Rev. Danny Fisher

Last month, 15-year-old Lawrence “Larry” King was shot in the head at his California middle school. He was shot by classmate Brandon McInerney simply because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in women’s clothing. Larry died from his wounds three days after being shot. The case received national attention, with even Democratic presidential hopefuls and senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton making statements about it. Ellen Degeneres also discussed the murder on her popular daytime talk show. (You can watch her comments on YouTube here.)

There are many sad pieces to this story, including the young killer’s home life (as a child, Brandon witnessed multiple acts of domestic violence committed by his father, including the shooting and serious wounding of his mother). At the heart of all this, though, is intolerance and bigotry.

The anti-gay taunts and slurs that Larry endured from his male peers apparently had been constant, as routine for him as math lessons and recess bells. The stinging words were isolating. As grieving friend Melissa Reza, 15, put it, Larry lived much of his life “toward the side. . . . He was always toward the side.”

She and others recall that the name-calling began long before he told his small circle of confidants that he was gay, before problems at home made him a ward of the court, and before he summoned the courage to further assert his sexual orientation by wearing makeup and girl’s boots with his school uniform.

His friends say the verbal cruelty persisted for months, and grew worse after the slightly built Larry pushed back by “flirting” with some of his mockers. One of them was Brandon, who seethed over it, the friends say.

Brandon has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder and a hate crime, and he is being held in juvenile hall.

We all need to do what we can to make sure that no more children like Larry become victims of hatred. We need to do all that we can to end this kind of hatred. As a start, I would like to suggest that those of you reading (particularly Buddhist leaders and clergypersons) create and register a remembrance event with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.

Below is a PSA inspired by this incident, featuring such famous faces as Portia de Rossi, Janet Jackson, T.R. Knight, and André “André 3000″ Benjamin. It was passed along to us by our friend Martine.