You Can Kill a Man - Just Don't Love Him
Emille Griffith was a middleweight boxing champ about the time some mop top group wanted to hold our hands, Mick and Keith released their debut album and Cuba cut off normal water supplies to the states.
It was around this time that Emille Griffith battered his boxing opponent so savagely that Benny Paret died ten days after the match. So what?
It seems as though Benny had used some homophobic slurs during the fighters' weigh in session.
Emille discusses his feelings in a new book:
Nine...Ten...And Out! The Two Lives of Emille Griffith.
"I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life."
Prison - the steel or imagined bars that hold so many. I've lived out for so long I couldn't recall how that feels until a recent incident where I denied who I was by omission. That was just one tiny little incident, but this site would not be without it. I can't imagine living the whole of my life with that icky I need a shower sensation because of how the world defines me with its slurs, punchlines and stereotypes. Coming out can be the kryptonite to bias and hate. At the very least, it can rid oneself of that sticky layer of self loathing.
But as long as some in the world believe it's okay to kill a man for sport but not love him, there will always be those of us living two lives.
It was around this time that Emille Griffith battered his boxing opponent so savagely that Benny Paret died ten days after the match. So what?
It seems as though Benny had used some homophobic slurs during the fighters' weigh in session.
Emille discusses his feelings in a new book:
Nine...Ten...And Out! The Two Lives of Emille Griffith.
"I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life."
Prison - the steel or imagined bars that hold so many. I've lived out for so long I couldn't recall how that feels until a recent incident where I denied who I was by omission. That was just one tiny little incident, but this site would not be without it. I can't imagine living the whole of my life with that icky I need a shower sensation because of how the world defines me with its slurs, punchlines and stereotypes. Coming out can be the kryptonite to bias and hate. At the very least, it can rid oneself of that sticky layer of self loathing.
But as long as some in the world believe it's okay to kill a man for sport but not love him, there will always be those of us living two lives.
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