
CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
To someone of my generation, the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King reinforces all the awful warnings we heard as young queers just coming out: Never show your true self unless you're with your own tribe, we were told. If you do, you are fair game. Occasionally, when we strayed from our herd, we got picked off. Nobody wondered why.
Times have changed since then, but not enough. We're caught in a deadly in-between, where superficial messages of tolerance only reinforce the same old hate and fear. The contradictions are crazy-making, and kids are especially vulnerable.
For Larry King, whose story is on our cover, it seems the rules shifted crazily between his foster home and his school. Was he lulled into a false sense of security by assurances -- explicitly granted under California law, by the way -- that he had the right to wear heels if he chose? Was he not wary enough to sense that, outside the safety of his group home, in the jungle of middle school, he was low on the food chain? His friends suggest that Larry was prepared to be teased, even bullied. He was tough. But how could he have understood how far things would go?
Brandon McInerney, even younger than Larry King, also lived with extreme contradictions. At school he attended the Young Marines program and studied martial arts. At home he struggled with a parental environment that reportedly involved violence and drugs. Faced with a fierce young queer who declared a crush on him, did Brandon see it as an act of courage to pull the trigger? Was he in some childish way trying to bring order to the chaos of his life?
In late February, I heard a lecture by Dean Spade, a dynamic young trans attorney who was neither downbeat nor defeatist as he described the punishing dilemmas facing trans people. The rewards of coming out trans, he said, frequently include a slide into poverty. Employers discriminate. Health care is denied. Doors close. In post-9/11 America, a name that doesn't match a Social Security number can get its owner flagged as a terrorist. But obtaining accurate ID is dicey -- subject to a maze of prerequisites that differ from state to state and may hinge on surgery that's prohibitively expensive, let alone required or desired.
It is dangerous to look different. We all know that. Yet even if we wanted to go back into hiding, it's not an option. The larger culture knows enough to recognize us now, whether we live boldly or not. So here's the question: Having come this far, how do we get to the next step, where the culture's tolerance is real and fear no longer gets us shunned -- or killed?
Kids like Larry King shouldn't have to hide. Kids like Brandon McInerney shouldn't have to fear. How can we help them all survive this senseless time?
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
31 Period Films of Lesbians and Bi Women in Love That Will Take You Back
December 09 2024 1:00 PM
18 of the most batsh*t things N.C. Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson has said
October 30 2024 11:06 AM
True
After 20 years, and after tonight, Obama will no longer be the Democrats' top star
August 20 2024 12:28 PM
Trump ally Laura Loomer goes after Lindsey Graham: ‘We all know you’re gay’
September 13 2024 2:28 PM
These 15 major companies caved to the far right and stopped DEI programs
January 24 2025 1:11 PM
True
Melania Trump cashed six-figure check to speak to gay Republicans at Mar-a-Lago
August 16 2024 5:57 PM
Latest Stories
We need less panic from queer media
February 07 2025 7:00 AM
Protests erupt across U.S. at hospitals complying with Trump's under-19 anti-trans executive order
February 07 2025 6:30 AM
Asheville LGBTQ+ bar destroyed by Hurricane Helene is reopening 'twice as big' (exclusive)
February 07 2025 6:00 AM
HRC, Lambda Legal sue to stop Trump's transgender military ban
February 06 2025 8:50 PM
DOGE staffer resigns over uncovered racist posts
February 06 2025 7:18 PM
​'Heightened Scrutiny' is a somber reminder of why we fight for trans rights
February 06 2025 6:31 PM
NCAA caves and says it will obey Trump order banning trans athletes
February 06 2025 4:54 PM
Vision for long-delayed memorial to Pulse victims finally comes into view
February 06 2025 4:34 PM
Publishers and library sue Idaho over book ban that defines 'homosexuality' as 'harmful to minors'
February 06 2025 12:35 PM
Anti-trans Republican Nancy Mace doubles down on dehumanizing transphobic slur during hearing
February 06 2025 10:27 AM