American Experience

DET. JOHN SORENSON

There may be some in this auditorium. There may be someone here today that will be homosexual in the future. There are a lot of kids here. There may be some girls that'll turn lesbian. We don't know. But it's serious; don't kid yourselves about it. They can be anywhere. They could be judges, lawyers. We ought to know, we've arrested all of them. So if any one of you have let yourself become involved with an adult homosexual or with another boy, and you're doing this on a regular basis, you better stop quick. Because one out of three of you will turn queer. And if we catch you involved with a homosexual, your parents are going to know about it first. And you will be caught. Don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. This is one thing that if you don't get caught by us, you'll be caught by yourself. And the rest of your life will be a living hell.

VIRGINIA APUZZO

I grew up with that. I grew up in a very Catholic household. And the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called a homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? Is that conceivable? And that was a very haunting issue for me. I entered the convent at 26 to pursue that question and I was convinced that I would either stay until I got an answer, or, if I didn't get an answer, just stay.