Washington Blade

http://www.washblade.com/2008/2-29/news/localnews/12121.cfm

D.C. Vigil Held For Slain California Teen

Media coverage of killing disappoints some activists

February 29, 2008

Gays in Washington gathered in Dupont Circle Monday night to hold a candlelight vigil for the late Lawrence King, the gay California teen who was shot in the head on Feb. 12.

Brandon McInerney, 14, has been charged in the case. King had begun wearing makeup and jewelry to his Oxnard, Calif., school, according to Los Angeles media reports.

Though police are still investigating the hate crime angle, many in the gay community have been reminded of the death of Matthew Shepard who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998 in Wyoming.

Some gay bloggers, activists and organizations have expressed dissatisfaction with the media’s coverage of the King case. The only major newspaper to pick up the story immediately was the Los Angeles Times, and, as activist and blogger Sara Whitman laments, “It was a local piece.”

Most critics of the media coverage express disappointment with the lack of immediate reporting after the murder (the Blade ran an Associated Press brief about the incident in its Feb. 22 edition but had run lengthier accounts of the incident on its web site earlier).

The New York Times ran a story on Feb. 23. Presidential hopefuls Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama issued statements on Feb. 22 and 23, respectively. Mainstream media coverage was limited prior to the Times story; only local coverage and Associated Press blurbs preceded the story, titled “Boy’s killing, labeled a hate crime, stuns a town,” and the candidates’ statements, both expressing strong support for a federal hate crimes law.

While gay activists welcomed the statements and the Times story, some said that the coverage of the killing has been lacking.

“I don’t know why it’s been downplayed,” lesbian blogger Whitman said. “Ironically I kind of hope that it was ignored because ‘we’re used to it’ now. It would be sad if it was ignored because it was just ‘this gay kid.’”

Whitman wrote a piece for the Huffington Post on Feb. 18 expressing her anger, titled “Just one more dead faggot.”

“In my LGBT community, we argue about who is more pro-LGBT rights, Obama or Clinton,” she wrote. “It’s been days since Lawrence King was shot dead. Neither candidate has issued a statement or said a word. The national media has done a complete pass on the story. Both candidates make me sick.”

Daryl Presgraves, a media relations manager for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), said his organization is pleased with the gay press coverage of the King murder. The mainstream media coverage, however, hasn’t caused enough of an outcry, he said.

“This is obviously a tragic event, but anti-LGBT bullying and harassment are things that happen every day, in every school. And this is an opportunity for us to finally start having a conversation about how we can address this,” he said.

Presgraves, Whitman and Cindi Creager, director of national news for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), all agree that the shootings and subsequent deaths of six people at Northern Illinois University on Feb. 14 may have distracted the media from covering the Oxnard shooting in greater depth.

“The shooting in Northern Illinois obviously sort of distracted the media, if you will … because there was ‘more tragedy,’ if such a thing was possible, that was where they focused their attention,” Presgraves said. “Hopefully this is an opportunity for media to do longer trend pieces about what’s happening in schools. Hopefully … they’re actually wondering how to write about it and cover it.”

“There’s been a lack of understanding about what really happened here, and the media can play a role in helping spread awareness,” he said.

Creager expressed gratitude upon seeing the Times article on Saturday and commended the Los Angeles Times for its in-depth coverage of the killing.

“GLAAD is continuing to urge the media to shine a spotlight on bullying based on sexual orientation or perceived or gender identity,” Creager said. “The Oxnard story still deserves continued follow-up and we need to continue to bring that case up when we’re speaking about hate crimes and bullying.”

CNN aired segments on Monday that gave viewers the facts of the case and showed footage from King’s hometown vigil.

Time Article Causes Controversy

As an openly gay journalist for Time magazine, John Cloud has written about these issues before. But his article on the King shooting, titled “Prosecuting the gay teen murder,” has caused an uproar among gay activists and organizations.

Cloud’s piece concluded: “We may never know the real motivations for King’s murder. McInerney, the alleged killer, is being charged as an adult and, if convicted, will likely spend the rest of his childhood, and most of his adulthood, behind bars. He deserves harsh judgment. But his victim’s heartbreaking life and death should be occasions for mourning, not legislation.”

Whitman and GLSEN allege that Cloud misused statistics in reaching his final analysis on gay teen bullying, in which he says, “Research from Cornell’s Ritch Savin-Williams has shown that most gay teenagers are thriving and happy most of the time. They are periodically confused and depressed, but what teen isn’t?”

Whitman simply wonders, “What was his point?”

GLSEN reps have said that Cloud wrongly interpreted the organization’s statistics.

“I find it hard to look at our data and come to any conclusion other than that school is not a very welcoming and warm environment for LGBTs and their allies. [Cloud] prefers to look at things from the perspective of the few students who aren’t being bullied, rather than the majority of students who are. And, you know … the unfortunate thing is that Time put it online to begin with,” Presgraves said.

Cloud responded to the activists’ concerns in an interview with the Blade.

“I don’t think anyone should be bullied,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I do think the proper context needs to be brought to the story, though. Gay groups have a frustrating tendency to make gay people in general — and gay kids in particular — seem like suffering victims. They often ignore their strength and resilience.”

Cloud said that the King case is horrible, but “incredibly, infinitesimally rare.”

“I think the victim portrait we get from NGLTF [National Gay & Lesbian Task Force] and GLSEN is a little old-fashioned and out of step with what’s really going on in the world,” he said.

Groups like GLSEN recommend tolerance education and anti-bullying policies be implemented in schools.

“There are still 40 states that don’t protect based on gayness and 45 that don’t protect gender expression. There’s a lot of opportunity out there for states to start focusing on this issue,” Presgraves said.

“I think we need legislation, this is exactly why we need legislation,” Whitman said. “There are kids that are being murdered, hurt, beaten — this needs to not be OK in our society.”

GLSEN officials spent Tuesday on Capitol Hill lobbying for anti-bullying legislation.

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Ventura County Star

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/29/school-shooting-suspects-lawyer-may-request-a-of/

Lawyer For Oxnard School Shooting Defendant May Seek Venue Change

Associated Press

February 29, 2008

The attorney for a 14-year-old boy who is charged with the murder of a classmate at E.O. Green School in Oxnard said he will consider filing a change-of-venue motion because of publicity the case has drawn.

Attorney Brian Vogel said this is a "routine consideration" by lawyers defending criminal cases that generate a lot of media coverage.

Vogel, whose client, Brandon McInerney of Oxnard, recently turned 14, said the case has drawn "tons of press" coverage after the killing of 15-year-old Larry King.

King was shot Feb. 12 and was pronounced brain-dead the next day.

Vogel said a handful of considerations are involved in determining whether a change of venue should be granted. They include the nature and gravity of the crime, the nature and extent of the media coverage, and other factors. He said the overriding consideration is whether a defendant can get a fair trial in the community.

The District Attorney's Office decided to prosecute McInerney in adult court because the law allows it for juveniles as young as 14 who are accused of serious crimes, officials said.

McInerney is scheduled to be arraigned on March 21 for premeditated murder with hate-crime and firearm-use enhancements.

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The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-whitman/just-one-more-dead-faggot_b_87280.html

Just One More Dead Faggot

By Sara Whitman

February 18, 2008

I have no words for how I feel today. Not only was a 15-year-old boy shot in the back of the head by someone who hated him because he was gay, because he was not masculine, because he wore jewelry and makeup, but also a 10-year-old boy hung himself in England.

He wanted to be a girl. He wanted to wear his sister's clothes and makeup. His mother let him wear girl's underwear but told him he'd have to wait till he was older to wear makeup.

Of course, by then it could get him killed.

The message of hate is getting through to our kids, loud and clear. It's okay to kill someone who freaks you out because they don't fit a gender role to your liking.

That is, if they haven't killed themselves.

Ten years old and full of so much shame he hung himself. Is anyone listening?

In my LGBT community, we argue about who is more pro LGBT rights, Obama or Clinton.

It's been days since Lawrence King was shot dead. Neither candidate has issued a statement or said a word. The national media has done a complete pass on the story.

Both candidates make me sick.

Blogger Mike Rogers, wrote earlier, the "reality is such that if either of them said the same things about woman, Blacks or Jews, they would never be elected president. Imagine Hillary not promising to immediately lift a ban on women serving in the armed forces. Imagine Barack saying we'll have a separate (but equal) institution of civil unions for Blacks."

While the gay community has been blazing for days about this incident, the rest of the country dozes on, reading about Michelle Obama's wardrobe choices on the campaign trail, or Roger Clemens lying his ass off on Capitol Hill.

Because this is the one kind of hate no one seems to be willing to stand up against. Let's not offend anyone who believes Jesus was anti-homosexual. Careful not to send a message of tolerance to young children in case they find some condolence in that message and face another day.

Don't worry. I get the message, loud and clear.

Just one more dead faggot.

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365Gay.Com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/02/021508hatecrime.htm

Student Charged in Hate Crime Murder
Associated Press

February 15, 2008

(Oxnard, Calif.) – Prosecutors filed a charge of murder with hate-crime and firearm-use enhancements Thursday against a 14-year-old boy who will be tried as an adult in the school shooting of a classmate who has been declared brain dead but remains on a ventilator.

The charge against Brandon David McInerney was upgraded from attempted murder after authorities learned that victim Lawrence King's condition was not survivable.

“When we got confirmation that he in fact was brain dead, there's state law in California that says that's good enough,” said Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox.

The murder charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years to life, with an additional maximum of 25 years for the firearms enhancement and an added one to three years for the hate-crime enhancement, Fox said.

McInerney made his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, but his hearing was continued until March 21. He was ordered held on $770,000 bail.

A message left seeking comment Thursday from McInerney's lawyer, Brian A. Vogel, was not immediately returned.

The felony complaint filed by prosecutors did not contain the reasons they were seeking a hate crime enhancement, and Fox said she could not reveal them.

Oxnard police have not specified a motive but said there appeared to be a personal dispute between the two.

Several classmates have said King would wear feminine attire, making him an unpopular figure with other boys at his campus.

King sometimes came to school wearing makeup and high heels, eighth-grader Nicholas Cortez, 14, told The Associated Press.

Another eighth-grader, Michael Sweeney, said King's appearance was “freaking the guys out,” the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

“He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails – the whole thing,” Sweeney told the Times.

King was shot in the head Tuesday morning during a class at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, police said. More than 20 other students were in the room at the time.

Police said a handgun was used in the attack and the 14-year-old was quickly arrested near the school.

King was pronounced brain dead at St. John's Regional Medical Center on Wednesday, Ventura County Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Stevens said.

Doctors planned to remove some of his organs for donation, Stevens said.

“I think that's what he would have wanted,” King's father, Greg King, told the Ventura County Star.

Lawrence King had been under the care of the county foster care system and lived at Casa Pacifica, a nearby center for abused and neglected children, said Steve Elson, the facility's chief executive.

“We're are all stunned and it's just an unspeakable tragedy,” Elson said Wednesday. “This is a very big traumatic experience for all of us.”

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