Holding Hands

"Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is."
- Maxim Gorky

Even though holding hands is such an innocent and affectionate gesture, it can still inspire great amounts of intolerance and hate. I've been spat at and had insults hurled at me, simply for holding hands with another man while walking together on the street. I've often had to question whether it was okay to hold hands with someone, out of fear of what might happen in the wrong neighborhood. In most places today in Manhattan, I can walk hand in hand with another man and not feel strange about it, but that is not the case everywhere in the country, and it wasn’t always the case here. Some gay couples in the 1970’s were even arrested for holding hands in public in the West Village. Through decades of hard work and perseverance, members of the LGBT community have made it safer for same-sex couples to hold hands, but only in safe enclaves such as Manhattan. It is my hope that through the continuing fight for equality it will always be okay to hold the hand of the one you love, no matter where you are.

Writer/Illustrator - Evan Turk - Manhattan, New York
http://evanturk.com