A Young Martyr

The article Boy’s Killing, Labeled a Hate Crime, Stuns a Town, tells of the events that took place in California on February 12. A young boy by the name of Lawrence King was shot in the computer lab of his school; a place that most kids feel is a safe haven, one where nothing bad could ever happen to you. While he was sitting in the computer lab with 24 other students, a 14 year-old fellow student came in and shot him in the head, because he was openly gay.
Hate crimes are a problem in our society, not just for the LGBT society, but for everyone in it. Many people are killed or injured for being different, which is something that completely baffles me. Everyone in our country is different; we all have different backgrounds and ethnicities, personalities, wants, and ambitions. Isn’t America supposed to be the nation in which all people can be free and individual? Aren’t we supposed to have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? It’s scary what fear can bring us to do. Just because Lawrence was different, it caused a young child to kill another person. A child.
That brings up another issue within our society. Children can be very mean. Hate and fear don’t just come out in the form of physical injury; it’s also in verbal abuse. In the article, it’s stated that in a survey done by the California Healthy Kids Survey: “junior high school students in the state are 3 percent more likely to be harassed in school because of sexual orientation or gender identity than those in high school.” (Cathcart) I believe it. I remember in high school hearing the younger children talking to each other in the library or computer labs and in lunch, saying, ‘You’re so gay.’ Sometimes they didn’t mean it as the other person was actually gay, and other times they did. Both cases aren’t alright, though. It hurts either way to everyone. It makes children feel like outcasts and those who really are gay afraid, inferior, and sometimes angry. Thankfully, in California the law center is trying a legislative review of anti-bias policies and outreach efforts, with the help of Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Hopefully this will spread to other states as well; children need to learn tolerance for each other and respect for those who are different. Adults could also learn from this as well.
I could go on about how this affects me and makes me feel, for I am bisexual myself. I have a beautiful girlfriend back home and I miss her terribly. This article makes me think of her, and scares me beyond belief. It makes me realize that I’m really not safe, no matter how much I tell myself that I am. She’s also in danger every time she walks into that school. Because we’re from a small community, I know that many of the people there don’t know how to deal with the fact that we’re together and that we’re lesbians. We’re both still the same people, though. That’s why I can’t comprehend how anyone could hate another person because of who they love. It’s only part of who they are, just a small aspect of them as a person. Luckily for us, our friends quickly came to terms with it, and always tell us how cute we are together and how happy they are for us. But, that’s just our friends. It doesn’t include the people in the school that never really liked us. When we first went public with our relationship, I remember the looks we got, along with someone shouting “dyke!” at her as she walked by a table full of guys in lunch.
It’s hard, but I’m happier then I’ve ever been in my life. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I’m finally able to be myself. I’ve dealt with a lot of name calling, dirty looks, and people talking about me behind my back, but I regret nothing. I feel pity for all of those that fear homosexuals. It seems weak to me that they let fear control them that much and idiotic that they judge me just because I’m gay. I guess I have a master status. That’s ok, I’m proud of it, and I pray for all of those who were injured or killed because of hate crimes that they were, too. I hope that Lawrence’s death wasn’t completely pointless and that it opens people’s eyes to what’s happening to many different people, not just gays and lesbians, but every minority.

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