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“May we, the citizens of Bangor, continue to change the world around us until hatred becomes peacemaking and ignorance becomes understanding.”
That is the charge left to all of us, etched in stone on the memorial to Charlie Howard next to the Kenduskeag Stream. It has now been 40 years since Howard, then 23, was killed in a hateful attack by three teenagers.
They threw him into the stream because he was gay, despite his pleas for help and that he could not swim. He drowned, and his tragic death sent waves of shock, reflection and ultimately action from Bangor to the state capitol and beyond. His death showed people the worst depths of discrimination, the hopeful power of tolerance, and the strength of the resolve from those committed to making sure that others would not share this same painful fate.
Members of the Bangor community will mark the 40th anniversary of Howard’s death on Sunday with processions from Hammond Street Congregational Church and the Unitarian Universalist Society to Howard’s memorial downtown next to the Kenduskeag. The crowd is expected to gather at the memorial at 11:30 a.m. for speeches, and then to move to The Stage Door at Penobscot Theatre Co. for additional reflection.
“We’re on the map because of what happened to Charlie,” Orion Tucker, director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging for the Health Equity Alliance, told the Bangor Daily News earlier this week. The alliance is one of the groups organizing Sunday’s events. “How can we change the perception? How can we come together to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again in our community?”
These are questions we must always ask ourselves. Howard should be here with us today, a 63-year-old man continuing to live openly and joyously as himself. Hatred robbed him of that future, and for those of us still here, the mission of changing hatred to peacemaking and ignorance to understanding remains a constant imperative. For while Maine and the nation have made some strides in the past 40 years on LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion, perspectives and organized efforts persist that would turn back the clock to a more hateful and exclusionary time.
The same hate that killed Howard, while thankfully less pervasive in our society now, has not been completely extinguished from the American heart. Echoes of it are sadly on display with efforts to rollback LGBTQ+ protections and inclusive policies, particularly related to transgender rights. It must be continually repudiated.
A look into the BDN archives can transport us back in time, with photos from events around the time of Howard’s death. One such photo from July 9, 1984 — two days after Howard was killed — captures a vigil held at the Unitarian Church on Union Street where Howard was a member. “When will the hate end” asks one sign held by a participant. We’re not sure the hate will ever end, at least entirely. The ever-necessary work to extinguish it requires the continued love, and advocacy, from those who would make a more tolerant and equitable world in Howard’s name.
Change is hard and sometimes glacial in its pace, but it is possible.
Institutions and public sentiment, just like hearts and minds, can continue to evolve over time. Another look into the BDN archives, for example, would reveal a July 14, 1984, editorial from this paper that equates a push for gay rights legislation after Howard was killed as “using his tragic death as an excuse to pass laws that will single out the homosexual population for special treatment.”
Forty years later, the current editorial board would respectfully but forcefully stress that equal treatment is not special treatment. Efforts to secure the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ Mainers and Americans remain necessary. The same hatred that led three young men to throw Howard off a bridge still shows its ugly head from time to time. All of us must remain committed to meeting that hatred with peacemaking, as the Howard memorial asks of us, and we must always work to turn ignorance into understanding.