"Of all the places for us to be bashed, I would not have expected it to be a Madonna concert," said Chicagoan David Greer. "As a gay or lesbian, you have to always be on your guard. You never know when something's going to happen to you."
Greer and his partner, Lee Neubecker, were at Wednesday's Madonna concert at the United Center, when a fellow concert-goer got out of hand, yelling homophobic insults and throwing pennies at others in his section.
Neubecker, Greer and several others have sought charges against the man. Neubecker said the man was disruptive from the moment he sat down-- in someone else's seat in section 305. He, his girlfriend and friends eventually moved to their seats, diagonally behind Neubecker and Greer.
When Madonna and her dancers took the stage, the man began yelling, calling out "white trash" and "fucking homos" during songs. When a woman in front of him told him to pipe down, he began insulting her as well.
Things became tense in the section, Greer said, as everyone tried to keep an eye on the man.
Neubecker said he also turned around and asked the man to be quiet, a move that set him off. During the song "Holiday," the man came to stand next to Neubecker, dancing and shadow-boxing, flexing his muscles to intimidate him. Having the man so close made him nervous, he said, because he was in the front row of the balcony section, held back by a single railing.
He tried to ignore the man, who returned to his seat. Neubecker then felt three separate things-- likely pennies-- hit him in the back. Fed up, he went to get a security guard, who talked to the man.
When Neubecker got back to his seat, a drink hit him in the head, sloshing onto Greer and others around them.
As the concert ended, the security guard took the man outside, where others from his section came over to file a report. The man reportedly tried to walk away, but was caught by the guard.
Neubecker and Greer said they are under the impression that the man was arrested for disorderly conduct and has been given a court date of Oct. 15. Chicago police have no record of the incident, however, beyond the man being escorted out of the United Center.
United Center staff could not be reached for comment by presstime. Neubecker said he would like to see something done to the man who ruined his evening.
"He wrecked about eight to 10 people's night, ( at ) at least $85 a ticket," he said.
He and Greer are also afraid that the man will track them down. They put their phone number on the complaint against him, and the following morning they received a crank phone call at about 7 a.m.
He and Greer both compared the man to a high school bully, and viewed their insistence on pressing charges as a way to stand up for themselves.
"We have to at least send a message that this isn't allowed," Greer said.