After 15 years in women’s prison, I realized I was a lesbian
When I arrived at Virginia’s Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in 2003, carrying a 603-year prison bid for murdering my husband and the trauma of a nightmarish marriage and its apocalyptic conclusion, romance was the last thing on my mind. Growing up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I had no memory of ever meeting a gay person. The only public acknowledgment of homosexuality I remember was the occasional sneered “faggot!” hurled by the guys in my high school who passed footballs, not classes. My relationships with men were as uncomfortable as ill-fitting shoes. Still, I ended up checking all the boxes: marriage, […]