Gay teacher may have been pushed 'over the edge'

GRAND RAPIDS -- Stress from months of anti-homosexual sentiment in a small, conservative town could have contributed to a gay teacher's death, a pathologist says. Dr. Stephen Cohle said Gerry Crane, 32, had a floppy heart valve -- usually not a fatal condition.

He died last Friday, a week after suffering a heart attack.

"In a small percentage of patients, (the valve) can be lethal," said Cohle, who performed an autopsy. Cohle also found scars in the heart muscle.

Crane's experience in Byron Center, a Grand Rapids suburb, "may have put him over the edge," the doctor said.

Crane resigned last summer as music teacher at Byron Center High School, saying the anti-gay atmosphere in town was like "ingesting poison."

After considering whether to fire him in December 1995, the school board condemned homosexuality and promised close scrutiny.

More than 900 people, including some students and teachers, attended Crane's funeral Tuesday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids.

"He taught our children to sing, and in a world where ugliness is gaining on us, can you think of many greater gifts?" the Rev. William Evertsberg said.

He said Crane and partner Randy Block had a strong relationship.

In a jab at Crane's opponents, many of them religious conservatives, Evertsberg said: "Maybe we'll learn family values from people who aren't supposed to have any."

Crane's friends asked high school Principal William Skilling to stay away from the funeral.

In Skilling's evaluations of Crane, before his homosexuality was learned, the teacher was praised as a "role model for our students."

But by last June, a month before Crane resigned, Skilling warned he could face dismissal if he mentioned anything in class about homosexuality.