Gay event set for Hillsborough library
For the first time, Hillsborough County Library is housing an event for Gay and Lesbian History Month. Local author Steven Reigns has organized "Loving in Fear," an event that honors the spectrum of the gay and lesbian experience in the written word, at the John F. Germany Library at 2 p.m., June 21. The title acknowledges the struggle of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community.
When we stop holding hands in public places, when we change pronouns in the stories we tell to others, when we avoid questions of marriage, when we omit the names of the places we socialize, when personal photos do not adorn our desks at work, we are "Loving in Fear," says Reigns.
"Our culture, our community, our experience, and our people are worthy of recognition," he says. "Writing is a way of documenting our lives. I want to honor that and introduce the public to some of our written experiences." The event is free and open to the public and will feature three authors. Performer Stephanie Shippae will serve as the moderator.
The participants are: Dr. Les Wright, Associate Professor of Humanities at Mount Ida College, founder of the Bear History Project in 1994, and co-editor of the online e-zine Verisimilitude; Minnie Carey, who came of age in the Jim Crow era and refers to herself as a "modern-day slave" because she and her family were part of the Great Black Migration in white America in the late 1950s; and Reigns, a graduate of the University of South Florida’s creative writing program and author of the debut collection, "Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat."
Tomes and Treasures will be selling books at the event. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Equality Florida, a statewide education and advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, class and gender.