Newsweek cover story: Young, Gay and Murdered
This article is about the shooting of Lawrence King.
I didn't read the whole thing yet, but heard rumblings that not everyone likes this story, and that it has a bit of a "blame the victim" mentality to it.
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Hm.
There is a sort of blame the victim bent to it. One bit that struck me was the statement that as kids are getting more and more comfortable being gay, that they're "playing grownup without fully knowing what that means". Isn't that what being a kid/teenager is all about? Isn't that when you figure out what being a grownup means, and shouldn't the kids/teenagers in question have a safe place to do that? I don't think that means harassment of any sort should be tolerated, but it seems like the school is saying that an openly gay kid is somehow more flagrantly "playing grownup", and more likely to get it wrong and get themselves or someone else hurt. In my experience, no middle school administration wants to admit that sexuality of any kind is important to their students, least of all sexuality as it applies to gay kids. Schools need to be confident enough to stop kids from harassing each other, period. It shouldn't matter whether anyone involved is gay. If someone gets hit on and it makes them uncomfortable, they have a right to say "stop it", and the school should back them up. It doesn't matter who's doing it.
Do I shock you darling?
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I don't get the blaming the
I don't get the blaming the victim feeling so much, perhaps a tinge of it, but definitely not overwhelmingly so. What I do get from the article is that there obviously is more to the story than what was originally shown or publicized. Of course Brandon's actions are in no way justified but what I think the article does point out, and rightly so, is that this is not a cut and dry situation. If Larry's sexual taunting(the article points to several occasions in which he engaged in this as a sort of defense mechanism) had been carried out by another boy towards a girl sexual harassment charges would have been filed long ago. Larry's sexuality in no way exempts him from proper school behavior. That being said, his death was senseless and very clearly the result of a hate crime, it's just that the events leading up to it open up a bigger set of questions that are very difficult to answer.
Wow. Thats all I can say.
Wow. Thats all I can say.
"I feel like Nacy Drew in the mystery of the midlife crisis."
-Roger Bannister
The Stepford Wives
stop fucking playing it up jeff...
kid got killed...big deal...it's in the past...water under the bridge....stop making him into a fucking martyr for the gay agenda.
Mental wounds not healing, driving me insane, i'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train- the ozzman
Umm...
How is posting a link to an article written this week in a major magazine pushing my agenda? When I first linked to stories about Lawrence on here, the mainstream media was barely covering it, and this is the most complete account of things we've ever heard before.
Thankfully, I believe it is a big deal, though, and remain hopeful that I will never get to the point where it doesn't upset me.
Warning, though. I will likely post when his killer is on trial/sentenced, too.
Reading anything I post is optional on here.
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"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." - Rumi
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i reacted before i read the article...
all 5 pages of it...im not defending brandon or what he did, but i do think lawrence king's death is becoming a huge deal...there are fuckin ads on tv now and glsen has made him into a martyr...even you can't deny that.
i'm honestly w/ his dad and that one teacher on this one...i think it was another fucked up kid, killing another kid...who may have had a motive other than just the fact that lawrence was gay, and others are trying to make sense of it in the aftermath...although you can't make sense of the actions of an insane or mentally ill person, as brandon clearly was.
all im saying is...well, i guess im saying several things. first off, i think the term 'hate crime' is being far too widely used these days, and it is not applicable in all situations...in this case, the killer and the deceased may have been involved, which in my book certainly could lead to a crime of passion or a crime of defense in that brandon may not have wanted top be outed by lawrence. the instant the kid was killed, before any facts at all were known, the news flashed HATE CRIME!!! HATE CRIME!!! I may be the only one on here, but i think there very well be many sides to this story, not just the one glsen and other organizations like them want to be portrayed.
it's the same w/ other minorities these days too. look at a case still on-going in seattle w/ the NAACP, where a bunch of black gang members just got hancuffed @ school by security, one called it excessive force and racially motivated, and the kids got off scot free.
hate crimes are a bunch of bullshit...let's all whine and bitch about how bad it is, when in reality, lots of worse shit could go down...kids get killed every day. crimes motivated by bias happen, and kids are products of their environments. c'mon. drop it already...kid pushed and pushed til the other guy snapped...human nature. i'm not saying executing him in such a manner was the right thing to do by any means...brandon should be punished. but still.
Well...
I think hate crimes are usually nonsense, and can potentially backfire as a legal strategy. Plus, it's usually an insignificant addition to a sentence, so it'll be like 40 years for murder, and two years extra because it was a hate crime.
I still don't know why you think people would drop a case that hasn't even gone to trial, though. I imagine coverage will pick back up again at that time.
I respect both sides having a right to their side of the story, but that isn't a possibility when one side shoots the other.
So, nothing Brandon can say will or should get him off serious jail time, and he should be tried as an adult, especially since his comment to that girl seems like there was premeditation, which means he can't claim he just acted in the moment and couldn't control himself, etc. Premeditation is usually the foundation for first degree murder.
If Brandon did this to stay closeted, he'll come out and use that as his defense at trial and still go to jail.
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"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." - Rumi
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not necessarily...
i can see your point...but at the same time...that girl's comment is just hearsay, and will likely not hold up as evidence in court...although it suggest premeditation and motive, there is no way to prove he said it, unless witnisess surface after the fact, in which case they will be less credible...also, at the time of the crime, brandon was what, 15? he may be tried as an adult the way out court system has been going lately, but that remains to be seen. also, as a minor, i doubt very much he will see even close to 40 years, and may get off w/ a lessor charge such as 2nd degree murder or manslaughter. i doubt if he killed lawrence to stay closeted, he'll come out as a an out from justice...sorry jeff, but that probably won't happen. and eventually when he does time, he'll come out anyway...just not voluntarily .lol.
Mental wounds not healing, driving me insane, i'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train- the ozzman
Not really...
Legally, she can testify and it would be considered evidence. If no one else heard it, the jury will have to take that into consideration, but it certainly isn't excluded for that reason.
Hearsay is if she says something that Lawrence told her, since it cannot be substantiated now, or Brandon's state of mind, since she can't know that. If she heard something directly, it's not hearsay.
In legal cases, they always give the maximum possible sentence in articles, not what is likely to happen, especially since it wouldn't be possible to know the extent of the sentence without the trial occurring. You always report the maximum possible sentence, though.
I used to cover criminal trials for a living...
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"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." - Rumi
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...
I've posted two things and tried editing them, I think I'm just going to go finish the story before I keep yattering... :-o
nope...100% serious..w/ sarcastic tones.
oh, and i disagree. to some, murder is just another part of life...tragic , yes...but not always a 'big' deal.
Mental wounds not healing, driving me insane, i'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train- the ozzman
whew...
OK, I finished reading the story, and I guess I'd have to say that maybe what happened has been over-sensationalized. The situation seems a lot more complicated than anything I ever heard about Larry King's murder before.
Nonetheless, it was a terrible event, and I do believe that if a 14-year-old takes out a gun and kills a kid his own age, it's a bigger problem than "part of life."
Apologies for the mistaken guess at sarcasm. (I have to put that in now because I goofed up and took the guess out of my first post.)
~~~ the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses ~ e e cummings ~~~
sorry from me too...
my first two posts were instant reactions...but hopefully you can see my point that the whole damn thing has been made into something it most likely wasn't by both gay rights advocates and the media...it was a horrible thing for all involved...but still, a part of life. sorry, but it is something we all deal w/ at some point.
Mental wounds not healing, driving me insane, i'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train- the ozzman
Err...
Not sure how you think the deaths of Matthew Shepard, Gwen Araujo, and Lawrence King are being made into something they weren't, when they were all killed, in whole or in part, due to their sexuality.
People can sensationalize things beyond that, but the event itself doesn't change.
I don't think most people deal with this stuff at some point, though, either. Most people don't have murder as part of their normal everyday routine.
---
"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." - Rumi
Add me on Facebook and MySpace.
you're right jeff...
the event itself does not change...therefore it is still murder...however, i disagree...at some point, either yourself or someone you know will be affected by a murder.
Mental wounds not healing, driving me insane, i'm goin' off the rails on a crazy train- the ozzman
However, just because murder
However, just because murder affects peoples' lives doesn't mean it should be passed over as insignificant or "a part of life". Shouldn't we, morally, be trying to limit or end the murders that occur every year? Eventually, all of us will be or already have been affected by murders. However, it doesn't dull the pain of most people to realize that other people's relatives have died also. Also, eventually, if murders continue (under any name and by any motive--hate crime or not), anybody, including any of us, stands a chance of being in the same position. This murder or any murder doesn't have to be a rallying point for any organization, LGBT or otherwise, but it should be a rallying point for people who want to educate others and protect people from being killed in the future for senseless reasons.
Wow, is what i mostly have
Wow, is what i mostly have to say after reading this article. Parts I agree with or make sense to me and other parts I'm like WTF!!!! Whether Larry was gay or not I still think this is absolutely horrible and that Brandon should be tried as an adult because he knew what he was doing.
I also don't know how fair the trial can really be because if teachers are testifying.. some are probably homophobic and will spin things in favor of Brandon- without lying and then some are okay with all that Larry was. I think to be fair they need to be neutral but who is now a days? Everyone has an opinion about everything.
Thats all I can really process right now and think to say..
~~~Fear is only a verb if you let it be.. don't you dare let go of my hand~~~