Gay Hate crime Murder in school, openly gay student, 15 year-old dies

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maggie~hamilton

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15-year-old Lawrence King was declared brain dead after he was shot by a fellow student on Tuesday at Oxnard Junior High School. King, an openly gay student, was shot during his first period English Class in front of twenty four other students. According to classmates, King was known to wear makeup and feminine jewelry to school and was in conflict with other boys for his open display.

"He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails -- the whole thing," said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."

As of today King is being kept on life support for possible organ donations after being declared brain dead by neurosurgeons at the St. John's Medical Center in Oxnard California. Police are still investigating and the district
attorney has yet to determined if the unnamed juvenile suspect will be tried in juvenile court or charged as an adult for murder. They have determined that the suspect will be charged with a hate crime.

"Anti-gay prejudice continues to take the lives of innocent people. That is why the Gay American Heroes project is so important," said Congressman Barney Frank.
 
very sad

i'm not gay myself but it has always bugged me that people think they can JUDGE other people because they are different
 
Saddened and disgusted

Sigh - it is truly heartbreaking to hear of things like this happening in the 21st century. The worst thing is the ones who did this will have parents who lawyer them up and they will be out on the streets again in weeks.
 
Even sadder how the Religious Wrong and their political cronies are also fostering a climate of intolerance. The blood of every murderered gay person is on their hands.
 
Well, I am gay but still find any sort of effort by a guy to make himself appear feminine to be repulsive. I can only imagine how such an appearance would be received by straight and/or homophobic types, in particular teenagers who are working through hormonal issues that can compromise their sensibilities. Everybody has a right to express their individualism but if it's clear that you're upsetting people by doing so and your own safety is in question, then it's time to ask yourself a few questions about what you're doing and who your audience is. The trouble is, teens tend to think "it will never happen to me" and they couldn't be more wrong, especially in today's America where handguns are cheap and plentiful and more of them are in the wrong hands than not.

Nobody should end up dead over a personal choice such as this, but that is the world we are currently living in, at least here in the good ol' gun-happy and insecure U.S.A.
 
So true!! BTW - I like that term 'Religious Wrong'!! How is that a person can hide behind their religion to foster hate and intolerance? I remember my late mother jumping on the Anita Bryant bandwagon in the late 70's; I had honestly thought that the world would have wised up by now...
 
Did this kid have gender issues? For the life of me, I can't figure out why a kid this age would want to look like a woman.
But the bigger question is how did a kid get a gun into the school in the first place?
This is truly unfortunate to hear of. And it's even worse that the NIU shootings overshadow this event.
 
Another good reason to allow teachers to have guns.

What happened to the perp? What was his background? I bet his parents are gems.

Play with adult toys, get charged as an adult...
 
I don't think we need to start creating an OK Corral scene in our classrooms. What we need is parental responsibility at home and early diversity training in schools.

Oh, and a handgun ban would go a long way but the crackers who make up the vast majority of the NRA will have none of that.
 
There's a long, dark, sad back-story to this. My soul resonates with the tragedy of it.

As to the question, "Why would this kid want to dress like a woman?" Well, what difference does the WHY make? That's what he chose to do. Whom was he hurting, other than, ironically, himself?

A lot of blame can be put not only on the religious nuts but also on the generally homophobic climate of this supposedly civilized country. For anyone to feel it's okay that a kid would be murdered in premeditated cold-blood because he wears makeup to school is just incomprehensible to me. But there are plenty of people who feel that way. What you wanna bet the good Christian folks at GodHateFags.com are having a field day with this.
 
Oh for sure. The shooter can find a cush position as pastor for a sector of the GodHatesFags religious community.

Just happened to catch the film "Dogma" on cable last night. There's a lot to see in that one about organized religion's misguided history through the ages.
 
What's Dreadful About This...

...Is that this young man probably had been harassed and bullied before, only to have his complaints answered with, "If you weren't the way you are, these things wouldn't happen." In all my experience and volunteer work with bullying issues, I almost never see anyone in a position of authority confront the bully and ask why they find it necessary to make the lives of others hell.

The dirty little secret of bullying is that bullies are sick, with self-esteem issues they can't seem to identify or meet in any other way besides bullying. Identification and treatment of bullies is crucial to the well-being of not only bullied kids, but bullies themselves. Bullies are at high risk when they transition out of "secure" situations (like their high school) to ones where even more aggressive bullies may be present.

I have been preaching this one for some time: If a kid is bullied, he needs help. But so does the bully. Without intervention, the bully may become more aggressive, and the kid who has been bullied will become further damaged and alienated by having his faith in authority shattered.

I've told more than one parent the simple truth about "different" kids: Your kid has a right to dislike "different" people. He has a right to avoid them. He has a right to refuse association with them. But he does not have a right to cause them emotional distress or physical harm. No decently-raised kid should have any difficulty whatsoever figuring out where the line is drawn.

Bullying does not stop when people leave school. Google "workplace bullying" sometime if you doubt me.

One of my life's goals is to promote as much public focus on the problem of bullying- in all places, on all levels, for all reasons- as possible. Bullying is one of the most horrific experiences a person can undergo. Many, many kids choose suicide rather than deal with it one more day. Their blood is on the hands of their tormentors.
 
Sandy, you left out on-line bullies also. I've seen them in action in the few chat rooms I've visited.

If there is one place where this bully complex runs rampant it is in the police departments of the entire planet. Just this week I saw a video clip of a big and burly Baltimore cop beating up on a pre-teen kid for no good reason. Surely some sort of sociological engineer out there could devise a profiling system similar to Myers-Briggs or the Eniagram or whatever that would identify this bully type of personality and weed them out from the ranks of those interested in becoming police officers. That would go a long way towards restoring my confidence in the caliber of person who is wearing a policeman's uniform.

I know I've strayed off topic somewhat but police attitudes have plenty to do with how they treat complaints that might come in on behalf of kids like the one who was victimized in Oxnard. I've heard there's a significant gang/thug element in Oxnard so you'd think they'd be more vigilant around there. That just circles things back to the lead-off sentence in this paragraph.
 
Ralph:

One of the things we desperately need in this country is a national database of cops who have been disciplined or dismissed for cause. It's extremely easy for a cop who has been in trouble in one jurisdiction to jump over to another, get hired there, and continue his little experiments in anti-social behaviour. If our Federal government were less corrupt and more responsible at the moment, I would advocate mandatory Federal background checks for any cop being considered for hire anywhere in this country, whether at the State, Federal, county or local level.

One of the things I advocate where bullies are concerned is the revival of that good old-fashioned concept, the permanent record in our schools. Bullying behaviour ideally should be caught, recorded, and treatment offered. If treatment does not produce change, that should be recorded too. Permanent records should be forwarded to colleges along with transcripts. It should be made clear to kids from the get-go that this is damned serious behaviour that will have lifelong consequences.

Over time, I feel society would be greatly benefitted by non-tolerance of bullying behaviour. Our world is increasingly subject to bullies, from despotic middle managers, to national politicians who do as they please and hold themselves above the law. By beginning with children, we could do something about the adult bullies of tomorrow. Terrorism, at its core, is simply bullying.
 
Sticks and stones... You have to learn how to deal with a bully or you will always be a wimp and a victim. When it crosses the line into physical violence, then we have laws to deal with that. I hope the little bastard that did this gets the chair or the needle.
 
That is so Sad just because he is Gay.I'm Gay also but nobody could ever tell cause I am not Fem at all and I am not attracted to guys that are either.I have been cussed out cause I have said that I am a str8 acting Gay guy and I guess that makes some folks mad I have always said whats on my mind.All my guy friends for the most part are str8 and real Fem guys make guys feel uncomfortable for the most part they don't bother me that much but to me its redundent why date a guy that acts like a girl.I think the Shooter was in all likely hood might be Gay and I bet money on that and him seeing that guy messes with his head.I still dont understand how somebody could kill another person for anything other than self-defence or War.I had a TERRIBLE time admiting to myself I was Gay.I was raised on a 1000 Acre Dariy Farm in the Sticks of Tennessee and I knew I was Gay or just differnt sence about 10.I was Also a Bully I ran around with the Jocks and would fight anybody at anytime.I know why I did that now I was trying to prove I was not gay.This was in like 1993 when I was in high School and like all schools we had are fem guys and I am ashamed to say I Picked on them all the time.I look back on all this with regret now but my Family was SO religious and I never new then that most gay guys you would never know they were gay.I was just young and trying to show off to my other friends cause everybody did it.I fought the Gay thing so hard and there is no fighting it cause you can't when I was born like this I know this its not like what Pat Robertson or Anita Bryant says that its a choice.I have told these guys that I was sorry for what I did once I came out in 96 and saw them at the Gay bars they told me they Knew I was gay because of the way I acted around them and thoese friends of mine that Picked on them all of them came out also.MY Heart goes out to the Family of this 15 Year old and the guy who did it needs to be locked away for life and if he is over 18 then he needs to dance with the Grim-reaper himself to pay for his crimes.He has ruined all these lives cause what somebody does behind closed doors what people do behind locked doors is nobodies business unless it's some sick child molester and then he needs to be took out and just shot.I have a friend of mine who was messed with and he is SOOO messed up all because of that.
 
It's a hate crime, plain and simple. The same mentality that gives us racism, xenophobia and religious hatred gives us these horrible incidents.

I really think something has to be done about a growth of homophobia in some aspects of modern culture though. Lyrics in some rap and hip hop music seem to somehow slip below the radar and we've had the emergence of people using the word "gay" as a derogatory term to describe anything inferior thanks to South Park i.e. "that is so gay!"

The growth of the far right / religious right in the US is very worrying indeed. I hope that such an incident wouldn't be overlooked / seen as somehow justifiable.

If it is, you guys are on a road to being a Christian version of Iran or Saudai Arabia before you know where you are..

It's about time that decent Americans stood up and took back politics and the media from 'the red neck agenda.' It's doing terrible damage to US society and to the opinion of America abroad.

That incident is utterly sickening though and I hope that the school/s involved immediately roll out some kind of an outreach programme to prevent such homophobic behaviour in future.

I mean, if that had been an attack on a kid due to his ethnic background there'd be immediate outrage.

Why can't some people get their heads around the fact that some guys are gay, some guys are effeminate and some women are gay and some women are quite masculine in their behaviour. It's just part of the diversity of the human condition !!

Where does all this hate come from!?
 
Boy George, if you are keeping track------

of our AW website, please weigh-in on this debate.
However, countless gay males have worn cosmetics for years,as a matter of their choice, so whats the big deal?

Too bad the guy who was assaulted didn't have any warning. A .22 pistol is easy to hide, but a .38 Police Special would have done a much better job. Returning violence with violence is a great deterrent. Long live the NRA.

Word needs to get around that school, that if you mess with the sissies you will pay----big time. THAT will stop this kind of s%@t.
 
Volsboy:

Thank you for that take on this subject with your very in depth post. that took a lot of courage on your part to bring your past out.
That video was quite moving. Thanks for linking it to this thread. It makes one think....
 
I heard on the news that the perpetrator will be tried as an adult. Unfortunately, with the legal system as it is these days, there is more sympathy for the perpetrator than the victim. I speak from experience as my brother and his wife were murdered in 1999 by their drug addicted son. My sister in law's family pleaded for leniency and said he was really a good boy and what he did was only an "abberation". He only got 25 years in Attica Prison for BOTH murders. He only got a concurrent sentence so he is serving both 25 year sentences at the same time, instead of 2 consecutive 25 year sentences where he would have had to serve 50 years. I say to resume the death penalty and/or manadatory life without possibility of parole. After my nephew murdered his parents, as to any remorse, all he could say was "well, OJ got off".
 
As for Joran Van Der Sloot in Aruba, I bet he gave Natalee Holloway some kind of drug so he could have sex with her, and that during sex, either she overdosed or had an allergic reaction. Joran panicked and dumped her body in the ocean.
The judge in Aruba said that the recent audio tape is not sufficient evidence. Perhaps Joran Van Der Sloot will get off.
Too many times, people are getting off on technicalities.
 
PeterH770:

"Sticks and stones... You have to learn how to deal with a bully or you will always be a wimp and a victim."

You are correct that there is a "victim" mentality that evolves with those who are bullied. It can become very severe, and once victim behaviours are learned as a result of bullying, they can become so obvious that they invite more bullying. In extreme cases, they can follow someone who has been bullied through life, creating situation after situation that causes that person tremendous pain and suffering. Among people who have been bullied, substance abuse, anti-social behaviour, failed relationships, job instability, and suicide- attempted or successful- are horrifyingly common.

But telling those who have been bullied that it is somehow their fault or their responsibility to deal with is not the real answer. The bully is sick, deeply sick, and must be called to account for his actions by society. Compassionate offers of treatment should certainly be made, but if they are spurned or unsuccessful, legal measures should be brought to bear on the problem. This is a very diverse world, with every conceivable sort of gender, ethnic, sexual orientation, racial, political and religious issue represented out there. We cannot permit bullies to single anyone out for any reason, or the entire fabric of our society is at risk. In fact, one of the reasons that today's world is so hazardous and unstable is that bullies have, for the moment, gotten the upper hand in our society, from the classic schoolyard bully and arrogant middle manager to the arrogant, anti-social head of state.

The bully is breaking the law, pure and simple. We must demand that bullies conform their behaviour to the decent minimum demanded by society, instead of telling people who might be considered "different" in some regard that they are somehow at fault for attracting the attention of the bully. To do that is to victimise them on a far deeper level than anything a typical bully can accomplish, because it means that society is telling them they have no support among their peers, that they are alone in a nightmarish situation. I cannot tell you how heartbreakingly and permanently hurt some people become as a result of being sent this message.

I'm off my soapbox now.
 
Awful

Having lived in Europe for the last quarter century, I permit myself to note that hate crimes against gays is hardly an American phenomena.
We have enormously more tolerance in Western Europe (East of the German border with Poland things get very bad, very fast).
But effeminate men are victims pretty much everywhere. In Germany, it is primarily the young Turks who do the bullying.

I was bullied quite a lot in school until I hit a growth spurt. Until I was 12, I looked like a strand of grass. The summer I hit 12, every football coach in town fell in love with me. When school started in the fall and the bullying began, I picked the leader up, held him to eye-level and punched his lights out.
End of the bullying for good.

I am not advocating physical violence here - we have more than enough of that in our societies. But I am certain of one thing: This bullying goes on because the bullies get very clear signals from our society that it is OK to bully effeminate gays.

The christianists take the heat on much of this and, speaking as a teacher, the day I am required to pack heat is the day I quit teaching. This is not the place for a discussion on the NRA, but folks who think the violence will end when guns are made illegal are naive, to put it mildly.

As teachers, we do need the authority to deal with such kids. In Germany, when a student made fun of a freshman who stuttered (and was not the brightest bulb on the tree) I kicked her out of class and would not let her return until she had apologized in public. My administration supported me. Can you just imagine the poor teacher in the US who did that?

Personally, I think acceptance of differences needs to be a mandatory subject, beginning in Kindergarten at the latest.
As for the murderer, well, I guess I made my feelings clear back when that poor tiger was killed in San Francisco.
 
during my childhood and all my adolesence,I was beaten,raped,sodomised,tied down to my bed to keep from escaping and on top of that,I had epilepsy.I ran away and wound up in a "Christian"comune where I became a true hippy and got involved in lots of activities.While there,I attended a public inner city high school where I excelled.I was doing my studying one night for my finals and became excited over my graduating with honors from my school.I went to bed and during my sleep.I began dreaming about Diane,a classmate who I adored and had had a few encounters with.as the dream progressed,I realised I was making love to her and was enjoying every bit of it.as I climaxed,I awakened to find out in severe shock that one of the elders of the church was giving me head!!!!!I went into instant shock and it took two of the other guys to get him off of me.I had been sodomised again by the only person I had gained trust in.That church was getting every bit of my Social Security Servivor's insurance monthly check($625/month)and I never got paid for my labor at our deli/bookstore.I'll never know if I was born gay or became that way from my horrific sexual abuse.I am not considered a practicing homosexual.I have no partners and haven't in years.But I am not dating women either.I am going to a non denominnational church and my during my first visit there,they had a pastor from Atlanta,GA who used to be gay and was a "born again Jew"He spoke highly about the verbal abuse that most churches had against gay people and denounced it claiming that they need to express love and understanding toward gay peple and pray for them.Judgement is not at all a true Christain practice and our church has not and will not tollerate that with any members meaning that they won't allow any of the gay members to be judged.Just prayed for and loved.I've been going there ever since and enjoy thoroughly the love and teachings given there.I have made a lot of friends and renewed my faith.I am not in any way a screamer,I have just experienced a lot of things in my life where I have been in situations and somehow not to my own doings have survived.They weren't necessarily stemmed by my own faults but more like coincidenses I had no control over.It was good that I had left home and I did learn a lot especialy about my own inner self at the comune I was in but,the price I wound up paying and the negative experiences I had were way above any of my own expectations.I stll talk with a few of the members that were there until it dispanded in 1980.John and Patti Handcock are still good people.
 
Landromat,

there has been an enormous body of research and statistical analysis done over the last 40 years. Every serious study has come to the same conclusion - sexuality is fixed, either genetically or at such an early age that there can be no question of changing it. The most that can be done is to pervert one's personality so greatly that sex becomes abhorant. That is the approach the Christians take in the US - such evilness is forbidden in Western Europe.
Personally, I think your sexuality is irrelevant. What was done to you, is not. I truly hope you can find peace and satisfaction in your life today. We can't change the past, but we can and must learn to deal with the present. There are some very good therapists out there, I have been helped - so can you.
 
I wouldn't get too worried about your sexual orientation, it does appear to be hardwired. You could be bisexual (quite a lot of people are to some degree) I would definitely think you should seek out some good counselling and cognitive therapy. Just make sure you get a decent and open minded counsellor or psychologist and not some crack pot with an agenda. Perhaps you should ask your local rape crisis centre or gay community group.
 
Keven makes some good points. When I was young, I was very smart in school, and also very sensitive. So I started to become the victim of the schoolyard bullies. But fortunately, I was also 6'2" and built like the proverbial brick shithouse. It didn't take long before I started to beat the living shit out of the bullies, but depsite my size, I refused to become one of them, which I could probably have done very easily. It probably would have made me "popular". But who had time for that? There was laundry to be done, and a classic Easy washer and dryer at home waiting for me. The bullying ended quickly. Sometimes violence, or the threat of it, begets violence, but sometimes it seems that it's the only way to protect oneself, especially when parents or school authorities do not adequately intervene to protect students. Sure, I knew damned well I was gay, and that gave me all the more reason to want to protect myself. I've just always refused to be anyone's victim. I had my size on my side, but not every victim of bullying has that advantage.
 
Precisely -

That is exactly the problem. We were able to put an end to the bullying because we had the physical size to do it - and I do 'butch' pretty well.
But what on earth are the effeminate boys and men to do? The girls who aren't rich blond cookie cutters?
That is where society needs to intervene.
Every group will have a certain number of people who behave in a predictable way. Sure, many bullies are dealing with their own private problems, yadda yadda yadda. And, yes, they should be offered help.
But, first, stop the bastards from terrorizing. The US has a special problem here because of political correctness and 'empowerment' of students and parents. Since I am preparing to return to this country to teach, I am especially concerned with these problems.
Maybe we should start by calling things by their name again. A problem is a problem, not necessarily an issue. A bully is a jerk and needs to be disciplined, not given a 'time out' to think about their behavior.
Most important of all, we need to stand up to the christianists. Their message of hate and intolerance needs to be shoved down their throats until they choke on it. Separation of church and state was not an accident, the founding fathers knew exactly what they were doing.
 
Panthera:

Oh, I don't for a moment advocate "touchy-feely" therapy for bullies. I meant that they should be given a clear choice- accept therapy or be called to account by our legal system. Sometimes, depending on the seriousness of their offence, both.

The message has to be loud and clear and simple- causing others emotional distress, physical harm, or fear of physical harm is not acceptable under any circumstances. I completely agree with you that it's time to start calling things by their right names again- like bully. Jerk. Reform school. Jail.

I also agree with you about the entitlement ethic that is being instilled into our youth. You don't get what you're entitled to in this world- you get what you earn, if that.
 

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