Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

6 New York Teens Charged with Murder as Hate Crime

Anthony Collao, 18, fatally mistaken as gay, (l), pictured with his girlfriend, Wendy Vargas

New York City – Six teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in the fatal March attack on an 18-year-old male perceived to be gay.  365 Gay reports that the youths attacked and stomped Anthony Collao of Bethpage on Long Island to death as he was leaving a birthday party on March 15 in Woodhaven, Queens. The suspects, none of whom are older than 18, crashed the party, breaking windows, shouting “homophobic remarks,” and scrawling anti-gay slurs and epithets on the wall with a red marker. Collao and his cousin, sensing trouble, tried to leave the home, but were chased outside where the assailants threw Collao against a car, and savagely beating and stomping him until he no longer moved.  His cousin screamed for them to stop, saying that Collao was not gay and had a girlfriend, but the attackers continued pressing their assault with their fists, shod feet, and a metal pipe. Collao fell into an irreversible coma and died two days later at a Jamaica hospital when life support was removed from him. Four suspects — Alex Velez, 16, of the Bronx, Christopher Lozada and Luis Tabales, both 17 and from Queens,  and Nolis Ogando, 18, also from Queens – were arrested soon after the attack. A fifth suspect, Calvin Pietri, 17, of Woodhaven, who allegedly bragged about the killing on Facebook, was arrested within a day of the attack. Jonathan Echevarria, 16, of Brooklyn was also arrested and charged.  Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown told news reporters that each suspect has been charged with a 21-count indictment of murder as a hate crime.  The charges were upgraded after new evidence in the case came to light.  The suspicion that someone might be gay, or even an unsubstantiated accusation of it, as in this case, carries the potential of death. Homophobia and heterosexism are deadly to straights as well as gays.  The defendants in this case could each face as much as 25 years for the crime if found guilty.

June 24, 2011 Posted by | anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Beatings and battery, Bludgeoning, Gang violence, gay bashing, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, LGBTQ, Mistaken as LGBT, New York, Slurs and epithets, Stomping and Kicking Violence | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Asher Brown’s Legacy: Anti-Gay Bullying Ban in Houston Public Schools

Asher Brown, bullied to death in September 2010

Houston, Texas – By a vote of 7 to 0, with two board members absent, the Houston Independent School District made LGBT discrimination and anti-gay bullying against policy for all students and employees in Houston public schools.  The action came in response to outrage over the “bullycide” suicide of 13-year-old Asher Brown, who took his own life after two years of intolerable harassment for his sexual orientation in Cypress-Fairbanks School District schools.  His parents have testified that they repeatedly contacted school officials about the violence focused on their gay son, but to no avail.  No school official or teacher intervened to stop the bullying and save Asher’s life. The gay teenager’s death in September 2010 sparked a state-wide effort to revise school policies to ban harm to LGBTQ students while on school property. The Dallas Voice picked up the story of the policy change from the Facebook page of HRC board member Meghan Stabler, and is covering developments in Houston and Harris County.

The policy revision reads, in part: “A substantiated charge of harassment against a student or employee shall result in disciplinary action. The term “harassment” includes repeated, unwelcome, and offensive slurs, jokes, or other oral, written, graphic, or physical conduct relating to an individual’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability or handicap, or age, sex, marital status, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational or work environment.”

Houston School Board Member Larry Marshall said that the revision will make district schools safer for all children, especially LGBT students: “I think this recommendation clearly signals to principals that when you enter a school building you are on our turf, and on our turf we are going to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I think that administrators need to thoroughly understand that anything else will not be tolerated.”

Because the Houston ISD is the seventh-largest school district in the nation, the action of the district school board to ban discrimination and bullying against LGBT students will exert substantial pressure on other school systems to revise and enforce fair treatment of all children.  Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, for example, the district where Asher Brown attended school, has not yet changed its policy towards LGBT student bullying and harassment.  Nothing will bring Asher back to his family and his friends.  The horror of his death will remain.  But actions like this policy revision, and vigorous education and enforcement of the ban will help ensure that no other family or school need go through the agony that surrounded the fragile life and death of a gentle teenager who just wanted to live an authentic life and be able to get a good education at the same time.

June 24, 2011 Posted by | Anglo Americans, Anti-LGBT hate crime, Bisexual persons, Bullying in schools, gay bashing, gay teens, Gender Variant Youth, GLBTQ, harassment, Hate Crimes, hate crimes prevention, Heterosexism and homophobia, Houston Independent School District, Human Rights Campaign, Lesbian women, LGBT teen suicide prevention, LGBTQ, LGBTQ suicide, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, Texas, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Asher Brown’s Legacy: Anti-Gay Bullying Ban in Houston Public Schools

Gandalf Comes Out Against School Bullying; Works Magic Among Students

Sir Ian McKellan is Gandalf and Magneto...and he's gay!

Kent, United Kingdom – Sir Ian McKellan, international stage and screen star, best known for his portrayals of Gandalf the Wizard in The Lord of the Rings, and Magneto the Mutant in X-Men, is working the secondary school circuit to put an end to bullying against LGBTQ youth.  The Guardian reported in April 2011 that Sir Ian, who broke new ground by coming out as a gay man in 1988, is touring schools in a program to make education safer for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth.  Stonewall, the human rights and equality charity established by Sir Ian and a few others in 1989 is sponsoring the effort throughout Great Britain and Asia.  Here is an excerpt from the Guardian article by a Stonewall staffer who accompanies Sir Ian on anti-gay bullying school tours:

“Do you know any gay people?” Sir Ian McKellen asks. Silence. Heads shake. “Well, you do now. I’m gay.” It’s my turn to speak up. “You know two now. I used to go to this school – and I’m gay,” I offer. “You know three now,” a sixth-former chips in. The other pupils don’t look too surprised, and he seems admirably comfortable in his sexuality. Silence. Then: “Erm. Well. You know four now.” Heads shoot around to see a uniformed boy, leaning close to McKellen. Mouths fall slightly open – including mine – but nobody speaks. Then McKellen says, in that mellifluous voice of his, “Well. How about that? It turns out we all know quite a few more gay people than we thought we did.”

This is the third month of McKellen’s nationwide “role model” tour of secondary schools on behalf of Stonewall, the gay equality charity that he co-founded, and which I work for, and the two of us have come to Hundred of Hoo comprehensive in Kent, which I left over a decade ago. It has become a familiar scene for him. “My school visits are often rewarded by people coming out,” he says. “And I don’t just mean pupils – I’ve heard staff coming out to their heads on my visits, too.”

McKellen obviously has a powerful effect on the schools he visits; how does this make him feel? “A bit overwhelmed – and privileged,” he says. Gandalf has worked his magic in 54 secondary schools over the last two years. His dream? An education system free of the homophobia that has plagued it for years – and a curriculum that fully includes lesbian, gay and bisexual people . . .This has a profound effect on two year 10 friends, who tell me: “We didn’t realise calling things ‘gay’ could offend someone. It was touching when he talked about never being able to tell his mum he was gay. One of our best friends is gay and he gets abused for it. We hope it will stop now.”

McKellan reprieves Gandalf in upcoming film, "The Hobbit"

Magic, indeed!  Sir Ian’s example challenges others to follow in his footsteps among celebrities and everyday folk alike, to expose homophobic and transphobic language for what it is: a chief contributing factor in violence enacted against youth who present in gender variant ways, or who dare to live authentic lives as lesbians and gays. At the final school assembly, Sir Ian tackles the issue of anti-gay hate speech, homophobia, and hate crimes:

“I’m not useless,” McKellen asserts . . . , “but when you use that word [gay] as an insulting adjective, that’s what you’re saying about me. So please, watch your language. Because if you don’t, you mightn’t watch your actions…” He goes on to tell how Ian Baynham was recently killed in a homophobic hate attack by teenagers. “The girl who stamped on his head might have used ‘gay’ to mean anything rubbish and useless. And that probably convinced her that gay people were rubbish and useless – and don’t deserve to live.”

So, Gandalf has exchanged his ring quest for a new campaign: to convince LGBTQ students they are of great worth, and to encourage their peers and their teachers and school administrators to support their gender variant students by bringing anti-gay violence to an end.  We at Unfinished Lives Blog cannot think of a more necessary or noble adventure for everyone involved.  Bravo, Gandalf!

June 24, 2011 Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Bisexual persons, Bullying in schools, Gandalf, gay bashing, gay men, gay teens, gender identity/expression, Gender Variant Youth, GLBTQ, Great Britain, Hate Crimes, hate crimes prevention, hate speech, Heterosexism and homophobia, Ian McKellan, Lesbian women, LGBT teen suicide prevention, LGBTQ, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, religious hate speech, religious intolerance, Slurs and epithets, Social Justice Advocacy, Stonewall, transgender persons, transphobia | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gandalf Comes Out Against School Bullying; Works Magic Among Students

   

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