Biting Back: Huck's AIDS record & Ryan White's Mom

I was glad to hear cooler minds than mine prevailed in response to Huckabee's 1992 AIDS & gay remarks.

Jeannie White-Ginder, Ryan White's mother, requested to meet with Huck, and he will...for the press. It's another photo-op for a candiate that's no idiot, he just plays one on TV. He likes people to underestimate him.

Anyway, the press seemed all caught up in the Wayne DuMond scandle and a few words about AIDS from 1992. As this episode revolves itself, I wanted to toss out a brief ( Two minutes!) glimpse of Huck's record on AIDS here in Arkansas.

Bite Me, Huckabee

Candidate Huckabee admits he was so confused about how HIV was transmitted in 1992 that he believed people infected with HIV should be "isolated from the rest of society." To be clear, this was not 1982, but 1992. In 1992, it was obvious HIV could not be transmitted casually. As I recall, people with AIDS addressed both the Democratic & Republican National Conventions in 1992. Guess Huckabee missed the memo. You know, the one sent out in 1985 to every American household saying HIV was not spread by casual contact.

More fresh from the ministry then, Huckabee was more than willing to kick around the sick and dying in 1992. Just to twist the knife a bit, Mike also said queers are "aberrant, unnatural, and sinful."

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Mike Huckabee was an ignorant homophobic sombitch in 1992, and went a-courtin' the "God Hates Fags" vote with vigor. As effective treatment for HIV became available in America, it was a damn hard fight to make them available in Arkansas. "Waiting Lists" were the norm here for medications under Huckabee.

If Mike Huckabee really didn't know HIV couldn't be spread by casual contact in 1992, it was the same willful ignorance that infected Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Willful ignorance (under the guise of national intelligence) also started the Iraq War. The same willful ignorance allows the words "compassionate" and "conservative" to be linked.

Like the Rev. Pat Robertson (R) before him, I hope Huckabee's political ambitions get quarantined in Iowa.

World AIDS Day '07 w/ friends at the Clinton Center

I was drawn to the Clinton Center Saturday to see the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Selfishly, I had hoped to see my former partner's panel, but I did see those of many Arkansas friends. I made a video highlighting Arkansas panels among the 200 blocks displayed:

Governor Splits Hairs; To Vote Against Anti-Gay Act

As I read my morning paper, I suddenly realized the Family Council of Arkansas' effort to ban gay & lesbian couples from serving as foster or adoptive parents is being politically reframed.

The Family Council's approved petition specifically disqualifies the unmarried. The Family Council's successful effort to constitutionally prevent gay & lesbian marriages plus this iniated act equals banning gay & lesbian couples from serving. It seemed the Family Council shifted tactics to not so openly attack gays & lesbians as unqualified unfit parents like they did pushing a similar bill in the state legislature (see YouTube).

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe (D-AR) Friday announced that he "was not going to vote for" the Family Council's iniated act because foster care is different than adoption. Foster kids, Bebee argues, are best placed with a married couple.

"Adoptions by their very nature take a lengthy period of time before they can be finalized," Beebe says.

Beebe's stance opens the door for even good church folk to oppose this initiated act without supporting the unmarried or queers. In Arkansas, that's leadership.

Also in opposition to the iniated act: Lt. Gov. Bill Halter & Attorney Genreal Dustin McDaniel.

Arkansas' Queer Frontier Revisited

Greetings. Life is good. Long time no see J

In the 1990s, I was involved with some volunteer community radio shows. Before widespread internet access, I had great compassion for young gay men and lesbians in Arkansas’ rural conservative environment. Jay Darnel, Shana Saunders, Craig Wendzl and others created a weekly gay & lesbian radio program called “The Queer Frontier.”

I did the news, and the others brought in their gay & lesbian music collections. 100,000 watts of Little Rock FM every week

I recorded the shows with a cassette recorder/radio player on cassette, and years later digitized this show. While listening a few days back, I thought of making this video (roughly an hour in 6 parts) to preserve the efforts at outreach, support, and community building in 1993, when I was 29.

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Part 2:


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Part 4:
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Part 6:

Bob & Jack's 52-year Adventure: Love Unscripted

A miserable summer cold ( allergies) stretched into its tenth day today, so I didn’t make it to Conway’s PRIDE event, though I heard good things. I also heard 18 gay and lesbian couples showed up in Eureka to register their partnerships Friday, with good coverage in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today.

I did take some time today to see the featured film at Arkansas’ 3rd Annual LGBTQ Film Festival. I saw Bob & Jack’s 52-year Adventure. It was a documentary of two gay men who’ve been together 52 years. A YouTube clip below:



The DVD will be for sale Monday at Twisted Entertainment on 7th street in Little Rock. I don’t want to give some inadequate review, except to say I’ll make the extra effort to own a copy of this to show my own family and friends. Eventually, it'll be available on the internet. Their website is: http://www.bobandjack.org/

Michael’s been in Utah for just over a week at a family reunion. I’ve missed him, and look forward to his return tomorrow.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas' Domestic Partner Registry Begins TODAY!

The Eureka Springs, Arkansas , Domestic Partnership Registry will begin Friday, June 22.
Applicants must appear in person with proof of age and the $35 registration fee in cash. Application forms are available click here .

Certificates of Registry will not be mailed to applicants.

The City Clerk's office is in the City Hall, lower level of the Western Carroll County Courthouse, 44 S. Main. Office hours are 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Application forms for Termination of Domestic Partnership Registry are available click here. The fee for registration of a termination of a registered partnership is $20 in cash.

I Miss Them Terribly: An Activist's Scrapbook

Not too long after the stroke and seizures placed my brain and memory in a fog, I found myself weeding through old files and videotapes. The little archival footprints of my life, loves, losses, and passions from what now seems a previous life were overwhelming.

As I began to use available equipment and software to train my brain to focus on projects, I created this video. It's an imperfect and horribly incomplete glimpse into one activist's very personal and sometimes public struggle. The four-part footage includes two deceased partners and many dear friends who sacrificed their final precious moments of life educating, and displays the seemingly endless cycles of grief while struggling to survive and help some folks along the way.

I Miss Them Terribly: An Activist's Scrapbook, with all its faults and flaws, follows in four parts (if I can get it embedded):

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Arkansas Gays & Lesbians Step Up to the Plate; Family Council Passes It

A letter sent to the Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette (to be published in the next few days):

More than 1 in 20 adopted Arkansas children are now living with gay or lesbian parents, the ninth highest percentage in the U.S., according to a 2007 study of Census data by the UCLA School of Law & The Urban Institute.*

Our foster care system has serious problems while hundreds of Arkansas children remain waiting not so much for "perfect" parents, but for well-screened loving responsible parents. At the same time, a 7-year fundraiser/crusade by the Family Council of Arkansas continues an effort to eliminate an entire pool of potential parents using mere myths and stereotypes to battle the credible scientific consensus that kids raised by gay parents turn out just fine.

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian Arkansas families have already stepped up to the plate, proudly adopting and parenting over 1,000 children in Arkansas, according to the study. Nearly all other states see no need to ban gays and lesbians serving as foster or adoptive parents. Where are the daily headlines of homo-horror faced by these kids in Arkansas or across America? Perhaps I missed them reading of the atrocities against children committed by heterosexual parents.

Before the Family Council petition gets passed down your pew with a collection plate, go to YouTube.com and watch the testimony from both sides of the issue. Read the findings of fact made by the Arkansas Supreme Court in DHS vs. Howard. Empower yourself to overcome these fear-based fundraisers, and put the brakes on this petition drive. Do it for the kids.

--Eric Camp
Little Rock

* Adoption and Foster Care by Gay and Lesbian Parents in the United States is available online at: :http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/publications/FinalAdoptionReport.pdf .

Arkansas Bill to Ban Gay Adoptions Dies in House Judiciary Committee: Your "YouTube" Ringside Seat

Arkansas Senate bill 959 proposed an outright ban on gays, lesbians, and cohabiting couples from serving as foster or adoptive parents. After passing through a Senate Public Health Committee, the Arkansas Senate also passed the bill.

Senate Bill 959, sponsored by State Sen. Shawn Womack (R) of Mountain Home, was assigned to the Arkansas House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee. On Tuesday, with increasingly dramatic and compelling testimony, Senate Bill 959 died in Committee. Twice.

No matter what side of the debate you're on, I think you'll learn from and enjoy the YouTube video below that I shot of the Committee testimony Tuesday. Due to YouTube's 10 minute lime limitation per video, the Committee meeting video is broken into 9 parts.

As it's now after 5am on Wednesday, let me give you a link to my myspace blog where the YouTube videos await you: http://blog.myspace.com/rimshot72205.

Let YOUR Voice be Heard TODAY

Tuesday morning at 10:30am, The Arkansas House Judiciary Committee will meet around the above table to consider State Senator Shawn Womack's bill to ban gay adoptions and foster parenting in Arkansas.

Only Florida has a law banning gay adoptions. Florida's law passed in the 1970s, during the Anita Bryant-era of gay-bashing ignorance. Florida's law does allow gay fostering, according to USA Today. In Mississippi, gay couples cannot adopt but gay singles can. Utah bans unmarried couples from adopting.

The US Supreme Court has never ruled on this issue, and it seems by crafting such a bill using an extreme combination of the laws in Florida and Utah, the efforts of the Arkansas Family Council (a step-child of Dr. Dobson's national anti-gay group, Focus on the Family) is to challenge the Court to take on the issue.

A 2005 poll of Arkansans by the University of Arkansas showed 65% of Arkansans approved of allowing a lesbian or gay man to adopt a child if the court found that person fit in all other ways to become an adoptive parent.

America's best scientific evidence shows gay or lesbian parenting works for kids needing foster or adoptive parents. We have 800 kids in Arkansas on a "waiting list."

The Arkansas Family Council's bill to reduce the pool of available foster parents based on groundless bias against gays will face its toughest hurdle yet Tuesday with House Judiciary Committee. I am deeply honored that my state representative Kathy Webb, Arkansas' first openly gay legislator, sits on this committee and will speak against the bill.

All of these voices will speak Tuesday morning, but your time to be heard is NOW. Call or email your state representative TODAY asking him or her to oppose Senate Bill 959. If you aren't sure who YOUR state representative is go to http://www.arkansas.gov/house/reps.php and find him or her using an interactive map. You can also call your county clerk's office to find out who represents you. You can call your representative today and leave a message asking him or her to oppose Senate Bill 959 by calling: 501-682-6211.

Beebe: Don't Saddle Kids with Stigma

The Saturday edition of our statewide daily newspaper gets fewer readers, which make it a more important edition to read. Sometimes you get four day old news worth noting.

Today's ArkansasDemocrat-Gazette reports the Governor said Wednesday he doesn't believe foster kids should be in "gay foster homes" because of "today's society."

Children in such homes could face social stigmas, says Beebe Spokesman Matt DeCample. While he says no child should be placed in a foster home with homosexuals, the Governor is "not prepared" to give an opinion on whether to let gays adopt.

Beebe says it "takes a while" to analyze possible constitutional problems with Senate Bill 959 and he has yet to decide if he would sign it if passed by the Arkansas House, so his loophole remains. The bill has passed the Senate.

A bill to prohibit smoking in the presence of foster kids was introduced, also intended to "protect the children." How bout smoking in the presence of any children, period? State Senator Percy Malone of Arkadelphia's bill didn't prohibit smokers from fostering, just from smoking in their presence. With 800 kids needing foster homes, we wouldn't want to eliminate all smokers as potential foster parents. As a compromise, smoking foster parents can't smoke in their presence. Fair enough?

Perhaps we can have gay foster parents if they promise not to have sex in the presence of fotster kids? Oh, that's right, despite all the evidence to the contrary, they think we're more likly to have sex with our foster kids than straight folks.