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Stirred, not shaken. by Matt Maguire
editorial design managerMonday Jan 28, 2008 This past Saturday, the Globe had a story offering a new angle on the murder of Daniel Yakovleff. The headline, "Fatal stabbing shakes city’s gays" was eyebrow-raising enough, but then Globe staffer Maria Cramer leads with QueerToday blogger Mark Synder, who is described in the opening sentence as "Tall and reed thin," and as using "mannerisms he describes as effeminate."
While police and media are still trying to piece together Yakovleff’s last hours, this story seems to stray in a different direction. Parading a stereotypically waifish and swishy gay youth who is questioning his own safety in the wake of the Dorchester stabbing and then projecting that emotion onto an entire community reads to me as insincere.
And though there is yet to be any evidence that this crime is related to the fact Yakovleff was a gay man, the article continues by citing and quoting anyone within arm’s reach regarding hate crimes and youth violence.
Being a young gay man myself, as well as living just a short walk from the Tuttle Street house where Yakovleff was found, I am as active as anyone in searching out more coverage on the matter. What I am not looking for is something that not only fails to provide any new information, but insinuates a link, (i.e. between Yakovleff’s murder and hate crimes) when there is no evidence one exists.
None of this is to discount Snyder’s feelings, but to recognize, as Grace Sterling Stowell points out, there is a range from ignorance and apathy to worry and fear. With so few details coming out, it is difficult to know what to feel. From my conversations, I wouldn’t describe Boston’s LGBT community as "shaken" but our curiosity has been stirred not only regarding what happened that night, but moreover, what lessons our community will be forced to learn from this.
Matt Maguire can be reached at mmaguire@baywindows.com
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