Femmy Teen Gets KILLED In His California School
Share: 
13 February 2008 | 8 Comments
If you think things in the US are pretty good for gay people and not at all like they are in Iran. Think again.
Today Lawrence King, a femmy 15 y.o. high school student, was shot and killed in his first period English class. The reason? Because he was a nelly queen who wore jewelry and make up. This was after being teased and taunted by classmates for a while. And this wasn’t in some hic town in the middle of nowhere – it was in Oxnard, CA – outside Los Angeles.
Femmy teens are in a really difficult position. Those of us who are “straight acting” can just play along and avoid problems, but fems don’t have that option. They are who they are and they shouldn’t be shot dead just because they are true to themselves.
This just drives home how hate crime legislation is important. Curiously, if you shot one of the people who doesn’t want gay men and lesbians to have “special protection” under hate crime legislation – you could be charged with a hate crime since they’re protected (for their religion) – they just don’t think we’re special enough to have the same protection they enjoy themselves.
Of course cases like this are typical in that most gay bashing is done by teens who haven’t yet become secure in their own sexuality. It may seem harsh to put a teen in prison for an extended period because they were motivated by their own insecurities, but that’s something for the juvenile justice system to deal with on a case-by-case basis. The point is we need to make a clear statement that violence against gay men, lesbians and the transgendered (and a few straight people who appear to be gay) will not be tolerated.
Also remember – intolerance of intolerance isn’t bad like other forms of intolerance. For all you math geeks – it’s a double negative and hence completely different. In fact you can’t aim for a tolerant society with out being intolerant of intolerance…
School administrators also needs to be held accountable for this. How in the hell did a gun get into the classroom and why didn’t they deal with the situation when it was just taunting and teasing? They aren’t just there to teach the kids reading, writing and arithmetic – they’re there to socialize them and teach them how to be civil human beings. A kid died in English class for god’s sake – I hope someone is held accountable in addition to the mixed up kid that pulled the trigger.
One of the lessons I learned in grad school from a wonderful radical lesbian feminist professor was that radical change rarely ever comes from the big things people remember – it comes from a whole bunch of little things and sorta sneaks up on you. You realize radical change has happened by looking back and thinking “gee, that couldn’t have happened 20 years ago” (e.g. electing a black man or a woman as President). So, be political in your every day lives – tell your friends about the discrimination and injustice we continue to face, and do the little things like always showing up to vote for the candidate with the best stance on gay rights. When enough people change the hearts of the people around them, and when we have political leaders who “get it”, the big stuff will follow.
UPDATE: Turns out, as of now, Lawrence King isn’t dead. He’s brain dead and they expect to pull the plug on him soon, so the net effect is the same. California does have hate crime legislation and they’re planning trying the kid who did it as an adult and charging him with murder with a hate crime special circumstance. In other words, this is going to be about as bad for the kid who did it as it gets…
I wrote a piece about being too tolerant towards intolerance on february 5th on http://www.queerart.nl/log . Not forgetting the total ignorance in counties like Iran, we must stay very vigilant in all so called tolerant countries too.
I was a victim last fall, when a group of Polish workers walked into our local gay bar, just to have a laugh. They brought in their own crate of beer, so naturally they were thrown out. They did not dare to make a fuzz inside but waited outside for the first one to come out, which was me. It was one against 3, so pretty frightening. Luck was on my side when as they tried to push me into the canal, I managed to pull in two of them with me as I fell. Panic ensued as they couldn’t swim. As others now came out of the bar and the police was called they fled. While they only had to follow the fresh water trail along the canal, the police did not start the persuit: as we all had been drinking they could not take our charges serious, even though they were confirmed by about 20 guys, some very much sober. I, for one, was not only cold and wet but infuriated.
ad – OMG – that’s horrible… I hate to say NYC is better at dealing with gay bashings than Amsterdam, but if a NYPD cop didn’t take a gay bashing seriously he’d spend weeks in sensitivity training and possibly be demoted. It’s one of the things I love about NY… Shit still happens here, but more often than not, in the end you win…
“Shit still happens here, but […] in the end you win.” Way to try to find a silver lining. Being the victim of a bashing (or most any serious crime), having the authorities do little or nothing and then somehow end up satisfied when there’s administrative action dolled out is winning? Do you think the parents of the 15 year old in your post will share your view if/when a few school administrators are slapped around?
I just can’t do the big-picture thing — “Good for you, sticking up for yourself like that. Policies will change. Queers are one step closer to social equality” — when one side is so obviously a victim. Being an accidental agent of potential change due to physical (or emotional, social, career, etc) harm is not a scar that completely heels, regardless of atonement.
OtterPig – Agreed “win” was a bad choice of words on my part. It’s more like winning one after losing many others – net result is still pretty bad.
Trust me, I know how you feel, but all we can do is press for change – eventually it will come. And in the grand scheme of things it’s horrible that a gay teen died – in our society it’s no less than despicable. But compare that to the 10s of thousands of innocent people who’ve died in Iraq, just to name one place. There are so many ways the US needs to improve it’s not funny. But the point of my post is that we can’t just point our fingers at countries like Iran when we’ve got major issues ourself.
The problem with us gays is that we are too fucking nice, we take it without fighting back, we are too scared to fight back. I am NOT what one would call 100% straight acting, maybe 70 to 80%, but I am very strong and proud and don’t let anyone fuck with me. In High School when it got out I’m gay I did get a lot of shit, but I beat up several football players (team mates) who were giving me shit and calling me names, and basketball players as well. I never let anyone fuck with me and I gave it to them as good as I got it, and I think that’s the only way we can show them we are not to be messed with, we are not someone’s bitch and we are not gonna take it.
Oh! Sombody call Patrick Stewart and tell him we need to re-establish the Pink Panthers.
Beware the velvet fist!
I agree with every post and feel horrible for the 15 year old. I was teased and picked on throughout grade school, but never felt as if my life was in danger. However, I find it ironic that there is so much concern for this young person’s life and well-being in this context when, had he lived a few more years, many gay men would be happy to encourage him to take raw cock if he indicated an interest. At what point do we become so cynical about placing other people’s health at risk just to feed our own desires?
I’m an adult, 45, who likes getting fucked raw, but I have no erotic fantasies about HIV nor do I get off on seeing young guys with very little common sense or life experience risking their health. Danger isn’t what it’s about for me.
I’m hearing such passion about the value of this gay kid’s life and how so many people should have played a better role in his safety and I can’t help but wonder how life would be different for us as adults if we applied a portion of that humanity to each other.
russdog – The point is he didn’t get to choose whether he wanted to bareback or not. That choice was taken away from him.
Getting shot in high school and dying a day or so later is very different than being encouraged to bareback, chosing to do it, and dying in 20 to 40 years.