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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
May 11, 2001
Police aren't buying 'gay panic' motive for beating
by Dan Lewerenz
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Middleburg, Pa.-Michael Auker was beaten into a coma after a night of drinking at his neighbor's trailer, a brutal crime that has shocked residents of this town tucked into the rolling mountains of central Penn sylvania.
Residents are also shocked by the motive given for the March 6 assault: a pair of brothers allegedly told police that they attacked the 41-year-old Auker because he made advances toward them.
"This is terrible that they just went and beat this guy because they thought he's gay," said barber Emory Musser, one of several in this town of 1,500 who said they didn't believe Auker was gay.
Auker, who remained hospitalized in critical condition on May 2, was close to death when a co-worker found him in his home two days after the beating, in a coma and bleeding from his head.
Brothers Todd and Troy Clinger were arrested soon after Auker was found.
They have pleaded innocent to attempted homicide and aggravated assault and are being held until trial. Their parents, Gary and Connie Clinger, also have been charged after they allegedly tried to help their sons following the beating.
According to police reports, the brothers told investigators that they flew into a rage after Auker made sexual advances toward them after the three men spent that night drinking in Troy's trailer. They claimed he tried to hug and kiss Troy, 18, and grabbed the crotch of Todd, 20.
But authorities describe it differently, saying the brothers met in the trailer's bathroom to plan the attack and that Todd specifically said he would kill Auker.
"When they started this they had the intent to kill, and they took a substantial step toward that, and it was premeditated." said Snyder County district attorney Michael Scholly.
James Best, the Lewisburg attorney representing Troy, would not comment except to say other factors, particularly alcohol, contributed to whatever happened that night.
"I hope these folks are judged by the facts of the case and not through some prism of hate crimes or anything else," Best said.
Todd's attorney. Brian Kerstetter, did not return a message from the Associated Press seeking comment.
Police say the brothers have never denied that they beat Auker, and Troy's girlfriend, Niki Lee White, told police she heard the conversation in the bathroom and witnessed the beating.
According their statements to police, the brothers first lured Auker out onto the porch of Troy's trailer, then hit him when he wasn't looking. Auker rolled over on his back with his arms and legs raised in a defensive posture until the continued blows to his head finally knocked him unconscious. Todd punched and kicked Auker several more times as the brothers carried Auker back to his trailer, authorities say.
Gary and Connie Clinger arrived while their sons were moving Auker body.
Gary told police he helped carry Auker inside, then left him on a loveseat, authorities said. He has since been charged with recklessly endangering another person, criminal trespass and burglary.
Connie is charged with solicitation of perjury, allegedly asking White to lie to police. Both parents have pleaded innocent.
"She tried to get Niki White to change her story of what she told the police, specifically about the statement of Todd, saying how he wanted to kill him," said Pennsylvania State Police trooper Fred Dyroff, who investigated the case. "She wanted Niki to say she was hysterical and didn't understand what was being said."
Police say no one in the family bothered to check on Auker, who lay in his house for two days before being found by the coworker. Police arrested Troy almost imme-
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diately after noticing "nervous behavior" and scratches on his knuckles, Dyroff said. Todd was arrested later that day after allegedly fleeing to neighboring Mifflin County. Locals describe Snyder County. about 50) miles north of Harrisburg, as a friendly place where people are allowed to live their lives in peace..
Scott Manning, assistant professor of French and Italian and adviser to the gay student group at nearby Susquehanna University, says that "live-and-let-live atmosphere" has helped in developing a thriving gay community in central Pennsylvania.
But by all accounts, Auker was not part of that community. Auker was married until about six months ago, Dyroff said. And Manning said the gay community was sur-
prised to hear Auker referred to as being gay.
"I know some people who know this guy, and they say there's no way he's gay. He's just a guy that when he drinks he gets real happy and friendly." said Middleburg resident David Walter.
That's what troubles many in the area, who say a misinterpreted gesture might have almost cost a man his life.
"Part of the problem with anti-gay discrimination is that it doesn't just affect gay people. it affects people who are presumed to be gay. whether they're gay or not," Manning said. "This situation speaks pretty clearly to that problem, because nobody knows if this man is gay or not, but he was certainly beaten because somebody thought he was.
Tobacco giant targeted gays with 'Project SCUM
by Anthony Glassman
San Francisco-Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds devised a plan to target gays and homeless people in the city in the mid-1990s. according to an industry document made public in a May 2 SF Weekly article.
Project SCUM, standing for Sub-Culture Urban Marketing, was designed to market the company's cigarettes to gays in the Castro district and homeless people in the impoverished Tenderloin area of the city.
Referring to the people in the Castro as "alternative lifestyle" and the Tenderloin as "street people," the plan was designed to increase sales of the Camel line, as well as the retro-styled Kamel Red line, to gay men and lesbians, while introducing aggressive marketing for the Doral discount brand in depressed urban areas.
The documents outlining Project SCUM are among millions made public in the tobacco industry's settlement of lawsuits across the country in recent years.
Anti-smoking LGBT groups. including the Mautner Project for Lesbians with Cancer in Washington, D.C., were outraged at the revelation.
"This is a hate crime, plain and simple." said Mautner Project executive director Kathleen DeBold. "What else do you call it when a group thinks of gays and lesbians as scum,' then targets us with something that kills?"
"It's racist, it's classist, it's oppressive.“ said San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly. who represents the Tenderloin. "And it is really disheartening to hear. but I can't say that I'm surprised."
Anne Landman, an American Lung Association researcher who has been sifting through millions of industry files to better understand how the tobacco companies work. discovered Project SCUM a couple of weeks ago.
Landman last year unearthed documents indicating that Philip Morris had planned to
increase its market share in the gay community by setting the Marlboro Man up as a gay icon.
Landman pointed out, however, that while both companies aggressively targeted gay men and lesbians. Philip Morris' documents make no mention of disparaging terms like "scum."
The documents are causing more conster-
'What consumers would buy from a company that calls them scum?'
nation in light of recent studies showing that gay men and lesbians smoke more than their heterosexual counterparts, and that lesbians are at greater risk for cancer than non-lesbian
woman.
A University of California Los Angeles study indicated that 56% of lesbians are current or former smokers, compared to only 36% of heterosexual women. LGBT people who smoke also smoke more per person, according to studies. Coupled with other risk factors like nulliparity, or not having had children. lesbians are at far greater risk for certain types of cancer.
"The more I dig through these documents, I come to realize it's all nasty." said Landman. "Even if it is a cute acronym, how do you justify it? What consumers would want to buy a product from any company that calls them scum?"
She does, however, point out that in the third and final document on the project from 1997. “SCUM" was manually crossed out and replaced with "sourdough," an inoffensive San Francisco reference.
"The name of the project is beyond offensive, and they realized that a little too late," Landman concluded.
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