Three men say they were attacked outside of popular Boston drag bar Jacque's Cabaret late Friday night.

The attack happened after a weekly show called Fascination, and according to the show's organizer, the men who allegedly instigated the attack had attended the show and caused no problems. But the victims of the attack say they became aggressive on the street outside, Boston 25 reports.

The victims released a statement: “The group was shouting homophobic slurs while they punched and kicked one of the victims on the ground before putting him into a chokehold. The victims will be pursuing this as a homophobic hate crime. What we were always scared of happening to us has finally happened.”

Michael Flowers, Fascination's co-organizer who was victimized in the attack, released a statement about the incident on its Facebook page: “Last night, Michael Flowers, one of the Fascination organizers, and two other queer attendees of Fascination were physically assaulted by a group of straight men outside of Jacques around 12:15am. The men were attending the show upstairs and used anti-gay epithets, including the word f@gg0t during the assault. All three of the individuals assaulted are comfortable acknowledging this as a hate crime influenced by their identities and presentations as queer people. All three of individuals assaulted are currently safe and have support systems with which they are able to unpack the trauma associated with the event.”

“Fascination will no longer be happening at Jacques Cabaret as the events of last night have revealed the venue to be an unsafe space for our queer patrons,” Flowers added. “The event is currently on hiatus and will resume once we are able to find an alternative venue. We will keep the community posted through our usual social media channels and through our website, fascinationboston.net. Thank you to everyone for their continued support of the night and we will keep you posted very soon about our next steps.”