Gay parents called 'rapists' and 'pedophiles' in Amtrak incident

Robbie Pierce, his husband and their two young children were enjoying a scenic train ride on the Pacific coast, a peaceful prelude to their spring break getaway. But at the end of their journey from their home in Los Angeles to Oakland, California, the couple said a man sitting across the aisle turned their family vacation into a nightmare.

“He started yelling across me and shouting, ‘Remember what I told you!’” Pierce recalled, saying the man’s remarks were directed at his 6-year-old son. “The next thing he said was, ‘Marriage is between a man and a woman. They stole you, and they’re pedophiles.’”

The shouting started as the Amtrak train was stopped at Diridon Station in San Jose, Pierce said. Immediately, he and his husband, Neal Broverman, stood up and got in between the unidentified man and their children, who started sobbing.

“I’m not a big guy, but I wasn’t nervous,” Broverman said. “When you’re dealing with your children and you feel like they’re being threatened, you’re kind of fearless. It’s kind of that mom lifting the car scenario, but it was hideous, and it was not stopping.”

The man continued to shout at the family of four, yelling, “That’s not a family! You’re rapists and pedophiles. You steal Black and Asian children and you rape them,” Pierce and Broverman said. The couple has an adopted son, who is Black, and a 5-year-old Asian American foster daughter.

Before speaking with NBC News about the Tuesday night incident, the pair documented the event in a now-viral Twitter thread. Along with detailing the encounter, the couple placed blame for the incident on the recent uptick in charged rhetoric concerning LGBTQ issues.