MURDERED ~ for being gay

Vigils were held throughout the state of Florida today in memory of Ryan Keith Skipper, a 25-year-old Polk County man who was viciously murdered on March 14, 2007; his body left on the side of a road in what the Sheriff's office is classifying as an anti-gay hate crime.

Ryan was brutally stabbed at least 20 times and his car and a laptop computer were stolen. According to witnesses, two suspects drove Ryan's bloody car around and bragged to their friends about savagely killing him.

Joseph Eli Bearden, 21, and William David Brown Jr., 20, (giving the standard excuse that Ryan was trying to hit on them) were indicted this past Friday and face charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Ryan's murder was not an isolated incident, but rather the latest in an epidemic of anti-gay hate violence in Florida and around the nation. Anti-gay hate crimes are at their highest level ever in Florida, and second only to racist attacks in overall numbers.

According to the Florida Attorney General's office, hate crimes targeting LGBT Floridians have increased 33% in the most violent categories during the two most recently reported years. The silence of Florida's leadership in the face of this brutal murder must not go unchallenged.

Living in Florida, I only read about this murder today. Although Ryan was killed one month ago, this is sadly not the first example of a mainstream media blackout when it comes to gay men being murdered or going missing.

We are still waiting for the big media to cover the cases of three young gay men who have been missing for years in the Tampa Bay area.

James Shumaker has been missing since Oct. 20, 1995; Bradley Lee Williams has been missing since June 9, 2001; and Mark Allen Thompson vanished Nov. 1, 2001. The cases have never received any statewide or national attention.

Likewise, the murders of Jason Galehouse and Michael Waccholtz in December 2003 received almost no coverage before the arrest of the suspect, Steven Lorenzo.

The Faces of Homophobia

These are the faces of hate, homophobia and murder ..... how ironic that they will hopefully spend the rest of their lives surrounded only by other men.

A grand jury indicted Joseph Eli Bearden, 21 (left), and William David Brown Jr., 20, on charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon in the death of Wahneta resident Ryan Skipper.

The pair could face the death penalty if convicted of the brutal stabbing and robbery of Skipper, whose body was found by a passing motorist at 1:20 a.m. March 14 near Morgan Road and Logan Lane.

Skipper had been stabbed at least 20 times, and his car and laptop computer were stolen.

Skipper's 2007 Chevrolet Aveo was located shortly before 6 p.m. March 14 in Winter Haven at a boat ramp on Lake Pansy, according to sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers.

The Sheriff's Office has described Skipper's killing as a hate crime because Skipper was a homosexual.

This murder has been filled with inconsistencies, indirectly blaming Ryan for his own murder.

It is extremely unusual for the arrest record of a murder victim to be released, but when Bearden and Brown were arrested, Sheriff Judd announced that Ryan Skipper had been arrested twice as a juvenile on minor marijuana charges. Conversely, he glossed over the alleged killers’ records, describing them as nonviolent.

If he had been more forthcoming, it would have been clear that these two young men have been up to no good for a while.

Joe Bearden, 21, has seven prior arrests in Polk County, including one for grand theft auto.

William Brown, 20, had been arrested just six days before the murder on cyberstalking charges. He has at least four prior arrests in Polk County.

Finally, Sheriff Judd suggested that while no one deserved to be murdered, Ryan Skipper had it coming. He told the Lakeland Ledger, "What we do know is that Ryan was looking for someone to pick up that evening. And unfortunately for Ryan, he picked up the wrong person."