Lawyer blames school in shooting of gay Oxnard student

By Catherine Saillant The Los Angeles Times

As 14-year-old Brandon McInerney prepares to be arraigned today in the slaying of 15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, his lawyer is advancing a defense that at least partly blames school officials for the tragedy.

Educators should have moved aggressively to quell rising tensions between the two boys, which began when King openly flirted with McInerney, said Deputy Public Defender William Quest.

full article

VIDEO: Larry King speaks about Lawrence King and DOS

Larry King speaks out in support of the Day of Silence.

In the video he states "all students should be free to be themselves without the fear of name-calling, bullying or harassment. "

He ends the video with "every student deserves to feel safe in school".

LGBT Groups: Try Lawrence King's Killer as a Juvenile

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans activists have issued a statement asking the Ventura County, CA, district attorney to try the 14-year old murderer of gay teenager Lawrence King as a juvenile.



In a joint statement, 27 LGBT activist groups, including Lambda Legal, The National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLSEN, and The Transgender Law Center, now urges the DA to try McInerney in juvenile court:



"We are saddened and outraged by the murder of junior high school student Lawrence King. At the same time, we call on prosecutors not to compound this tragedy with another wrong, we call on them to treat the suspect as a juvenile, not as an adult.



"The facts in this matter seem clear: one boy killed another in a climate of intolerance and fear about sexual orientation and gender expression. The alleged perpetrator, who turned 14 years old less than three weeks before the shooting, should be held accountable for his actions.



"But we support the principles underlying our juvenile justice system that treat children differently than adults and provide greater hope and opportunity for rehabilitation. California law does not require District Attorneys to prosecute 14 year-olds as adults, even in circumstances such as these, and we oppose them doing so.



"We are issuing this joint statement because we believe so strongly in principles of justice that protect all our young people and know that, even in the face of strong emotions, we should not abandon them.



"We refuse to let our sense of outrage blind us to the fact that the suspect is only 14 years old."

full article

Day of Silence

The 6th annual Day of Silence falls on Friday, April 25, 2008.

This year, the event will be held in memory of Lawrence King.

Those of us in the GLBT community know what it is like to silence our thoughts and feelings. Most of us do so daily!

The Day of Silence event attempts to highlight this.

I know this is a difficult concept for some who are not part of the GLBT community. It’s difficult for them to see that everyday of our lifes we are bombarded with the message “you should be heterosexual”.

TV, radio and everyday chatter denigrate those of us in the GLBT community. For the young in our community, who are not in a welcoming household, the situation is often traumatic. Sadly, the trauma is often held in silence causing untold turmoil within.

I won’t be making any posts or comments on April 25. I will be making a small card to carry with me that day. On the card will be a simple statement “today is the Day of Silence”!

I hope my brothers, sisters and allies join me in honoring Lawrence King and the Day of Silence on Friday, April 25, 2008.

Reactions mixed when parents find out children are gay

When teenage sons and daughters summon the nerve to come out to their parents, the usual first reactions include anger, denial - and a profound sense of loss.

The best thing they can do is to love them, understand them and give them the dignity to lead their own life.

When the shock wears off, parents must turn pro-active, supporting their children, and realizing they're the priority.

It's important to be strong for your kids because it's taking every drop of courage they have to reveal their sexual orientation.

The fatal shooting Feb. 12 of 15-year-old Lawrence King illustrates the need for parents to make sure their children, once they come out, are safe from bullying.

Parents need to realize there's inherent danger for kids who are coming out.

Parents' goals for their children should be the same, gay or straight - to help them achieve a happy and healthy life.

It makes such a difference when a family stands along with the child.

That's a successful parent.

full article

Death by Homophobia

Janet Jackson, Portia di Rossi, TR Knight, Ashanti, Calpernia Addams and others speak out against hate and in honor of Lawrence King, the 15-year-old openly gay Oxnard student, shot to death by a classmate.

Click here for video.

Lawrence King and his murderer Brandon McInerney

By Paul Pringle and Catherine Saillant
LOS ANGELES TIMES

LOS ANGELES -- For teenagers living in a shelter for abused and neglected children, school can provide a daily dose of normalcy, a place to fit in, a chance to be just another kid.

It didn't turn out that way for Lawrence King.

According to the few students who befriended him, Larry, 15 years old and openly gay, found no refuge from his tormentors at E.O. Green Junior High School.

The 14-year-old accused of murdering him, Brandon McInerney, had his own troubled home life when he was younger, with his parents accusing each other of drug addiction and physical assaults, court records show. The year before Brandon was born, his father allegedly shot the boy's mother in the arm, shattering her elbow, the records say.

Brandon has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder and a hate crime and is being held in juvenile hall.

For about a decade, the household of William and Kendra McInerney, Brandon's parents, had been in turmoil. The 1993 shooting incident led to William's conviction on discharging a firearm and a 120-day jail sentence, according to court records.

William and Kendra McInerney declined to be interviewed. Brandon's attorney also declined to comment.

Some students say Brandon, tall and strong for his age, was one of the "cool" students and could be unfriendly. "If you weren't part of that group, it was like you didn't exist," said Erin Mings, 12. "He was a real jerk."

Earlier this year, some of Brandon's classmates say, Larry began "hitting" on him and remarking for all to hear that he thought Brandon was "cute." Other boys then ribbed Brandon by saying he must be gay.

Michael Sweeney, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green, picked up on the whispering that followed.

"Brandon told this one girl that he was going to kill Larry," Michael said. "She didn't tell the principal. I didn't either, after I heard about it. I thought it was a joke."

Larry was shot the next day.

The family has established a Web site in his memory, with a photo gallery that shows Larry throughout his childhood -- on his first plane ride, getting a haircut, dressed as the Great Pumpkin for Halloween. Hundreds of sympathetic comments have been posted.

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.

"They used to bug him a lot, pick on him -- 'Hey you, gay kid ... want to wear lipstick?'" Vanessa Ramirez, 15, said of Larry's belittlers. "He'd start crying. ... He didn't want to tell the teachers because they'd start picking on him more."

full article

Boston vigil in memory of Lawrence King

LGBT youth and allies will gather at the Community Church of Boston March 12 to mourn the death of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old gay middle-school student from Oxnard, California, who was gunned down in his classroom last month. Police believe the murder was an anti-gay hate crime.

The two organizations planning the vigil, the Boston Alliance of GLBT Youth (BAGLY) and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of Boston, are encouraging youth to attend and to use the event to talk about their reactions to the murder."

We’re hoping to invite young folks to speak about their own experiences, particularly the members of BAGLY and Boston GLASS and Boston Youth Organizing Project," said Jessica Flaherty, BAGLY’s program director. Boston GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services) is a community center for LGBT youth, and the Boston Youth Organizing Project is a youth-led organization committed to creating positive social change in the city.

The vigil for Lawrence King will be held March 12 from 7-8 p.m. at the Community Church of

Boston, 565 Boylston Street. For more information contact BAGLY at 617.227.4313.

full article

Hate groups abound

About 15.6 percent of hate crime offenses in the United States targeted homosexuals, according to the FBI's 2006 Hate Crime Statistics.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are currently 844 active hate groups in the United States.

In Louisiana, there are 24 hate groups, including the Black Separatists, Ku Klux Klan, White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis.

California, where Lawrence King was murdered, has 63 active hate groups - more than any state in the country.

I'm still waiting to hear more about Lawrence Kings' murderer. Anyone want to bet his family is strongly grounded in religious right beliefs?

We've heard nothing about the parents. The parents should be going to jail also!

If the kid took their car and killed someone the parents would be held responsible.

But Brandon McInerney uses a gun (where did that gun come from?) to kill Lawrence King (a gay 14 year old who recently had asked the murderer to be his valentine) and the parents aren't even mentioned!

That's VERY VERY WRONG!

Ellen DeGeneres on Lawrence King: We Must Change Our Country

Mainstream media doesn't care about gay teens

By Tanene Allison

Lawrence “Larry” King was shot to death and the media thought that you didn’t need to know about it.

Larry, as you might have now learned, was fifteen and in his junior high school computer lab when Brandon McInerney, 14, followed through on a previously declared threat and shot King.

The mainstream media apparently didn’t think that you needed to know that King had recently come out as gay and had started to wear lipstick, mascara, earrings, and a pair of particularly fierce high heeled boots.

The first LA Times article on the shooting made no reference to Larry’s sexual orientation, or his manner of dress. When the mainstream media first reported the murder, it was stated that the violence stemmed from a “personal dispute” between the two boys.

Youth groups across the country began holding marches in King’s honor. Details of his death was spread virally on youth-dominated, Facebook. Queer media outlets bubbled over with coverage of the story. The mainstream media remained silent.

Anderson Cooper, wrote in his blog:
“Tonight… we are focusing on a story that hasn’t received the attention it deserves…According to many accounts, he had been bullied repeatedly, and some parents have even claimed students knew of threats to Lawrence’s life. At this point it doesn’t seem clear how much school officials knew of the bullying, but a full investigation needs to be done. If this had been an African-American student bullied by a teenage skinhead, would it have received more attention?

“Would school officials have taken it more seriously if it had been a Christian campus leader attacked by another student because of his/her religious beliefs? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I do think they are worth asking.”

All good questions, and I’m grateful they’re being asked, but where was Cooper two weeks ago?

Not that Cooper is alone in his delay. It took the two Democratic candidates for President thirteen days to release comments on King’s death.

The New York Times took four days before running an AP snippet on the murder, and eleven days before they wrote their first story.

MTV News, a leader in coverage of youth issues, ran its first story on King nine days after the murder.

You get the idea.

Lawrence King is dead. And were it not for groups of hurt and angry young people, none of us may have ever heard King’s name.

full article

Lawrence King tragedy rings on (and that's a good thing)

As most know, 15-year-old Lawrence King was murdered at school on February 12, 2008 by a 14 year old fellow student.

Vigils in memory of Lawrence King, calling for an end to violence and harassment directed at LGBT people in schools, are being organized in communities across the country.

Click here to find a vigil in your area, or fill out the form to list a remembrance event in your community.

The more events we organize, the louder our collective voice.

Please help make sure that what happened to Lawrence never happens again.