Still GREAT writing, David...keep it up. Will look forward
to further chapters. Thanks for a good read.
**************************************************************************
It brought back memories of what happened to friends of mine at university,
brought about by rumor only. A guy tried to put the make on another, and
when spurned, started rumors that spread and went beyond the students.
It cam to the attention of a very prudish faculty member who brought it
before the Dean of Men.
More than 10 innocent (some straight, some gay or thought to be gay) men
were caught up in the turmoil that followed, including a Fine Arts professor,
an Engineering professor, a local merchant, and a Campus Police officer.
Although all were eventually found innocent because nothing could ever be
substantiated, except for the one that started it all...he was expelled. One
of the men, who was married, committed suicide. I am sure that all those
lives and reputations were never the same, and probably a dark cloud of
suspicion followed them wherever they went. A good reputation is hard to
recover after being so tarnished...and especially in the 1950s when it had
anything to do with sex or homosexuality.
Remember, it was the time of "McCarthyism." It was the time of the "Red
Scare" hunt for "Communists", and the "Lavender Scare" witch hunt for
Homosexuals.