Journalist Sara Whitman lays the smack down this morning. Whitman's absolutely beside herself over gay leaders like Joe Solmonese, Matt Foreman and even Melissa Etheridge's respective silences on 15-year Lawrence King's murder:

Who represents the LGBT community on a national and international stage?

Is there anyone?
…
Who was at Lawrence King’s funeral? Where were our leaders?

In this star struck culture, the way to draw attention to an issue is to put a recognizable face out front to draw the press out. Where were Joe Solmonese of HRC, Matt Foreman of NGLTF, Kevin Cathcart of Lambda, Kate Kendall of NCLR, Neil Giuliano of GLAAD? Ellen DeGeneres did her part, but what about the newly out Cheyenne Jackson? Cynthia Nixon? Melissa Etheridge? Where’s the song from Elton John? It takes leadership to bring make the kind of public statement that surrounded the Jena 6.

But we don’t have that.

That's kind of real - except for the Elton John request. That's just ridiculous.

Lil' gay boys have it rough.

A survey out of England indicates that young men face more homophobic bullying than their female peers. This should come as no surprise. As musician Quentin Harris suggested this morning, there's more pressure on men not to seem weak.

Yes, he was talking about the hip-hop scene, but we say that's a pretty universal rule: men are meant to act like men, and those who don't will face the consequences. Lawrence King's widely covered murder perfectly highlighted the perpetual assault on feminine men.

What a perfect time, then, for homo hip-hop artist, Q-Boy, to come out against bullying. And, on an even bigger scale, the uproar against Jay Leno.

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Lawrence King's February murder continues to garner press. And, as we saw in The Advocate last month, some wonder whether King's queer candor and flirtation invited gun man Brandon McInerney's ire.

Consider Mississippi State University student Lazarus Austin's recent op-ed:

By imposing his homosexuality on McInerney, he may have set McInerney off. McInerney may not have had an innate hatred of gay people. In fact, he may have tolerated homosexuality, while simultaneously thinking it was immoral, sinful or simply "uncool," like many people do. King, however, may have gone too far by imposing his sexuality on others. Although King by no means deserved his fate, he may have unfortunately invited it.

So gross.

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We really, truly don't understand the American Family Association. And we have a feeling they don't, either!

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Senator Gary George inspires rage this morning, readers. The Oregonian Senator, who's hoping to repeal his state's Equality Act told Just Out magazine that harassed gays should learn to "shut up". Literally.

George's argument's a familiar one: the Equality Act, which protects queers from discrimination, simply gives gays "special rights," which, George says, run contrary to America's equality-for-all argument. Similar arguments are often made about affirmative action, a comparison not lost on George:

If I discriminate in favor of you it automatically requires I discriminate against someone else. I was hoping with your generation we can stop calling each other ‘Asian-American,' or 'Latino-American'… I have dear dear friends in the legislature who are black but sometimes I really get tired of hearing about their color.

Yeah, race can be exhausting. And so can right wing politicians who don't understand the beauty of human difference.

It's only downhill from there, especially when George offers some ill-conceived advice to gays who face occupational discrimination…

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Can being openly gay and out invited attack? Sure, yes, definitely. Should gay kids such as Lawrence King thus be encouraged to keep a lid on their lavender ways? That's what some people say journo Neil Broverman advocates in a new Advocate article: "Mixed Messages," which is currently excerpted on the magazine's website.

The piece definitely packs a punch and has some readers doubled over in pain, particularly this paragraph:

If they didn’t see the execution coming, most of King’s peers at school knew he was being bullied for being proudly gay and flouting male conventions by accessorizing his school uniform with eye shadow and high-heeled boots. In the months leading up to that morning, King had undergone a metamorphosis.

Guided by a welcoming support system at the group home where he lived, the teenager was encouraged to dress as he pleased and live as the person he wanted to be.

What King and others didn’t recognize was that this encouragement—and his response to it—placed him on a collision course with a culture that found him repulsive.

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In the wake of Lawrence King's murder, Portia de Rossi, TR Knight, Andre 3000 and a slew of other stars joined gay station Logo to raise awareness about anti-queer hate crimes. Because, as Janet Jackson says, "None of us are safe until all of us are safe". The politics of fear being used for good? Crazy!

It's absolutely super that Logo and these celebrities have come together, but they again raise a serious question: what makes one hate crime more notable than the next? Should one central figure be used to fight a universal campaign. We suppose the pros outweigh the cons on this one, but it's still something that should be considered.

Watch the video, after the jump…

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Could Lawrence King's murder have been prevented?

That's what some Los Angeles Times journos wonders in another lengthy article on the late 15-year old, who died after being shot by a fellow student, Brandon McInerney. Both boys came from traumatic backgrounds, write Paul Pringle and Catherine Saillant, but it remains unclear how much the school did to help them - especially King:

Larry's friends offer differing accounts of whether he had complained to teachers about the taunting. Some say he had decided not to report it, fearing that he would be branded a "rat" and suffer the consequences.
…
Not so, said Jerry Dannenberg, superintendent of the Hueneme School District. The E.O. Green staff did come to Larry's aid, including shortly before he was killed, after they had learned of an altercation between him and Brandon.

Obviously their efforts weren't enough.

On a related note, King's parents have set up a cute - and very depressing - memorial website, from which we got this picture of King dressed as the Great Pumpkin. Meanwhile, 14-year old shooter McInerney remains in prison and faces very adult hate crime charges.

There's nothing like a girl fight in the morning! While Jennifer L. Pozner appreciates Ellen DeGeneres' Lawrence King call to action last week, the journalist takes offense at the funny lady's pre-message message: "I don't want to be political, this is not political…" Writes Pozner:

I could be wrong, but hearing Ellen qualify her outrage at a gay child's murder and her call for wide-spread cultural change in America by saying "This is not political" seemed to map to her discomfort in addressing serious and, yes, political LGBT issues on air after what happened to her career the last time she did that. A hate crime resulting in a kid being killed simply for asking a boy to be his Valentine is not political? Talking about the way the entertainment industry encourages a culture of violence against queer youth is not political? And encouraging citizens to make gay rights an election year issue is not political?

Wait, are these rhetorical questions, because, if not, we'd like to answer yes to all. Or is it no? God, this political shit's confusing!

Funny lady Ellen DeGeneres struck a somber note this week when she discussed the unfortunate murder of Lawrence King, who was shot by an allegedly anti-gay classmate.

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Anderson Cooper and his CNN team took a look at the Lawrence King murder last night. In addition to telling us what we already know - King was shot by a 14-year old class mate - the 360 journos point out that the shooter, Brandon McIrney, may have been "humiliated" by King's school yard crush.

Do we smell a gay panic defense?

Lawrence King's murder continues to shock and appall the world, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

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Tennessee House Representative Stacey Campfield makes us say "Hmmmm…"

The single 40-year old proposed legislation earlier this month that would prohibit "gay speak" in the state's elementary and middle school. Said Campfield:

We're not going to teach about topics that I think should be taught at home in the first place. We're not going to teach about homosexuality, the homosexual lifestyle, the lesbian lifestyle, the transgendered lifestyle. We're going to leave that up to families to decide when it's age appropriate, when it isn't appropriate, and what they want to tell their children.

Campfield's exclusion certainly doesn't break new ground - countless politicians and activists have called for similar bans in the past. Campfield's timing, however, couldn't be worse.

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