By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
LOWER EAST SIDE — After having a knife held to his throat and a gun jammed in his stomach in a bias attack late last year on the Lower East Side, promoter and heavy-metal enthusiast Tim Martinez decided to fight back.
But instead of seeking violent revenge on his assailants — who Martinez said forced him to watch as they beat up his friend while hurling anti-gay slurs — he was motivated to organize a benefit concert in the hope of raising awareness about hate crimes, bullying and discrimination.
"It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced. I thought I was going to die," said Martinez, 31, of Brooklyn, known better as Tim No. 37.
"It built a fire under me to fight back. Even if you've been victimized, that doesn't mean you have to be a victim. Always fight back in a positive way."
Martinez's efforts will culminate on Saturday with his "Hate the Hate" benefit concert on the Lower East Side, featuring a bevy of hard-rock bands playing to benefit LGBT advocacy and support groups the Hetrick-Martin Institute and The Trevor Project.
Martinez explained that the seemingly provincial heavy-metal community offered the perfect launching pad for the benefit, since metal fans are often misunderstood and even the victims of bullying themselves because of their unconventional style.
"It's seen to be such a close-minded way of life," said the self-described "gay Puerto Rican and metal head," who dealt with bullying as a "goth kid" at his Brooklyn high school.
"In the long run, we're the most open-minded of any other genre that you can think of."
The rash of bullying-related suicides last year around the time of Martinez's own attack — including the high-profile death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi — prompted him to find a platform for his message.
"We haven't seen such a gross display of ignorance, bigotry and hate as we did in 2010 since the Matthew Shepard situation," he said, speaking of a gay college student who was brutally murdered in 1998, leading to the passage of federal hate-crime legislation. "It really worked people up again."
Now, with the spread of social networking bringing bullying online, Martinez said the threat has never been greater for at-risk youth. So he turned to a community he knows best — and one that would at first appear unlikely — to champion tolerance.
"I have never seen a more close-knit, open-minded, loving family than the metal and hard-rock community," he said, noting that even mosh pits at heavy-metal shows offer a communal experience embodying the sentiment.
"If someone falls down," he said, "they get picked up."
More than a half-dozen bands — including Star Killer, King Hell and The August Infinity — will perform at the concert, which also features a raffle for the chance to win a dinner personally prepared by celebrity chef and Stanton Social owner Chris Santos.
A seasoned fundraiser, Martinez explained that the response to "Hate the Hate" has been even greater than benefits he's organized to raise money for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.
"This is my proudest moment and this is my proudest event," he said. "This is what I was always meant to do."
Hate the Hate: Sat., Feb. 26, at Tammany Hall, 152 Orchard St. $15; doors at 6 p.m.
