Larry King

Lawrence "Larry" King, was , a 15-year-old gay student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, United States. He was murdered by a fellow student, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, because he was gay.

Background

Larry King

Larry was born on January 13, 1993. He was placed up for adoption because his biological father had abandoned his wife, and his mother was a drug addict who failed to care for her son properly.

By most accounts from the people that knew him, Larry King a 15 year old from Oxnard, California had silently endured years of taunting and bullying from his classmates. As early as third grade, King began to be bullied by his fellow students due to his effeminacy and openness about being gay, having come out at ten years old. Testimony from his teachers indicates that Larry was well-liked by the staff and most of his peers. They describe how Larry had recently started to assert himself and fight back against the onslaught of relentless bulling at the hand of a vocal minority at his school. One of his teachers described Larry as: “gaining a new confidence” and making statements such as, “I am what I am’. Larry had also begun experimenting with his image and how he dressed as is typical with many young gays.

It appears that Larry learned to fight back against his tormenters, which in one case prompted him to chase down a student who had snapped his picture with a cell phone camera and smash the phone. More importantly, Larry learned that he could use his sexuality as a weapon. Reports indicate that Larry went out of his way to embrace Brandon McInerney who was his principal tormenter and often incited others to do the same. In one instance, Larry walked onto the basketball court in the middle of a game and asked McInerney to be his Valentine in front of the team who then made fun of McInerney. In another, Larry passed McInerney in the school corridor and called out, "Love you baby".

Brandon McInerney

Brandon David McInerney was 14 and stood a foot taller than his victim, and had been raised by a homophobic, abusive, alcoholic father. He was born on January 24, 1994 in Ventura, California. He came from a turbulent and violent home life including reports of domestic violence, and that his father shot his mother in the arm with a .45-caliber pistol. And in another instance, his father had choked his wife almost to unconsciousness after she accused him of stealing ADHD medication from her older son.

Reports suggest that McInerney's actions were spurred on in part by a hatred of gays, in line with his alleged neo-Nazi sympathies.

The Murder

Here is how a Newsweek story led off a piece addressing the murder:

“At 15, Lawrence King was small—5 feet 1 inch—but very hard to miss. In January, he started to show up for class at Oxnard, Calif.’s E. O. Green Junior High School decked out in women’s accessories. On some days, he would slick up his curly hair in a Prince-like bouffant. Sometimes he’d paint his fingernails hot pink and dab glitter or white foundation on his cheeks. “He wore makeup better than I did,” says *** ***, 13, one of his classmates. He bought a pair of stilettos at Target, and he couldn’t have been prouder if he had on a varsity football jersey. He thought nothing of chasing the boys around the school in them, teetering as he ran. But on the morning of Feb. 12, Larry left his glitter and his heels at home. He came to school dressed like any other boy: tennis shoes, baggy pants, a loose sweater over a collared shirt.”