Pride Guide 1999 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE CI

Pride Guide '99

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A love story between a gay man and a straight woman

Imagine That

Letters from Russell

Edited by Lydia Stux

Lambda Publications

Reviewed by Eric Resnick

She was seventeen. He was twenty one.. They met in 1975 in Akron, backstage at a community theatre production of See How They Run. He made her laugh so hard, the cast shushed them.

So began the friendship between Lydia Stux and Russell Denver Harold, which lasted 20 years until his death from AIDS in 1995.

Imagine That: Letters from Russell was inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank. Stux says it is a chance to experience tragedy through a unique every-person voice,' though most of it is not tragic. The book is a love story between a gay man and a straight woman. The reader knows how it ends, but experiences intimate parts of both of their lives-his directly, hers reflectively, over twenty amazing years.

The book is a chronicle of every letter Russell wrote to Lydia. Only the names of other people were altered. Russell was a brilliant letter writer and a very insightful person. The letters are important becaus in addition to telling his personal story, they also reflect on and provide commen tary on the gay community during the 1980s. The growth and transformation of both is captured within these letters.

In interview, Stux described the early days of their friendship.

"My family was delighted Russell was my friend," she said. “I had self-interests, too. He had a car and his own apartment, and because he was gay, he was a safer choice than high school boys."

She also says Russell reminded her of her father.

"They were both men of strong opinions and liked to get in others' faces," she said.

The letters begin in 1979 when Russell moves from Cleveland to San Francisco with his lover William. The reader may not fully understand some of the earlier letters, because they just begin without any background. The more letters one reads, the more is revealed, so the reader begins to see things from Russell's point of view and anticipates the next letter as Lydia must have.

The letters chronicle the feelings Russell and Lydia had for each other as well as the significant love interests in both of their lives.

As with other works which capture history through one voice, this work tells stories that newspaper accounts and history books cannot. In one April 1984 letter, Russell describes the city of San Francisco debating whether or not to close its gay bathhouses.

He wrote: "I disapprove of them as an institution, I was supporting this move. However, in re-consideration, I thought it might not be a wise move. There are still too many people out there that will use this move as reason to close other Gay establishments, such as bars and social clubs. The memory of what I went through in my early years, the oppression, the degradation of going to a filthy bar because it was the only kind who would have me. Sad as it is, this lifestyle, i.e., bars and rampant sex, is the prize of our liberation to many people."

In the same letter, he wrote: “I flash on Germany in 1933. The leader of the

Homosexual Institute had been murdered, Gays were being rounded up, never to be seen again. It can happen that quickly, yet these fools around me think that they are safe. AIDS is the visible enemy, what that disease is doing to our credibilty is the hidden and more lethal foe, I am afraid.”

Russell assumes his middle name, "Denver," as part of an awakening within himself an awakening which also leads him to explore S & M. To address Lydia's concerns, he wrote: "People do not get into S & M to slowly kill themselves, nor do they get into it when they think they might die. If this were the case, they would proposition a Hell's Angel rather than a person dressed as one. In this way, Freud was wrong. It's not supposed to be healthy or make you accept the inherent goodness of yourself. It is merely the way to function if you have been made to feel rotten about your sexuality."

Stux says the letters were a mirror through which she saw herself. The same is true of the gay community at the genesis of the AIDS crisis, which is why Imagine That should take its place as required reading for every student of gay history. The letters speak for themselves and do not need additional commentary. They speak to our curiosities, faults, celebrations, love, sex, politics, and the many complexities that make up our lives.

Russell Denver Harold died July 27, 1995 at the age of 41. Thanks to his friend who compiled his words into this book, his voice is now preseved forever.

Lydia Stux will be at Borders Books in Fairlawn, at I-77 and Ohio 18, to discuss the book with the gay and lesbian reading group Sunday June 13 at 4 pm. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend. ✔

Lydia Stux and Russell Denver Harold

"My family was delighted Russell was my friend. I had self-interests, too. He had a car and his own apartment, and because he was gay, he was a

safer choice than high school

boys."