NY Singer Aviance Victim of Vicious Hate Crime

NEW YORK, NY -- Gay performance artist Kevin Aviance, who topped the Billboard Dance Charts with the hit "Alive" in 2003 and who is scheduled to perform at New York Gay Pride later this month, was severely beaten up in a viscous hate crime Sunday.

The performer was released from New York's Beth Israel hospital Monday afternoon with a shattered jaw and severe bruising all over his body.

Aviance told reporters from the New York Post that he was walking home from the Phoenix, an East Village gay bar, when four teens began shouting obscenities and attacked him from behind.

"I got kicked in my head 12 times. They kicked me in my back. They kicked in my knees. They just kept kicking. They kept yelling 'fucking faggot!' I thought I would be dead. I really thought they were going to kill me."

Aviance passed out and when he regained consciousness the teens had disappeared. He was lying in the middle of the street with several cars nearly hitting him. Luckily a man stopped to help and walked him to the hospital.

An officer with New York’s Hate Crimes Taskforce said Monday that the police has arrested four men in connection with the attack. The officer said all of the assailants were members of New York street gangs.

According to Reuters, charges of first degree assault as a hate crime have been filed against all four teens. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the attack a disgrace and told the news organization, "Anybody who thinks they can get away with a hate crime is sadly mistaken."