Tats

We have a very sick and frail sister in our lives that just got tattoo work around her eyes as years of chemo have taken their toll. I took "before" and "after" pictures today. Still some swelling in the "after" picture, but she feels like a princess. That's all that matters. Thought I'd share her joy.

Before:


After:

Feel like hell and look good, U Go Girl!

Hillary in my Rear View Mirror

On April 3rd, a squall line containing tornadoes struck Arkansas. Driving near Hope, Arkansas the next day, I sadly watched half my Hillary sticker flapping in the wind. A moment captured on this brief video:

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:


Part 3:


Part 4:
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Part 5:


Part 6: