Media missed chance to explore violence against LGBT youth

Writing about the murder of 15-year-old gay Oxnard, California resident Lawrence King, blogger Waymon Hudson asked in a Feb. 15 post on The Bilerico Project, "Where's the outrage?" A more pressing question, one that Waymon also posits, is, "Where's the coverage?" In the week since King was shot in the head during class at Oxnard's E.O. Green Junior High School Feb. 12 allegedly by 14-year-old classmate Brandon McInerney, the California media, and in particular the Los Angeles Times, have provided extensive coverage of the murder and its aftermath. But with the exception of wire services like the Associated Press and United Press International (UPI), few media outlets outside the state have provided detailed coverage of the murder, in which prosecutors have charged McInerney with a hate crime. (see See "'Bigotry and hatred loaded the gun,'") And one of the few national outlets that did cover the story, Time magazine, has been criticized by LGBT activists for running a piece on its website by staff writer John Cloud claiming that despite the murder, most LGBT youth feel safe in the classroom.