Attack on NYC Gay Journalist May Have Been Hate Crime, Police Say

Police are investigating a recent attack on a gay journalist in Manhattan as a possible hate crime, New York TV station WABC reports.

Randy Gener was attacked by a group of people at about 4 a.m. January 17 in midtown Manhattan, just about a block from his apartment, as he walked home from a party. He was found unconscious, with a severe head injury, in a pool of his own blood, the assailants apparently having left him for dead. He underwent brain surgery and is now in the intensive care unit at St. Luke's Hospital, listed in serious but stable condition.

"He can't answer the questions of what happened that night, he doesn't really exactly know who we are or where he's at sometimes," Gener's sister, Jessica Blair Driessler, told WABC, "and it's really painful to see him here the way that he is because he's the most articulate person." Gener is a respected journalist who has written for The New York Times, the Daily News, and many other publications.

Driessler and Kevin Nadal, a friend of Gener's, both called on anyone who witnessed the attack to come forward with information. In New York City, "over the past year, several gay men have not only been attacked, but murdered," Nadal pointed out. The New York Police Department's hate crimes task force is investigating the assault on Gener.

Gener's family and friends are holding a vigil tonight at 6 at 7th Avenue and 53rd Street. They also have created an online campaign to raise funds to cover his medical expenses; find it here.

Watch the WABC report below.