Gay student’s slaying in Calif. sparks outcry
Story ContinuedGay student’s slaying in Calif. sparks outcry
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.
That may have been what got him killed.
On Feb. 12, another student, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head at the back of the computer lab at their junior high school, police say.
The slaying of the 15-year-old boy has alarmed gay rights activists and led to demands that middle schools do more to educate youngsters about discrimination on the basis of ****** orientation.
Police would not discuss McInerney’s motive. But the day before the shooting, King told McInerney he liked him, eighth-grader Eduardo Segure told the Ventura County Star.
If King had flirted with the other boy, “that can be very threatening to someone’s ego and their sense of identity,” said Jaana Juvonen, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
McInerney was jailed on $770,000 bail on an adult murder charge that could put him behind bars for life. Prosecutors also filed a hate-crime enhancement, which could bring three more years if McInerney is found to have acted on the basis of the victim’s race, religion, nationality or ****** orientation.
The shooting has galvanized Oxnard, a city of nearly 200,000 people about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Several vigils for King have been held, including a march that drew about 1,000 people to this strawberry-growing section of Ventura County.
Like the killings of some other gay students — such as Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, and Brandon Teena, the Nebraska trans****** whose story was the subject of the movie “Boys Don’t Cry” — King’s death has drawn national attention and outraged many gays.
Comic Ellen DeGeneres, who is a lesbian, said on her talk show Feb. 28: “Larry was not a second-class citizen. I’m not a second-class citizen. It is OK if you are gay.”
Students at E.O. Green Junior High said the other kids used to taunt King, call him names and throw wet paper towels at him in the boys’ restroom, and he would bravely fire back by flirting with them and chasing them.
“He didn’t like people insulting him,” said his friend Miriam Lopez, 13. “Larry was brave enough to bring high heels and makeup to school and he wasn’t afraid of anything.”
WTF! What is an eighth grader doing IN school wearing makeup and high heels????? Im sorry for the kid, but hanging a sign around your neck saying "Open Season to Abuse Me" around a school full of kids doesnt make a lot of sense.
Hate crimes are terrible, but seriously...should the school districts and the parents use SOME common sense?
15 years old gay kids? Cmon..Originally Posted by Bongopete
And yes i agree.. I am sorry for him.. But wearing make-up high heels to schools full of 14-15 years old kids is not the smartest thing to do...
What the Hell is a 14year old doing with a gun? Is the question.
Last edited by wotsnext; 03-28-2008 at 04:01 PM.
Very sad story - but very interesting too. I think it's appalling that anything even close to this could be allowed to develop in a school. As an aside....I can't help but wonder - if it was a girl who was being ******ly harassed by this boy, and she finally went over the edge after one of the unwanted ****** advances and shot her harasser, I wonder if the same people (DeGeneres etc.) would have wound up exactly on opposite sides of where they find themselves.
Yes....there is that too.
Now suddenly he is going to become a posterboy for doing something stupid.
OK, here's a recipe for success:
Adolescent males. Somewhat (ranging from negligible to very much so) insecure in their personal image (to include ******ity).
+
Standard schoolyard social dynamics. "Fag", "sissy", "guilt by association", etc. Social pecking order.
= Powder Keg.
Add in: One abnormal (statistically) individual, who provides both a scapegoat (adolescent social groups are unkind to nonconforming behaviour) AND a flashpoint due to his counterbullying behaviour (adolescent males WILL freak out if their ******ity is publically questioned, as this threatens their place in the only social order they know).
Mao and Stalin had nothing on 8th Graders, when it comes to draconian social responses.
Anyone could see this would end in tears.
The really stupid part is that a lot of people see the proper response to this incident as being more "social engineering". WRONG. You aren't going to get adolescent children to accept fundamental schisms from the proto-society that develops among them.
"Prosecutors also filed a hate-crime enhancement, which could bring three more years if McInerney is found to have acted on the basis of the victim’s race, religion, nationality or ****** orientation."
That's ridiculous.
True enough, but this is something a bit beyond even that. I mean given that we all knew or know what its like to be that age, where in the world would you get the idea of doing something that is just going to be a lightning rod for every kind of abuse in the world? I think there is the world where everyone lives in harmony with each other and then there is the real world......and Calif still lives in the real world at the moment.
I couldnt agree more. Kill him for flirting. Kill him for being gay. Kill for any little thing that make him different. Its ok, he's just a gay kid who wears makeup and high heels. He's different and he makes me feel icky so let's shoot him. He should have known better. He deserved what he got.
Sometimes I worry about this place. A lot.
Does the value of human life depend on what type of clothes you wear or ****** orientation?
hank
No, its not 'ok', but since when does that rule what happens? It isnt ok that illegal aliens cross the border....it still happens. Kids shouldnt have guns...especially not in school..as we see, THAT happens. So just knowing how kids are, you get to claim a moral victory by dressing like you want, knowing that kids are going to do something?
Nothing justifies hate crimes. Nothing.
hank
Well, that is massively f*cked up
Errr, no one is "justifying" anything, Hank.
All statements so far have been "cause = effect" statements.
The victim kept cutting across the acceptable lines of adolescent psychology. Someone killed him for it.
The general consensus so far is that this was predictable, and adults should have intervened looong before it go to the violent stage.
I agree hank.
Michael pretty much nailed the dynamic at work here. My son is in 7th grade now and I can barely get the kid to bathe and wear clean jeans to school, let alone get him up early to do his hair and makeup and pick a pair of "f*ck me" pumps out. ******ization of an 8th grader of either *** also bothers the hell out of me.
This entire thing is a clusterf*ck of epic proportions.
C'mon 2Sheds you're stretching it a bit. The kid in the heels was fighting back after he was harrassed for being different in the only way he had available to him. This kid wasn't the aggressor, he was responding to the other kids abuse. As a parent though I like to think I have a little more situational awareness going for me than to let my kid go to school like that. Or conversly bring a gun to school to kill a kid that he doesn't like. Jesus.
Posting Permissions
