When We Rise

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dogboy

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"You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise."

I was waiting for someone to start this thread, this being ADISC and all, but it didn’t happen, so here I am, being that voice. My wife and I are several episodes into the TV show, “When We Rise”. It’s really a docu-drama about the gay movement in America starting from 1972 and going to present time. There’s also a disconnected segment interviewing the real people the story is based on, all those connected to the LGBTQ movement, something to which I am an integral part. I’m B.

"Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise"

As a member of this site, I may spend a good part of my time talking to members via PM, something that is important to this site, because it is in that gray land where we reach out to those we trust and have made real friendships. Those of you who know an intimate part of me, know I had a special person in my life throughout college, another male and someone I will always love, hopefully beyond death. We were part of that early movement in the late sixties, daring to come out of the closet, to hold hands in public, to tell others, to make ourselves known.

"Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?"

“When We Rise” is about that story and how it continues in our culture. Since my wife DVRd it, we saw the segment dealing with HIV/AIDs last night, and it was very moving. More moving for me was the story about three lesbian girls, Roma, her friend from when she was in the Peace Core and her now partner whom she shares a child with. At the end of this segment, her once close friend hands her personal journal to Roma and in it, she declares her love to Roma, something from their shared past.

A select number of you know that my SO from college is writing a book and asked my permission if he could use my real name, and I said yes. It will be about his experiences serving in the army from 1970 – 1972 as a conscientious observer and sent to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. He kept a journal, something that years later, he asked me to keep because he was going through severe depression and he was afraid he would destroy it.

Two months ago, he phoned me and asked if I still have it, expecting that I didn’t, but not only did I keep it for the last 40 years, but also every letter he wrote me while in Alaska. It was my wife who actually knew where the journal was, in one of her dresser drawers. I sent that along with copies of as many letters as I could duplicate and at the same time, read. And yes, there, like the journal given to Roma, was his love mentioned again and again, to me.

"You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise."

My life took a different turn. I met my wife, fell in love, got married and we started our family, something I always wanted and knew it was a part of who I am. But reading his letters from so long ago, I am reminded as to how much I must have hurt him.

Watching “When We Rise” has brought so much back: so many memories both kind and painful. I know we have members on this site who are LGBTQ and deal with all that defines LGQBT. I wondered, have you seen this show and what has it done or said to you?

My college SO, his name to a select few is Buzzy so I’m not giving his real name away, is famous for being an NEA national teacher of the year because he was the first gay high school principle to come out and be seen. He was awarded a Kennedy Fellowship, so his book will be taken seriously and I may be known in Lynchburg VA as well, but it’s time to rise and be counted.

"Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise
I rise
I rise."

Maya Angelou

Has it touched you?
 
Maxx said:
Exciting for you to be involved with something like that.

The show? It will never pass through my pixels.

Haha....I get that. One is either into that sort of thing or not. In fact, I wondered how many straight people watched the show? I wondered if there was much interest from most of the viewing sector. Still, some people may have been curious. The show is well done and I think, historically accurate. Ironically, by 1972, I was dating the woman who would become my wife, so I was out of the scene, having moved from New Jersey to Ohio. Yes, there was a lot of culture shock!
 
My husband and I watched the show, which was moving as hell, in an evening/afternoon binge. We simply couldn't stop. Partly it was because we are both in the alphabet soup (he's B, I'm T), partly because we both lived through the eras depicted on the show even if we were not directly involved in the moments themselves. My best friend from grade school was though. I lost track of him for eons and only found him a few years ago, but it turned out that he was deeply involved in many of the protests and riots of the 70s and 80s GLF movement. And many of his friends and lovers died in the AIDS epidemic. And he, like the show's main character, has survived for decades HIV+.

I found the show gripping and powerful and painful and beautiful. There were times when I yelled at the TV for what it was showing me, but there were other times when I shed tears for the pureness of the love I was seeing. And the fact that this story was based on real people and their struggles made it all the more poignant. I feel my eyes welling up just remembering it. I believe it depicts a most important aspect of modern American history, and one that should be understood better by all Americans...not only LGBT folks, but everyone. Maybe if the people currently in charge actually understood the humanity behind some of the things they were doing, they might do things differently.
 
Maxx said:
I've never watched Empire or Glee either. No reason to.

No reason? You could equally say that there's no reason to watch any historical documentary, since no one currently lives in the past! :p

I've never heard of Empire, and Glee sounds.... absolutely awful. (Sorry -- not my thing!) But "When We Rise" sounds fascinating, even though I'm not LGBT. It's been such an important part of social history, and has changed the society we heteros find ourselves in.

I'll definitely be trying to find a copy to watch later...

If anyone is interested in "When We Rise", you may also enjoy "Stonewall Uprising" -- another film about gay rights in the US, leading up to the Stonewall Uprising itself. I posted a thread about it in my "Documentaries Online" group here:

https://www.adisc.org/forum/group.php?discussionid=2918
 
tiny said:
No reason? You could equally say that there's no reason to watch any historical documentary, since no one currently lives in the past! :p

I've never heard of Empire, and Glee sounds.... absolutely awful. (Sorry -- not my thing!) But "When We Rise" sounds fascinating, even though I'm not LGBT. It's been such an important part of social history, and has changed the society we heteros find ourselves in.

I'll definitely be trying to find a copy to watch later...

If anyone is interested in "When We Rise", you may also enjoy "Stonewall Uprising" -- another film about gay rights in the US, leading up to the Stonewall Uprising itself. I posted a thread about it in my "Documentaries Online" group here:

https://www.adisc.org/forum/group.php?discussionid=2918

My SO from college and I went to Stonewall a couple months after it happened. We were singing at Philharmonic Hall so we took the subway down to the Village and had lunch at the Stonewall Inn. There were a lot of business men there during lunch hour.
 
I hadn't heard of it, but I wanna watch it now!!!
 
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