Still Life (Paperback)

What would you do if you suddenly realized at age 13 that you were gay? What if this occurred in 1965 in rural Alabama, one of the most unprogressive states? How do you begin to explain to your parents that you will never get married in all likelihood and never have children? In an area where that is taken for granted? What if after a series of severe emotional complications you suddenly found yourself in a state hospital for the insane? You don't know anyone - your family is over 200 miles away. And its 1955 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. These are some of the many questions I asked while writing this memoir, a two year effort I began after driving home from my mothers funeral in 1999. I simply could not stand for her life to disappear without some record of her struggle and the unfair treatment she received. For much of her life the state hospital did provide adequate treatment. For a surprisingly long time the care she received was enough for her to improve and resume her life. I hope my book can show that we have quite a distance to go before we have successfully treated most of those with severe mental illness. In spite of pharmaceutical claims roughly 1/3 of all psychiatric patients do not currently respond to any chemical treatment. Fully one third. And so much is unknown when treatments do work... the mechanisms are just not clearly understood yet. A must read for gays, especially those from rural areas, transgendered, women, womens rights advocates, the mentally challenged, the mentally disturbed and their families, anyone interested in gays and gay civil rights, and advocates for the mentally ill.