Things that put a cold chill up your spine...

[elfs]

Yamaraashi-chan has a classmate, a boy I'll call Everett (name chosen at random from the "most popular boy's names in America in 1900" database), who asks that his friends call him "Princess Everett" and who has been known to cross-dress to school from time to time.

I don't pretend to understand the difficulties that he and his parents go through with this curious phase of his life, but more power to him and them that he seems to be well-integrated into his school life. Yamaraashi-chan likes him, and when she talks about him it's often in group activities over lunch or recess, so thus far in that gray zone between excessively well-churched Burien and notoriously tolerant Seattle, Everett seems to be doing okay.

Which is why I get a chill when I read stories like this:

Lawrence King, an eighth grader who identified as gay and wore makeup and nail polish, was 15 when he was declared dead on Feb. 13. The day before, he had been shot in the head in an Oxnard, Calif., classroom full of students.

...

Several students at the south Oxnard campus said King and his alleged assailant had a falling out stemming from King's sexual orientation.

The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay, students said.

"He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails -- the whole thing," said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."

(sources: LA Times and Time Magazine)

And, of course, "freaking the guys out" about their masculinity is a valid excuse for shooting the poor boy in the head.

Comments

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

A reassuring/unreassuring thought: A kid that thinks that shooting a classmate in the head in a classroom full of students isn't reliant on there being a queer/gender-variant kid around, so Princess Everett is not necessarily in danger. He's a very conspicuous Other, but not necessarily an Other that a potential assailant cares about. The messed-up kid may have more of a problem with Muslims, jocks, ROTC, pacifists, girls who dress tarty, girls who dress boyish...hard to say what identity will upset an unstable person most.

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

aside from the story here, was i the only one who was surprised to hear that a 15 year old was in 8th grade?? at 15 i was a sophomore in high school where there was significantly more acceptance of people falling outside the norm, and that was 13 years ago.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

And, of course, "freaking the guys out" about their masculinity is a valid excuse for shooting the poor boy in the head.

Why not? It's a perfectly valid excuse for adults in certain parts of the South doing the same thing to other adults...

<sarcasm>Gotta train 'em early, Elf.</sarcasm>

[acelightning.livejournal.com]