Suspend your disbelief for this column, and imagine a special place with me. This place is called Summersville.
In Summersville, the boys date boys and the girls date girls. In Summersville, men are in love with men, and women are in love with women. High school guys take their boyfriends to the prom, and the girls take their girlfriends to "lovers point."
On the radio, the love songs are of two guys holding hands along the river, and making love under the stars. As a girl matures during puberty, she starts to notice the soft delicate bodies of the other girls. Butterflies fill her stomach when a girl touches her breast, or kisses her back.
Everything was going swimmingly in Summersville, until Curtis Vals entered high school.
Curtis was the star tennis player in middle school and loved to collect baseball cards.
As Curtis began to mature, his love for baseball cards changed into a love for relationships. And on a hot Sunday afternoon, in the same park where he hit his first home run, Curtis fell in love.
Everybody thought he would end up with John Crawford, but instead he fell in love with Jennifer Bishop.
Only Beth, Curtis's best friend, knew of their love. As far as the town was concerned, John and Curtis were an inseparable couple. Curtis and John went to all the school dances together, and they always ate lunch with each other in the school cafeteria.
Curtis liked John, but his thoughts were always of Jennifer. He loved her face and her hair. He loved when Jennifer would kiss his neck, or rub his chest.
Curtis and Jennifer spent hours talking of their eternal love for each other, and on Saturday mornings they had sex under the football bleachers.
Unfortunately, Curtis and Jennifer lived in Summersville -- where heterosexual love was forbidden.
They couldn't be seen holding hands in the park or eating lunch together at school. They couldn't go to the movies together on a Saturday night, and they certainly couldn't kiss each other in the school hallways.
Over time, Curtis's love for Jennifer grew to the point of craziness. He was not allowed to be with her, but he couldn't be without her. Curtis wanted to run to the highest hilltop and yell -- "I am in love Jennifer Bishop!" But he would be ostracized at school and most likely be taken to counseling for his "illness."
Curtis did not know how he loved Jennifer, he just did. He didn't know why his stomach fell or his heart stopped every time she was around -- it just did.
He liked men like all the other guys, but his true feelings and his true love was for Jennifer.Curtis wanted to tell his family about Jennifer, but they would only yell at him and give him a lecture on "real" love. And if that didn't work, they would start to blame themselves for their son's "immorality."
Finally, on a hot Sunday afternoon, in the same place where he kissed Jennifer for the first time, Curtis killed himself with his father's gun. He could no longer live in a heterophobic world.
Jennifer graduating from high school and married Sara Folsom from next door. Jennifer wasn't lying when she told Sara that she loved her. However, her heart always knew the real truth.
Gays and lesbians account for over 45 percent of teenage suicides in this country. In many towns across the U.S., a queer teenager has no role models to talk to, and no mediums to express their love. They are silenced and ignored because of a useless and stupid fear.
Thirty years ago, when a gay man was beaten to death, the queer community would hide in fear. Today, gays and lesbians can no longer afford to hide.
Today, gays and lesbians are building strong communities for each other and their families.
Today, gays and lesbians are running to the highest mountains to yell their love. If Curtis Vals could have done that, perhaps he wouldn't be dead.
