Claudia Brenner knew that being a lesbian could subject her to discrimination-what she didn't know was that it could get her killed. The harsh reality became apparent one day in May, 1988, as Brenner and her lover of three years, Rebecca Wight, were attacked while hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. Brenner survived the shooting by a homophobic stalker; Wight did not.
Brenner will talk about her ordeal on Tuesday, April 8, at 8:00 p.m. in the Clark Lounge of Egbert Hall at Ithaca College. Her lecture, "Surviving Anti-Gay Violence," is free and open to the public.
An Ithaca-area architect, Brenner has shared her account of the attack and its aftermath in a book, Eight Bullets: One Woman's Story of Surviving Anti-Gay Violence, and in lectures across the country. Her talk at Ithaca College is sponsored by the Ithaca College Rape Awareness Committee and Created Equal.
The man who shot Brenner and Wight-for no other reason than that they were lesbians-was caught, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Brenner uses her presentations not only to put a human face on the cold statistics of hate violence, but also to validate the power of networking, community, and family in surviving such violence.
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