Return to Crothersville: Aaron Hall probably wasn't gay, but his murder in April has become an argument for passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, which would add attacks based on a victim's perceived sexual orientation to the list of federal hate crimes. The men accused of Aaron's murder are invoking the "gay panic" defense. A citizen journalist at the Bloomington Alternative has published a fascinating article on her investigation of the circumstances of the crime and of Aaron's life, and why uncovering the truth in a place like Crothersville, where the social network is so tight-knit and there's no local hate crimes law, requires an outside (federal) investigation.
posted by thirteenkiller on Jun 20, 2007 - 168 comments

They're not just puppets, they're gay puppets! Orbitz.com, the travel site that is the #2 pop-under advertiser on the Web recently launched a series of TV commercials obviously inspired by the marionettes on "Thunderbirds", complete with a related 'microsite' warning: flash animation and characters whose eyes follow your mouse. Now, in order to promote their "gay travel" sub-site, they've slightly altered one of their ads to change who's eye-ing the "eye candy". Enough of a shock to make me reverse my Tivo, but a welcome change from the "gay panic" themes of recent spots for alcoholic beverages, like Bailey's Irish Cream and Smirnoff Triple Black Ice ("The Brad" ad is particularly weird to me, since among us old skool bloggers, The Brad was pointing out "gay panic" in TV ads back in August 2000.
posted by wendell on Jun 25, 2003 - 19 comments