What started out as a dispute over a dog on a clothing-optional beach last week escalated into a hateful attack on a trans woman out for a stroll on a scenic stretch of the New Jersey shoreline.

Eve Riley, 28, says she was walking with a friend and his dog along Gunnison Beach on the North Jersey shore when a man in his 50s told them dogs aren’t allowed on the beach in the state park.

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The pet was on a leash, and rules for the park allow dogs on ocean-facing beaches from mid-September through mid-March.

The fiftysomething Chad claimed otherwise and tore into the dog owner for breaking the rules. When Riley came to his defense, the man turned his ire on her trans identity.

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Riley told NJ.com that what started out as a dispute over her friend’s dog escalated into anti-trans harassment.

In the verbal onslaught, part of which Riley recorded, the man called her a “freak” and a “tra**y” and sarcastically advised her to “take my meds,” she recounted.

The man threw sand into her eyes multiple times, she said, and whipped at her with his towel.

When she pulled out her phone to record him, the assailant lunged at her to knock the phone from her hands and struck her in the face, Jersey Counter-Info reported.

“Sand? Sand?” she said in the video. “I’m showing this to the police.”

The man fled, yelling as Riley recorded him, and sought out authorities in an attempt to get her ticketed or arrested. A park ranger later spoke with Riley, who shared her version of the incident. The ranger declined to take action at the time against either party.

A spokesperson at Gateway National Recreation Area confirmed a report was filed and they’re investigating the confrontation. Riley’s attacker has not been publicly identified.

Gunnison Beach, with views of the Manhattan skyline, is the only state-sanctioned clothing-optional stretch of shoreline in New Jersey. Riley said she, her friend, and the assailant were all clothed at the time.

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