Today it's my pleasure to join my friends in this:
The Dalai Lama says, "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."
When I was fifteen, I got a bit part on my high school's production of Street Scene. I'm not sure what it was, I think I had to screen from behind the stage. My drama teacher got some college kid to come in to do the costuming as part of a service project. To this day, I remember his name and how he looked. I remember his smile.
After the last performance, someone had a cast party. When I got there, he was leaving. Someone told me he'd been turned away at the door, even threatened, because whoever was throwing that party didn't want "fags"in their home. The thing is, I don't know if he was gay or not, and neither did they. Even then, I knew I didn't want to go to ANY party that all my friends couldn't attend. I had my parents drive me home that night.
After the last performance, someone had a cast party. When I got there, he was leaving. Someone told me he'd been turned away at the door, even threatened, because whoever was throwing that party didn't want "fags"in their home. The thing is, I don't know if he was gay or not, and neither did they. Even then, I knew I didn't want to go to ANY party that all my friends couldn't attend. I had my parents drive me home that night.
For more authors and more information about the blog hop, go to:
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/
I found your story very similar to what happened to my sister and her friends her senior year in HS. It was 1981 - one cast member was turned away from the cast party so half the cast walked out and made their own party. Remarkable courage for a bunch of high schoolers - just like you. Unfortunately this young man was later one of the first AIDS victims I knew.
ReplyDeleteGood for them! That is remarkable courage. I graduated high school in 1978, the height of the disco era. None of us knew what was on the horizon, insofar as the HIV virus. Tough, tough times.
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