OlderRemembering Lawrence King
CNN host Anderson Cooper just blogged about a shooting at a junior high school computer lab in California that happened two weeks ago. Consequently, as a result of a hate crime, 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot to death.
Anderson, 40, posed the question, “When does bullying become a hate crime?” Here’s his entry:
“We are focusing on a story that hasn’t received the attention it deserves. The story is about a young man named Lawrence King. He was 15 years old. On the morning of Feb 12, a classmate of Lawrence’s allegedly walked into the computer lab in front of some two dozen other students and shot Lawrence in the head. He was declared brain dead later at the hospital. According to authorities, this was not a random killing, it was a hate crime. Lawrence had recently told people he was gay, and apparently wore clothing that was viewed as effeminate. According to many accounts he had been bullied repeatedly, and some parents have even claimed students knew of threats to Lawrence’s life. At this point it doesn’t seem clear how much school officials knew of the bullying, but a full investigation needs to be done. If this had been an African-American student bullied by a teenage skinhead would it have received more attention? Would school officials have taken it more seriously if it had been a Christian campus leader attacked by another student because of his/her religious beliefs? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I do think they are worth asking. Bullying is a problem in schools across the country. We’ve seen this time and time again. Is enough being done to stop it?”
In response to this hate crime, both Democratic presidential candidates released statements regarding this tragic event:
Said Hillary Clinton, “I was deeply saddened by the recent death of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was killed at his school in Oxnard, CA. No one should face intimidation or violence, particularly at school, because of their sexual orientation or the way they express their gender identity.We must finally enact a federal hate crimes law to ensure that gay, lesbian and transgender Americans are protected against violent, bias-motivated crimes. We must send a unified message that hate-based crime will not be tolerated.”
Barack Obama is on the same page, adding, “It was heartbreaking to learn about Lawrence King’s death, and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. King’s senseless death is a tragic example of the corrosive effect that bigotry and fear can have in our society. It’s also an urgent reminder that we need to do more in our schools to foster tolerance and an acceptance of diversity; that we must enact a federal hate crimes law that protects all LGBT Americans; and that we must recommit ourselves to becoming active and engaged parents, citizens and neighbors, so that bias and bigotry cannot take hold in the first place. We all have a responsibility to help this nation live up to its founding promise of equality for all.”
The L.A. Times also has a write-up of last week’s memorial service for King: “At a memorial attended by more than 500 people in Port Hueneme, Lawrence “Larry” King was remembered Friday as a sensitive child who liked to draw, paint and crochet. One Christmas, he helped his mother crochet hundreds of scarves so that U.S. troops in Afghanistan wouldn’t be without a holiday gift.”
You can also visit the website that King’s family set up: RememberLarry.com.
Angelina Jolie
Brad Pitt
Celebrity Babies
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Aniston
Katie Holmes
Vanessa Hudgens
Us Weekly
96 Comments
I keep coming back to this story, cuz it just breaks my heart…all stories like this do.
I agree with Obama and Hilary, and i hope one of them will lead our country.
As far as the shooter….He needs to be punished to the fullest extent that the law can punish a 15 year …his family should be grilled too. So many unanswered questions this story brings up and out. How did he get a gun ? Why was his hate this strong ? Why would someone’s hate cause this. It’s sick and sad.
And i agree with many other views…Taking someone’s life for ANY reason is horrible…hate crime or not.
My heart goes out to The King family and friends. God Bless You All.
The World needs Peace and Understanding.
I pray it will happen.
My personal point of view is that being gay or a lesbian etc. It’s all about love and being who we want to be. It’s about choice. Why can’t males love males and females love females. If all males loved females and that was that, wouldn’t that make the world a very one minded place, for all males to be with females, having children, or maybe not having children, and living in the way we were told they should. Who tells us these things anyway. Not everyone believes in God, I personally do, but not everyone. Everyone is unique, so why can’t they stay that way, why shouldn’t we as people, not countries, nations or races, but as people, be who we want to be, love who we want to love. This is what we all try to do. Hence why we have love and hate. Some people choose to love and unfortunately, some people choose to hate. I truly believe love conquers all though. I hate labels, why should we be labelled by colour, race, religion, sexual preference. People are missing the bigger picture. We are all human beings, we are all in the same boat in that sense, no matter what we experience in life, who we meet, what we do, how we do it, we are all human beings. Whereas I personally believe there are far more shootings in countries where guns can be brought over a counter, rather than in countries where they can’t. Crimes are committed all over the world. This is a very sad story, but at the end of the day, no one knows the full picture, and why should they, the bottom line, no matter what, is that a human being was murdered, and that isn’t acceptable. It’s not about legallising hate crime laws, hate is all over the world, but love is too. Terrible things happen every second, every minute, every hour, every day. We will never know about them all but they happen. This is just a very sad story and I feel for the victims family and friends, and for the people who saw it happen. I am not in anyway pushing this under the carpet, I think it should be a wake up call, but when I think about that, a wake up call to what. Some people will start doing something about crime, because of this, others won’t, but at the end of the day, crime is all over the world and It’s a very sad world we live in. When you truly think about it, how can we stop crime,we can’t, not all crime, we can lock people up, in some countries, execute people, but other crime will still occur, it’s sadly the way it is. I wish it wasn’t. I mean look at the history of the world, lots of war and crime happened, but a lot of other amazing things too. I don’t understand why colour, race, religion or sexual preference should come into it. As I said before, we are all human. We should be able to love who we love, whether gay or straight. Who wrote the rules, think about that. I am a religious person, but not all of us are. We all have our own belief system, not everyone is going to accept people being gay, straight, a certain colour or religion or that we come from a certain country, that is just how it is. There is no point pushing our beliefs on others, or complaining to people or swearing at others because they don’t agree with us. Sure, from a personal point of view, I thought what April said, was a bit harsh because nothing is being pushed on anyone. Everyone chooses who they want to be in life, we are maybe influenced by things, but we all have our own minds and I don’t think it’s fair to blame the way we think or feel on other people. For instance, I have seen those ‘Saw’ movies, but it doesn’t mean I am going to go out and toture people. Sadly some people will think differently to me. But again, that is my personal belief system. I just don’t feel we should be pushing our way of thinking onto April, and causing rifts on here. One of my best friends is gay, but why should I label him like that, he is just a best friend, why should it matter what his sexual preference is, just like it shouldn’t matter I am straight. We tend to label gay people as gay people, so why are we just known as people if we are straight. My best mate is just that, my best mate, and if he is gay so what, he is happy to be and he is an amazing person, so I believe he should be happy, and if being gay makes him happy so what. He is different to me with regards to he is gay and me straight, and he maybe male and me female, but he is a person, who loves, laughs, cries, grows, works, learns etc. We may not know eachother, but we are all related to one another in the sense that we are all HUMAN.
This is MY personal point of view, not everyone will agree with me, we are all entitled to our own opinion. I just don’t feel we should cause rifts because someone doesn’t agree with us. But again people feel they should do so and start swearing at others. See. Nothing we can do about the way people think. Its the way life is. No law will stop that.
R.I.P Larry, hope you’re in a better place now ***
At the end of the day, the bottom line here is that someone was murdered. May he rest in peace.
I also feel that it’s not about getting a hate crime law it is about making the purchase of guns illegal. There are far less shootings in countries where the purchase of guns is illegal. However saying this, there are also vicious crimes in those same countries. Therefore, crime is all around us, simply because, people choose to committ it, for whatever reason, it’s a choice that people make, and no law can stop a person from thinking how they want to think, doing something they want to do and feeling something they want to feel.
I want to start off by saying that a lot of people claim to be a Christian, but don’t see anything wrong with homosexuality. God sees something wrong with it. Why shouldn’t every person that claims to be a Christian see something wrong with it? Aren’t Christians suppose to see the same thing that God sees?
God also sees something wrong Bestiality (sex between human and animal) and incest (sex between kinfolks).
How many people who claims to be a Christian, who believes that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, believe the same way about bestiality and incest?
Many homosexual will tell you that they born that way. Guess, who else are claiming the same thing. Pedophiles! Which group of people are lying and why? Lets not forget that there are many homosexual pedophiles in this world.
No one is born a homosexual. According to God’s truth, everyone is born a heterosexual. God created woman for man. I am not trying to be nasty, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but there is a reason why God created male with a certain sex organ and female with a certain sex organ. If God wanted two males to be together and two females to be together, he would have created their sex organs to fit.
Now, what happen to Lawrence is sad and wrong and yes, the young boy that killed him should go to jail. He committed murder. Now, is the crime a hate crime? Many people believe it is. Then again, it doesn’t mean it is.
According to what Ellen Degeneres discussed on her show about Lawrence. Lawrence asked his killer to be his valentine. I found that to be disrespectful and especially, if Lawrence knew that the guy was straight.
Many homosexuals are bold to come on to straight people. A lesbian came on to one of my cousins. But, my cousin put her in her place in a nice way.
Lawrence’s killer should have told a teacher that Lawrence asked him to be his valentine, instead of killing Lawrence.
#94: While I’m sure Christians would appreciate your point of view, not everyone is a Christian, myself included, and thus don’t agree or appreciate your point of view. I believe homosexuals are born that way, the same as I believe pedophiles are born that way. Theres lots of research to indicate differences of brain structure and chemical imbalances in homosexual people. The same for pedophiles. However, there is a main difference between homosexuality and pedophilia in that pedophiles are clearly harming another person. So I don’t think its right of you to compare homosexuals and pedophiles.
I also don’t see the big deal with Lawrence asking the other kid to be his valentine. Yes, it probably made the other kid feel very awkward as he’s not gay and thus Lawrence probably shouldn’t have done it if he knew the other kid wasn’t gay. But being asked out by someone your not attracted to isn’t new. It happened to me last night in the bar which made me feel awkward but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be mad and make a scene. I don’t see how this situation is any different, really. Just because some people are uncomfortable with homosexuality, doesn’t make it wrong.
Everyone should watch this video of what Ellen had to say on her show. She makes really good points, not just in reference to being gay but to our society in general. It applies to so many things.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kyvZIz6dRvM
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] Show All
Share This Post:
Comment and Share!