Toddler Allegedly Called 'Faggot' For Wearing Headband

A Florida mother of a two-year-old boy says a man at Walmart called her child a "fucking faggot" after he pulled off a purple headband the child was wearing, the British newspaper the Daily Mail reports.

Kaite Vyktoriah, of Polk County, Fla. (about 60 miles south of Orlando, Fla.), says her son Dexter was allegedly physically and verbally assaulted last Thursday night when she and her two children were at a checkout line at Walmart. Vyktoriah, 31, wrote about the incident in a blog post for the Huffington Post and said that her son had been wearing her lace headband while they shopped and that it "made him feel good, and he was charming all the old ladies by waving like a little pageant prince."

But when they were in the checkout line, a large man with a beard, wearing tattered shorts, work boots and a camouflage shirt, shouted, "That's a boy?" The mother replied, "Yes."

He then grabbed the headband off Dexter's head and threw it to the bottom of the shopping cart, according to Vyktoriah. After that, he allegedly cuffed the 2-year-old boy's head and said, "You'll thank me later, little man!"

Vyktoriah was so shocked by the incident, she told the man, "If you touch my son again, I will cut your damn arms off." She says that the man then looked at Dexter in disgust and said, "Your son is a fucking faggot. He'll get shot for it one day." The mother added that no one from Walmart staff came or any customers came to her aide, even though she was visibly upset and shaken.

In her own blog (which is currently down) she wrote, the cuff the man gave her son was light but she did not like a stranger touching her child. She added Dexter does not have a sexuality and that he was just playing, according to the Daily Mail.

"Even if being gay is a lifestyle choice (which I don't believe for a second), it is not a choice that a toddler can ever make," Vyktoriah wrote. "And much like little girls can play baseball or enjoy monster trucks, little boys can and do play dress up with mommy's clothes... Everything is new and exciting to a kid, and they learn by trying new things."

In her HuffPost blog, Vyktoriah said that the incident has made her reflect on the world her children will grow up in.

"While we may accept and support whoever our kids turn out to be, I am scared beyond words at what it would mean for them if they are gay," she said. "Why should anyone have to live in fear because they fall in love with someone that you or someone else doesn't agree with."

Huffington Post updated Vyktoriah's blog on Sunday, and wrote that the mother has spoken with local police about the incident and took to her Facebook to say, "The Polk County Sheriff's Deputy has just left our home, and all information about the original Wal Mart incident and the ongoing harassment has been documented and is being dealt with. I have been advised NOT to say any more about the situation, as the investigation is ongoing, so thank you all for your support, but I am going to be offline for the next while until all of this is resolved."