Murdered gay Calif. teen remembered in Congress

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A year after his death, a gay teen-ager who was gunned down by a fellow classmate in California was remembered Thursday in Congress for his "full but tragically short life."
"Every child should be guaranteed an education free from bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence," Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., said in remarks on the House floor in honor of 15-year-old Larry King.
King was shot in the computer lab at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, Calif. -- about an hour north of Los Angeles -- on Feb. 12, 2008. He died two days later. Police have charged one of his classmates, Brandon McInerney, with first-degree murder and a hate crime in the shooting.
King, an eighth-grader, sometimes wore makeup, dressed in a feminine manner and told friends he was gay.
King's death sparked a national outcry and serves "as a tragic reminder" of the violence directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, Capps said.
To mark the one-year anniversary of his shooting, Capps filed a resolution in the House on Thursday honoring King's life and condemning his death.
The resolution notes that more than 85 percent of gay or lesbian students report being verbally harassed in school by their peers and that more than 40 percent report being physically harassed because of their sexual orientation.
The measure calls for training to enable school staff to identify and deal with harassment of students because of their sexual orientation.
It also urges the implementation of age-appropriate curricula to help students respect each other's differences and encourages state, city and local education officials to adopt laws and policies to prohibit name-calling, bullying, harassment and discrimination against teachers and other school regardless of their sexual orientation.
"We must, and we will, end this discrimination," Capps said.

(E-mail Michael Collins at collinsm(at)shns.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)