I Ceremonies continued from page 20 calls that went out statewide fol- lowing this attack: “Hello, Keith? I just needed to hear your voice and know it wasn’t you.” I remember the sense of fear and outrage, the need to do something . public, something big that could not be ignored. I remember how this act of violence revitalized the efforts to pass Vermont’s Hate Crimes Law. Governor Madeleine Kunin had called the morning following the beating to ask me to express her outrage and sadness to the victim’s family and to our com- munity. She said violence such as this would not be tolerated. We organized, were the lead story on Leaping continued from page 2 2 Some of us may forget that each revelation has a child or two chil- dren, or a dozen, or a hundred children attached to it. These children are real children — they grow up to be adolescents and men who are fundamentally con- fused about the relationship between sex and power. ' Mike Lew’s writings bring us back to earth and show us the concrete work that male survivors are doing in their quest for recovery. With the help of the ~ men whose writing he includes, we come out of the quagmire of litigious scandal and recognize that what is most vital in recov- ery is knowledge, understanding, communication, healthy touch, real connection, empathy, griev- ing, the ability to feel and the ability to love. For Leaping Upon the Mountains, Mike Lew conducted written interviews with hundreds of survivors in every state, the District of Columbia, all ten Canadian Provinces and 44 other countries. He also used material gathered at survivor workshops and retreats that he conducts all over the U.S. and around the world. Much of the content focuses on making the recovery every local network for a week, held a rally in Burlington with over 400 people in attendance, stood side by side with Vermont’s political leaders and proclaimed that violence and hate did not have a home here. It was in sup- port of the Hate Crimes Law that Governor Kunin made her only appearance to testify before a leg- islative committee. I remember the exhilaration when the bill was passed, our first major political victory, and the heady feeling that we were on our way to equality. I remember what it felt like to then walk out of the Statehouse and find my car had been vandalized. I I remember what it is like to be sexually assaulted because you are gay. The hard part is that Ceremonies will make you remember all these things as process accessible to male sur- vivors no matter where they are in their healing. Men who are sexually abused, like other vic- tims of abuse, are ofien made to feel isolated and ashamed of the violence perpetrated upon them. ‘ In ‘Leaping, Mike Lew gives us a . diversity of voices, some more eloquent the others, some seem- ingly banal. All of them are real and provide an opportunity for someone, somewhere to say to himself, “Yes, I felt that way. That person is like me. I’m not alone. I, too, can heal. I can release myself from the hold of abusers of power.” While Mike’s Lew’s book gives us real voices, he does not shy away from noting the dif- ficulties many men face in over- coming the lasting effects of their perpetrators’ actions. Leaping Upon Mountains contains voices of black men, crying out for soli-_ clarity with white survivors who hold onto myths about black sex- ual prowess and early sexual maturity. It contains stories of straight men who are so ashamed of their reflexive arousalgat the hands of same-gender perpetra- tors that they can hardly speak to their gay comrades in survival. Mike notes that, even today, well over ten years afterits publication, Victims No Longer is still one of the few books avail- well. And if you don’t remember, then you need to read this book because it’s part of our history. By Ceremonies s end, Cathcart reminds us of how frag- ile acceptance and tolerance can be and how vulnerable we still are. Ceremonies deserves to be read for its honest portrayal of what it means to be LGBTQ in America, for its reminder that past can too often become future. V Keith E. Goslant reads and writes in Plainfielcl works in Waterbury, and lobbies the governor and the legislature in Montpelier. able to male survivors — and vir- tually all mainstream publishers refiised to publish Leaping Upon the Mountains. Counseling serv- ices sensitive to the needs of non- offending male survivors remain few and far between. To my knowledge, there are virtually no male survivor group services available in Vermont. And yet, for all of the deafening silence that previously engulfed boy victims and the media sensationalism over cleri- cal perpetrators that currently overwhelms the real needs of sur- vivors, Mike Lew’s work offers love and hope. The stories of the men that he includes in Leaping Upon the Mountains demonstrate that a strong community of male survivors is available to support us, and to our brothers, sons, nephews, fathers, uncles and lovers. “With each day I feel the burden lifting. / The burden of my secret. / Now I can tell my story. / Now I can let go of all the shame. / Now ’ I can let go of the deep, Deep, Deep, Deep entrenched fear of being myself.” — Excerpted from a poem entitled “Repressed Memories” by John, age 38, from Alaska, published in Leaping Upon the Mountains by Mike Lew. V Mike Lew can be reached at Next Step Counseling and Training, 40 Webster Place, Brookline, MA 02146, Telephone: (617) 277- 7172 or at nextstep@/'ama- icaplain. com. Christopher Kaufman is the Executive Director ofR. U. 1.2? Community Center. He can be reached at pip- pin@sover. net. Good legal advice can make all the difference. V Langrock Sperry & Wool offers the services of 22 lawyers with over 300 years combined experience in all areas of the law_— including two lesbian attorneys with special expertise serving the legal needs of the g/l/b/t/q community. SUSAN MURRAY & BETH ROBINSON With offices in Middlebury and Burlington Middlebury (802) 588-6356 Burlington (802) 864-0217 smurray@langrock.com brobinson@langrock.com Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP ATTORNEYS ‘AT LAW K North Professionals (802) 655-3333 EXT. 17 www.condoguy.com (800) 639-4520 EXT. 17 Laurie S. Rosenzweig Attorney at Law 18 South Main Street, P.O. 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