Lesbian Couple’s Roadside Stop Turns Into Nightmare In Suspected Hate Crime

Featured images: GoFundMe

On a stretch of Partlow Road in rural Spotsylvania County, Amylah Majors and her wife, Jamaria Gaskins, had pulled over around 6:30 p.m. on July 20. The couple, both from Richmond, were visiting Gaskins’ mother nearby when they hit debris in the road. They turned on their hazard lights, stepped out to check the damage, and waited.

Then a man emerged from a nearby house. He gave them a thumbs up.

“We thought it meant help was coming,” Majors wrote. “We had no idea what was about to happen.”

What unfolded over the next several minutes would end with Majors in the hospital — her spine fractured, head stapled shut, body broken — and both women left deeply shaken, alleging they were the victims of a racially motivated hate crime.

“We were chased, threatened with firearms, and called racial slurs by three white individuals who acted as if they were part of a white supremacist group,” Majors wrote in a public statement on GoFundMe. “Two of them physically attacked my wife while brandishing a gun and shouting threats.”

According to Majors and Gaskins, the situation escalated quickly. The man who had initially approached them was later identified as Mark Goodman. He didn’t come to help, they say. Instead, he began shouting racial slurs and telling them they didn’t belong there. Two others — a woman named Elizabeth Wolfrey and a second man who has not been publicly identified — joined him.

“They called us [a racial slur], told us we didn’t belong there, and one of them even exposed himself while screaming hate and slurs at us,” Majors wrote.

According to the Fredericksburg Free Press, Wolfrey has been charged with one count of brandishing a firearm. Goodman, 59, faces a misdemeanor for indecent exposure. The third individual has not been charged. The Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office says the investigation remains open, with hate crime charges under consideration.

“As we tried to leave, all three of them jumped into vehicles and chased us down the road,” Majors wrote. “One of them rode up beside us on a 4-wheeler and aimed a gun directly at my head through the driver’s window. In that moment, we truly believed we weren’t going to make it out alive.”

Then came the crash. The details of the collision are still under investigation, but one fact is clear: Majors was ejected from the car. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt in the chaos and panic of trying to escape. She suffered a fractured spine, broken clavicle, broken rib, a severe concussion, and multiple head wounds that required staples.

“I am beyond grateful to be alive,” she wrote.

Gaskins sustained minor physical injuries but, like her wife, is recovering from a concussion.

“This was not just an accident — this was an attempted act of violence meant to harm and silence us,” Majors wrote. “We will not be silent. We survived something that should’ve ended us. And now we’re speaking out — not just for ourselves, but for everyone who’s ever been targeted and forced to stay quiet.”

The response from law enforcement has sparked outrage among local civil rights groups and the broader LGBTQ+ community. So far, Goodman and Wolfrey face only misdemeanor charges. Neither has been charged with assault or a hate crime.

Community members, including the local NAACP chapter, are calling for transparency and urgency. Moe Petway, president of the Spotsylvania NAACP, said the organization is monitoring the case closely and intends to speak with the couple.

“This kind of hate is still out here. It’s real. It’s violent. It almost killed us. But we survived for a reason,” Majors wrote.

Majors and Gaskins are now facing overwhelming medical costs, lost wages, legal bills, and the loss of their vehicle. They’ve launched the GoFundMe campaign in hopes of covering the expenses of recovery — physical and otherwise.

For now, the couple is trying to put one foot in front of the other. Healing is not linear. Justice, even less so.