Replies to '06/06 "I'm Gay, OK?"'

My son, Eric, was murdered in his dorm room at Gallaudet University in September of 2000. The Washington Post's headlines was " Gay Campus Leader Found Murdered in His Dorm Room". Eric let it be known at Gallaudet that he was gay, but, he sure wasn't a " Gay Campus Leader", he had only been in college for a month. Eric was going to tell his mother and me the next spring after his first year of college that he was gay. There was only one other person that knew he was gay, and that was his best friend in Portland. 

A little over four months later another freshman student from San Antonio was also murdered in his dorm room at Gallaudet. The young man that murdered my son and Ben said that he thought both students were "gay". The media played up the fact that Eric was "Gay", and the murders had nothing to do with the fact that Eric was gay. The gay community across the U.S. was in an uproar about Eric's murder being a hate crime. I believe the media actually hindered the police in doing their jobs. There are still articles on the internet about Eric & Ben's murders being hate crimes. 

As Eric's father,  I don't care if he was gay or not, that would never influence my love for my son or anyone else. If any parent has a problem with their child being "Gay", then try and imagine loosing your child to a senseless murder. I guarantee that you wouldn't care if your child was " gay, green, purple or anything else" you would just want to hold them one last time and tell them that you loved them. So, love you child no matter what they are.