tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2083200247132907218.post4067461972358317836..comments2024-03-23T08:51:09.577-08:00Comments on Progressive Alaska: PA Arts Sunday - June 21, 2009 -- Letter to a Straight FriendPhilip Mungerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14601488767955084836noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2083200247132907218.post-42997524334212443952009-06-22T08:09:55.171-08:002009-06-22T08:09:55.171-08:00Thanks for reposting, Phil. I was so (un-)busy sle...Thanks for reposting, Phil. I was so (un-)busy sleeping away my exhaustion from last week that I didn't see this until this morning.<br /><br />I was 19, just about 20, when I wrote this poem after one of the tiny tiny group of friends who "knew" about me expressed nervousness about me talking about being a lesbian. (She was, in other words, one of the few people I even felt safe in talking to about it.) I was not nearly so open as the poem would make it seem, not for several years. But I think being open is absolutely necessary for our mental & spiritual health.<br /><br />As I said in my intro to the poem <a href="http://www.henkimaa.com/2009/06/20/letter-to-a-straight-friend/" rel="nofollow">on my own site</a>,<br /><br />"Prevo & company would prefer us to shut up & stay in our closets. But the closet is damaging to us. Had I lived there in the closet as they would’ve wanted me to live, I would have died long since: in spirit, if not in physical fact, a suicide. Accepting myself as a lesbian at age 19 was the first acceptance I ever had for myself, in any way, & was the foundation of my giving up self-hatred entirely in later years."<br /><br />Thanks for your unwavering support. It means one heckuva lot.Melissa S. Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12858548044405913769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2083200247132907218.post-86488918580697391762009-06-21T15:40:43.785-08:002009-06-21T15:40:43.785-08:00Very poignant and lovely poem. It makes me ache f...Very poignant and lovely poem. It makes me ache for those with so much hate and fear in their hearts. I worked in the arts for 15 years so folks from different walks of life were just the norm. When I walk outside of that life I am appalled at what I find in regards to tolerance; tolerance of any sort of difference be it lifestyle, dress or choice of any sort that flies in the face of the indoctrination and teaching of those who choose to judge others.<br /><br />I can't condone those that hide behind the bible and use it as a weapon against free choice. I can't tolerate it and that makes me I guess as smallminded as those who preach hate, but they need to open their minds and their hearts to love and not mindless hate and fear and that is what I believe and no one can convince me that I am wrong.AKPetMomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00393010346244038373noreply@blogger.com