage. Capt Marc Gatcomb told News 7, “We’re reinterviewing everyone involved.”

The couple plans to attend Boston Pride this weekend. Hart wrote “Black/White/Gay/Straight..It doesn’t matter as long as there is love.” Hopefully these two will feel tons of love and happiness at Pride this weekend.

جوليا ديانا —Julia Diana Robertson is an award-winning author and journalist. You can find her at www.juliadianarobertson.com