Alleged Homophobic Incident at Dallas BBQ May Have Been Racially Fueled Fight

The Cinco de Mayo incident at the Chelsea outpost of Dallas BBQ in which Jonathan Snipes and his boyfriend Ethan York-Adams were hit with a chair by another diner in an alleged homophobic attack is being investigated by the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force, and so far no arrests have been made. But, Gothamist points out, another narrative has arisen around the incident, this one focused on race.

Waddie Grant Jr., writing on G-List Society, claims that Isaam Sharef, who filmed the attack and posted it on Instagram, says that Snipes left out part of the story he told to DNAinfo and allegedly to the cops as well. In that story, Snipes says that the still unidentified man called them "white f----ts, spilling drinks," after he spilled a drink while getting up from the table. Snipes says he went over to the table said: "What did you say about us?"

Sharef tells Grant that: "the word 'faggot'...seemed to be a response to Snipes’ arrogance after knowing that he bumped the Black men’s table and knocking their drinks rather than homophobia." Sharef says Snipes "struck one of the black men first, which kicked off the entire brawl." In the post, Grant also says that the black diner was identified to him by another diner at the restaurant, and that he is "allegedly gay, gay, gay and pretty popular in the ballroom scene." He argues:

I am not going to snitch the guy out because I am on his side of self-defense minus the chair tossing and hate the white gay privileged narratives by gay bloggers, blogs and organizations who sensationalized this incident into more than what it was to protect the white gay hot head who wanted to demonize the Black gay men as aggressors over a physical altercation that he provoked when he could have ignored their foul language like I always do when insults are hurled my way.

Adding:

Snipes came across as a pissed off privileged white gay man who thought that his skin color allowed him to approach brown-colored men without repercussion because he felt the self-important right to put them in their places.

Information pertaining to the incident should be reported to the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at  800-577-TIP or submitted online to the Crime Stoppers Website.