Hundreds have marched on Saturday in tribute to a teenager who was shot to death in his Southern California junior high school's computer lab. More than 20 other students were in the room at the time.
Lawrence King will be remembered on www.GayAmericanHeroes.com, a project which honours those who have given their lives for
According to media reports, his alleged assailant, Brandon McInerney, 14, has been charged with attempted murder which has been classified as a hate crime. He was being held in Juvenile Hall in lieu of US$770,000 bail and will be tried as an adult.
If convicted as an adult, McInerney could face 25 years to life, plus an additional maximum of 25 years for firearm use and one to three years if the shooting is found to be a hate crime.
The police have declined to decline the evidence behind the hate crime charge but several classmates said King, who had come out as gay, sometimes wore makeup, high heels and other feminine attire.
One classmate told the Los Angeles Times that eighth-grader's appearance had "freak(ed) the guys out."
King's death has prompted vigils, a student-organised march and calls to revive anti-hate crime legislation.
On Friday, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released a statement denouncing anti-gay student violence. It read in part, "Our hearts go out to Lawrence's family and to all young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender kids who are right now, right this minute being bullied and beaten in school while adults look the other way."
Several groups including the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Network also issued a press statement last week calling for more education and stronger protection against bullies in schools.
"With young people coming out at younger ages, out schools - especially our junior high and middle schools - need to be proactive about teaching respect for diversity based on sexual orientation and gender identity," said Carolyn Laub, executive director of the GSA Network, in the statement.
"The tragic death of Lawrence King is a wake-up call for our schools to better protect students from harassment at school. As a society, we can prevent this kind of violence from happening."
Under the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act enacted in 2000, students are protected from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in schools. The law was further strengthened through the passage of AB 394 (The Safe Place to Learn Act) and SB 777 (The CA Student Civil Rights Act), which went into effect on January 1, 2008. The Safe Place to Learn Act guides school districts in adopting and publicising anti-harassment policies and complaint procedures, updating publications on school safety and discrimination, keeping records of complaints and how they were resolved, and providing training for teachers on how to combat bias in the classroom.
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Reader's Comments
Yet another in a long line of tragic school shootings in the USA, whatever the motive. When will they get to grips with gun control?
But the world remains blind to this cause we always take the West as a symbol of democracy and modernisation. The irony is that all these hate crimes from racial abuse, to sex abuse, child abuse and gay abuse are happening virtually every other day in the US and will fail to be reported in the news...while we receive lots of news on terrorist attacks and other US 'publicity stunt' news to taint the image of Asian/Middle East countries.
did u know it ?
how could such kind of gay people who wore make up and jewellery should be die in such a tragic moments.
anyway its a life, should move on, and this boy should be behave before attarct those gay haters. its not only in usa, aussy or singapore. there still hundreds country with full of weird people and gay haters.
JUST KEEP IN MIND, EVEN WE ARE GAYS OR BI OR WHATEVER, PLEASE BEHAVE AS U ARE, WE ARE BORN TO BE WE, NOT OTHERS, NO SOMETHING THAT U ARE CREATE BY UR OWN. NATURAL TAKE ACTION its always be.
even people hate but there will be a limit, but in this case we do not know so much about the story, perhaps the boy always freak st8 guys out and seduce them till the classmate shoot him. WHO knows?
im saying this cos i have friends who do and behave the same things like king lawrence, and luckily he seduce gays that he like, NOT straight. ;>
So what is it going to take for these laws to change?
a kind posthumous act from a young boy who had so much life left in him i am sure. and to 'linkguy', i can understand your perspective, nevertheless, no one, regardless or their behaviour or eccentricities deserves to be rebuked with assault or murder.
tighter gun control is the best way to prevent such atrocities from occurring.
I dont care if the kid wore high heels or combat boots, he was shot and the person that shot him should be punished severely, preferably by the death penalty, but it seems that the death penalty is not an option based on the printed article. It is sad, because it is such a strong deterrent.
Crime is crime and should be punished. Enough creatng special punishments because of what someone is or is not.
it's really time to stop wasting time on trying to understand the science behind homosexuality and investing more of our resources into education that yields tolerance and acceptance.
What an adult does is his business, what a minor does is still his parents concern and responsibility.
Wonder wat has their parents been feeding their brains with.
Putting 15yr old boys aside... Didnt noe the ppl in US are so vain... Did 14-15yr old GIRLS put on makeup to school?
Even if the parents should have had more say in how the kid appears in public that doesn't justify the shooting. After all, where were the parents of the murderer kid? Did they in the end teach him how to shoot and kill in the first place?
And still, your propaganda 'news' channels love to portray everbody else as evil, stupid and bad! I suggest, using a mirror, so you see who really at fault here...
Not the loss of this young man's life - that loss, whatever the motivations of the killer, is nothing short of tragic. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers should go out to this child's family.
Instead, however, his death is immediately turned into either an opportunity to vilify my country or he unwittingly becomes a cause celeb for the ridiculous notions of 'gun control' and 'hate-crimes.'
The terms 'gun-control' and 'hate-crime' are nothing less than knee-jerk political responses to pacify or co-opt the voting public. The root problem (and I can criticize - I live here) is the continuing depreciation of the value of human life in our society.
It doesn't matter whether you have sticks, stones, knives, guns or thermonuclear weapons at your disposal - if you respect the sanctity of human life, you will be disinclined to use these for the purpose of destroying people. Do you really believe that this young man would have escaped serious injury or death if the killer had not had access to a gun? The equally tragic loss of people like Matthew Shepard and Eddie Araujo shows this is untrue (as do many other instances of serious injury and/or death among LGBT people).
Finally, regarding so-called 'hate crimes,' the addition of a classification of crime above and beyond the ones already in place is a waste of time and money. When is a crime NOT a hate crime? Awfully rare that someone is killed out of love. What needs to be done is for the legal and political systems to stop coddling criminals. If you intentionally harm or kill someone you should be held accountable to pay an equal and exacting price - expediently. Instead, however, the vast majority of our murderers take up residence in what amount to state-run hotels. Our prisoners invariably are treated with greater respect and live in greater luxury than most of the working-class people in the world - clean beds, exercise equipment, cable access, food, higher education, etc., etc. If a young person is taught, or otherwise realizes (as most do), that there are no repercussions or serious penalties for this kind of behavior, then what is to prevent them from committing this type, or any other type, of crime?
Please take a moment, set aside the political and social arguments, and go to http://www.myspace.com/rememberinglawrence to let his family and friends know that he is in our thoughts and prayers.
If every single person owned a gun, it would not change the fact that this young man was killed on the sole condition that his open nature threatened those around him.
You don't need a gun to kill someone. Everyday thousands of young people have their dreams killed by someone who thinks they know better.
If parents could control their children in totality, what guarantee that they would be any different from them.?
This is not an American phenomena. What gay freedom do you claim to have in South Korea and Asia that protects you from discrimination, threats, taunts, and other destructive behavior.
History is full of peope who fear change more than they value life. I was recently reading about King SeJong and also Admiral Yi Sun-si, both of whom were surrounded by the opposition to peace and justice.
In America, gay nightclubs don't discriminate against you because you are a foreigner. In Korea, foreigners are freuently rejected from clubs and other venues.
Twenty years ago, another young man, the same age was murdered in my community, by a homophobic policeman.
This is not a new problem.
In 1978, in a land called San Francisco, two high ranking officials were murdered by a homophobic policeman. One of the men was gay, and the other man his friend and ardent supporter and mentor. George Moscone was the Mayor at the time and Harvey Milk was the openly gay elected Supervisor for District 5.
If you want to learn more about the struggle for gay rights in America, read about "The Life Times of Harvey Milk", and lest we forget, these things tend to reoccur.
Why are you blaming the victim and his parents?
It seems that it's the Adults who still believe in Santa Claus, and so they think schools are full of candy and joy.
Regarding to this area, most ministries of education around the world seem to be very wary of the need to teach kids something called "sexual education".
Which obviously must not take into strong account the matter of sexual orientation.
why is that?
because there would be a political ruckus. Moreover, parents would fuss "your turning my child gay!".
Like parents, like sons.
Wanna solve the problem?
then start seeing reality the way it is.
and let's create new parents and new politicians.
by the way, about what someone said of this being a US problem etc etc. I'm not a defender of America in any way, au contraire. But take notice: just because something isnt reported in the news, it doesnt mean it does not happen.
This is not any specific countries problem: this is a universal social problem, that derives from the urges of forging a strong self-identity with correlations to a majority and erasing threats to that identity - so human, yet, so primal.
A very accurate- yet elegant discourse- without finger-pointing.
Now if only we all can just work on yr suggestions, the world would definately be a better place.
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