Working Toward a Just Society
Forever in your debt
EMILY SIMON
Thank you Radclyffe Hall, Harvey Milk and Lucille Hart
B Y A D R IENNE
ELLIS
y eyes were filled with tears, my
sight was blurred. The words on the
page doubled, and I was sctfilled with rage
that I finally had to put the book down to slow
my tears. Then I came upon the book “God
we believe; we have told you we believe...we
have not denied you. Then stand up and
defend us. Acknowledge us, oh God, before
the whole world. Give us also the right to our
existence!”
With that desperate plea still in my heart,
my eyes still overflowing, I ran downstairs to
my girlfriend, and sobbed and sobbed. She
just held me, already having read the book,
understanding my pain.
The book I’m talking about is Well Of
Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall. The book may
be fiction, but so relevant to what many people
have gone through in the past.
For those of you who haven’t read this
book, I highly recommend it. To help your
understanding of what I’m about to say, let me
give you a summary of the plot. A girl named
Stephen, raised in the early 1900’s, realizes
she is a lesbian. Throughout the book she is
SIMON, KRAMER G TOTH-FEJEL
Attorneys
treated like a beast, ignored, and very lonely.
It is something all gay people can relate to in
one way or another. No matter how much pain
I feel for Stephen, or how much I empathize
with her fear, I can understand only a small
portion of her experience.
I could understand the loss of a lover, or
maybe falling in love with a malicious person,
but I’ve never lost my parents because I’m
gay. When I came out I had loads of literature
and community groups to back me up and
support me in my loneliness. So many of the
people before me didn’t.
After I finished Well o f Loneliness, I
realized something very important. Older gay
people suffered many losses and abuses.
Why? For me, for all of the young gay people
of today, so we could feel proud, and further
accept our gayness.
The people who had been at Stonewall, all
the people beaten, all the people who were
alone for so long. Because of their strength
and persistence, my coming out process was
lfiss traumatic.
I just want to say that I’ve never been more
thankful, more appreciative than I am toward
you out there, who fought for me.
I hope that we, the future adult gay
community will be as strong as the ones that
came before us.
I’m forever in your debt. Thank you
Radclyffe Hall, thank you Harvey Milk, and
thank you Lucille Hart. You gave me
something I will never forget.
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