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There is no excuse for it. And something must be done NOW

 

WHERE THE FUCK IS GLAAD???????!!!!!!!!

and the comments on the Newsweek site are just ridiculous.

NPH will be chatting online at the Washington Post website tomorrow morning. Submit your questions now!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/07/23/DI2008072301967.html

 

We've been following the Lawrence King murder here at AfterElton since the day the murder took place and this so-called article sounds more like a press release from the AFA than anything resembling the truth.

All this research by Newsweek and there is no mention that this story was almost fully ignored by the media with the exception of a couple of sensationalistic pick-ups based on an AP release.  Since Larry was not a pageant child nor a white girl on spring break, no one gave a damn until gay rights groups and celebrities like Ellen G. and Anderson C. decided to not let this story be buried. 

Unless I missed it, this hateful article does not mention that the vast majority of the much maligned gay agenda pushers have been very vocal in their desire for Larry's killer NOT to be tried as an adult. All this talk of Larry being appropriated for a gay agenda is simply wrong as the focus has been to look at this as an example of the how those who look/act different than whatever the norm is are paying a huge price.

Almost every single article on this subject has gotten it wrong, but none tops the scope of the attack of this one as it not only blames the victim but each and every one of us. To add insult to injury, the patched on ending seems to be a cursory attempt to convince the reader that they just read a balanced piece.

I am not letting Newsweek off the hook on this one and I hope that if any of you are as offended as I am, that you'll send Newsweek a little reminder reflecting your own take.

Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.

http://springintoaction.typepad.com

" But despite all the attention and outrage, the reason Larry died isn't as clear-cut as many people think. California's Supreme Court has just legalized gay marriage. There are gay characters on popular TV shows such as "Gossip Girl" and "Ugly Betty," and no one seems to notice. Kids like Larry are so comfortable with the concept of being openly gay that they are coming out younger and younger."

I thought that Larry died because he was shot in the head. Silly me as the article makes such a great case (NOT) that all teens, especially kids like Larry tend so comfortable about their lives, including their sexual orientation. Whether it's gender identity, skin color, sexual orientation, weight, or ______, almost every kid at this age is confused as hell and trying to find their way. Some differences are tolerated while others are extinguished.

All this talk about a dress code and so many missed opportunities to dig. Would a bull dyke who refused to wear heels and make-up and courted other girls like Larry allegedly did be dead because of it? Just a question and not a leading one. Newsweek had a chance to discuss gender expression and bring that topic into the consciousness of many people who may still be in the stone ages about the many elements at play here. Blame the victim and the opportunistic gay community....

Guillermo's Media Guillotine: Entertainment, journalism, politics, and popular culture.

http://springintoaction.typepad.com

I am a gay teacher who is also the sponser of my school's GSA.  In that capacity in just one semester I have already had to deal with a kid coming out and another one nearly killing himself.  I won't even go into what I dealt with as a gay high school student lets just say I am glad I didn't have access to guns in middle and high school and leave it at that.  Those of us who are gay teachers or administrators are only trying to help our students, all of them, make it out of high school in one piece.  RIP Larry and you are in my thoughts Joy.

Unfortunately, Newsweek is just following in the footsteps of The Advocate (who advertise themselves as "For 40 Years, Setting the standard in GLBT Journalism.")  Yeah, they're "setting the standard" all right. Remember that awful "Who's to Blame?" cover story they published about Lawrence King a few months back?  The "take" of the Newsweek story is quite similar to the "take" of that Advocate story.  And I don't remember organizations like GLAAD taking on the Advocate at the time (which I'm sure they consider taboo).  So I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for them to challenge Newsweek. 

Some enterprising young writer should work up a report on exactly how many of these "blame the victim" or "blame teh gheys" stories the mainstream media has promoted over the last decade or so.  There's not that far a jump from this Newsweek article to stuff like ABC News' 20/20's infamous "hey, let's give Matthew Shepard's killers a national forum (even though it may violate their plea agreement) and play scary music while painting Matthew as a methhead" show.  There's a certain right-wing editorship out there in the media that eats this stuff up with a spoon.

I haven't even read the article but I bet they claim that Larry tried to hit on the guy who killed him right? Come on, tell me I'm right.  Of couse with Larry not being here we don't know what's really true now do we?

They tried that crap with Matthew Shepard.

 

Whenever a gay boy gets murdered it has to be his fault.

Nothing like this should have happened to Larry and he by no means deserved to be murdered in cold blood. But from what I'm hearing on this thread so far, Brandon's personal space should have never been an issue, which I whole heartedly disagree with because a school is supposed to protect every student that is a part of it's community and that included both Larry AND Brandon. Let's just say for a minute that Larry had told Brandon that he liked him and Brandon politely said, "No" or "Not interested." If Larry had kept on hitting on Brandon, don't you think the school should have gotten involved and said "Listen, you gotta stop getting in this guy's personal space"? I personally thought the article touched on a lot of interesting things, most notably, how it's really tough to address the subject of students coming out of the closet in middle school because, let's face it, junior high is such a grey area in all of our lives. But with that being said, Brandon should have talked to the faculty about what was going on. But he didn't and he murdered Larry in cold blood. Brandon should be tried as an adult and be put away for at least 50 years because he knew exactly what he was doing. But from my perspective, it seems this school was way more interested in being politically correct than protecting the interests of either Larry or Brandon.

Koltès (who died of AIDS a number of years back) was a discovery of Patrice Chereau's. He was as beautiful as he was brillaint and like Chererau loved to hang aorund the piers on New Yorks West Side back in the 70's. In act one of his plays is called West Pier, though it's not about sex per se. Koltès work is very intense and very odd. Chereau frequently perforns the great Koltès two-hander In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields with Pascale Greggory.