Young, Gay and Murdered

MTV news:

At 15, Lawrence King was small—5 feet 1 inch—but very hard to miss. In January, he started to show up for class at Oxnard, Calif.'s E. O. Green Junior High School decked out in women's accessories. On some days, he would slick up his curly hair in a Prince-like bouffant. Sometimes he'd paint his fingernails hot pink and dab glitter or white foundation on his cheeks.

"He wore makeup better than I did," says Marissa Moreno, 13, one of his classmates. He bought a pair of stilettos at Target, and he couldn't have been prouder if he had on a varsity football jersey. He thought nothing of chasing the boys around the school in them, teetering as he ran.
But on the morning of Feb. 12, Larry left his glitter and his heels at home.

He came to school dressed like any other boy: tennis shoes, baggy pants, a loose sweater over a collared shirt. He seemed unhappy about something. He hadn't slept much the night before, and he told one school employee that he threw up his breakfast that morning, which he sometimes did because he obsessed over his weight. But this was different. One student noticed that as Larry walked across the quad, he kept looking back nervously over his shoulder before he slipped into his first-period English class. The teacher, Dawn Boldrin, told the students to collect their belongings, and then marched them to a nearby computer lab, so they could type out their papers on World War II. Larry found a seat in the middle of the room. Behind him, Brandon McInerney pulled up a chair.

Brandon, 14, wasn't working on his paper, because he told Mrs. Boldrin he'd finished it. Instead, he opened a history book and started to read. Or at least he pretended to. "He kept looking over at Larry," says a student who was in the class that morning. "He'd look at the book and look at Larry, and look at the book and look at Larry." At 8:30 a.m., a half hour into class, Brandon quietly stood up. Then, without anyone's noticing, he removed a handgun that he had somehow sneaked to school, aimed it at Larry's head, and fired a single shot. Boldrin, who was across the room looking at another student's work, spun around. "Brandon, what the hell are you doing!" she screamed. Brandon fired at Larry a second time, tossed the gun on the ground and calmly walked through the classroom door. Police arrested him within seven minutes, a few blocks from school. Larry was rushed to the hospital, where he died two days later of brain injuries.

The Larry King shooting became the most prominent gay-bias crime since the murder of Matthew Shepard 10 years ago. But despite all the attention and outrage, the reason Larry died isn't as clear-cut as many people think. California's Supreme Court has just legalized gay marriage.

There are gay characters on popular TV shows such as "Gossip Girl" and "Ugly Betty," and no one seems to notice. Kids like Larry are so comfortable with the concept of being openly gay that they are coming out younger and younger. One study found that the average age when kids self-identify as gay has tumbled to 13.4; their parents usually find out a year later.




What you might call "the shrinking closet" is arguably a major factor in Larry's death. Even as homosexuality has become more accepted, the prospect of being openly gay in middle school raises a troubling set of issues. Kids may want to express who they are, but they are playing grown-up without fully knowing what that means. At the same time, teachers and parents are often uncomfortable dealing with sexual issues in children so young. Schools are caught in between. How do you protect legitimate, personal expression while preventing inappropriate, sometimes harmful, behavior? Larry King was, admittedly, a problematical test case: he was a troubled child who flaunted his sexuality and wielded it like a weapon—it was often his first line of defense. But his story sheds light on the difficulty of defining the limits of tolerance. As E. O. Green found, finding that balance presents an enormous challenge.

Larry's life was hard from the beginning. His biological mother was a drug user; his father wasn't in the picture. When Greg and Dawn King took him in at age 2, the family was told he wasn't being fed regularly. Early on, a speech impediment made Larry difficult to understand, and he repeated first grade because he had trouble reading. He was a gentle child who loved nature and crocheting, but he also acted out from an early age.

"We couldn't take him to the grocery store without him shoplifting," Greg says. "We couldn't get him to clean up his room. We sent him upstairs—he'd get a screwdriver and poke holes in the walls." He was prescribed ADHD medication, and Greg says Larry was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, a rare condition in which children never fully bond with their caregivers or parents.

These three individuals died, both their stories have been told by families and friends. Later they were turned into movies.

Like:

Matthew Sheppard, 21,

Gwen Araujo,17,

Brandon Teena,21

U can read their bio on wikipedia.org.

People!!! We are need to stop the hate. It isn't going to solve anything by killing somebody who has a different idea of what or who they should be.

What happen to "thou shall not kill"?

FireangelX wrote:It isn't going to solve anything by killing somebody who has a different idea of what or who they should be.

What happen to "thou shall not kill"?

I'm not necessarily suggesting that the end result for this victim was justified. I'm just saying that it isn't right for an individual (such as a homosexual), to boldy dictate that I should adopt his or her (sinful) lifestyle. I can't sit and watch this beautiful country degrade itself to the next 'Sodom and Gomorrah'.


On the other end: You will always have those individuals like Chanz, chanting: "Two wrongs don't make a right". Then my good pal Tommy-lee tells me: "Leave em alone, they'll eventually go away".


IMHO:
This is what happens when we get sucken into MTV & VH1 with thier messages saying: "Its OK to be gay".

Oh my god. This is awful.
Prayers?? Prayers for the bigots out there!!!!! I don't care if he was gay!! He was a goddman human being expressing himself!!! He wasn't forcing his beliefs on anyone!!! If I wear black t-shirt am I forcing you to wear a black t-shirt?!! No goddamn it!! You believe what you want to believe! You have a brain to decipher wrong from right.

Increased homophobia? Snyper plz tell me that was a typo...shame!!! shame on u!!! He was human!!! Damn it!! He wasn't a threat to anyone! He had the right to live a full life!
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OMG, this story stirs up so many emotions. I'm so sad and angry right now. I'm crying...really crying. Shit. He had a right to live.
Homophobia is SO SO stupid!!! We act all high and mighty, like we're without sin. Guess what, in God's eyes we're just as bad as he is. No sin is greater than the next. Ergo, we all deserved to be shot to death.

niqui wrote:He wasn't forcing his beliefs on anyone!!!

I wasn't specifically refering to his case at all. I'm describing a trend that I've witnessed first-hand.

niqui wrote:Increased homophobia? Snyper plz tell me that was a typo...shame!!! shame on u!!!

Of course this was a typographical error. Do you think I really go around kiling homosexuals (although sometimes I preach about it in my songs)? Of course they are still human beings. Although I do not condone thier behaviour, I don't condemn them either (I do not maintain double standards though).

niqui wrote:Homophobia is SO SO stupid!!! We act all high and mighty, like we're without sin.

You are refering to only an ignorant minority, who feels this way.

oh Then I'm sorry. I apologise for accusing you wrongly. Shalom.