14 January 1999: Typical

I shouldn't be surprised, but it's so much more difficult getting people to talk to the press than you might think. I really cannot figure out why getting to speak to certain agencies is so difficult, but it is. Luckily, I am just doing one evergreen feature at a time, and reviews. At least I control the latter.

Meanwhile, I learned of two events that disturbed me. First, a cop in Philadelphia, their first openly gay recruit, killed himself in Independence Park, purportedly distraught over a failed relationship. I also read that in Italy the group ARCI-Gay commemorated the death of a man who killed himself in Vatican Square last year dousing himself in gasoline and setting himself on fire. They convinced the police that honoring the dead is a fundamental Catholic right, and the police stopped bothering them.

What is going on here? It's bad enough that gay men feel so bad about their lives, but killing themselves, and in such a public way? How is it possible in this day and age that there are gay people who do this? We're not reaching them; there are services out there, and nothing is so bad that suicide is an the only viable answer. It is hard not to feel like somehow we've failed, even though intellectually I know that these people were probably beyond help when they got to that point.

Next entry... Cinderella Story

Previous entry... Typical


[ Contact Me | Home | Matthew Shepard Memorial | Diaries | Archives | Links | Web Index ]
Copyright (c) 1999, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021, sethbook@panix.com