Hadrian's Rage

Patricia Marie Budd

Hadrian’s Rage
is dedicated to Vladislav Tornovoi who was raped with beer bottles, tortured, and murdered by two of his friends on Friday, May 10, 2013 in Volgograd, Russia after coming out to them as gay. The world must never forget the violence committed against this young man.
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I also wish to dedicate
Hadrian’s Rage
to my LGBTI students: in particular my Safe Zone students. Regardless of the daily prejudices thrown your way, you have found the inner strength to be you. You are my inspiration.

#pmb

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http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/05/13/russia-identity
-of-man-killed-and-raped-with-beer-bottles-revealed/

My initial editing team: William Chappell III and Brindusa-Katalin Poenaru. Your personal responses to what I have written were instrumental in the birth of a new novel.

Robert Wilson, as with
A New Dawn Rising
, your keen eye and editing advice have helped make my fourth dream,
Hadrian’s Rage
, possible.

Co-Administrators for
Hadrian’s Lover
’s Facebook Page: Allan De Vuyst, James Duncan, Blueyed Angel, and Bartley P. Busse (the hidden admin who sends me links to post on a regular basis).

Garet McKenzie Deusenberry for sharing her story and what it is like to be a transgendered female.

Cody-Liam Blake for reading through chapters that included or referred to transgendered persons.

Christine Marie Scott, your unwavering support and endless fountain of advice have been one of the greatest gifts given to me in this life.

My sister, Michelle Gavigan, for her continued unconditional love and support.

My loving parents, Edith Marie Gavigan (1920–2014) and Keith Jerome Gavigan (1916–2002), who raised me to love and respect all persons!

Most importantly, my husband, Simon John Budd, the man who gives me the strength to write and the will never to give up on myself.

“The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me: thou art so far before

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,

That the proportion both of thanks and payment

Might have been mine! only I have left to say,

More is thy due than more than all can pay.”

— William Shakespeare
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1
Macbeth
, Act I, scene iv, lines 294-300. OpenSourceShakespeare. Retrieved from:
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.
org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID
=macbeth&Act=1&Scene=4&Scope=scene
. Retrieved on: August 16, 2015.

When I wrote
Hadrian's Lover
, I created a parallel world to illustrate what happens when an individual's sexual awakenings and sexual exploration go against societal norms and the impact this has on our youth. With
Hadrian's Rage
, I was inspired to develop further that parallel by illustrating the heinous hate crimes committed against the LGBTI
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community on a global scale. Many chapters have been inspired by very specific acts of hate committed across the globe. Whenever you come across a footnote, click on the live link (or type in the url) and read about the horrors we put our LGBTI brothers and sisters through on a regular basis.
Hadrian's Rage
was sadly inspired by all of this hate.

Please visit my Victims of Hate album on
Hadrian's Lover
Facebook Page and observe a moment of silence to honor those who have suffered most cruelly under the real abomination: HATE.

https://www.facebook.com/HadriansLover/
photos/a.533170636810518/533171296810452/?type=3&theater

For more information on the victims of anti-LGBTI hate, go to Erasing 76 Crimes Blog: 1000s who died in anti-gay, anti-trans attacks:

http://76crimes.com/100s-die-in-homophobic-anti-gay-attacks-statistics-updates/

Disclaimer: I cannot be held accountable for non-functioning website links that may change in the future.

#pmb

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LGBTI: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex.

Hadrian’s Rage
is written as a sequel to my previous novel
Hadrian’s Lover
. In case you haven’t read that novel or have not read it recently, let me catch you up on the story.

Hadrian’s Lover
opens on the fiftieth anniversary of the country of Hadrian’s founding. Its citizens are reminded through
Salve!
, the nation’s news agency, why the founding of Hadrian was so important. The world is on the brink of disaster. Overcrowded, poverty-stricken, and with starvation and disease running rampant, there is little hope left for the earth’s future. Except for the population of one country: Hadrian. Hadrian has successfully protected itself against immigration and unchecked growth, but it has taken radical and unorthodox measures to ensure its survival. An unusual and progressive law governs the land, one that prohibits heterosexual relationships and natural reproduction. While homosexuality is held up to be the moral ideal, heterosexuality is deemed to be the ultimate ill, one that has led humanity to the dire conditions it now faces. All those who break the law are subject to severe consequences: reeducation or even exile from Hadrian. Although a great majority of Hadrian’s citizens conform to these devastating rules imposed by the government, a few are unable and unwilling to adjust.

In
Hadrian’s Lover
, Todd Middleton was one such rebel. At sixteen, he has finally come to realize that his sexual orientation will never be accepted by Hadrian’s society, and in order to avoid being criminalized, he must do everything possible to keep his intimate life a secret. When Todd falls for a beautiful young woman, he is unable to hide his feelings and is quickly caught being sexually intimate with her and charged by the state for his
crime. As a juvenile, Todd is dispatched to a reeducation camp, but his confinement and his separation from the girl he loves prove to be an emotional torture. As his depression deepens, thoughts of suicide run through his head, over and over again. It will fall to Todd’s closest friend, Frank, to save his life. As his darkest hour finally passes, Todd begins to see that Frank’s intentions are not as innocent as they first appear. Even the man who loves Todd like a son, Dean Hunter, cannot save Todd from the despair created by a society that abhors him for his sexual orientation.

Hadrian’s Rage
begins not long before
Hadrian’s Lover
ends. As the Hunter family (Geoffrey, Dean, Frank, and Roger) struggle to heal the wounds incurred by Todd Middleton’s death, the country, too, is feeling a rip in the social fabric. The country of Hadrian has become polarized on the issue of sexual equality. With heterosexuals no longer fearing the threat of exile if exposed, some have dared to live openly in a world that abhors them. Anti-heterosexual laws spring up that refuse heterosexuals the right to promote their way of life to anyone under the age of twenty-one. Regardless of continued restraints being placed on the lives of those who live outside society’s sexual norms, the more conservative citizens of Hadrian feel their lives threatened by the growing acceptance of bisexuality and heterosexuality. The country is besieged with internal violence as people physically lash out at those perceived abnormal.

Crystal Albright:
Best friends with Todd Middleton and Frank Hunter, she was one of the three stars of Pride High's b-ball team, the Pride Panthers. Although she had seduced Todd Middleton and was sexually intimate with him she did nothing to defend him after they were exposed. Though she never stated the fact, she never denied her aunt's insinuation that Todd raped her.

Stephanie Chatters:
Trans woman, member of Hadrian's re-ed class. When still identifying as a man, she was Matthew Molloy's guardian at the Northwest Reeducation Facility. She had been Gideon Weller's favorite and had adopted his brutal approach.

Melissa Eagleton:
News Anchor for Hadrian's National News Service
Salve!

Sissy Hildebrand:
Jeremy Stoker's little sister; a closeted heterosexual, who runs the sheep ranch just north of the Cattle Ranch.

Dean Hunter:
Originally a member of the founding Stuttgart family; married to Geoffrey Hunter, currently separated. He is confused about his sexual orientation, though claims to be straight. He is attending Augustus Uni and is President and founder of Augustus Uni GSA.

Frank Hunter:
Geoffrey Hunter's eldest biological son; a private (penal restriction) in Hadrian's National Army.

Geoffrey
Hunter:
Dean's husband, CEO of Hadrian's National Detritus Fisheries (detritus fisheries serve Hadrian by salvaging all reusable waste from Hudson Bay as well as ecologically disposing of all toxic and non-reusable waste).

Roger Hunter:
Geoffrey Hunter's youngest biological son, attending Antinous Uni.

Todd Middleton:
A seventeen-year-old heterosexual whose death provoked change in Hadrian's sexual reform laws. After Frank Hunter's trial for Todd's murder and the trial of Gideon Weller (Warden of the Northeast Reeducation Camp) for rape and physical and emotional abuse of reeducation students, the country of Hadrian no longer exiled heterosexual men and women unless proven they participated in penile vaginal intercourse.

Matthew Molloy:
Detritus fisherman for Hunter National Detritus Fisheries; member of Hadrian's re-ed class.

Cantara Raboud:
Faial Raboud's biological daughter, heterosexual; a student attending Augustus Uni; Vice President of Augustus Uni GSA.

Faial Raboud:
Hadrian's top defense lawyer.

Devon Rankin:
Todd Middleton's old boyfriend; Roger Hunter's old boyfriend; a lieutenant in Hadrian's National Army.

Ms. Sterne:
Crystal Albright's biological aunt. Math teacher at Pride High. Also, the teacher who exposed Todd Middleton and made sure authorities suspected him of having raped Crystal.

Elena Stiles:
President of Hadrian. Her non-biological daughter, Crystal Albright, is bisexual.

Jeremy Stoker:
A closeted bisexual man, and co-owner of the historic Cattle Ranch. Geoffrey and Dean spent their second anniversary at the Cattle Ranch.

Destiny
Stuttgart:
Dean's grandmother (mimi) and the last of the founding family members living (one of five families) of the country of Hadrian.

Jason Warith:
Todd Middleton's guardian at the Northeast Reeducation Camp. Responsible for Gideon Weller's arrest. Promoted to head of Hadrian's Reeducation System.

Gideon Weller:
Former warden of the Northeast Reeducation Camp; his use of corporal punishment and taunting of young men who had had sex with women was so brutal six boys committed suicide under his watch. He was eventually charged with causing unnecessary trauma to the wards in his camp and with rape. He was found guilty of all charges and elected to drink Black Henbane rather than face exile for his crimes.