EDGE Chicago

A group of three men attacked a 33-year-old gay man on a Chicago train early Sunday morning after he came to the aid of another passenger.

Daniel Hauff boarded the CTA Red Line at the Belmont stop in Boystown around 2:30 a.m. He confronted a man who had been hassling another passenger as the train passed Wilson. When two others joined in the shouting match, Hauff pressed the emergency assistance intercom button that resulted in the conductor halting the train to intervene. Hauff maintains, however, the conductor did not adequately break-up the confrontation and he left the scene too quickly.

"I feel the CTA handled this very poorly," Hauff told EDGE. "For them to just drive the train to another station when these guys were yelling at me was completely irresponsible. If that’s their policy, I intend to follow up with them for sure."

As soon as the conductor left and restarted the train, Hauff said the men kicked and punched him and taunted him with "faggot," "stupid faggot" and other anti-gay slurs. The assault came to an end when Hauff claimed to be HIV-positive--though he is not--and began to wipe some of his own blood on his attackers.

Police arrested the three men for misdemeanor battery and "making disparaging comments" once they left the train at Argyle. Hauff was briefly hospitalized for minor injuries and was released at 6 a.m. He plans to press hate crime charges against them at a hearing next month.

"I want this to be charged as a hate crime and it is being investigated as such," Hauff continued. "If you’re calling someone a faggot before, during and after you’ve punched and bloodied them up, I would say that’s likely a hate crime."

Wanda Taylor, a spokesperson for the CTA, said in a statement an initial investigation into the incident "indicate[d] the operator responded appropriately," but added the investigation was ongoing. She further claimed while the train was stopped at Wilson, the conductor asked Hauff if he needed police or medical assistance, offered for him to come to the head car and also asked the alleged attackers to leave the train. Neither Hauff nor his attackers left the car, but the conductor also reportedly contacted the CTA’s Control Center, putting both the police and the Argyle stop’s security attendant on alert.

Hauff contests the conductor’s recollection of events. He claims she never asked if he required assistance or wished to move to the front car. Hauff added the CTA should re-examine their policies in response to the case. And he also hopes LGBT Chicagoans will take the opportunity to speak out against continued violence.

"I feel very lucky and it could have been a lot worse, but I want people to know that this still happens," Hauff added. "There is no room, in 2010, for ignorance like this and this proves we have a lot of work to do to ensure changes are made."

Sunday’s attack is only the latest in a series of attacks reported against gay men in the Windy City within the last year. A 19-year-old man was robbed and threatened with a gun on the South Side last November, the 17th such attack reported against gay youth in the neighborhood last year. A series of strong-armed robberies and attacks also struck Lakeview over the summer.