Did you guys hear about this 8th grader in California who was shot at his school this week by another student, apparently because he dressed in a way that did not conform to social expectations of his gender? See also the LA Times coverage (from whence photo came. The photographer is Michael Robinson Chavez.) CC volunteers at a center for queer youth, and they were talking tonight about the shooting of this kid in California, Larry King. Every single kid had a story of being harassed at school. Many had complained to school administrators, who generally blamed the queer kid for bringing the harassment on themselves because they are queer.
It just makes me feel like queer adults have a real obligation to these kids, who are now coming out in high school and even middle school (something no one in my school would have dared do) and who are facing not only the violence and homophobia of their peers, but the homophobia of all the adults who are supposed to protect them. One of the kids in CC's group was finally expelled from his high school for beating up one of his tormentors. But since none of the teachers or councilors to whom he went for help would help him, he said, what was he supposed to do?
Odd that this isn't in the national media, especially since the national media found the Matthew Shepard murder so easy to cover in great depth. Is it because Larry King wasn't a white kid? And because reporters are thinking that if King was really so "flamboyant," he brought it on himself? Among many other things, this murder demonstrates the futility of politics that separate gender performance and sexuality, as some groups sought to do by passing non-discrimination legislation that would have covered sexuality, not gender performance.
Take a second to e-mail the New York Times to ask them why they aren't covering this murder. nytnews@nytimes.com
5 comments:
I emailed them. from what I remember of high school adults are very passive when it comes to this kind of harassment. they have a lot invested in making sure kids turn out 'OK' (and by 'OK' I mean gender-conforming). it is part of the regime of HS discipline. kids expressing themselves otherwise are just as much of a threat to HS teachers and counselors as they are to their peers.
AXM
Wow. That fits very well with something else these kids at CC's group reported: In two cases, the administrators disciplining the queer kids were themselves out gays and lesbians.
It's horrible that the way I learned about this was from Perez Hilton, and as you pointed out, could then find no trace of it on the NYT or other sources. I don't know what's wrong with the media. After Matthew Shepard was murdered (just 30 miles from where I grew up), we all felt like the media had descended in droves mostly because it was easy to paint the murderers (who were despicable characters), and stereotype Wyoming, as racist, and homophobic rednecks. Unfortunately those people do exist to some extent (eg. Brokeback Mountain) in Wyoming but of course the reality is much more complicated. In fact it's such a libertarian place that people are more likely to just leave you alone (Aaron shot a documentary about a transvestite peace activist who was a community leader in a prairie town in the middle of Wyoming).
Anyway I'm getting off topic. In my (clearly unscientific) observation, it seems like part of what is going on has to do with a shift in focus of the media, partly having to do with a new cultural focus on the problems of middle-class white boys integrating into society. Unfortunately it seemed like in 1998, it was somewhat trendy for the media to talk about harassment and hate crimes when Matthew Shepard died (even Elton John came to do a benefit concert in Laramie). But then Columbine happened a few months later and everyone became obsessed with white, male, upper middle-class school shooters, and their lack of social integration, and suddenly we're back at the beginning again. You may also be absolutely correct when you hypothesize that it might have something to do with the fact that Larry King was not white.
(Sorry for the rant!)
finally...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23oxnard.html
axm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/us/23oxnard.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
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