Gay Shooting
Buck March 29th, 2008 - 10:09 amIf anyone ever tells you we’re not barbaric, point them to this story.
“[T]hat can be very threatening to someone’s ego and their sense of identity.”
So, that makes the case for murder? If children weren’t taught bigotry and hate at such an early age, maybe they wouldn’t feel so threatened. Something which most carry with them throughout their entire lives.
Shooting of Gay Student Sparks Outcry
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.
That may have been what got him killed.
On Feb. 12, another student, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head at the back of the computer lab at their junior high school, police say.
The slaying of the 15-year-old boy has alarmed gay rights activists and led to demands that middle schools do more to educate youngsters about discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Police would not discuss McInerney’s motive. But the day before the shooting, King told McInerney he liked him, eighth-grader Eduardo Segure told the Ventura County Star.
If King had flirted with the other boy, “that can be very threatening to someone’s ego and their sense of identity,” said Jaana Juvonen, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Gays at that age feel threatened by their straight counterparts. And for a reason!
When is the last time you heard about a gay shooting and killing a straight for this reason?
When was the last time the boy’s family, friends, community and the major paper that posted the story took up for and sided with the poor little gay boy?
We truly are barbaric bigots.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:29 am
That may have been what got him killed.
That sentence is disturbing to me for many reasons.
March 29th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Yep, blaming the victim seems to a popular theme these days. The denial of the sociopathic behavior of the perpetrator by trying to shift the blame for their actions to the victim seems to be pervasive in our society as of late. Even if the kid’s ego and sense of identity was threatened by the flirting as the psych professor says may be the case, the sociopathic behavior started with the response to it and not before. From a very early age I played competitive sports and had my ego and sense of identity threatened on a daily basis by my competitors and never responding to it in a violent manner because I would have been thrown out of the game or banned from competing for good. I sure as hell hope this pysch professor isn’t professing that the threatening of this kid’s ego and sense of identity (by the flirting in this case) is sociopathic and is somehow to be at fault for the violent reaction to it because that is psycho nonsense. I was told that competing in sports would “build my character” and apparently the shooter in this case tragically didn’t have enough character to overcome the threat to his ego and sense of identity. Whether in competitive sports or in school situations involving sexual situations amongst your peers having your ego and sense of identity “threatened” is an everyday occurance and is nothing that in anyway should justify this kid’s response to it. The only thing the shooter was a victim of was his own lack of character.