In 2001, therefore, I reorganized my materials and brought them up to date. My lifelong bad back meanwhile had worsened, and so I could now only write horizontally on yellow legal pads—always my method of choice.

The versatile filmmaker, Chris Brown, now had to take dictation on the computer, and we worked together on shaping and finishing the book, again with Eleanor Gerould's help. My dedication of this book to Chris does not begin to convey my indebtedness to him.

Transferring the memoir to my own Web site has been the work of two other professionals: Max Mische, a graduate student of mine at San Francisco State University and old friend from the '70s; and Dana Shanberg, a Web designer and co-owner of DES Designs. These two prepared the manuscript for the Web with expert and intuitive skill. I could never have completed this book without the priceless aid of all of these expert assistants. Our collaboration has been remarkably tension-free and greatly pleasurable. The fact that three of us are old and dear friends has made the entire process especially meaningful for me.

The unique conference at Smith College in February 2003, at which some of this material appeared, gave me the final motivation to complete this project. Without Helen Bacon, Dan Horowitz, Marilyn Schuster, John Davis of the Smith faculty, I could not have been inspired to complete my work. Throughout this process, they gave me great support. The speech that opens my book also appeared in the spring 2003 issue of the Gay & Lesbian Review, an edition devoted to witch hunts.

The many excellent speeches delivered at the Smith College conference make it dangerously clear that the injustices committed against minorities are becoming more systematic and invasive. The Bush administration has multiplied the means of spying on its own citizens. Civil rights are indivisible, and we are all at risk.