Two male soldiers married to each other claim to have left a man “covered in his own blood” in retaliation for his homophobic physical and verbal attack.

A “coward loser” allegedly punched Daniel Lennox-Choate and yelled hateful obscenities at him and his partner Larry Lennox-Choate as they shopped in New York.

The couple, both trained at West Point Military Academy, posted online that they taught him a painful lesson.

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According to a Facebook post by Larry Lennox-Choate, the man slinked away “with his tail between his legs” after he defended his partner using his military training.

“I handled the situation and tossed him in the street like the coward loser he is.”

Mr Lennox-Choate said the Hate Crime division of the NYPD was investigating the matter and the couple had full confidence they would reach a “positive outcome”.

“We refuse to be victims and are thankful we can defend ourselves, but are saddened by the fact that idiots like this guy might not pick two guys who went through Plebe Boxing next time.”

Larry Lennox-Choate and Daniel Lennox-Choate met at West Point and in 2013 became the first gay alumni to be married at the academy.

Larry has an MBA from Harvard Business School and Daniel a Masters in Business Administration also from Harvard.

No arrests have been made in relation to the incident, according to NY Daily News.

NYPD data say gay hate crimes are down 20 per cent from last year, with 43 incidents being reported so far in 2015.