>The family of a gay teenager shot dead at school in the US are suing education officials for letting him wear make-up and feminine clothes which they say motivated his killer.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Lawrence King, from Oxnard in California, are seeking damages because the school failed to enforce the school dress code.
The teenager was shot in February – his classmate, Brandon McInerney, 14, pleaded not guilty to the killing last week.
He was charged as an adult and also faces a charge of committing a hate crime.
LGBT History Month co-chair Tony Fenwick said, “My heart goes out to the King family and I am sure they seek justice for their terrible loss but the school’s management should be sanctioned for its failure to tackle homophobia and transphobia within its community; not for letting its students assert their identity.
He also warned that “the worst thing about this turn of events is that it conjures up the dark days of empire when the murderer could claim ‘gay panic defence’. If this family succeeds in this case, what is to stop Larry’s killer claiming the school’s failure to act ‘provoked’ him to carry out the killing? The situation is at best absurd and at worst very dangerous”.
Find out more here.
E.O. Green School shooting on Wikipedia
Gay Panic Defence on Wikipedia
