Early Sunday morning at about 1:30 a.m., Bobby Beltran left Rain, a popular gay nightclub on 4th Street, and hugged his male friend goodbye on the sidewalk. The 26-year-old gay man says that what happened next was a hate crime so unexpected it left him shocked and fearing his safety.

Men in a passing car yelled at Beltran and his friend to "stop that queer shit!" When Beltran told the men to "get out of here," the driver parked his car in the middle of the street, and five men came out and attacked Beltran and his friend. The attackers jumped back into their vehicle and drove off.

Beltran said he fought back but received a black eye and a number of cuts and bruises, while he thinks his friend may have suffered a broken jaw. He posted a photo of his injury online.

"I'm just trying to get the word out there that this is going on in Austin, and it's not safe right now," Beltran said. "To find out that [gay bashing] is here in Austin on 4th Street, and knowing that fellow gay men were not doing anything about it, is just shocking."

Beltran said the encounter lasted for about three minutes and had at least 20 witnesses, but none tried to help. He said he yelled out the license plate number of the attackers' vehicle, but nobody wrote it down. The police responded and took a report, but Beltran said he felt they were not too concerned about the crime and have not contacted him since.

“I’ve never in my life been in any kind of violent situation, especially a hate crime, so it’s been pretty traumatic,” Beltran said. “Austin is supposed to be a gay haven, especially on 4th Street. What scares me even more is that nobody even helped.”

"I'm so afraid to go back down there," Beltran added.

He described the attackers as three black males, one Hispanic male and one white male and their vehicle as an older-model Chevrolet, low to the ground with fancy rims. Witnesses to the attack are encouraged to call the Austin Police Department at 512-974-5000.

Beltran, an activist, says this was at least the third anti-gay hate crime in Austin this year. February, two gay softball players were attacked and beaten near Austin City Hall. The attack caused a stir in the Austin gay community when members of the Shady Ladies softball team organized a "March Against Hate."