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There's no two ways about it, this was a premeditated hate crime.

posted 11 years ago by Gabe1972
22 replies | jump to latest

This was a hate crime, through and through. Larry wears girl's clothes and likes to be referred to by girl's names. He is sweet on Brandon and asks him to be his Valentine. This gives Brandon the right to kill Larry in cold blood? There are many people in this story that ought to be completely ashamed of themselves, including the jurors. So many people made it sound as if Larry deserved what he got. What the hell is wrong with our society that so many people think what Brandon did was justified, or at least provoked by Larry?

Brandon gets to leave prison in 21 years. Does Larry get to come back to life in 21 years? Swastikas and SS runes? Kids don't just go around drawing Swastikas and SS runes like they made it sound. Racist little bigots like Brandon and his brother do. This was a hate crime if I ever saw one.

Brandon's lawyers were a real treat, weren't they? I was shocked at the male lawyer as he seemed like he was a few lawn implements shy of a full shed. They must have really lowered the bar for his exam (no pun intended).

Then we get to the teacher. The teacher who was kind to Larry. The teacher who was very good to all the kids and was the kind of teacher I would have liked to have had when I was in school. She gets fired for caring and sticking up for Larry while he is a student and after he is killed. I certainly do hope that she files or has already filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

This whole thing just made me very angry at how people could think that something like this was if not justified, at least provoked. What a bunch of disgusting people. It reminds me so much of Harvey Milk and the Twinkie Defense.

Well, maybe Brandon and his low rent girlfriend can get married and by the time he gets out maybe that beach will be "white" again. These two are made for each other.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Bigoted people that live in a bigot filled town where the innocent are picked off and the scumbags don't get the punishment they certainly deserve. Next thing we know they will erect a bronze statue in honor of Brandon. He struck a blow for the straight, white man. Scum...absolute scum.

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

[–] Mitch0110 11 years ago

As a young gay guy, I can tell you it isn't easy being openly gay and going to school. However I don't believe Larry was gay, I believe he was transgender, two COMPLETELY different things. I never looked different from my peers. So while I got bullied (and who doesn't?), transgender kids get it 1000x worse, especially when they are young. Larry stood out by wearing makeup and dresses and by wanting to be called Latisha. So critics of Larry feel his behavior was being shoved down everyone's throats. They say that since not everyone is comfortable with people like Larry, and when he says something to the wrong person, this violence occurs and Larry's actions should be taken into account. Poor Brandon was just embarrassed and didn't know what else to do. Sick mentality. They also feel that since Brandon was 14, he was too young to truly know what he was doing. BS again. That female lawyer and those female jurors were as hot for Brandon as Larry was. The prosecutor said it best, until we can be more forgiving and more tolerant, these crimes will continue to happen in vain. Brandon is guilty of premeditated murder and is clearly a violent person. He should either stay in jail or be tranquilized and live on a farm somewhere..

[–] Gabe1972 11 years ago

I felt that he was transgendered, but I didn't want to say that on here as I felt it may start an argument with some people. There are still a LOT of people out there that don't believe it's a real thing.

I think living on a farm somewhere, even if he is tranquilized, would be too kind. I hope he gets the worst of what can happen in jail.

I would not be surprised one little bit if, before he actually did the deed, he took into account the fact that he was only fourteen and didn't think he would get too much punishment.

I'm sure I would have been embarrassed and probably made some type of comment had I been in Brandon's place. Fourteen year olds do stupid things. God knows I did. But, killing him is not something that would have even entered my mind.

What disgusts me most is the fact that some of the jurors wore "Save Brandon" bracelets in the interviews. It's almost as if they have vilified Larry and glorified Brandon. Absolutely disgusting.

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

[–] italian_buju76 11 years ago

I totally 100% agree with everything you said in both posts!

"I just thought if you invited me over, you knew it was me showing up"

[–] teaguetod 11 years ago

I think living on a farm somewhere, even if he is tranquilized, would be too kind. I hope he gets the worst of what can happen in jail.

Say you hate homosexuals. So what do you do? You make sure you end up in an institution where you're surrounded by dudes who constantly engage in homosexual acts, of necessity and opportunity: the California penal system. Not very smart. I guess that's the logic of a 14-year-old killer.

Fourteen year olds do stupid things. God knows I did. But, killing him is not something that would have even entered my mind.

Yeah, what the hell? Whatever happened to just fighting someone, beating him up?

some of the jurors wore "Save Brandon" bracelets in the interviews.

This film had me howling with laughter at how unbelievable it was. Laughter, I think, 'cause you gotta either laugh, or cry, at the whole situation: a kid who straight-up executes another kid for -- whatever, really no good reason. A school that won't even allow kids to put up a plaque with the victim's name on it. Surf Nazis. Teachers who blame the victim because he dressed like a girl and embarrassed another boy ( --so he got what he deserved?). Jurors who wear bracelets saying "Save..." -- the killer! Not the gay kids who get targeted regularly all across this 'Land of the Free' -- save their killers from having to suffer too much punishment. Yeah, let's send that message.

I could go on and on.

An amazing, eye-opening, eye-popping documentary.

[–] Gabe1972 11 years ago

It's a fantastic documentary, for sure. It was very difficult for me to watch, though, as it angered me to no end. You see in the media all the time how things are becoming more equal. How people are being accepted more for who they are, rather than having to fit into some Christian based mold. How the government is doing more to show acceptance, such as legalizing gay marriage and giving the same benefits to gay couples that straight couples receive by law. All this stuff is great, don't get me wrong, but it isn't happening in the places that don't make the news. So many of these small towns are still so backwards it's sickening. About two years ago a guy of about 30 moved here and he was openly gay. It wasn't but maybe three weeks later that the gossip had spread to all corners of the town about this man. Like I said, two years ago, not the 1950s. It's ridiculous.

People, like Brandon, are taught to be like this. Taught to hate. In this day and age, it still happens all over the place. A big city, much more forward, but in a small town, people have their heads you know where and still teach this kind of hate. Being embarrassed is one thing, but being so disgusted that you want to kill someone because they like you and they are the same sex...again, that's taught. And it wasn't spontaneous. He had time to think this through.

Brandon was lucky there's no "dumbass panic", as the same thing would have happened to HIM a LONG time ago.

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

[–] teaguetod 11 years ago

Well, even Paris, France had anti-gay-marriage protest marches this year when their law passed. To say nothing of the outrages coming out of places like Russia or India on this issue.

I grew up in a very conservative, fundamentalist Christian family. In Iowa. But even in the Midwest, things have changed a lot from when I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s. Kids can come out and be gay now, and some even do it before they finish secondary school. The mass media pretty consistently defend gay rights. Even the President mentions Stonewall in his inauguration speech. If I were still a fundamentalist, I'd probably see the whole thing as a massive conspiracy against "the people of God" or "Bible-believing Christians."

I watched an interview with Valentine Road's director Marta Cunningham on YouTube. She said one the questions she had when making the film was: why are we so very afraid of bending the 'rules' of gender identity? Why is a boy wearing makeup and high heels and glitter so terrifying to some people?

This all comes down to an epic battle over worldviews that is being played out today on many fronts, but is little-recognized by many average, secular non-religious folk. Namely: do our beliefs about reality -- our religions, our political ideologies -- objectively reflect the 'real world'? Or, are our symbolic systems of meaning simply human constructions, shaped by our culture and our social setting?

All three of the Abrahamic faiths (which have tied their wagons to the objective, historical truth of divinely-revealed texts) are engaged in this conflict against the evils of our postmodern, relativistic world: women driving cars, teachers corrupting students with Darwinism, infidels drawing cartoons of the Prophet, and of course homosexuals getting 'married' (almost anywhere in the world).

For a lot of reasons, traditionalists have picked their fights around issues which involve feminism and sexual orientation and gender identity. Because what could be more fixed, more set-in-stone, than that? Marriage = man + woman. Traditional family values. Boys will boys, and girls will be girls. Because that's how God made us. Unfortunately, however, it's not quite as simple as that. So anything that contradicts this simplistic view, anything that eludes these fixed definitions, is seen as extremely threatening -- because it calls into question the entire 'objective-reality' worldview.

Still, it would be nice if we could all at least agree that it's not OK to murder a boy simply for looking like a girl. Or for acting like a girl. Or for being gay. Or for being different. Or for any reason. This is what shocked me the most about this movie: the attitudes of a lot of the adults about how to interpret a very shocking murder in their town.

[–] Gabe1972 11 years ago

Your last paragraph is my exact point. It doesn't matter what someone feels. They can hate gay people. They can feel like vomiting at the thought of a boy dressing in girl's clothes. They can think it is disgusting for a boy to ask another boy to be his valentine. Everybody's entitled to their opinions. But what people cannot do is kill someone because of those beliefs.

I agree about how a lot of the adults interpreted this. A few even went so far as to make it be Larry's fault that he was killed. Disgusting people. Sure, if Larry hadn't been the way he was, he would be alive today, but that doesn't mean that he was wrong in being the way he was, at least not in my eyes and not in the eyes many, many other people.

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

[–] imadbasayev 11 years ago

He wasn't killed for being gay, as he'd been out of the closet for years. He was humiliating and sexually bullying Brandon in front of his friends. That's what caused Brandon to go nuts, not simply the fact that he was gay.

[–] Gabe1972 11 years ago

Sexually bullying? Are you for real? He asked him to be his Valentine. He probably smiled at him and looked at him sometimes. This is sexual bullying? Give me a break! It's still a hate crime, plain and simple. Are you one of the people who wear the Save Brandon bracelets and think he should be free? He should be in jail for life. No question about it. I hope someone has made him their bi***.

If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.

[–] imadbasayev 11 years ago

Actually he did a lot more that, you obviously didn't pay attention to what led up to the killing.

[–] activista 11 years ago

Whatever---quit apologizing----whatever Larry did,it STILL does NOT in ANY way justify his being murdered, so please stop making excuses for the murderer---you beginning to sound really ridiculous.

[–] imadbasayev 11 years ago

When did I make an excuse? No one said he was justified, but the fact remains that it didn't occur in a vacuum and it wasn't a random act. It could've been prevented if the school had acted differently. To suggest otherwise ignores everything that led up to the murder.

[–] igetitfaster 11 years ago

You mean Brandon and Larry didn't just materialize out of the ether one day and then Brandon murdered Larry? Oh, thanks for clearing that up.

This guy keeps harping on the fact that there were things that lead up to Brandon committing murder as though anyone is not in possession of this information or that it somehow acts as an argument of some kind in Brandon's defense.

Everyone knows that something set Brandon off, the way most individuals convicted of murder sitting in prisons across the globe were set off by something. That the specifics of what set Brandon off can be indentified does not matter, as it does not include self-defense.

Plenty of people feel bad for the moron who was broke and decided to rob a liquor store and kills the clerk. They point to socioeconomics or some other nonsense meant to absolve some of the guilt of the person who made a decision to break the law.

Watch Me Win

[–] imadbasayev 11 years ago

The fact that Brandon was not an adult and was being bullied by Larry are mitigating circumstances which the jury had every right to take into consideration when determining his guilt. There's a reason why children are considered different under the law than adults, but the prosecutor was over-zealous and blew her case.

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

Why don't you stop misusing the word "bullying"? LARRY DID NOT BULLY BRANDON. EXPRESSING ROMANTIC INTEREST IN ANOTHER HUMAN IS NOT BULLYING.

By your "logic," every girl and woman who has ever been the subject of unwanted advances from a hetero man -- and that would be EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US -- would be justified in using physical violence to get him to back off, or to punish him for DARING to think of us in some way that we find unpleasant.

There is simply no justification for assaulting, let alone killing, a person who makes you feel emotionally/psychologically uncomfortable, whether it's an "uppity Negro" or a "femi-nazi" or a "fag"(those are the labels that people like you prefer, right?) behaving in a way that demands equal rights. Period. You can huff and puff all you like, and you can rely on your distorted definitions of words like "bullying," but the facts are that bigotry is no defense for violence and that Larry didn't bully *anyone* by simply being himself.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

It could've been prevented if the school had acted differently.

Yeah, bc people like you are so into the *government* having a say over your choices.

It could've been prevented if
-- Brandon had asked an adult to intervene;
-- Brandon had chosen to verbally assault Larry rather than, uh, KILL him;
-- we had normal gun laws such that Brandon's ar$eh0le of a grandfather hadn't left guns lying around the house, and ammo in Brandon's room;
-- Brandon's parents had had any common sense at all;
-- Brandon's parents had gotten therapy to help them GROW UP and BEHAVE IN LOVING AND RESPONSIBLE WAYS, had taken parenting and anger-management classes, had gotten help for their substance abuse.

Just *lovely* how people like you are so selective in finger-pointing -- it was the government's fault for not intervening! But keep your government away from my guns! And keep your government away from my Gd-given right to hate+persecute anyone who is different from my concept of normal!!!!!!

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

Thanks, teaguetod, for a glorious and insightful post.

I watched an interview with Valentine Road's director Marta Cunningham on YouTube. She said one the questions she had when making the film was: why are we so very afraid of bending the 'rules' of gender identity? Why is a boy wearing makeup and high heels and glitter so terrifying to some people?

Thanks for including this info. I didn't know she'd said that, but I'd noticed the juxtaposition of people talking about Larry wearing makeup and heels, with scenes of Brandon's girlfriend putting on makeup. (Brilliant! Reminding us that it is just as unnatural -- or equally natural -- for a GIRL to wear makeup.)

And, it remind me of the lyrics of that great song from Hair, "My Conviction":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRGeIrAfq-k

I wish every mom and dad would make a speech to their teenagers / And say, "Kids, be free, / Be whatever you are, do whatever you want to do / Just so long as you don't hurt anybody. And remember, kids, I am your friend."

I would just like to say that it is my conviction / That longer hair and other flamboyant affectations / Of appearance are nothing more than the male's emergence / From his drab camouflage into the gaudy plumage / Which is the birthright of his sex.

There is a peculiar notion that elegant plumage / And fine feathers are not proper for the man / When actually that is the way things are in most species.

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

Thanks for your comment. I had to look up that interview to find the link again. Here it is on YouTube, in case you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JFAu0rV5gE

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

All this stuff is great, don't get me wrong, but it isn't happening in the places that don't make the news. So many of these small towns are still so backwards it's sickening.

You're right about how backwards many areas still are and about how this society overall is still full of intolerance. That said, I have a close friend (gay man) who moved, with his partner in 2008, from a large city to a small town (15,000) in a southern state -- and (knock wood) they're OK. In fact, they bought a house from another gay-male couple, who also lived in that town undisturbed for many years. So, as awful as things still are, they are definitely getting a little better -- slowly, but definitely. I'm not Mary Sunshine by any means (more like Dora Darkness), but it's important for us to see the victories that do exist.

Cheers.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] Gabe1972 10 years ago

Knock wood, for sure. I hope that in the near future we won't have to knock on wood for a situation like that. It sort of reminds me of a documentary I just saw last week that takes place in a southern state. It's called "Southern Rites", and it's about how "old south" this particular area in which the documentary takes place still is. From a prom that was just VERY recently desegregated, to an old white man who basically gets away with the completely unjustified murder of a young, black teen, to an extremely qualified black man, the chosen successor by the incumbent, who runs for county sheriff, and loses to a white man who has absolutely no experience in law enforcement.

Unfortunately, bigotry of all kinds still exists in many areas of the south, as well as just about everywhere else, though it's slowly fading. The south just has a particular notoriety for it. I'm glad that your friend was lucky enough to move to an area that has chosen to live in the 21st century. Like you said, things are slowly getting better.

To add, we have a local Moose club here. To this day I have no idea what it is that these particular groups do. Bingo, fish fries, poor quality "professional wrestling", and not much else. LOL. With that said, a still remaining, unspoken rule is they won't let any gay people or black people become members, and this is in New York state, not the south. Women can't become full members either. They become "Women of the Moose". Isn't that crazy? Bigotry is still alive and well in small pockets of progressive areas. Hopefully that will change some day. I don't see how it can't.

"Welcome to Costco. I love you."

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

So critics of Larry feel his behavior was being shoved down everyone's throats. They say that since not everyone is comfortable with people like Larry, and when he says something to the wrong person, this violence occurs and Larry's actions should be taken into account. Poor Brandon was just embarrassed and didn't know what else to do. Sick mentality.

THANK you. By that "logic," black people who in the 60s let their hair go natural were "shoving their beliefs down people's throats" -- as were pants-wearing, protest-going women who wanted the same self-determination that men had enjoyed for centuries.

It's sick and sad that the anti-freedom portion of the mainstream continues to distort reality ("Why are gay people, women, black people, etc. asking for extra rights?" -- aaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh). But it's also great that so many people on this board are outraged by such views, are watching this docu, are speaking up, are living their lives in ways that will gradually bring about change.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] Helena727 10 years ago

Thanks for a lovely post and important thread, Gabe1972. (I'd forgotten about the girlfriend's reaction to the beach/to the non-whiteness of people. Un-be-LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEV-a-able. Except it isn't unbelievable, in that so many people interviewed felt essentially as she did, even if they weren't stupid enough to be as blunt about their very narrow sense of what is acceptable.)

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."