Journalism v. advocacy

It was three years ago that 14 year old Brandon McInerney shot 15 year old Lawrence King. McInerney's trial is only now getting started. King was gay and bullied (by more than McInerney) and finally began to stand up for himself by flirting with McInerney. McInerney didn't handle that well and brought a gun to school.

We expected the defenders would smear King as a sexual aggressor (and they have), using the "gay panic" defense. But it is annoying when supposedly responsible journalists, such as when Ramen Setoodeh of Newsweek did it a few months after the shooting and Catherine Saillant of the LA Times does it now. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin pulls apart Saillant's article to show how it isn't unbiased journalism, but is advocating for the defense.

Deputized gender police

I've written about blogger Terrence Heath a few times. One of the things he's done is written a series of articles he calls The LGBT Hate Crimes Project. Terrence knew he needed to write about Larry King, but the prospect scared him, even as the one year anniversary of King's death passed by. It took him a while to realize why -- his experiences in middle school were way too close of those that ended in King's death.

Terrence, like Larry, came out in middle school. In Terrence's case, he said it was because it was so obvious there was no reason not to. He was getting bullied anyway. His teachers looked the other way. His parents suggested he read Leviticus. His only way to fight back -- having no place to hide and not being a star in sports -- was to flirt with his tormenters. Throwing gas on the fire? Perhaps, but the only alternative was to simply take it.

A big part of the problem is the long schoolyard tradition of policing gender. Kids are naturally conservative -- they learn how the world is supposed to be and work hard to make things fit. Dan Savage wrote about that problem in The Commitment (highly recommended) when he talked to his 6-year-old son about marrying his partner. The boy insisted men only marry women. This policing is strong, pushing many boys away from anything that might put their manhood in question. Alas, these gender police have so much power because adults give it to them. Kids are bullied for all kinds of reasons (like the size of your front teeth). But as gays gain influence these bullies know they've been deputized. They know the adults around them want gay kids to be bullied to make sure the gays stay invisible. The bullies certainly won't be punished for their crimes, and are sometimes even encouraged with a wink and nod. How many coaches terrorize their boys by saying a girl could do better? But even with anti-bullying laws gay kids know the adult and the law may not help. There will be a time when it is just the gay kid and the bully.

Another way these bullies know they've been deputized is that after such incidents as Larry King's murder, a large number, even a large percentage, of stories are about how the gay kid could have escaped bullying by toning it down. Terrence uses this example: being a gay kid and having to "tone it down" is like putting on shoes a size and a half too small and never being allowed to take them off, in spite of the pain.

Expressive v. Disruptive

More about Larry King and that Newsweek article which I wrote about before:

John Corvino, who teaches philosophy, says that King's actions did contribute to his death, something the Newsweek article discussed at length, but that is quite a bit different from blaming the victim. That doesn't mean the Newsweek article was balanced. It implied that if King's actions had been reined in he wouldn't have been murdered, but it doesn't talk about harassment of King by other students (including his killer) which was also not reined in. Other contributing factors were discomfort of the faculty in discussing LGBT issues (which the Los Angeles School District, 50 miles away, manages to do quite well), and getting caught between false choices of encouraging expressive behavior or preventing disruptive behavior.

The letters column in Newsweek for last week (alas, no link) was entirely about their article about King. Writers made these points:

* The schools turned down offers of sensitivity training offered by the local chapter of PFLAG.

* The article said King had "'flaunted his sexuality like a weapon.' Knives and guns are weapons; lipstick and women's shoes are not. Larry was taunted daily so he taunted back."

* The school system failed to create curriculum and expectations of staff and students that promoted diversity and respect and that violence is not the answer.

Dealing with coming out young

This week's Newsweek has as its cover story, "Young, Gay and Murdered" about last February's death of 15 year old Lawrence King. It may seem like old news, but it took Newsweek a while to talk to parents, friends, students, teachers, and administrators. The last didn't talk much on the advice of their lawyers though their view will be presented during the trial of Brandon, the kid who pulled the trigger.

The story is about the conflict between gay kids (actually, all sexual minority kids -- Larry also had a strong transgender component) who are coming out at younger ages (average about 13, Larry did it at 10) and fellow students (and society at large) who don't yet know how to deal with it. Larry was quite the queen and seemed to be seeking attention (the story goes into his background, explaining why this might be true). He was doing this in a society (middle school) in which most boys are trying to prove how masculine they are and anything gay is a threat to that.

Here are some thoughts about what went wrong and how we might go about preventing another such murder. Some of these are from the story (Newsweek, regretfully, offers very little on how to change the situation), and some of them are mine.

We have a "shrinking closet" factor. How do we balance a kid's self-expression with inappropriate behavior? What about the balance between pushing boundaries and safety? Kids seem to be playing grown-up without knowing what that means. What's the line between expression and being in-your-face about it?

Larry loved to taunt boys to see them squirm, playing into their homophobic buttons. Brandon felt terrorized when Larry professed his love, which subjected Brandon to ridicule from his peers who took it as a sign that Brandon was gay too. In a sense, Larry was being the bully and that bit of self-expression wasn't nipped in the bud. But Larry had little guidance on how that behavior was unacceptable and, without a gay club at the school, had no way to identify which boys were gay and might welcome his attentions.

On the other side Brandon did not know how diffuse the situation, to decline Larry's attentions firmly without getting upset over the comments. This has to be coupled with efforts to make the situation less explosive, so that Brandon's friends wouldn't threaten him with a loss of masculinity over Larry's advances.

Many schools, especially middle schools, are simply not equipped to handle kid's questions on sexuality. This was an issue of middle school society gone wrong, yet the school didn't have enough social workers.

One of the assistant principals, a lesbian, was good at helping Larry with self-expression, but not so much about cautioning him about consequences (though that is an especially difficult task with a middle-school student).

I'm somewhat charitable about the article. Others were not. Here are other voices (and I refrained from reading them until I had written the above). I am specifically leaving out the comments on the Newsweek site, which (at least in this case) seems to have attracted quite a few slugs out from under their rocks.

This reaction is that the article is important and needed. But the first problem is that it seems the lesbian assistant principal gets too much blame -- let's find a gay to blame. The second is that by saying Larry should have been less in-your-face they are blaming the victim. If only the administrators could have straightened him up, this wouldn't have happened. One commenter suggests the lack of training in sexual issues is because of the Religious Right.

This second response sees the article as a hit-piece on Larry, a case of blaming the victim. Throughout Larry is portrayed using unfavorable terms, while Brandon is merely described as "smart" and "had his share of troubles." It is Larry who is the source of the trouble, "stalking" Brandon. The author even found a lawyer ready with the "gay panic" defense. Also implicated is the lesbian assistant principal with a "political agenda." Perhaps it is the case that Larry's acting out was self-defense, a response to the harassment he was already getting? That wasn't mentioned. Neither was that Brandon had lots of other options other than pulling a gun. There is evidence the author was biased (though I didn't follow the links to see the nature of the supposed bias). Outside of the author's control is a very public defense lawyer trying to spin the blame on the school, administration, and the victim, while the prosecution lawyer refuses to try the case in the papers. All of this means I'm contributing to the hit in what I wrote above.

Another, more recent comment, is that Brandon is the scapegoat. This week the court said that Brandon should be tried as an adult instead of a juvenile. This opinion says that in terms of justice it does no good, ruining Brandon's life. It also takes the blame off the churches who stirred up the homophobia that Brandon picked up and acted on and who have been silent on Larry's death since then (though they have defeated other anti-bullying laws in that time). Yes, Brendan should be tried and spend time in jail for his crime, but as an juvenile, not an adult.