Licensed to Kill

This is a very intense film. It shows us killers up close and personal. Some of them show no remorse at all. Others show some, but all feel "disconnected" from their crimes. Most of them hate homosexuals, and that gives them the license to kill them without guilt or remorse. It makes you think twice about the morality of the Christian Right and other conservative organizations whose barrage of hatred against Gays has helped soothe the conscience of these killers. Not for the squeamish. It features gruesome crime scene footage.

Director & writer of a startling documentary, Arthur Dong, does great research of anti-gay hate crime murderers; some of whom are currently on US death rows: Donald Aldrich (Killer); Corey Burley (Killer); Raymond Childs (Killer); William Cross (Killer); Kenneth French (Killer); Jay Johnson (Killer); Jeffrey Swinford (Killer).

Award winner of 2 prestigious Sundance Film Festival awards, the Directors & the Filmmakers Trophies, Arthur Dong has become more renowned since producing "Licensed to Kill." His documentary goes beyond the pale of simple-minded media headlines (that miss hundreds of brutal anti-gay hate crimes in the US each year) of anti-gay murders by scrutinizing the killers themselves. To no one's surprise, many claim they feel 'licensed' by preachers they've heard to do "God's work": murder gays. While others claim they's been violently &/or sexually abused as children (usually by their own straight, white fathers-97% of the time).

In 1977, gaybashers attacked filmmaker Arthur Dong. Perhaps this event led to his personal reason for filming face-to-face cell block interviews with murderers convicted & sentenced to death for killing gay men. Cutting to the chase, Dong asks on-point, "Why did you do it?" These death row inmates use the typical variety of lame excuses: 1) The number 1 reason is the 'God told me to' anti-gay hate-crime defense party line. Considering what key televangelists the late Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, J.D. Kennedy, Pat Robertson et al, publicly instigate through their anti-gay sexually obsessed 'sermons', it's no wonder blaming God for murdering gays is hate-criminals' top ranked sense of being 'licensed to kill' by US anti-gay sexual supremacists.

2) Claims they are justified to kill gays as protection from his murder victim's sexual advances is the number 2 gay murderers' defense party line. This popular excuse among lawyers is known as the "gay panic" defense. Apparently, anti-gay murderers don't know how to say the easy word, "No," & walk away, if a same-gender person flirts with them! Instead they go ballistic & kill. Note: this is specific to anti-gay men who murder gay men & has nothing to do with women.

3) The claim that 'I am a victim of child abuse who fears losing my manhood', is the number 3 most likely excuse these murderers & their defense lawyers use. Sometimes law enforcers collaborate with this defense.

4) The 'homeboys' depraved mentality that stalks for "easy prey' excuse; straight men who go out of their way to guess & stalk men they perceive are gay; pretend to be gay themselves & pick up gay men; then, kill them for sport.

5) The 'I don't want gays in the military with me' excuse. These unfortunate soldiers have no clue they're already serving with thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender people in the US & other nations' militaries! Many of the anti-gay murderers are delusional enough to believe they're righteously doing a murderous God's & a sexually-supremacist US government's authorized work by ridding the world of non-heterosexual people.

(See Dr. Gregory Herek's research on anti-gay hate crimes for more stats & do view this starling true (1997) film. It reveals how anti-gay murderers are victims of untruth: especially US neo-Christian-fundamentalist-supremacist politicized propaganda).

It's scary & intriguing that believing in this propaganda has already led to murders of many heterosexuals who were perceived to be gay!

The movie contains some fascinating interviews with men convicted of sexual orientation based hate crime murders. The director details the nature of their offenses and probes the motivations for their crimes. While some of the descriptions of the crimes are horrific, and the lack of remorse for their actions and lack of empathy for their victims expressed by some of the perpetrators is disturbing, the movie is engaging and revealing. The central theme of the movie as expressed in it title "Licensed to Kill" is well-developed throughout the course of the film as various individuals express their rationale as to why they believed it was "okay" to kill gay men. The film provides interesting insights into the motivations for sexual orientation bias crimes, and would be particularly useful for educational activities and classroom study.