"Does It, White Man?"

Jonathan Joss was an actor of Comanche and White Mountain Apache ancestry, best known as the voice of John Redcorn on the FOX animated sitcom King of the Hill (taking over in 1997 from original actor Victor Aaron after his death and set to reprise the role in this summer's upcoming revival on Hulu) and Ken Hotate, the chief of the Wamapoke Native Americans who live in Pawnee, the town from the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. Here's a montage of his work as Hotate, whose sonorous voice and Native pride often causes him to hysterically play on the guilt of white Pawneeans (who have a long history of violence against the tribe).

Joss was killed yesterday in San Antonio. Per reports, a dispute on a property he owned climaxed with shouting and gunfire. His neighbor, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Joss widower, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, left a chilling statement on Joss' Facebook page about the actor's death, publicly viewable here but quoted below:

My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home. That home was burned down after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire. We reported these threats to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done.

Throughout that time we were harassed regularly by individuals who made it clear they did not accept our relationship. Much of the harassment was openly homophobic.

When we returned to the site to check our mail we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view. This caused both of us severe emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw.

While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired.

Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.

Jonathan is my husband. He gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get. We were newlyweds. We picked Valentines Day. We were in the process of looking for a trailer and planning our future.

He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.

I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved.

To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends, know that he valued you deeply. He saw you as family.

My focus now is on protecting Jonathan’s legacy and honoring the life we built together.

If your concern is how someone coped with trauma or how loudly they speak when recounting injustice and being ignored by authorities then you never truly cared about my husband.

Jonathan saved my life. I will carry that forward. I will protect what he built.

This harrowing turn of events has been disputed by the San Antonio Police Department, who claim there is currently "no evidence to indicate that Mr. Joss's murder was related to his sexual orientation." Local reports cite police records suggesting a history of calls made to the property and an anonymous neighbor decrying Joss' "antics," a history of "do[ing] erratic things in the street" and claiming to be God.

Whatever the truth is, Gonzales' message is chilling enough to read on the second day of Pride Month. Gun violence is one of many bad enough unchecked plagues on America, but the thought of intolerance begetting violence like this is sickening. I am not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, but like many people, plenty of people I know or care about are. And I want to make it clear from my digital pulpit: if you entertain such thoughts of indifference (at best) or hatred (at worst) of people whose personal lives are so different from but so irrelevant to yours, then you are anti-life. It's that simple. Your disregard for humanity is palpable, and spits in the face of the creation of Earth's children. No one "chooses" to be LGBTQ+, but you can choose to be hateful—at which point I will tell you that you are an agent of evil, a soul borne of whatever hell is, due to return there in time.

I'm sorry if this all sounds dramatic. But LGBTQ+ rights are under bizarre scrutiny and threat both here and around the world, and at the very least, it's important that you know what side I'm on. I hope you're on the same one.