Two Gay Students Attacked in Subway

Two undergraduates were attacked Friday night by several youths shouting homosexual epithets in the Park St. subway station.

The two--Jonathan L. Handel '82-1 and Patrick J. Flaherty '83--said neither bystanders not Boston and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) police aided them.

Handel said he and Flaherty were standing arm-in-arm dressed in "bright clothes" on the central platform of the Red Line at 11:30 p.m. Friday when a group of approximately 12 young men standing on the Quincy train platform began yelling at them.

When they moved into the stairway to avoid the taunts, several of the youths crossed the train track bed and chased them up the stairs. Handel said.

Two of the youths caught Flaherty and began hitting with closed fists. Handel said, adding that he then began blowing a police whistle.

Handel and Flatherty called the "911" Boston police emergency number, and the operator referred him to the MBTA police, Handel said.

An official in the operations section of the Boston police said yesterday Boston officers would have responded to assault in progress, but that the operator must have considered the assault to be completed.

"If we responded, and the MBTA responded only to take a report, that would be tying up two cruisers," the officer said.

Handel said he phoned the MBTA police--a toll call--but his dime ran out before the officer could record the details of the assault.

The MBTA police were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Handel said 12 to 15 bystanders did not intervene. He added, "No one cared that we were being beaten."

Flaherty said yesterday that he feels the witnesses did not help him because he is gay.

"It's just the insensitivity of people," he said, adding, "I was afraid of being killed for what I am."

Flaherty suffered a split lip and minor abrasions.