Friends, family gather to say goodbye to slain woman

by Andrew Villegas

The Greeley Tribune, Greeley, Colorado

Monica Zapata reflected Saturday night in front of 200 people about her sister's life and death and could not keep from leaning on her family an arm's length away.

"We never knew how dangerous this world is," Zapata said, remembering her sister Angie Zapata, a transgender woman killed in Greeley in mid-July. "You are who you are and you should never be ashamed."

"It takes courage to live in a world that tries to force you into a box," Rose said. "It's a shame that we have to die to see our community loves us."

full article

Teens Arrested In Cancun Gay Murder

By On Top Magazine Staff

Two teenagers have been arrested in connection to a brutal double murder of a gay couple in Cancun, Mexico. Police say they continue looking for two more teens, reports the Spanish language news service EFE.

Ricardo Humberto Santos and Cesar Castillo were the victims of an apparent homophobic attack in their home last Saturday. The teens, ages 14 and 15, planned on injuring then robbing the couple of a car and a plasma screen television, but killed them instead.

According to the police, the men were killed while engaged in sex with the teens. Results of an autopsy showed that Santos was stabbed 38 times and Castillo 34. The boys confessed to police the gory details of slicing one of the pair's throat while having oral sex.

full article

Tributes flood in to hate crime victim

by Ben Rossington, Liverpool Echo

TRIBUTES were today pouring in for a Merseyside teenager who has died less than a week after an alleged homophobic attack.

Eighteen-year-old Michael Causer’s family were at his bedside when he died at Walton neurology centre on Saturday.

He was being treated for serious injuries suffered in the attack in Tarbock Road, Huyton, at 11am on Friday, July 25.

Michael was found by paramedics lying still in a pool of blood. He was taken to Whiston hospital where, last weekend, doctors performed emergency surgery in an attempt to stem the swelling on his brain.

full article

Mother of gay murder victim speaks out

RELATED STORIES

On May 16, 2007 Sean William Kennedy was murdered by Stephen Moller. Stephen was sentenced to 3 years and is elligible for parole after 10 months!


Elke Kennedy, Sean's mother held a press conference after the hearing. Here is her statement:


I want to thank you all for being here today. You have followed the story since Sean's violent murder last year and I appreciate it.


There was no justice today for my son Sean.


The sentence that Stephen Moeller received is a joke and a slap on the wrist.


Once again it proves that in the state of SC there is no justice for the victim, especially for a victim of a senseless, violent, bias motivated crime.


I understand that the judge had to sentence according to the plea agreement and the existing restrictions in the law, but that does not make this any easier!


Our judicial system is a joke and it is trying to make you believe that it is there to assure justice.


Decisions are made by the solicitor instead of judges and jury's.


Like in Sean's case, nobody will ever hear the evidence and all the facts like the voice mail because it was plea bargained by the solicitor, who has only met with me on time almost 10 month ago.


In essence when the solicitor plea bargains any case, are they not really working for the defendant instead of the victim? Most pleas benefit only the defendant because it results in a lesser charge.


In fact, I believe that Sean's case has been mishandled from the beginning.


Getting the investigation started - we had to initiate the securing of evidence -sheriffs deputies did not take it serious.


Our Solicitors got a lot of pressure about the case, received weekly phone calls from our SC senators from Washington and from congress man Inglis himself. Do any of you know of another local case that our Senators and congressman would be that interested in? I don't!


Furthermore, our officials have known about the 25 year gap in our laws and have not done anything about it! When asked why there was this gap I was told that nobody had ever complained.


Well this mother has and will continue to do so.


Bob Arial stated last October that involuntary manslaughter charge and the maximum time with that is not enough in the case of Sean's Murder, but that is all they could do according to the existing law!


Our solicitor invited me to help him change these laws - Mr. Arial - I am here, I am willing and I demand that we change these laws.


So moving forward we must identify the gaps, educate the public and we must demand all inclusive laws in our state that will protect all human beings.


We need to be able to identify bias motivated crimes and be able to report them.


Remember, this is an election year - you can make a difference!

My son was violently murdered because of hate and as his mother I wanted justice. This could have happened to anybodies son, daughter, brother, sister, etc.


My family will never be the same, a big part of our lives has been ripped out of our hearts and we are all struggling through Birthdays', holiday's, etc.


"No mother should ever have to bury her child, No mother should ever have to lose her child to violence and hate, No mother should ever have to fight to see justice for her child!"


http://www.seanslastwish.org/

Memphis: Police investigating transgender homicide

by Shaun Chaiyabhat
WREG TV, Memphis

Memphis homicide detectives are trying to unravel the city's latest murder mystery.

The body of 20-year-old Rodney Whitaker of Memphis was found steps away from a daycare, an abandoned apartment complex and a strip club.

Memphis police say Whtaker was dressed in woman's clothing and may have been seen around 4 am in the area of Lamar and Old Getwell.

Whitaker's body was found early Tuesday morning in the 32-hundred block of Whitebrook Plaza in southeast Memphis.

full article, including video report

Followup: Stephen Moller sentenced to 3 years for involuntary manslaughter

By Eric Connor
Greenville News

The Taylors teenager who threw a single, fatal punch at Sean Kennedy outside an Eastside bar was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison after an impassioned argument about the role Kennedy's sexual orientation may have played.

Stephen Andrew Moller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he punched 20-year-old Kennedy in the face in the parking lot of the former Brew's Pub on Pelham Road in May 2007 after a night of drinking.

Kennedy's head hit the pavement, causing fatal brain damage.

Shortly after Moller hit Kennedy, Moller called a girl that Kennedy was with outside the bar and left a voice message mixed with laughter, profanity and anti-homosexual epithets bragging about the assault, Moyer said.

The prosecutor read a transcript of the message in court, which Kennedy's mother pleaded unsuccessfully with the judge to listen to the actual recording before sentencing Moller.

backstory

full article

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

Butcher's Bill (February) ammended

BUTCHER'S BILL: 4 DEAD, 1 COUPLE INJURED

BUTCHER'S BILL STARTED FEBRUARY 2008



February Butcher's Bill:

Feb 9th - New York

Sanesha Stewart stabbed to death, in her home by Steve McMillian who had been seeing her



Feb 12th - California

15-year-old Lawrence King was shot in the head by another student



Feb 21st - Mexico

48-year-old Alejandro Fuentes Mejia was reportedly tortured, beaten with rocks, and suffocated



Feb 22nd - Florida

17-year-old Simmie Williams was transgendered and was known in the area by the first name of "Chris" or "Beyonce." Williams was wearing a dress and was shot about 12:45 a.m.. He was buried in male attire.



Feb 23rd - Florida

Less then 24 hours after Simmie Williams was shot to death, Melbourne Brunner was beaten outside The Floridian 24-hour diner by a man who shouted anti-gay slurs at him and his partner.



Although this addition was at the end of January I felt obligated to include it.



January 23 - South Carolina

18-year-old Adolphus Simmons . It was about 8 p.m. when Mary Ivory heard a commotion outside the apartment complex. A few doors down, Simmons lay on the ground with gunshot wounds. Simmons, a former student at Stall High School, was pronounced dead at Medical University Hospital at 9:08 p.m.

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.