Sailor murdered for being gay and/or African American?**UPDATE**

[tazber]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 3:20am

So very sad

Updated On: 8/1/09 at 03:20 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 3:34am

Btw, did anyone else notice that the article never mentioned the word "gay"? Is "sexual orientation" the new PC way to refer to being a 'mo?

[Liverpool]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 3:37am

Provost's aunt, Rose Roy, of Beaumont, Texas, said by telephone on Friday that her nephew had told her he was being harassed because of his sexual orientation and because he was African-American. She described him as bisexual.

That's probably why they don't refer to him as gay.

[tazber]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 3:40am

Oh thanks, Liv. I didn't even see that.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 7:24am

At this point, I would be happy if Obama simply linked antigay violence to the policies he claims he wants to overturn sometime before 2016.

RIP Seaman August Provost

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 7:40am

Absolutely heartbreaking.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 9:35am

Infuriating and heartbreaking .... brings to mind the W.B. Yeats line:

"The world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

[CapnHook]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 9:50am

Of course the Navy immediately dismisses it as a hate crime. They don't even acknowledge it as a possibility.

It was a brutal murder, and the only thing that makes to me, from the facts given, was that it was done by a fellow sailor.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 10:07am

To play devil's advocate, what happens if:
1) The murderer just turns out to be crazy, and Provost was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
2) The murderer and Provost just didn't get along for no other reason than a personality conflict?

To automatically assume hate crime, and then be upset that the police aren't considerng it as such yet, is just as bad as not be willing to consider it a hate crime. (Did that statement make any sense? It's early, and I haven't had coffee yet.)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 11:21am

Read more about it, husk, and you'll see California Congressman Bob Filner and others are saying it bwas a hate crime:

===

Rep. Bob Filner (D) of California was at Camp Pendleton just six hours after Seaman August Provost was murdered, but no mention was made to him of the crime. He finds that suspicious and accuses the military of habitually not "telling the truth" when it comes to potential hate crimes. "There are indications" he was killed for being gay, according to Filner and Provost's family. Provost had complained of being harassed by fellow personnel and was openly gay to most people around him.
Congressman Suspects Seaman's Murder a Hate Crime

[CapnHook]

Posted: 7/4/09 at 11:29am

I get what you're saying, husk, but the Navy's ONLY remark was a general blanket statement saying they have no reason to suspect it was a hate crime. BUT he was openly gay/bisexual. Wouldn't that be a reason to SUSPECT it? They don't mention they are going to investigate the potential of the murder as a HATE CRIME, just the fact that it was a murder. That's what grinds my gears. Whether it was or not, they just dismiss that notion in their public statement which is wrong.

[scott68]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:23am

"We're going to ask, if I may coin a phrase, and we hope that they tell," he said.

Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[Q]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 10:26am

"Provost had complained of being harassed by fellow personnel"

And nothing was done about it, which is common.

[antonijan]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 4:13pm

acknowledging bisexuality is also a violation of the DADT

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/5/09 at 11:37pm

Capn-
I took it to mean, "At this particular time." Meaning, they hadn't ruled it out, it was just too early to tell.

[antonijan]

Posted: 7/7/09 at 3:13am

How many more personnel should die before the administration would take action?

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 7/15/09 at 10:29am

Discrepancies emerge in case of murdered black gay sailor

[scott68]

Posted: 7/24/09 at 2:08am

I don't want to cast negativity on the crime at hand, because in my mind, the fact that it isn't even being investigated as a hate crime is inconceivable, but... Sheila Jackson-Lee has been in the news to an almost ridiculous degree lately, hasn't she?

She seems to be the appropriate elected offical to address this issue, but I'd never heard of her before the Michael Jackson memorial service, and it seems like she hasn't left the public eye since.

[Q]

Posted: 7/24/09 at 4:51am

OK, I wanted to start a thread, and couldn't see a way to under the current configuration. Are we just supposed to 'give up and go home'?

[Q]

Posted: 8/1/09 at 6:23am

I can't see Taz's post.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/1/09 at 6:49am

Weird, let's try this again.
Suspect commits suicide