Did an LA-based 8th grader shoot his classmate for being feminine? It sure looks that way – and definitely makes us ill. “Some students said the victim, whose name was not disclosed, sometimes wore makeup and feminine jewelry and had declared himself gay. They said he was frequently taunted by other boys and had been involved in an argument with the alleged shooter, an eighth-grader who also was not named, and others Monday. During the lunchtime argument, one of the boys shouted at Tuesday’s victim, “You better watch your back,” said one student who witnessed the encounter.” [LA Times via Joe.My.God]
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Bill Perdue
Some people claim that the political messages and maneuvers of Washington politicians don’t count. This tragic shooting proves how wrong they are. When the Democrats and Republicans gutted ENDA and then dropped both it and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill and refused to repeal Billarys DOMA and DADT they sent a strong message of support to bigots. They said that we don’t count and they don’t want to be bothered with during the election period. In Ventura one little pig got the message loud and clear and tried to murder a young gay man.
I agree that this swine was influenced by bigots but that only tells me that should indicted and harshly treated as well. If his church was preaching hate they should lose their tax exempt status and also be indicted. These murdering swine should be treated as ruthlessly as possible. If that wrecks their lives so much the better.
This murder points up the need for national demonstrations to demand the passage of the Matthew Shepard Gate Crimes Bill, the real ENDA (before Barney and the Republicans raped it) along with the repeal of the Clintons DOMA and DADT. We’ll need a militant massive campaign to win our agenda, because it’s obvious that the Republicans and Democrats don’t give a damn about our lives,
mj petroni
My mother just called and told me of the shooting. I came out in the eighth grade at age twelve, and experienced violence, physical fights, vandalism and bullying during my entire experience of public school. I started a Gay-Straight Alliance at my high school to combat the fear the few out students were feeling.
Today at my local LGBTQ chamber of commerce (the Portland Area Business Association) luncheon, we had the opportunity to meet many recipients of our yearly scholarship. The one who touched me the most was the one who couldn’t make it today, Brady Humphrey, an eighteen year-old who moved in with one of his teachers when his family no longer accepted him. He wrote a letter acknowledging our community for what we made available for him. Later, a president of the local chapter of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network spoke to us about what’s going on in Oregon schools with gay-straight alliances.
After the note of hope I had today, the news of the shooting in Oxnard shook me deeply. After an hour of conversation and tears with my parents in California, I am convinced that protecting our teens must be a top priority for our community. What’s perhaps most disturbing the near-absence of media coverage thus far—one AP feed is pretty much all I’ve seen–most of our community doesn’t event know it’s happened yet.
What will we do to make sure that this stops happening? Help GLSEN. Speak in schools. Help create student groups. Support local Queer youth organizations. Call superintendents. Run for the school board. Tell parents to speak out. Create opportunity for Queer students to grow up into. There will never be enough done if we simply block out memories of high school and the coming out process–we have to go back to the schools, towns and neighborhoods we came (or fled) from and fight for the next generation.
emb
Two excellent posts: Thank you, Bill and MJ, for your thoughtful words. This is a shocking act made all the more horrible by being the logical outcome of socially-acceptable homophobia and homo-hatred in news media, government, political debate, and churches. There is no excusing this act, and no room for understanding or forgiveness for those who consciously create a culture in which homosexuals are demonized, dehumanized, and made acceptable targets for discrimination and violence.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s certainly not just sitting on our butts tsking, as the previous two posters make clear. Each of us is responsible for doing something to combat this cultural disease, or we’re each going to be responsible, by our silence, for the consequences.
todd
I would never come out as a teen. You can’t trust these crazy kids not to harm you in todays social and political climate. They think they are doing God’s work, or carrying out their parent’s political agenda.