ON THE THIRD FLOOR OF THE downtown library, my world began to open up. It was in the gay and lesbian literature section that I began to reclaim my life. I would spend nights alone, sitting on the floor reading coming out stories, sections of fiction, gay and lesbian history, and anything else I could find. Those nights on the third floor, alone on the cold cement floor, were where I took my first breaths of life. It was where I discovered that I would survive. It was literature and literacy that helped save my life.
William DeJean (2001)
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