Halifax police released an official warning to gay men after two men were murdered in so many weeks. Police removed Trevor Charles Brewster’s body last week, while Michael Paul Knott turned up dead on May 5, in Mill Cove, N.S. Police have found sufficient similarities between the two murders to launch a joint investigation and issue the aforementioned admonition:
Both victims were gay men who were known to frequent cruising areas in Halifax Regional Municipality. We do not know if their sexual orientation or the cruising areas played a factor in their deaths. These circumstances, though, cannot be ruled out as contributing factors. Therefore we are issuing a public advisory for potential safety concerns in cruising areas.
But, by all means, keep cruising. Just be sure not to pick up that psycho killer.
Brewster’s friends, meanwhile, issued a statement of their own. The deceased’s friend, Marishka Brown told the press:
It just seems weird to me that he would do that… I can’t see it. He’s just not the type to independently go off on his own. Trevor was a sexual person, yes … but not desperate enough to venture into a secluded area cruising for random strangers for sex.
Brown wonders if some lured Brewster – with whom she’s been friends for five years – to his untimely and bloody death. That’s certainly a possibility. But, then again, he may have just been cruising.
The fact of the matter is that not all gay men tell their friends how down right skanky they can get. Now, before you kids get bent out of shape saying we’re disrespecting the dead, consider all the whorish, equally dangerous things you’ve done in you’re life. If you can’t think of any – well, good for you. Most of you reading this, however, have probably done some pretty stupid things to get off. Even if it’s just going home with a stranger from a bar. Gay men have risky sex for a number of reasons, not least of all the burden of living in a largely heterosexist world.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
We’ve been trained to keep secrets. Many of us lied to our families, friends and ourselves before coming out. Yes, coming out lifts that invisible burden, but gay sex still has such shameful cultural connotations. Many gay men aren’t emotionally equipped to deal with sexual intimacy – or even platonic intimacy. Thus, they turn to anonymous sex for their kicks. Whether it be in a sex club, a sauna or a park.
We can’t say if these common – but hardly universal – urges propelled Brewster and Knott to their respective deaths, we can certainly hypothesize that they played a roll. If not in the victims, then in the killer, who is perhaps filled with so much gay lust and shame that he must kill the object of his deadly desire…
BeeDee
Haven’t you learned anything from last week you homophobic, self-loathing scum. The announcement of another brutal, unjustified murder is not the time to pontificate on your self-declared moral superiority.
They didn’t deserve what happened to them!
I’m ready to organize a boy-cott to bring you jerks down…
dtw
Oh jeez, this was written by the same smug sermonizing asshole who last week indulged in the worst of taste with his article about the murdered gay man, wasn’t it? Queerty, please get rid of this writer and fine one who can write actual news without the Psychology 101 analysis and cheap soapbox pontificating.
naprem
I don’t see the need to attack Queerty over this – I thought the writer went out of his way to explain and contextualize his comments precisely to avoid responses like those. I think what was said was correct – people don’t like having their secrets exposed, but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen.
And where were they “pontificating on their moral superiority”? All it said was, “These things happen, you know they do, don’t deny it. We can’t say for certain they happened in this case, but you can’t say for certain they didn’t.” Which is totally true.
dtw
Naprem, the author of the article persistently sets up his own superiority through the use of charged invective like the adjectives ‘skanky’ and ‘whorish,’ managing to exclude himself from the ‘shameful’ behavior by following it up with the qualification that it’s ‘hardly universal.’
Then there’s the generalization that the masses of the ‘whorish’ are emotionally unequipped to deal with intimacy–which at the very least trivializes the issue. It’s the same hateful rhetoric used in an article about another killing last week that implied that all men who cruise online for sex deserve to be on the receiving end of violence. What the author is really saying here is, “These things happen, you know they do, but I’d never be so whorish and skanky.” It’s ugly, it’s tiresome, and it’s inappropriate.
naprem
Well, we obviously disagree, because I thought he was specifically including himself in the “whorish” category. I don’t think Queerty have ever been ones to say “We’re better than you,” except perhaps on matters of musical taste or fashion.
In fact, to my eyes, it’s the fact that they consider themselves to be in the gutter with the rest of us, that gay people are no better or worse than anyone else, that permits them to use such language.
It is true – gay men can be whorish. I don’t see the harm in admitting that truth. It doesn’t mean he’s saying all gay men are whorish, but don’t pretend we’re all perfect angels either.
And he never ever said “they deserved it.” If he had, I would be as outraged as you. He said “such behaviour may have led to their fates, and here are the reasons why they may indulge in such behaviour, if in fact they did.” That in no way equates to “they deserved what they got.”
Mr. B
Naprem is characteristically right. The editor did make a point to say WE all do things were ashamed of. I didn’t hear any effort on his part to distance himself from that. There’s a difference between openly discussing common dangers to gay men (going home with someone from the bar or meeting someone from the internet isn’t so very different from sucking anonymous dick in the park) and preaching against them.
bill
I think what he is saying is that there are certain societal pressures that result in many men making risky choices. It may also be that men love sex and are risk takers by nature. I don’t think he’s judging anyone here. The guy lives in New York – if he hasn’t done something slightly risky himself I’d be very surprised (and he should be deported back to fly-over country).