Last Thursday, an employee of Castro bar Badlands was reportedly brutally assaulted while leaving work, in what his family is calling a "gay bashing."
Tommy Castellani was leaving work at Badlands in the early hours of Thursday morning when he was allegedly attacked and “left bleeding,” his sister, Julia DePetrillo, wrote on a GoFundMe page intended to raise money for his medical care.
“Tommy had to have emergency surgery to basically re-attach his fractured jaw to his skull, as well as other unpleasant fractured and broken details," DePetrillo writes. (As of this writing, the page has raised $3,940 of its $5,000 goal.)
It's still unclear as to what exactly took place last week outside of the popular neighborhood bar and dance club. We’ve reached out to SFPD for more information on possible suspects, and we've also contacted Badlands for more details. We'll update this story as we learn more.
On the campaign page, DePetrillo describes her brother as being attacked for "being his beautiful queer self." However, Castellani seems to be dealing with the assault positively. Here's his statement from the GoFundMe page:
“You can bash my face, but you will not get my spirit. You can not take the love that has been given to me from all of you. I am unafraid. I only feel blessings. I will heal and I will still be beautiful. You have done nothing but brought bad karma and the promise of a long stay in hell. Your hatred and evil have only wrapped me in so much love from all around me. You have only increased my spiritual wealth.”
Again, we'll update the story as we learn more about this assault.
Update, 3:01pm: Castellani reached out to let us know that some of the details on the GoFundMe page created by his sister were incorrect. The attack "did not happen after work [at Badlands], it happened on a Wednesday night after karaoke at The Cafe," he said.
"We are not sure why I was attacked," he added. "One of the ideas is that it might be revenge from someone who I may have had to ask to leave [Badlands] previously. Or it could be a random gay bashing. The only facts are it was brutal and nothing was stolen from me. I am currently trying to piece together info."