![\"Andres](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788158770_625_7f80c78e-353f-4c2e-838e-7fbe893dfa94_1721668549.png\")
<\/a>SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\nA Sacramento man said he was left bloodied and injured after four men shouted anti-LGBTQ and racist slurs, chased him and attacked him in the city\u2019s Lavender Heights neighborhood early Sunday.<\/p>\n
Joseph Sais said he and a friend were walking home after a night out when they encountered the group near 20th and L streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because you\u2019re wearing something flamboyant, you\u2019re acting flamboyant, you\u2019re sticking up for yourself, you\u2019re protecting your voice, does not mean that you need to be attacked,\u201d Sais said.<\/p>\n
Lavender Heights is a popular nightlife district with several LGBTQ+ bars and businesses. Sais said he had always considered the neighborhood a place where he could freely celebrate his identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can this happen here?\u201d Sais said. \u201cHow can this happen in a space where it\u2019s for us? It\u2019s for queer individuals to come feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sais said the men began mocking him and his friend with anti-LGBTQ and racist slurs before chasing and repeatedly attacking them. He said he tried to escape rather than fight back.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy face hit the ground, and they were still trying to get at me,\u201d Sais said.<\/p>\n
Sais said he was punched multiple times. Photographs taken after the attack showed blood on his face, injuries to his forehead and lip, and broken glasses. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy shirt was bloodied. My shorts were bloody. Blood was everywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sais said he ran toward security personnel outside a nearby bar for help. People in the area then called police, he said.<\/p>\n
Sacramento police said officers responded to an assault near 20th and L streets shortly before 1 a.m. The suspects fled before officers arrived, police said. Officers took a felony assault bias report and conducted an initial investigation.<\/p>\n
Police have not announced any arrests.<\/p>\n
Jill Osur, owner of Teneral Cellars in Lavender Heights, described the reported attack as devastating and called for additional community support and public-safety resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more awareness,\u201d Osur said. \u201cWe do need more police coverage. We need more community involvement to help each other when something like this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sais said he believes community members must work together to make Lavender Heights safer, though he is uncertain whether increasing the number of police officers is the only solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if the answer is more cops, but I think it needs to be more of us looking after each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sais said he worries the attack could make other LGBTQ+ people afraid to visit the neighborhood or openly express themselves. Still, he said he will not allow what happened to stop him from living openly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to live my life in fear because of what four individuals did,\u201d Sais said.<\/p>\n
Sais urged anyone with information about the attack to contact Sacramento police.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento man says attackers shouted anti-LGBTQ, racist slurs before beating him in Lavender Heights SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[177620,14852,54544,1794,146243,9133,9923,36698,142230,177623,177622,177625,53504,177624,2322,236,67688,153799,121,123,36002,122,9123,177621,99613],"class_list":["post-448651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-20th-and-l-streets","tag-andres-valle","tag-anti-lgbtq","tag-attack","tag-attacker","tag-blood","tag-face","tag-hate-crime","tag-homophobic","tag-jill-osur","tag-joseph-sais","tag-l-street","tag-lavender-heights","tag-more-police-coverage","tag-officer","tag-police","tag-racist","tag-racist-slur","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-man","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-police","tag-slurs","tag-teneral-cellars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}