Dec 08, 2006  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Mitchell Katine still remembers the time gays opened their wallets to help Tyron Garner.

It was 1998. Garner and another man, John Lawrence, had been arrested after Texas police looking for an armed intruder barged into Lawrence’s apartment bedroom.

Garner and Lawrence were charged under the state’s sodomy law.

Against all odds, they decided to challenge the statute.

“There were many people who wanted to be involved and contribute money toward the fight,” said Katine, who was Garner’s attorney in Texas.

Donations to the case, Lawrence v. Texas, poured in from across the nation. The money helped bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2003 that state sodomy laws were unconstitutional.

But three years after the $750,000 case ended and gay activists declared the plaintiffs heroes, Garner died in poverty of complications from meningitis.

Family members wanted to give Garner a casket and grave, but could afford neither. In desperation, they turned to Garner’s friends for help.

Katine, the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal, which bankrolled Garner’s legal battle, all sought donations to help the family. Few came.

Weeks after Garner died Sept. 11, little more than $200 had been donated. The balance included $100 Katine gave when he opened the memorial account.

“People sent in contributions, but they sent them in much smaller amounts than I imagined,” he said. “People were sending $10 contributions and $20 contributions.”

Katine said the response was so poor that Garner’s family eventually abandoned their hopes. The body was surrendered to local officials Oct. 18 for cremation by the state — an unceremonious fate that most often befalls the indigent or forgotten.

Garner’s remains were given to his brother, Darrell. The memorial fund afforded him a metal urn.

“I think it’s sad,” said Katine, who’s gay. “I’m not being critical of the gay community. I’m saddened by it. I’m just saddened by not having a better response from the community.”

H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, whose organization is now working to memorialize Garner, agreed.

“It was really a tragic misstep on the part of all of us in the community,” he said. “If we’re going to hold people up as heroes, we should certainly treat them that way.”

‘Take care of our own’

Efforts to fund Garner’s burial started at Lambda Legal, which sent an appeal to its Texas donors.

“It was a Texas case, so the thought would be that we could take care of our own,” said Dennis Coleman, the regional director for Lambda Legal in Dallas.

But the limited appeal yielded limited results. One week after the appeal was made, the account balance was $200. Katine said just a few donations trickled in after that.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “So I told the family, ‘I’m sorry. The response was not as great as I’d hoped it would be.’”

HRC spokesperson Luis Vizcaino said the organization tried to help Garner’s family by announcing the memorial fund in the gay Houston magazine OutSmart, but the effort had little impact.

Coleman said he and others in his office donated additional funds, boosting the account total to about $760. Even with those donations, though, the account couldn’t fund a funeral.

Katine said Garner’s family, under pressure by morgue workers to dispose of the body, turned Garner over to state officials for cremation Oct. 18.

“I think many people thought that we wouldn’t have any problem raising … whatever was needed,” Katine said. “But I think everybody thought somebody else was going to do it.”

Robinson said the National Black Justice Coalition, like most national gay groups, was unaware of the family’s need until it was too late to help.

“It’s something for which we’ve taken responsibility,” he said, “and done some self-examination about what we will do to honor his memory.”

Robinson said the coalition is now considering how it can best remember Garner.

“We’re thinking of something along the lines of scholarship programs,” he said, “to focus on black gays and lesbians looking at going into the legal field.”

Vizcaino said HRC, meanwhile, is planning to send $1,000 to the Tyron Garner Fund at Preferred Bank in Houston. All money donated now goes to Garner’s family.

Robinson said it’s vital that gays across the country never again let their heroes go unsupported.

“Make sure that you support those people,” he said. “Make sure you know what their needs are. Make sure you support their family, and that if ever a circumstance like this happens again, don’t assume that everything is handled.”