Somerville man says he was punched by stranger who made homophobic remark on Green Line

A man says he experienced a hate crime while riding the Green Line last week when a stranger made a homophobic statement and punched him in the face.

Jack Calos, 25, said he was on his way to work on May 28 when the incident happened at the Green Line’s Government Center stop. He told Boston.com he was listening to music with his head down when a man approached and “sucker punched” him in the head.

“He said, ‘Do you know what the biggest problem in the country is right now?’ And I was luckily not super dazed, and I was able to ask ‘What?'” Calos recounted. “He said, ‘You homosexuals.'”

The man then exited the train at Government Center, leaving Calos confused and emotionally distressed.

“I wasn’t wearing anything that alluded to my sexuality,” Calos said. “He must have made some assumption along the way that I was gay.”

Later, Calos posted a picture of the man who allegedly hit him to an Instagram story. He said he reported the incident to MBTA Transit Police and warned others to look out for him.

MBTA Transit Police did not immediately answer questions about the incident from Boston.com Tuesday night, but told NBC 10 Boston that there is an open investigation into the matter. 

Calos said that he hasn’t heard anything from Transit Police since the attack last week, and Calos’s mom Geri Haley Calos said in a Facebook post that a suspect hadn’t been arrested as of Tuesday morning.

Calos said that while the physical marks left from the attack have mostly faded, the emotional harm is still taking a toll.

“Mentally, the shock is still fading off because I’ve been talking about it so much, and it’s seeming more real to me,” Calos said. “I’ve looked at the picture of the man so much and it’s very haunting. I’m losing sleep over it because I just keep playing this traumatic experience in my head.”

Calos said that he’s sharing his experience to warn people that hate crimes can happen anywhere, even in Boston, a city he called “a pioneer city for gay rights.”

“I’ve always felt safe. I never thought I would go through anything like this in Boston,” Calos said. “It’s still confusing and crazy to me.”

Most recent data from the state shows that hate crimes motivated by bias against a person’s sexual orientation have been on the rise the past few years.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation was the third most common motivator for hate crimes in Massachusetts in 2022, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice. The number of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation in the state rose from 51 in 2020 to 94 in 2022, data show.

Despite his traumatic experience, Calos said he isn’t going to change the way he expresses himself out of fear.

“I want to show people I’m still loud and proud,” he said. “And while I wasn’t being that on the day I was attacked, it’s not going to make me scared…I just want people to be able to celebrate Pride and love themselves.”

On his Instagram, Calos encouraged people to “look out for one another” in “times like these” and said he was “disheartened” that many bystanders didn’t offer help or assistance after he was allegedly assaulted. 

“Sad this happened right before pride month…but I love myself and I’ll never back down to people who are scared of us,” Calos wrote.

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