Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Decorated Sailor Charged with the Murder of Gay Sailor August Provost

August Provost pic on his MySpace page

August Provost pic on his MySpace page

San Diego, CA – The U.S. Navy says that a decorated petty officer has been charged with murder and other offenses in the June 30 slaying of gay Seaman August Provost at Camp Pendleton, California.  Jonathan Campos, 32, has been in military custody since July 1, when the smoldering remains of Seaman Provost were found inside the guard shack where he stood sentry on the night of his murder.  Campos, a Lancaster, CA native, enlisted in the Navy in 2001.  He is a military fuel-system technician who had received numerous decorations, including the Good Conduct Medal.  He has been charged with murder and arson, as well as charges of wrongful possession of a firearm, unlawful entry to a military base, carrying a concealed weapon and stealing military property.  Forensic evidence shows that Provost was shot multiple times with a .45 calibre pistol.  The sentry shack was then torched with Provost’s body inside in order to destroy evidence of the crime.  The Navy continues to deny that the victim was killed because of his sexual orientation.  Instead, naval investigators for NCIS contend that Provost surprised Campos as he was seeking to gain entry to the anchorage where hovercraft were docked in order to set one of them afire, and that Campos shot Provost at that time.  Provost’s family and friends, along with gay rights activists, believe that his sexual orientation played a factor in the murder.  His aunt has told the press that her nephew complained to her about being repeatedly harassed for his homosexuality, and that he had one prime antagonist on base at Camp Pendleton.  Though it is not known whether Campos is that antagonist, both he and Provost served in the same unit, Assault Craft 5.  Ben Gomez, head of the San Diego chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, a national LGBT servicemembers organization, said to San Diego 6 that he and other LGBT activists believe Seaman Provost’s murder was a hate crime.  They contend that he was killed after having an argument about his sexuality with an antagonist on base.  They do not find the Navy’s claim credible that Provost was a “random” victim.  While the Navy largely bases their claim that sexual orientation did not play a part in Provost’s murder since he had never filed a complaint with his superiors about being harassed for being gay, family and the LGBT community counter that he could not have felt safe approaching his commanders at Camp Pendleton because of the threat posed to his continuing military service because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT).  Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California and Provost’s native Texas are calling for a full investigation into the case.

July 23, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, Arson, California, DADT, gay men, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, immolation, military, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Texas, U.S. Navy | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Decorated Sailor Charged with the Murder of Gay Sailor August Provost

“Full Military Honors”: The Irony of A Nation’s Thanks for a Murdered Gay Sailor

SeamanProvostPicInUniform.JPGHouston, TX – The dignified notice of services attending the interment of Seaman August Provost appeared in the Houston Chronicle on July 9th:  “SEAMAN AUGUST “B.J.” PROVOST III 29 A courageous soldier, passed away (Thurs) 06-30-09 while serving in the U.S. Navy @ Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Ca.  Visitation (Fri) 07-10-09 from 10am-11am @ Wright Grove Missionary Baptist Church; 9702 Willow Street.  Funeral services will begin at 11am.  Interment: full military honors will be given in his honor at Houston National Cemetery – (Gate-time 2:30pm).  Boyd Funeral Home.”  As a gay sailor who had not yet been outed and discharged under the provisions of the 1993 DADT law, August Provost was eligible for “Full Military Honors.”  The Military Funeral Honors web site details what by law they must be for August Provost: “Military Funeral Honors have always been provided whenever possible. However, the law now mandates the rendering of Military Funeral Honors for an eligible veteran if requested by the family. As provided by law, an honor guard detail for the burial of an eligible veteran shall consist of not less than two members of the Armed Forces. One member of the detail shall be a representative of the parent Service of the deceased veteran. The honor detail will, at a minimum, perform a ceremony that includes the folding and presenting of the American flag to the next of kin and the playing of Taps. Taps will be played by a bugler, if available, or by electronic recording. Today, there are so few buglers available that the Military Services often cannot provide one.” Of course, Seaman Provost is due all honor by a grateful nation for his service in the Navy.  Every fallen LGBT servicemember is due the full honors of the United States of America whose flag they served.  But the irony fairly crackles around this funeral notice.  Seaman Provost was brutally murdered, shot multiple times as if by execution.  His body was found partially burned in a guard shack, probably the work of a killer intent on covering up his gruesome handiwork.  Seaman Provost had confided in his family and to his same-sex lover that he had been harassed for being gay for the better part of a year by someone on base.  But he would not report any of this to a superior, lest in the name of the same body of law that now covers him with honor, he be investigated and summarily drummed out of the military for being a homosexual.  So, someone finally worked his evil, and Seaman Provost died, vulnerable and unprotected, a gay man like so many tens of thousands of others who vow to protect and defend the very nation that will not do the same for them.  May the family, and Seaman Provost’s bereaved lover, to whom the honors of the nation refuse to extend in President Obama’s America, find comfort for their loss.  May Seaman Provost rest in peace in Houston National Cemetery, covered with honor as he should be.  But the rest of us should be put on notice that DADT must not stand one day longer, else this brave gay man will have died in some sense bitterly.  As for us at the Unfinished Lives Project, we cannot help being Red, White, and terribly Sad.

Military funeral

July 11, 2009 Posted by | African Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, California, Condolences, gay men, gun violence, harassment, Hate Crimes, immolation, military, Remembrances, Texas | , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Terry Mangum receives life sentence for 2007 hate crime

An article appearing in the Dallas Voice reports Terry Mangum, the murderer of 46-year-old Ken Cummings Jr., has been sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2007, Mangum met Cummings at a gay bar in the Montrose area of Houston, Texas, went to Cummings’s home in Pearland (a metro-Houston city), and attacked his victim.

Mangum has said that he believes he was “anointed and appointed by God” to commit the murder, which entailed stabbing his victim in the head, cleaning the crime scene, moving his victim to a ranch south of San Antonio, Texas, and then burning and burying Cummings’s remains in a shallow grave. A Brazoria County reporter for The Facts tells how Mangum believes God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is “the worst sin.” The graphic nature of Mangum’s crime has also been reported in The Facts.

According to the Dallas Voice article, jurors in Mangum’s trial agreed the murder was a hate crime, which could make it less likely that he’ll be granted parole. As it is, Mangum won’t be eligible for parole for 30 years.

August 16, 2008 Posted by | immolation, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, religious intolerance, stabbings, Texas | , , , , , | 1 Comment

Remembering Scotty Joe Weaver

On this day in 2004, Scotty Joe Weaver fell victim to an anti-gay hate crime in Bay Minette, Alabama. He died at the hands of his own roommates, people who on the surface represented friendship and trust. Yet Scotty Joe was murdered while pleading for his life in front of people who betrayed that relationship and bond.

Today, join the Unfinished Lives project as we remember Scotty Joe, mourn his loss, and celebrate his life. In our memory, we restore to Scotty Joe the dignity and worth that rightly belongs to every individual, regardless of one’s sexual orientation.

Read a September 2007 news story carried by WKRG about the prison sentencing of Weaver’s assailants, and view the related television news report:

July 18, 2008 Posted by | Alabama, Anglo Americans, gay men, Law and Order, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Remembrances | , , , , , | 1 Comment

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