PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten -- Barbaric and inhumane is how a top tourism official in Saint Maarten describes the beating of two gay Americans, news partner NBC 6 reported. Dick Jefferson and Ryan Smith were airlifted from the Caribbean tourist island to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami after being beaten with tire irons. Jefferson has been released, but Smith is reportedly being treated for brain damage, NBC 6 reported. The men, journalists from New York, were outside a bar Thursday when they were attacked by three men.