Little Squirrels Can Climb Tall Trees by Michael Murphy (namjoon book recommendations txt) 📕

me! Excuse me!” she said. “I see that the last speaker is about to leave the room, and I just wanted to say something to him before he left. Young man, thank you for sharing your message. It moved me to tears. You’re right that Christ was the gentle shepherd, and he would indeed be embarrassed and ashamed of us. Thank you, whoever you are.”

The applause around the room returned a little stronger this time. Another person approached the microphone and started speaking without waiting to be recognized. Apparently Kyle wasn’t the only child dragged to the event tonight. The woman speaking didn’t identify herself. “I’m here tonight with my mother. I’ve been sitting here listening to you speak,” she said to the man on stage, “and I’ve been feeling so angry!”

“As you should!” the speaker tried to say.

“At you!” she yelled at the stage, raising her hand and pointing. “At you for spreading lies and spewing hatred. You’re telling people that it’s okay, that it’s proper, to hate others—to hate me! I’m one of those people. I’m a daughter. I have a mother, sitting right here in this room tonight. You all look real close. You see me? There are millions more just like me out there. Probably in your own families too. Every gay child has parents. We don’t just appear out of thin air by magic. And I think it’s about time we all start fighting back. I think that the days of you walking all over us, of beating us in the street, are over! Tonight we start to fight back!” Pointing at the man, she said, “And you. You want to talk hate, then you haul your skinny ass down here and we’ll have this conversation. Right here, right now! And honey, let me tell you—you don’t want to piss me off any more than you already have.”

The man on the stage knew that he’d lost his audience, even if the audience didn’t know what to do. Even though the current speaker absolutely did not need any assistance—no, she was doing a bang-up job all on her own—Kyle stopped his exit and walked over to the woman as she stood alone at the microphone. He reached out his hand and grabbed hers, raised his other hand into the air, and added his voice. “Tonight we fight back: We will not go quietly into the night, we will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive—today we celebrate our Independence Day!” Kyle was secretly delighted that he had found an occasion to use his favorite lines from Independence Day, a movie that Joseph had shown him just a few days earlier.

The audience applauded, for the emotion if nothing else. Not everyone knew what was going on. Some were appalled, especially the event organizers, who wanted nothing more than to drop Kyle and the woman beside him into a big hole and close it up afterward. But the two stood their ground, raised their angry fists into the air, and spurred on the applause. “For all the children who can’t speak!” she shouted.

“For all the sons and daughters! For all of your sons and daughters and sisters and brothers!” Kyle yelled.

And as quickly as it started, there was nothing more for them to say. Dozens of conversations started up around the room. Still riding on the emotion of the moment, Kyle gave the woman a hug and then said to her, “Hi, I’m Kyle.”

“Veronica. Pleased to meet you.”

“You’re good!”

“I wouldn’t have said anything if you hadn’t started it by saying what you did. We made a good tag team. Too bad you’re not a dyke or I’d be in love!”

“No, my boyfriend wouldn’t like it if I was a dyke.” They exchanged contact information and agreed to meet for coffee later in the week. The gathering was breaking up, and Kyle needed to say good night to his mother, not at all sure what her reaction was going to be.

He didn’t have to go searching for her, because she found him. “You spoke good, son. What’s made you start speaking up for the gays like that?”

“It’s not ‘the gays’, Mama. It’s me. I’m gay. I’ve been gay my whole life. I was born gay just like I was born tall. I have a wonderful boyfriend who loves me. We live together, and I plan to live the rest of my life with him. I love him dearly. It hurts me deeply, Mama, that you don’t know me at all. But I want to correct that, so I’m telling you a little about who I really am.”

“Don’t say such things!” she scolded him.

“It’s the truth.”

“It’s that man you had me meet last night, isn’t it? He’s the one who’s filling your head with all these lies! Leading you into sin!”

“You didn’t hear a word I said tonight, did you?”

“I heard every word you said.”

“Well, you go think about what I said.” He leaned over, kissed his mother, and said, “Love you, Mama. Sleep well. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Kyle was so wound up that when he got outside the hotel, he didn’t get into a cab but simply started walking home. Partway there he broke into a run, even though his dress shoes were absolutely not meant for running and they in fact hurt his feet.

WHEN he got to the apartment door, he was still breathing hard, and his face was flushed from the cool air in which he’d run. The sound of the key in the lock brought me up off the couch to greet him and to see how the evening had gone. I was surprised by the look on his face when he came into the apartment.

“You okay?” I asked in concern as I saw Kyle breathing hard.

“I’m better than okay. I am an awesome man!”

I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a big hug. “That’s my man! But I didn’t think you’d be in this