Two Sacramento lawmakers and members of the gay community rallied Thursday in support of a Sacramento man who needs reconstructive facial surgery after he was assaulted outside an Elk Grove bowling alley.

Elk Grove Police said Seth Parker, 26, was attacked after walking out of the Strikes bowling alley Sunday night following a going-away party he and a number of women friends had attended.

Two men yelled homophobic slurs and one punched Parker in his right eye, causing four fractures, after he had tried to discourage them from bothering women in his group, authorities said.

At a news conference on the west steps of the state Capitol, Assembly members Alyson Huber and Roger Dickinson, whose districts include parts of Elk Grove, expressed indignation over the attack.

"Violence is never acceptable," said Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, as supporters held signs stating, "Hate is not OK." Huber said it is "particularly abhorrent" when it involves racial or ethnic slurs or slurs about someone's sexual orientation.

Dickinson, D-Sacramento, called the region's diversity a sign of its strength.

"We will not stand by and allow crimes of violence to go unaddressed," he said.

The lawmakers were joined by representatives for groups representing members of the Sacramento area's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

The group also included Elk Grove Mayor Steve Detrick and City Councilman Gary Davis along with Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna.

Serna called the perpetrators "cowards" and said he wanted to convey to Parker that he and others who are victimized "don't stand alone."

Ken Pierce, a spokesman for a gay-rights group helping to organize the event, Equality Action Now, told The Bee the altercation started as "one person standing up for his friends, trying to protect his friends. And it turned into a gay bashing."

The group, he said, is waiting to see if the Elk Grove Police Department will treat the attack as a hate crime – something the police spokesman, Officer Christopher Trim, said detectives are evaluating as part of their investigation.

"It was a hate crime," Parker told The Bee. "I think the majority of what happened, a good part of it, is because I am gay."

Otherwise, Parker said, he doubts the men would have singled him out.

"If it is investigated as a hate crime, which I would like, it would make it more of a big deal, and people would take it a little more seriously."

Parker, who talked to The Bee en route to medical and other appointments Thursday, said he remains in pain, and the medical evaluation showed he would require surgery. Parker works as a makeup artist and said he has no insurance.

Paul Curtis, a leader in the gay community, said UC Davis Medical Center said it is following through in providing Parker with needed care.

Curtis said he believes Parker was traumatized by the attack.

"We're trying to make sure he gets some counseling," Curts said.

Parker said he and the women were trying to walk away from the men when they began shouting slurs. One of the men, he said, grew more vicious in his verbal assault, threw the punch, then ran toward the parking lot.

Officer Trim said the department is evaluating security photos taken the night of the assault to aid in identifying the assailants, who were described as in their 20s.

The Police Department, meanwhile, has tracked the volume of calls generated in the bowling alley area on Laguna Boulevard since complaints were raised earlier this year.

In the first three months of this year, Trim said, the department responded 33 times to calls for service, not counting false alarms. Those calls included five reports of assault, eight burglary calls, which typically involved cars in the parking lot, and 10 disturbances.

After a recent community meeting, a Strikes spokesman said security would be increased. The Bee reported in December that Strikes owners had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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