Turns out the only horrifying thing about this story was that the Seattle Gay News was crying wolf.
"We've had real hate crimes in this state that we've had trouble getting people to take seriously," said State Representative Ed Murray, who was portrayed in the SGN article as seeking an independent investigation into Guerrero's death. (He is not, and said the paper never talked to him.) Murray called stories like this "not helpful."
The September 27 article about Guerrero--who was 46 and suffered from AIDS--gets almost everything wrong, starting with the spelling of Guerrero's name and the date of his death. More problematic, though, is that SGN pushed a homophobia angle: "The Seattle Gay News has learned that during his final days Gurrero [sic] indicated to as many as eight people that he had been beaten and abused because of his sexual orientation."
"No one has called us and made any allegation like that," said Detective Sergeant Tim Bardwell of the Yakima Police Department. An autopsy and a police investigation were conducted after what seemed like bruises were discovered on Guerrero's body, but no evidence of foul play was found. (The "bruises" turned out to be from blood settling near the skin.)
So what happened, SGN? "I don't want to be interviewed in any way about this," managing editor Matt Nagle said. On September 4, the paper published a front-page editor's note--not a retraction, not an apology, but a note that seemed to blame the bogus story on "the sketchy facts and circumstances" surrounding Guerrero's death. Why the paper reported sketchy facts as truth to begin with goes unexplained. And even the note managed to get a basic fact wrong. "Guerrero was found naked and unconscious in his apartment on Sept. 18." Wrong. He was found on September 11. He died on September 18.
