This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence.
On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain
quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment
-- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their
allies.
Even before his life was cut short at the age of 15, Lawrence “Larry” Fobes King was unforgettable. He endeared himself to everyone he met with his humor and honesty, refusing to be anyone other than his own vivacious self.
Larry—born on January 13, 1993; he was a Capricorn—lived the last months of his life at Camarillo, Calif.’s Casa Pacifica home for abused, neglected, and emotionally troubled children. The staff and the other kids there loved him. “King was a bubbling face who made you smile every day,” Casa Pacifica staff member Melissa Flavin told me when I visited the facility to write an Advocate cover story on Larry and his murder.
Larry attended school at E.O. Green Junior High. Everyone knew who he was, and even though some people shunned him because he was openly gay, many people considered him a friend.
Larry loved bugs, chess, and candy. He adored music and had a gorgeous singing voice that he honed at Casa Pacifica. Before he lived in the home, Larry and his adopted mom once crocheted hundreds of scarves for American soldiers in Afghanistan. He was active in the local queer youth group.
As many young LGBTQs know, Larry was gunned down by classmate Brandon McInerney in computer lab at his Oxnard, Calif. junior high on February 12. A few weeks prior, Larry began dressing in heels and jewelry. Many surmise that Larry had a crush on Brandon and either asked the 14-year-old out or gave him a valentine. Brandon’s response was to kill Larry.
Some people don’t understand why LGBTQ people are always fighting and clawing and screaming for equal rights. Even some gay people think we’ve come so far, that the battle for equality is already won. Well, imagine if Larry was simply female. He just would have been a girl with a crush. He’d still be alive.
This year’s Day of Silence is in honor of Larry. Please think of him on Friday—and say a prayer for all the LGBTQ kids trying to survive in America’s schools. —Neal Broverman
This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence. On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies.
Sakia Gunn was a 15 year old girl from Newark, New Jersey who studied and played basketball at Newark's West Side High School.
The night of May 11, 2003, Gunn and her friends were returning to Newark after a night in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. Back in Newark, waiting for the bus to bring them home, two men approached Gunn and her friends. When they rejected the men's advances by announcing that they were lesbians, the men attacked them. Gunn fought back, but Richard McCullough stabbed her in the chest, and the pair fled the scene. She died shortly after, at nearby University Hospital. More than 2,500 people attended her funeral.
McCullough turned himself in a few days later. In a plea bargain, the murder charges were dropped. Instead, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on April 21, 2005 for pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault, and bias intimidation. Today, we honor Sakia Gunn as one of our fallen for National Day of Silence 2008. How will you remember him this week? Leave it in the comments...
This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence. On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies.
Brandon Teena, was a young transgender man born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln, Nebraska on December 12, 1972. Growing up, he was known as a "tomboy" and by high school began to identify himself as male. In 1993 he moved to Falls City, Nebraska, where he moved in with new friend Lisa Lambert. Teena began dating one of Lambert's friends, Lana Tisdel, and befriended ex-cons John Lotter and Marvin "Tom" Nissen. Tisdel and Lotter had dated several years before.
On December 15, Teena was arrested for bank fraud, but Tisdel bailed him out. Tisdel learned that Teena was biologically a female when she had to bail him out of the women's jail. He told Tisdel that he was intending to undergo a gender reassignment surgery and they continued dating. His friends also found out that Teena was transgendered, as he was identified as Teena Brandon in the newspaper after his arrest. During a Christmas Eve party days later, Lotter and Nissen violently confronted Teena, pulling down his pants to humiliate him. Later that night, Lotter and Nissen raped and beat Teena. He reported the rape to the police. When authorities questioned the two, they were released without arrest. One week later, on New Year's Eve, Lotter and Nissen found Teena with Lambert in a farmhouse. There, they killed Teena, Lambert, and another house guest, Phillip DeVine.
In their trial, Nissen testified against Lotter for a reduced sentence. Nissen was sentence to life in prison without parole and Lotter received the death penalty.
Today, we honor Brandon Teena as one of our fallen for National Day of Silence 2008. How will you remember him this week? Leave it in the comments...
Boys Don't Cry, the Oscar-winning movie about Brandon 2003 AP Story on the 10-year anniversary of Brandon's death Gender PAC, a gender identity and human rights advocacy group
Hi, guys. With Day of Silence right around the corner, we wanted to publish an expanded interview with a brave student named Mikey Gonzalez that previously ran in The Advocate. Mikey is the only openly gay student at his high school in Kansas and he took it upon himself to organize his school's Day of Silence. We talked with him about the experience:
Most days, Mikey Gonzalez can't shut up. As the only openly gay student at Lansing High School near Leavenworth, Kan., the 18-year-old has taken it on himself to educate students about LGBT rights, fight for the passage of a federal antibullying law, and organize vigils for Lawrence King, the gay 15-year-old Oxnard, Calif., student murdered by a classmate in February. But during the Day of Silence on April 25, Gonzalez—along with hundreds of thousands of middle school, high school, and college students—will zip his lips to make a silent statement about the harassment queer students face. Gonzalez, who as activism in his blood—his aunt is Melissa Etheridge—tells us about this year's King-dedicated DOS and his own experiences with hate.
How do people know what DOS if if you are silent? I'll explain what it is before. In classes I talk about what the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network [which organizes DOS] is and who Matthew Shepard was. I've done a couple of presentations about Lawrence King. Some students will say, "Why is it such a big deal that he was gay?" I explain that he was a child who was murdered [because of hate] and that the hate should not have been there.
How do we change the atmosphere at schools on days that aren't DOS? If the high school has a gay-straight alliance that’s always a good thing. My high school doesn’t. I faced a lot of issues with that, being the only LGBTQ student. But I know a lot of students that have GSAs and they always do weekly and monthly projects. And we have our other Days of Action, Transgender DOS, Ally Week, and then Martin Luther King Jr.’s weekend organizing. I think those are very important to keep going.
What did Lawrence King mean to you? When the Matthew Shepard incident happened in 1998, I wasn't old enough to grasp it. For the past few years I've been in activism, I couldn't really empathize with an issue because I didn't know anyone besides me who was personally affected. But when the King murder happened, it stopped me in my tracks. I feel like I now know Lawrence like a younger brother.
What is it like being the only openly gay student at school? I went through a lot. I experienced everything from [notes] left on my desk that showed my head cut off to being shoved into my locker. I could've gone to another school, but I stayed because I was told there'll be a gay freshman coming into Lansing when I leave, and I didn't want to leave high school knowing he wasn't going to be protected.
Has your school changed since you started the GSA? Yes. My principal, he's not the best person in the entire world. He has been very ignorant and always avoids me, and is avoiding me at this present moment. It's been a very big battle for me, but you know if it wasn’t for GLSEN and my friends supporting me, well, there was a point before that I attempted suicide. But I didn’t follow through with it and I’m glad I didn’t. But yeah, I’ve gone through a lot in a small town, but a lot has changed in the past year and a half. I can see it. They say that this town’s not ready for it. That’s what I keep hearing from older adults in this town, but my argument is how much longer do we have to wait, you know?
How old were you when you came out?
13.
Are you out to your mom and your step dad? Oh yeah.
And how’s your relationship with them? Me and my mom’s relationship is great. My stepfather and my real father in Florida, not so great.
Do you want to be an activist when you grow up? Oh yeah, definitely. I want to be a psychologist but you know I can't fight that I was meant to be an activist. I think somehow I can definitely tie them together and if not, then, well, it’ll have to work out. —Neal Broverman
This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence. On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies.
Twenty one-year-old U of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was studying political science in 1998. Prior to that, he spent a few years abroad in Europe, enabling him to learn several languages including German and Italian. He was also the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council and had a great love for the stage.
Shepard met Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming shortly after midnight on Oct. 7, 1998. Henderson and McKinney posed as gay men, and offered him a ride in their car. The two men brutally attacked Shepard; they tied him to a fence and left him for dead. A day and a half later a cyclist found him still alive but in a coma. By the time he arrived at the hospital, doctors deemed his injuries too severe to operate. On Oct. 12, 1998 he was pronounced dead.
Henderson and McKinney, were arrested and the case spurred a national conversation. The defendants, using a "gay panic" defense, argued that they were driven to "temporary insanity," because Shepard allegedly made sexual advances toward them. They added that they planned to rob him and not murder him. The defendants' girlfriends, however, both testified that they were plotting to rob a gay man.
Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999, and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he received two consecutive life sentences. The jury in McKinney's trial found him guilty of felony murder. As it began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard's parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Today, we honor Matthew Shepard as one of our fallen for National Day of Silence 2008. How will you remember him this week? Leave it in the comments...
This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence. On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies.
On February 22, 17-year-old Simmie Williams Jr. was fatally shot as he was standing on Sistrunk Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Witnesses overheard an argument between Simmie and two unidentified men moments before the gun went off. Several anti-gay slurs were hurled at Simmie (who also went by "Chris" and "Beyonce").
His killer(s) have yet to be found, though witnesses said that two men were seen fleeing from the scene of the crime shortly after the shot was fired. Now, nearly 2 months later, the reward for information leading to the person or people involved in Williams’s death has been bumped from $1000 to $5000.
His mother said that she wasn't aware that her son wore women's clothing, but, she said, he was a quiet, happy person with many friends. Williams was occasionally a target for taunts but was able to brush off the comments. He had signed up the previous Wednesday for Job Corps and planned on getting his GED and then going to culinary school.
Media coverage of Williams’s death demonstrates the persistence of damaging socioeconomic stereotypes. Because he was dressed as a woman and standing on the corner at night, new stories filed after the event assumed that he was a prostitute. No news outlets have actually clarified whether Simmie was gay, trans, or just liked to wear dresses. And the relative scarcity of press coverage suggests that, as a young queer man of color, Simmie Williams did not receive the same attention that would have meted out to a white victim.
Today, we honor Simmie Williams as one of our fallen for National Day of Silence 2008. How will you remember Simmie this week? Leave it in the comments...
Campus Pride represents the leading national nonprofit 501(c)(3)organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create safer, more LGBT-friendly colleges and universities.
This week, we're honoring a handful of LGBT-related hate crime victims in light of Friday, the 12th annual National Day of Silence.
On that day, students in thousands of schools across the country remain
quiet to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment
-- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their
allies.
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