There's a reason they call it old media. But I think it's a great story.

By not focusing on Brandon, they put everyman/woman behind the trigger. And the crudity of the accusations of Epstein remind us -- all of us -- that there are still people who think like that.

I think it's total win.

The blame the victim tone of the Newsweek article was quite distressing. In addition to glossing over Larry being bi, they also considered Larry's gender expression as part of being gay, when it was really a separate issue. At one point in the article, they mentioned that Larry wished to be called Leticia. We won't ever know if Larry might also have identified as transgender, but the article certainly didn't use the word.

As is too often the case in hate crimes against our community, Larry was murdered not only because of sexual orientation, but also very much due to gender identity and/or expression. Anti-discrimination legislation needs to include gender identity and expression or it doesn't adequately protect our community. How many more of us have to die before we attain equal rights and protections?

Before we go out claiming bi invisibility though, I think it's important to point out that in the last three comments alone, we've had a gay Larry, a bi Larry and a trans Larry. If we don't know how to classify this poor child, how can we expect the author to? If Larry himself was still working out his sexuality/gender identity, how can we claim a slight against "our" community (which ever section we're agitating for)?

**"If they wanted to present Joy Epstein as radical lesbian pushing a homosexual agenda above the welfare of students, they pretty effectively did that in this article."**

Wow. That's awful. And scary. Obviously, there's so many things wrong with this in so many ways. But aside from jeopardizing her career, I'm most concerned about the chilling effect that this might have on other educators who are willing to reach out to GLBT kids; especially gay teachers.

It's so critical for kids to have some trusted adult figure that they feel like they can confide in, and might even have their backs. Whose going to do that in the future if they think its going to buy them a wrongful death lawsuit or subject them to ridicule?

I'd also like to mention the confusion/inappropriatness of labels. There are many people, much less kids, who can't sort out identities. There are those who live an entire lifetime with one sexual orientation and/or gender identity, only to come to realize they're something else. You might not even alter to whom you're attracted. But if you transition, you can go from being considered gay to straight, or vice versa. So I think it's hardly fair to expect young Larry to have it all worked out. Therefore, I don't think anyone, including himself, can definitively say he was gay, bi, or trans, and we should use these terms with a grain of salt.

And while it is most certainly necessary and important that anti-discrimination bills include both gender identity and expression as well as sexual orientation, it's frankly absurd to say that an 8th grader would have been dissuaded from this heinous act if the CA. hate crime laws were gender inclusive. I doubt he would have had any knowledge of those laws whatsoever.

After reading this Newsweek article I just felt both kids were so horribly let down. Both needed more than what they were getting at school or home.

And Rory, I agree, it is frame the Lesbian.

A child who is gender variant usually knows at a young age that she is different from other little boys. Without someone knowledgable about these issues in her life, the child grows with no direction and guidance on these issues, and allows herself to be identified by people who really don't understand her. It appears that she was probably gender variant, but we'll never know for sure. It may have been easier to say that she was gay than for her to have conceptualized being transgender. I would assert that it is necessary that people in the education system understand gender variance so these issues can be addressed. I would not say the school in this instance protected her, and how many others are in schools where they are constantly harassed and bullied?

Probably not too many of TBP readers know that last Thursday, July 18th, an 18-year old transgender person's skull was fractured in two places killing her? It happened in Greeley, Colorado.

Instead of fighting one another here and in other forums, we need to speak with one voice that this bull $hit violence must stop.

Some of these other issues are immaterial when our teenage transgender brothers and sisters are being murdered with impunity.

We need to get as mad as hell about this.

"If we don't know how to classify this poor child, how can we expect the author to? If Larry himself was still working out his sexuality/gender identity, how can we claim a slight against "our" community (which ever section we're agitating for)?"

Is that the point? Does it matter, truly, that Larry might have been any or all three? Or does it simply matter that Larry was different and openly seeking attention for that difference?

It becomes all-too-easy to make someone the "poster child" for a pov. The simple truth is that Brandon was getting attention from Larry and that he was also attracting attention of that fact from his friends.

There are ways that the object of unwanted attention can stop that that do not rise to the level of resorting to murder. The story does indeed seem to point toward "one of three vice-principals" who was talking with Larry as being seen as being part of the problem.

My question is what were the other two vice-proncipals, the principal and more importantly the guidance-staff doing? Who, if anyone were they talking with?

Regardless the outcome of the Gwen Araujo case and others that have basically shown that blaming the victim doesn't work very well anymore in cases like this, Mr. Quest seems to be taking that tactic as perhaps his only defense that stands any possibility of working. That's his job and I cannot damn him for that.

But, I can say that Newsweek dropped the ball on the depth of what was going on. I find it difficult to believe for a second that one vice-principal with an agenda was the key to this.

The key is how difference and stalking are perceived and handled at any school. There seems no doubt that Larry was "stalking" Brandon in some fashion, perhaps Larry simply enjoyed watching Brandon's discomfort. With whom did Brandon discuss his turmoil? And since the school seems to have been well-aware of the turmoil going on, I wonder why no effort seems to have been made by all those other school staff to intervene with the other party, Brandon?

The core, it seems to me, is that we automatically perceive that difference needs to be "toned down" but that "sameness" is fine. So the interventions always seem to be about "getting rid" of the difference. Brandon merely took the modeling behavior of the majority of staff a couple of steps further than they would have imagined and now they are left trying to justify their own inattention that was probably facilitated by their own ingrained sense that the problem was all about Larry. Newsweek apprantly sees the same problem.

Is that so unusual that we imgaine it doesn't go on daily in numerous schools during every school year about clothes, ethnicity, sexual or gender identities and regious beliefs? I find that the hardest thing to believe about the story. The problem is us, all of us, and the way we take things for being perfectly clear when they are not.

Without proper guidance I can see how a transgender adolescent can get themselves in trouble.First if your going to dress the part act the part but also understand others may be offended by it even if wrongly so.Where were the adults in this?Why didn't they cool Larry's jets and set appropriate behavior protocols and require that he/her follow the uniform requirements of the gender appeared as.?As for Brandon which set of adults let him down by leaving him feeling that shooting Larry was an option.Has the gun owner been charged for leaving a weapon unsecure leading to a homicide?The big tradgedy is that both kids lost there lives that day because adults dropped the ball.

Not all transgender people can fit into a binary. What if Larry was more genderqueer?

Also are girls counselled not to be too outspoken in Maths and Science classes as some people may be offended even if wrongly so? What about other groups of people?

Is this something just for gender non-conforming kids or are non-white and non-christian kids told to keep their differences 'toned down' too?

Isn't exposure to differences and learning to adapt to others differences one of the most valuable lesson opportunities other students can have to learn from?