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?
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?