Annie Tritt

Vince Mackey, head of VM Security LLC, said that his security firm had an officer stationed at the club on Wednesday. He said that none of his employees witnessed the altercation firsthand. He added that they became aware of the incident only after a bleeding Castellon asked to use the club's bathrooms. 

"I can assure you that the venue and my company, we do not discriminate based on orientation, race, creed -- that would never come into play," he said. Mackey said that he has never known of a crime to have taken place at Paradiso, besides some "scrapes."

While Castellon and Purnell insist that they were punched because the two men perceived them to be a gay couple (Purnell is gay and Castellon is straight), it remains unclear whether the incident would be classified as a hate crime.

The state's penal code defines a hate crime as "any act of intimidation, harassment, physical force, or the threat of physical force, directed against any person, or family, or their property or advocate, motivated either in whole or in part by the hostility to the real or perceived ethnic background, national origin, religious belief, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation, of that person with the intention of causing fear and intimidation."

According to Maria Morales, Intervention Director at Community United Against Violence, a San Francisco-based anti-violence non-profit, California's definition of a "hate crime" is a narrow subcategory of what she terms "hate violence," the majority of which she contends goes unreported. 

"For us, what's important to know is that the violence was motivated by hate," she said. 

This week, the California Attorney General's Office reported that hate crimes against gay men decreased 10.8 percent from 120 in 2009 to 107 in 2010. According to the report, hate crimes based on sexual orientation represented 25.2 percent of all hate crimes reported last year.

Purnell and Castellon filed a police report right after the incident, and are awaiting word on their investigation. Castellon will have surgery on Tuesday.

"I don't have insurance," he said, "which is making this whole situation harder."