Re: “Once Homeless, Stephen Marshall Is Now an Advocate”

Katie's article has been praised to me and the work I do has acquired a new standing. I have been recognized and shown more respect. For this I cannot complain.

But the article left out the entire reason I contacted Seven Days. I want the community to know that when I voted, the registration I had submitted to the city used my camp address as my physical address. A comment to me on Facebook informed me that approving homeless people in this way is common and supported by the City. So I am not the first or the last, but I didn't know it could be done and the homeless in general do not know. I intended to set an example, and that is what I want Seven Days to tell the world. The homeless are members of the community, and the homeless are dignified, by the right to vote, in our community.

Of the numerous details which were off-mark, in Katie's article, that one which troubled me implied that I had lost my marriage due to a domestic assault. I am deeply ashamed of what I did, and more ashamed by the suggestion that I was so abusive that my wife left me. But no, the marriage had already ended, and the mistake in reporting doesn't convey the pain on both sides, that I was trying to escape that relationship, or that I did not have the egregious intent to control or terrorize my partner, usually associated with violence, all of which I abhor. I offered to Katie that I had had this conviction, knowing that it is an important point in my life, and an important story for me to tell, not expecting I would have to rebut a casual and wrong inference. Katie, please be more careful.