The sailor, August Provost, kept his private life quiet for the most part, but trusted that his friends knew, according to an interview with his partner in the San Diego Union-Tribune. His family had encouraged him to report the harassment to a supervisor. It’s not clear whether he did, or whether he even could have; admitting that he’d been harassed could have led to admission that he was gay, which is grounds for dismissal from the Navy. In an online article for San Diego’s Gay and Lesbian Times, the chair of the San Diego Human Relations Commission, openly gay City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez (pictured right), refers to sources on the base that say the harassment was in fact gay-related and that Provost had been facing a possible discharge based on his sexual orientation.

Murray-Ramirez says there was a long delay between the murder and public release of information, noting that U.S. Congressman Bob Filner was on the base Tuesday and was not informed of the murder. The Human Relations Commission is calling for an investigation into whether this was a hate crime. Meanwhile, a “person of interest” is being held in custody. Read the full text of the Union-Tribune story after the break.

By Kristina Davis

Union-Tribune Staff Writer

Originally published 11:59 p.m. July 1, 2009, updated 8:30 a.m., July 2, 2009

CAMP PENDLETON — A person was being held in connection with the suspected homicide of a 29-year-old sailor who was found in a Camp Pendleton guard shack, Navy officials said yesterday.

The body of Seaman August Provost of Houston was discovered about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday on the western edge of the base, said Doug Sayers, a spokesman for Navy Region Southwest.

An autopsy was completed yesterday, but authorities were waiting for results of toxicology tests to determine the cause of death.

A “person of interest” was being held in the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. No charges have been filed.

The death has local gay activists calling for an investigation into whether Provost was slain because of his sexual orientation. “We’re definitely monitoring this, and trust and hope the military will investigate this in the professional way it should,” said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of San Diego’s Human Rights Commission.

Murray-Ramirez said he had asked two San Diego members of Congress, Reps. Susan Davis and Bob Filner, to make official inquiries with the military.

Provost’s partner, Kaether Cordero, said Provost was openly gay but kept his private life quiet for the most part.

“People who he was friends with, I knew that they knew,” Cordero said from Houston. “He didn’t care that they knew. He trusted them.”

Provost had recently complained to family members about a person who was harassing him, so they advised him to tell his supervisor, said his sister, Akalia Provost of Houston.

“He’s the type that if someone comes at him, he walks away. He never stands and argues,” she said. “He didn’t deserve anything but a good life.”

Provost was assigned to Assault Craft Unit 5 at Camp Pendleton. He had completed three years of college before joining the Navy in March 2008 to help finance his education, and was studying to become an architectural engineer.

Today, Joseph Bearden, one of the two accused killers of Ryan Skipper, was found guilty of second-degree murder and robbery.

On March 15, 2007, Ryan Skipper was stabbed 19 times and left to die on a dirt road in Polk County, Florida. His death is a bloody reminder of the anti-gay hatred faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in our state.

Just days ago, a prosecution witness revealed that shortly after the killing, Joseph Bearden, the defendant, said, “He felt he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of one more faggot.”

The 19 stab wounds that Ryan Skipper suffered are what the FBI calls ‘overkill’. That’s when the violence in an assault is beyond what would be necessary for a robbery and more than would even be required to take someone’s life. Overkill is a key indicator of a hate crime.

During his closing statement, State Attorney Castillo said the brutality of Ryan’s murder indicated, “hatred, contempt and utter disregard for another human being because he was gay.”

Hate crimes are directed at groups of people. They are intended to make an entire community afraid simply because of who they are.

But hate crimes are only effective as a two-step dance: first the offender sends fear into people’s hearts with a heinous act of violence. Then leaders around them act like nothing more happened than a car theft gone wrong. No action. No public acknowledgment of what has happened. No commitment to ensuring this never happens again. Their silence is as terrifying as the violence itself.

Ed Graziano paid more than $2,000 in cash, check and a Westshore Plaza Pizza gift card in an attempt to have his wife, Debra, killed in what was supposed to look like a car accident, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Tipped to his plot, Pinellas County sheriff’s detectives had an undercover deputy act as a go-between in the plot.

Graziano was jailed yesterday. And today, 10 Connects reports, Hogan’s estranged wife, Linda Bollea, believes she may have been a target of Graziano’s as well.

Bollea’s publicist tells 10 Connects “people around the case” have told Hulk Hogan’s estranged wife Graziano also made threats aimed at Bollea. After hearing about the possible threats Bollea’s publicist described her as “scared to death.”

Bollea issued a statement Thursday night saying “Any threat from Ed Graziano would and is being taken very seriously.”

Now, it turns out it was a different scumbag who did it. This from the AP: