"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."



Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854—1900) [Wikipedia]

At the height of his fame and success, whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde sued his lover's father for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency with other men and imprisoned for two years, held to hard labour. In prison he wrote De Profundis, a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six.

[Continued here]

• "Dorian Gray" as Wilde actually wrote it [Salon, May 1, 2011]

More than a century after its publication, Oscar Wilde's novella "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is recognized as one of the classics of English literature, a masterpiece of fin-de-siècle aestheticism and in many respects a harbinger of the modernist movement. Its current iconic status could not have been foreseen in 1890 when the story first appeared -- simultaneously in Britain and the United States -- in the pages of Lippincott's Magazine. This review from London's Daily Chronicle voiced the outrage of many:

        Dulness and dirt are the chief features of Lippincott's this month: The element that is unclean, though undeniably amusing, is furnished by Mr. Oscar Wilde's story of "The Picture of Dorian Gray." It is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents -- a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction -- a gloating study of the mental and physical corruption of a fresh, fair and golden youth, which might be fascinating but for its effeminate frivolity, its studied insincerity, its theatrical cynicism, its tawdry mysticism, its flippant philosophizings.... Mr. Wilde says the book has "a moral." The "moral," so far as we can collect it, is that man's chief end is to develop his nature to the fullest by "always searching for new sensations," that when the soul gets sick the way to cure it is to deny the senses nothing.

------------8<------------

Prosecutor: What is "the love that dare not speak its name?"

Oscar Wilde: "The love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as "the love that dare not speak its name," and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.

------------8<------------

• Restored tomb of Oscar Wilde unveiled in Paris [RTE News, November 30, 2011]

The tomb [at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris], designed by modernist sculptor Jacob Epstein with a flying Assyrian-style angel, survived almost unscathed until 1985, except for the angel's prominent genitals being hacked off.

The expense of cleaning operations to deal with increasing graffiti on the tomb led the descendants of Wilde and of his friend Robert Ross to try, successfully, to get it listed as a historic monument.

(Click on image to enlarge)

1978 murder cold case of gay man [Tony Adams] reopened (d. 1978)
[QSaltLake, August 24, 2011]

The murder investigation of a young, black, gay man in 1978 has been reopened for investigation, Salt Lake City police officials confirmed.

Tony Adams was the campaign manager for the Socialist Party in Utah and a gay-rights activist when he was stabbed to death in his Salt Lake City apartment. His murder was never solved and was just one of several violent murders of outspoken gay people in Utah during a short period of time.

Police are not yet releasing any information about why the case has been reopened.

Adams was discovered three days after his murder on Nov. 6, 1978. Adams was 25 years old when he was found in his apartment with multiple stab wounds and his throat slit. The coroner later determined the cause of death was three stab wounds to his chest, and his throat was slit after he died. Members of the Socialist Party contended that the murder was politically motivated, due to the violent nature of the crime and because there was no evidence of anything being taken from his apartment. The murder occurred just days before the election of 1978.

Adams was well-known in the queer community in Utah and he helped organize a protest against Anita Bryant's appearance at the Utah State Fair in 1977. Police never made any arrests in the case and were criticized by community members for not taking the case seriously.

Community leaders were not satisfied with the investigation and said they had knowledge from a closeted officer that some in the police force joked about Adams' death, saying, "Nigger, queer, communist - three strikes, you're out."

[Continued here]

• The Murder of Tony Adams [QSaltLake, November 7, 2009]

November is a dark month in which deadly deeds have been done. Murder. Homosexual homicide.

Between 1969 and 1978 Gay Liberation came to Salt Lake City with the formation of gay churches, openly gay bars, and a gay student club. In 1974, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a clinical mental illness. At its giddy peak in 1977, Salt Lake City's gay organizations protested Anita Bryant's appearance at the Utah State Fair, forced the state not to hold church sponsored dances in the capitol's rotunda, forced the Hotel Utah to pay a settlement for breaking a contract, and helped more and more people to come out of the closet.

Despite all of this, in the following year an event occurred that nearly sent the gay community back into the closet.

In 1978 a series of murders of men in Utah's gay community took place. Most of the men were closet cases and murdered in compromising situations. But when a gay activist was murdered on Nov. 3, 1978, shock waves of fear rippled throughout the community.

Anthony "Tony" Adams was a gay African-American socialist. Rev. Bob Waldrop, then pastor of the Salt Lake Metropolitan Community Church, called him "a true freedom fighter." Born July 30, 1953 in Baltimore, Maryland, Adams was raised in Salt Lake City and graduated from Judge Memorial High School. He was attending the University of Utah at the time of his death.

• Lambda Lore: Hate Crimes in Utah, Part Two [QSaltLake, April, 2005]


Tony Adams

On November 3, 1978, Tony Adams, a 25 year-old gay black Socialist, was stabbed to death in his Salt Lake City Avenues apartment. As news of his death spread throughout the burgeoning gay community, fear swept over the city as rumors surfaced of a serial killer targeting gays, as well as rumors that the murder had official police sanction or duplicity.

Adams, a Maryland native, was reared in Salt Lake City. He graduated from Judge Memorial High School and at the time of his death was attending classes at the University of Utah. In 1978 Adams was also the campaign manager for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Congressional candidate, Bill Hoyle. Adams was murdered just days before the national elections.

Concerned that no one had heard from him for several days, Adams' boyfriend, Bill Woodbury, and his pastor, Bob Waldrop, went to Adams' apartment. After climbing through a window, Woodbury discovered Adams in the bedroom, naked and covered with blood. Adams had been stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife and his throat slashed.

After news of another killing of a gay man on November 30 near the Sun Tavern, gay community leaders and a Socialist Worker's Party official from New York met with Salt Lake City's police chief. The activists demanded that police provide more vigorous protection for gays in a "general atmosphere of violence against gay people."

Rev. Waldrop told city officials that he himself had been the recipient of 22 death threats in the past two years, and said rumors that police were looking the other way when it came to violent acts against homosexuals were sweeping the gay community. Waldrop claimed that he had inside knowledge from a "closeted police officer" that some officers had joked about Adams' death, saying "Nigger, queer, Communist: three strikes and you're out." The SWP told the police chief that the investigation of Adams' death should even be approached as an "assassination of an outspoken political leader."

The meeting ended unsatisfactorily with Rev. Waldrop warning the police that panic was sweeping the gay community, worried that there might be "an L.A. slasher type out there" who was systematically murdering homosexuals. Four people with ties to the gay community had recently been murdered in the Salt Lake area. The Socialist Workers Party was so dissatisfied with the Salt Lake City police department's handling of Adams' murder case that they charged that the police had been "lax and ineffectual." On December 30, the SWP went to the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division requesting that the FBI investigate the death of Tony Adams. Salt Lake City's police chief denied that the police were ignoring the murder, but to this day Adams' murder and that of the other gay men of 1978 are unsolved.


Gordon Church

On November 23, 1988, Gordon Church, a 28-year-old a drama student at Southern Utah University, was brutally murdered by Michael Archuleta, 25, and Lance Wood, 19. The murder was one of the most sadistic murders in the history of the state, gay or straight, but only a few people are aware of the torture killing because a judge placed a gag order over the case to shelter a prominent Mormon family in Delta from public humiliation that their son was gay.

Archuleta and Wood, recently paroled from prison, encountered Gordon Church at a convenience store while out cruising in Cedar City. Handsomely attractive, Wood was able to talk Church into giving Archuleta and him a ride. After "cruising" for a while, Church drove the men up Cedar Canyon and pulled onto a dirt road. Church parked his car and there Archuleta asked Church if he was gay. He said he was. According to Archuleta, "That's when everything started to happen."

Archuleta had sex with Church but when he made advances towards Wood, Archuleta claimed Wood slashed Church's throat with a knife. Wood, however, maintained that it was Archuleta who slashed Church's throat as a show of machismo after having sex with him.

After being attacked, Church jumped out of the car and ran away, but Wood tackled him, breaking his arm. Wood then grabbed Church by the hair and slashed his neck again with his hunting knife. The pair then tied Gordon up with tire chains and threw him in the trunk. The convicts drove 70 miles to a secluded location north of Cove Fort known as Dog Valley. Archuleta admitted that once he and Wood pulled Church from the car trunk "evil had completely overtaken him, and once they started he couldn't stop."

The men began torturing the wounded semi-nude Church. They attached jumper cables to the car battery and then to Church's testicles just to hear him scream. Archuleta admitted hooking the cables to the battery but accused Wood of attaching the cables to Church's genitals.

Wood then twisted Church's neck, and he fell to the ground. Wood began kicking Church in the head so ferociously that Church's hair was entangled in Wood's shoelaces. Tiring of that, Wood then got the tire jack and began clubbing the dying boy with it. Archuleta claimed that Wood "had his foot on Church's face and was swinging the jack like a golf club . or like a mallet when you play croquet." After striking several times, one of the pair (they both accused the other), took the sharp end of the jack and sodomized Church in the rectum, puncturing his liver. The murderers dragged Church's body off the dirt road and covered him with dirt and tree limbs.

Allen R. Schindler, Jr. (1969—1992) [Wikipedia]

Allen R. Schindler, Jr. ... was an American Radioman Petty Officer Third Class in the United States Navy who was murdered for being gay. He was killed in a public toilet in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan by shipmate Terry M. Helvey, who acted with the aid of an accomplice, Charles Vins, in what Esquire called a "brutal murder". The case became synonymous with the gays in the military debate that had been brewing in the United States culminating in the "Don't ask, don't tell" bill.

[Continued here]

• Homosexual Sailor Beaten to Death, Navy Confirms : Crime: Gay-bashing may be motive, activists and family members say. They charge cover-up by military. [Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1993]

Confronted with charges of a cover-up, Navy officials have confirmed that a sailor about to be discharged because he was homosexual was beaten to death more than two months ago by a shipmate.

Navy officials in Japan said that Seaman Allen R. Schindler, 22, may have been a victim of gay-bashing, allegedly killed by a fellow sailor assigned to the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship with a home port in Japan.

Lt. Kenneth Ross, Navy spokesman in Hawaii, refused to discuss what provoked the killing except to say that gay-bashing "is also being looked at as a possible motive." For now, Navy prosecutors are viewing the case as a murder, he said.

At the time of his death, Schindler, a radioman, was being processed for an administrative discharge because he was an acknowledged homosexual, Ross said. Family members said that Schindler, a four-year Navy veteran and native of Chicago Heights, Ill., joined the Navy despite its no-homosexuals policy because of a desire to serve his country.

• Navy Plans Murder Charge in Death of Gay Sailor [New York Times, February 4, 1993]

In a criminal case that is being followed closely in the debate over whether homosexuals should be allowed in the military, the Navy announced today that it had decided to charge a sailor with murder in the killing of a gay sailor last fall at a United States naval base in Japan.

The Navy made no comment on possible motives, but some have contended that the slaying was a case of gay-bashing because the victim was about to be discharged after telling his commander that he was homosexual.

The Navy command here said Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 20, would be charged with murder in the death last Oct. 25 of Allen R. Schindler, a radioman who had been serving with Airman Helvey on the helicopter assault carrier Belleau Wood. The command said the airman would face a general court-martial.

• U.S. Sailor Sentenced to Life Imprisonment in Murder [tech.mit.edu, May 28, 1993]

A sailor who killed a gay shipmate was sentenced Thursday to life imprisonment after tearfully apologizing to the victim's mother and insisting he did not brutally beat her son to death because he was homosexual.

A jury of eight Navy and Marine officers imposed the sentence on Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 21, after deliberating only three hours.

Helvey showed no emotion as sentence was passed. The victim's mother, Dorothy Hajdys, said simply: "Thank you."

• Say Seaboy, You Sissy Boy? [nytheatre.com, July 31, 2008]

The story is principally about Allen Schindler, an American navy officer who was killed in a public bathroom in Japan in 1992 by two of his shipmates, who beat him to death because he was gay. Schindler was 22. Mellman relates, in quick snatches of song and text, Schindler's saga, from a kid in Chicago dealing with troubled parents to a young navy man shunned by apparently everyone else on his ship. He quotes the actual testimony of the young men who killed Schindler at the climax of the show; this material is so powerful that focus temporarily shifts from the play's gay protagonist to a consideration of the deep, terrible rage that must have been festering inside Schindler's attackers and where such anger comes from.

• With 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Gone, Gay Sailor's Mother Can Rest [Chicago Heights Patch, September 22, 2011]

A small American flag with the words "God Bless America" is taped to the front window Dorothy Hajdys-Clausen's home. In November of 1992 that American flag was presented to Dorothy at the gravesite of her son Allen Schindler Jr.

Schindler was murdered Oct. 27, 1992 in Japan. His murder was classified as a hate crime many years later. The reason, because he was gay and could no longer conceal that while serving in the U.S. Navy.

Sept. 20, was the day Dorothy fought for and called politicians over. She's been praying to God for a change, to let gays and lesbians not be afraid because of who they are.

"I'm so happy 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' got repealed." Dorothy said. "I just hope now there will be no more deaths like Allen Schindler's."

Junior, the Kid, the Fight (1938— )
[New York Times, March 31, 2012 ]

Fifty years later. If you are Lucy Paret, though, the impoverished widow of Benny, a two-time welterweight champion of the world, you're hardly calling this an anniversary. Fifty years ago, you decided to stay home in your Bronx apartment building the night your 25-year-old husband was pummeled to death - March 24, 1962 - by the challenger Emile Griffith, a former champion, on live television, an ABC "Friday Night Fights" special.

It's been a hard life. One child, the one with whom you were pregnant that night, sits in a Florida Panhandle state penitentiary, more than likely for the rest of his days. The other, Benny Jr., 52, handsome and personable, is beginning to find himself. The boxer's pension? Never happened. Life insurance? Ten grand come and gone. Sitting in your cramped Miami studio apartment - bed, bath, closet, kitchen, coffee cup - retired after years as a cashier in the strip mall, once a lovely, sexy, proud dancer, you approach every March with dread. Fifty years since the neighbor ran to her door, knocked and said, "Senora, senora, algo malo ha ocurrido." ("Something bad has happened.") Benny was hurt, clobbered, taken from the Madison Square Garden ring by stretcher.

Fifty years since the referee, Ruby Goldstein, having just been lionized on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for stopping a bout before a fighter got "really hurt," choked. That night, he watched, too, as did millions of Americans - in the lower left-hand corner of the television screen, the black-and-white blows that never stopped as Griffith crushed Benny. Even the gangsters, the jocks and the movie stars at ringside were thinking this might have gone too far. The smelling salts failed, too. ...

Emile became a Golden Gloves legend. He climbed the professional ranks quickly. The myths and narratives created a clean biography: he was a hat designer, creative, and he loved blonde Scandinavian beauties. Two facts were straight, though. He was a vicious counterpuncher, and after each victory, he honored Mommy's dream by moving up one of his siblings. Soon, he bought a house in the Hollis section of Queens, for the entire clan.

Clancy kept his prodigy away from the gangsters Blinky Palermo and Frankie Carbo, who had "owned" a bunch of previous champions, including Don Jordan, the welterweight king Paret first beat in 1960 to become the world champion. Soon after, however, Emile took the crown from Benny, who then won it back, setting up the rubber match on March 24, 1962.

Emile's escape became the gay bars around Times Square, private places of peace, affection and sex.

[Continued here]

Prominent gay activist killed in Halifax assault (1963—2012)
[Globe & Mail, April 17, 2012]

A prominent member of Halifax's gay community is believed to have been trying to break up a fight when he was beaten to death early Tuesday morning, police said.

Raymond Taavel, 49, who had edited the local LGBT magazine and volunteered with numerous groups, including Halifax Pride Week, was killed outside Menz & Mollyz, a gay bar on Gottingen Street in the city's north end.

A psychiatric patient on a day pass has been arrested. Andre Noel Denny, 32, is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of second-degree murder.

A passerby found Mr. Taavel lying on the sidewalk, bleeding, and called police at 2:39 a.m. When officers arrived, a witness pointed them in the direction of a suspect who had run away. A K-9 unit tracked him to a nearby alley and arrested him.

[Continued here]

• Man faces murder charge over death of gay activist [CBC, April 17, 2012]

Two witnesses have told police the attacker used homophobic slurs during the beating and one eyewitness told CBC News that he repeatedly slammed Taavel's head into the street where the victim was found by police and later pronounced dead by paramedics.

A witness, who only wants to be identified as James, told CBC News that he saw a large man attack two smaller men, who appeared to be friends. One victim fled and the attacker then slammed the other man's head into the street.

Michael Musto: Whitney Houston's Lesbianism: Let's Discuss (1963—2012)
[The Village Voice, February 13, 2012]

Not surprisingly, the one thing that's being left out of the vast majority of Whitney Houston obits is the L word!

I got so caught up in writing about the way her musical legacy got besmirched by her icky behavior that I even left it out of my own blog on Saturday night!

But it's hardly a dirty word, so let's go there, the way we did for years and years while she was alive and shining.

When Whitney started out, I hear, it was an open secret in the business that she and [Robyn Crawford] were girlfriends.

Insiders knew it, heard it, assumed it, and/or took it for granted.

[Continued here]

• Whitney Houston obituary [The Guardian, February 12, 2012]

Her death at the age of 48 will send her albums back into the charts, and introduce her music to a generation who knew her only as a troubled character whose commercial success peaked in the 1990s. Though never edgy as a musician - her skills were often wasted on bland adult-contemporary songs - she was more than just a purveyor of anodyne chart hits. Houston was lauded by other vocalists for her impeccable technique and polish, qualities that elevated her above almost every other star of her era.

• Whitney Houston, Pop Superstar, Dies at 48 [New York Times, February 12, 2012]
• Family Told She Died from Rx NOT Drowning [TMZ, February 13, 2012]

Whitney Houston's family was told by L.A. County Coroner officials ... the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of Xanax and other prescription drugs mixed with alcohol ... this according to family sources.

• Whitney Houston was 'at her happiest in lesbian relationship', Peter Tatchell claims [Pink News, February 13, 2012]

Mr Tatchell wrote: "Whitney Houston RIP. She was happiest and at her peak in the 1980s, when she was with her female partner. They were so loved up and joyful together.

"It's important to tell the truth about this aspect of her life. Colluding with the cover-up of her same-sex relationship is not right."

• Nancy Grace Speculates Whitney Houston Was Murdered [International Business Times, February 16, 2012]

"I'd like to know who was around her, who, if anyone gave her drugs, following alcohol and drugs, and who let her slip, or pushed her, underneath that water?" Grace said Tuesday on CNN, HLN's sister network . "Apparently no signs of force or trauma to the body. Who let Whitney Houston go under her water?"

• Michael Musto: So Much "God" Talk At Whitney's Memorial! [The Village Voice, February 18, 2012]
• Whitney Houston's Adopted Son Nicholas Gordon 'Devastated' Over Her Death [Hollywood Life, February 22, 2012]

HollywoodLife.com has spoken to sources close to Nicholas who tell us that he was a pallbearer at Whitney's funeral on Feb. 18 and that he's back in Atlanta with Whitney's daughter Bobbi Kristina.

Jamiel Terry talks about why he came out in print and growing up the gay son of Operation
Rescue founder Randall Terry (1980—2011) [BeliefNet, April, 2004]

Longtime anti-abortion activist Randall Terry in recent years has campaigned against gay marriage and "homosexual perversions." So it was of some embarrassment to him when his son Jamiel wrote an article in the current issue of Out magazine revealing that he is gay. Terry responded by writing an op-ed, sharply criticizing his son and saying, "He is no longer welcome in my home."

BN: Why did you feel you had to write it?

JT: I felt it would be freeing for me. Most of our family friends had no idea that I was gay, and most of my mother's side of the family didn't know. For my own journey, I felt I needed to come out. My dad talks about the money. Originally, I was going to do an interview, which I would not have been paid for. When it changed to a freelance situation, they paid the normal fee.

[Continued here]

• Family Values [Washington Post, April 22, 2004]
• Randall Terry Learns Anti-Family Lesson From Ex-Gay Role Models [Ex-Gay Watch, April 13, 2004]
• Born-again - But Kids Aren't [New York Daily News, April 15, 2004]
• Jamiel Terry, Son of Pro-life Leader Randall Terry, Killed in Car Crash [Christian News Wire, December 1, 2011]

Teen jailed for killing man [Jason Dow] who answered online ad (1981—2011)
[CBC, December 2, 2011]

A Saint John teenager has been sentenced to two years behind bars for manslaughter in the stabbing death of a man who responded last March to his online classified ad in which the teen offered to do odd jobs.

The 17-year-old previously pleaded guilty in the death of Jason Dow, 29, who was found unresponsive outside a home on Barker Street, in the city's north end, shortly after midnight on March 11. ...

Dow hired the teen to model for photographs at his apartment, said Crown prosecutor Lucie Mathurin. He paid the youth $300 up front, and gave him a cheque for $850, plus a 12-pack of beer, she said.

The teen consumed about nine beers and posed in various stages of undress. The photos suggested a certain intimacy had taken place, said Mathurin, noting that some of the numerous images on Dow's camera of other teens masturbating and having intercourse would have been in violation of the Criminal Code.

Then, around midnight, the teen got angry, she said. He texted a friend, saying he was going to kill Dow, grabbed a kitchen knife and chased him down the street.

The teen stabbed Dow five times, hit him in the head and left him for dead in a pool of blood, said Mathurin. ...

In a victim impact statement, read aloud in court, Dow's mother, Marina Dow, said there were no words to explain how she felt about her loss. When Dow died, a part of her died too, she said. ...

The teen, who has an alcohol problem and learning disabilities, also addressed the court.

"I'm so sorry," he told Dow's family. "It's not who I am.

"I wish I could take all your pain away," he said. "I'll never be the same." ...

Justice Hugh McLellan agreed it was a serious case because the teen had signalled his intent to kill the victim in a text message, but the judge also took into account that the teen had turned himself in and had expressed remorse.

[Continued here]

Alfredo's Fire [Open Eye Pictures]

On January 13, 1998 Alfredo Ormando, a 39-year old Italian writer, arrived in Rome just as the sun was rising. After his long journey from Sicily, he found his way to the empty piazza of the Vatican and, facing the entrance to the Basilica, knelt down as if to pray. He made a rapid hand gesture and suddenly was engulfed in flames. Before the Church and, he hoped, the world, Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire:

        "I hope they'll understand the message I want to leave: it is a form of protest against the Church that demonizes homosexualityòand at the same time all of nature, because homosexuality is a child of Mother Nature."

In 2000, the year of the Jubilee, Pope John-Paul II exhorted his followers in the same spot where Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire two years prior, telling them that homosexuality was "unnatural," and that the Church had a "duty to distinguish between good and evil."

In 2005, the new Pope Benedict committed himself to even harsher anti-gay teachings, initiating what some see as a gay witchhunt within the Catholic clergy, fighting same-sex partnership legislation worldover, and sending the message that homosexuals have no place in God's kingdom.

A one-hour documentary, ALFREDO'S FIRE brings to life the man behind the flames and the issues his fire illuminates. The film exposes tensions between faith and homosexualityò conformity and individualityòand shows the deadly consequences of religious intolerance.

ALFREDO'S FIRE takes on an issue often lost in the gay and lesbian liberation struggle: the relationship between anti-gay discrimination and religious intoleranceòand, ironically, the importance of spiritual expression. A questionable martyr, with the light of a match Alfredo connected a history of persecution and self-annihilation to a hope for communion. The fire that consumed Alfredo is the same that illuminated him, allowing him to be seen in a society that would rather not see. It was a fire, Alfredo believed, that would join him with a God in whose image he could never be seen while alive.

[Continued here]

Billy Jack Gaither's Life and Death [New York Times, March 9, 1999]

Only 40 miles from the freedom and anonymity of Birmingham, Billy Jack Gaither chose to stay in Sylacauga, Ala., population 13,000 souls, none of them openly gay. He worked in a nearby factory and lived at home with his parents, caring for them. In his bedroom Mr. Gaither hung a picture of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in ''Gone With the Wind'' -- the classic image for Southerners of life lost that might have been. In the living room, where he never troubled his devoutly Baptist parents with the truth about his homosexuality, he hung renderings of Jesus and the Ten Commandments. One of them seems especially his: ''Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.''

It didn't work. Three weeks ago Billy Jack Gaither was beaten to death with an ax handle and burned like rubbish on a pile of old tires. The sheriff's office says two men have confessed to doing it because they knew that Mr. Gaither was gay. One has suggested he propositioned them.

Maybe so. Maybe not. The adult response to an unwanted invitation is ''No, thanks.'' Or just ''No.'' But there are other lessons to take from Billy Jack Gaither's selfless life and monstrous death. He apparently kept the core of himself from his family and straight friends and co-workers because he thought it would offend them. That has always been the code of the South. But secrets confer guilt on those who keep them -- they make bigots think those people have cause for shame, and shame lures bigots to attack.

Governments need to say, because citizens need to know, that it is illegal to discriminate against people just because of who they are. The state of Alabama should include sexual orientation in its hate-crime law. It is the right thing to do.

[Continued here]

• Billy Jack Gaither index [New York Times]
• The Church and Anti-gay Violence [Affirmation, March 15, 1999]

Ironically, those who call for a literal interpretation and strict adherence to some Biblical passages seem less troubled by violent language and acts than by the possibility of loving relationships between people of the same gender. The fury of right wing United Methodists is now at the February issue of Response magazine (published by United Methodist Women), which focuses on hate crimes. Joyce Sohl, who is staff leader of the Women's Division, cited in her column the soul-searching questions of North Dakota Bishop Michael Coyner about whether the United Methodist debate on homosexuality has the effect of encouraging violence against LGBT people.

• Frontline: Assault on Gay America: The Life and Death of Billy Jack Gaither [PBS]

Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill [Wikipedia]

Roxanne Ellis (November 4, 1942 - December 4, 1995) and Michelle Abdill (July 8, 1953 - December 4, 1995) were a lesbian couple, murdered in Medford, Oregon by Robert Acremant. Before and during his trial, Acremant stated that the crime was partially motivated by the couple's sexual orientation.

In 1990, Michelle Abdill and Roxanne Ellis moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado, which they felt was becoming increasingly hostile to gays and lesbians, to Medford, Oregon, where they hoped the small town setting would give them a chance to start over and find acceptance. The couple met in Colorado, where Ellis - divorced with two children - worked as an obstetrics nurse. Abdill got a job in the same doctor's office, and they eventually became life-partners.

The couple started a successful property management business and was elected to the board of their church. They spent their spare time restoring their old Craftsman-style house, visiting Ellis' three-year-old granddaughter. They also worked as activists, fighting two Oregon state ballot initiatives in 1992 and 1993; Measure 9 intended to amend the state constitution to declare homosexuality "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse," and Measure 19 intended to restrict library access for materials related to homosexuality.

At the time of their murders, Ellis and Abdill had been together for 12 years.

[Continued here]

• No Place to Rest: They wanted the charm — and the security — of life in a small town [Los Angeles Times, January 4, 1987]

This is a town of grassy hills dotted with barns, a shopping mall where Sears is the big draw and a downtown, draped in winter frost and Christmas lights, five blocks long. No wonder legions of Californians have been driving in over the Siskiyous, plunking down their savings for a house or a small farm, and staying.

Since Jerry Lausmann moved here in 1942--he's been mayor five terms, only one man ever tried to run against him--Medford has busted out from a town of 11,500 to more than 55,000.

Five years ago, Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill left the increasingly uneasy atmosphere of Colorado Springs, Colo., where people objected to their lesbian lifestyle, to live in a small town where merchants in the stores would know who they were and they'd see faces they knew on the street when they went outside.

It worked. The two women started a successful property management business and got elected to the board of their church. They gave lectures at the schools on lesbian lifestyles and appeared on TV on behalf of local gay rights causes. They bought an old Craftsman-style house and fixed it up, cooked elaborate Mexican meals from scratch, became a pair of doting grandmas to Ellis' 3-year-old granddaughter.

They slipped into a friendly network of gay men and lesbians from places like Los Angeles and San Francisco who had found that, like much of the rest of America, they wanted a safe and comfortable place in which to grow old.

Trial to begin in slaying of gay middle school student Larry King
[Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2011]

When he was just 14, Brandon McInerney walked into an Oxnard classroom, took his seat, pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of his backpack and shot the student sitting in front of him. Then he tossed the weapon to the floor and walked out.

The victim, Lawrence King, was an openly gay student who McInerney reportedly thought had a crush on him.

This week McInerney, looking more like an adult at the age of 17, will be tried in a high-profile murder case that rallied the gay community and triggered calls for greater protections of young homosexuals on school campuses.

Prosecutor Maeve Fox says she will outline a straightforward case in opening arguments set to begin Tuesday in a Chatsworth courtroom. The Oxnard teenager carefully planned and carried out the Feb. 12, 2008, execution of his eighth-grade classmate, she said. He brought a gun to school, positioned himself directly behind King during a morning computer class and fired twice into the back of the 15-year-old's head.

McInerney then dropped the gun and walked out the door in front of two dozen horrified classmates and a teacher, Fox says.

[Continued here]

• Boy's Killing, Labeled a Hate Crime, Stuns a Town [New York Times, February 23, 2008]

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church here on Friday to remember an eighth-grade boy who was shot to death inside a junior high school computer lab by a fellow student in what prosecutors are calling a hate crime.

In recent weeks, the victim, Lawrence King, 15, had said publicly that he was gay, classmates said, enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death.

"God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex," the Rev. Dan Birchfield of Westminster Presbyterian Church told the crowd as he stood in front of a large photograph of the victim. "Larry was a masterpiece."

The shooting stunned residents of Oxnard, a laid-back middle-class beach community just north of Malibu. It also drew a strong reaction from gay and civil rights groups.

• Gay Panic Defense in Full Flower in Larry King Murder Trial [Truth Wins Out, July 6, 2011]

McInerney allegedly mentioned that he was going to kill King the day before the murder occurred. Oh, but look at what the defense is doing:

        McInerney's lawyer, Scott Wippert, argued that King - and not his client - was the aggressor. He said King targeted McInerney for sexual harassment, making flirtatious remarks, and had humiliated him.

        King was encouraged in his effeminate behavior and dress by school administrators who said he was within his rights to dress that way, Wippert said.

        For his part, McInerney was "a confused, emotionally torn 14-year-old from a violent home who saw no other way out than to shoot Larry," Wippert said. "It was a heat-of-the-moment decision."

Gay panic. The suggestion that if a person feels uncomfortable because a gay person flirts with him, that murder is somehow on the spectrum of Reasonable Responses. I do remember from the days immediately after King's murder that he did seem to have a crush of some sort on Brandon McInerney. That happens, especially in the formative years of high school.

My feeling on this case has always been that it was tragic all around - that a kid like Larry could be murdered in cold blood at school just for being who he is, and that a kid like Brandon could have been raised/neglected in such a way that he would feel justified in taking Larry's life. But the suggestion from the defense that a little 15 year-old gay boy who liked to wear make-up was the aggressor in a situation which resulted in his own murder is beyond disgusting.

• King Again Blamed in McInerney Trial [The Advocate, August 10, 2011]

The increasingly bizarre trial of Brandon McInerney continues, with the defense again pointing the finger of blame at 15-year-old victim Lawrence King - this time, by having McInerney's friend testify that King stared at him in the locker room.

According to the Ventura County-Star, McInerney's one-time best friend Kaj W. claims McInerney stared at him while he changed in the locker room at E.O. Green Middle School. Kaj added that he asked to change lockers because of it. Prosecutors asked Kaj why he didn't mention that when police interviewed him after the killing of King, allegedly committed by McInerney. And Kaj said he was too stressed.

Kaj also told police at the time that McInerney had spoken about white supremacy before the shooting. Prosecutors say McInerney was a homophobic white supremacist who killed King because he was gay. But Kaj now says he doesn't remember saying that.

• Defense Attorney in McInerney Trial Comes Out as a Lesbian [LGBT|POV, August 18, 2011]

The murder trial of 17 year old Brandon McInerney, charged with shooting his 15 year old classmate Larry King in Feb. 2008, defense attorney Robyn Bramson filed a formal complaint accusing Judge Charles Campbell of bias after he used the word "queer" in court and suggested that Brandon's mother is a lesbian. Bramson asked the judge to remove himself from the case. The judge denied the request. According to a tape recording in Fox LA reporter Christina Gonzala's story, Bramson said:

        "I think your honor's previous reference to Larry King as "queer" is evidence of bias against sexual orientation.. Your honor's specific use of the word 'queer' and the manner in which you talked about Kendra's McInerney's sexual orientation, I think it's very possible your honor may be aware that I am not heterosexual either."

• Jury can consider manslaughter in McInerney trial; final arguments may begin Wednesday [Ventura County Star, August 23, 2011]

McInerney's mother and one of his lawyers wept as the judge said Tuesday that he was going to allow the manslaughter option.

"I think it is too risky and we have gone on too long and there is too much invested in this to take a risk with an appellate judge who might disagree," Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell said.

Conviction on a first-degree murder charge would bring a mandatory 50-year sentence, but a manslaughter sentence ranges from four to 11 years, along with a 10-year enhancement for using a gun. McInerney will have to be found not guilty of first- and second-degree murder by all 12 jurors for them to consider the manslaughter charge.

Decisions must be unanimous or the jury is hung. A first-degree murder is one of premeditation; manslaughter is a homicide committed in the heat of passion.

McInerney also faces a hate crime charge that carries a one- to three-year sentence.

Jurors will not know the sentencing guidelines during their deliberations.

• Prosecution Tears Apart McInerney's "Gay Panic" Defense [The Advocate, August 25, 2011]

"Let's just say it, this defense is gay panic," Fox said. "For the past six weeks, there's been this giant smoke screen." The real reason for the shooting was "the defendant hated Larry King for who he was." ...

Fox reminded the jury of nine women and three men that it was the testimony of students that mattered - teenagers who not only witnessed King's shooting firsthand but were also privy to interactions between the two boys. Speaking for long stretches and only briefly looking at notes, Fox reminded the jury that most of King and McInerney's peers didn't witness the gay teen being disruptive or sexually aggressive toward McInerney or anyone else, as defense attorney Scott Wippert claims. Fox reminded the jury that Wippert brought up the fact that King would use the boys' restroom at school and other students would scurry out.

"That's not Larry chasing boys out of the bathroom," Fox said. "That's Larry using a bathroom he had a right to use."...

"This gay panic thing is not a legitimate defense," Fox said. "Even in death he's been degraded and subjected to inappropriate character assassination. No reasonable person of any age would have reacted the way the defendant did." ,,,

Fox's closing arguments were thorough and detailed, but she often reminded the jury that what happened in February 2008 wasn't complicated - McInerney hated gay people, hated King, planned for days on killing him, told people of his plans, and carried them out.

"You cannot skew the evidence because of sympathy [toward McInerney]," Fox said. "You know what happened in this case. Don't torture it, don't overthink it. An American was executed for who he was. It was a cold-blooded execution."

• Gay student slaying: Mistrial declared [Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2011]

A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of an Oxnard teenager accused of killing a gay classmate.

The vote was 7 to 5 in favor of finding Brandon McInerney guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

Jurors in the case, in which McInerney fatally shot 15-year-old Larry King in a junior high school computer lab, were ordered earlier Thursday to continue deliberating despite failed vote.

• DA to seek new trial in Larry King case [365 Gay, September 2, 2011]

Prosecutors said Friday that they planned to ask Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell for a new trial during a hearing scheduled for Oct. 5.

Over the next month, prosecutors will decide whether to pursue the same set of charges or drop some of them, said James Ellison, the chief assistant district attorney.

"We don't know at this point if we will modify the charges," Ellison said. "The jury's inability to reach a verdict in this case will be a factor. We'll consider everything."

• Anti-Gay Activist Insinuates that 14 Year-Old Larry King Provoked His Own Murder [Truth Wins Out, September 22, 2011]

Wow. Randy Thomasson of Save California has always been one of the most uncomfortably unhinged of the anti-gay activists. I want to say "even for him, this is awful," but I can't quite bring myself to that, as I believe that the professional anti-gay set really is this disgusting.

• California teen to be retried in gay student murder [CNN, October 5, 2011]

A teenager accused of gunning down a gay classmate execution-style in their Southern California junior high school classroom in 2008 will be retried on murder charges, the Ventura County district attorney's office said Wednesday.

But Brandon McInerney, now 17, won't be charged with a hate crime as before, Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Frawley said Wednesday.

• ABC News '20/20' Fails Fairness Test Reporting on Brandon McInerney [LGBT|POV, October 8, 2011]

• McInerney pleads, gets 21 years for Oxnard gay-student shooting [KABC, November 21, 2011]

McInerney pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and use of a firearm, according to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office. The plea deal will give McInerney a sentence of 21 years. He is scheduled to be officially sentenced Dec. 19. McInerney is accused of shooting and killing gay classmate Lawrence King during their computer class at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard in February 2008. McInerney was 14 at the time of the shooting; King was 15.

• Teen who killed gay classmate is mentally preparing for prison [Los Angeles Times, November 21, 2011]

Brandon McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot 15-year-old Larry King twice in the head in 2008, has already served nearly four years in jail and would be released by the time he is 38 under terms of the deal.

He will be transferred from Ventura County Juvenile Hall to state prison when he turns 18 in January.

"Now he has a date he can circle on his calendar," said defense attorney Scott Wippert.

McInenery's family left the courtroom without comment. Throughout the proceedings, his mother, Kendra, and her son James held hands. Kendra lowered head and sobbed as Brandon -- who has rarely been heard in the courtroom -- said "guilty" to the two charges.

Greg King, the victim's father, said he believes that "justice is served" by the sentence.

• Teen gets 21 years in prison for killing gay classmate [Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2011]

McInerney was shackled during the sentencing and handcuffed as he was led from the courtroom.

McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot King two times at point-blank range, will be kept behind bars until he is 39 under the terms of the deal struck by Ventura County prosecutors.

In an unusual arrangement, the 17-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges after the judge declared a mistrial in his first trial. In return, prosecutors agreed not to go forward with a second trial, which could have resulted in a life sentence.

• Father of slain gay teen Larry King calls jury 'incompetent' [Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2011]

"Rather than learning from it," King said of Oxnard school officials, "they hid behind lawyers."

• Disturbing Headline Juxtaposition of the Day [The Stranger, December 19, 2011]

Click here to view.

• McInerney sentenced; King's adopted father conveniently blames the money source [Box Turtle Bulletin, December 20, 2011]

I will never forget this story. But not just because Larry King was murdered.

Because as foul as King's murder, was his character assassination. With King no longer alive to defend or explain himself, those with an interest in casting him in the role of 'evil homosexual vampire' faced little opposition. Instead, a chorus of defenders of the neo-Nazi sociopath - from sources that still leave me amazed - leaped at the opportunity to portray Larry as a predator who (as jurors put it) "tormented McInerney to the breaking point" by flirting. Oh, clarification: "aggressive flirting".

To be honest, there have been times during this ordeal that I have felt like I am the only person attempting to speak on Larry's behalf. ...

I won't forget you, little effeminate boy who somehow - when those who are supposed to care and support you failed you - found the courage to be yourself and then were attacked, killed, and then maligned for it. I won't forget you.

Jack Frew murder trial hears schoolboy had windpipe cut
[BBC, January 20, 2012]

Det Sgt James Munro was giving evidence at the High Court in Glasgow, where Craig Roy is charged with murdering the teenager in East Kilbride in May 2010.

Mr Roy, 19, admits stabbing 16-year-old Jack Frew but denies murdering him.

The jury also heard a taped police interview with the accused in which he said he just wanted to scare Mr Frew. ...

In it he told Det Con James Waddell that Mr Frew was a "sex pest".

Mr Roy was asked: "What made Jack Frew a sex pest?" and he replied: "He would never stop just pressurising trying to get what he wanted from anyone at anytime."

The 19-year-old told police that he had given oral sex to Mr Frew in Duncanrigg High School, where both boys were pupils, some months before.

Mr Roy claimed Mr Frew had threatened to tell his partner Christopher Hannah what had happened.

[Continued here]

• Teenager charged with murder of student Jack Frew [The Guardian, May 10, 2010]

A teenager has been charged with murdering a 16-year-old boy whose body was found in woods in East Kilbride, near Glasgow, on election night.

Craig Roy, 17, made no plea as he was remanded in custody at Hamilton sheriff court today after he appeared in court over the killing.

Jack Frew, a popular teenager who was openly gay, was found stabbed and beaten near a cycle path in the Mossneuk area. Senior-year classes at Frew's school, Duncanrig secondary, were cancelled for today and tomorrow and pupils' study leave was brought forward. Frew enjoyed amateur dramatics and music. Two Facebook pages were set up in his memory; the largest one attracted more than 7,400 followers.

• Body found in hunt for uncle of murdered schoolboy [BBC, May 21, 2010]

A police spokesman said: "Strathclyde Police can confirm that the body of a man believed to be 46-year-old Colin Ferguson was recovered from the River Clyde at around 1455 hours this afternoon."

He said the post-mortem examination would be carried out in due course and a report would be sent to the procurator fiscal.

• Memorial service held for murdered schoolboy Jack Frew [BBC, May 22, 2010]

About 700 friends and teachers shared "laughter and tears" with relatives at the service in Duncanrig Secondary School, where Jack was a pupil.

Meanwhile, a police confirmed the body found in the River Clyde on Friday was that of Jack's uncle, Colin Ferguson.

• Craig Roy convicted of murdering schoolboy Jack Frew [BBC, February 2, 2012]

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow rejected defence claims he suffered from a personality disorder and should be convicted of culpable homicide.

Roy, 19, now faces a mandatory life sentence. He will be told his minimum jail term at a later date.

After the verdict, Jack Frew's family described it as a "cold, calculating" murder and said his name had been tarnished by "wicked words and lies".

A Look Back at Pedro [Zamora] & Me: Illustrating the AIDS Struggle (1972—1994)
[Bilerico Project, December 10, 2011]

In 1994, back when the reality television genre was still doing interesting and productive things, MTV's The Real World introduced Pedro Zamora, a 22-year-old Cuban immigrant who was openly gay, living with AIDS, and working as an HIV/AIDS educator. Pedro was the first prominent openly gay person with AIDS in U.S. popular culture, and he brought national attention to the struggle.

Throughout each of San Francisco's twenty 30-minute episodes, viewers fell in love with Pedro Zamora. They were able to connect with him, attempt to understand his struggle, and see a more relatable depiction of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Pedro died the day after the last episode of The Real World: San Francisco aired. But in spite of his death, he left behind a new generation of people more willing to speak about HIV/AIDS issues and not be scared away because of their lack of familiarity with the disease.

Still, just because MTV viewers got to see some of Pedro's struggle played out on The Real World, that didn't mean that they could grasp the full depth of his story. The series briefly discussed Pedro's childhood, how he contracted HIV/AIDS, and how he deals with it on a day-to-day basis, but it tended to skirt over some of the less attractive details: the night sweats, the lack of immunities, the shingles, and the complexities of the poz dating world.

Enter Judd Winick, who adapted Pedro's story into a graphic novel, released in 2000. I wrote a few months ago about needing to pick a work of graphic nonfiction to analyze and study for my Graphic Nonfiction class, and I ultimately decided on Judd's retelling of Pedro's struggle.

Judd, a self-described "bed-wetting liberal" and cartoonist was one of Pedro's best friends on their season of The Real World. He took the most sincere interest in Pedro's lecture circuit work and, despite coming from very different backgrounds, the men connected and became close friends. When Pedro fell severely ill in August of 1994, Judd decided to take over for Pedro. Judd spoke at schools and community centers, sharing information about safe sex, the dangers of unprotected sex, and the struggles associated with living with HIV or AIDS. After Pedro's death, Judd continued the HIV/AIDS education lecture circuit for about a year before moving on and revisiting his intended career path: comics. He landed a syndicated cartooning gig and experienced mild success.

By 1998, however, Judd couldn't resist the nagging urge to document the story of his friendship with Pedro Zamora and continue focusing on HIV/AIDS education.

[Continued here]

• Pedro Zamora: from 'Real World' to real legend [Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2009]

Across that span of 21 seasons, Pedro Zamora -- of "The Real World: San Francisco" in 1994, during its third season -- has been by far the most successful user of the show. He hasn't had that much competition in recent years, to be fair: As the show aged, producers were more likely to emphasize drunken swimming pool hookups than socially mindful agendas.

Zamora was an HIV-positive, Cuban American gay man who died of AIDS the day after the "San Francisco" season finale aired. The young HIV educator -- he was 22 when he died -- was always on message. He brought a scrapbook of his education work to show his cast mates, immediately lectured them on HIV transmission and took them along on his speaking gigs. And he and his boyfriend, Sean Sasser, had a tear-jerking commitment ceremony before the cameras.

That anyone who saw that season's "Real World" cannot get Zamora's story out of their minds has led us to "Pedro," a biopic by MTV and "Real World" creators Bunim-Murray, directed by Nick Oceano -- and written by Dustin Lance Black of Oscar-winning "Milk" fame. It airs on MTV Wednesday at 8 p.m., although some members of Congress are getting a sneak-peek screening earlier in the day. That is how big Zamora was -- the film also includes a reenactment of then-President Clinton's phone call of appreciation to Zamora and his family.

Damilola Taylor's killers 'freed to ease pressure on jails' (1989—2000)
[Telegraph, September 19, 2011]

Richard Taylor, whose 10-year-old son bled to death on a stairwell in south London in 2000 after being stabbed by local thugs, said an urgent reform of the criminal justice system was required.

"For us who have lost our son and for the many other parents who have lost their children we feel the law needs to be tightened up and for sentences to reflect the offences," said Mr Taylor, who held a personal meeting with David Cameron to discuss the issue.

Damilola was stabbed with a broken bottle in November 2000 in Peckham, south London, in a high-profile case which exposed the capital's "feral" gang youth culture.

In 2002, four youths went on trial but the case collapsed. In 2006, Danny and Ricky Preddie, 12 and 13 at the time of the killing, were found guilty of manslaughter.

Earlier this month, Danny, now 23, was released from prison after serving five of his eight year sentence.

[Continued here]

• Damilola Taylor: How his killing shocked a nation [BBC, November 27, 2010]

The CCTV footage captured a boy on his way home from the library.

As the Independent's Paul Vallely wrote in 2006: "It showed a happy smiling schoolboy hopping and skipping, with the insuppressible exuberance of childhood, across the flagstones of a shopping precinct. It was Peckham but it could have been anywhere in Britain."

For the viewer, there was the awful knowledge that 15 minutes later Damilola Taylor would be bleeding to death in a concrete stairwell.

• Damilola Taylor index [The Guardian]
• Damilola Taylor: A 10-year-old's murder and a very public sense of failure [Paul Vallely, August 10, 2006]
• Damilola Taylor's killer back in prison [Telegraph, March 13, 2011]

Ricky Preddie, jailed for eight years in 2006 for the manslaughter of the 10-year-old, was sent back to jail after breaking the conditions of his release.

It is understood he was arrested on Friday evening and returned to a south London prison after being seen in Southwark, south London, and associating with gang members.

Richard Taylor, Damilola's father, was said to be "deeply upset and disturbed" by the news that Preddie has been returned to jail.

• Anger at £70,000 payout to cleared Damilola Taylor suspects [Telegraph, June 6, 2011]

Now two of the defendants in the original trial have now been awarded payouts of £35,000 each in an out-of-court settlement.

Damilola's father, Richard Taylor, dismissed the decision as an insult and called for an explanation about how the figure was reached.

• New Year Honours 2012: Cousin of Damilola Taylor killers awarded OBE [Telegraph, December 31, 2011]

Chris Preddie is the cousin of Ricky and Danny Preddie, who killed 10-year-old Damilola in 2000. He has been honoured for his youth work after he turned his life around, shunning gang membership to work with young offenders.

But his award has been criticised by Damilola's father who says he is "totally against" Mr Preddie being honoured.

Richard Taylor called for stricter rules to be brought in governing who is eligible for honours.

Mr Preddie, 24, from Finsbury Park, was involved in gangs and sold cannabis until the age of 16 when his elder brother Andrew was shot dead at a barber's shop in Brixton.

• 'He was screaming his head off': Killer of Damilola Taylor fought TWENTY police in dramatic arrest after being recalled to prison [Daily Mail, February 11, 2012]

Yesterday, Damilola's father Richard demanded a public inquiry to find out how 'the system has failed so badly in this case'.

Preddie was arrested on Thursday night after allegedly entering a South London estate to meet up with fellow gang members, breaching the terms of his release.

Erik Ose: Gay Weddings and 32 Funerals: Remembering the UpStairs Lounge Fire
[Huffington Post, July 3, 2008]

On the last Sunday in June, 1973, a gay bar in New Orleans called the UpStairs Lounge was firebombed. The resulting blaze killed 32 people. At the time, the bar had recently served as the temporary home for the fledgling New Orleans congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church. Founded in Los Angeles in 1968, the MCC was the nation's first gay church.

It was the third fire at a MCC church during the first half of 1973. The church's Los Angeles headquarters was destroyed on January 27, five days after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its momentous decision in the case of Roe v. Wade.

That Sunday was the final day of Pride Weekend, the fourth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. Yet there was still no Gay Pride Parade in New Orleans. Almost two dozen gay bars dotted the French Quarter, but gay life in the city remained largely underground.

Located on the second floor of a three-story building at the corner of Chartres and Iberville Streets, the UpStairs Lounge had only one entrance, up a wooden flight of stairs. Nearly 125 regulars had jammed the bar earlier that afternoon for a free beer and all you could eat special. After the free beer ran out, about 60 stayed, mostly members of the MCC congregation.

[Continued here]

• David Mixner: LGBT History: The New Orleans Upstairs Lounge Fire in 1973 [Live From Hell's Kitchen, May 4 2010]

A new gallery show in New York City insists that we remember one of the worst disasters in the history of the LGBT movement which took place on a steamy hot June 24th night in 1973. That evening an arsonist started a fire in the Upstairs Lounge which killed 32 men and injured dozens more. The arsonist was never caught by the New Orleans police. That night a city known for 'openness' closed down to the LGBT community in its time of great need. This show is a 'must see' for any LGBT person who cares for their history.

Yves Saint Laurent (1936—2008) [Wikipedia]

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent... was a French fashion designer, one of the greatest names in fashion history. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable". He is also credited with having introduced the tuxedo suit for women, being the first designer to use ethnic models in his runway shows, and referencing other cultures in his work.

[Continued here]

• YSL Documentary: The Beautifully Sad Love Story, L'Amour Fou (2010) [Style Caster, April 26, 2011]

Filming for the documentary L'Amour Fou (Crazy Love) commenced just six months after the death of Yves Saint Laurent and its central voice is that of his longtime partner in life and business, Pierre Bergé. Though the grief is still evident on Berge's well-lined face as he relays a lifetime to documentarian Pierre Thoretton, what the viewer is left with is not just a portrait of grief, but the realities of a love story, a candid illustration of a genius and many close ups of an extensive collection of very expensive, very rare, very beautiful art, sculpture and antiques. Thoretton has subverted the way that fashion documentaries are made - away from the glimmering parties in Beijing and witty sound bites of a master couturier - and goes straight to the artistry, the pressures, the relationships and the life of Yves Saint Laurent.

• L'Amour Fou: movie review (2010) [Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 2011]

Saint Laurent himself barely emerges in this film except as a cipher - a nowhere man with three lavish hideaways, in Paris, Normandy, and Morocco, all stocked with extraordinary artwork. For Bergé, the auctioning of these works, a process we observe in overlong detail, represents a kind of leave-taking.

It would have been useful if the film had pointed up the fact that much of the proceeds from these auctions went to fund AIDS research.

Matthew Shepard (1976—1998) [Wikipedia]

Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998. He was attacked on the night of October 6-7, and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12 from severe head injuries.

During the trial, witnesses stated that Shepard was targeted because of his sexual orientation. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to the contention of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.

[Continued here]

• Quiet bombshell in Matthew Shepard trial [Salon, November 1, 1999]

Judge Barton Voigt threw out Aaron McKinney's "homosexual rage" defense Monday morning, moving beyond the skeptical position he outlined in hearings last Wednesday and Friday. The decision guts the heart of the defense team's strategy to make Matthew Shepard's killing manslaughter, not murder.

• Killer of Gay Student Is Spared Death Penalty [Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1999]
• Dennis Shepard's Statement to the Court, November 4, 1999 [GayNorfolk-net]
• Matthew Shepard: Highlights From the Archives [New York Times]
• The Laramie Project (play) [Wikipedia]

The Laramie Project is a play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, John McAdams, Maude Mitchell, Andy Paris, and Kelli Simpkins) about the reaction to the 1998 murder of University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime motivated by homophobia and brought attention to the lack of hate crimes laws in various states, including Wyoming.

• The Laramie Project (film) [Wikipedia

Matt Roush of TV Guide praised the film for "elevating Shephard's murder to a higher crossroads of journalism and theatricality." Roush singled out the film's cast, and its "original" and "unique investigation", likening its focus on Nestor Carbonell's Kaufman to Truman Capote making himself the star of In Cold Blood. Roush also noted the film's emotional range and its examination of homophobia, saying that it could "enlighten" viewers.

• Remembering Matthew Shepard: Silence Not an Option [Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, October 6, 2011]

Today marks the 13th anniversary of the brutal and vicious murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student at the University of Wyoming. On this night in 1998, two men lured Matthew into their truck and drove out to an isolated area, where they proceeded to tie him to a fence, beat him mercilessly and repeatedly pistol-whip him with a .357-Magnum handgun as he pled for his life. At around 6:30 p.m. the next day, he was found comatose, still tied to the fence, where he had been left for more than 18 hours in 30-degree weather. The deputy who arrived at the scene later stated that the only part of Matthew's face where there was no blood was where his tears had washed it away. Matthew was rushed to a hospital, where he died on October 12, 1998.

• Judy Shepard: Creating Matt's Legacy [Huffington Post, October 12, 2011]

October is very hard for me.

It's not that the early autumn in Wyoming isn't beautiful. If you haven't experienced the crisp air as the nights come earlier each day, or the last few cricket chirps of the season that follow the brilliant orange sunsets, you can't really know the peaceful, quiet contemplation this time of year brings those few of us fortunate to make our homes here.

But it's those cues, these turns of the calendar pages, that remind me of the tragedy that autumn brought us 13 years ago, and start us reflecting on what our family, and our society, have learned from it.

• Matthew Shepard's Father Dennis Speaks Out Against Tennessee's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill In Nashville [Huffington Post, January 26, 2012]

The father of slain gay student Matthew Shepard has joined the chorus of dissenting voices urging Tennessee voters to resist proposed anti-LGBT legislation including the controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill.

As The Tennessean is reporting, Dennis Shepard spoke at length at a Nashville hate crime conference alongside wife Judy in an effort to discourage lawmakers from pressing ahead with bills that curb discussions about homosexuality in schools, restrict transgender people from using public facilities and amend anti-bullying laws to protect controversial statements about homosexuality.

"These bills disturb me," Shepard is quoted by The Republic as saying. "Just the idea that you're talking about it bothers me. They are American citizens. Let them have their peace and their privacy, and become the dull, boring people that we want them to be."

Beaten, tied to a lamppost and burned alive: Horrific fate of barman murdered 'for being gay'
[Daily Mail, October 23, 2011]

A gay man who was killed and left at the side of the road with 'horrific' injuries could have been the victim of a homophobic attack, it has emerged.

It's believed Stuart Walker, 28, was beaten and burned alive before he was tied to a lamppost and left there in the early hours of Saturday morning.

His charred remains were found by a member of the public at 5am on Saturday in Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Detectives today launched a murder inquiry following the grim discovery, with streets in a nearby industrial estate sealed off as part of the ongoing investigation. ...

Strathclyde Police would not rule out that Mr Walker had been murdered because of his sexuality and were now closely examining all aspects of the victim's life.

[Continued here]

• Murdered barman Stuart Walker may have been sexually assaulted before 'extremely violent attack' [Daily Record, October 24, 2011]

Asked if the attack was random or targeted, Detective Inspector John Hogg, who is leading the inquiry, said: "I don't think there's anything for the general public of Cumnock to be worried about. The early indications are that this attack wasn't a random attack." ...

"Why would anybody want to hurt Stuart? He was the life and soul of every party, We went on holiday with him to Gran Canaria the other year and he made such an impact there, he was so popular, that when we left they may as well have shut the place down." ...

Mr Thomson said police had no evidence to back up rumours online that Stuart had been attacked in a past incident in the town. He also said Stuart had not been tied to a lamppost, as previously reported.

• Gay Brit, Beaten and Burned, Questioned Over 'Child Indecency' Allegations Prior to Death [Edge Boston, October 28, 2011]

An Oct. 27 article in British newspaper the Telegraph reported that Walker had been questioned by police last summer in connection with an alleged incident of "child indecency" involving a 12-year-old boy.

Officials offered few details.

"We can confirm that the procurator fiscal at Ayr," the region in Scotland where Cumnock is located, "received a report concerning a 28-year-old male in connection with an alleged incident on August 20, 2011," one government official told the press. "The case is now closed."

Police stressed that they had no reason to think, at this point, that the alleged incident had to do with Walker's murder "in any way," the Telegraph article said.

• Police arrest man, 18, over murder of Stuart Walker [The Guardian, October 29, 2011]

• Police association calls for homophobic recording of Stuart Walker murder [Pink News, November 1, 2011]

The GPA praised the speed with which the investigation into the killing of Stuart Walker by Strathclyde Police resulted in an arrest but voiced concern that the Force has not been treated as potentially homophobic.

It is the concern that failing to classify the death as possibly motivated by homophobia may prevent such evidence surfacing.

The MacPherson report, which followed the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, brought about a change in the definition of what constitutes a racist incident to a test of perception. This now extends to homophobia.

The ACPOS Hate Crime Manual states: "If a crime is perceived to be a hate crime by the victim or any other person, including a police officer, it should be recorded and investigated as such".

Chief Constable Stephen House said last week there was no reason to believe the attack was homophobic, and it had not been recorded in that way.

• Scottish murder charge [Sydney Star Observer, November 3, 2011]

A teenager has appeared in court charged with the murder of gay Scottish man Stuart Walker.

The Daily Record reports that Ryan Esquierdo, 18, is also alleged to have stolen items from the 28-year-old at Caponacre Industrial Estate in Cumnock, Ayrshire, in the early hours of October 22.

"My client faces two charges - one of murder and one of theft. He made no plea or declaration," Esquierdo's solicitor Gerry Tierney said.

Murdered ex-Marine [Carl Davies] was raped before being killed and dumped
in a ravine (1978—2011) [Daily Mail, November 20, 2011]

A former Royal Marine was murdered on a tropical island - after police initially claimed his death was an accident, it emerged last night.

Carl Davies, 33, was a security guard employed to combat the threat of piracy on Reunion, the Indian Ocean holiday paradise.

His parents, Andrew and Maria Davies, were told by police last week that he had been killed in a tragic accident after falling 30ft down a cliff.

But they have now been given the devastating news that their son, who left the Marines to become a teacher, was stabbed and beaten with a bat before being pushed off a cliff.

His family believe his murder was covered up to protect the image of the French island, where tourism accounts for 70 per cent of GDP.

[Note: The caption with the photograph of Carl Davies reads "Ex-Marine Carl Davies was raped before being killed and dumped in a ravine, a new post mortem has revealed". This information was suppressed in the accompanying article. An earlier version of this article reads "Former Royal Marine Carl Davies suffered a brutal sexual assault before being stabbed and his body hurled into a roadside ravine close to a military barracks on the paradise island of Reunion, a new post-mortem has confirmed." What in hell is going on here?]

[Continued here]

• Former Royal Marine Carl Davies was raped before being stabbed and his body hurled into a roadside ravine [Border Controls, November 20, 2011]

Former Royal Marine Carl Davies was raped before being stabbed and his body hurled into a roadside ravine close to a military barracks on the paradise island of Reunion, a new post-mortem has confirmed.

A second examination of the body of the Kent man revealed he had been sexually assaulted prior to being beaten about the head and knifed in the stomach.

The first bungled autopsy put his death down to an accident.

As revealed by MailOnline yesterday, his family believe his murder was covered up to protect tourism there, which accounts for 70per cent of GDP.

A team of British detectives is due to arrive on the island to assist investigations, sources indicated at the weekend.

On the night of his death on November 9, Mr Davies had been out drinking in St Denis, the capital of Reunion, with two sailors who were serving on board the Cyprus-registered MV Atlantic Trader.

Mr Davies, 33, was employed on the container ship as a guard against Somali pirates who regularly prey on ships in the Indian ocean.

Death of a Transgender Woman [Angie Zapata] Is Called a Hate Crime (1989—2008)
[New York Times, August 2, 2008]

Angie Zapata began living as a woman six years ago even though she was born male and named Justin.

While Ms. Zapata, 18, was accepted by her many friends and five siblings, she was bullied in school and at times was lonely and troubled, an older sister, Monica, said. Eventually, Ms. Zapata dropped out of school and got her own apartment here in Greeley.

It was in that apartment that Ms. Zapata's badly beaten body was found on July 17.

On Wednesday, the police arrested Allen R. Andrade, 31, and charged him with murder. According to the authorities, Mr. Andrade had gone out on a date with Ms. Zapata, and upon discovering she had male genitalia, beat her to death -starting with his fists and then with a fire extinguisher.

[Continued here]

• Colorado transgender woman's slaying tried as hate crime [Los Angles Times, April 19, 2009]

Authorities say the killer beat her to death after learning she was a man, and later told police that he thought he'd killed "it."

Activists say Allen Ray Andrade's trial, which began last week in Weld County, marks one of the first times in the United States that the homicide of a transgender victim is being prosecuted as a hate crime.

Though a number of states have hate-crime laws that include protections based on sexual orientation, Colorado is one of 11 states, along with the District of Columbia, whose statutes also include gender identity as a protected class. However, prosecutors and activists say such laws have never been applied in Colorado -- and rarely elsewhere in the nation.

• 3rd Anniversary of Angie Zapata's Death [Transgriot, July 17, 2011]

Murder of Gwen Araujo (1985—2002) [Wikipedia]

Gwen Araujo, an American teenage pre-operative transgender woman, was murdered in Newark, California, in October 2002. She was killed by four men, two with whom she had been sexually intimate, who beat and strangled her after discovering she was transgender. Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder, but not convicted on the requested hate crime enhancements. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a trans panic defense - an extension of the gay panic defense - was employed.

The crime received widespread national and international attention and prompted some authors to write about the bearing of homophobia and transphobia on Araujo's murder, along with questioning whether transgender people were being represented fairly and accurately in both mass media and the criminal justice. Reaction to the case was an impetus for law reform movements in several states. The events, including both criminal trials, have been portrayed in a TV movie, A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story. The murder was regularly compared to the Matthew Shepard case and was a rallying cause for the transgender and ultimately the larger LGBT communities. ...

At Araujo's mother's request, a judge posthumously changed Araujo's legal name from Eddie to Gwen on June 23, 2004.

[Continued here]

• Slain Newark teen balanced between two worlds / 3 charged in death of youth who was living his dream as a female [San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2002]
• Guilty plea in transgender killing Defendant makes deal, testifies against friends [San Francisco Chronicle, February 25, 2003]
• Chilling time line of a killing / Death of transgender teen described in grisly detail [San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 2003]
• Transgender teen's plea described / Witness testifies she sought help leaving safely [San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2003]
• One year since transgender teen's death / Gwen Araujo's family still struggling to cope [San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2003]
• Posthumous request for a name change Slain transgender teen's mom wants 'Gwen' to be official [San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 2004]
• No issue of sexual deception / Gwen Araujo was just who she was [San Francisco Chronicle, May 30, 2004]

Gwen Araujo, a beautiful young transgender woman, was brutally beaten to death the fall of 2002. In the trial of three men accused of murder in her slaying, defense attorneys Tony Serra and Michael Thorman are using the "transgender/gay panic" defense. Their argument essentially is that Gwen deserved to be killed because she deceived, and thus stole the heterosexuality of the men she had sex with.

No one deserves to be killed for deception.

But in Gwen's case, there was no deception. Gwen was just being herself. In a world in which we are all told we have to be more feminine or more masculine -- Gwen was wise enough to know herself and brave enough to be herself. That is beautiful. She should be our role model.

• Mistrial in transgender case / Deadlock over first-degree murder charges -- 3 to face retrial in slaying of Newark teen [San Francisco Chronicle, June 23, 2004]

Three men will be tried again for first-degree murder in the slaying of transgender teen Gwen Araujo, a prosecutor announced Tuesday, after a judge declared a mistrial in a case in which activists had hoped a guilty verdict would send a forceful message about gender-related hate crimes.

Chris Lamiero, an Alameda County deputy district attorney, made his decision shortly after learning that jurors had agreed that the killing in Newark almost two years ago was murder -- but were deadlocked over whether it was premeditated.

"This is a case we will take to trial again," said Lamiero, who will retry the men on charges that they beat and strangled Araujo, 17, after finding that she was biologically male. "The sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned."

• Education is key in transgender cases [San Francisco Chronicle, June 25, 2004]
• Three sentenced to prison in Araujo slaying [San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 2006]

An Alameda County judge sentenced three men to prison today for their roles in the 2002 slaying of a Newark teenager who was biologically a boy but lived as a girl, ending a nationally watched case that focused attention on violence against transgender individuals.

At a packed hearing at the Hayward Hall of Justice, Superior Court Judge Harry Sheppard sentenced Michael Magidson, 25, and Jose Merel, 26, to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Gwen Araujo. Jason Cazares, 26, who struck a deal with prosecutors last month by pleading no contest to a lesser charge, received a six-year sentence.

A fourth defendant, Jaron Nabors, 22, who testified against the others, is expected to be sentenced on May 22 to 11 years in prison.

• Prison for 3 in transgender teen's slaying 2 men sentenced to 15 years to life, other gets 6 years [San Francisco Chronicle, January 28, 2006]
• Man Given 11 Years in Gwen Araujo's Death [Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2006]

A 23-year-old man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of transgendered teenager Gwen Araujo was sentenced Friday to 11 years in prison.

Jaron Nabors of Newark, Calif., apologized to the victim, her family and his own family during an emotional hearing in Alameda County Superior Court.

"It's the end of the court process, but there's still a lot of healing to be done," said Gloria Allred, an attorney for the victim's family. "It's been heartbreaking. It continues to be very painful for them."

"You dress elegant women. You dress sophisticated women. I dress sluts."



Gianni Versace (1946—1997) [Wikipedia]

Gianni Versace... was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films, and was a friend of Elton John, Sting, and Diana, Princess of Wales among many others. Openly gay, Versace and his partner Antonio D'Amico were regulars on the international party scene. Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach home, the former Casa Casuarina now known as The Villa By Barton G., at the age of 50 by spree killer Andrew Cunanan. [Note: Maybe.]

[Continued here]

• Gianni Versace index [New York Times]
• Was Gianni Versace murdered by the mob? [Daily Mail, December 13, 2010]

Strolling in the Miami sunshine with the latest fashion magazines tucked under his arm, Gianni Versace appeared unusually relaxed.

Having learned his ear cancer was in remission and that a recent Aids test was negative, the notoriously hot-tempered gay Italian designer was happier than he had been for years.

But Versace, then 50, was never to enjoy another day. On his return home, as he fiddled with the lock on the front gates of his palatial, art deco mansion, a stranger in a white shirt and grey shorts approached - and gunned him down with two close-range shots to the head and neck.

The killer then walked away calmly and climbed into a waiting car.

• Gianni Versace: La Dolce Vita [Time]

Andrew Phillip Cunanan (1969—1997) [Wikipedia]

Andrew Phillip Cunanan... was an American spree killer who murdered at least five people, including fashion designer Gianni Versace, during a three-month period in 1997, ending with Cunanan's suicide, at age 27.

[Continued here]

• Andrew Phillip Cunanan index [New York Times]
• At End of Cunanan Manhunt, Suicide and Mystery [New York Times, July 25, 1997]

With his suicide on Wednesday, Mr. Cunanan ended one of the biggest manhunts in recent history and set investigators on the task of trying to piece together his activities here in the days after the slaying of the fashion designer Gianni Versace, one of the five people he is accused of killing. That prominent slaying forced a change in Mr. Cunanan's behavior, officials said. Before that, he had been bold in his comings and goings, even though he had been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 10 Most Wanted list for weeks.

• In the End, Cunanan Proved Neither Cunning Nor Brazen [New York Times, July 27, 1997]

For five hours after the initial 911 call, the police had no firm evidence that it was Mr. Cunanan on the boat, law-enforcement officials said on Friday. It was not until after they stormed the houseboat in a cloud of tear gas and found the body sprawled on a bed that they realized their good fortune. A .40 caliber pistol, the same kind used in three killings linked to Mr. Cunanan, was on the corpse's stomach.

David Morley (1967—2004) [Wikipedia]

David Morley... was a barman who was fatally attacked by a group of youths near Waterloo Station in London on the morning of October 30, 2004. The attack garnered widespread media coverage as a fatality of a violent trend known as happy slapping and due to the original (false) belief that the attack was motivated by homophobia.

In December 2005 four youths were found guilty of Morley's manslaughter. A 15 year old girl, Chelsea O'Mahoney was sentenced to an 8 year custodial sentence and her co-defendants Reece Sargeant (21), Darren Case (18) and David Blenman (17), all from Kennington in South London were sentenced to 12 years each. They had in fact been prosecuted for murder, however the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter as they are permitted to do so.

[Continued here]

• Violent rampage leaves man dead [Telegraph, November 1, 2004]

David Morley, 37, a barman from Chiswick, west London, was punched and kicked in the final attack close to Hungerford Bridge and died in hospital from multiple injuries. He had sustained more than 40 bruises. His 29-year-old friend was also beaten.

• Gay murder victim survived Soho bomb [The Guardian, November 2, 2004]
• Gang 'kicked man to death because they were bored' [Telegraph, October 21, 2005]

Yesterday the girl and a 17-year-old youth, neither of whom can be named because of their age, along with Sargeant and Case, were found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of David Morley and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. Two other defendants, a 17-year-old youth and Barry Lee, 20, were cleared of all charges.

Toronto cold cases: Remembering Chris Skinner and other unsolved murders
[XTRA, October 11, 2011]

Two years after the murder of Christopher Skinner, Toronto police have yet to find his killers, keeping the case on a growing list of cold cases affecting the city's queer community.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada has reported increases in gay-related hate crimes. In 2008, the agency found such crimes had more than doubled from the previous year, stating, however, that the rise could be due to better reporting.

Countless hate crimes also continue to go unreported, it noted.

While many hate crimes are undocumented, many murders involving members of Toronto's queer community have gone unsolved.

Probably the most well known is the murder of Skinner, who was beaten and run over by an SUV on the way home from his sister's birthday party two years ago, on Oct 18, 2009.

[Continued here]

• Father stoic as Chris Skinner slaying still unsolved [Toronto Star, January 22, 2010]

Toronto police say Christopher was kicked and knocked to the ground after an altercation with occupants of the SUV, who climbed back inside as he lay on the ground.

The driver then ran over Christopher, who died in hospital later.

• Suspicious death in Toronto home deemed homicide [Toronto Star, March 5, 2011]

A 49-year-old Toronto man who friends describe as "selfless" and "gentle" was found dead in his home a day after he was last seen.

Police said Saturday that Allan Lanteigne was discovered with obvious signs of trauma to his body last Thursday at about 3:20 p.m.

• Art teacher's unsolved murder still haunts family [Toronto Star, January 17, 2011]

It has been 10 years since David Buller was stabbed to death in his office at the University of Toronto.

The small, cramped room on the second floor of the Connaught Building on Spadina Cres. is no longer there. It was torn down in the months after Buller's murder to create studio space for aspiring visual arts students.

Yet every year on the anniversary of his death, his family and close friends come back to the spot to remember Buller and reflect on his life as an artist and teacher.

His mother brings a bouquet of flowers, usually lilies. His friends place pieces of his artwork nearby. Then they sit in a circle to recall fond memories of Buller and share the anger that lingers after his death.

Buller's murder remains unsolved.

• Who killed Ross Magill?: Police seek mysterious person of interest [XTRA, January 13, 2009]

More than six months after Ross Magill was brutally murdered in a bloody attack at his Yonge and St Clair area home police are appealing to members of Toronto's gay community and a mysterious "person of interest" for information.

"There are people in the community who know who did this," says lead homicide investigator Det Sgt Daniel Nielsen.

"We want them to come forward."

Magill, 64, was brutally stabbed to death on the evening of Jul 14, 2008 after opening the door of his apartment at 40 Delisle Ave, near Yonge and St Clair in Toronto. Witnesses say at least two men entered the building just before the attack. Nielsen says one of them has been questioned but the identity of the other remains unclear.

Jury acquits lover of the death of Janko Naglic (d. 2004) [XTRA, March 5, 2008]

After just four hours of deliberation a jury acquitted Ivan Mendez-Romero of the 2004 death of his longtime lover Janko Naglic.

Naglic, the original owner of the Barn, was found dead in his Davisville-area home on Oct 27, 2004. He died of suffocation as the result of duct tape covering his mouth and nose.

The trial, which lasted a month, was largely comprised of second-hand testimony from friends of Naglic's who told the court that Naglic told them he had been threatened by Mendez-Romero and that he feared for his life. There had been no direct evidence offered by the Crown to link Mendez-Romero to the crime.

[Note: There's a lengthy index of related articles on the XTRA webpage.]

[Continued here]

• Rosie DiManno: The secret life of Ivan Mendez-Romero [Toronto Star, March 6, 2008]

Ivan Mendez-Romero married a woman for love.

But he stayed in a live-in long-standing relationship with a man out of ... kindness?

That would be the fellow, Janko Naglic, who Mendez-Romero did not kill, acquitted of first-degree murder late Tuesday night.

Naglic knew of the wife. The wife did not know of Naglic, at least not until the evening when her concealed rival showed up at a motel room and discovered the couple doing what couples do. A month later, October 2004, he was dead, slain in his home by persons unknown.

• Local bar owner claims he was hit up for protection money: Speculation surrounding police corruption scandal spills over to Church St [XTRA, April 29, 2004]

With new information surfacing almost daily about the multiple police corruption scandals in Toronto, it didn't take long for a possible Church St connection to arise.

"Somebody called me up and approached me and said he could help me out for a price and make the problems disappear," says Janko Naglic, owner of The Barn. Naglic says he doesn't know if it was a police officer or not, but the individual asked for $40,000 cash upfront and another $2,000 every week.

A 52 Division plainclothes unit of some 12 officers and supervisors was disbanded last week in response to allegations that members of the unit were taking protection money from downtown bars and demanding sexual favours from transsexual sex workers.

Heath Ledger, Actor, Is Found Dead at 28 (1979—2008 [New York Times, January 23, 2008]

Heath Ledger, the Australian-born actor whose breakthrough role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie "Brokeback Mountain" earned him a nomination for an Academy Award and comparisons to the likes of Marlon Brando, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Manhattan with sleeping pills near his body, the police said.

The police said Mr. Ledger, 28, was found naked on the floor near the bed in an apartment in SoHo that he had been renting. The chief police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police did not suspect foul play.

"There was no indication of a disturbance," he said, adding that there were no signs that Mr. Ledger had been drinking. Nor were any illegal drugs found in the loft, which takes up the entire fourth floor. Neighbors said Mr. Ledger had occupied it for several months.

Police officials said that a bottle of prescription sleeping pills was found on a nearby night table, but that they did not know whether the pills had anything to do with Mr. Ledger's death. Officers who checked the apartment found other prescription medications in the bathroom. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said an autopsy would be conducted on Wednesday.

Mr. Browne said no obvious indication of suicide, like a note, was found in the bedroom.

[Continued here]

• Brokeback Mountain (2005) [IMDb]

Leading Costa Rican LGBT-rights activist Abelardo Araya dies at 42 (1970—2012)
[Blabbeando, January 21, 2012]

Friends and relatives found Araya dead at his apartment on Thursday after not hearing from him for a couple of days. Police have ruled out foul play and believe that he died of a heart attack. Araya had recently spent a few weeks at a local hospital for ailments related to high blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes.

La Nación says that Araya developed his thirst for activism while living in Ecuador in the 1990's. When he returned to Costa Rica in 1998 he became the coordinator of a program offering support to parents and relatives of gay and lesbian children at the Latin American Health Prevention and Education Institute.

He would later launch Movimiento Diversidad (the Diversity Movement), a non profit LGBT-rights organization which sought to visibilize the Costa Rican LGBT community and increase its political power.

Speaking to Telenoticias 7, Marco Castillo, the organization's attorney and a close friend of Araya's said that while members of the LGBT community already had begun to organize, Araya was the first person in Costa Rica to organize public LGBT conferences and offer invitations to media to cover the events.

[Continued here]

Gay Ajax student kills himself [Shaquille Wisdom] kills himself (1994—2007)
[XTRA, December 6, 2007]

School officials in Durham region say they had no idea that a 13-year-old boy who hanged himself in October was being bullied for being gay.

Shaquille Wisdom, who killed himself on Oct 20, was being bullied at his high school in Ajax and via websites students set up to target fellow students.

But Phil Matsushita, the principal at Ajax High School, says the school had no idea there was any problem. He says Wisdom should have told a teacher or staff member.

"It's difficult to support any student around any issue if we're not told there is an issue," he says. "No one knew there was an issue. He was really well-integrated into the school. He was part of our student council and our improv group."

Wisdom's problems apparently began after he told a friend over the summer that he was gay. The friend outed him in June and students began tormenting him via websites. Matsushita says the bullies did not use school equipment or premises for the cyberbullying.

"They began calling him names and sending him ugly emails," his stepmother told the Toronto Sun. "He couldn't hide from them and he didn't let others know."

[Continued here]

• Gay teen's suicide brings some changes: Bullies' identities remain unknown [XTRA, January 31, 2008 ]

Nobody from the Durham District School Board returned repeated phone calls from Xtra, nor does the board's website reveal any new programs or reviews of existing programs the board might have implemented since Wisdom's suicide. The website also doesn't explain why the board declined to work with queer lobby group Egale Canada on their survey of homophoia and Canadian students.

The Egale survey, aimed at students in Grade 8 and up, asks questions not only about sexual orientation and gender identity but about language at school, bullying, the curriculum and teacher and staff support. Straight students are asked about their openness to queer students.

Only three school boards in Canada have agreed to work with Egale on the survey: Thunder Bay; one in Nova Scotia; and in Victoria, BC. In those schools, the survey will be addressed in some classes. Participation is completely voluntary and results will go directly and anonymously to Egale....

Two lesbian youth [Jeanine Blanchette and Chantal Dube] found dead in Orangeville
[XTRA, October 4, 2010]

The bodies of girlfriends Jeanine Blanchette, 21, and Chantal Dube, 17, were found in a wooded area in Orangeville on Saturday.

After ruling out foul play and a connection to a high-profile murder in September, police are investigating the possibility of a double suicide, reports CTV.

[Continued here]

• Family-led search party finds bodies of missing women in Orangeville [Toronto Star, October 3, 2010]

Frustrated with a futile three-day police search, the family of a missing Orangeville woman enlisted the help of a psychic and organized their own search party.

Less than two hours after setting out on foot, they found the lifeless bodies of Jeanine Blanchette, 21, and Chantal Dube, 17, in a wooded area in Orangeville.

Police have ruled out foul play and autopsy results won't be known for several weeks, but the family of one of the young women believes they overdosed on prescription medication.

Blanchette's family feels very strongly that Orangeville police didn't do all they could to find the two young women.

The tragic story began on Tuesday when two friends received "goodbye" phone calls from Jeanine and Chantal and reported them to police. The young women also left behind goodbye letters to family members.

Grieving Mother [of Justin Aaberg] Creates Support Group For Gay Kids (1995—2010)
[CBS Minnesota, October 13, 2011]

After Tammy Aaberg's 15-year-old son, Justin, killed himself last year after enduring anti-gay bullying, she made it her mission to tell his story and protect other gay and lesbian teens.

She pressed Anoka-Hennepin public schools to change some of its policies and helped with lawsuits against the district by students who claimed they were harassed over their sexuality. Now Aaberg has co-founded Justin's Gift, a support group for LGBT students in the suburban district.

The group has scheduled its first event for Oct. 22, a Halloween costume party at Champlin Community Center. It's open to anyone, but organizers expect most students will be from the local school district.

Justin's Gift is now little more than a website Aaberg runs from her basement desk, but she and the other four board members have big dreams for the group. She said in five years they hope to have their own community center; in 10 years they want to shelter homeless gay youth.

"Somehow in my head, I think I'll make this better and he'll come back, but I know it won't," she said of her son.

The district's treatment of LGBT students has received a lot of scrutiny because seven of its students - including Justin Aaberg - killed themselves in less than two years. A lawsuit claims at least four of the students were gay or perceived to be so. ...

Two Anoka-Hennepin school employees are on the board of Justin's Gift - Jefferson Fietek, a drama teacher at Anoka Middle School for the Arts, and Colleen Cashen, a psychologist and counselor at the Northdale Middle School. Johnson said there are no district policies preventing them from participating.

Fietek, the vice president of Justin's Gift, said he sees the need for a community-based group because many students don't want the exposure of joining a gay support group within their own school. "There are some kids who just do not feel safe in their home schools," Fietek said.

One of Fietek's students, Samantha Johnson, killed herself in October 2009. He said she was perceived as being a lesbian and taunted because of it. Fietek said he intends to tell students about Justin's Gift, regardless of the district's neutrality policy.

"We think it is important for young people to see where they fit in," Fietek said.

[Continued here]

• Franken Seeks Legislation To End Anti-GLBT Bullying [CBS Minnesota, November 18, 2010]

Franken (D-MN) announced the plan at a press conference in Washington Thursday while joined by Tammy Aaberg, whose 15-year-old son Justin Aaberg, a student in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, hanged himself in his room in July.

His friends told Tammy Aaberg he had been a frequent victim of anti-gay bullying.

Franken said his plan, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, would be part of the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act set to go before Congress next year. He cited Justin Aaberg's suicide as one in a disturbing trend.

• Mother To Bachmann: Take Stand Against Gay Bullying [CBS Minnesota, September 15, 2011]

The mother of a young gay teen who killed himself last year delivered a petition to the staff of GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

Tammi Aaberg wants Bachmann, who has a long history of opposing gay marriage, to take a stand against bullying of gays.

Mom sues city after suicide of 12-year-old son [Elijah Mendez], who was harassed by
schoolmates (1999—2011) [New York Daily News, July 4, 2011]

A grieving mom says her 12-year-old son killed himself after being harassed by schoolmates who thought he was gay - and she's suing the city for not stopping the abuse.

Bergouhi Elissa, 36, of Astoria, Queens, said she repeatedly complained to staff at Public School 84 that son Elijah Mendez was being bullied.

The situation got so bad that the seventh-grader hanged himself in his family's home on March 25, 2010, her lawyer said.

"No child should be afraid to go to school," Elissa said in a statement. "I believe that the school's inaction brought about the death of my son."

The suit contends that Elijah was subjected to "repeated and frequent taunting, ridicule, menacing, threatening abuse and bullying."

It also claims he was harassed due to his "perceived sexual orientation."

Elissa says she complained to the school more than 10 times about the taunting, which began when her son was in the fifth grade.

[Continued here]

• Mother sues city of New York over suicide of 12-year-old son who hanged himself over gay taunts [Daily Mail, July 4, 2011]

Mourners take anti-bully stand to honor Asher Brown (1997—2010)
[Houston Chronicle, October 2, 2010]

Family and friends released hundreds of balloons Saturday morning to commemorate 13-year-old Asher Brown, whose spirit was "like a free bird" that needed to be let go, a relative said.

The crowd of 250 overwhelmed the few dozen chairs that the family set up for the memorial service near Moore Elementary. Friends, classmates and relatives offered condolences and support for the family of the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD eighth-grader, who shot himself in the head last week after enduring what his parents called years of bullying and harassment from peers at Hamilton Middle School.

Mourning friends remembered Asher's personality, shared their own experiences with bullying and spoke out against harassment in schools.

"He was a good friend, although kind of odd, yes, I will admit," said 14-year-old classmate Garrett McDaniel. "But he was a great person, the one that made you just want to talk to him."

[Continued here]

• Parents of teen who killed self sue Cy-Fair ISD [Ultimate Cy-Fair, April 19, 2011]

Parents of Asher Brown, the gay teenager whose suicide last fall helped ignite a national discussion on school bullying, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District of violating the boy's civil rights when it failed to respond to complaints he was harassed for years.

"God put us here for a reason and we're going to take this mantle and do our best to represent the families out there who have kids that are going through the same thing and don't have a voice," said David Truong, Asher's stepfather, as he and his wife, Amy, discussed the lawsuit on the steps of the Texas Capitol.

Since Asher, 13, was found dead in his home of a single gunshot wound from his stepfather's 9mm Beretta pistol on Sept. 23, his parents have insisted it occurred after years of harassment by students at Hamilton Middle School, who picked on Asher because he was gay and a Buddhist.

The Bullying of Seth Walsh: Requiem for a Small-Town Boy
[Time, October 2, 2010]

Eleven-year-old Shawn Walsh paid a poignant tribute to the brother, just two years older, he had lost. Gripping a microphone as he stood at the altar of the First Baptist Church in Tehachapi, Calif., Shawn joshed that his brother could be "a pain in the butt" at times but that Seth was "the best big brother in the world - no, the galaxy." Wearing a yellow (Seth's favorite color) plaid shirt, Shawn then, without mentioning the word, made a heartbreaking reference to bullying, the specter at the heart of his family's mourning for his openly gay brother. "I always wanted to protect him," said Shawn, as sobs broke out in the church. "I just wish people could have been nice to him like my mom taught me."

People were not always nice to 13-year-old Seth Walsh. Neither his valiant younger brother Shawn nor the rest of his family could protect him from what they insist was chronic teasing. Even before Seth came out as gay, family and friends say, he was perpetually picked on for his mannerisms and his style of dressing. The bullying turned Seth Walsh to suicide, one of a spate of such deaths across the U.S. in the past two weeks.

On Sept. 19, his single mother Wendy found him unconscious; he had tried to hang himself from a tree in his backyard after another apparent bullying incident. He lingered on life support for more than a week. His death has since shattered emotions in this rural community 120 miles (190 km) north of Los Angeles. Close to 600 townspeople crammed into First Baptist on Friday, Oct. 1, to remember the teen who loved Pokémon, adored french fries above all other food and had an obsession with disco music. The church was so crowded that Pastor Ron Barker had mourners sit on the floor along the entire length of the middle aisle so everyone could find room inside the church. Still, many mourners gave up trying to enter. "Seth had friends that even this building could not contain," Barker said, smiling even as he knew the crowds in the church were a clear building violation. "My prayer for today is that the fire people don't show up."

[Continued here]

• Tehachapi school district responds to ACLU [Bakersfield.com, January 13, 2011]

In a letter both conciliatory and assertive, Tehachapi Unified School District Superintendent Richard Swanson has replied to the American Civil Liberty Union's demand that the district come up with a plan to deal with gender harassment.

He wrote that while many of the ACLU's recommendations are constructive, the district had policies and practices in place to address harassment, in all forms, prior to the suicide death of Seth Walsh, 13, last September.

Swanson's letter, to San Francisco-based ACLU attorney Elizabeth Gill, questions the ACLU's assertions that harassment of Seth was egregious and relentless. He defends his teachers, administrators and the district's students against those accusations.

"Many of the purported events, which you have advised, are surprising," he wrote. "I find it difficult to believe that our middle school students threw sandwiches and water bottles at Seth, that he was allowed to be continually threatened in the locker room, or that any student was able to call him a derogatory name in a public setting on school grounds without a consequence.

"Particularly egregious are your suggestions that school administrators were fully apprised of the harassment Seth was apparently experiencing, yet failed to respond appropriately."

The superintendent wrote he does not doubt the authenticity of the ACLU's evidence, but to discipline wrongdoers, he needs to know who they are so evidence can be gathered: "Toward that end, the district will be retaining an investigator to follow up on and verify the allegations made by your correspondence."

• California School Did Not Properly Protect Student From Anti-Gay Bullying [Think Progress, July 1, 2011]

The tragic death of 13-year-old Seth Walsh last year was one of many that drew national attention to the bullying of LGBT and LGBT-perceived youth. Now, the Department of Education has ruled that Tehachapi School District was negligent in intervening in the harassment Walsh faced in the years leading up to his suicide. In a 20-page letter, the DOE details the multitude of ways Walsh was harassed and how the district was negligent in defending him from sexual and gender-based harassment under Title IX and Title IV:

        Based on the above facts and analysis, the United States concludes that the Student was subject to persistent, pervasive, and often severe sex-based harassment that resulted in a hostile educational environment of which the District had notice, and that the District failed to take steps to sufficient [sic] to stop the harassment, to prevent its recurrence, or to eliminate the hostile environment. Although the District's Sexual Harassment Policy and Regulation are consistent with the law with respect to sexual harassment, the District did not adhere to its own policy in addressing the multiple forms of notice it received with regard to the treatment of the Student.

• Student's mother files lawsuit [Bakersfield.com, July 6, 2011]

Just days after federal officials found the Tehachapi Unified School District failed to investigate or respond appropriately to the bullying of a gay, 13-year-old middle school student who later hanged himself, his mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit.

In fact, the findings of the investigation released Friday are the foundation for Wendy Walsh's suit. The suit states that ongoing harassment of her son Seth was common knowledge by school staff, they did little to stop it, and because of the negligence, Seth hanged himself.

Walsh, in a suit filed Tuesday, is seeking compensation for wrongful-death damages, medical expenses and punitive damages.

"I want accountability," Walsh said Tuesday, sitting next to her attorney, Daniel Rodriguez.

• Seth's Law, Measure Designed To Curb Anti-Gay Bullying, Passes California State Senate [Huffington Post, September 2, 2011]

On Friday, the California State Senate approved Seth's Law (AB 9), a bill designed to crack down on the harassment of LGBT students in the state's schools.

Named after the 13-year old Seth Walsh, the gay junior high student who took his own life last year after facing constant harassment from bullies at his school in Tehachapi, California, the bill was authored by State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano. ...

In a recent study by the California Safe Schools Coalition found that nearly half of of California students who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual have been the victims of gender-based harassment-that number jumps to over 60 percent for transgender students.

• ACLU's Gilliam Remembers Seth Walsh: A Year of Advocacy in His Name [LGBT|POV, September 19, 2011]

[Buffalo, NY] Teenager [Jamey Rodemeyer] struggled with bullying before taking
his life (1997—2011) [Buffalo News, September 20, 2011]

Jamey Rodemeyer needed help. At 14, he was grappling with adolescent demons that could torment grown men.

And when he was online, he wrote about it.

"I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," he wrote Sept. 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?"

Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide.

In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age.

On Sept. 8, he wrote: "No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you're the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down."

He put up a separate post that day letting everyone know it was National Suicide Prevention Week.

[Continued here]

• Parents carry on anti-bullying message [WIBV, September 20, 2011]

Soon after coming home from a family camping trip, Jamey was found dead Sunday. His parents say he was always under pressure because of struggles with his sexuality.

Jamey's mother Tracy Rodemeyer said, "So he hung around with the girls a lot, so then the teasing started happening like 'Oh you're such a girl or you're gay or whatever and that bothered him for many years."

Now, they want to carry in his message in hopes of preventing another tragedy like this one.

• Video: Anderson Cooper Reports on Bisexual Teen Who Committed Suicide Last Sunday [LGBT|POV, September 21, 2011]

• Jamey Rodemeyer Suicide: Police Consider Criminal Bullying Charges [ABC News, September 22, 2011]

Police have opened a criminal investigation in the suicide death of Buffalo, N.Y., 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was bullied online with gay slurs for more than a year.

The teen's parents, friends and even Lady Gaga, who was his idol, have expressed outrage about what they say was relentless torment on social networking websites.

The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit has said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes. Police said three students in particular might have been involved. Jamey was a student at Heim Middle School.

• Jeffrey Fishberger, MD: Jamey Rodemeyer Suicide: What Parents Should Tell a Suicidal Teen [Huffington Post, September 22, 2011]

Recently, during National Suicide Prevention Week, extensive efforts were made to both increase awareness of the risks for suicide as well as specific ways to help those at risk. In the past several days, despite these efforts, there have been reports of young people -- like 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer -- who have taken their own lives. It is important to know that suicide is not the result of one but of many contributing factors, and while a negative environment at school and/or at home can impact a person's psychological well-being, each of those individual factors does not automatically lead to a young person ending their life.

These recent deaths are vital reminders of the crucial steps we all need to take to work to prevent more young people from taking their lives. These steps include working to minimize and address risk factors associated with suicide as well as increasing awareness of and expanding access to protective factors including emotional support.

• Christians and the Blood of Jamey Rodemeyer [John Shore's blog, September 20, 2011]

If you're a Christian who believes that being gay is a morally reprehensible offense against God, then you share a mindset, worldview, and moral structure with the kids who hounded Jamey Rodemeyer, literally, to death. It is your ethos, your convictions, and your theology that informed, supported, and encouraged their cruelty.

• Family, Friends Say Goodbye to Jamey Rodemeyer [WGRZ, September 25, 2011]

A caravan of trucks and buses loaded with students quickly passed by the church with signs conveying messages of tolerance and support for a young man gone too soon.

• "We lost a Little Monster this week" [Same Same, September 26, 2011]

"I wanted to dedicate this song to him tonight, because he was really young." the singer told the crowd at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Los Vegas at the weekend.

"Jamey, I know you're up there looking at us, and you're not a victim, you're a lesson to all of us," she added.

The troubled teenager, who was a huge Lady Gaga fan, had tweeted the singer in the moments before his death: "Bye mother monster, thank you for all you have done, paws up forever."

• Teen's parents: After suicide, he's still being bullied [MSNBC, September 27, 2011]

Even after a teen-ager tragically committed suicide in suburban Buffalo this month in the wake of constant harassment, the bullying allegedly did not stop with his death.

The parents of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was found dead at their home on Sept. 18, indicated in an exclusive interview with TODAY's Ann Curry on Tuesday that their daughter endured further taunts at a school function immediately after Jamey's wake. At a homecoming dance she attended shortly after her brother's death, a potentially poignant moment turned ugly after a song by Lady Gaga, Jamey's favorite artist, who recently dedicated a song at a concert in his memory.

"She was having a great time, and all of a sudden a Lady Gaga song came on, and they all started chanting for Jamey, all of his friends,'' Jamey's mother, Tracy, told Curry. "Then the bullies that put him into this situation started chanting, 'You're better off dead!' and 'We're glad you're dead!' and things like that.

"My daughter came home all upset. It was supposed to be a time for her to grieve and have fun with her friends, and it turned into bullying even after he's gone.''

"I can't grasp it in my mind,'' said Tim Rodemeyer, Jamey's father. " I don't know why anyone would do that. They have no heart, that's basically what it comes down to.''

• Bullying of Jamey addressed just once [Buffalo News, October 6, 2011]

The Williamsville School District appears to have only one documented case of bullying involving Jamey Rodemeyer, police say. The incident apparently happened when he was a student at Heim Middle School, and disciplinary action was promptly taken.

In an update of the investigation into the Sept. 18 suicide of the 14-year-old Williamsville North High School freshman, Amherst Police Chief John C. Askey said Wednesday that a single documented incident of harassment occurred when Jamey was in seventh grade. ...

It's clear that Jamey lived a lot of his life online, Askey said.

For that reason, Amherst police have turned over Jamey's computer and cellphone to the Erie County Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory to see if there's a pattern of bullying that ultimately may warrant charges of aggravated harassment and hate crimes in the coming weeks.

"Jamey can't talk to us anymore," Askey said. "Hopefully, his computer can."

Meanwhile, the chief said, police have determined that many recent allegations of bullying directed toward Jamey and later his 16-year-old sister, Alyssa, do not yet rise to the level of criminality.

• Taking a stand for Jamey Rodemeyer [McClatchy, October 25, 2011]

Ordinarily, the news that Star Trek's new Mr. Spock had told New York magazine he was gay would barely register. It has become, a rather ordinary thing, celebrities disclosing their hidden sexuality.

But Quinto came out for Jamey.

Jamey's death, he wrote on his blog, showed him "that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality." ...

The dynamics of bigotry are remarkably consistent whether the bigotry be racial, religious, ethnic or sexual: The target group is invariably defined as a threatening, inferior or offensive "other" to whom no ordinary duties of human decency and respect are owed.

But with sexual orientation, it is easier to hide the offending trait. The abuse becomes something you have to volunteer for. That's what Quinto just did. And what other gay people must find the courage to do....

By coming out in honor of Jamey, standing with and for this tortured boy, Zachary Quinto acknowledges the obvious.

It does not get better on its own.

• Cops: No Charges in Suicide of Bullied N.Y. Teenager [Edge Boston, November 22, 2011]

On Tuesday, police said in a statement that an investigation revealed that Jamey was subjected to "insensitive" and "inappropriate" comments, but that there was no prosecutable offense.

• Williamsville North students suspended [Buffalo News, December 5, 2011]

The Williamsville Central School District concluded its investigation into the Jamey Rodemeyer case last week by suspending some North High School students after Amherst police closed their criminal investigation Nov. 22 without filing charges.

"[The police] shared some information with us, and we followed up," Superintendent Scott Martzloff said. "We made the determination to take disciplinary action."

He declined to say how many students were suspended. Though based on Amherst police findings, it's likely that several of Jamey's classmates were sanctioned.

Regarding the severity of punishments these students received, Martzloff said only that the students face "a minimum of suspensions." That implies at least short-term suspensions of up to five days, with the possibility of long-term suspensions subject to a hearing. Expulsion is not an option for students of this age.

Martzloff said that after following up on the police findings, the district issued the student sanctions Wednesday.

• Tracy Rodemeyer: Mother's Day 2012: My First Without My Son [HuffPo, May 11, 2012]

Little did I know that Sunday, May 8, 2011 would be my last Mother's Day with both my children. Half my life was taken away from me on Sept. 18, 2011. This is when my son Jamey committed suicide. I began to reexamine my life: Why am I here? Why do I exist? Do I deserve to remain on this Earth when my son is no longer with us? My children were my life, the air that I breathed, the reason for my existence. The blood that ran through me was inside both of them. This Mother's Day I will ask myself a question I ask myself every day: Do I deserve to be recognized on Mother's Day after all that has happened? This Mother's Day will be the hardest ever.

I do know that now that my son is in Heaven, he understands why I did the things I did. I wasn't there to just be his friend all the time; at times I had to be the mother who showed him the difference between right and wrong, taught him the ways of the world, and gave him the strength to grow wings so that one day he could fly away on his own. Little did I know that I was building the wings that he would soon use in Heaven. He must have some rather large wings, as I can feel him watching over me all the time, especially in my saddest moments, when I need him the most. ...

And from the mouth of Jamey: "Love yourself, hold your head up high, and you will go far." Don't worry about the negative things that people may say about you. Be yourself, and love yourself. That is all that matters. We are all different, and we should all embrace those differences, because they make us all unique and special.

15-year-old Jamie Hubley's lonely cry for acceptance [in Ottawa, Ontario]
[Ottawa Citizen, October 17, 2011]

Jamie Hubley documented the final month of his life in heartbreaking and painful detail.

The 15-year-old boy, a son of Kanata South Councillor Allan Hubley and his wife, Wendy Barber, kept a blog in which he wrote openly of his struggles with depression and the challenges of being an openly gay teenager.

"I wish I could be happy, I try, I try, I try ... I just want to feel special to someone," he wrote.

He was, of course, special to many people but, tragically, the Grade 10 student took his own life on Saturday.

His death comes nearly a year after the suicide of Daron Richardson, the 14-year-old daughter of Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson, which has shed much-needed light locally on the issue of youth mental health.

[Continued here]

• Statement for Councillor Hubley on the passing of his son James [GayNorfolk-net]
• Gay Ottawa teen takes own life: 'How do you even know it will get better?' [XTRA, October 17, 2011]
• Gay Canadian Teen Latest Casualty of Bullying [Edge Boston, October 17, 2011]
• Hubley says bullying pushed his son over the edge: Jamie's depression was made worse by taunting at school [XTRA, October 17, 2011]

Ottawa city councillor Allan Hubley has said homophobic bullying at school was one of the reasons his son, Jamie, committed suicide on Oct 14.

"We must do whatever we can to wipe out bullying for any reason in our society and especially in our schools," said Hubley in an Oct 17 press release. "Young people are very vulnerable and have enough pressures in life to have to deal with aside from the stress of being bullied. My family's wish is that no more families have to suffer the unbearable pain of losing a child. No child should have to deal with depression or feel hated because of their beliefs - that is not the Canadian way of treating others."

Hubley said bullying which began in Grade 7, when Jamie was picked on because he was involved in figure skating and not hockey, exacerbated his son's struggle with depression.

More recently, Hubley said Jamie was taunted for trying to revive a rainbow support group for gay students at A.Y. Jackson Secondary School.

• 'I just want to feel special to someone': Gay 15-year-old kills himself after chronicling his unhappiness online [Daily Mail, October 18, 2011]

His blog, entitled You Can't Break When You're Already Broken, is a catalogue of the 10th grade student's desperate pleas.

In a heartbreaking message three days ago, he wrote: 'I'm a casualty of love... I hit rock f****** bottom, fell through a crack, now I'm stuck.'

• Another Suicide: It's Not Bullying — It's School Mugging [Truth Wins Out, October 18, 2011]

I am so fed up with writing the same story — over and over and over again. This madness has to stop. And the first way we decrease these tragedies is to stop minimizing the torment and harassment by reducing it to mere bullying.

These kids are not getting bullied — they are getting mugged. The schools where these kids go are not places of education, but cages where students are psychologically and physically tortured. What they endure is "bullying" in the same way dropping a mouse into a snake tank is mere "bullying." What many of these helpless students put up with is more like The Wire or Oz than a legitimate learning environment.

If the same violent incidents occurred on the subway or at the grocery store they would considered mugging and the perpetrator would be arrested for assault. But if these criminal acts happen in the prison yard, um, I mean schoolyard, they are dismissed as bullying.

The dirty little secret is that the majority the teachers know exactly what is going on. They know who the thugs are. They know who the victims are. Yet, they often do nothing and sometimes contribute to the terror — particualrly if they are anti-gay. Many teachers also want to be seen as cool, so they cozy up to the popular jocks who often lead the daily assaults.

I often hear we cannot stop bullying/mugging. What a load of nonsense. We can significantly reduce it by holding teachers and administrators responsible for their actions. If a teacher is aware of a campus mugging or abets the crime — he or she should be immediately suspended without pay for a month. If the infraction occurs a second time,the teacher should be suspended for an entire year. A third violation would lead to termination. The same criteria would apply to district administrators.

• Mallick: Meet the boy the bullies broke [Toronto Star, October 18, 2011]

What a shockingly beautiful boy Jamie Hubley was. The ruddy hair, the smokin' wide grin, that shy downward look - I'm wild and bold but, um, maybe not so much, the look seemed to say - as he sang Lady Gaga's new song, "Born This Way," on YouTube.

Jamie was only 15, which is why I'm journalistic ethics-wise allowed to refer to him by his first name, as if he were a friend of mine. And how I wish he had been. This kid could have helped my sadness, I could have helped his, he would have brought credit and affection and candour to everyone who knew him, but now he's dead, no chance now.

When brightness falls, it falls so hard. Watch Jamie singing. He doesn't get the low notes quite right. It makes your heart crack.

The Ottawa schoolboy died Saturday of human cruelty, profoundly depressed after years of being bullied for being gay. He killed himself. I'm astonished to read that he was being hounded even in Grade 7 - students tried to stuff batteries down his throat on the school bus after he chose figure skating over ice hockey - but then I remember Grade 7 and what little animals we were.

• 'It gets better,' Tory MPs tell gay teens in video [CBC, October 20, 2011]

A group of Conservative MPs, staffers and cabinet ministers have joined the 'It gets better' campaign, urging gay teens to talk to someone if they're being bullied.

The MPs and political staff put together a video as part of a campaign started by columnist Dan Savage in response to a spate of suicides by gay teens. The idea is to inspire teens who feel like they can't make it through high school, or at least to let them know that they aren't alone.

The YouTube video features high-ranking MPs like Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, Public Works and Government Services Minister Rona Ambrose. It is dedicated to Jamie Hubley, an Ottawa teen who killed himself last weekend. MPs Lois Brown, Candice Hoppner and Shelly Glover are also in the video.

The video was released Thursday, the day of Hubley's funeral. MPs wore purple Thursday to show support for bullied teens.

• Remembering Jamie Hubley: 'He would put everybody else first and then worry about himself later' [XTRA, October 20, 2011]
• Hundreds pay respect to Jamie Hubley: Ottawa mourns gay teen who couldn't 'take it anymore' [XTRA, October 20, 2011]

More than 500 people crammed into the Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Parish for the funeral of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley, son of Ottawa Councillor Allan Hubley, on Oct 20. ...

The Mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson and many of the city councillors were present. Donna Blackburn, Ottawa Carleton District School Board trustee, said that the mood was sombre and quiet. She said that Hubley's cousin gave an eloquent eulogy and that his friend spoke warm heartedly about the teen but that she felt heavy at heart.

"I cannot think clearly. I am angry and I am upset," she said.

• MPs commemorate Jamie Hubley: Baird says bullying, homophobia 'have no place in our schools' [XTRA, October 21, 2011]

On Oct 20, MPs commemorated Hubley and all victims of homophobic bullying - some wore purple clothes, others attached purple ribbons to their jackets.

NDP queer issues critic Randall Garrison noted the importance of the day, highlighting both BC's Purple Letter Campaign and the Oct 20 evening vigil for Hubley.

The Purple Letter Campaign was recently created to lobby the BC government to adopt a sexual orientation policy for schools.

"Beyond wearing purple today, we also need to act to help bring an end to suicides caused by homophobic bullying," Garrison told the House. "We need to ensure that youth have supports they need and no one is left feeling that suicide is the only option. We need to listen to the calls from youth to make it better now. Yes for most it will get better, but some feel they cannot wait."

Dany Morin, NDP associate critic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual issues, asked what the government is doing to stop bullying. ...

Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was also wearing purple to show her support, says MPs should also examine their behaviour.

"We need to do more than make the statement and wear purple," May says. "We have to notice how we behave to one another, and when the seat of government behaves in ways that are bullying on a routine basis, you have to wonder if they don't see the irony."

• Dan Savage: Conservative Elected Officials Release "It Gets Better" Video [The Stranger, October 21, 2011]

        I am trying (but struggling very much) to be positive about Canadian cabinet minister Vic Toews' appearance in an "It Gets Better" video. The video was posted by Conservative staffers and Members of Parliament in the wake of Jamie Hubley's suicide this week in Ottawa. One side of me is glad. The other side is enraged. Toews, having repeatedly sought votes by peddling fear and homophobia, now has the gall to tell us that it gets better? The patronizing bastard.

        I think that maybe it will get better when hypocrites like him stop telling our neighbours and colleagues how we are a threat to their communities and families. And he pretends to wonder where the hate and bullying comes from? What a fucking miserable prick. To me, It Gets Better is supposed to be a source of positive energy and I hate to be a downer, but...

• Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee speaks out against anti-gay bullying: Vows to make sure every school has gay-straight alliances [XTRA, October 26, 2011]

Blackburn spoke after Jennifer Adams, the director of education for OCDSB, opened the meeting. In her report, Adams acknowledged the loss of Hubley as well as the problem of homophobia and bullying in schools.

"This tragedy is a reminder of the complexities we are faced with everyday in our schools. Issues of bullying, sexual orientation, depression and suicide require a district-wide and a community-wide effort," said Adams. "I want to be clear that for the OCDSB, bullying and homophobic comments and actions have not, and never will be, tolerated."

Adams stated that although steps have been made to make classrooms a safe space, there is still more work to be done.

"Our next step will be the hallways, lunchrooms, playgrounds where staff are not always able to witness every interaction between students. This work will require staff, trustees, parents and the community to work together because a cultural change is required."

• McGuinty gets tough on bullying with new legislation [Globe & Mail, November 30, 2011]

Students who send classmates hateful text messages or shove them in the hallways at school could be expelled under tough new anti-bullying legislation introduced in Ontario.

The legislation would make it clear that inappropriate student behaviour, including bullying, sexual assault, gender-based violence and incidents based on homophobia, will not be tolerated in the province's elementary and secondary schools. It would also impose a legal obligation on school boards to address bullying and take steps to stop it, including possibly expelling students.

"We want our schools to be warm, welcoming, safe, secure and accepting," Premier Dalton McGuinty said in Question Period on Wednesday. "We want all our kids to feel free to be who they are."

That is not reality for far too many students. Bullying is an underestimated and pervasive problem in the province's schools, Education Minister Laurel Broten said on Wednesday in introducing the legislation, known as the Accepting Schools Act. A survey of students in grades 7 through 12 done by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2009 found that almost one in three students has been bullied at school.

• Grieving parents urge quick passage of anti-bullying bill [Globe & Mail, December 7, 2011]

It was Jamie's story that prompted Premier Dalton McGuinty to unveil legislation last week containing tougher consequences for schoolyard bullies, including expulsion. Jamie's parents, Ottawa city councillor Allan Hubley and his wife, Wendy, were at the Ontario Legislature on Wednesday, where they met with Mr. McGuinty and opposition members to impress upon them the urgency of putting aside their partisan differences and quickly passing the legislation into law.

"We lost our boy. They can't bring him back," Mr. Hubley told The Globe and Mail. "But there's other kids who are at risk. The longer they take, there's going to be more Jamies."

The proposed legislation provides a rare opportunity for the new minority government in Ontario to work together with the Official Opposition. Progressive Conservative education critic Elizabeth Witmer introduced her own anti-bullying private member's bill the same day the Liberals unveiled their legislation.

As well, Mr. Hubley noted the cross-partisan efforts on the part of two Ottawa-area MPPs, Progressive Conservative Lisa MacLeod and Liberal Yasir Naqvi, who are working with local experts and front-line services to try to understand how the community as a whole can prevent more teen suicides. The two MPPs were instrumental, he said, in bringing Jamie's story to the Premier's attention.

But what concerns Mr. Hubley is the handful of Christian and Jewish groups who are denouncing the government's anti-bullying legislation, calling it a front for the Premier's "radical sex education" agenda. ...

"Obviously, there are different groups that would like to hijack the agenda," Mr. Hubley said. "We're here to say, don't let them."

• Jamie's legacy: Acceptance? [Ottawa Citizen, December 8, 2011]

Allan and Wendy Hubley entered Dalton McGuinty's wood-paneled corner office at Queen's Park with a simple message Wednesday.

The couple, who lost their 15-year-old son Jamie to suicide barely seven weeks ago, wanted to tell the Premier how much they appreciate the Liberal anti-bullying legislation that was in large part inspired by Jamie's death.

They also wanted to tell the Premier to start working with the other side on the issue.

"The kids are watching us," Allan Hubley said. "This is important."

The message seems to be getting through.

McGuinty, who pre-empted a Progressive Conservative party private member's bill on bullying with his own legislation last week, told reporters Wednesday he would "find measures within the (Conservative) bill and we will incorporate those into our own bill."

"We're going to stand together," McGuinty said.

• Superior Heights Collegiate and Vocational School student Cameron Aitken welcomes bullying legislation [Sault Star, December 8, 2011]

While some religious groups are criticizing proposed legislation that would require schools to allow gay-straight alliances, Superior Heights Collegiate and Vocational School student Cameron Aitken says it's about time the province paved the way for the clubs.

Aitken helped found the Sault high school's gay-straight alliance last year.

"I think it's about time that everyone is given an equal opportunity and that you don't have to fight to establish such a club," said the Grade 12 student.

"I was lucky enough that I just had to bring forth the proposal to my principal and they were really awesome about it," he said. "I know in other schools, or in maybe some of the separate schools, it's not as easy. You have to fight to establish a club that has only positive aims for the school."

Rafael Morelos, Gay Washington Teen, Commits Suicide After Reportedly Enduring Anti-Gay Bullying, Cyberbullying (1998—2012 ) [Huffington Post, February 6, 2012]

As The Wentachee World is reporting, 14-year-old Rafael Morelos hanged himself Jan. 29 after friends say he was subjected to bullying at Cashmere Middle School, where he had enrolled last fall.

"He told me he got shoved and punched in the face in P.E. in the locker room at Cashmere," one friend said. Added another: "He was tired of people saying that his little brothers would follow in his footsteps and be gay, too."

In addition, friends say one bully even created a fake Facebook page so that he or she could taunt Rafael, who was openly gay, online.

Morelos' mother, Malinda, told local Fox affilate Q13 she wasn't aware of what her son was going through. "He did not tell me he was being bullied. He had a dark side inside him that he never told me his feelings anymore," she said. "I thought it was just him being a teenager, and I just didn't know why."

[Continued here]

Parents: Gay teen [Phillip Parker] took his life because of bullying (1998—2012)
[WSMV, January 21, 2012]

A Gordonsville boy's parents say bullying caused their son to take his own life. Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay.

More than 100 people gathered in Gordonsville on Saturday night, grieving the loss of Phillip.

"He was fun, he was energetic, he was happy," said Gena Parker, Phillip's mother.

To his many friends, Phillip was known as the boy who told everyone they're beautiful.

"He kept telling me he had a rock on his chest," said Ruby Harris, Phillip's grandmother. "He just wanted to take the rock off where he could breathe."

Phillip's family said they reported their concerns over their son's bullying to Gordonsville High School on multiple occasions, but the bullying by a group of students just got worse.

[Continued here]

• Gordonsville student endured years of anti-gay bullying before ending his life [Tennessee Equality Project, January 23, 2012]

While attending Saturday's conference, H.G. Stovall and I met a former teacher who knew Phillip while he attended Gordonsville Elementary School. Tears flowed as she told us that Philip had endured years of anti-gay bullying at the school and that bullying in general at Gordonsville Elementary School often goes unaddressed by faculty and staff. She knew of several students who had to transfer to other schools to escape the harassment. This educator also knew Phillip had endured anti-gay preaching from the pulpit of his church.

Suicide claims another LGBT youth: Eric James Borges, 19 (1993—2012)
[Queer Landia, January 12, 2012]

Eric James Borges, 19, of Visalia, California, succumbed to suicide Wednesday, January 11, 2012. Known as EricJames to his friends, he was an intern with the Trevor Project, and a Supplemental instructor at the College of the Sequoias.

Word began spreading late Wednesday among shocked and saddened friends and acquaintances. Not accepted by his birth family, EricJames was striking out on his own, trying to deal with his personal situation, but also wanting to help others. Sadly, even involvement with the Trevor Project was not enough to help him navigate the turbulent waters of young adulthood.

EricJames posted this video on November 10, 2011.

[Continued here]

• Eric James Borges, Gay Teen Filmmaker, Commits Suicide One Month After Producing 'It Gets Better' Video [Huffington Post, January 12, 2012]

Borges spoke frankly of being tormented throughout his adolescence and young adulthood in his video. "I was physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally assaulted on a day-to-day basis for my perceived sexual orientation," he said. "My name was not Eric, but 'Faggot.'" He claims his mother performed an exorcism on him in an effort to cure her son of his homosexuality before eventually kicking him out of his home.

• Eric James Borges' Suicide Note, Memorial Service Sheds New Insight Into Bullied Gay Teen's Life [Huffington Post, January 29, 2012]

A published excerpt from a suicide note and comments made by friends at a memorial service is shedding a new light on a gay teen filmmaker who took his own life earlier this month.

San Diego Gay & Lesbian News contributor Melanie Nathan, who attended one of several memorials dedicated to Eric James Borges (known as 'EricJames' to his friends), quotes from the note -- which includes references to friends and his favorite pop icon -- in her exclusive report.

"To my friends you gave me life and love, never think this was your fault," one segment reads. "To Lady Gaga, you have been a fearless relentless proud LGBT advocate..." The 19-year-old Borges, who worked as an intern for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth advocacy group The Trevor Project, also expresses his gratitude to the organization: "I do not want my passing to reflect poorly on the Trevor Project," he wrote. "That organization was the best decision I ever made in my life."

The note concludes: "My pain is not caused because I am gay. My pain was caused by how I was treated because I am gay."

Granite Bay teen [Jeffrey Fehr] who committed suicide was bullied for being gay (1994—2012)
[Sacramento Bee, January 15, 2012]

On a blustery Saturday morning inside a Granite Bay church, nearly 1,000 people gathered to say goodbye to Jeffrey Fehr. Men and women in dark clothing filled every seat and stood along a back wall. Teenagers wearing shirts with Jeffrey's image clustered in groups, crying and leaning into one another for support.

At a reception that followed his funeral, many spoke of a gifted young athlete who was funny, kind and compassionate. They called Jeffrey an inspiration and a mentor.

For Jeffrey's parents, Pati and Steve Fehr, the scene was stunning.

"So many people gained strength from Jeff," his father said, looking out at the crowd. "The unfortunate part is that Jeff didn't realize it."

In the early hours of New Year's Day, Jeffrey hanged himself in the front entrance to his family's home in a tony Granite Bay neighborhood. He was 18 years old.

[Continued here]

Indiana kid [Billy Lucas] bullied to death (1995—2010)
[Box Turtle Bulletin, September 14, 2010]

        He was a teenager who didn't quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different.

        The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him.

        "People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. ...

This time the 'I Don't Give A Damn Award' goes to Principal Phil Chapple, who had no idea that Lucas was being bullied. Nope, no clue.

But he did say this:

        "Sometimes he created that atmosphere around him," Chappel said. "Kind of like a little tornado because he went around doing things that made dust fly, I guess."

So Chappel saw dust fly, but never noticed that kids were threatening Billy every day. Un-huh. And he admits that his problems were because "people found out who he was."

So I guess Chappel's version is that Billy "created that atmosphere" by being "who he was" and "went around doing things" that "made dust fly" but Chappel never noticed any bullying, no sir. In his rush to blame Lucas for his own mistreatment, Chappel didn't even see the internal contradiction in his own story. ...

Chappel's newfound awareness of bullying is total bull. Another previous student - one who survived his own suicide attempt - told school officials about his anti-gay bullying. They did nothing.

[Continued here]

• Bullied Greensburg student takes his own life [WXIN, September 13, 2010]

Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy's mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself.

Students said on that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself.

"They said stuff like 'you're like a piece of crap' and 'you don't deserve to live.' Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever," said Swango.

Principal Phil Chapple doesn't deny that students are bullied in the high school, but he said he didn't know Billy was one of the victims.

Alexandria's Echo Press ignores [Lance] Lundsten's toxicology report (1993—2011)
[Box Turtle Bulletin, March 8, 2011]

On Saturday, January 15, 2011, openly gay 18 year-old high school student Lance Lundsten died. Fellow students reported that Lance was openly gay and subjected to bullying at school and expressed their sadness and their wish that some adult had protected him. But the adults in Lance's life had an entirely difference response.

Jefferson High School, where Lance was subjected to homophobic bullying, has no gay-straight alliance, has no inclusive anti-discrimination policy, and no acknowledgment of the existence of students like Lance or any provisions to address their need or concerns. The school superintendent Terry Quist issued a statement that not only refused to consider that bullying could have played a part, but chastised and criticized Lance's friends for suggesting that Lance's death may have been at his own hand and due in part to bullying he experienced while under Quist's supervision. ...

But lack of "factual basis" did not limit others from engaging in a public relations effort to deny who Lance was, squelch any talk about issues that could have led to his death, and craft a pretty lie to replace the story that fellow students were presenting. Rather than allow the tragedy to be an opportunity to acknowledge that Alexandria, MN, has a culture of animus and hostility towards gay people, including their own children, those who should have protected Lance instead joined together to bully him after his death. ...

And although the coroner refuted this claim, Jon Lundsten was not interested in considering whether his son had been bullied or whether Jon's own difficulties with his son had contributed in any way to Lance believing that life was not worth going on. So he stuck with his "enlarged heart" tale.

Besides diverting any need to talk about any icky gay stuff, this solved a more immediate problem. Declaring Lance's death not to be a suicide allowed for his memorial and burial to be through the Catholic Church. Rev. Father Steve Binsfeld could officiate.

Today the toxicology reports came back.

Lance's death was a suicide.

[Continued here]

• Another Bullied Gay Teen In Minnesota Commits Suicide [Pride Utah, January 17, 2011]

We've lost another beautiful life to bullying. 18 year old Lance Lundsten, an openly gay student at Jefferson High School took his life over the weekend. Friends say that Lance suffered extreme bullying and harassment for years.

Lance Lundsten's friends have created a new facebook group after the news of his death called the "Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition." Even if his school didn't help Lance survive the bullying, the heroic group of friends are pushing to do their part. The page reads "Here to stand up for everyone who needs defending. The school's staff isn't protecting us, it's up to the students to help eachother."

Facebook-loving teen [Hayden Peter Miles] remembered online (1996—2011)
[Gay NZ, December 12, 2011]

Tributes are flowing on Facebook for a Christchurch teenager who loved spending time on the social media site, on the day three people have appeared in court on various charge relating to the missing teenager, who is believed to have been murdered.

The three were arrested yesterday on various charges relating to the disappearance of Hayden Peter Miles on 22 August, when he was 15. ...

Police are today searching the Ruru Lawn Cemetery, based on information Hayden's body might be there.

[Continued here]

• Murdered teen's body still not found [The Press, December 12, 2011]

A team of eight police officers searching a Christchurch cemetery has so far failed to find the body of murdered teenager Hayden Miles.

The officers, together with Environmental Science and Research staff, a forensic pathologist and other experts began searching the Ruru Lawn Cemetery in Linwood today for the body of the 15-year-old, who disappeared on August 22.

Police believe he has been murdered, and three people charged over events surrounding his death appeared in court today. One is accused of robbing the teenager of a cask of wine.

Police said today that nothing had been found and they expected to be at the cemetery for several days.

• Teen death: tenants fear for lives [New Zealand Herald, December 14, 2011]

Police investigating the murder of 16-year-old Miles yesterday recovered human remains from a crime scene at Ruru Lawn Cemetery in Linwood, near to the Cashel St house.

Formal identification of the remains had not yet been made but a post-mortem examination is expected later today.

The rundown Cashel St property, where the teen was last seen, has been subject to an extensive forensic examination over the last 11 days.

• Police vow not to 'rush' graveyard examination [Nwq Zealand Herald, December 14, 2011]

Police investigating the death of missing Christchurch teenager Hayden Miles have vowed not to "rush'' an ongoing graveyard scene examination where human remains were found yesterday. ...

Detective Inspector Virginia Le Bas, who has worked on the case from its early stages when Miles went missing on August 22, told APNZ police were restricted as to what they could say.

She said: "An arrest has already been made, so it's quite different from when we sometimes find a body or whatever and we can talk a lot more. But we're in a situation now where the arrests have already been made and it's all before the court. There isn't a lot more we can specifically discuss.''

• Nasty spat over online tributes [New Zealand Herald, December 18, 2011]

A 27-year-old Christchurch man has been charged with murdering Hayden on August 22, while he was under Child, Youth and Family care. ...

This weekend Hayden's mother Jacqui took offence to the page - despite posting messages to her boy on another, very similar site - and asked pals behind it to take it down.

The youngsters refused to back down, sparking a furious war of words.

The page administrator posted: "I am not taking this page down. We have a right to have pages where we can write messages for Hayden.

We were his friends. We're upset too. So stop your bulls***." ...

One poster, Jess Waho-Dixon, said: "So it's all about his mum is it, what about Hayden? He's dead! Grow up and realise that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this page and the person who made it is a lovely friend! It's not up to his mum, it's up to him and to be honest I think he would've loved this page."

• Remains confirmed to be from murdered teenager [New Zealand Herald, December 19, 2011]

Christchurch Police have confirmed that the post-mortem examination on human remains recovered by the Operation Miles investigation team has been completed.

The remains have been formally identified as that of Hayden Peter Miles, aged 15, of Christchurch.

A statement released from the Miles family, via the police, today said: "Hayden was a shy, sensitive and vulnerable boy who, like many young teenagers, was struggling to find his way in the world. As a family we loved him very much and we were committed to helping him transition through this difficult period in his life.

"We accessed every resource we could to try to ensure positive outcomes for Hayden. We are all devastated that those outcomes have not been realised and that Hayden has been robbed of the opportunity to become the courageous and good-hearted man he showed promise of becoming.

"We hope that Hayden's tragic death highlights the urgent need for adequate resourcing to protect other vulnerable young teenagers.

School bullying [of Jamarcus Bell]: Did district miss cries for help? (1996—2010)
[Indianapolis Star, November 30, 2011]

Didn't anyone notice what was happening to Jamarcus Bell?

Didn't any students, teachers or administrators see pieces of metal thrown at the 14-year-old during a welding class? Didn't they hear the painful anti-gay slurs thrown at him in the hallways?

Wasn't his apparent suicide attempt in the seventh grade -- when he was found alive in a janitor's closet, with a noose hanging from the ceiling -- a clear sign to educators or fellow students that this kid was having problems?

Apparently not, according to his mother, who has filed a federal lawsuit against Hamilton Southeastern Schools alleging negligence in a tragic situation that ended in October 2010 when Jamarcus -- called Marcus by friends -- hung himself a second, and final, time.

Marcus' death and the lawsuit raise questions about who's to blame when a youth commits suicide, a situation often complicated by depression, mental health issues and family issues. But the legal issues may be more clear-cut.

[Continued here]

• Superintendent says HSE acted to prevent bullying [Indianapolis Star, December 1, 2011]

Friends say classmate [Jacob Rogers] killed self after bullying [because of his]
sexuality (1993—2011) [WSMV, December 7, 2011]

Students at a local school are grieving a classmate. Friends say the young man took his own life because he couldn't take any more bullying.

And they say school officials knew about the torment but didn't do enough to stop it.

Friends say that kids bullied Jacob Rogers at Cheatham County Central High School for the past four years, but in the past few months it had become so bad he dropped out of school.

And Wednesday, he ended his life.

[Continued here]

[Note: It took just 2 hours for the gay community to raise the $5000 that Jacob's family desperately needed to give this precious boy a proper burial. Hugs to Joe Jervis, Andy Towle and Dan Savage.]

• Years Of Anti-Gay Bullying Leads To Suicide Of Tennessee Teen [The New Civil Rights Movement, December 8, 2011]
• John Shore: Another Teen Bullied to Death, Another Reason for a New Christianity [Huffington Post, December 8, 2011]

If Christians would actually read the Bible, instead of daring to insist that three or four isolated phrases within it justifies a theology that has no more to do with Christ than Fred Phelps has to do with Welcome Wagon, we would arrive at a popular Christianity that is not, as so much of our Christianity is today, a pure affront to anyone with half a conscience.

• Bullied Teenager Takes Own Life in Tennessee [SLOG, December 8, 2011]

Maybe this time someone will face malicious harassment charges:

...

        He started coming home his senior year saying "I don't want to go back. Everyone is so mean. They call me a faggot, they call me gay, a queer," friend Kaelynn Mooningham said. Kaelynn also said her friend Jacob felt ignored. Jacob told me no one was helping him. He was constantly going to the school's guidance counsellor.

        Kaelynn says Jacob lived with his grandmother who primarily took care of him. She found a couple of notes that Jacob left for her. In those notes Jacob left passwords to his email and his phone so investigators could determine why he chose to kill himself. [Heavily edited]

...

It sounds like this kid was failed by most of the adults in his life-his parents, his teachers, his school administrators.

• Stunned community looks for justice after gay teen's suicide [Tennessean, December 26, 2011]

The Cheatham County teenager told over-the-top jokes, goofed off in photos and dressed in daring costumes for Halloween.

He had energy nobody seemed to match. And when he got his friends laughing, he didn't let up. He once coerced a pregnant friend - already past her due date - to hop off the couch and model a pair of high heels, runway style.

But he also sought a different kind of attention: help in working through depression, substance abuse and family issues that tormented him.

In his death by suicide this month, Jacob lost control of the attention he'd receive. His life, a swirl of complexity and turmoil, became, in death, a much simpler story of a gay student bullied so badly that he chose to end his life. ...

He was openly gay and wanted to be comfortable saying so. But maybe more than others, Jacob became an almost daily target for name-calling, said friend Kaelynn Mooningham, 18.

"It was like every day, every class," she said.

Jacob didn't hide who he was. He wore tight-fitting clothes and shared outfits with girlfriends, Mooningham said. He also obsessed over Lady Gaga, dressing up as the pop star, making sketches of her and listening over and over to her gay anthem, "Born This Way."

"Jacob was Jacob and that was it," said schoolmate Joney Williams, a junior. "I think he just wanted to do his thing. I don't think Jacob was on this big mission to change the world or to change how everybody thought about him. I think he just wanted people to leave him alone." ...

He prepped meals for her, cleaned and ran errands. The teen's willingness to live with and help his grandmother was obvious to everyone.

"He was just a tender, loving soul," Johnson said.

Iowa teen's suicide prompts strong anti-bullying statement (1998—2012)
[Christian Science Monitor, April 23, 2012]

In a rare and forceful act of advocacy, an Iowa newspaper devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to an anti-bullying editorial after a gay teen committed suicide.

Relatives have said 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. suffered intense harassment, including threatening cellphone calls and nasty comments posted online, after coming out to family and friends about a month ago. He died April 15 from what the local sheriff's office described only as a "self-inflicted injury."

The Sioux City Journal's front-page opinion piece calls on the community to be pro-active in stopping bullying and urges members to learn more about the problem by seeing the acclaimed new film, "Bully," which documents the harassment of a Sioux City middle school student. It notes that while many students are targeted for being gay, "we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike."

"In Kenneth's case, the warnings were everywhere," the editorial said. "We saw it happen in other communities, now it has hit home. Undoubtedly, it wasn't the first life lost to bullying here, but we can strive to make it the last.

[Continued here]

• Kenneth Weishuhn, Gay Iowa Teen, Commits Suicide After Allegedly Receiving Death Threats [HuffPo, April 17, 2012]

As KTIV is reporting, 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. began to be teased and bullied by classmates at South O'Brien High School after he came out earlier this year. "People that were originally his friends, they kind of turned on him," sister Kayla Weishuhn, a sophomore, is quoted as saying. "A lot of people, they either joined in or they were too scared to say anything."

The anti-gay teasing reportedly also continued online, where classmates created a hate group against gays and added Kenneth's friends as members, and got even worse when the freshman started receiving death threats from students on his phone.

Weishuhn's mother Jeannie Chambers said her son told her, "Mom, you don't know how it feels to be hated."

Utah: Gay teenager commits suicide (1995—2012)
[Pink News, April 28, 2012]

Jack Reese is not the first person to have taken his own life in Northern Utah. One official spoke off-the-record to Marian Edmonds of Ogden OUTreach: "It happens here about once a week, but officially, you know, it doesn't happen here."

Jack's boyfriend, Alex Smith, spoke early in the week at a community event during which a film on bullying was being screened. Smith recalled, without even realising that Jack had already taken his own life, how his boyfriend was repeatedly bullied at school.

Yesterday, ahead Jack's funeral at Ogden this morning, OUTreach, announced that an urgent meeting will be held on May 1, to address LGBT bullying and suicide in Northern Utah. Several community leaders, teachers, parents, and young people are expected to attend, including active members of the Mormon Church.

[Continued here]

• After teen's suicide, Ogden to hold community meeting, candlelight vigil [Queer Salt Lake, April 27, 2012]

How school bullies ripped [Dominic Crouch's] happy family apart
[Daily Mail, April 28, 2012]

Dominic had walked out of school and jumped off a six-storey building. He landed face down.

That weekend he had been on a school art trip and, during a game of spin the bottle, one of the children dared him to kiss another boy. Another pupil took a picture of them kissing and allegedly distributed it among his classmates. So when Dominic - or Dom as Paola calls him - came in that Tuesday morning, rumours, texts and jokes were, she believes now, already circulating. ...

Paola leans forward and passes me a piece of paper. It is his suicide note. The handwriting is hurried, irregular. 'Dear Family I'm so so sorry for what i'm about to do. I hav been bullied alot recantly and had alot of shit! made up about me that aint true. I'm sorry for what I have done and what has happened This led me to commit suicide. Love Dominic Crouch'

[Continued here]

Jay 'Corey' Jones, Gay Minnesota Teen, Commits Suicide After Allegedly Being
Bullied (1995—2012) [HuffPo, May 11, 2012]

Friends and family are mourning the loss of a Minnesota teen who jumped to his death last Sunday after allegedly being tormented by classmates for being gay.

As the Rochester Post-Bulletin is reporting, 17-year-old Jay 'Corey' Jones of Rochester, Minn. had suffered severe depression after being bullied for a number of years. Jones had known he was gay from a young age, according to his father, Jay Strader. Police officials say Jones jumped from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School on May 6.

"He said all of his life they always picked on him," Strader is quoted as saying. "He'd still try to keep his head up at school, but then he'd come home and be really sad about it. He just got really depressed about it because the guys weren't accepting him."

[Continued here]

• Father: Teen was bullied because of sexual orientation [Post-Bulletin, May 9, 2012]

Jones moved to Rochester about two years ago after living in the Twin Cities with an uncle, then in Owatonna with his father. He lived in Chicago before moving to Minnesota, Strader said. Jones joined the gay-straight alliance after enrolling at Century and attended the group's twice-weekly meetings.

"He was strong about supporting gay people," said Century junior Tia Born, one of Jones' close friends.

Born's grandfather, 74-year-old Don Born, of Rochester, said his impression of Jones was that he was a nice kid and a fun kid, but he had had "a rough life." He said he told Jones that he could come to his house any time he needed help.

Police identify man whose severed head was found close to Hollywood sign (1945—2012)
[Daily Mail, January 21, 2012]

The man whose whose dismembered head, hands and feet were found in a Hollywood park has been identified as 66-year-old Hervey Medellin [a retired Mexicana Airlines worker] from Los Angeles, coroner's officials said.

Retired airline worker Medellin lived in a Hollywood apartment near the rugged, hillside park where his remains were found, in a building that was searched by police earlier in the day. ...

Thelma Aguilar told CBS Medellin recently moved in with a man, who he met last year while walking his dog. ...

The Hollywood sign on Mount Lee above Los Angeles originally read 'Hollywoodland' and was created to promote a housing development in 1923.

The last few letters deteriorated in the late 1940s and the part that remained was restored in 1978.

[Continued here]

• Boyfriend of Body Parts Case Victim: 'I'm Afraid' [KTLA, January 24, 2012]

The boyfriend of the man found dismembered along a Hollywood Hills hiking train is speaking out, saying he's afraid for his life. ...

Police have questioned the boyfriend several times, but he is reportedly not a suspect, or even a person of interest in the homicide.

He was reportedly concerned about Medellin's whereabouts a week before his head, hands and feet were found in Bronson Canyon Park.

Sources say he filed a missing person's report on Jan. 9.

He says he last saw Medellin in December, when he told him he was going to Mexico.

Uganda gay rights activist David Kato killed (1964—2011)
[BBC, January 27, 2011]

David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights campaigner who sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual, has been beaten to death, activists have said.

Police have confirmed the death and say they have arrested one suspect.

Uganda's Rolling Stone newspaper published the photographs of several people it said were gay, including Mr Kato, with the headline "Hang them".

US President Barack Obama was quoted as saying he was "deeply saddened" to learn of Mr Kato's death.

His Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged authorities to investigate and prosecute the killers.

[Continued here]

• Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death [New York Times, January 27, 2011]

"David's death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. evangelicals in 2009," Val Kalende, the chairwoman of one of Uganda's gay rights groups, said in a statement. "The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David's blood."

• Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato found murdered [The Guardian, January 27, 2011]
• Murder of gay activist David Kato sends chill in Uganda [Christian Science Monitor, January 27, 2011]

Much of the current impetus for the antigay campaign began with the arrival of evangelical church groups- some from the US - which began to get increasingly involved about two years back, says Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Africa.

"Things started going to a whole new level when the churches got involved," Ms. Kagari says.

But while it is the current antigay campaign in Uganda that has garnered international attention, homophobia remains rife across Africa. Homosexuality is illegal in 37 countries on the continent.

And from attacks in Senegal, Nigeria, Gambia, and Cameroon to the imprisonment of a same-sex couple in Malawi and the "correctional rape" of lesbians in South Africa, more cases of abuse are being reported, Kagari says.

Whether this is because of a general rise in homophobia on the continent is debatable, however, she argues.

Instead, she says, it could be a result of the rapidly increasing number of local activists and the fact that like David Kato, ever more gay Africans are taking a stand for their rights.

• Kato's killer gets 30 years [Sydney Star Observer, November 11, 2011]

The BBC reports Ugandan Sidney Nsubunga Enoch told the court that he had no option but to beat Kato to death with a hammer because the gay activist had propositioned him.

• Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson: David Kato: A Hero of Hope [Huffington Post, January 26, 2012]

One year ago we lost a hero: David Kato was murdered in his home in Uganda. David did not become a hero because he died as an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people; he was a hero because he lived for equality, despite death threats and despite all apparent odds.

David Kato was a hero because he never gave up hope. As a young man, he worked against Apartheid in South Africa. He was a witness to that seemingly undefeatable system of racism and witnessed its collapse through the determined work of those who refused to give up hope.

    

Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks
[The Guardian, March 12, 2009]

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbians in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call "corrective rape" committed by men behind the guise of trying to "cure" lesbians of their sexual orientation.

Now, a report by the international NGO ActionAid, backed by the South African Human Rights Commission, condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes, which it says are going unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.

[Continued here]

• South Africa gay rights activists warn of homophobic attacks after murder [The Guardian, May 3. 2011]

Human rights campaigners have warned of an "epidemic" of brutal homophobic attacks in South Africa after the murder and alleged gang rape of a lesbian activist.

Noxolo Nogwaza was killed last month after what appeared to be a so-called "corrective rape", an increasingly common crime in which men rape lesbians to "turn" them straight or "cure" them of their sexual orientation.

The 24-year-old's face and head were disfigured by stoning, she was stabbed several times with broken glass and evidence suggested she was raped. A beer bottle, a big rock and used condoms were found on and near her body.

Human Rights Watch noted that no arrests have been made and claimed homophobic violence is continuing unchecked in South Africa's townships.

• Teenage lesbian is latest victim of 'corrective rape' in South Africa [The Guardian, May 9. 2011]

A 13-year-old lesbian has become the latest victim of "corrective rape" in South Africa, prompting activists to call for direct retaliatory action.

The girl, who is said to be open about her sexuality, was raped in Pretoria last Thursday, a government spokesman said.

Campaigners say so-called corrective rape, in which men rape lesbians to "cure" them of their sexual orientation, is on the increase in South Africa. Thirty-one lesbians have been killed because of their sexuality in the past decade, campaigners say, and more than 10 lesbians a week are raped or gang raped in Cape Town alone.

• South Africa's lesbians fear 'corrective rape' [BBC, June 30. 2011]

Noxolo Nkosana, 23, is the latest victim of a series of violent attacks against lesbians.

She was stabbed a stone's throw from her home in Crossroads township, Cape Town, as she returned from work one evening with her girlfriend.

The two men - one of whom lives in her community - started yelling insults.

"They were walking behind us. They just started swearing at me screaming: 'Hey you lesbian, you tomboy, we'll show you,'" Ms Nkosana tells the BBC.

Before she knew it a sharp knife had entered her back - two fast jabs, then she was on the ground. Half conscious, she felt the knife sink into her skin twice more.

"I was sure that they were going to kill me," she says.

• Raped for being gay: Scourge of South African sex attacks which men claim will 'cure' women of being lesbians [Daily Mail, October 30, 2011]

Gang-raped, beaten and stabbed 25 times, she was the lesbian activist and football star whose murder blew open South Africa's hate crime epidemic.

But more than two years after the death of Eudy Simelane, the government has done nothing to halt the barbaric sex attacks dubbed 'corrective' rape.

Campaigners say that ten women are now assaulted every week by men who claim to be 'curing' their victims of homosexuality.

The attacks are often accompanied by such horrifying violence that women are left permanently scarred - or fatally injured.

Family fury at private life smears of British spy Gareth Williams
[Telegraph, August 27, 2010]

As police focused inquiries on his close friends and associates, it was disclosed that the 31-year-old MI6 worker's parents were "furious" about claims that he had a secret double life, including suggestions he was gay, or a transvestite.

Police also dismissed reports of bondage equipment being found in the London flat where Mr Williams was discovered, and claims that his mobile phone contained numbers for male escorts.

Detectives admitted they are baffled by the death and yesterday launched a second forensic sweep of the crime scene after all initial inquiries had failed to turn up a lead.

The key question police are trying to clarify is why the killer - or a partner - placed Mr Williams's body in a large hold-all in the bath.

Police are working on the assumption it is a murder but have not ruled out that Mr Williams could have died in a bizarre accident or from an accidental drugs overdose.

The investigation is focused on his immediate circle of friends and associates. One theory is that someone who was with him in his flat when he died panicked and put his body in the bag to disguise what happened.

The spy's parents, Ellen and Ian, who live in Holyhead, were said to be "absolutely devastated" and "raw with emotion".

William Hughes, 62, the victim's uncle, said they were also "very, very angry" about reports of secrets in his private life.

"It is completely false. The lad had been away from home for a long time - we did not know much about his private life, but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay. It's not the picture they have of their son.

"Maybe it's the Government or somebody trying to discredit him."

[Continued here]

• For your eyes only: The intriguing truth about life as a 21st century spook [Daily Mail, August 26, 2010]
• MI6 spy found dead in bag: Gareth Williams visited bondage websites, drag cabaret and gay bars [Telegraph, December 22, 2010]
• Hidden pursuits of MI6 man Gareth Williams's private life [London Evening Standard, December 22, 2010]
• Light to be shed on mystery of MI6 spy Gareth Williams' death [Telegraph, January 28, 2012]

Attending his funeral at the Bethel Chapel in Holyhead, Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, said: "Gareth was a hugely talented person, and he was very modest and generous as well.

"He did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security."

That statement left hanging in the air the question of what precisely it was that Mr Williams did for "the cause", and was it enough to get him killed?

His family hope the forthcoming inquest will go some way towards answering that nagging question.

• Spy found dead in locked bag hated 'flash car and drinking' culture of MI6, inquest hears [Telegraph, April 23, 2012]
• MI6 code expert Gareth Williams 'previously found tied to bed' [The Guardian, April 26, 2012]
• Date rape drug found in the body of spy Gareth Williams [Telegraph, April 26, 2012]
• Coroner criticises MI6 investigation into spy Gareth Williams' death [The Independent, May 1, 2012]
• British spy found naked in sports bag was most likely killed, coroner says [New York Daily News, May 2, 2012]

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said Wednesday it was unlikely that the demise of codebreaker Gareth Williams, 31, would "ever be satisfactorily explained," despite a 21-month police inquiry, and seven days of expert evidence to an inquest hearing.

The twin towers of the World Trade Center both before and
after the attack on September 11, 2001

    

On September 11 we remember Father Mychal Judge, Mark Bingham,
Ronald Gamboa, Daniel Brandhorst and their infant son David

Other victims both known and unknown

Liverpool Pride march led by Michael Causer's parents (1989—2008)
[BBC, August 6, 2011]

The parents of a gay teenager from Merseyside who was murdered three years ago have led Liverpool's Pride march.

Hairdresser Michael Causer, 18, from Whiston, was attacked at a house party in Huyton on 3 August 2008.

His attacker was jailed for life the following year and denied it was a homophobic attack.

His parents, Marie and Michael, led the march around Liverpool City Centre, which organisers chose to hold around the anniversary of their son's death.

[Continued here]

• Flag to fly for murdered gay man [BBC, May 12, 2009]

A symbol of gay and lesbian pride will fly above Liverpool Town Hall for the first time - 10 months after a gay teenager was beaten to death in Huyton.

The hoisting of the rainbow flag will mark the International Day Against Homophobia (Idaho) on Sunday.

The gesture follows the murder of hairdresser Michael Causer, 18, who was set upon on 25 July 2008 in what a court heard was a homophobic attack.

Mr Causer's family are also to be presented with a book of condolence.

James O'Connor, 19, of Runcorn, admitted murdering Mr Causer at a house in Huyton. He was jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court in March.

Another man Gavin Alker, also 19 and from Runcorn, was acquitted of the same offence at Liverpool Crown Court in February.

To mark Idaho, Liverpool's lord mayor Councillor Steve Rotheram will meet members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities and their friends and families at the town hall on Sunday, where they will discuss plans for a Pride festival in the city.

The book of condolence, which was opened after the teenager's death and signed by thousands of people, will be presented by the lord mayor to Mr Causer's parents, Marie and Mike.

Mr Rotheram said: "I'm delighted to be lord mayor when the town hall makes history and flies the rainbow flag for the first time.

• Young. Gay. Proud. Murdered: the hairdresser battered to death [The Independent, February 24, 2009]

Michael Causer had never even considered concealing his sexuality: he was proud to be gay. He grew up in a tight-knit family in a working-class suburb of Liverpool, and friends would describe the trainee hairdresser as a "little sweetheart". He was a gentle young man on the cusp of adulthood who "wouldn't hurt a fly"; someone who loved his many friends and adored life.

But last July, as the 18-year-old lay in an upstairs bedroom at an after-pub party, sleeping off the effects of a night's drinking, he was viciously assaulted and his bleeding body dumped outside in the street. The attack took place at the home of a friend's grandmother, in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton. ...

On Friday however, Mr Causer's family and friends who had packed into the public gallery at Liverpool Crown Court to hear a jury decide on Gavin Alker, a 19-year-old man accused of carrying out his homophobic murder, were left in tears as the defendant was acquitted at the end of a three-week trial.

Last Sunday, 100 friends and relatives returned to the court precincts to express their sense of shock and outrage at the verdict and to demonstrate for what they see as justice in the case. They said they are now hoping to launch a private prosecution.

"We were so shocked at Friday's judgment. Michael was made out to be a thug in that trial. Gavin Alker claimed he acted in self-defence," said Mr Causer's mother Marie, holding her grand-daughter Daisy who her son had helped deliver just six weeks before his death, remaining "tender and calm" throughout the birth.

"Michael weighed seven-and-a-half stone. He couldn't have hurt a fly. If anyone acted in self-defence that night it was Michael. I want someone to explain to me how a lad who worked in an old people's home for free, who called bingo numbers, who volunteered for the British Lung Foundation's Breathe Easy scheme can be a thug," she said. Before the trial, Mr Causer's one-time friend James O'Connor, 19, of Runcorn, admitted murder but denied he had been motivated by the fact his victim was gay. A second man Michael Binsteed, 18, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice. Both are due to be sentenced later.

Family of murdered transgender woman wants answers
[ABC, November 8, 2011]

Sundra Trent takes a lot comfort these days in her garden.

When she moved here 14 years ago with her two sons she never intended to do a lot of yard work.

But her 11 year old Anthony urged her to plant flowers, and one plant grew into a yard full of flowers, chotzkies and wind chimes.

She says the garden is going to sleep now...including Anthony's favorite flower.

Anthony Trent changed her name to Tyra.

As a transgender person Sundra says Tyra found happiness.

She says Tyra was outgoing and had a lot of friends and enjoyed her life.

Sundra says Tyra was a trip but the joy of her life.

"I'd hear him a half a block a way coming down the street hi ma, ma, I miss him I miss him a lot a whole lot I just wish they could find who ever did this to him." Sundra Trent says.

Tyra Trent was found strangled last February in an abandoned home in the 33 hundred block of Virginia Avenue .

City police say they think that Tyra's body was dumped there and that the murder may have been committed somewhere else.

At this point they're still investigating but there are few leads.

[Continued here]

• Transgender woman found dead struggled for acceptance [Baltimore Sun, February 22, 2011]

Life as a transgender woman wasn't easy for Anthony Trent. Known as "Tyra," the 25-year-old told family she was sometimes attacked on the street just because of the way she looked.

"He was a very bold person - he wasn't scared to show or flaunt his lifestyle," said cousin and close friend Correll Trent, 18. "People told him all the time, if this is the way you want to live, we can't stop you. But be careful, watch yourself."

Recently, she had been jumped on the street and beaten up, losing a tooth in the attack.

"He came home and cried that day," Correll said.

Portuguese model held over killing of Carlos Castro (1945—2011)
[The Guardian, January 10, 2011]

A Portuguese model is being held on charges of second-degree murder over the slaying of a celebrity Portuguese television journalist found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel, police said today.

Renato Seabra, 21, of Cantanhede, Portugal, has been hospitalised after the killing on Friday and was arrested over the death of 65-year-old Carlos Castro, said New York Police Department spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves.

Castro was found dead on Friday in room 3416 of the InterContinental New York Times Square hotel that the two men had shared. His nude body was covered in blood on the floor and he had been castrated. The medical examiner's office ruled Castro died from a combination of blunt impact head injuries and strangulation, according to spokeswoman Grace Burgess.

The death was ruled a homicide on Sunday. Seabra was detained by police early Saturday after he sought care at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, not far from the hotel. He was later transferred by authorities to Bellevue Hospital Center where he underwent a psychiatric evaluation.

Friends in New York said Castro and Seabra were a couple. But Seabra's mother told Portugal's TVIndependente television network that her son "was not Carlos Castro's lover."

[Continued here]

• Ashes Of Carlos Castro, Slain Journalist, Poured Down NYC Subway Grate [Huffington Post, January 16, 2011]
• Renato Seabra, model in gay activist lover's hotel castration slay, likey to use insanity defense [New York Daily News, June 4, 2011]

Police: Killer invoked Old Testament in 'stoning' death [Philadelphia Inquirer, March 18, 2011]

A Delaware County man has been arrested and charged with murder in the beating death of an elderly Landsdowne man who had befriended him and made him executor and sole beneficiary of his will.

John Joe Thomas, 28, [via The Advocate: a mormon priest who had recently baptized the victim who was a Jew] of the first block of Sunshine Road in Upper Darby, allegedly told police he killed Murray Joseph Seidman, 70, because the older man had made sexual advances and that the Old Testament spelled out stoning as the punishment for homosexuality.

"I stoned Murray with a rock in a sock," Thomas said to police, according to court documents.

Thomas, who was charged with murder, was silent as he was led past photographers this morning.

According to the court documents, Thomas called police Seidman's apartment on Jan. 12 and they found Thomas sitting in the hallway crying: "I'm not going down there again, there is too much blood."

Police found Seidman in his apartment face down. The medical examiner later ruled Seidman died as a result of blunt force trauma at least five days before being discovered.

Neighbors described Seidman as a friendly soul who liked to eat out, watch movies, and bowl. He worked in the laundry of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital for 40 years until he retired. Hospital officials said he was well liked by his coworkers and a "landmark" at the institution.

It was at the hospital where Seidman met and befriended Thomas, according to neighbors. The young man and Seidman were often seen together grocery shopping and going to church.

Lansdowne police Chief Daniel Kortan said the break in the investigation came when Thomas allegedly told a witness he beat an older man to death.

[Continued here]

• Gay Clarksville native beaten to death [with rock] in California [Leaf Chronicle, July 28, 2011]

Jason "Cowboy" Huggins will always be remembered for his charismatic personality, giving spirit and love for people.

The 31-year-old San Diego resident who grew up in Clarksville was beaten to death with a rock on June 22. He died July 6 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, according to a close friend and family members who still live in Clarksville.

San Diego police arrested Joshua Larson, 37, in the killing. [via Queerty: Two years ago, Jason "Cowboy" Huggins testified against Joshua Larson in a drug possession and grand theft case. This week Larson may have gotten his revenge by chasing Huggins, who was gay, through Hillcrest Canyon and smashing his head in with a rock.]

Huggins was openly gay, and the gay community in San Diego has rallied around the incident even though police have not classified Huggins' death as a hate crime. Authorities suspect Huggins and Larson knew each other, said Justin Newman, a close friend of Huggins. ...

"He was the person that, even though in the last six months he was homeless, he'd still give someone the shirt off his back," Newman said. "He'd go out of his way to help people. He was one of the good ol' boys, one of the last few in the gay community who was genuine and cared about everybody no matter what they were going through. He was always nice; it didn't matter. He cared about and loved everyone."

Mom waits for answers in [Shelly Moore]'s death (1992—2011)
[Detroit Free Press, November 12, 2011]

The mother of a transgender teen found dismembered in Detroit said she is mourning her child's death and waiting for answers as police continue their investigation.

Lyniece Nelson described the 19-year-old -- whose given name, she said, is Henry Hilliard Jr., but who went by the name Shelly Moore -- as a loving and caring person.

On Friday, Hilliard will be recognized during a Detroit event that will be held in observance of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. ...

A burned torso found on an I-94 service drive on the city's east side was identified Thursday by the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office as being Hilliard, who was last seen in the early morning hours Oct. 23.

Nelson previously told the Free Press that a cab driver dropped Hilliard off at a home where three men were waiting, but the teen was concerned and called the driver back.

Before the phone went dead, the driver reportedly said he heard Hilliard scream, but when he drove back around the corner, no one was there, Nelson said.

[Continued here]

• Man gets 25 to 40 years for death of transgender teen [Gay Star News, April 7, 2012]

Shelley Hilliard's killer was sentenced late last month in a Detroit courtroom. As reported on the blog Rod 2.0, Qasim Raqib was given 25 to 40 years by 3rd Circuit Judge Bruce Morrow for Hilliard's fall murder. The culprit pleaded guilty to second degree murder.

State authorities charged Raqib mutilated Hilliard and then set her afire on a Detroit street. The crime occurred after the teen helped the police with a drug sting against the culprit.

Cops probe killing of transgender woman in D.C.
[Washington Times, July 20, 2011]

Detectives are investigating whether Wednesday night's fatal shooting of a transgender woman in Northeast was a hate crime, D.C. officials said.

Metropolitan Police Department officers found 23-year-old Myles Mclean of Northeast at 6110 Dix Street Northeast around 4:30 a.m. suffering from a gunshot wound.

The shooting occurred about 10 blocks from a group home for homeless gay and transgender youth where Mclean was seeking housing, Transgender Health Empowerment (THE) programs director Brian Watson said.

"A lot of our clients hang out there," Mr. Watson said of the home.

Miss Mclean, also known as "Shay," was a regular client of THE, a D.C. nonprofit that provides resources including housing, counseling and HIV testing for transgender, gay, bisexual and lesbian individuals, he said.

While police have not ruled that the homicide was a hate crime, MPD reported earlier this year that hate crimes relating to sexual orientation or gender identity are up. Crimes related to sexual orientation or gender identity jumped from 35 in 2009 to 45 in 2010, according to the MPDs 2010 annual report on bias-related crimes.

[Continued here]

• DC Police Investigate Killing of Transgender Person [FoxDC, July 21, 2011]

Mclean was on Dix Street with another transgender person at around 4:30 Wednesday morning when police say words were exchanged with two men.

A pistol was pulled. Shots were fired and Mclean was hit in the back.

Why? Some people are jumping to conclusions, but police caution they have quite a bit of work to do.

On a porch in the Trinidad neighborhood on Wednesday, friends and family mourned the death of Mclean.

"My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends."



Christopher Hitchens: Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit (1949—2011)
[New York Times, December 16, 2011]

Christopher Hitchens, a slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell who trained his sights on targets as various as Henry Kissinger, the British monarchy and Mother Teresa, wrote a best-seller attacking religious belief, and dismayed his former comrades on the left by enthusiastically supporting the American-led war in Iraq, died on Thursday in Houston. He was 62.

The cause was pneumonia, a complication of esophageal cancer, Vanity Fair magazine said in announcing the death, at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Mr. Hitchens, who lived in Washington, learned he had cancer while on a publicity tour in 2010 for his memoir, "Hitch-22," and began writing and, on television, speaking about his illness frequently.

"In whatever kind of a 'race' life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist," Mr. Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair, for which he was a contributing editor.

He took pains to emphasize that he had not revised his position on atheism, articulated in his best-selling 2007 book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," although he did express amused appreciation at the hope, among some concerned Christians, that he might undergo a late-life conversion.

[Continued here]

• Christopher Hitchens was a hater of humbug, and if he found it, he went after it [Globe & Mail, December 16, 2011]

He was a hater of humbug, basically, and if he ever identified that, he went after it. And he found a lot of the hypocrisy associated with religion, he just found it humbug and he was going to say it. On the other hand, he didn't disrespect people who held faith, he wasn't unpleasant about people who themselves had faith.

• When Christopher Hitchens sparred with Hannity, whacked Reed and cheered [Jerry] Falwell's death [Miami Herald, December 16, 2011]

In one of his most-watch videos, the atheist Hitchens almost celebrated the death of religious-right leader Jerry Falwell on FOX. In doing so, he whacked away at Ralph Reed ("the friend of Jack Abramoff") and got in quite a tussle with Sean Hannity, who called him a "jackass" at one point.

Hannity went after Hitchens shortly after he said it was good to be rid of "a vulgar fraud, a crook like Rev. Falwell.. he established a business, a racket. In my opinion. He was a religious business man, in the same way Mr. Ralph Reed is a religious entrepreneur....We have been rid of an extremely dangerous demagogue, who lived by hatred of others and prejudice and who committed treason by saying the United States deserved the attack upon it, and its civil society, in September 2001 by other religious nutcases like himself."

That's something you won't hear on TV for a long while.

• A New Word Has Been Coined [Friendly Atheist, December 19, 2011]

Word: Hitchling.

Part of speech: Noun.

Definition: A child void of religious indoctrination who is encouraged to read broadly and to seek the truth unapologetically.

Václav Havel, Czech playwright and president, dead at 75
[Globe & Mail, December 18, 2011]

Václav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theatre into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75. ...

Mr. Havel was his country's first democratically elected president after the nonviolent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan."

As president, he oversaw the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was part of the "new Europe" - in the coinage of then-U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - of ex-communist countries that stood up for the U.S. when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion.

[Continued here]

• Václav Havel: Our Moral Footprint [New York Times, September 27, 2007]

OVER the past few years the questions have been asked ever more forcefully whether global climate changes occur in natural cycles or not, to what degree we humans contribute to them, what threats stem from them and what can be done to prevent them. Scientific studies demonstrate that any changes in temperature and energy cycles on a planetary scale could mean danger for all people on all continents.

It is also obvious from published research that human activity is a cause of change; we just don't know how big its contribution is. Is it necessary to know that to the last percentage point, though? By waiting for incontrovertible precision, aren't we simply wasting time when we could be taking measures that are relatively painless compared to those we would have to adopt after further delays?

Maybe we should start considering our sojourn on earth as a loan. There can be no doubt that for the past hundred years at least, Europe and the United States have been running up a debt, and now other parts of the world are following their example. Nature is issuing warnings that we must not only stop the debt from growing but start to pay it back. There is little point in asking whether we have borrowed too much or what would happen if we postponed the repayments. Anyone with a mortgage or a bank loan can easily imagine the answer.

• James Kirchick: Is Acceptance of Homosexuality Inevitable? What the Czech Republic Tells Us. [The New Republic, August 9, 2011]

One of the consistent features of the gay rights movement over the past five decades has been a belief in progress: Members of the gay community and their allies have insisted that, over time, attitudes about homosexuality will only change for the better. In part, this conviction is based on the power of moral suasion, but it also relies on sheer demographics: Younger people tend to be more supportive of gay rights. Even opponents of equality have conceded that the clock is ticking against them; as New York Times columnist and gay marriage opponent Ross Douthat recently said, "If I were putting money on the future of gay marriage, I would bet on it."

A recent report published by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago seems to support this assumption. Surveying people in 31 countries periodically over 17 years on their attitudes toward homosexual behavior ("sexual relations between two adults of the same sex"), researchers recorded increased approval in 27 nations and a decrease of approval in only four. In some countries, like Norway and New Zealand, the increase in approval was dramatic. There is still a long way to go: According to the latest available data, majorities or pluralities in only 15 nations agree with the sentiment that homosexual behavior is "not wrong at all," while majorities or pluralities in 20 believe homosexuality to be "always wrong." Nevertheless, gay activists have trumpeted the poll as a positive development.

Yet there is one negative, and largely overlooked, finding: The Czech Republic was one of the countries where the number of citizens who disapprove of homosexual behavior has increased, and by 14 points. (The other countries are Russia, Latvia, and Cyprus, all of which are heavily influenced by the conservative Orthodox Church.) The fact that an increasing number of Czechs-people famous for their tolerance and liberalism, who brought the world the Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel, and the brothel that offers free sex in exchange for the intercourse be live-streamed on the internet-believe same-sex relations to be wrong is perplexing and worrying. If progress is stymied in the Czech Republic, could it be threatened in other, ostensibly "liberal" countries as well?

• Václav Havel index [New York Times]

Wendy Babcock found dead: Champion for sex workers and trans people remembered
[XTRA, August 11, 2011 ]

To her friends, Wendy Babcock was a fierce and passionate activist with a joyful sense of humour that defined her, but inside she suffered in silence.

Babcock was found dead in her home Aug 9 of an apparent suicide. She was about 30 years old (her actual age is unclear).

Before becoming a student at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School, Babcock was a homeless teenaged sex worker. For the past several years she has passionately advocated on behalf of sex workers and has been a prominent voice for trans rights across Canada.

Known for her unwavering compassion and patience, Babcock worked tirelessly on the front lines with some of Toronto's most marginalized street people, says Tori Scout, one of Babcock's close friends and chosen family.

But a life filled with struggle took its toll and Babcock suffered invisibly, Scout says. The pair met while attending George Brown College's Assaulted Women's and Children's Counsellor Advocate Program (AWCCA). "She just couldn't take it anymore. She had a 24-hour support system around her at the time of her death, but it wasn't enough."

[Continued here]

Parents of first gay U.S. soldier to die since end of 'don't ask don't tell' ask
Minnesota voters to remember his legacy [Daily Mail]

The parents of Corporal Andrew Charles Wilfahrt hope their brave son didn't die in vain.

The 31-year-old soldier from Minnesota died serving his country in Afghanistan on February 27, 2011, as the first openly gay serviceman to perish since President Obama signed the order that repealed the 'don't ask don't tell' rule. ...

Mr Wilfahrt's parents are now asking Minnesota voters to honour their hero son's memory by rejecting a proposed state Constitutional amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, reports CNN.

[Continued here]

• Parents of Fallen Gay Patriot to Minnesota Voters: Don't Forget Our Son's Sacrifice [Edge Boston, July 4, 2011]

Physician suspected of 'horrific' slayings of partner, toddler son
[Seattle Times, Ausgust 13, 2011]

A physician found bloody and semiconscious in a First Hill apartment on Thursday has been ordered held in connection with the slayings of his partner and their toddler son.

A King County District Court judge on Saturday determined there was probable cause to hold Dr. Louis C. Chen in custody on investigation of two counts of aggravated murder in the double homicide. Chen remained hospitalized Saturday at Harborview Medical Center.

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said the judge made the ruling by telephone after reviewing an emailed copy of the document of probable cause prepared by police and prosecutors. A document of probable cause outlines the law-enforcement case against the accused.

Donohoe said the document of probable cause will be released on Monday.

The deadline for filing charges against Chen is Tuesday, Donohoe said. ...

Property records show that Chen and Cooper shared an address in North Carolina and had moved into the First Hill apartment together in July. Public records additionally show that Cooper had returned to North Carolina at some point.

Although details about the child were scarce, one source familiar with the case said he had been adopted "out of some pretty bad circumstances" in Southeast Asia.

[Continued here]

• Impending breakup behind First Hill killings of man, young son? [Seattle Times, Ausgust 15, 2011]

Dr. Louis Chen and his longtime partner, Eric Cooper, shared an overwhelming desire to have a child.

While Chen was working as an attending physician at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis, they began the long process of having a child through surrogacy, according to several friends of the couple.

Their child was not adopted from outside the country, as originally reported, but conceived with Chen's sperm and the egg of an anonymous Taiwanese woman, and carried to term by a surrogate mother from Oregon, the friends said. When the child was born nearly three years ago, he was adopted by Eric Cooper and named Cooper Chen.

"They loved that baby. They adored him," said a friend who had gone to medical school with Chen and is now a physician in Massachusetts. "It was one thing they always agreed on, and it was really very sweet."

Chen, 39, is now accused of killing Cooper, 29, and their son Thursday in the First Hill apartment they shared. A King County District Court judge has determined there is probable cause to hold Chen in custody on investigation of two counts of aggravated murder. ...

The couple had planned to separate amicably and intended to live together while they got settled in their new city.

Eventually, according to the Massachusetts physician, Chen was going to rent another residence nearby and the couple planned to co-parent equally.

But something happened in the three weeks since the physician last spoke with Chen. On Thursday, a representative from Virginia Mason went to the couple's apartment, according to an affidavit of probable cause released Monday by King County prosecutors. Chen answered the door nude and covered in blood.

Seattle police were immediately summoned, and they found Cooper dead and the couple's son slain in a bathroom. Chen was slumped over near the front door.

Police asked Chen, "Who stabbed you and your partner?" Chen said, "I did," according to the affidavit.

Isaiah Kalebu was found guilty Friday of aggravated murder in the brutal 2009 attack
on two women in their South Park home [Seattle Times, July 1, 2011]

As the verdict was read, finding Isaiah Kalebu guilty on every count, a woman quietly cried in the front row of the crowded Seattle courtroom.

The woman leaned into her friends' arms as she learned that the man who broke into the South Park home she shared with her partner and raped, slashed and stabbed them - killing her partner - will never be free again.

Because Kalebu was found guilty Friday afternoon of aggravated murder for the July 2009 slaying of 39-year-old Teresa Butz, he will automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when he returns to court Aug. 12.

After the verdict was read, the surviving victim hugged prosecutors, thanked the defense attorney and quietly headed into a nearby stairwell with friends.

"It's a somber occasion," said Mark Larson, King County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor. "A verdict doesn't fix anything, but it's still an important statement for our community. We're grateful, but the pain doesn't go away."

[Continued here]

• Seattle woman IDs suspect in rape, killing of St. Louis native [St. Louis Today, June 10, 2011]

A Seattle woman who survived a brutal July 2009 attack in which her partner, a St. Louis native, was killed, said she positively recognized Isaiah Kalebu as the man who crept into her Seattle home and repeatedly raped and tortured the couple at knife point.

"Without a doubt" it was him, she testified Thursday in King County Superior Court. "I felt it in every cell of my body."

For a second day, the woman took the stand and told jurors about the nearly 90 minutes the couple were raped and slashed in their bedroom by the intruder. Her partner, Teresa Butz, 39, who was from St. Louis, died of her wounds.

Teen's saliva found on crotch of victim's shorts
[Gay NZ, October 13, 2011]

A saliva stain from the teenager accused of murdering gay Papakura man Denis Phillips was found on the crotch of the victim's shorts, the High Court in Auckland has been told.

ESR Forensic Scientist Fiona Matheson said DNA analysis of the saliva found it was "80 million, million times" more likely to be that of the 17-year-old accused Willie Ahsee than any other randomly selected New Zealander.

Matheson said that meant there was "extreme strong scientific support" for the proposition it was Ahsee's saliva. ...

It's now the fourth day of Ahsee's trial at the High Court in Auckland, where he faces a charge of murdering 59-year-old Phillips, who was a temporary non-sworn police officer who lived alone in a Papakura flat where he was found July 2010, after being stabbed four times the night previous.

[Continued here]

• Victim believed to have frequented gay venues [Gay NZ, August 1, 2010]

Word is circulating in the gay community that a man matching the description of murder victim Denis Norman Phillips was known to frequent a number of central Auckland gay venues.

The 59-year-old's body was found in his Papakura home yesterday afternoon. He is believed to have been stabbed to death yesterday morning.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with his murder and is due to appear in the Papakura Youth court tomorrow.

• Phillips stabbed through earlobe with steak knife [Gay NZ, October 14, 2011]

Dr Jane Vuletic carried out the post mortem on Phillips and has told the court he was stabbed in the neck and it cut through bone, severing his vertebral artery, a major blood vessel which carries blood to and from the brain.

"This is an artery of moderate size and it was completely cut in two," she said. "Any arterial bleeding is fatal unless it's treated fairly quickly. This is no exception."

• Accused says he didn't intend to stab Phillips [Gay NZ, October 17, 2011]

"I thought he was going to attack me, he was yelling and he pushed me over," Ahsee said, adding he did not remember why he picked up the knife and did not intend to hit Phillips, but "just wanted him to get out of the way," because he "just wanted to go home."

• Questions about sexual contact outrage accused [Gay NZ, October 17, 2011]

"Do you think I'm a fucking homo? I ain't fucking gay. Fuck you," the 17-year-old said to Crown Prosecutor David Johnstone. "I ain't fucking gay," he repeated, standing up and trying to leave the stand, before sitting down again for further questioning.

• Phillips "in some ways brought about" own death [Gay NZ, October 19, 2011]

The defence has closed its case in the murder trial of 17-year-old Willie Ahsee, who it accepts fatally stabbed 59-year-old temporary sworn police officer Denis Phillips in the head on 30 July last year. ...

"People in Mr Phillips' position have to be careful because what they do and what they like is something they can't share with anyone other than their intended teenager," Defence lawyer David Jones QC told the jury.

"This is not about Mr Phillips being homosexual, this is about him having extremely unhealthy interests in teenage boys," he said.

"If he was heterosexual and the accused was a 16-year-old girl the same dynamic would apply."

• Jury directed to put any prejudice to one side [Gay NZ, October 19, 2011]

The Crown claims Ahsee murdered Phillips in the 59-year-old's Papakura home on 30 July last year, however the defence has put forward cases for both accidental death and self-defence. ...

Justice Asher told the jury that while all background factors can be relevant when assessing evidence, the jurors must put any emotional reaction entirely to one side. "You may disapprove of what Mr Phillips was doing with teenage boys, but that disapproval is irrelevant to the process you must go through," he said.

"No element of judgement on your part is to be made about what Mr Phillips was doing, emotion, prejudice and sympathy must be put to one side," he said, reminding them they are judges and must be judges of fact.

Justice Asher also pointed out drunkenness and youth are not defences for any charge under the law, however they may be relevant to an accused's state of mind and reactions.

• Manslaughter verdict in stabbed gay cop trial [New Zealand Herald, October 19, 2011]

A teenager who stabbed a gay police officer to death has been found guilty of manslaughter.

But the jury of 11 found 17-year-old Willie John Ahsee not guilty of murdering Denis Norman Phillips, at the High Court at Auckland tonight.

[Note: The 'gay panic' defence is obviously alive and well and living in New Zealand.]

• Fears of de-facto gay panic defence in murder trials [Gay NZ, October 20, 2011]

"Although the defence was trying to say this is not about being gay," says Outline GM Vaughan Meneses, "there was a lot of talk about predatory behaviour that just sets the jury up to empathise by viewing the deadly attack through the eyes of a homophobic teenager and to start thinking along the lines of gay panic defence."

Meneses is worried that the Ahsee case is "just another example of a gay man being killed in his own home and receiving a manslaughter verdict.

"It is entirely probable that although the gay panic defence was got rid of juries will still intuitively take into account any personal distaste for homosexuality when assessing the impact of such an encounter on a defendant," Meneses says.

• Victim's sexual advances a factor in sentence [Gay NZ, December 15, 2011]

At the High Court in Auckland this morning, Justice Asher pointed out the aggravating factors that Ahsee used a knife, there was extreme violence and the most extreme harm was done. He then took a sentencing starting point of six and a half years jail, due to the context of the amount of alcohol Ahsee had drunk with Phillips on the night of the killing and the sexual advances the 59-year-old victim made towards him before he was killed.

"There had been sexual actions by Mr Phillips that Mr Ahsee would have found difficult to deal with," Justice Asher said. "Mr Ahsee clearly was not homosexual and there was no indication that he'd had any homosexual sexual experience."

Both the Crown and defence painted Phillips as a "homosexual with a liking for teenagers" and Justice Asher took into account that "unwelcome and intrusive advances" were a trigger for the stabbing.

• "The law needs to change" — Charles Chauvel [Gay NZ, December 17, 2011]

When the judge created a sentencing starting point, he used the context of the amount of alcohol Ahsee had drunk with Phillips on the night of the killing and the sexual advances the 59-year-old victim made towards him before he was killed.

Gay Labour MP Charles Chauvel, a former lawyer, says the legal double standard inherent in this sentence becomes obvious, if you imagine that the identity of the offender was female.

"Would she get a low sentence starting point calculation because she reacted with extreme violence to what is said were unwanted sexual advances from the victim of the crime here? I think not," he says.

"There would be outrage. It would be said that we had legitimised killing as a defence to unlawful sexual connection. The usual suspects would be up in arms," Chauvel continues.

• What's up with Queensland? [Same Same, January 10, 2012]

In 1997, "gentle touching" sparked a man to repeatedly ram his victim's head into a wall, causing severe disfigurement, before inflicting ten stab wounds.

In the High Court, the man's sentence was reduced to manslaughter after he used the excuse that he felt uncomfortable being hit on.

Fifteen years later, this defence for murder has been abolished in most states - except for Queensland where there's been only minor tweaking of it.

Queensland Catholic priest Paul Kelly has recently launched a petition to stop the use of the 'Homosexual Advance Defence' (A.K.A. 'Gay Panic') allowing allegations of a homosexual advance to be used as a defence for murder in Queensland.

"This loophole needs definitive closing - we've had the defence raised twice in as many years just in Maryborough, and I can't understand why it is allowed by the law," says Fr Kelly.

The petition has recently gained prominence via social media and has reached a total of over 7,000 signatures, along with the support of Premier Anna Bligh. ...

The panic defence law shines a light on the level of homophobia still active within the state of Queensland. In a study conducted of 25,000 people in 2005, Queensland was perceived to be the most homophobic state in Australia, alongside Tasmania. This is often despite the highest anti-homophobia strategies being implemented.

Stabbing victim liked younger men [Gay NZ, January 31, 2011]

Roman Henry Skorek was found dead in Kuirau Park in the early hours of last Tuesday morning. Two men have been charged with his murder; 21-year-old Rotorua baker Rawiri James Samuel, and an unnamed 20-year-old man.

Two teenagers, aged 14 and 15, have also been charged with assault.

The Herald on Sunday has reported Skorek usually divided his time between Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf and a home on Niue.

It says he was on 2010 convicted of the indecent assault of a teenager, who was aged over 16 at the time. Police said he had approached the teenager on a Great Barrier Island road.

[Continued here]

• Niue Resident Murdered by Thugs in Rotorua [Niue News One, January 26, 2012]

He can now be officially named as Roman Henry Skorek, 64 years. Mr Skorek was of Polish descent and had been living between New Zealand and Niue."

Tyler Clementi, student outed as gay on internet, jumps to his death (1992—2010)
[The Guardian, September 30, 2010]

His last words, posted on Facebook about 10 minutes before he died, were brief and to the point: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry."

The comment gave no hint of the torment and mortification that lay behind the decision of gifted 18-year-old violinist Tyler Clementi to throw himself off the George Washington bridge last week.

The cruel details began to emerge today when the body of a man believed to be Clementi was dragged out of the Hudson river at the northern end of Manhattan. At the same time, charges were brought against two of his fellow first-year students at Rutgers university in New Jersey. Like him, they are both 18. They have been accused of invading Clementi's privacy.

[Continued here]

• Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's suicide spurs action across U.S. [The Star-Ledger, October 3, 2010]
• Kathleen Parker: With Tyler Clementi's death, let's try friending decency [Washington Post, October 3, 2010]
• Tyler Clementi: empty seat at suicide student's orchestra debut [Telegraph, October 2, 2010]
• Tyler Clementi's parents want tougher charges [CBS News, March 23, 2011]
• Tyler Clementi's roommate faces charges related to deleted messages in Rutgers webcam spying case [The Star-Ledger, April 23, 2011]
• Plea deal means student [Molly Wei] to testify against Rutgers roommate [Dharun Rhavi] [Reuters, May 6, 2011]
• Dharun Ravi Pleads Not Guilty In Tyler Clementi Webcam Case [Huffington Post, May 23, 2011]
• Lawyer: NJ Student Didn't Mean to Spy on Roommate [Newe York Times, August 12, 2011]
• Before suicide, gay Rutgers student said mom rejected him [KFOR, August 12, 2011]
• ID of man caught on webcam with Rutgers student Tyler Clementi should be kept secret, prosecutors say [New Jersey On-Line, August 29, 2011]

For nearly a year, the identity of the man caught on a webcam in an intimate encounter with Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi has remained a secret.

In court papers in the high-profile invasion of privacy case stemming from Clementi's subsequent suicide, the man has been identified by only the initials, "M.B."

Today, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office filed a motion asking Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman to issue a protective order to ensure M.B.'s name, address or birthday is not revealed.

"Fearing further victimization and in a request for privacy, he asks that his name not be turned over at this time," prosecutors wrote in their motion. ...

Ravi's attorneys said they want to speak to M.B. as they prepare their client's defense.

"There is no question he has relevant information. But they have not provided his name, address or date of birth," Ravi's attorneys said in their motion. "There is no basis in the law for withholding this information."

Ravi's lawyers rejected prosecutors' offer to allow M.B. to be interviewed anonymously in the presence of a state investigator.

"Defendant is entitled to conduct his own investigation in his defense and can not be required to be chaperoned while doing so," Ravi's attorneys wrote.

In transcripts of instant messaging chats included in court papers, Clementi told friends that M.B. was 25 and uncomfortable with people knowing he was gay.

M.B. "clearly didn't expect to have his sexual orientation disclosed through the resulting criminal investigation and prosecution, nor did he expect his private sexual relations with another consenting adult to be exposed to others or to the public," prosecutors said in their motion. ...

Prosecutors filed nearly 200 pages of documents today in response to a motion filed earlier this month by Ravi's attorneys to dismiss all charges in the case. The papers included a copy of a two-paragraph e-mail, titled "Roommate spying on me," Clementi sent to Rutgers University residence life officials the day he committed suicide.

The freshman detailed how he learned, via Twitter, that his roommate had used a webcam to spy on him Sept. 19. He said he also found the webcam turned "toward my bed" two days later.

"I feel that my privacy has been violated and I am extremely uncomfortable sharing a room with someone who would act in this wildly inappropriate manner," Clementi wrote in the e-mail, sent 20 hours before he committed suicide.

• N.J. judge rules Tyler Clementi's partner must be identified [USA Today, September 9, 2011]

• Former roommate in Rutgers suicide case turns down plea deal [USA Today, October 20, 2011]

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man turned down a plea deal Thursday that could have kept him out of prison.

• Prosecutors Must Name Gay Lover in Rutgers Suicide Case [Gawker, October 20, 2011]

The man's identity won't become public knowledge, though: His real name will only be revealed to the defense attorneys and their investigators so they can further their case against the state.

• Dharun Ravi, suspected of spying on gay roommate at Rutgers, rejects plea deal [New York daily News, December 9, 2011]

Dharun Ravi turned down an offer that would have kept him out of jail and attempted to prevent his deportation back to India.

The 19-year-old's lawyer told a judge his client will go to trial to fight charges he was biased against gay people when he allegedly set up a camera to watch his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kissing and hugging another man in September 2010. ...

The Middlesex County prosecutor's office offered Ravi no prison time but included community service, probation and counseling as terms of the plea-bargain agreement, the judge said.

The state also agreed to help the young man fight any deportation orders since he is in the U.S. legally but is an Indian citizen.

Ravi now has less than a month to reconsider before jurors and a judge are assigned to the case. The trial is expected to begin Feb. 21 and is scheduled to last three weeks, the judge said.

• What the New Yorker Piece on Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi Gets Wrong [Student Activism, January 30, 2012]

The article provides the fullest and clearest account to date of the circumstances that led to Clementi's suicide, and it's well worth reading. But it bungles some important elements of the story, and bungles them in ways that serve to obscure important questions. ...

And Parker's habit of obscuring through nitpicking extends to the more basic issue of what the hell Ravi was up to in the first place. Parker returns again and again to the question of whether Ravi's act rises to the level of the bias crime of anti-gay intimidation with which he has been charged, at one point suggesting that the charge represents an "attempt to criminalize teen-age odiousness by using statutes aimed at people more easily recognizable as hate-mongers and perverts."

But this is a false dichotomy, and a bizarre one. There is no question as to whether Ravi was anti-gay - he expressed his revulsion at Clementi's orientation repeatedly and gleefully. That this wasn't the vicious bigotry of the "hate-monger" is hardly a defense of his actions.

What's obvious from Parker's reporting, but which seems to have escaped Parker himself, is the particular kind of asshole Ravi is. No, he's not a hate-fueled homophobe. He's not a basher or a zealot. He's just a garden-variety douchebag. He's the kind of guy who, on learning that his assigned college roommate is gay, posts about it on Twitter along with a link to that roommate's postings on a gay message board. He's the kind of guy who tries to trick his friends into installing monitoring software so he can turn their bedroom computers into spycams. He's the kind of guy who texts his friends to say that he hates poor people and that January is "a gay month."

• James Clementi: Letters to My Brother [Out, February 1, 2012]

When 18-year-old Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge in September 2010, he became an overnight symbol of the fight against cyber-bullying and homophobia. Here, his older brother reclaims his memory from the headlines and pays tribute to his abbreviated life.

Comments:

Katie L.

These letters and photos you shared are beautiful and show the love you have for your brother. I also lost my little brother to suicide 2 1/2 years ago...James i am so very sorry for your loss and i know the feeling of being a protector and having it just slip out of your grasp...but i know that both our little brothers are watching over us and now protecting us like we did for them. Thank you for sharing this and i admire your bravery in showing us your heart.

• : The Story of a Suicide: Two college roommates, a webcam, and a tragedy [New Yorker, February 6, 2012]

• Dharun Ravi And Tyler Clementi Timeline: Former Rutgers Roommate In Dorm Room Spying Trial [Huffington Post, February 24, 2012]

A timeline of events could be crucial to determining if Dharun Ravi is guilty of bullying and snooping on Tyler Clementi in the so-called "Roommate Webcam Spying" trial. Ravi was hit with a 15-count indictment, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, following Clementi's suicide in Sept. 2010.

Though not charged in Clementi's death, Ravi's case hinges on the roommates' interactions before Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge. Ravi used a computer camera to watch Clementi in a romantic encounter with a man, then wrote about it on Twitter. Clementi apparently experienced a range of emotions after he found out about Ravi's voyeurism. Was it a bad prank, as Ravi's defense claims, or was it hate crime against a gay roommate, as the prosecution alleges?

• Rutgers Trial: Dharun Ravi's Texts to Witness [ABC, February 27, 2012]

Rutgers University student Molly Wei received text messages from Dharun Ravi while she was questioned by police about the alleged webcam spying of Tyler Clementi's gay tryst, she said today in court.

"I think that he thought we were going to get in trouble, so he wanted to make it seem like it was more of an accident," Wei, 19, testified in a New Jersey court today. ...

Earlier today, Judge Glenn Berman ruled that the jury will not be allowed to hear Clementi's complaint to the school that his roommate used a Webcam to spy on him.

The complaint was included in Clementi's request for a dorm room change after he caught roommate Ravi watching him while on a gay date, and later tweeting that Clementi was going to have a second date.

• Dharun Ravi Update: Tyler Clementi's Date 'M.B.' Might Testify [Huffinton Post, March 1, 2012]

Lokesh Ojha described helping the defendant, Dharun Ravi, adjust his webcam so he could show a clear view of his roommate's bed. Authorities say that by then, Ravi had already spied on roommate Tyler Clementi, once and said that on that night - Sept. 21, 2010 - he was intending to do it again.

• Mystery witness takes the stand in US gay suicide trial [Daily Mail, March 2, 2012]

Mr Clementi's parents listened intently as MB told how he had met the teenager on the Adam2Adam website before visiting him at his dormitory a few weeks after the start of the students' first term at Rutgers.

They became intimate during his second visit, when MB told the court he first noticed the webcam pointing at them.

"I had just glanced over my shoulder and I noticed there was a webcam that was faced toward the direction of the bed," he said. ...

The second viewing did not take place - Mr Clementi saw the camera and unplugged it, before complaining to university officials about what had happened and requesting a room change. He jumped off the George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York a few hours later.

• Dharun Ravi Planned 'Viewing Party' To Watch Tyler Clementi On Webcam: Friend [Huffington Post, March 5, 2012]
• At Rutgers spycam trial, a struggle to prove antigay motive, say analysts [CSM, March 7, 2012]

Prosecutors are wrapping up their case against Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers University student charged with using his computer's webcam to spy on and cyberbully his dorm roommate. But legal analysts who have been following the trial say the prosecution has struggled to build a solid case on the most serious charge: that Mr. Ravi targeted his roommate because he was gay.

• Student in webcam spy trial 'not gay bully' [Gay Star News, March 14, 2012]

Altman asked the jury if there was information and evidence of 'hate' or 'ugliness' in Ravi's heart and said he had acted like a teenager, not a criminal.

'He hasn't lived long enough to have any experience with homosexuality or gays. He doesn't know anything about it. He just graduated high school,' Altman said, reported CNN.

But in her closing statement, prosecutor Julia McClure told jurors there was abundant proof that Ravi had a problem with Clementi being gay.

'It wasn't a joke,' she said. 'He didn't like that he had a gay room-mate.'

• Tyler Clementi's room-mate guilty on hate crime charges [Pink News, March 16, 2012]

ABC quotes Middlesex County Prosecutor Julie McClure saying: "Three weeks into the semester and [Mr Clementi] finds out that his sexual orientation has been broadcast to the defendant's twitter followers.

"His private sexual activities have been exposed. What do you think he's thinking? 'If Molly saw it, did Cassie see it? Did people in the hall see it? Did people in Davidson C see it?' You don't think that he was intimidated by learning that information? Fearful, embarrassed? He'd been exposed."

• 'I wish I'd done something to change what happened': Tyler Clementi's gay lover speaks out after mother of suicide teen cries in court as jury finds Rutgers student guilty of spying on tragic roommate [Daily Mail, March 17, 2012]
• Michelangelo Signorile: The Dharun Ravi Trial: What Exactly Is Hate? [HuffPo, March 23, 2012]

Dharun Ravi and his legal team -- the same legal team that had him refuse to take a plea -- are now taking his case to the media, trying to capitalize on the view, shared by many, that the verdict is too harsh because Ravi could get 10 years in prison and be deported. Found guilty of spying on Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and of hate crimes charges, Ravi, along with his team, is clearly hoping, as he pursues an appeal, that he can get sympathy from a public that doesn't understand hate crimes laws and which is not very sensitive to anti-gay bias.

In other words, just as his legal team put faith in what they hoped was a homophobic judicial system by refusing a plea that would have spared Ravi jail time, they're now putting faith in what they hope is a homophobic American culture.

• Dharun Ravi Should Get Prison Sentence For Spying On Tyler Clementi At Rutgers: Prosecutors [HuffPo, May 10, 2012]

McClure wrote that Ravi "has failed to accept any degree of responsibility for the numerous criminal acts he committed, and shows no remorse for the same, despite significant evidence pointing directly at him."

She said that since Ravi carried out "planned, malicious and continued criminal conduct" over a period of several days, there were no extraordinary circumstances to justify giving him anything less than the standard prison sentence associated with his convictions.

Ravi's imprisonment would serve as a deterrent to other potential offenders, she said.

• Convicted of hate crime, former Rutgers student gets gay support [Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2012]

At least one gay advocacy group, Garden State Equality, is pressing for prison time for Ravi, although less than the maximum 10 years.

"Justice is best served by his serving some jail time for the crime committed," Garden State CEO Steven Goldstein said. "The moderate position is not to throw the book at this young man, nor should he get off Scott free."

[Note: Aaron Hicklin, Andrew Sullivan, Jim McGreevey, Dan Savage and E.J. Graff are a pack of mealy-mouthed hypocrites and they don't speak for the victims of homophobic bullying.]

Gay Mormon Excommunicated From His Church, Commits Suicide
[Pride In Utah, September 22, 2011]

40 year old Bryan Michael Egnew spent the last decades of his life building up the courage to come out to his family and Mormon church. Once he did his life, family and religion were stripped away from him, and he committed suicide within a matter of weeks.

Growing up in the Mormon (aka LDS) Church as a gay man isn't easy. The pain and guilt pile-on as for years you are hammered with lessons telling you that unless you live a perfect heterosexual life, marry in a Mormon Temple, and follow the Church's laws perfectly, you run the risk of never seeing your family again after death. It's a deep hole that many never escape from.

Unfortunately, we have lost another beautiful person to the man-made hell of depression, created when he tried to be honest about himself.

Bryan Michael Egnew went on a Mormon Mission when he was 19, was married in a Mormon Temple to his wife Amy and had 5 children. He served within his local Mormon congregation for years, and outwardly was everything a Mormon man was expected to be. But inside, Bryan fought a constant struggle over whether to continue pretending, or to be honest about himself.

One of Bryan's friends, Jahn Curran, tells us that he has known Bryan since they attended college together at BYU. and like Bryan, Jahn was also hiding the fact that he was gay. Years later, Jahn would find the courage to come out of the closet, but Bryan was too afraid of what the consequences would be.

But last month, Bryan found that courage and came out to his family and his church. The results were tragic. According to Curran, his wife Amy immediately packed up their children and drove them out of state to Tennessee, refusing to let Bryan see them. His parents and family withdrew, and his Church immediately excommunicated him because he refused to denounce his sexual orientation.

[Continued here]

• Conference explores unique challenges of gay Mormons [Deseret News, November 5, 2011]

The conference, which drew 300 people to the First Baptist Church on Saturday, is sponsored by Mormon Stories, an organization with no affiliation to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon Stories claims to "build bridges between all who identify as Mormon."

• Gay Mormon Man's Suicide Points Up Tensions [The Advocate, March 23, 2012]

As friends mourn the death of Chris Wayne Beers, a gay man and former Mormon missionary and church employee who took his own life Sunday, some are noting tensions between LGBT people and the church, which opposes gay relationships.

Utah native Beers, 38, had worked in the missionary and travel departments for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a Web posting by Affirmation, a group working for LGBT equality within the LDS church. At the time of his death he was employed by the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Wife [Cara Rintala] arrested in lesbian domestic violence homicide [of Annamarie
Cochrane Rintala] [Edge Boston, November 13, 2011]

Just after 7 p.m. on March 28, 2010, in Granby, Massachusetts, police responded to a 911 call and discovered Annamarie Cochrane Rintala's lifeless body in her basement, covered in paint. Her wife, Cara Rintala, was holding her body on her lap, crying "Oh my God, she's dead." The couple were married and lived with their 4-year-old daughter. Cara Rintala told police her wife had slipped.

The medical examiner's report determined that Annamarie Cochrane Rintala's death occurred between noon and 2 p.m. that day. The cause of death was strangulation and the body showed evidence of extensive bruising and deep, jagged scalp wounds.

No arrests were made in the case, until Wednesday, Oct. 19 after an 18-month investigation. Police arrested Cara Rintala while she was driving in Rhode Island, where she now lives. The couple's daughter was in the car at the time of the arrest and is reported to be with family.

Cara Rintala pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to a charge of first-degree murder. Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan said he has enough evidence to make a conviction in the case. This appears to be the first alleged homicide in Massachusetts involving a married same-sex couple.

[Continued here]

Suicide by hitman: Gay priests hire assassins to shoot them dead after discovering one of them had AIDS
[Daily Mail, February 15, 2012]

Rafael Reatiga, 35, and Richard Piffano, 37, who had been close friends since training, were discovered shot dead in a car in Southern Bogota, Colombia, in January last year.

Authorities initially suspected robbery but this week prosecutor Ana Patricia Larrota said investigators had determined that it was a case of suicide by hitmen.

The priests gave members of a criminal gang the equivalent of $8,500, said chief investigator Maritza Gonzalez, as two of the four alleged assassins appeared before a judge for processing.

Gonzalez said the two priests had originally planned to throw themselves off a cliff into a canyon north of Bogota but apparently lacked the nerve.

[Continued here]

Criminally Negligent Homicide [in death of Edgard Mercado] Sought by Davawn
Robinson's Lawyer (d. 2009) [Gay City News, December 13, 2011]

"I'm asking you to hold Davawn Robinson responsible, but hold him responsible for what he did," said Annie Costanzo, one of Robinson's two Legal Aid Society lawyers, during December 13 closing arguments. "He didn't intend to kill Edgard Mercado."

Robinson, taking the stand in his own defense the day before, told jurors that the strangulation death was an accident during sex. In Robinson's recounting, the two gay men met at a West Village gay bar and traveled to Mercado's East Village apartment, where they used cocaine and drank some wine. Robinson said that Mercado, 39, asked that Robinson use erotic asphyxiation in their sexual encounter.

"The combination of cocaine snorted, alcohol consumed... impaired both of their abilities for the risks involved," Costanzo said.

[Continued here]

• Trial begins in choke slay of gay CUNY prof [New York Post, December 8, 2011] The 2009 strangulation of a popular CUNY professor - allegedly by a tall young stranger he'd met at a since-closed Village gay bar - was nothing short of brutal and intentional, a Manhattan jury was told yesterday during the murder trial's opening statements.

"This was not an accident," ADA Artie McConnell said of the death of Edgard Mercado, 39, who taught Spanish at the CCNY campus in Harlem. His partially clad body, a rope pulled tight around the neck, was found sprawled on the floor of his cluttered bedroom in his apartment on Avenue C.

"This was not a mistake. This was an intentional murder," McConnell said, apparently seeking to blunt any planned defense argument that the accused, Davawn Robinson, now 24, of Paterson, NJ, killed Mercado by accident during rough sex.

Witnesses said they heard beating victim [Marcellus Richard Andrews] taunted (1992—2011)
[Waterloo Courier, August 22, 2011]

A brutal fight that claimed the life of a Waterloo teen started with taunting, witnesses said.

Police confirmed that 19-year-old Marcellus Richard Andrews was officially pronounced dead at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Relatives and acquaintances said he died after being removed from life support at an Iowa City hospital. ...

Officers and paramedics said they found Andrews unconscious with severe head injuries in the early morning hours Friday.

Andrews, who was slated to start studying interior design at Hawkeye Community College, spent part of Thursday practicing with members of the Crusaders, a drill team sponsored by Union Missionary Baptist Church. He led the step team for the group, which was days away from competing in March Against Darkness.

[Continued here]

• Bad blood preceded Waterloo homicide [Des Moines Register, August 24, 2011]

The beating death of a Waterloo teenager is not being investigated as a hate crime, despite allegations that anti-gay taunts were used before the homicide, Waterloo police said Tuesday. ...

Assailants yelled "faggot" and "Mercedes," a feminization of Andrews' first name, at the teenager before he was beaten to death, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported.

Officials from One Iowa and Iowa Safe Schools denounced the homicide Tuesday as an apparent hate crime. The groups advocate acceptance for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals and work against bullying and hate speech.

"The hurtful rhetoric used was the language of hate," said Troy Price, executive director of One Iowa. "That kind of derogatory language does not have a place in our state."

However, authorities don't believe the killing was a hate crime, said Lt. Michael McNamee, Waterloo police spokesman.

• Anti-Gay Beating Victim's Family Disavows Notion That Victim's Death Related To Sexual Orientation [Think Progress, August 31, 2011]

After enduring a brutal gay-bashing, a teenager from Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) hometown - 19-year-old Marcellus Richard Andrews - died from his injuries last Sunday. Though his unidentified assailants reportedly screamed "faggot" and other anti-gay slurs at him during the attack, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) insisted that there is no link between anti-gay views and the beating. Now, the police will not declare the beating a hate crime. Citing "bad blood" between the victim and another party and the fact that the victim's family members are now insisting the victim was not gay, the police insist the attack did not occur "because of his persuasion or the perception of his persuasion." But as the local NAACP vice president Jim Day notes, "Gay or not, perceived as gay still ends up being a hate crime under those conditions." "Perception of gay and being gay still both qualify," he added.

[Note: With spineless family like this Marcellus Richard Andrews didn't need enemies.]

• Suspect arrested in beating death of Marcellus Andrews [Waterloo Courier, September 9, 2011]

Police have made an arrest in the death of a Waterloo teen who was killed during a fight last month.

Officers arrested Paris Akeem Anding, 19, of 310 Crescent Place, Thursday on charges of second-degree murder. He was taken to the Black Hawk County Jail, where he is being held without bond.

• Anding found guilty of voluntary manslaughter [Waterloo Courier, April 20, 2012]

Paris Anding was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter by a Black Hawk County jury Friday afternoon. ...

Anding hugged his attorneys, Steve Addington and Jill Eimemann, upon hearing the outcome.

He had been facing up to 50 years in prison if convicted on the originally charge of first-degree murder.

The voluntary manslaughter charge, one step down from murder, carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Mexico City nabs man in US flight attendant death
[The Guardian, November 1, 2011]

Police arrested a young man Monday for allegedly killing a US Airways flight attendant in his Mexico City hotel room and stealing his belongings and the safe deposit box.

Authorities said 20-year-old Jose Manuel Ramirez beat flight attendant Nick Aaronson and then strangled him with a belt. Police said the victim was 27, but other reports said he was 33.

Chief prosecutor Miguel Mancera said Ramirez and Aaronson arrived at the downtown Hilton early Friday and went to the room together. Mancera said the attack and theft happened shortly after that, but added that he did not know how much money was reportedly stolen and what was in the safe box.

Other US Airways flight attendants asked hotel employees to check Aaronson's room Saturday and his naked body was found lying on the floor, with his hands tied behind his back.

Mancera said Ramirez had a criminal record and had been released from a Mexico City prison in June. He said the suspect was identified after studying the hotel's surveillance videos.

[Continued here]

• Flight attendant murder suspect identified as prostitute, paroled convict [Airline Industry Examiner, November 1, 2011]
• Arrest made in U.S. flight attendant murder in Mexico [Reuters, November 1, 2011]

Nick Aaronson, 27, was found bound and face down next to his hotel bed in Mexico City after he picked up the 20-year-old Jose Luis Ramirez at a nearby bar, Mexico City prosecutors said. Ramirez, known as "The Shadow," beat Aaronson, strangling him with a belt before fleeing with his money, they said. ...

Anita Aaronson, Nick's mother, poured out her emotion on her Facebook page, posting videos of the young redhead singing karaoke. She said on Sunday the Federal Bureau of Investigation called her to say her son's killer was in custody.

"I can't stop thinking about my boy, he died in such an awful way, I keep thinking of his pain and fear," she wrote.

"My beautiful boy I can't stop crying I want him back."

Killing [of Phillip Alexander Cottrell] "unprovoked and totally unnecessary" (1968—2011)
[Gay NZ, December 12, 2011

Police believe the death of Wellington journalist Phillip Cottrell was random and unprovoked, and do not think it was related to his sexuality.

Phillip Alexander Cottrell, 43, died in Wellington Hospital yesterday afternoon. He suffered head injuries, a broken neck and broken bones in an attack on Boulcott St, as he walked home from an overnight shift at Radio New Zealand on The Terrace. Cottrell suffered a condition that made his bones brittle.

When asked at a media conference this afternoon whether they were investigating whether the attack was at all related to his sexuality, Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Millar said they were not and it would not be a focus for their investigations, adding police had not been aware Cottrell was gay.

"We cannot see any reason for Mr Cottrell to be involved in an altercation ... He took that same route down Boulcott Street most days," Miller said.

[Continued here]

• BBC journalist killed in New Zealand street attack [Telegraph, December 11, 2011]

Mr Cottrell, 43, was walking home after finishing work at Radio New Zealand when he was attacked.

In a statement friends and colleagues from BBC Scotland said: "Phillip was a gentle, kind man with an impish sense of humour.

He was a brave traveller, forever venturing to new countries and exploring new cultures. He leaves behind many, many friends in every corner of the world who will be distraught to learn of his loss.

"He was also a talented journalist with a passion for accuracy and precision.

• Two teens charged with Cottrell's murder [Gay NZ, December 14, 2011]

Officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Miller says police charged both men, aged 17 and 19 years at Wellington Central Police Station a short time ago.

"These arrests follow an extensive amount of enquiries carried out by the investigation team over the past few days, however there is still a large number of enquiries to be made and we continue to need help from the public."

• Radio NZ murder accused to stay in jail [New Zealand Herald, February 15, 2012]

Parents tell of 'bar row' clue to son's [Kenneth Gemmell's] death at sea after he fell from world's largest cruise ship (1982—2012) [Daily Mail, February 11, 2012]

Kenneth Gemmell, 30, was said to have deliberately plunged 100ft from the balcony of his 11th-floor cabin when the ship, Allure of the Seas, was close to the Mexican coast.

The liner was chartered by a firm specialising in gay and lesbian holidays and the vast majority of those on board were gay men enjoying a 'hedonistic atmosphere'.

Mr Gemmell's father James is 'concerned that something untoward could have happened' after being told by others on board that his son had an 'altercation' with a crew member. ...

Kenneth's parents are appealing for anyone with information to 'fill in what happened in the hours and minutes beforehand'. They are particularly keen to speak to a Canadian man who apparently shared a cabin with their son.

Family friend Michael Hynes said: 'His parents want to hear from the person Kenneth was sharing his accommodation with. All we know is that he was Canadian but the cruise company will not give us his contact information.'

[Continued here]

• Family of Overboard Passenger From Allure of the Seas Asks Public For Information [Cruise Law News, February 8, 2012]

Mr. Owen's article contains a new twist, perhaps, to the incident. Mr. Gemmell may have argued with a Royal Caribbean crewmember at some point before he went overboard. The crewmember then allegedly left the vessel in Cozumel. Mr. Owens writes:

        The family says that some information has already come their way. One party told them that Kenneth may have been arguing with a ship's crew member (perhaps a bartender) in one of the bars late Thursday night or early Friday morning. They were also told that the crew member, a man they understood was sharing a room with a Canadian citizen, left the ship in Cozumel.

Is this gossip or accurate information? If this is true, then the crewmember would have been removed from the cruise ship before the law enforcement authorities or representative of the flag state (Bahamas) boarded the cruise ship when it returned to port in Fort Lauderdale two days later. If you know anything about this, please leave a comment below and contact the family.

Welsh Sports Star [Gary Speed] Commits Suicide: Gay Rumors Fly (1969—2011)
[Edge Boston, December 2, 2011]

Football fans were shocked to hear the news of Gary Speed's death last weekend. The Welsh soccer ("football," in U.K. parlance) player and manager seemed happy and calm when he appeared on a UK television program, discussing upcoming football matches, but just a few hours later Speed, 42, was found dead at his home. ...

Sports fans are also suggesting that Speed got wind that The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, was going to print a story about his private life, possibly about being a homosexual, according to the Telegraph.

The Telegraph also reported, however, that The Sun tweeted, "No truth in this story. The Sun was not investigating Gary Speed in any way."

[Continued here]

• Gary Speed obituary [The Guardian, November 27, 2011]

His longevity at the top level of the game was underpinned by a remarkable dedication to his profession. One of the first British players fully to embrace new ideas about fitness and nutrition, his success can be judged by the fact that only two players, Ryan Giggs and David James, have surpassed his total of 535 Premier League appearances, while he holds the record for the most appearances for Wales by an outfield player - 85 - made over 14 years.

• Gary Speed inquest: Wales manager argued with wife Louise before death [Telegraph, January 30, 2012]

The inquest was told Speed, a father of two who played for Sheffield United, Everton, Newcastle, Leeds and Bolton, "talked in terms of taking his life" four days before his death.

Teen Charged for Killing Gay Journalist [George Weber]
[The Advocate, January 1, 2011]

Sixteen-year-old John Katehis, who was arraigned Wednesday night in Brooklyn, is being held without bail.

Police say that he admitted to stabbing George Weber, during a drug-fueled rage, according to Newsday . Katehis allegedly went to Weber's Brooklyn home, answering an ad on Craigslist to be paid $60 for rough sex.

Kaehis told detectives that he killed 47-year-old Weber in self-defense. However, police don't believe the claims since Weber's body was found bound at the ankles with duct tape, and stabbed about 50 times.

The night of the stabbing, witnesses said that they saw Katehis pacing outside of the apartment, and others said they saw him on the train with a bloody hand, according to WCBS News.

[Continued here]

• Gay Journalist-Killing Teen Gets 25 to Life [The Advocate, December 14, 2011]

The teenager who was convicted in November of killing an ABC News Radio reporter in March 2009 has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

John Katehis, who was 16 at the time of the murder, said he had hooked up with George Weber, 47, via Craigslist and had stabbed him approximately 50 times in self-defense after a struggle. Weber's body was found bound at the ankles with duct tape.

Peter Roebuck had the rare ability to speak truth to power (1956—2011)
[The Guardian, November 15, 2011]

I woke early on Sunday, roused by the buzzing of my phone on the bedside table. A text message from Rob Smyth. What does he want at this hour? "Roebuck ." it began. What a way to start a day. Like most people in this profession I have been feeling both angry and sad ever since, sad that he died so young, and angry that he reached the point where he felt that the best choice in he could make in the circumstance was to jump. "One emotion is never enough," a friend told me later that day. Least of all for a man like Roebuck. It seemed that his opinions were the only thing about him that came in black and white, everything else could only be captured in shades of grey.

"Peter Roebuck was a fantastic cricket writer," Rodney Hogg wrote on Monday night. "But if you are a true fan of his then now might be a good time to stop following the media." That depends which way you cut and whether you bleed. Harold Pinter wrote that "the mistake they make, most of them, is to attempt to determine and calculate the source of the wound. They seek out the gaps between the apparent and the void that hinges on it with all due tautness." You don't need to ignore Roebuck's flaws, nor apologise for them. But you don't have to dwell on them either.

People who knew Roebuck more than I did and understood him more than I could will write better tributes than this. They are the ones who knew how much baggage he had picked up along the way, and were least surprised by the way his life ended. If you haven't already, take a little time to read what Vic Marks has to say about his old team-mate, Derek Pringle about his old opponent, Greg Baum about his old friend and Peter English about his old mentor. Younger writers like myself knew him mainly as a man who was always willing to give support, advice and encouragement to people who were trying to get on in this profession. And if you look you'll find no shortage of tributes from them too. This is one week when nobody owes an excuse for tackling the same topic as everyone else. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Roebuck's death is that for all his imperfections there is no end to the number of writers willing, wanting, to testify to his good qualities.

[Continued here]

• Peter Roebuck 'faced sexual assault charge' [The Guardian, November 14, 2011]

South African police were about to arrest the cricket commentator Peter Roebuck on a charge of sexual assault when he apparently jumped from a hotel window, according to a close friend who was with him just before he died.

Jim Maxwell, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's main commentator, told the Guardian he left Roebuck's Cape Town room "less than a minute" before the 55-year-old former Somerset captain apparently leapt to his death on Saturday.

"He was in a state of utter despair - apoplectic," said Maxwell. "He was sitting in a chair near the window. It takes just five seconds to open that window. Given his emotional state he must have suffered a brain explosion and out he went." ...

Naidoo refused to comment on reports in South Africa's New Age newspaper that a 26-year-old Zimbabwean man had gone to nearby Claremont police station earlier on Saturday and laid charges of indecent assault against Roebuck. According to the report, the man told police he had met Roebuck after the broadcaster arrived in Cape Town on 7 November to discuss a university sponsorship, but instead was subjected to an attempted sexual assault.

• Cricketer gets suspended term for caning youths [The Guardian, October 20, 2001]

The former Somerset cricket captain Peter Roebuck was yesterday given a suspended jail sentence after he admitted caning three young cricketers he was coaching.

Roebuck, 45, of Exmouth, Devon, denied three counts of causing actual bodily harm - which the prosecution accepted - but admitted three charges of common assault involving three South African teenagers between April 1 and May 31 1999.

Judge Graham Hume Jones told Roebuck he had abused his "power and influence" over the boys, who were far from home, friends and family.

He was sentenced to four months in jail for each count, to run concurrently, with the sentences suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £820 costs.

Alexander McQueen(1969—2010) [Wikipedia]

Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE... was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose female strength and sensuality with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows. He is also known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own label under the name Alexander McQueen. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003.

[Continued here]

• British fashion icon Alexander McQueen commits suicide days after death of his beloved mother [Daily Mail, February 12, 2010]
• Alexander McQueen's 'Savage Beauty' At Metropolitan Museum Of Art [Photos] [Daily Mail, February 12, 2010]

Rest easy, Richard.

Richard Durant (1951—2011)

Passed away at the Norfolk General Hospital on Thursday, December 15, 2011 after a brief illness in his 60th year.

[Continued here]

2 men dead in East New York love triangle murder-suicide
[New York Daily News, April 17, 2012]

Two men died in an apparent murder-suicide in Brooklyn when a love triangle turned fatal, police said.

Jason Lopez, 22, found his boyfriend Tory Curtis in their East New York home with an unidentified third man, according to cops.

The third man hid in the closet in horror as Lopez shot Curtis, 23, to death and then fatally shot himself at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

The terrified survivor then fled the apartment, witnesses said.

"He came out from the house screaming," said a witness. "He said, 'My best friend got shot and the guy killed himself.' "

[Continued here]