Man charged with hate crime in Mass. beating

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. --A Massachusetts man has been charged with a hate crime after police say he beat up a woman while screaming anti-homosexual language on a crowded street in Provincetown.

Twenty-year-old Eric Patten of Winthrop was arrested shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday.

Police say Patten approached two women in front of a cafe on Commercial Street, called one of them an offensive name referring to gay men and pushed one of them into a cafe window, which broke.

Authorities say Patten was drunk and thought the two women were gay men.

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