Kenneth Houck
Note: In the midst of a health crisis and inhumane lockdowns at overcrowded facilities, MOL has found many reports of deaths of despair, deaths by violence, and deaths whose cause is simply unknown. These inhumane conditions may also have exacerbated the risk of violence against people identifying as LGBTQ. While we do not know how Kenneth Houck died, we mourn his loss and deplore the conditions that put him in jeopardy.
Kenneth Houck, courtesy of his family, by way of the New York Daily News.
We lost Kenneth Houck on May 19, 2020 at NYU Langone Hospital at the age of just 44 years old. Kenneth, or Kenny as he was affectionately known by those who were close to him, was born on June 3, 1975 in Oneida, NY. He is survived by his mother and stepfather, Barbara and Ray Price; his father and stepmother, Kenneth Sr. and Linda Houck; his brother Peter Houck; and his two sisters, Jessica Smith and Jodi Houck.
A proud member of the LGBT community, Kenneth always took a stand against incidents of hate or homophobia. In November 2011, Kenneth was brutally beaten by two men while reading a gay romance novel, and spent 18 days in the critical care unit of a hospital with a fractured leg. Kenneth’s assailants were never charged with a hate crime, despite the fact that Kenneth maintained that they had shouted homophobic slurs during the incident. His request for increased security prior to the assault, after the men had made anti-LGBT threats to him, was denied. When asked about the attack, Kenneth said, “I want all involved punished for the hate crime - to give them a reason to not let their homophobic aggression be taken out on anyone else ever again.”
Kenneth was being temporarily held at the controversial Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn in Sunset Park, a facility subject to multiple ongoing lawsuits in the Eastern District of New York. The most recent lawsuits have focused on people’s access to legal calls and video conferences within the facility, since physical visits were shut down in March for public health reasons, denying people the ability to communicate with their family and loved ones, as well as their lawyers. A separate case has also seen attorneys suing the facility in March, arguing that the MDC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was dangerous and inadequate. A motion for a preliminary injunction, which could have allowed medically vulnerable people to leave the facility (located in the epicenter of a global pandemic, no less) and placed external controls on the facility’s response to the Coronavirus, was denied by U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner of the Eastern District of New York. Kovner noted in her reasoning that “just one” person at MDC had been hospitalized in connection with the virus, and “none have died from the disease.”
Medical requests, mostly submitted digitally through the facility’s online medical request systems, had been submitted as evidence in the case. The BOP fought to block the disclosure of these requests, which paint a dark picture of the federal facility and their neglect of people desperate for medical attention amid a global pandemic – and waiting weeks to get it. One said, “I have had a persistent cough that just wont get better. I also have been sweating off and on randomly… not sure what its from but ive written you about a week ago about it and still havnt been seen.. I hope this isn’t the virus symptoms.”
At the time of his untimely death, Kenneth was being held in solitary confinement, a practice widely considered to be a form of psychological torture. In a letter sent to a U.S. District Judge, the Bureau Of Prisons stated that Kenneth died due to “unknown circumstances,” contrary to what William C. Sullivan, Kenneth’s friend and attorney, was told -- that Kenneth had taken his own life. Deirdre Von Durnum, a federal defender based in New York, believes the death of Kenneth should be thoroughly investigated. In an interview with the Philadelphia Gay Times, David Cooper, a close friend of Kenneth, also expressed doubt that he committed suicide. “I find it difficult to believe Kenny committed suicide,” he said. “The fact he didn’t leave a suicide note is suspicious. I look forward to reading the autopsy report and any information issued by the [U.S.] Bureau of Prisons.”
We hope that authorities remove the painful obscurity surrounding Kenny’s death, for the sake of his loved ones. We mourn the loss of Kenny Houck.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Ilyana Benjelloun with information from reporting by Jane Wester of the New York Law Journal, Tim Cwiek of Philadelphia Gay News, Nick Pinto of The Intercept and a U.S. Obituary Notice.