Ramin Setoodeh helped to kill Tyler Clementi: Why is People letting him write about him?

Before Ramin Setoodeh attracted the ire of Kristen Chenoweth by writing that "queeny" gay men like 25-year-old Jonathan Groff should not be cast as straight characters, he was attacking people for trying to make gay kids feel safe in schools.  In a Newsweek article called "Young, Gay, and Murdered," published in July  2008, Setoodeh suggests that adults who encouraged 15-year-old Larry King to be proud of his gay identity were partly to blame for King's murder by a classmate:

Joy Epstein was one of the school's three assistant principals, and as Larry became less inhibited, Epstein became more a source of some teachers' confusion and anger. Epstein, a calm, brown-haired woman with bifocals, was openly gay to her colleagues, and although she was generally not out to her students, she kept a picture of her partner on her desk that some students saw. While her job was to oversee the seventh graders, she formed a special bond with Larry, who was in the eighth grade. He dropped by her office regularly, either for counseling or just to talk—she won't say exactly. "There was no reason why I specifically started working with Larry," Epstein says. "He came to me." Some teachers believe that she was encouraging Larry's flamboyance, to help further an "agenda," as some put it. One teacher complains that by being openly gay and discussing her girlfriend (presumably, no one would have complained if she had talked about a husband), Epstein brought the subject of sex into school. Epstein won't elaborate on what exactly she said to Larry because she expects to be called to testify at Brandon's trial, but it's certain to become one of the key issues. William Quest, Brandon's public defender, hasn't disclosed his defense strategy, but he has accused the school of failing to intercede as the tension rose between Larry and Brandon. Quest calls Epstein "a lesbian vice principal with a political agenda." Larry's father also blames Epstein. He's hired an attorney and says he is seriously contemplating a wrongful-death lawsuit. "She started to confuse her role as a junior-high principal," Greg King says. "I think that she was asserting her beliefs for gay rights." In a tragedy such as this, the natural impulse is to try to understand why it happened and to look for someone to blame. Epstein won't discuss the case in detail and, until she testifies in court, it's impossible to know what role—if any—she played in the events leading to Larry's death.

 

When I read these words more than two years ago, I knew things were going to get worse for gay kids in schools.  Evey school has someone who reads Newsweek, and that person was going to bring this article into the teachers' lounge.  In most schools, it would be brought up in faculty meetings.

And the message would be this:  if you help gay kids-- if you offer them any support-- they might be killed as a result.  And you could be held legally to blame.  By publicizing a defence attorney's gambit, Setoodeh actively discouraged America's teachers from stepping in when gay kids are bullied.  Or sending them any messages that they might be okay.

So Ramin Setoodeh really did help to kill any gay kid who dies as a result of suicide.  And that makes me think it's a horrible idea for People magazine to let him write about Tyler Clementi.