{"id":3195,"date":"2026-06-25T06:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2026-06-25T06:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:34:21","slug":"cary-lgbtq-organizer-injured-in-alleged-pride-assault-why-she-wants-tougher-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3195","title":{"rendered":"Cary LGBTQ+ organizer injured in alleged Pride assault. Why she wants tougher charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

A local LGBTQ+ organizer suffered a black eye after she and others say a man struck her with a flagpole bearing an American flag at a Cary Pride event. Now, that organizer is pushing for harsher charges against the man involved.<\/p>\n

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Sara Buxton, the owner of The Night Market Company<\/a> \u2014 a queer-owned business curating open-air markets in the Triangle \u2014 hosted the Alphabet Soup Pride Market in Downtown Cary Park on June 13.<\/p>\n

It was a \u201cgreat event,\u201d Buxton said in an online video<\/a>, until a shirtless male \u201cagitator\u201d began running and pacing through the event with an American flag hoisted on a metal flagpole.<\/p>\n

She said she asked the man to put a shirt on before he re-entered the event, as all other attendees were wearing shirts.<\/p>\n

He then allegedly struck her face with the flagpole and called her homophobic slurs, she said in the video, showing her swollen eye to the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueer owned businesses need your support always, not just during pride month,\u201d Buxton wrote in the caption of a video detailing the incident. \u201cThrowing Pride events shouldn\u2019t involve physical harm and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cary police charged Justin Batchelor, 25, of Cary with misdemeanor simple assault after interviewing witnesses on the scene. Court records show police issued a citation for the incident, meaning they did not take him into custody.<\/p>\n

Batchelor is scheduled for a disposition hearing on August 13. He did not immediately return a request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Batchelor faced another simple assault charge last year after police said he got out of his car in the middle of a Cary road and pushed an individual with both hands, according to court records. The case was voluntarily dismissed in January, the records show.<\/p>\n

But the current assault charges aren\u2019t sufficient, Buxton said in the Instagram video.<\/p>\n

In the days after the incident, Buxton said she\u2019s struggled to be in large crowds, bowing out of a Costco trip last week because of her unease around the hoards of people.<\/p>\n

But she said she\u2019s \u201cnot going to stop\u201d speaking out about the incident in hopes of having the charges elevated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s normal for people to speak out after they\u2019ve been involved in a hate crime,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cThat\u2019s what it is. So, I\u2019m here, and I\u2019m going to continue working towards an end goal of finding some sort of justice for what happened to me. And not just to me \u2026 but people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Buxton\u2019s complaint hasn\u2019t yet reached her office but that North Carolina\u2019s hate crime law<\/a> recognizes offenses motivated by race, color, religion, nationality or country of origin \u2014 not sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/p>\n

Federal law does cover sexual orientation and gender identity, but it would take a federal complaint from the victim to elevate a district case to federal court, Freeman said.<\/p>\n

Buxton deferred an interview request from The News & Observer to another organizer who witnessed the incident.<\/p>\n

Helicia Chiang, the operations manager for the LGBT Center of Raleigh, was stationed at the Raleigh organization\u2019s booth at the market when they first saw Batchelor walking through the event, shirtless with only his flag and \u201cvery short\u201d red shorts.<\/p>\n

Chiang said she took out her own Pride flag and waved it around before Buxton approached the man to ask him to put on a shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe turns around really quick, and I didn\u2019t hear exactly what he said to her, but he\u2019s holding the flagpole over his right shoulder and turns on a very aggressive 180 to the point where the flagpole smacks her directly on the side of the head and knocks her glasses off,\u201d Chiang said.<\/p>\n

Chiang said as other organizers approached the man, he began \u201cscreaming profanities\u201d including a threat about a firearm, and sprinted away from the park.<\/p>\n

As a LGBTQ+ organizer, Chiang has seen handfuls of protesters opposing Pride events, but she said she\u2019s never seen an event turn violent.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Out! Raleigh\u2019s annual Pride festival this weekend, Chiang said the event will be equipped with a security presence on par with other large-scale city events, with heightened police presence and community volunteers monitoring the crowd.<\/p>\n

And many festival-goers have their own trademark ways of drowning out hate, she said, like making clacking noises with large Pride fans and covering protesters\u2019 signs with their own banners. But she said the focus remains on celebrating inclusion and identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not letting these protesters affect us,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to be here, and we can\u2019t make them leave. It\u2019s a public street, but just don\u2019t pay them any mind, don\u2019t let them affect your day. We\u2019re here to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more He wanted a bar like \u2018Cheers.\u2019 She wanted to be herself. 3 LGBTQ+ Raleigh spots<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 5:02 PM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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