Cross-posted from Ocelopotamus.com.
From Friday's AP story on Lawrence King:
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.
That may have been what got him killed.
No, that is not what got him killed. What got him killed was not his flirting, but the homophobic response of his classmates to that flirting.
It was the homophobic attitudes that our culture instills in children who are allowed to grow up believing they don't know any gay people or have any gay family members. Who aren't allowed to see men kiss each other on television or in movies. Who are aggressively sheltered from all such images by bigots who want to make sure the next generation grows up hating gay people just as much as they do.
Dear media: I know you're on tight deadlines, but please be careful and take the time to assign blame to the correct party when you write these stories.
Here's a handy clue: Very often, blame should be assigned to the person who did the shooting, rather than the person who got shot.
As has been observed by others before me, if women were to one day start killing anyone whose flirting they found unwelcome, there wouldn't be a single heterosexual man left alive in America the next morning.
Related: You might also consider assigning blame to moronic talk show comedians who use homosexuality as an automatic punch line in their moronic nightly monologues, reinforcing the idea that homosexuality is inherently ridiculous. Jay Leno, I'm giving you my gayest look.