Faces of Pride

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Witness to History

On Monday, I had the distinct honor and priviledge to attend the opening session of the 86th General Assemby and see Kathy Webb be sworn in as a member of the Arkansas House of Representative. My heart swelled with pride as Kathy told us about her thoughts when she and her partner, Nancy ascended the steps into the House chamber, "This has never happened before!" I ran into the parents of my childhood friend, Representative Will Bond of Jacksonville and got to meet Representative Gene Shelby, an HIV doctor in Hot Springs and his delightful new wife, Ferriday (spelling?) I joined Donna Marie and Faith of the Northwest Arkansas GLBT Community Center at the event. Donna and Faith were our guests this weekend and I can not rave enough about their wonderful spirit and class. We had a truly magical weekend together. On Friday, we met at Sidetracks and had the chance to chat with Shon and James of The Pink Spectrum and owner Phillip, then we headed over to the DSRA clubhouse where we were guests for their meeting and social. We had a wonderful time meeting with President Lou Rushing, Rodeo Director Dusty West and the rest of the great people of DSRA. I am very much looking forward to working with and learning from these great folks. We also met up with LRCP Entertainment Chair (and new Board Secretary) Julie Byrom and her wife, Beth and afterwards headed over to Club UBU for more fun and frivolity. On Saturday we had brunch at Satellite Cafe (FABULOUS restaurant and lots of eye candy) where I got to meet Terry and chat him up about Capital Pride. I am glad to say that they went from not knowing about our event to wanting to help us out! After brunch we had the January meeting of LRCP (my first as president) and it was remarkable. In addition to Donna and Faith we were joined by Joanie (also of NWA GLBT CC) and Randi Romo of CAR. I am very excited to see the community building we are experiencing and proud of LRCP's committment towards that end (the group will be helping to sponsor The Queer Coalition conference in February--- more to come in a following post). After the meeting we had dinner with Fundraising Chair and new board member, Kamrin Dodd, and headed over to Easy Streets where we met owner, Michael and got to meet the Mob Kings! I can't wait to see them perform as I have heard rave reviews. We capped off the night at Sidetracks and had a blast. I keep telling Donna and Faith that there is something magical about having them around as they attract some of the most interesting people everywhere we went. I rested on Sunday and after the opening session on Monday we had lunch at Kathy's restaurant, Lily's Dim Sum and then some (once again FABULOUS restaurant!) and I had to say good-bye to my new great friends. Donna and Faith, thank you for the incredible weekend and for your wonderful kindrid spirits--- I look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Weekend events

I wanted to promote a couple of events that I will be attending this weekend and encourage anyone interested to join in. I am SO excited to be meeting Donna and Faith from the Northwest Arkansas GLBT Community Center tomorrow as I have been chatting with them for the past couple of months and can tell they are "good people".

DSRA MEETING (re-posted from DSRA Yahoo! group)
As Rodeo Director for 2007 Rodeo In The Rock, I want to invite all of you to attend a Rodeo meeting at the DSRA Clubhouse on Friday, January 5th. The meeting will start at 7:00pm with snacks available and a social right after the meeting.

Some of the topics we will be discussing are:

Finalize Hotel
Finalize Poster Contest
Finalize Party Venues
Nominate candidates for Grand Marshall and vote to finalize
Nominate Charities and vote to finalize

There will also be discussing issues like volunteers, buckle sponsors, fairgrounds, IGRA University, vendors, etc.

If you are unable to attend but would like to submit your recommendations or comments, please send an email to dusty.west@sbcglobal.net prior to Friday evening so that I may bring them up at the meeting.
Dusty West


LRCP meeting

I would like to remind everyone that we will have our next meeting of LRCP this Saturday at 3 pm at Central Arkansas Library, Main Branch at 100 Rock Street (Friborough Room, second floor). Also, we will be hosting some very special guests. I received confirmation today from Donna Marie, President of the Northwest Arkansas GLBT Community Center that they will be joining us for the meeting. I invite everyone to come out and meet our friends and hear about the exciting work that they are doing in their corner of the state. We will also be showing a short film, "Prides in Conflict" after the meeting. We look forward to seeing everyone there!