good job, Newsweek

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

Wow, Newsweek. Way to be five months late, and then write a terrible article about it.

I'm getting really sick of people labeling the murder of Lawrence King as only an anti-gay hate crime. It wasn't just anti-gay, it was also anti-gender nonconformity. Lawrence King was murdered for his gender expression AND his sexual orientation. The Newsweek article frames it as if Lawrence King wearing heels, make-up and jewelry were a part of him being gay, instead of a part of his gender expression. Not only does it make the underlying issues of gender expression and identity completely invisible, it perpetuates that stereotype that men can't be effeminate without being gay, and that being effeminate is a characteristic of being gay. The article likes to talk about how Lawrence has become a gay rights icon, but fails to interview any gay rights organizations. Instead, it opted to interview a few people who would rather say that the school could have prevented Lawrence's murder, not by teaching the students to accept each other's differences and to resolve conflict in a non-violent way, but by preventing Lawrence from expressing himself and forcing him to stop dressing and acting in an effeminate manner. But they're not *blaming* Lawrence for his death, goodness no, they're just saying that this all could have been prevented if he hadn't been so controversial. The victim blaming is nauseating, as are the anti-gay language and assumptions present in the article. The author uses the phrase, "flaunting his sexuality" and explains the dilemma many middle schools are facing when dealing with gay students with this sentence: "How do you protect legitimate, personal expression while preventing inappropriate, sometimes harmful, behavior?" Because gay students being open about their sexual orientation is likely to lead to "inappropriate" behavior, apparently. The author did a good job implying that "inappropriate" and "sometimes harmful" behavior are a part of being gay, as well as making it out as if the only way to know that you're gay is if your attractions are sexual.

Of course, Newsweek has never exactly had a good track record with LGBT issues in my book. They almost never cover them, and when they do there's nothing about transgender people at all, and they never cover issues other than marriage (except for this article, which is such a failure on so many levels that I wouldn't count it). Still, I was expecting better than this. Good job, Newsweek. You've lost what little reverence I had left of you.

guided by a new era

good job, Newsweek