‘The Horseman’s Tale’: A Tale of Self-acceptance And Advocacy For Others

Self-acceptance is not something that comes easily, especially when there is stigma, shame and negative societal views surrounding your identity. For LGBTQ+ people, our identities are always a topic of debate and stigma, making self-acceptance a difficult journey.

Whether it’s religion, government or family, there’s a cause for self-repression making us feel like our identities are wrong and should be hidden. LGBTQ+ people always need to advocate for ourselves, but having allies advocating with us makes it stronger.

Tom Equels explores struggles faced by many people today, including self-repression of LGBTQ+ identities, mental health and civil rights in his debut novel “The Horseman’s Tale.” The story, set in the 1960s, follows the main character, Jake Montgomery, a bisexual man and veteran, who learns to embrace his authentic self in a world demanding silence.

Equels, a Vietnam veteran and renowned civil rights attorney, started writing the book after a critical horse-riding accident in 2022. He was inspired by his experience watching the “State of Hate” special on CNN, a program about resurgences of discrimination and prejudice, and seeing a commercial about the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Although Equels wasn’t in the Marine Corps, this commercial became the inspiration behind the book. The commercial discussed compensation and claims for people stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1950s through 1980s due to water contamination that may have caused cancer, death and birth defects.

“I sort of start the book out with this retired Marine Corps veteran sitting in his recliner having a whiskey and that’s when he realizes for the first time that his child who died 40 something years earlier from severe birth defects and his wife who died a year or so before from liver cancer probably died because of this water contamination at Camp Lejeune, and he blows up,” Equels says.

Jake, the protagonist, goes through his self-acceptance journey following his relationship with a guy and a girl at the stable where he worked. After separating during his military career, they reconnected in the 1980s during the AIDS pandemic, being among the first ones affected in Paris. He comes to realize what he’s given up trying to live his life in the way he was expected to.

“Part of this story is about the effects of when you suppress your true self in order to comply with parental, societal, cultural, religious and legal requirements. There’s a part of you that can get lost, and that act of suppression, the fact that you have to hide who you are… it creates a psychological imbalance,” Equels says.

As LGBTQ+ identities are continuously targeted, it’s important for us to not only stand up but also to seek support from allies and communities around us. He says one example of this is the 2016 rally and motorcycle memorial procession he helped organize in honor of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Those that came together were not just gay, not just liberal, but people of all backgrounds coming together to stand up for what’s right.

The book is meant to send a message of hope but also a warning that a failure to act now will result in reversion, which is bad for everyone but especially those traditionally victimized, Equels says.

“These are the kinds of things that if you just say, ‘Oh, you can’t do this or this is wrong,’ people can reject it, but if they read a story and they can connect and empathize with the characters and what they’re going through, maybe they see it differently,” Equels says.

The book is not only meant for people to learn to be accepting of others, but first and foremost to accept themselves, Equels says. Who we are is an evolving, fluid thing that we need to learn to identify, accept and respect.

“My true nature when I was 15 is not the same as when I was 25, and God knows it’s not the same as when I’m 73,” Equels says. “Respect the fact that others differ and are divergent from who we are, but more importantly, respect the fact that the integrity of who we are requires paramount respect … My destiny is based upon who I am, who I truly am. When you accept that, your life changes.”

Tom Equels’ debut novel, “The Horseman’s Tale,” is available everywhere books are sold. For more information, visit thehorsemanstale.com or follow Tom on social media. You can find him @Author.Tom.Equels (on Facebook), @TomEquels (on Instagram) or @Tom-Equels (on LinkedIn).