A man from Ohio State was punched in the face after for kissing his boyfriend near campus last week.

Cole Ledford didn't want to spend the next day explaining his bruise to his friends at school, so he decided to take a picture of his face and post a message to "the guy who punched me for kissing my boyfriend" to spread awareness of the hate crime on his college campus.

Before he knew it, the tweet went viral and his story reached communities all over the world. 

The night of the attack the young couple were walking home together holding hands from a friends house. During their walk they passed a group of kids who yelled a gay explicative at the couple, The Lantern, Ohio State's student newspaper, reported. 

Before splitting their separate ways - one lives on campus, the other off - they shared a goodbye kiss. 

As soon as Jerad Williams, Ledford's boyfriend, walked away a man came up to him, called him another gay explicitive and punched him in the face, The Lantern reported. 

Getting punched in the face was upsetting to Ledford, but he was happy that some good came out of his experience. 

"It was something that I was really upset about, but it turned into something so positive that it helped me," Ledford said to The Lantern. "And now I'm seeing that it helps others. A young boy in Texas just emailed me and my boyfriend telling us that because of our story, he came out to his parents. So the good that came from this is more than enough."

Ledofrd decided not to file a police report on the incident because of the positivity that spread when he tweeted about it. 

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