Gay Teen Killed in CA--hate crime

[roseyaire]

Gay Teen's Killing Labeled a Hate Crime
By REBECCA CATHCART, The New York Times
Posted: 2008-02-23 17:20:18
Filed Under: Nation News
OXNARD, Calif. (Feb. 23) - Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church here on Friday to remember an eighth-grade boy who was shot to death inside a junior high school computer lab by a fellow student in what prosecutors are calling a hate crime.

In recent weeks, the victim, Lawrence King, 15, had said publicly that he was gay, classmates said, enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death.



Phil McCarten, AP
Students pass by a makeshift memorial honoring Lawrence King at E.O. Green School Thursday, Feb. 14, in Oxnard, Calif.

“God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Rev. Dan Birchfield of Westminster Presbyterian Church told the crowd as he stood in front of a large photograph of the victim. “Larry was a masterpiece.”

The shooting stunned residents of Oxnard, a laid-back middle-class beach community just north of Malibu. It also drew a strong reaction from gay and civil rights groups.

“We’ve never had school violence like this here before, never had a school shooting,” said David Keith, a spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department.

Les Winget, 44, whose daughter Nikki, 13, attends the school, called the crime “absolutely unbelievable.”

Jay Smith, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, where Lawrence took part in Friday night group activities for gay teenagers, said, “We’re all shocked that this would happen here.”

The gunman, identified by the police as Brandon McInerney, “is just as much a victim as Lawrence,” said Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. “He’s a victim of homophobia and hate.”

The law center is working with Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance to push for a legislative review of anti-bias policies and outreach efforts in California schools. According to the 2005 California Healthy Kids Survey, junior high school students in the state are 3 percent more likely to be harassed in school because of sexual orientation or gender identity than those in high school.


'He Was Always Smiling'


King's Friend Comments to MTV.com
That finding is representative of schools across the country, said Stephen Russell, a University of Arizona professor who studies the issues facing lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual youth.

Mr. Davis said “more and more kids are coming out in junior high school and expressing gender different identities at younger ages.”

“Unfortunately,” he added, “society has not matured at the same rate.”

Prosecutors charged Brandon as an adult with murder as a premeditated hate crime and gun possession. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 52 years to life in prison.

A senior deputy district attorney, Maeve Fox, would not say why the authorities added the hate crime to the murder charge.

In interviews, classmates of the two boys at E. O. Green Junior High School said Lawrence had started wearing mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school, prompting a group of male students to bully him.

“They teased him because he was different,” said Marissa Moreno, 13, also in the eighth grade. “But he wasn’t afraid to show himself.”

Lawrence wore his favorite high-heeled boots most days, riding the bus to school from Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, where he began living last fall. Officials would not say anything about his family background other than that his parents, Greg and Dawn King, were living and that he had four siblings. Lawrence started attending E. O. Green last winter, said Steven Elson, the center’s chief executive. “He had made connections here,” Dr. Elson said. “It’s just a huge trauma here. It’s emotionally very charged.”

Since the shooting, hundreds of people have sent messages to a memorial Web site where photographs show Lawrence as a child with a gap in his front teeth, and older, holding a caterpillar in the palm of his hand.

“He had a character that was bubbly,” Marissa said. “We would just laugh together. He would smile, then I would smile and then we couldn’t stop.”

On the morning of Feb. 12, Lawrence was in the school’s computer lab with 24 other students, said Mr. Keith, the police spokesman. Brandon walked into the room with a gun and shot Lawrence in the head, the police said, then ran from the building. Police officers caught him a few blocks away.

Unconscious when he arrived at the hospital, Lawrence was declared brain dead the next day but kept on a ventilator to preserve his organs for donation, said the Ventura County medical examiner, Armando Chavez. He was taken off life support on Feb. 14.

Brandon is being held at a juvenile facility in Ventura on $770,000 bail, said his lawyer, Brian Vogel. He will enter a plea on March 21.

At a vigil for Lawrence last week in Ventura, 200 people carried glow sticks and candles in paper cups as they walked down a boardwalk at the beach and stood under the stars. Melissa Castillo, 13, recalled the last time she had seen Lawrence. “He was walking through the lunch room, wearing these awesome boots,” she said. “I ran over to him and said, ‘Your boots are so cute!’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ ”

She raised her chin and arched an eyebrow in imitation. “ ‘If you want cute boots,’ ” Lawrence had told her, “ ‘you have to buy the expensive kind.’ ” His boots had cost $30.

“So, for Lawrence,” Melissa said to five girls holding pink and green glow sticks, “we have to go get the expensive kind.”


Copyright © 2008 The New York Times Company

[Elleke]

this is terrible.........

[MiamiSound]

That makes me sick. How can you be so young and have so much hate for another

[Tear_of_the_WoLF]

yeah this is really sad and scary....

i have never lived anyway where it wasn't totally acceptable to be gay...ive lived in asbury park, nj...fort lauderdale, fl...and now boulder, co....however, if you go right outside of boulder there is a lot of hate crime that goes on against gay and lesbians....so we don't go too far out of here....not that im scared of these morans but my girlfriend is a delicate little thing and i worry more about her....she loves everyone and has no problem telling anyone her identity which is cool....but i worry about her getting hurt sometimes....so yes this article hits home.

[roseyaire]

Are there gay hate crimes in other parts of the world, like europe and asia? I wouldn't think to the extent we have them here. The young age of the victim and perpetrator were so shocking to me. It's terrible beyond words. I can't help feeling we should have long since evolved past this.

[Belobog]

Are there gay hate crimes in other parts of the world, like europe and asia? I wouldn't think to the extent we have them here. The young age of the victim and perpetrator were so shocking to me. It's terrible beyond words. I can't help feeling we should have long since evolved past this.

I do not use the term hate crime since it is NWO coined to attack people they disagree with. Gays are attacked in Slavic countries all the time. In fact a lot of gays fled to Germany from our countries because they were scared of being gay. This happened in Serbia

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MIE6_P_Q-2s

[Elleke]

It happens everywhere
Even in liberal Holland.

But I guees I can clap my hands for living here.
I believe our country is one of the most open minded when it comes to gay lesbian bi thing.

But just terrible stuff this article...

[Silverhaze]

Where I live it's pretty bad but not that bad...

This article made me cry... that could have been my little brother or my best friend... it could have been me...

it's so horrible for both boys... I hope that Lawrence's story at least helps people see the issue and do something about it

those poor children
they have to all live with that forever

why are people so afraid of love?

[Belobog]

It happens everywhere
Even in liberal Holland.

But I guees I can clap my hands for living here.
I believe our country is one of the most open minded when it comes to gay lesbian bi thing.

But just terrible stuff this article...

In all honesty I was not very fond of Holland. They are way too liberal they take it to an extreme. They have a pedophile political party.

P.S. Can someone explain what Open minded means

[proammar]

In all honesty I was not very fond of Holland. They are way too liberal they take it to an extreme. They have a pedophile political party.

P.S. Can someone explain what Open minded means

Thesaurus: open-minded

adjective

1. Ready and willing to receive favorably, as new ideas: acceptant, amenable, open, receptive, responsive. See accept/reject.
2. Not narrow or conservative in thought, expression, or conduct: broad, broad-minded, liberal, progressive, tolerant. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, wide/narrow.

So it means not closed minded

[Belobog]

Thesaurus: open-minded

adjective

1. Ready and willing to receive favorably, as new ideas: acceptant, amenable, open, receptive, responsive. See accept/reject.
2. Not narrow or conservative in thought, expression, or conduct: broad, broad-minded, liberal, progressive, tolerant. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, wide/narrow.

So it means not closed minded

I always just wondered. Many people that I have talked to would say I need to be open minded when they lose debates

[proammar]

I always just wondered. Many people that I have talked to would say I need to be open minded when they lose debates

hahaha i don't blame them .. there is no way to win a debate with a closed minded person .

i can tell you right now that a 25 cents coin is bigger than the sun . no matter what you gonna tell me i will stick to my point . just hold a 25 cents coin next to the sun in the morning & you will see how bigger is the 25 cents

[Belobog]

hahaha i don't blame them .. there is no way to win a debate with a closed minded person .

i can tell you right now that a 25 cents coin is bigger than the sun . no matter what you gonna tell me i will stick to my point . just hold a 25 cents coin next to the sun in the morning & you will see how bigger is the 25 cents

The thing about most people is they call me closed minded yet I have considered their point before. I used to actually believe the opposite as I do now.

[proammar]

The thing about most people is they call me closed minded yet I have considered their point before. I used to actually believe the opposite as I do now.

to make it short ...

being open minded or closed minded is not something fixed . its not like if you eat chocolate that means your open minded & if you eat chips it means ur closed minded .

naaaah being open minded is based on WISDOM .. its like to be WISE & see a bigger picture ..

The more you can see the more open minded you can be the wiser you will be .

[LadyElement]

*surprised and happy to see you two getting along for once lol*

[[7.7.7.x.CORE]]

this articles real upsetting we did work on that years ago at school
n people pick on gays here n stuff but nothing as bad as that happens here
(not tht ive heard)
I have loads of non straight friends n ive heard their stories bt none have gone as far as that
When I came out as bi people didnt like it
but they get used to it then leave you alone!
xxxxxx lv chel

[proammar]

*surprised and happy to see you two getting along for once lol*

hahahaha yeah . by the way i don't HATE people no matter what but i get ANNOYED easily .