密歇根新闻广播 为LGBT站台的民众

Ruth Ellis was one of the oldest openly gay black women in the world when she died at 101 years old in 2000. She was born in 1899, 36 years after the Emancipation¹ Proclamation went into effect, and 15 years before the First World War started.

This was a time when our country was hostile to women, black people, and gay people. Ellis just happened to be all three.

She moved to Detroit in 1937 with her partner Ceciline “Babe” Franklin. The couple wanted to make things better for other LGBTQ people, so they used their home as a safe space for black gay people.

Kofi Adoma, a longtime friend of Ellis, says Ellis inspired many black LGBTQ people to be themselves.

“If she can do it, and be happy and live a good life, why not us,” Adoma said.

Adoma and Ellis instantly bonded² over being black lesbians with a passion for classical music and activism.

Adoma says Ellis went her way to help LGBTQ youth, especially the ones who were black.

“Because often times when these youth come out to say their parents, their relatives and loved ones the family might not necessarily be accepting and in fact might be rejecting,” she said.

A University of Chicago study estimates that up to 40 percent of youth experiencing homelessness are from the LGBTQ community.

That’s why Adoma co-founded the Ruth Ellis Center in Highland³ Park. Before it opened, there weren’t many organizations to keep those young people safe. Adoma says LGBTQ teens are a very vulnerable group of people.

“That’s what we try to teach some of the kids at the Ruth Ellis Center also. Be who you are, love yourself, respect yourself, and at the same time realize that you still live in a society that has yet to embrace our existence unfortunately,” she said.

The Center first opened in 1999 on the border of Detroit and Highland Park in a small building next to strip club. It was across from Palmer Park, where a lot of gay youth hung out and where some fell into sex work, or found themselves in unsafe situations. The center has since moved to a bigger building down the street in Highland Park.

I’sha Schultz-Spradlin, the Community Engagement Manager at the Ruth Ellis Center, says the center’s mission of caring for LGBTQ youth inspired her to leave her home on the East Coast.

“I moved from Pennsylvania all the way to Detroit to work for this organization because there is no organization doing the work that they do,” Schultz-Spradlin said.

That work includes housing and feeding homeless LGBTQ youth, and connecting those same young people with jobs and health services.

Places designed to help LGBTQ people, let alone LGBTQ people of color, didn’t exist for most of Ellis’ life. In fact, a lot of the women who looked up to Ruth didn’t know any other elderly lesbians.

Sarah Uhle, a longtime friend of Ellis, says she looks at Ellis as a grandmother substitute.

“All of my grandparents died relatively⁴ young, so I looked at Ruth like the grandmother I wanted to have in my life,” Uhle said.

Uhle and Ellis often went to music festivals and concerts together, most notably⁵ the Annual Michigan Womyn’s Music festival, which has since ended.

“She was even better than a natural grandmother because she was a lesbian, so that was another way we could bond,” she said.

Uhle, who is a lesbian, met Ellis at a self-defense class when she was living in Detroit. Uhle was in her 30’s and Ellis was in her 80’s.

Uhle is older now, and living in East Lansing. She sits on her friend’s daybed flipping⁶ through pictures of Ellis.

“This is a fairly famous one of Ruth at her printing press. And this is Ruth and Kofi. Kofi always played her violin for Ruth at a birthday party,” she said.

Uhle and Adoma both say Ellis was happy when she found out they’d name the center after her.

Schultz-Spradlin thinks Ellis would be overwhelmed to see it now. After all, helping⁷ other LGBTQ people live long and happy lives is all Ellis ever wanted.

1 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

3 highland   

n.(pl.)高地，山地

参考例句：

• The highland game is part of Scotland's cultural heritage.苏格兰高地游戏是苏格兰文化遗产的一部分。
• The highland forests where few hunters venture have long been the bear's sanctuary.这片只有少数猎人涉险的高山森林，一直都是黑熊的避难所。

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

6 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。