Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres spoke for a few minutes on her Fri., Feb. 29, show about Lawrence King, the openly gay Oxnard, Calif., junior high school student who was gunned down Feb. 12 by a classmate, according to EOnline.com.
‘I would like you to start paying attention to how often being gay is the punchline of a monologue or how often gay jokes are in a movie,’ DeGeneres said with tears in her eyes. ‘And that kind of message, laughing at someone because they’re gay, is just the beginning. It starts with laughing at someone, and then it’s verbal abuse, then it’s physical abuse, and it’s this kid Brandon killing a kid like Larry.’
‘Larry was not a second-class citizen,’ she continued. ‘I am not a second-class citizen. It’s okay if you’re gay.’
Fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney has been charged with killing King.