ProgressiveU.org – By SmellyCat-13
…
When he was six years old, Richard Bear discovered something about himself.
He was at a summer camp. On the boys side of the camp, he was severely abused by his campmates. His mother – who worked at the camp – brought him over to stay in the women’s lodge. While he lay in bed that night, he watched the shadows on the ceiling cast from the next room. The were shadows of gracefully moving women folding clothing. He heard soft, gentle voices. It was such a gentle and comforting sound, like soft singing lullabies. After spending a painful day with the guttural growls of boys who harassed and tormented him mercilessly, this sound was like another language.
“I realized that this was my language. Some how, some kind of mistake had been made,” said Richard Bear, who now goes by the name of Risa and works as a researcher at the U of O Knight Library.