Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomon
Andrew Solomonis a writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York and London. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Travel and Leisure, and other publications on a range of subjects, including depression, Soviet artists, the cultural rebirth of Afghanistan, Libyan politics, and Deaf politics. His book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, and was included in...
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growing-up people damage
I did grow up in a household in which I felt that to be myself was to damage the people I loved.
connections deep-connections upbringing
I'd had a vaguely Jewish upbringing, but no deep connection to faith.
community target way
Any community that remains an abstraction is an easy target for prejudice and cruelty, but any community that becomes fully humanized is much harder to treat in that way.
light suffering matter
I feel, as a matter nearly of faith, that if you have known a certain amount of suffering and have emerged out of it into the light, you are obliged to share that light with as many of the still-beleaguered as possible.
meaningful children growing-up
I grew up feeling that to be gay was a tragedy. I didn't grow up thinking that it was morally wrong, but I grew up thinking that it would make me marginal, prevent me from having children, and quite possibly prevent me from having a meaningful long relationship. It seemed that this condition would leave me with a vastly reduced life.
people political young
A lot of people are very political when they are young, and then they outgrow it.
gay people stories
The more gay people can tell our stories, the more other people will accept gay people.
gay happy-life perception
What has become clear to me is that it is not the inherent nature of being gay that causes such a reduced life; it is, rather, the social circumstances around being gay: the perceptions of it and the cultural norms that it is said to violate. As some of those norms have changed, I have been able to be gay, to have a marriage, to have a family, and to have - if there is wood to knock on - a fortunate and happy life.
despair
Despair is part of love.
suicide attitude gay
I really feel that the Church leaders have blood on their hands. I feel that there are gay Mormons who have committed suicide or whose lives have been destroyed because of the attitude of the Church.
loss would-be different
If your love didn't always contain the possibility of loss, it would be very different from human love as we know it.
despair mysterious stills
Science still won't explain the mysterious nature of love and despair.
long ironic church
It seems particularly ironic that a church that at one stage, a long time ago, fought to redefine marriage should now be so opposed to these attempts to redefine marriage.
campaigns polygamy sentiments
The campaign against polygamy, around which a lot of anti-Mormon sentiment was organized, seems horrific to me.