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Astronomer, 1975
Choragos, Thursday, October 23, 1975
haruspex
Man responds to 'Astronomer'
To "Astronomer" and others:
You have done a good and necessary thing, and I wish to thank you for it. It is a step towards recognition and understanding. Your cry has been heard.
I write in a spirit at once pleased and saddened. I am pleased because your letter and the responses to it show a much needed and wonderful bravery, and may (and, I hope, will) lead people who are now alone to another person, a source of strength, understanding, and love, to help them survive the long time we spend here. Your letter was a beginning, and I hope that much will come of it.
I am saddened, though by the amount of suffering behind it. What you, and others, have gone through, and now go through, because of whom they love is unecessary [sic], a cruel and tragic thing to put a person through. I hope your letter and its answers help others, both gay and straight, to see that the important thing is the presence of love, no matter who the lovers, or what their sex.
Your letter also raises another element of your, and our, lives here. There are others, frightened, shocked, confused, hurt by this element in their lives that disquiets them, that hints at something we are taught we shouldn't feel. Thy [sic] try to conform, to play the game and be "normal"; this is tragic, a destructive, stifling things to have to do. Having learned to recognize and accept a crucial element of our lives, we must help those who might need our help to find the strength and understanding to recognize an element of their own lives.
I realize that some may feel that, as a man, I am intruding in a matter where I have no right to intrude. I do not wish to intrude, however. I wish only to thank you all, and to add my support, admiration, and best wishes from an unexpected sector.
With all hopes for much-needd [sic], well-deserved peace, I am
Michael McHenry
