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Seattlest Pix 09Nov06
Yesterday Kevin Shaw failed to make headlines again. The man arrrested and indicted for his murder, despite phone records and DNA evidence linking him to the crime, pleaded innocent yesterday. To date no news article we've been able to track down has mentioned what seems to be the obvious possibility that Kevin Shaw was gay, and his murder was a hate crime. The following article by special guest Mario Paduano wonders why.
When you're murdered, you get a coffin.
When you're murdered and gay, you get a closet.
When you're murdered, gay and closeted, the media nails both tight-shut.
Before I begin, let me make something perfectly clear. I have absolutely no evidence that Kevin Shaw was gay or bi. I never met him. I never knew him. And, the end of his life was incredibly tragic.
Kevin Shaw was murdered in mid-October in Seattle; his body found in his car; his head stabbed with an ice pick. Michael Saga Maiava stands accused of the crime after DNA evidence linked him to the murder scene.
That said, the tragedy continues. If Silence=Death, as Act-Up so adroitly demonstrated in the early days of AIDS, local Seattle media has embarked on a second homicide.
"Investigators searched his [Shaw's] phone records and determined that on the morning of Oct. 18, he had made two calls to a chat line—which, a friend told police, he had previously used to arrange a meeting with a stranger."--Seattle Times, February 28th.
"After his body was discovered, Seattle police detectives searched Shaw's car and discovered several DNA samples not belonging to Shaw, which they sent to the State Patrol's crime lab."--Seattle Times, March 1.
"Shaw's naked body was found October 21st wrapped in trash bags inside his Porsche in Seattle."--KIRO710.com, March 1.
"Telephone 'chat line' conversations with a young man may have led to the killing of Seattle businessman Kevin Shaw."--Seattle PI, March 1.
Older man is an experienced chat line user.
Young man talks with said older man.
Older man is found naked in his car.
Young man's DNA is discovered in older man's car.
Simply put, everything about this case screams gay.
Yet you wouldn't know it from the tepid local news coverage. Instead, perhaps out of respect for the dead, perhaps out of respect for the family, perhaps due to cold feet, perhaps out of mere spinelessness, the Seattle media is presenting this as any other murder and Shaw as any other guy. The result: a hate crime may go uninvestigated.
Each of us can sympathize with a grieving family, but at what point will the media stop hiding homosexuality (for the "sake" of the family) especially when homosexual sex meets with murder? We have no problem reveling in the exploits of Jeffrey Gannon, White House reporter cum gay escort. Gannon even cloaked his prostitution in patriotism as he advertised himself as a "military escort"--don't ask, don't tell. Apparently, the Seattle media finds that philosophy incredibly convenient--except when it comes to AIDS, of course; then, homosexuality and death become a useful conflation.
But when a highly respected yet closeted man is murdered and that murder is clearly tied to that very sexuality, the media is suddenly silent. Had police discovered the pre-scandal Gannon in an Aurora Avenue ditch after turning a trick, he too would have been just another victim.
Now ask yourself: how frequently is the media ever silent? When do they ever choose not to report a story, especially one that involves chat-lines, sex and murder? The result: killers don't get what they deserve, the public does not get the truth, and the media is to blame.
For the gay community, of which I am a part, Shaw's story is old hat. We've all heard it before, met them before: straight men that are just "curious," straight men with girlfriends, straight men with wives out of town, etc. etc. Conversely, we all know there are predators that specifically target gay men--predators who know how incredibly easy it is to lure gay men into compromising situations because those criminals simultaneously know that so many gays fantasize about 'turning' or, at the very least, sleeping with a straight man.
And after you’ve meet one of these predators, after you've trusted, after you're mugged, after you're robbed, after you're humiliated, would you call the cops especially if you were closeted? No, and the predators know that.
We’ve all seen this before too: a death occurs in the community or on the periphery of the community, and no one tells the truth. In fact, no one tells anything. Silence. For whatever reason, in cases like these, gay is still a four-letter word.
Apparently, truth is as well.
For. Shame.
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A quick follow-up:
The potential connection between Shaw's sexuality and his murder may now be getting the attention it deserves:
http://216.197.101.64/sgnnews10/page2.cfm
(Note the seattest.com reference near the end.)
And while friends and family understandably preferred that Shaw's sexuality remain unsaid since 'blaming-the-victim' often occurs in crimes against homosexuals, I wonder if it's not worse that a hate might go uninvestigated (or) that the gay community might think a hate crime is not being investigated as a result of media and police silence?