It Is Time To Say It Again, Darlings--This WAS A Hate Crime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girls, I want you to take a good look at this photo, especially the one in the bottom right corner. It shows three male siblings, the youngest in the middle, in solidarity to each other, posing for what became a Christmas card.

The young man, youngest, probably, but at lest youngest appearing man, among the siblings, is Tyler Clementi. The ones flanking him are his brothers.

This photo stands for, I believe, how flanked Tyler was by them and his family, who stood by him in his struggle with the world. Of course, with so many of us, most especially yours truly, are flanking alongside Tyler, it has to be gratifying to the Clementis, as they, time and again, have made clear.

But not as gratifying as having Tyler with them.

Now, having that taken away from them last year, they are about to see their son's reputation trampled on in the only possible option the defense team has to try and clear the contemptible Dahrun Ravi.

They maintain he did not bully anyone, that this was not a hate crime. Well, let me tell you something. Bullying requires several steps--intention, effort, and planning, and Ravi, whether his team wants to believe it or not, exhibited all three.
The first, intention, was fueled as early as a month before he and Tyler became roommates, when he learned not only who the roommate was, but that the roommate was gay. Evidently, it did not sit well with him. Now, yes, he could have then opted for someone else, BUT maybe he did not want to appear so transparently anti-gay. But, as the live-in relationship evolved, it seems he just could not adjust to living with a gay person. So when Tyler asked for the room privately, a signal that "action" was to take place, Ravi understood what kind of action that would be, and at that point, set out to humiliate his roomie in as humiliating a way as possible. And this was done solely because he was gay. Had Tyler been straight, I am telling you, none of this would have happened. And let's not forget the matter of effort. To set the room up, so the unsuspecting Tyler would not be aware his actions were being recorded, and setting up the opportunity for such activity to be watched in Miss Wei's room and then streamlined, took considerable effort on the part of Ravi's technological skills, which, had they been better applied, might have paved the way for a bright future. But this is how he chose to expend his efforts--an effort resulting in the bullying of Tyler Clementi.

Alas, poor Tyler. Unable to speak for himself, others must speak for him. Let us hope the prosecution team is armed and ready, but meanwhile I will speak for Tyler. So, there is a smear campaign to show Tyler being troubled, prior to his death. He was shy and vulnerable, as befits an artist, and also, as I can attest from personal experience, a burgeoning gay man. When the world around you is in heterosexual sync, and you do not even know what that is, only that you somehow are not a part of it, shyness and vulnerability are the most inevitable byproduct. AND, in Tyler's case, when your expectations of college are dashed by what is surely a senseless act against you, for which you bear no responsibility, outside of exercising your freedom to sexual congress, and when that congress is exhibited for who knows how many people to see, let alone the possibility that your own brothers and parents might see, I think anyone who is NOT troubled by this is actually more troubled in actuality. Parents do not want their children seeing them having sex, and vice is very much versa. Imagine how difficult it must have been for the shy, vulnerable Tyler trying to live his life, and then this invasion happens. An invasion that causes him to wonder what his parents are going to think. For, no matter how out he may have been to them, there is no need for them to see their son's amorous activities. Of course, Tyler was troubled. He had every right to be. And this troubled state boxed him into some sort of psychological wall, that, being young, he could not see an end to. And so he took the path he did, set in motion by Ravi and Wei.

This was a hate crime. Against a sensitive, vulnerable individual and his sexual orientation, and right to act on that orientation, free of any intrusions. Having lived with Tyler for three weeks, Ravi knew how sensitive and vulnerable his roommate was. In spite of that, he acted maliciously, to further his degraded pleasure, shared in it with Miss Wei, and the results, while not expected, were due to his implementation.

Dahurn Ravi stands accused as surely as if he had been there to push Tyler off the GWB!!!!!!! Not a hate crime????????? It is everything that constitutes one!!!!!!

As long as the defense team pursues their argument, I will continue to pursue mine--for Tyler, his family, supporters worldwide, and for the endangered rights of non-heterosexuals to act on that sexual orientation.

I thought we were beyond "1984," but the last words of Orwell's masterwork could apply to Ravi, "He loved Big Brother!!!!!!!!!"

My fire is still not out on this one, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!