04-30-2014, 08:03 AM
Back in the early 70's, Spider and I were a young openly gay couple. True, it wasn't always easy being an openly gay couple back in those days (my own family disowned me), but we were very much in love and it was us against the world. We were living in an apartment building in Long Beach, CA in 1972. Spider was a working musician and I worked in a kitchen at a convalescent hospital. One day the cook at the hospital brought in a little solid white cat (about seven months old) that she had found abandoned near her house and she begged me to adopt the cute little guy and so I took him home to Spider.
Spider and I decided to name our new little cat Ginkmo, and Ginkmo was quite a character, energetic and quite rambunctious, running up and down our hallway, tearing up our potted plants, using the side of upholstered couch like a scratching post and sometimes stealing food off of our plates when we weren't looking! He was also super lovable and would sleep with us in our bed at night, rolling around between us and purring up a storm. We loved Ginkmo. He was our first pet as a couple, more like our first child, our furry little child who was a wild boy.
Then one afternoon we came home to find a box in front of our apartment door and scrawled on the lid of the box was the word "faggot" and when we opened the box, we discovered the body of Ginkmo inside with a noose tied around his neck. Of course, we both lost it big time. I lifted Ginkmo's lifeless body out of the box and held him next to my chest and began to cry uncontrollably. How could anyone do this to a poor defenseless annimal who's only crime was to have two gay daddies?
The following day, we buried Ginkmo out in the rose garden behind our apartment building, and the following month we moved out. Not knowing who had done this horrible thing, we no longer felt safe living there.
That was many, many years ago, but it's the kind of thing we will never get over, something that will always haunt us. To whoever did that to Ginkmo, we forgive you and we hope that you can forgive yourself, but we will never forget your cruel act. After that, we were forever changed.
Spider and I decided to name our new little cat Ginkmo, and Ginkmo was quite a character, energetic and quite rambunctious, running up and down our hallway, tearing up our potted plants, using the side of upholstered couch like a scratching post and sometimes stealing food off of our plates when we weren't looking! He was also super lovable and would sleep with us in our bed at night, rolling around between us and purring up a storm. We loved Ginkmo. He was our first pet as a couple, more like our first child, our furry little child who was a wild boy.
Then one afternoon we came home to find a box in front of our apartment door and scrawled on the lid of the box was the word "faggot" and when we opened the box, we discovered the body of Ginkmo inside with a noose tied around his neck. Of course, we both lost it big time. I lifted Ginkmo's lifeless body out of the box and held him next to my chest and began to cry uncontrollably. How could anyone do this to a poor defenseless annimal who's only crime was to have two gay daddies?
The following day, we buried Ginkmo out in the rose garden behind our apartment building, and the following month we moved out. Not knowing who had done this horrible thing, we no longer felt safe living there.
That was many, many years ago, but it's the kind of thing we will never get over, something that will always haunt us. To whoever did that to Ginkmo, we forgive you and we hope that you can forgive yourself, but we will never forget your cruel act. After that, we were forever changed.