You Say Panic, I Say Murder

I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. There was a woman in our town that had come out as straight, and she was quite open about it. Well, she and I struck up a friendship, even though she knew I was gay, and she would often stop by my house for a visit. One night, after a visit, she was giving me a ride in her car and, well, while it sickens me to say it, she made sexual advances towards me, and I panicked. She tried to assault me so I choked her, and then I beat her to death, and burned her body, then dragged to the side of a river, and dumped it there in the tall grass.

Thank god for the Straight Panic defense. I didn’t do any jail time.

Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? But that’s exactly what’s happening regarding the murder, and let’s be clear, it was a murder, of openly gay mayoral candidate, Marcus McMillian.

Lawrence Reed, the man who is accused of beating McMillian to death, burning his body, and then dumping alongside the Mississippi River says he did it because he Gay Panicked when McMillian made sexual advances towards him.

And, well, Reed may get away with murder, especially since the case is in the hands of Mississippi prosecutors, who cannot even try Reed for a Hate Crime because there is no hate crime statute in the state. And Reed’s defense of Gay Panic-slash-Self Defense, just may get him off.

McMillian [l] and Reed [r]

Reed and his family are telling the story that Lawrence Reed was “forced” to murder Marco McMillian in self-defense after the mayoral candidate made sexual advances and refused to take no for an answer. Reed’s sister is claiming that Reed showed up at her house moments after making a panicked phone call, covered in injuries suggestive of a fight, and that Reed strangled McMillian with the chain on his wallet because he panicked.

I’m not sure how panicked he was when, after murdering McMillian, he beat him, and burned him, and dumped his body like garbage. That doesn’t sound like someone who panicked, that sounds like someone who thought about what to do and how to do it.

But this whole Gay Panic thing isn’t a new defense, it’s been used before. The trial of the killers of transgendered Gwen Arujo ended in jury deadlock on multiple occasions because of a so-called “Trans Panic Defense.” And let’s not forget the murderers of Matthew Shepard who claimed they panicked when he came on to them and were forced to beat him nearly to death and then tie his body to a fence in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Lawrence King was murdered by a classmate for professing his love to the other boy.

Panic? Not so much.

This kind of defense makes it ‘okay’ to kill gay people, trans people, and get away with it. Just say the gay guy came on to you; just say the trans guy or girl made an unwanted advance. Then just say you had to kill them, because you had no other choice.

My story at the top of the is post was a great big fabrication, but Lawrence Reed wants us to believe that he panicked when Marco McMillian, a gay man, a friend of his with whom he had been socializing for a few weeks, made a pass at him and he had no choice but to strangle, beat, burn and dump his body. 

That’s some panic.

And it’s all a lie.

More Gay Panic Tales from ISBL:

This Is What Happens When People Pick And Choose Which Parts Of The Bible To Follow

Mucinex Is Deadly

Interesting News From The Land Of Lou

It's A Panic

Sixty-One Stab Wounds When A Simple No Thank You Would Have Sufficed

First Rant of '09

It's Not Gay Panic, It's Murder, It's A Hate Crime

Marco McMillian

Marco McMillian, an openly gay candidate for mayor in the small Mississippi town of Clarksdale, was beaten and burned, and his body dragged under a fence and left alongside a Mississippi River levee. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was performed, but toxicology tests are pending, and authorities say it could take two weeks to get those results.

McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack, says the family received the information from the Coahoma County coroner, though coroner Scotty Meredith has yet to publicly comment, and a spokesman for the Coahoma County Sheriff's Department is also staying quiet for now.

A statement released by McMillan’s campaign says, "We feel that this was not a random act of violence based on the condition of the body when it was found."

Lawrence Reed, twenty-two, has been charged in the case. He was arrested last month after he was found driving McMillan’s SUV after it crashed into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 49. McMillan was not in the car; his body was found the next day.

Police have ruled out a hate crime—something McMillian’s friends and family members want reconsidered due to the brutal nature of the homicide—because, sadly, Mississippi does not have a state hate crimes law, meaning that federal charges would be required.

Lawrence Reed

Apparently Reed and McMillian had known each other for about two weeks, and may have had an intimate relationship during that time. But, it is also being reported that Reed, who identifies as straight, may have “snapped” as a result of sexual advances on the part of McMillian. He may, in fact, use the Gay Panic defense.

Gay Panic. I’ve talked a lot about gay panic on this blog, especially after ALLEGEDLY straight men murder gay men with whom they were intimate. And I’ll say it again: there is no such thing as Gay Panic in defense of murdering someone, beating them to death, burning parts of their body, and then dropping the corpse off in the weeds like a load of garbage.

That took planning; that took preparation. That is not panic.

And, if we are to continue hearing of Gay Panic defenses, when will we hear the first Straight Panic case? I mean, say I, as a gay man, met a woman at a bar and we hit it off. If she made some kind of sexual advance toward me would I be allowed to beat her, burn her, drag her body to the river and dump it, and the say I did it because I felt a Straight Panic?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well, that's how Gay Panic sounds to me. 

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