The Streets of Heaven Are Far Too Crowded
I'm not sure how many people have heard of this, but as this has only come to my attention recently and I'm usually up on this sort of news, I thought I'd spread this around as the news media has not been covering it. I may not hit a lot of bloggers, but I thought it was important to share.
On February 12, 2008 a 15 year old, eighth grade, boy by the name of Lawrence King was shot in the head by a fellow classmate because he was gay. Alledgedly the shooter was a kid who had been part of a group that had consistently harassed Larry for being gay and dressing effeminately and according to Ellen Degeneress, Larry had had a bit of a crush on this boy who shot him in the head in front of two dozen classmates in a computer lab.
Reports from parents and students say the bulling of Larry was well known and death threats had been made against Larry that people knew of. How much the administration did or didn't know is unclear, but if these attacks had been do to Larry's race or his religion the bullying would have been dealt with quickly and the death threats also would have been taken seriously.
There is still an implicit feeling amongst people that gay people bring this sort of thing on themselves by being open and honest about who they are and that they deserve what they get. Most school teachers, councilors and administrations around the country do nothing about these attacks, and some even participate in harassing their queer students.
Even more insidious is that this school shooting was not even picked up by the national press. As grotesquely horrifying as it is to randomly go in and shoot up a school in a sort of rage, it's even more horrifying to me that one boy walked up to another and shot him in the head in cold blood in front of two dozen witnesses because the other student was gay. Even more terrifying to me is that they were only Junior High students.
In short, it is essential that schools have better programs on educating children on LGBTQ issues and make a marked effort to stop homophobia. If this had been a racial hate crime, a religious hate crime, or any other type of hate crime we all would have heard about it in minutes. It was a queer hate crime and therefore was swept under the rug until individuals like Anderson Cooper and Ellen Degeneress got a hold of it and knew that there was a message to spread here.
To quote my girl Ellen, "It is okay to be gay." and nothing like this should ever happen to any children out there.
For more info check out Remembering Lawrence which has links to various reports/websites and includes the family's personal remembrance page.
Things will not really be equal until we are all treated as equals. Do what you can to spread the equality, respect and kindness to all you meet or we will remain trapped in a world where this is ok.
On February 12, 2008 a 15 year old, eighth grade, boy by the name of Lawrence King was shot in the head by a fellow classmate because he was gay. Alledgedly the shooter was a kid who had been part of a group that had consistently harassed Larry for being gay and dressing effeminately and according to Ellen Degeneress, Larry had had a bit of a crush on this boy who shot him in the head in front of two dozen classmates in a computer lab.
Reports from parents and students say the bulling of Larry was well known and death threats had been made against Larry that people knew of. How much the administration did or didn't know is unclear, but if these attacks had been do to Larry's race or his religion the bullying would have been dealt with quickly and the death threats also would have been taken seriously.
There is still an implicit feeling amongst people that gay people bring this sort of thing on themselves by being open and honest about who they are and that they deserve what they get. Most school teachers, councilors and administrations around the country do nothing about these attacks, and some even participate in harassing their queer students.
Even more insidious is that this school shooting was not even picked up by the national press. As grotesquely horrifying as it is to randomly go in and shoot up a school in a sort of rage, it's even more horrifying to me that one boy walked up to another and shot him in the head in cold blood in front of two dozen witnesses because the other student was gay. Even more terrifying to me is that they were only Junior High students.
In short, it is essential that schools have better programs on educating children on LGBTQ issues and make a marked effort to stop homophobia. If this had been a racial hate crime, a religious hate crime, or any other type of hate crime we all would have heard about it in minutes. It was a queer hate crime and therefore was swept under the rug until individuals like Anderson Cooper and Ellen Degeneress got a hold of it and knew that there was a message to spread here.
To quote my girl Ellen, "It is okay to be gay." and nothing like this should ever happen to any children out there.
For more info check out Remembering Lawrence which has links to various reports/websites and includes the family's personal remembrance page.
Things will not really be equal until we are all treated as equals. Do what you can to spread the equality, respect and kindness to all you meet or we will remain trapped in a world where this is ok.