(NAME-MCE) In Memoriam: Lawrence King

[Warren Blumenfeld]

In Memoriam: Lawrence King
By Warren J. Blumenfeld

Each year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
(FBI) tracks incidents of hate crimes throughout 
the United States. It reported in 2006, the most 
resent of its reports, 7,722 criminal incidents 
involving 9,080 offenses “as a result of bias 
against a particular race, religion, sexual 
orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or 
physical or mental disability.” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006).
·        51.8 percent were motivated by racial bias
·        18.9 percent were motivated by religious bias
·        15.5 percent were motivated by sexual-orientation bias
·        12.7 percent were motivated by ethnicity/national origin bias
·        1 percent was motivated by disability bias

         Once again, we are mourning the tragic 
death of yet another lesbian, gay, bisexual, or 
transgender person, a courageous soul who defied 
the sexuality and gender status quo and embraced 
life by living with integrity, sincerity, and compassion.

         Speaking of her friend, Lawrence King, 
whom she referred to as “Larry,” Melissa 
Castillo, from E. O. Green High School in Oxnard, 
California remembered her classmate and friend, 
as a person who “was never afraid to show who he 
was
.He was always the spirit of our group. He 
was always smiling. He was always bubbling. If 
you were having a bad day, or if you were feeling 
down, he was one to bring you back up and make 
you start laughing again. He was proud of [who he 
was]. That’s what we loved about him.”

             Melissa and Larry’s other friends 
loved him for being proud of being gay, and for 
expressing his gender in ways that felt 
comfortable and integral to him, even though this 
often went again convention. Larry occasionally 
came to school wearing traditionally feminine 
articles of clothing ­ dresses or skirts with 
make up and jewelry.  Not everyone, however, 
supported Larry’s sexual identity and gender identity and expression.

             On the morning of February 12, 2008, 
14-year-old Brandon McInerney, brandishing a gun, 
entered E. O. Green Junior High School, walked up 
to Lawrence King, and blasted two bullets into 
his head at close range. Reports indicate that 
McInerney targeted King because he was openly gay 
and gender non-conforming. Doctors declared Larry 
brain dead at the hospital, and three days later, 
took him off of life supports. He was just 15 
years old, and in the eighth grade.

         Lawrence King’s name is now recorded on 
a continually growing list of members of our 
communities who have been taken from us all too 
soon, people who dared to be themselves and to 
push back the margins of human potential and 
expression. They are my inspiration and my 
heroes. Though their names are too numerous, I will mention just a few others.

         Twenty-one-year-old gay University of 
Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, who on October 
6, 1998, was pistol whipped by two young men, and 
tied to a wooden fence for over eighteen hours in 
near freezing temperature. Matthew Shepard had 
hoped to dedicate his life to advancing the cause 
of human rights for all people. His uncle, R. W. 
Eaton, said that Matt was “a small person with a 
big heart, mind, and soul that someone tried to beat out of him.”

             Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, a male to 
female transsexual, in Newark, California, at a 
party on October 3, 2002, was choked by a male 
party goer. Three assailants continued to 
physically abuse and verbally taunt Gwen for the 
next 5 hours. They bashed her head with a frying 
pan and a can of tomatoes causing a large head 
gash to stream with blood. Another person struck 
her with a barbell, while another crashed her 
head into a plaster wall. Gwen’s body was 
discovered two weeks later. The three suspected 
assailants were arrested for Gwen’s murder. 
Following Gwen's funeral, people marched through 
the streets of Newark ending at a community mall 
attended by local leaders. According to her 
mother, Sylvia Guerrero, “[S]he went through a 
lot of pain, and people didn’t respect h[er]. It 
took a lot of guts. [S]he’s strong, and [s]he finally came out.”

         In Alabama, two men bludgeoned to death 
Billy Jack Gaither ­ a thirty-nine-year-old gay 
man ­ with an ax handle and tossed his limp body onto a pyre of burning tires.

         Brandon Teena, a female-to-male 
transsexual, was gang raped in Nebraska when the 
men found out he had a vagina. Teena reported the 
incident to local police officials who basically 
discounted his story. Soon thereafter, the 
perpetrators entered Teena’s home and murdered 
him along with two of his friends.

         Charlie Howard, a twenty-three-year-old 
gay man, was walking arm in arm with his friend 
Roy Ogden after leaving a meeting of Interweave, 
a support group for lesbians, gay males, 
bisexuals, and transgender persons sponsored by 
the Unitarian Universalists in Bangor, Maine. 
Three teenage males attacked them for being gay. 
While Ogden got away, the three teens surrounded 
Howard, punched and kicked him as he attempted to 
hang on to a rail of a bridge overlooking a 
stream below. One of the teens gave the order to 
throw Howard from the bridge. When Howard heard 
this, he cried out in panic saying he could not 
swim. His plea only enlivened the boys, who 
dislodged Howard’s hands from the railing, and 
with a mighty heave, tossed him into the stream 
some 20 feet below. Howard’s lifeless body was found down stream.

         What was done to Larry, to Matthew, to 
Gwen, to Billy Jack, to Brandon, and to Charlie 
is, unfortunately nothing new and is not limited 
to them. We see hate-motivated violence against 
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people 
and other targeted social groups on the rise, 
though most do not reach a high level of public 
discourse. These are examples of hate-related 
violence in general and so-called “queer bashing” 
specifically. The killers live in a society that 
promotes intolerance, for queer bashing comes in a great many forms.

         For today we still live in a society 
where some people proclaim that we don’t have a 
right to exist, but exist we do, everywhere, in 
all walks of life. The truth is that there is 
currently a cultural war being waged by the 
political and theocratic right, a war to turn 
back all the gains progressive people have made over the years.

         No amount of intimidation, however, will 
ever lock us away again. Lesbians, gay males, 
bisexuals, transgender people, and our loving and 
supportive heterosexual allies are coming out in 
greater numbers than ever before, as witnessed in 
the large outpouring of grief, anger, and love in 
remembrance of Larry. As marginalized people, we 
are pushing the boundaries unwilling any longer 
to accept the repressive status quo. In coalition 
with other disenfranchised groups and allies, we 
are refusing to buckle under and to assimilate 
into system that forces people to relinquish 
their integrity and their humanity.

             One year before the death of another 
of our slain leaders, gay San Francisco City 
Supervisor Harvey Milk recorded a will that was 
to be played in the event of his assassination. 
In it he stated that he never considered himself 
simply as a candidate for public office, but 
rather, always considered himself as part of a 
movement: a liberation movement for lesbian, gay, 
bisexual, and transgender people ­ and a liberation movement for all people.

             Each time Harvey spoke in front of a 
crowd, he urged people to come out everywhere and 
often: “Tell your immediate family,” he would 
say, “tell friends, neighbors, people in the 
stores you shop in, cab drivers, everyone.” And 
he urged heterosexual people to be our allies, to 
interrupt derogatory remarks and jokes, to 
support us and offer aid when needed. If we all 
did this, he said, we could change the world.

             Well, in his brief time with us, 
Lawrence King also changed lives. His caring soul 
transformed the people he met. Though his 
murderer may have succeeded in devastating his 
body, he did not and will never succeed in 
destroying his gentle spirit, or in extinguishing 
the heart of a community and a movement for 
social justice, for Larry’s spirit continues, 
inspiring a people, a nation, a world.

             I truly believe that love WILL 
conquer the hatred. To Larry, to Matthew, to 
Gwen, to Brandon, to Billy Jack, to Charlie, to 
Harvey, and all the others, thank you for the 
riches you have left us. We will continue the 
struggle in your name to make the world a safer 
and more supportive environment for all its 
people. May you find the peace in death that you 
could not always find in life.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Assistant Professor
Multicultural and International Curriculum Studies
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
wblumen at iastate.edu
515.294.5931 office
515.232.8230 home