Joe in Arkansas

SDC invites you to meet National Stonewall President on April 24

2008-04-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Please join the Arkansas Stonewall Democratic Caucus
at Democratic Party Headquarters (corner of Pulaski & Capital St in Little Rock AR)

Thursday April 24, 2008, at 6 pm

For a conversation about the work of the National Stonewall Democrats organization
with Executive Director Jon Hoadley

Refreshments will be served
Learn more about National Stonewall Democrats at www.stonewalldemocrats.org

-- For more information about the Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas, please visit our website at www.stonewallarkansas.com

Stonewall Dems to host conference call

2008-03-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

Following our monthly meeting on Thursday, March 27th, Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas will be participating in a nation-wide conference call. Our meeting is held at Democratic Party Headquarters (1300 West Capitol) and starts at 6pm (guest speaker will be Judge Alice Lightle) and the call will begin at 7pm. Please join us and the details with participating cities are as followed.....

Join leading Democrats from across the country on a nationwide conference call briefing on Thursday, March 27. Learn inside opinions on the state of the race, where pro-equality candidates are positioned to make history and tips on making your way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Most importantly, this is your opportunity to learn how Stonewall Democrats is impacting key contests in 2008.

I am excited to announce that Melissa Etheridge and Chelsea Clinton will be joining us this Thursday on our coast-to-coast conference call. Both of our guests will be speaking to our national network of house parties and taking questions from our participants. Chelsea will be joining us to talk about her support of the Hillary Clinton campaign while Melissa will be speaking on her support of the Barack Obama campaign. Other guests include Oklahoma Corporations Commissioner Jim Roth.
You'll get a chance to hear live from Representative Tammy Baldwin, Chelsea Clinton, Commissioner Roth, NSD Executive Director Jon Hoadley and more!

Seal Beach, CA chris4obama@gmail.com
Eureka, CA sonneysong@yahoo.com
Santa Monica, CA drbraundc@gmail.com
Los Angeles, CA rory.lym@gmail.com
Sacramento, CA twanda13@comcast.net
Dallas, TX jgarcia71@aol.com
Houston, TX jgbeam1@yahoo.com
Arlington, TX price-robert@att.net
Lewisville, TX info@stonewalldemocratsofdentoncounty.org
San Antonio, TX 78232 seeyuthere@yahoo.com
Manchester, NH RepBuckley@aol.com
Somersworth, NH Athena1955@comcast.net
Tacoma, WA anita.latch@gmail.com
Lynnwood, WA 98037 Darwin67@msn.com
Las Vegas, NV bjacobs702@juno.com
Rock Springs, WY dawnstorrud@hotmail.com
Washington, DC dsalie@party2win.com
Seven Fields, PA gaylem1957@aol.com
Denver, CO teachercorey@gmail.com
Salt Lake City, UT toddbehr60@yahoo.com
Joplin, MO leemcd@alumni.brown.edu
Oklahoma City, OK jebokmusic@yahoo.com
Edison, NJ babsc@aol.com
Tucson, AZ leskrambeal@yahoo.com
Atlanta, GA jodicobb@bellsouth.net
Little Rock, AR stonewallarkansaspresident@gmail.com
Lafayette, LA stephen@lastonewalldems.org
Fairplay, MD ldeibert@comcast.net--

For more information about the Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas, please visit our website at www.stonewallarkansas.com

Eureka Springs featured in anti-gay tirade

2008-03-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

One of the leading stories in the GLBT press today is a speech made by Oklahoma state representative Sally Kearn (R) in which she described gays as "a bigger threat, even more so than terrorists or Islam,” to the United States. In the audio recording (http://www.victoryfund.org/files/listening.html) she uses Eureka Springs as an example of "gays infiltrating city councils" and taking them over. The Victory Fund did not name Kearn as it did not want to make her a hero for the anti-gay crusaders, but with the insatiable curiousity of web bloggers, she was soon identified. To me, this speech truly underscores the importance of our community supporting candidates of our own and those that value equality. My greatest hope is that the GLBT community will support Eureka Springs (not just in words but in tourism dollars) as well as candidates and groups that are fighting for our inclusion in the political landscape. Make no mistake, the biggots of this world are in positions of influence and power and we must strive to replace them with those who believe that we are all created equal and are deserving of freedom and justice.

Stonewall Elects 2008 Officers

2008-03-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

President Joe LaFountaine - stonewallarkansaspresident@gmail.com

Executive VP - Brett Miracle- stonewallarkansasevice@gmail.com

Political VP - Jada Walker- stonewallarkansaspvice@gmail.com

Treasurer - Cindy Kane- stonewallarkansastreasurer@gmail.com

Secretary - Laura Luce - stonewallarkansasinfo@gmail.com

No Capital Pride in 2008

2008-03-05T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today we made the official announcement that we would not be having Capital Pride this year. This was a very difficult decision for me, personally, as I have invested so much of my time and focus on Capital Pride. Here is the official announcement

"The board of Little Rock Capital Pride is officially announcing that we will not be producing a Pride event in 2008. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a quorum of members (7) to serve on our board. It was felt that three board members, who all serve in leadership roles in other GLBT groups, would be unable to perform all of the tasks required to plan the event. After the tremendous success of Capital Pride '07, we were quite surprised that more individuals did not join us so that we could build on our successes. It is our hope that the absence of a Pride event will spur the local community into action. We are planning a picnic/barbeque in June so that we can discuss future plans and recruit volunteers for next year. In July, we will hold elections for next year's board and I encourage anyone who is interested to send an e-mail to joe@lrcpride.org to express your willingness to serve. We are optimistic that Pride will return to Little Rock and look forward to the community's support.

Yours in Pride,
Joe LaFountaine, President
Little Rock Capital Pride"

Arkansas Family Council files ballot petition

2007-08-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Jerry Cox and company have filed a 2008 ballot proposal to ban unmarried cohabitating sexual partners from adopting or serving as foster parents. I guess prospective single adoptive or foster parents have been deemed worthy now, but it still is a hateful measure to discriminate against people (such as gays and lesbians) that are not ALLOWED to be married. More information can be found at http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/199286/

Once again, our community is under attack and we must not sit idly by while the Arkansas Family Council pushes their homophobic agenda. Let's circle the wagons, build coalitions with our allies and let our family, friends and neighbors know that life, liberty and justice for ALL is more than lip service in our democracy. We the people, must unite under the ideal that denying rights to any group of people erodes the freedoms of all of the people.

Hang-over from Hell!

2007-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

OK- I must admit that about twice a year, I foolishly mis-judge the amount of alchohol I can *reasonably* consume and end up paying a horrible price for my error in judgement. Today I am paying the piper. I started off the evening at Sidetracks to celebrate Jim's "anniversary" (birthday to you and me- but he says he no longer celebrates those :-) I planned on just drinking a pitcher of beer and heading home--- oh, the road to hell is paved with such good intentions. I started chatting with some guys around me who claimed their names were Carey, Terry and Larry... but since I was also dubbed "Larry" and every newcomer ended up being Mary, Barry, Gary, Sherry etc., I am not really sure what their names really were! At this point the shots started to come into the picture. I don't really know who originally had the idea, but it seemed like a good one at the time. Well, the pitcher of beer was gone so I decided to have a dirty martini, or two, or three. Meanwhile, the shots kept coming. Now, normally, I would have realized that this should have been the point that I called it a night--- but NOOOOOOO, I had to go check out Backstreet. I don't have a clue what I drank there, but I found a credit card receipt for $19 (before tip) so I guess I had 3 or 4 there as well. Like I said, my memory is a little patchy about my time at Backstreet, all I really remember chatting with DJ Moongod (what a sweetie), John Paul and his friend, Will-- who I think I remember arguing with, and Jeremy, a friend of my friend Cody Bray. Long story short, my only vivid memory occurs during the drive home when I became.....uh, *inelegant* out of the window of the van. God watches out for fools (like me) because I actually made it home safe to my bed and slept until 1 o'clock this afternoon. I keep thinking of that line from the Indigo Girls' song "Closer to fine" about waking up with the feeling of your head against a board--- only my board is pulsing. Anyway, I am going to eat something greasy and go back to bed and hope that I wake up feeling human again. Oh, and if you saw me at Sidetracks or Backstreet and I said or did anything stupid-----PLEASE, don't remind me of it :)

Starting the ball rolling

2007-08-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

After taking some time off away from Pride activities, I am ready to start fresh planning for Capital Pride '08. Honestly, I wasn't sure that we would have enough people interested in serving on our board to meet quorom, but- I am proud to announce- we do have enough folks to toss their name in the hat and we should be scheduling our big annual meeting/board elections. The meeting will probably be held around the second week of September, if we can coordinate with everyone's schedule. I truly believe that we learned so much last year that we can build on that this year won't be such a struggle. My hope is that we can get enough input from the community to fashion an event that meets their wants/needs. It can be frustrating sometimes when, after months of planning, you hear criticisms about the decisions made when you don't get that insight during the planning stage. Either way, we will do our best and if we can sustain the type of growth that we saw last year, then we will be very successful. If we use the InterPride theme again this year then it will be......"Live.Love.Be."

I'm back!

2007-08-07T11:56:00.000-07:00

After a very long posting hiatus, I am back to the blogoshere. June was a very exciting Pride month for me as I attended Capital Pride in Little Rock; attended the Coming Together as One Gala in Fayetteville; Mid-South Pride in Memphis; celebrated Pride week at local bars; Conway Pride and NWA Pride in Fayetteville. It was a lot of fun, but I hope everyone can understand why I needed a month to recover :) I have also been seeing someone for the past month and have been spending most of my free time with him.

That being said, it is now time to jump back in the saddle and get the ball rolling for next year. We should have already had board elections in July, so we are a bit behind schedule already. Truth be told, we still need some new folks to step up and join our board. We have sent announcements for those interested in serving, however we still need at least one more person to have the required number of board members. I am also concerned with the diversity of our board as it is mostly gay white men that have expressed interest. Hopefully we will have more minority participation and women volunteer soon. If anyone is interested, they can email me at joe@lrcpride.org .

I hope to be blogging much more in the future and keeping everyone up-to-date on events and activities. I encourage everyone to get involved and help make a difference in your community.

We got Pride, yes we do....

2007-06-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

A year of planning paid off Sunday, as our third annual Capital Pride celebration ROCKED! It was truly one of the most gratifying experiences of my entire life. There were so many bumps and curves in the road, but our group, volunteers, performers and community really delivered. My very good friend, Eric Camp, has produced a wonderful video compliation of the highlights.
Enjoy!

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Time for Pride!!

2007-05-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Countdown to Capital Pride--- 3 days to go!!!

The finishing touches are being made on what is shaping up to be our biggest Pride celebration yet. Keep an eye on our website (http://lrcpride.org ) as we will be posting last minute details shortly. Please remember to join us Saturday at the Clinton Library for the Arkansas AIDS Walk. Registration is from 8:30-10 and we ask that you put LRCP as your team when you register. For more info, please visit http://www.araidsfoundation.org/ArkansasAIDSWalk2007.htm

The following is the schedule of performers for Capital Pride2
:00 PRIDE KICK-OFF AND WELCOME
2:15 SALLY MILLER
3:15 PRIDE IDOL COMPETITION
4:00 BRENDA LYONS
5:00 ERIC HIMAN6:45
THE MOB KINGS
7:30 DRAG IDOL FINALISTS
9:00 FESTIVAL ENDS

We look forward to seeing everyone Sunday in the Rivermarket Pavilions for Capital Pride '07 "United for Equality"

NCADP at Capital Pride

2007-05-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

I received the following press release today from one of our exhibitors at Capital Pride.

CONTACT:
David Elliot, NCADP Communications Director
202-331-4090, ext. 16
cell: 202-607-7036
delliot@ncadp.org www.ncadp.org

NCADP, ARKANSAS AFFILIATE TO HONOR LITTLE ROCK PRIDE

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), along with the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, will set up an informational table at the upcoming Little Rock Pride Festival.

“The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities have long been an important ally for human and civil rights,” said NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney. “It’s an honor to be invited to participate in this special weekend.”

National lesbian and gay organizations are a powerful voice in the fight to abolish the death penalty not just in Arkansas, but across the United States as well. Katherine Acey, the Executive Director of the Astraea National Lesbian Action Foundation has implored the community “to speak out against violence, including capital punishment.” The Lambda Legal Defense & Educational Fund opposes the death penalty because it is “a harsh and irreversible use of government power.” The Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has stated that “the death penalty is wrong in all cases,” and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force passed a resolution opposing the death penalty as a criminal sanction.

In 1999, shortly prior to the upcoming trial of those accused of beating Matthew Sheppard to death in Wyoming, 11 major organizations representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities announced their joint opposition to the death penalty.

The 2007 Little Rock Pride Festival marks the first time NCADP will have a presence, but the organization hopes that this is the start of a long, productive relationship with not only Arkansas’ gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, but with other organizations as well. “NCADP has an unwavering commitment to building consensus and finding common-ground with all organizations opposed to the death penalty. We look forward to future collaborations and building strong partnerships throughout Arkansas,” said Rust-Tierney.

About the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Since its inception in 1976, NCADP has been the only fully staffed national organization exclusively devoted to abolishing capital punishment. NCADP provides information, advocates for public policy, and mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of capital punishment.

Video from Eureka Springs

2007-05-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my good friend, Eric Camp, here is the video from the historic Eureka
Springs City Council meeting......

here are the shortcuts that might be more useful for folks:

Part 1 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXX7wP5GfHo

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Part 2 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG5fMPof8Xk

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Part 3 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Brye_MtSY

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Part 4 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VujRCAZ3qk

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Part 5 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHCZuA94vYs

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Part 6 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHCZuA94vYs

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Part 7 of 7: direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC8yrH7DkaQ

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EUREKA! We have DP in Arkansas!

2007-05-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

I had the honor of bearing witness to history being made last night by attending the city council meeting in Eureka Springs where they UNANIMOUSLY passed Arkansas' first Domestic Partnership registry. It was a thrilling event and I was glad to stand with friends---old and new-- to revel in the shear joy of the moment. Pics and video of the event to follow.

ENDA to be re-introduced tomorrow!

2007-04-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

I stole the following from Joe.My.God's blog (http://joemygod.blogspot.com). What a huge victory it will be if ENDA is finally passed!!

This just in...
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, April 24, at 1:00 p.m., Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; and Chris Shays, R-Conn., will introduce the bipartisan Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill addresses discrimination in the workplace by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote an employee based on the person's sexual orientation or gender identity.Tomorrow's event has been long in the works. In 33 states it is still legal to fire someone for being gay and in 42 states you can be fired for being transgender. This is the first version of ENDA to be introduced that will include gender identity among its protections, long a sticking point for some gay rights orgs that refused to work on the bill until transgender folks were added. I would love to be in the gallery tomorrow when this historic event takes place. With the Matthew Sheppard Act introduced last week, and now ENDA on the table once more, 2007 truly promises to be the most meaningful year in the history of gay rights. More on this tomorrow, of course.

3 R's-- Reading, Rodeo and a Real good time!

2007-04-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

I have basically been going non-stop since Wednesday. First off, I did HIV testing at UCA in Conway on Wednesday and Thursday. I recently became re-certified to do testing and this was my first chance to really get back into providing this rewarding service. I am a big believer that EVERYONE should know their status and it was awesome to see how many young people came out to be tested. Yolanda, Bill (both from Arkansas AIDS Foundation) and I performed about 60 tests and had a great time chatting on the rides back-and-forth. I also got to see Courtney Hampton from DHHS on campus and to help promote the upcoming AIDS Walk.

Thursday night, I headed over to Easy Streets for the Literary Pride book club to meet Josh Dagon in town for the Arkansas Literary Festival and to meet the members of the book club. J.D. was a total delight--very easy to talk with and even easier on the eyes! I want to give major kudos to Amos for getting both J.D. and Andrew Holleran (the author of the first gay novel I ever read, Dancer from the Dance) here to Little Rock. Saturday morning I got to attend the Literary Festival for a reading from Andrew's latest work, Grief. Here is a picture of me and both authors.

Friday night, I headed over to Sidetracks for the Rodeo in the Rock kick-off party and got to hang out with a lot of great people including LRCP board member Janis Walters, Cornelius Mabin of The Body Politic and even ran into my good friend Faith Sawyer-Tindle from NWA GLBT community center. There were a lot of people at the event to kick off the weekend's festivities and I think a good time was had by all.

On Saturday and Sunday I got to attend my first-ever gay rodeo! I had a great time and met a lot of very cool people and had the chance to see a lot of familiar faces like Randi Romo of CAR, Sarah Scanlon of HRC, all of the great folks of DSRA, Donna, Faith, Joney and Chris of NWA GLBT CC, and even ran into Cody Bray LRCP's Entertainment Coordinator. Cody, his friend Brian and I went out to The Factory Saturday night after the rodeo. Here are a couple of pics of us.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend and I am a bit wore out from all of the fun. I guess this weekend was a good chance to test my stamina for all of the events that are coming up...between now and the end of June we have Drag Idol, Pride Idol, Theatre night, the AIDS Walk, Capital Pride, The NWA GLBT CC gala, Pride Week, and Conway Pride.

Capital Pride Poster

2007-04-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

(click image to enlarge)

Day of Mourning

2007-04-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

I think everyone is grieving over the tragedy that occurred yesterday at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to that community, the family and the friends of the victims. I hope that we all take a minute to tell our loved ones what they mean to us.

AIDS Walk

2007-04-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

(Click image to enlarge)

Please help spread the word about this year's AIDS Walk. The event is Saturday June 2nd (my b-day and the day before Capital Pride). This year's event will be held at The Clinton Library. As an HIV+ person that would not be here today without the services provided by groups like the Arkansas AIDS Foundation, I call on our community to support this event. "I walk for those no longer with us, for those that still need us and for those that will have to follow in our footsteps!"

To download donation forms, flyers or for more information, visit
http://www.araidsfoundation.org/ArkansasAIDSWalk2007.htm

Gay Events Galore!

2007-04-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but my calendar is filling up FAST!! There is SO much going on in the next couple of months and that is a good thing! I just wanted to share some upcoming events (almost all of which I will be attending). So, if you ever have lamented that there is nothing to do in LR but to go to the bars..... lament NO more.....

Sat 4/7 3pm Little Rock Capital Pride board meeting—Central Arkansas Library Main Branch 100 Rock Street. Meetings are OPEN to everyone; please join us to plan our best Pride ever! More info http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LittleRockCapitalPride/ or http://lrcpride.org

Thur 4/12 Business After Hours meeting—Sidetracks bar. Come meet other GLBT business owners and professionals and let’s learn how we can better support our own!
More info at http://corneliusonpoint.blogspot.com/

4/13-15 Spring Diversity Weekend, Eureka Springs. LRCP will be guest of honor for Princess Welcome Mixer Fri. 4/13 at Caribe’s. More info at http://www.diversitypride.com/ and http://eurekapride.com/

Fri 4/13 6:30pm “The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me”-- The Weekend Theatre 7th & Chester LR—benefit for Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas

4/20-22 Arkansas Literary Festival. Lots of gay authors (including one of my all-time faves, Andrew Holleran) will be there. More info at http://www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org/ or email alassenamos@yahoo.com.

4/20-22 Rodeo in the Rock—Arkansas State Fairgrounds. I am very excited about my first time at the rodeo! More info at http://www.dsra.org/

Sun 4/29 9pm Drag Idol—Backstreet LR—benefit for LRCP. More info at http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/fundraising-events/drag-idol/

Sat 5/5 3 pm Little Rock Capital Pride board meeting—Central Arkansas Library Main Branch 100 Rock Street. Meetings are OPEN to everyone; please join us to plan our best Pride ever! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LittleRockCapitalPride/ or http://lrcpride.org

Thur 5/10 “A Man of No Importance”—The Weekend Theatre 7th & Chester LR—Benefit for LRCP. http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/fundraising-events/theater-night/

Fri 5/25 9pm Pride Idol—The Factory Downtown LR—benefit for LRCP. More info at http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/fundraising-events/pride-idol/

Sat 6/2 Arkansas AIDS Walk—The Clinton Presidential Library—benefit for Arkansas AIDS Foundation. More info at http://www.araidsfoundation.org/ArkansasAIDSWalk2007.htm

Sun 6/3 2pm-9pm Capital Pride ’07—River Market Pavilions—Capital Pride ’07 is going to be FABULOUS! Headliner Eric Himan (One of Out Magazine’s top emerging artists), Brenda Lyons, Mob Kings, Sally Millee and Pride Idol finalists will be performing. More info at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LittleRockCapitalPride/ or http://lrcpride.org

Fri 6/8 7pm Linking Together as One Gala—Clarion Inn, Fayetteville—benefit for Northwest Arkansas GLBT Community Center—More info at http://nwaglbtcc.org/

Singing for our Lives

2007-03-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, the power of music…. Today I was watching “Six Feet Under” which I used to watch religiously when I lived in NYC, but had not seen the last season’s episodes. Well, at the end of the show, they played a song, “We are Singing for our Lives” and me, being the cheeseball, emotional goof that I am, started crying. The line that touched me went “we are peaceful, angry people and we are singing, singing for our lives”. I immediately thought about the fight to defeat SB959 and how we, as GLBTQ people, are so mad about this hateful bill and being basically equated with pedophiles. Yet, even in our frustration, hurt and anger, we are basically a peace-loving group that is trying to reach out and appeal to a sense of fairness and justice. So, I did an internet search to find out more about the song and was amazed to discover “Singing For Our Lives was written after Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone were murdered in San Francisco. Over the years, verses have been added reflecting many issues and concerns, The song can also be found in the Unitarian Universalist Hymnal, Singing The Living Tradition.” The lyrics of the entire song are…

”We are a gentle angry peopleSinging, singing for our livesWe are a land of many colors...We are an anti-nuclear people...We are gay and straight together...We are a peaceful, loving people...”

I stopped and thought about the ironic parallel between the timing of when the song was written and now that I am finally hearing it. Harvey Milk was the first openly-gay elected official in a large US city and represented such a beacon of hope for our community. His murder was such a tragedy. Almost thirty years later, trailblazers like Kathy Webb are still pioneering our path into the political community and gaining our place at the political table. Yet, there are those that still want to push us back into a status of second-class citizenship and want to deny us the basic fundamental freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We are still singing, singing for our lives.

To download “Singing for our Lives” (free) http://www.hollynear.com/free.download.html

Announcing....Drag Idol '07

2007-03-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

For more info..... http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/fundraising-events/drag-idol/

SB959 YouTube footage

2007-03-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

My friend, Eric Camp, videotaped portions of the Senate Public Health, Labor and Welfare committee debate on SB959 and the subsequent debate and vote on the Senate floor. For those unable to make it to the capitol, I think this provides great insight into what we are up against.

Reprinted from Arkansas Equality Yahoo! group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArkEquality/)

"I attended and videotaped the Senate committee meeting & vote Monday, and the full Senate debate & vote Tuesday. I YouTubed the footage,and you can watch it all (in several 10 minute clips) from my myspace blog: http://blog.myspace.com/rimshot72205 or you can got to YouTube.com and use keywords "Arkansas, adopt, foster, children discrimination, law, gay, lesbian" and embed the videos anywhere you ink, if you find them useful.'

Mad as Hell and ready to fight

2007-03-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

The Senate approved SB959 today and now we take the fight to the House. I am sick to my stomach that Senator Womack and Arkansas Family Council can convince our state senate that we are a bunch of pedophiles that children need to be protected from. If you have not contacted your Representative, PLEASE DO SO! Believe me, if this bill passes it will not be the last right they try to take away. What next.... a ban on GLBT teachers? Let's come together as ONE UNITED COMMUNITY and show that discrimination is WRONG, that unsubstantiated stereotypes will not dictate public policy, and that we will NOT be marginalized, second-class citizens. JUSTICE FOR ALL!

Arkansas Equality

2007-03-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will be attending the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor committe meeting were SB959 is on the agenda. My sincere hope is that this hateful bill will die an unceremonious death in committee. That being said, it is imperative that the GLBTQ community organize an effective means to combat legislation like this in the future. For those of you who do not know, a Yahoo Group (and a myspace page) has been created to form Arkansas Equality.

From the Ark Equlity Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArkEquality/ )...

"We should stive to be truly STATEWIDE, NON-PARTISAN, ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-CLASIST, SMART, STRATEGIC, and FOCUSED ON LGBT RIGHTS. This yahoo group was started in hopes that queer and allied Arkansans will join together to form a lasting organization to push for equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Arkansans. Arkansas deserves to have a strong group that is committed ACHIEVING measurable progress towards fairness. To bring Arkansas organizing and activism in line with other states (many successful at passing pro-LGBT laws!), we should strive to have a non-profit organization with (someday) 3 arms to do the work of equality: the c3(non-profit, tax deductible, does education and outreach work), the c4(non-profit, not tax deductible, does political work like direct lobbying and getting citizens to ask their representative to vote fairly), and PAC(would have the goal of electing fair-minded candidates to office). We should stive to be truly STATEWIDE, NON-PARTISAN, ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-CLASIST, SMART, STRATEGIC, and FOCUSED ON LGBT RIGHTS. "

Let's give this group our support as we demand our place at the table and tell the Womacks of this state that we will no longer be their whipping boys/girls or let them designate us as second-class citizens of this state. I, for one, will NOT sit quietly on the sidelines and have my rights denied because some hate-monger wants to energize his conservative base.

Good buys at Twisted

2007-03-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

I dropped in on Dennis at A Twisted Gift Shop yesterday to chat about Capital Pride and to take a look around his shop. They have a VERY wide selection of books, magazines, Pride accessories, VHS and DVD movies, adult novelties and clothing items. If you need "gay gear" of just about any variety--- I am sure they have it!! I came across this beanie baby bear (above) that looked SO much like our LRCP logo that I just HAD to buy it (along with a metal AIDS ribbon and another item not appropriate for posting :) Dennis has been in business for over 20 years here in Little Rock and has been a past supporter of many GLBT groups. I encourage our community to "support its own" and patronize this business. I found their prices very reasonable and the selection extensive (they have combined two stores into one so it is literally busting at the seams with merchandise). So please help support a locally owned GLBT business and drop by! The shop is located at 1007 West 7th St. (corner of 7th & Chester).

Help defeat SB 959!!

2007-03-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

BI requested that Rita Sklar, Director of ACLU-Arkansas, who spear-headed the 6-year fight (with a victory last year in the Arkansas Supreme Court) to overturn the ban on gay foster parents, to provide a clear and concise message that can be conveyed to our Senators (and Representatives if it goes to the House). Here is what she provided me. Feel free to use or modify at your own discretion.

Tell the Arkansas Legislature: Vote No on SB 959

SB 959, a measure that seeks to ban gay people and most unmarried heterosexual couples who live together from adopting or serving as foster parents, was introduced in the Arkansas Senate on Monday. This measure would categorically ban lesbian and gay Arkansans from adopting or serving as foster parents, even if they’re relatives of the children in question. It would also ban unmarried heterosexual couples who live together unless they’re related to the child, which could prevent godparents or family friends from caring for a child if the parents die or can’t keep the child.

Ask your legislator to vote NO on SB 959. If you are a foster child, adopted child, an adoptive or foster parent, or family that would be affected by this law, please share your story.

The bill is scheduled to be heard before the Senate Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee. The committee may hear the bill tomorrow - Wed. March 7 at 10:00. If they do not hear the bill tomorrow, they will likely hear it next week. Interested persons should contact:

* the committee members
* their own state senators, and
* the Governor's office

The main message to get across is to "Vote NO on SB959."

All Arkansas Senators may be left a telephone message at: 501-682-2902.

The telephone number for Governor Mike Beebe is: 501-682-2345

Members of the Senate Public Health Committe include:
Chair Jack Critcher: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=jcritcher@arkleg.state.ar.us> jcritcher@arkleg.state.ar.us Vice Chair Tracy Steele: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=tsteele@arkleg.state.ar.us> tsteele@arkleg.state.ar.us Senator Percy Malone: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=pmalone@arkleg.state.ar.us> pmalone@arkleg.state.ar.us Senator Hank Wilkins IV: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=hwilkins@arkleg.state.ar.us> hwilkins@arkleg.state.ar.us Senator Barbara Horn: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=bhorn@arkleg.state.ar.us> bhorn@arkleg.state.ar.us Senator Randy Laverty: no email listed Senator Bill Pritchard: <http://b8.mail.yahoo.com/ym/acluarkansas.org/Compose?To=pritchardb@arkleg.state.ar.us> pritchardb@arkleg.state.ar.us Senator Jack Crumbly: no email listed

Talking Points

* The state of Arkansas doesn’t have enough foster and adoptive homes available for children awaiting placement. Limiting the pool of potential parents through a blanket restriction like SB 959 would create would only mean that even more children go without good homes.

* Child welfare experts agree that all potential foster or adoptive parents should be subjected to the same individual screening process to determine their ability to provide a safe, stable, nurturing homes for children.
* All of the major Arkansas and national groups dedicated to children’s health and welfare oppose blanket restrictions on parenting by lesbians and gay men.

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

As your constituent, I urge you to vote no on SB 959, which is currently in the Arkansas Senate.

Although this legislation purports to “protect” the children of Arkansas, instead it would hurt the many children in need of adoptive and foster homes in Arkansas. It would tie the hands of caseworkers and prevent them from making the placements they deem best for some children.

25 years of research on lesbian and gay parents and their children shows that gay people are just as capable of being good parents as heterosexuals and the children raised by gay parents are just as well-adjusted. Not a single study has found any harm to children from being raised by gay parents.

All of the major Arkansas groups dedicated to children's health and welfare -- Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Arkansas Psychological Association and the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers -- recognize that gay people can be equally good parents and, thus, oppose restrictions on parenting by lesbians and gay men. All of the national children's health and welfare groups agree too, including the American Academy of Pediatricians, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Child Welfare League of America.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has already struck down a ban on fostering by gay people, saying that it served no child welfare purpose. Arkansas already individually screens every prospective foster parent through a criminal records check, health screening, and a home study. Anyone, gay or straight, that the state finds unfit to parent is already excluded. This bill is nothing but an attempt to get around the court’s ruling at the expense of children who need homes.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

For more information, please feel free to contact us, as well as visit our website at www.acluarkansas.org: <http://www.acluarkansas.org/> for updated information.

In the Life

2007-03-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

I recently was sent a couple of videos of the show "In the Life" by Chris Christoffel (from Northwest Arkansas) and was blown away by the inspiring stories. Unfortunately, our local PBS station does NOT carry this important program and I would like to ask the community to help encourage them to do so. I know that my personal struggle with coming out and accepting "who I am" would have been much easier if (as a gay Arkansas teen) I could have had access to a show like this.

About "In the Life" (from http://inthelifetv.org)

In the Life is a national television series in a newsmagazine format that reports on LGBT issues and culture. Segments from some of our past episodes have been devoted to topics such as Youth and Education, Health and AIDS, Arts and Culture, Workplace, Relationships and Family, and Global Issues.
In the Life is broadcast on 246 analog and digital public television stations nationwide, including all of the top 20 viewer markets, reaching 70 million US households.
In the Life is produced by In The Life Media, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) member-supported educational project dedicated to presenting accurate information about the LGBT community.
ITL Mission
In The Life Media, a national organization, provides information about the LGBT community and produces diverse images of the LGBT community to create better understanding and acceptance.
In the Life's cultural programming continues to educate not only LGBT people about their culture, but people from all communities with a uniquely LGBT perspective.

How you can help....

Go to http://inthelifetv.org/common/page.php?ref=commm enter your zip code, type in your personal information and an auto-generated email will be sent to AETN encouraging them to air "In the Life". Or, contact Catherine Mays, AETN Program Assistant 501-730-9345 cmays@aetn.org directly.

Capital Pride '07 event logo

2007-02-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Pretty cool, huh??

Embracing the "Q"

2007-02-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the Queer Coalition Conference held at Hendrix in Conway. The conference was organized by some truly incredible young people and I personally was blown away by their enthusiasm and dedication. One hot topic of debate centered around the use of the term "Queer" as an umbrella term in lieu of the alphabet soup "GLBTQQAAI.....yadda, yadda, yadda". I must confess that the term "queer" has always made me uneasy as it is a word that has been used to inflict hurt in so many people. However, after listening to the passionate arguments of many young people who embrace the term as an inclusive term of empowerment, I recognize the need to honor their wish to be identified as such. While I still believe that we should not force the term on those who do not wish to identify with what they feel is a perjorative and derogatory label, I will begin using "GLBTQ" when I wish to inclusively refer to our community.

I also want to help promote a fundraiser Wednesday night at Easy Street. I met 3 of the 4 Equality riders at the conference and I want to help get the word out so that we can send them off in style!

Equality Rider Farewell and Fundraiser!
Join us for an interactive night with Soulforce Equality Riders! Come say farewell, learn more about the ride, and be entertained by local artists!In March 2007, fifty-six young activists will board two buses and begin a two month long journey that will take them to thirty-two colleges that have policies banning the enrollment of openly Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer students. Through dialogue with administrators, faculty and students, the young activists of the 2007 Equality Ride will make clear the harmful effects of the false notion that homosexuality is a "sickness and a sin." To make public their case for equality, the young activists on the Equality Ride will hold vigils, Bible studies, class discussions, community forums, and press conferences.(More info at http://www.equalityride.com)
Amanda Harris, Kourt Osborn, Adam Britt, and Jeremy Gabbard will embark from Arkansas on March 1 to seek dialogue with these schools and spread a message of hope and healing. Join the riders for a fundraiser send-off event!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007Easy Street Piano Bar307 W 7th StLittle Rock7:00 PMFree food available, tip money at the bar will benefit the Equality Ride. The Equality Riders would greatly appreciate your support and donations.

Faces of Pride

2007-01-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

(click image to enlarge)

Witness to History

2007-01-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

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!

Suck this!

2006-12-31T22:48:00.000-08:00

NOT THIS......

In keeping with my New Year's Resolution, I am trying to quit smoking (AGAIN!). This time it's for good. Big thanks to my good friends, Michael & Eric, for supplying me with my Nictorol inhalers. So, for the next month I will be puffing on a hard plastic dispenser to wean me off of my addiction to cigarettes. Wish me luck----and be nice to me, for gosh sake's!

Time to vote

2006-12-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

Nominations are in and now it's time to vote for the Arkansas 2006 GLBT Person of the Year. Go to LittleRockPride.com to read about the nominees and see where to vote.
From your friends at http://www.littlerockpride.com/.
Happy New Year to all. Be safe and let's make 2007 the best yet for our community in Arkansas.

New Year's Resolutions

2006-12-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Like many people, each year at this time I sit down and think about how I can improve myself and thus my overall life. This year I have decided to break my resolutions down into categories. So here they are….

Leadership—I resolve to throw myself heart-&-soul into my new role as president of Little Rock Capital Pride. This is my number one priority.

Health—I am going to become a non-smoker and get into shape

HIV/AIDS—I am going to become certified to do testing and volunteer more with Arkansas AIDS Foundation

Finances—I am going to start saving 10% of my limited income. Getting sick totally wiped me out financially and I have to budget myself better.

Spiritually—I am going to find a faith community to join. This is a big step for me as I have been burned pretty bad by organized religion.

Friends—I am going to try very hard to stay in better contact with my friends.

I also have one for my family, but it is just too personal to share.

I wish health, happiness and love to everyone in 2007!

NY's Bravest (and SEXIEST!)

2006-12-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got my Christmas present in the mail from Richard--- The FDNY Calendar of Heroes! My ex knows me all too well. Except for last year when he gave me the box set of the original Wonder Woman television series (LOVED IT!), the calendar has become his traditional gift to me. This has become one of my all-time favorite holiday traditions :) I am a big fan of FDNY and I love to know that my oogling of their shirtless members is actually benefitting such a noble cause. These fine men (in more ways than one) risk their personal safety on a daily basis and no one can forget their heroism and loss on 9/11. You can order your own calendar at http://firezone.stores.yahoo.net/ . (blogger note: the above photograph is copyrighted by Cary Hazelgrove and FDNY Foundation, so don't turn me in!)

Queer of the Year poll

2006-12-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

Honoring Our Own

2006-12-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

I would like to share a couple of fun polls that are being conducted within the community. Everyone knows that each year Time Magazine names a Person of the Year and I think it is great that the GLBT community is also recognizing those that are making a difference within our own ranks.

First off, LittleRockPride.com is holding nominations for an Arkansas 2006 GLBT Person of The Year. I am very proud of the strides we are making in my home state and I think it is great that we have this chance to recognize those individuals (and groups) that are making a difference. Not to influence your vote, but off the top of my head I can think of several deserving recipients…Kathy Webb, ACLU-Arkansas, The Arkansas AIDS Foundation, Stonewall Democrats, CAR/CLQA, Barb and her site LittleRockPride.com, The Star and The Pink Spectrum, The NWA GLBT community center, Literary Pride and Cinema Pride, The Pink House guys that organize Conway Pride, the folks behind Eureka Springs Diversity Weekend, the Diamond State Rodeo Association, Eric Reece of PALS, Cornelius Mabin of The Body Politic (see links), Rick Ramsey and The Arkansas Gay History blog (see links), The Human Rights Campaign, Carolyn Wagner of Families United Against Hate, our Gay/Straight Alliances, our bar, business owners, entertainers and gay professionals and our couples that openly celebrate their commitment ceremonies…..the list can go on and on. Let’s take a moment to think about those that have given back and recognize their achievements! Nominations should be sent to barb@littlerockpride.com by December 29th and voting will be held December 30th-January 5th. For more information, visit http://littlerockpride.com/ and while you’re there, check out some of the Profiles in Pride, read the blogs, vote in the surveys, check the calendar for upcoming events and see the links and advertisers that our supporting our community. I think we have a lot to be proud of here in the GLBT community of Arkansas.

Next, I would like to promote Joe.My.God’s Queer of the Year poll. Anyone that reads my blog is aware of my near idol-worship of Joe’s blog and I am glad to help get the word out for Queer of the Year. Below you can see the six finalist and vote for your favorite. I must admit that I was not familiar with a couple of the nominees, but it is well worth your time to read up on them--- just visit http://joemygod.blogspot.com/ and click on the links to their bios. Have fun!

Blogging note--- I am having problems with the HTML code for The Queer of The Year poll, so just visit the Joe.My.God site and vote there until I can get it resolved.

Posting hiatus

2006-12-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I haven’t posted for some time, but much has been going on and I haven’t had the time or focus. I went to Atlanta on the 6th and had a great time celebrating my exes birthdays (both Frank and Richard had b-days in November—what is it about those Scorpios?). I had lunch with Richard and Frank flew back in from NYC and we had dinner and drinks with my friend Brian. I also had the chance to pop into the Atlanta Pride Committee office and visit with Jennifer, Trisha and Donna. Let me tell you that these ladies have it going on! I can not begin to tell you how supportive APC has been towards me and LRCP---they truly are invested in helping us get organized and are always willing to take the time to help in whatever way they can. They are my mentors and I am truly blessed to know them.

Shortly after returning back to Arkansas, I was invited over to David and Chad’s house where I had a bomb dropped on me--- David had taken a new job and was going to have to step down as President. To make a long story short, I have been elected the new President of Little Rock Capital Pride (to see the full story visit LittleRockPride.com ) I am going to ask for everyone’s support during this transition and want to be clear that our group is very dedicated to the success of our event and organization. We are making strides in our planning and truly reaching out to the greater community for their input and support.

Building a more perfect world

2006-12-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

Today’s blog post is a call to action. First off, I would like to share a recent feature from LittleRockPride.com

“In a perfect world:

There would be no division or infighting within the GLBT community in Arkansas.

All of the groups would work together to promote one another and would gather together at the pride events as “one.”

Every gay-owned business would support others in the community whether by networking or by providing financial support for the various fundraising events.

We as a community would take care of one another first.

The community would hire those who are gay for essential services and would make purchases at gay owned businesses when given a choice.

We would care, as a whole, how we presented ourselves to the community in all areas of our lives.

We’d help candidates get elected who would support equal rights for all in the GLBT community.

We would speak out when possible for our rights.

Before we criticized another individual or group that is actually doing something for the community, we would stop and ask ourselves “What am I doing?”

If the answer to that was “nothing,” we’d find a way to do our part, because it takes all the small things we each do to create change.
Check out Civil Rights history and learn how the Blacks gained equality as human beings and there will be found ideas for us because it’s far from a perfect world and our local community is in need of hope.”

Here is the comment that I posted in response;

“I whole-heartedly support the vision outlined in this post. I believe that we are poised at a great time and place to have a real opportunity of community building. I think that we are making historic strides toward gaining our place at the table and hope that we can capitalize on this momentum. We have Pride events in Little Rock, Eureka Springs and Conway. We have a community center in Northwest Arkansas underway. We have our first elected representative. We have ACLU-Arkansas winning landmark cases for us. We have bars and nightclubs for socializing. We have DSRA that hosts a rodeo that attracts visitors from surrounding areas. We have this site and a couple of GLBT print medias. We have activists groups, GSAs, political groups, gay and gay-friendly churchs and religious groups, AIDS Service Organizations, book and movie clubs. We have an infrastructure in place to mobilize this community and we can not let divisiveness become our undoing. I propose that we have a townhall meeting for the GLBT community where we invite ALL of the community, business owners, activists and organizations. We get EVERYONE together and strategize on how we can unite this community for the common good. No elected leaders, no bylaws, no finger-pointing, and no drama. Just honest-to-goodness brainstorming on ideas like creating an umbrella coalition of various GLBT groups so that we can share information and resources, creating a GLBT chamber of commerce so that we can support our own and planning for a local community center to provide meeting places for various groups and a safe social setting for our young people. I think you are right that we should look to the civil rights movement as our guide. The African-American community has always been as diverse and multi-faceted as the GLBT community--- there have always been many different opinions on how best to achieve equality and social justice, but they UNITED and became one strong movement because of it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” I say we get together and find our voice and demand our rights to live, love and be.”

I am glad to see that others in our community also see the need to come together and strategize on ways that we can unite our efforts. Here is information on an upcoming conference that is being planned and I challenge everyone that has an interest in our continued progress to give it their support and attend. It is time for us to quit “wishing” things were different and start “working” towards making change happen.

UCA PRISM is hosting a Queer Coalition Conference to be held atHendrix College on February 16-17, 2007. This conference will bringtogether many LGBTQA organizations in the state to have a dialogueabout our movement and to build effective skills for networking,communicating, and utilizing outreach in our respective communities. Organizations co-organzing this conference include UCA PRISMGay-Straight Alliance, Hendrix Unity, the Conway League of QueerActivists, Henderson State University Queer-Straight Alliance, theCenter for Artistic Revolution, and more.The cost of the conference is $10 which can be mailed in or paid theday of the conference. This price is negotiable for limited incomeparticipants. Registration forms are REQUIRED for each participantand must be submitted by January 22, 2007. This form, along with aninvitation letter and a preliminary conference schedule can be foundat the Queer Coalition Yahoo! Group:http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/queercoalitionMake sure to join this group to receive the latest updates and alsojoin our Facebook Group if you haven't already:http://uca.facebook .com/group. php?gid=2219322160(You do not have to be a member of a Queer organization to attend. We welcome ALL people!)

Healthy Relationships

2006-12-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with everyone a workshop that I personally will be attending the week of December 18th. I encourage anyone that fits the target demographic to attend as well. I have heard very positive (no pun intended) feedback on the workshop and it is important that we meet the CDC requirement of attendance in order to ensure future prevention funding. If you know of anyone that may be interested in attending, please have them contact Yolanda as soon as possible.

Wanted!!!!!
Participants for Healthy Relationships workshop

Qualifications:
Age: 24 to 44
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Men who have sex with Men (MSM)
Ethnicity: Caucasian
HIV Status: Positive

The training consists of 1 workshop of 5 – 2 hr sessions held between 6 to 8pm. The workshops will be closed and consist of about 8 to 10 individuals. Participants will be compensated with meals and gift cards for attending the workshop. After completing the workshop, participants will be able to make better decisions on disclosure, risk reduction behaviors, and stress reduction.

For More Info, Contact:
Yolanda West
(501) 376-6299
or email: west@araidsfoundation.org

Youth in Action

2006-12-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

In today’s blog I just want to give major KUDOS to the young people in our community. I had the chance to attend a World AIDS Day event in Conway hosted by The UCA Rotaract chapter in conjunction with UCA PRISM (gay-straight alliance). Before the event, I met up with PRISM president, Amanda Harris, and some of their group for their Friday Visibility. Every other Friday, these GLBT young people stand on a busy intersection in Conway during rush hour and hold signs promoting equality and tolerance. According to Amanda, they do this to show others that there are gay and lesbians in their community and to show other GLBTers that they are not alone. It was a cold afternoon, but still more than a half dozen young people stood for almost an hour, held signs, waved at passing cars and showed that we are a part of the community. Obviously there were some mixed reactions--- some smiled, some honked their horns (I, the optimist, took as a show of support), some yelled anti-gay sentiments (most notably, “Go home faggots” to which I replied “We are home”—hell, I went to high school less than ten miles away in Vilonia for god’s sake!) but almost everyone slowed down to look. These college kids could have done a lot of other things on a Friday afternoon but they chose to once again stand up and make their voices heard. Makes you stop and think about what you are doing for the cause, doesn’t it? It definitely renewed my faith in our youth and the impact they are having. In February a conference is being planned to build a coalition connecting gay-straight alliances from colleges and high schools across the entire state. I encourage everyone is the GLBT community to consider how important this mission would be for all of us and to support these young people in their noble effort. I will post more in coming weeks about specific ways you can help.

The World AIDS Day event was very informative and enjoyable. I finally had the chance to meet Eric Reece of PALS, who my friend Carolyn Wagner (http://www.fuah.org/) has been raving about for sometime. Eric was on the panel with Courtney Hampton from the Health Department, Cornelius Mabin (http://www.corneliusonpoint.blogspot.com/), a Conway woman living with HIV and an international student who has been working with UNESCO in raising AIDS awareness since the age of 14.

Here is to our young people making a difference--- may it inspire us all to renew our commitment to doing our part.

World AIDS Day part 2

2006-12-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

If you would like to do something to commemorate World AIDS Day, may I suggest….

Call To Action For World AIDS Day 12-1 (special thanks to Rick Ramsey for this information)

Hate crime victim Matthew Shepard would have turned 30 years old on December 1st. He was HIV positive at the time of his death. It is unknown if he knew his HIV status before he was murdered. Here are a couple of things you can do:

Get Tested for HIV. Use protection and have safer sex EACH AND EVERY TIME! Click here for a guide to safer sex: http://www.sexuality.org/concise.html Click here for HIV information http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite

Light a virtual candle at the link below. When you light your candle, please remember hate crime vitctim Matthew Shepard who was HIV positive at the time of his death, in addition to all those who have passed away from HIV and AIDS related causes, and those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. Bristol-Myers is donating $1 to the National AIDS Fund every time someone goes to their website and moves the match to the candle and lights it. Please forward to your friends family and colleagues. It takes a second to raise a dollar.

https://www.lighttounite.org/

After you light your candle, please pass this important message on. Respect Each Other and Play Hard But Safe! We Remember!

Buy Red

Yahoo! has a special page set up in honor of World AIDS Day http://shopping.yahoo.com/holiday/red.html On this page you can click to make a donation to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, view and buy Red products with a portion of the proceeds benefiting The Global Fund to Fight AIDS and learn more about the reason we mark this day.

Act Locally

Here in Little Rock, The Arkansas AIDS foundation (http://www.araidsfoundation.org/ ) has several upcoming fundraising events. Go to their website and find an event that you may want to attend. I personally will be going to Simply Red next Friday. Visit LittleRockPride.com and get more information on the event calendar.

World AIDS Day

2006-11-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

As most everyone knows, tomorrow is World AIDS Day. This day holds very powerful significance to me as an HIV-Positive person. I am so glad that we have this day to remind us that HIV/AIDS is truly the world pandemic that it is. The stigma associated with the disease can be quite overwhelming especially in certain areas. As such, I have started a Yahoo! Group specifically for HIV-Positive Arkansans (see links to join) to serve as a communication tool whereby we can share information, promote events, and support one another.

I hope that everyone will take time to consider how HIV/AIDS has impacted their lives in great and small ways and how we, in turn, can have an impact on the fight against the disease and the impact it has on so many lives.

Tomorrow I will be going to Conway to join PRISM (UCA’s gay-straight alliance) at their World AIDS Day event (see event description below). I have a very special place in my heart for our gay youth. I remember the pain and isolation I felt as a young gay man in an intolerant environment and I would very much like to support our youth programs as they strive to make this a better world for our gay and lesbian young people. Tomorrow I will get to participate in an event that combines two issues very near and dear to me--- gay youth and HIV/AIDS--- I can think of no better way to observe World AIDS Day, can you?

PRISM World AIDS Day event description (thanks to Amanda Harris for the invitation)

World Aids Day is this Friday, December 1. PRISM has been asked to be a part of an event being planned by the UCA Rotaract Club and co-coordinated by several UCA organizations including PRISM.

PRISM was able to get two panel speakers for the forum-style discussion and presentation to be held this Friday.

Where: Brewer-Hegemann Conference center at UCA
When: Friday, Dec. 1 6PM

The bios on the speakers we invited are as follows:

Cornelius Mabin, native Arkansan attended Arkansas State University and Philander Smith College. In 1983, Mr. Mabin served as the first African-American president of the state's GLBT advocacy group, Arkansas Gay Rights and testified before the Arkansas Legislature on issues concerning group diversity on state college campuses. AGR bestowed Mabin with it's 1983 Outstanding Performance Award.

Black and White Men Together, Inc. at its national convention in
1985 recognized Mr. Mabin with a Personal Achievement Award citing his work and dedication in addressing homophobia, interracial unity and his participation in the Healing Racism Institute in Columbus, Ohio.

His human rights activism has also included lobbying Arkansas' 2004 Capitol Hill Congressional delegation on the issue of AIDS funding in the state, engaging community outreach as a past Pride week chairman, various media appearances and former Arkansas AIDS Foundation board member.

A prolific writer, essayist and commentator, Mr. Mabin has contributed numerous works to a host of publications, and now produces CorneliusOnpoint, (www.corneliusonpoint.blogspot. com) featuring The Body Politic, an online multi-platform website featuring items of interest to the GLBT community and beyond.

Eric Reece, is a Same-Gender Loving/Queer identified Black male living in Little Rock AR. Currently, he is the coordinator for PALS- Central Arkansas' Same-Gender Loving/ LGBTQ and allies youth and young adult support program and serves of the board of the Center for Artistic Revolution a non-profit organization that works to dismantle oppressions by education and cultural arts. Eric has worked as an advocate, activist, organizer and educator for over 12 years in the areas of sexual health/comprehensive sex education, SGL/LGBTQ issues, hate/bias motivated violence and anti-oppression. He is the former executive director of the Arkansas Equality Network Arkansas' LGBTQ advocacy organization, and program director for Brothas and Sistas, a community organization dedicated to HIV/STD prevention within Arkansas Black community.

We should all make sure to be there for this event so that the UCA and Conway communities understand that homosexuality/ bisexuality, poverty, and race are all very important components of AIDS... and we want to be representatives of those in the Queer community who are no longer with us because of AIDS."

Show us your Pride!

2006-11-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the Christmas shopping season!

Little Rock Capital Pride is proud to bring back our Café Press store. Get all your Capital Pride merchandise by shopping in one easy to use location. We have shirts, mugs, clocks, posters, etc…

Visit our Café Press store now to start shopping: http://www.cafepress.com/lrcapitalpride

This is an awesome way for us to raise money and get our name out there! Here is my personal wish list :)

A Positive Perspective

2006-11-24T04:54:00.000-08:00

Blogger friends:

I have the distinct honor of being a guest blogger for http://www.littlerockpride.com My handle is "A Positive Perspective"-- a play on words relating to the fact that I am HIV+ and try to maintain a positive mental attitude. LittleRockPride.com is absolutely one of my favorite sites and I believe that it is a real service to our local GLBT community. Barb, the site's owner, is my friend and Vice President of LRCP. So check out my blog in the guest blog section and hope you enjoy!

Native Son

2006-11-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

I met Brian Sprague (pictured above in Citilife St. Petersburg) at the InterPride world conference and discovered that he was originally from Arkansas (one of five native Arkansans that I met there). Brian currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida but returned home this week for the holiday. Brian serves on the Board for St. Pete Pride and is very active doing PR/Media Relations with AIDSWALK St. Petersburg. Last night, I met up with Brian and Dr. Dean Blevins, Board President of Arkansas AIDS Foundation so Brian could share some ideas of how we can grow our walk (to be held June 2nd—my birthday, the day before pride—mark your calendars :). We had a great meeting and I can not begin to tell you what an honor it was for me to get the chance to get better acquainted with these guys. One of the true perks of volunteering is that you get to associate with some of the most interesting, caring, dedicated and uplifting people (and it doesn’t hurt that both of these guys are VERY easy on the eyes!). I am very motivated to work more with the foundation and I can’t wait to see Brian again at the POSE (Prides of the SouthEast) conference this February.

Giving Thanks

2006-11-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

Today’s blog is actually a comment that I posted in response to an article on littlerockpride.com titled “It’s Thanksgiving week, let’s be grateful”

As someone that moved home to Arkansas this year I am very thankful for the community building within the GLBT community. I remember coming out here in 1992 and had no outlet to meet other gay people except for Backstreet and Discovery (not that I didn't LOVE to patronize these bars). I remember attending the first meeting of the Arkansas Gay and Lesbian Task Force that ultimately didn't go very far. I am proud to see the strides that our community has made in a little over a decade. I am thankful for this site, for our Pride groups, for the grassroot activists, GLBT political groups, our GLBT print magazines, our future leaders in our gay/straight alliances and college groups, of Kathy Webb and the hope she embodies for our community and ACLU-Arkansas and the legal victories they have won for us.

By Request

2006-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

At the InterPride conference, I had the opportunity to meet Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God. (see links). Ironically enough, it was because of Joe that I was at the conference in the first place. I had a copy of Pride magazine (Atlanta edition) and I called up the publisher to inquire how we could get a Little Rock version in the future. I was referred to Joe and he turned me on to InterPride--- fast forward about three months and we are both at the InterPride World Conference. Anyway, Joe and I traded a few emails and he shared that he was a blogger. Come to find out, he is this uber-famous, totally hilarious....well, blogger-god. If you haven't seen his blog, you are missing out. Today he asked that his fellow bloggers re-post the following message.........Who am I to deny the blogger-god?

From Joe.My.God
"It was at this time last week that the last bell finally rang on the 2006 election, delivering the House, the Senate, and the majority of state governships into the hands of the Democrats. The map is blue again. And so is the sky. My face is sore from smiling and my feets are aching from all this happy dancing.And playing a possibly vital, perhaps pivotal role in this triumph was not a politician. Not a party strategist. It was a private citizen. It was a gay man. A man who although he was risking his personal livelihood, risking his arrest, and surely risking his physical safety, he came forward and did the right thing at the right time.That man is Mike Jones.Regardless of your personal opinions regarding Jones' chosen field of work, you cannot ignore his unprecedented accomplishment of almost completely upending the Republican Party's last minute campaign to divert the nation's attention from the true issue of the election: the Iraq war.Talking Heads: "The terrorists have just blah blah....gay marriage referendum blah blah....stem cell legislation blah blah...millions of illegal immigrants blah blah. Um, wait a minute. We have a breaking bulletin: Pastor Ted Haggard! Head of evangelical movement! Homosexual! Prostitution! Crystal meth! Close to the President! More! More! More! More!"Repeat on every channel.Headlines on every paper.For five days.The five days BEFORE the election.All the billionaire George Soroses in the world could not have more effectively eclipsed the Republicans' usual last minute diversionary tactics. It was pure delicious serendipity. It was kismet. And most of all, it was KARMA, baby.We'll never know the exact impact that Mike Jones' revelations had on the national election. He came forward specifically because Ted Haggard was hypocritically supporting Colorado's anti-gay referendum. That referendum passed, anyway. And Jones probably didn't fathom that his story would balloon into a national media orgy and image nightmare for the RNC and President Bush. Jones could not have predicted that his little sex & drugs scandal might have spun unknowable legions of wavering digusted red staters over to blue country.But it happened. Don't we all want to believe it happened? That it surely helped, maybe, a LOT?I've been in contact with Mike over the last week. He tells me that the major gay rights organizations have extended nothing but ten-foot poles. He is unemployed and I imagine that for at least the short future, he is unemployable. He is facing the potential of huge legal bills. He has received death threats from Haggard's followers and other peace-loving Christians.Gentle readers, you and I owe Mike Jones a debt of gratitude. It's a different country than it was seven days ago, and even if you think that Mike Jones had only the tiniest part in effecting that change, we OWE him. Remember those last two Senate seats were decided by just a few thousand votes each.So please, show your thanks.Go to PayPal's Send Money screen and throw some love to our unlikely hero, using his email account: "massageandmuscle@aol.com" If you ran into Mike Jones in a bar, wouldn't you insist on buying his drinks? There's thousands and thousands of you out there in JMG-land, and I'm willing to bet that you too have sore faces from smiling and aching feet from all that happy dancing. Show some appreciation to the man who might have helped put that smile on your face and the blue back on that map.If you don't have a PayPal account, they are free and take less than 1 minute to set up. You can send cash directly to Mike from your ATM or credit cards. Send him the $10 you would have spent buying him drinks, if you ran into him in a bar. Send him the $20 you would have spent buying his dinner in a restaurant. Send him $50, $100, maybe more, if you think that maybe, just maybe, Mike Jones had a hand in changing the political landscape of our nation, and possibly, just possibly, a war.And even if you don't buy any of the above, if you don't think what Jones did had ANY effect on the election, you should thank him. Thank him just for the sheer entertainment of the last week. Thank him for exposing the ugly hypocrisy of the evangelical movement. That alone, is worth a ten-spot. At least.Bonus: As reward for helping Mike Jones, here's a special new vocal recording of that instant classic, Supertelevangelistic Sex-and-Drugs Psychosis, lyrics by M. Spaff Sumision, vocals by Robert Lund. Download that to your iPod and throw some bucks to Mike Jones while you laugh."

2006-11-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

I just had to share the new banner ad for Little Rock Capital Pride. Isn't it AWESOME?!

To Russia, with love.

2006-11-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

As I have shared before, I recently attended the InterPride World Conference. At the conference I had the pleasure of rooming with Dmitri Bartenev. I will let the following post from Joe.My.God tell you more about Dmitri.

From Joe.My.God.

At a banquet in Portland on Friday night, I had the pleasure of being seated next Dmitri Bartenev, of Moscow Gay Pride, which bravely attempted to stage its first-ever Pride march earlier this year, despite the parade having been banned by Moscow's mayor. The marchers proceeded anyway, attempting to lay a wreath of flowers at Russia's Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. Russia's religious leaders had called for violence against the marchers, who were attacked along the route by skinheads, resulting in many injuries. Police arrested 50-100 of the marchers for violating the mayor's edict banning gay people from gathering in public.At a meeting before our banquet, when Bartenev introduced himself to a room of 200 gay activists, the entire group lept to their feet with a sustained and tearful ovation. Bartenev is a lawyer and works in Russia to advance the causes of people with mental disabilities, including gay people who have been charged with being mentally unfit due to their homosexuality. He recently won a landmark case in St.Petersburg, defending a soldier who'd been discharged as mentally ill because he was gay…………………………

………………………….Dmitri Bartenev, gay hero. “

Today, I saw the following article from a link off of LittleRockPride.com (shameless plug: I am now a guest blogger on this site. So, check out A Positive Perspective in the guest blog section).

From RainbowNetwork.com

London 12 November 2006 - The Russian gay activist Nicolai Alekseev has vowed to fight on after Moscow Pride 2006 was officially banned by Moscow's mayor and the protest about this was disrupted.
In a moving and inspiring speech to his audience at the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association's annual lunch in London on Saturday, Alekseev described the hostility which participants in Moscow Pride 2006 had to face from a coalition of fascist thugs and Orthodox Christian religionsts. He said they had been "bloodied but unbowed" and would certainly be back with a vengeance in 2007.
Given time, he predicted, the situation for LGBT peoplein Russia would be as favourable as it is now in Western European countries. His speech was received with an ecstatic ovation and he was presented with an award in recognition of "his courage in challenging homophobia in Russia and beyond".
Later Alekseev expressed his delight at the recognition expressed by Sir Elton John in The Observer Music Monthly that in countries such as Poland, Latvia and Russia "there is a huge anti-gay movement and a lot of it is started by the Church", and that he, Jake Shears of the Scissors Sisters, and the Pet Shop Boys, should play a Gay Pride concert in Russia.
A lawyer who lives and works in Moscow, Alekseev is the founder and head of Project Gay Russia and the executive secretary of the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO). He has been actively challenging homophobia in Russia for the last four years and took a leading role in the planning of Moscow Pride. He has also has been very active in campaigns in other Eastern European countries, notably Latvia.
The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) flew him in from Moscow to speak at its public meeting concerning homophobia in Eastern Europe on 10 November and its annual lunch as guest-of-honour and keynote speaker on 11 November.
At the meeting, which was held at London's Conway Hall, he was joined on the panel of speakers by journalist Andy Harley, GALHA's Derek Lennard, the UKco-ordinator for the International Day Against Homophobia, Peter Tatchell of OutRage! and Jason Pollock, the executive director of London Pride."

To Dmitri, Nicolai and all of our Russian brothers and sisters in Pride…….Fight on!

Cinema Pride

2006-11-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I attended the first screening of Cinema Pride, a GLBT movie group at Easy Street in Little Rock. The movie we watched was Long Term Relationship, an independent film written/directed/produced by Rob Williams. All-in-all, it was a good movie and I am very glad we have another forum to bring the community together. I met up with David and Chad (LRCP’s president and treasurer) to watch the movie and we had the chance to chat before and after the movie. It was so great to spend time with these guys outside of our usual meeting setting and to hear about Boo Bash (which I missed from being out of town), Eureka Springs’ Diversity Weekend and to fill them in on the InterPride conference. We probably talked more last night than we have in the entire six months I have known them! David had asked me to bring him back a lobster from Maine, so I gave him a stuffed lobster on a stick that we had used for voting at the conference and I think he really liked it. We have our next meeting of Little Rock Capital Pride tomorrow and I can’t wait to see the entire group!

My (protest) vote

2006-11-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

For the first time in 14 years, I cast my vote as an Arkansan. I must confess that I did not get nearly as involved in this campaign as I have in years past. The primary reason for my lack of participation was being "out of the loop" on the local political front. I firmly resolve to change this in the future. It was my great honor to cast my vote for Vic Snyder in the congressional race. Many years ago, I was a waiter/bartender at El Chico's on Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock and Vic was a regular patron. I had the opportunity on many occassions to chat with him and we developed a strong rapport. I don't know how the topic of me being gay came up, but I will never forget his words of encouragement. He is truly a class act and I believe that he is a remarkable asset for our state.

I struggled with my decision on who to vote for in the governor's race. There was never a chance I would vote for Asa Hutchinson, but I debated long and hard about the other choices. I am generally a loyal Democrat and in most cases vote for my party's candidate. However, I was so disgusted by Mike Beebe's flip-flopping on the gay foster parent issue that I had to truly wrestle with how to cast my vote. My first instinct was to vote for the lesser of two evils, but I evntually decided to vote for Jim Lendall, the Green party candidate. I know that many people will say that I wasted my vote on someone with no chance of winning or (worse) that I have helped Asa's bid for the top post. However, I feel that if we continue to elect Democrats that don't support our community, then we give them no incentive whatsoever to do so. I know that in the past, Georgia Equality, a gay political group I was a member of in Atlanta, had asked its membership to abstain voting for either candidate when they were found lacking on gay issues. I had considered abstaining totally, but then I remembered that Jim Lendall had attended Capital Pride and had spoken to the group. Now, I am not generally a single-issue voter, but to me I decided that it would be worth sending a message to the political community at-large that the gay vote is not to be discounted! I encourage everyone to vote their conscience today and I hope that we have a major shift in the balance of power. God Bless America where we have the right to vote--- may we all exercise this right thoughtfully.

InterPride 2006 ROCKED

2006-10-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

I had the distinct privilege to attend the World Conference for InterPride and can not express how truly incredible the event was. I met the most amazing people, attended many informative workshops, got the chance to pick the brains of the leading Pride organizers from all of the world, was entertained by very talented singers and comedians, was able to help promote Little Rock Capital Pride, learned the ins-and-outs of the organization, was able to contribute to the policy decisions, ate some great food and even found time to do a little partying (OK, a good bit of partying :-) I am still reeling from the sheer intensity of the experience. I made some great friends that I can not wait to see again and again. Next up is the Prides of the SouthEast (POSE) conference hosted by our friends in Columbia, South Carolina February 16th-18th.

INTERNATIONAL THEME FOR 2007
UNITED FOR EQUALITY

Old Friends doing well for themselves

2006-10-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

I was watching the news last night and I saw a childhood friend, Pat O’ Brien. Pat is now the Pulaski Circuit/County Clerk. Ironically, the day before my mother had been going through some old boxes and we found this picture from the local newspaper. Keep in mind that this WAS the very early ‘80s (so NO comments about the funny clothes or the haircuts!) That’s me on the far left, Pat on the right in the back and standing to my right is State Representative Will Bond a very good friend of my mine growing up.

Food and new friends

2006-10-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Kamrin, Barb and I went to Sidetracks to decorate for Boo Bash. We had a fun time and (thankfully) some of the bar patrons pitched in to help. I can't say that I was all that helpful with the decorations (I always say that I did not inherit the segment of the "gay gene" for decorating), but I did have fun with Kamrin and Barb and even got the chance to chat with a cute guy in town on business (of course he was happily coupled--as is generally my luck---but it was fun flirting nonetheless). Kamrin knew a guy there that told her about a luncheon today for HIV-Positive people at the bar. So, I went and had a really good time. I was so afraid of feeling isolated when I moved back home as an HIV+ person, but I have started to build a circle of friends here within the positive community. Anyway, the lunch was fun and hopefully I will get more "plugged in" with community.

One week until InterPride 2006!

2006-10-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Next Thursday I will be flying to Portland, Maine for the InterPride 2006 World conference. I am SO excited! Besides being able to learn all of the ins-and-outs of planning and promoting a successful Pride event, I will get to network and socialize with more than 200 Pride planners from over 50 organizations around the world. Here is a partial list from http://www.ip2006.org/

Albuquerque Pride, Inc.Assoc. da Parada do Orgulho GLBT de S. Paulo BrazilAtlanta PrideBoston Pride Committee, Inc.Brooklyn PrideCalifornia LGBT Tobacco Education PartnershipCapitol City Pride-Des MoinesCentral Alabama Pride, Inc.Chesapeake Pride FestivalCity of West HollywoodConnecticut PrideDakota Outright-Bismarck-Mandan Pride FestivalDivers-CiteEqual GroundFundacja Rownosci/PolandGay Pride RocklandGLBT Twin CitiesHeritage of PrideHuman Rights Alliance/Santa FeJersey PrideKentuckiana Pride FestivalLA Pride/Christopher Street WestLittle Rock Capital PrideLong Beach Lesbian & Gay PrideLong Island Pride Parade, IncMaine Civil Liberties UnionMid-South Pride, IncMotor City PrideNorth Hampton PrideNorthern Arizona PrideNorthern Michigan PrideOKC Pride, IncPride Greater Fort LauderdalePhoenix Pride, IncPittsburg Three Rivers Pride FestPride Alliance of Long IslandPride Community Center of North Central FloridaPride HoustonPride of Monterey CountyPride Ottawa-GatineauPride South FloridaPride St. Louis, IncPride TorontoPRIDEChicagoProgressive Organization of Gays/PhilippinesProject Gay RussiaRainbow Celebrations/OmahaReykjavik Gay PrideRoanoke PrideSan Diego LGBT PrideSan Francisco LGBTPCC,IncSo. Florida Diverse MinoritySouth Carolina PrideSouthern Maine PrideSt. Petersburg PrideUnity Foundation dba Pridefest SA Vancouver PrideVerein Gay Pride Christopher Street Day Zurich

Halloween events for great causes!!

2006-10-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Come out, come out wherever you are

2006-10-11T01:56:00.000-07:00

Today is National Coming Out Day! I know that coming out is a struggle for all GLBT people and can be especially difficult depending on where we live. I know that I felt that in order to live my life openly and honestly as a gay man, I would have to leave Arkansas and distance myself from my family and people that I thought would not accept my gay identity. In hindsight, I know that I did not give enough credit to both family and friends to be accepting. Coming out can be such an act of love, faith and trust. I hope that we all take this chance to re-evaluate our trust in the people around us to love us and truly want our happiness.

Back home

2006-10-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

I got back to Arkansas last night from my trip to Atlanta. Whew, am I tired! I left Tuesday, drove all night, spent 8 hours doing healthcare stuff, had lunch with my wonderful ex,
Richard, cleaned out my storage unit, spent the night at my friend Greg's house, got up, drove back to Arkansas and unloaded all of my stuff. Can you say, "SHOT OUT"?!?! Now our little place is even more cluttered than before and we have to find "someplace" to put all of this stuff. Luckily the neighborhood I live in is having a community yard sale in the morning, so I am hoping to off-load a fair amount of stuff and score a few much-needed bucks to boot. I also have our monthly meeting of LRCP at 3:00 tomorrow, so I am looking forward to some down-time on Sunday.

(Then)...And now

2006-10-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

As promised----here is Suzanne and I today. I think we have held up pretty well :) We had a wonderful visit tonight and her kids are ADORABLE!

Well, I am off to Atlanta tomorrow. I am not looking forward to the drive (about 11 hours each way) but I am looking forward to seeing my ex and getting some more of my stuff out of storage. It always feels like Christmas to me when I get reunited with my stuff that I haven't seen for months.

Oh Suzie-Q

2006-09-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

Suzanne and I at my senior prom--- 1988

I got a call from a long-time friend today to tell me that she is back home in Little Rock to visit! Suzanne and I met in 1987 at Arkansas Governor's School in our Area I class (Mathematics) and we became instant friends. That summer was SO life-changing for me---besides meeting some of the most incredibly intellignet, interesting people of our age group from around the state, the program was designed to challenge our belief systems and encourage a liberated approach to perceiving the world around us. My favorite memories from AGS were hanging out with my best friends, Suzanne and Brian. As luck would have it, we all ended up attending college in Memphis, Brian and I at Rhodes and Suzanne at Christian Brothers. By another twist of fate, Suzanne and Brian both now live in Oregon with their respective families. I can't wait to see Suz when we get together on Monday and meet her kids. I will post a current pic of us and we can see how much we have changed in the past 18 years!

Scary Halloween pic

2006-09-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

The Baroness and I

This was my all-time favorite Halloween---NOT because of the outfit, but because my friend, Carlos, is the most vivacious person you could ever hope to meet and there is NEVER a dull moment around him. I can't wait to visit him in Chicago for his Valentine's Day Red Party.

Common Ground

2006-09-27T06:38:00.000-07:00

On this blog (as in life) I try to focus on the positive whenever possible. I feel that what unites us is always more important than what divides us; our common ground more important than our division and more importantly finding solutions to our problems more important than simply griping about them. Yesterday I was unable to maintain this focus. I received an (unsolicited) "press release" from a person that holds political aspirations. The person (who I will not name because I don't want to give him attention I feel is undeserved) issued the press release to denounce today's protest organized by the Right to Serve campaign. This person represents no group or interest other than their own and feels justified in judging what is the right way and wrong way of combatting the discriminatory "Don't Ask, don't tell" policy. I don't want to go into all of the ins-and-outs of how much I was appalled by the content of this press release or the sheer audacity of this individual, but I would like to point out that whether we agree or disagree with a group's method, we should look to see whether we are trying to find solutions to problems or merely sitting in the peanut gallery criticizing those that are at least doing something. I hope that we all renew our efforts to find that common ground.

Got Pride

2006-09-21T02:49:00.000-07:00

Want to help make Little Rock Capital Pride a success? We are currently seeking corporate and individual sponsorships for Capital Pride ’07 to be held June 3rd at The River Market Amphitheatre. As a growing event, it is critical that we raise money to provide top-notch entertainment, advertise the event and pay for the prime venue we have secured. If you know of a prospective sponsor, work for a company and can refer us to the appropriate contact or have any suggestions, please email me at joelafountaine@littlerockcapitalpride.org or visit http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/donatesponsor for more information. Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you at our biggest and best Pride ever!

I have Links!

2006-09-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

I freely confess to being a novice blogger. Hopefully, I will get the hang of it soon. I am proud to say that I (finally) figured out how to add links to my blogs! Why on earth don’t they create a forms-based template so you can just add a link like you do other items on your blog profile? Oh well, thanks to Karmin’s assurance that it wasn’t that difficult to edit the HTML template, I took the plunge and have added my first round of links. All of the links are relative to Little Rock Capital Pride. Kamrin is our Fund-Raising Chair, David is our President, Barb (owner of littlerockpride.com) is our Vice-President and John (Becoming a Doctor) was our founder. The next learning curve I intend to tackle is using tags--- anyone want to give some advice?

A New Friend

2006-09-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Do you ever meet or talk with someone and realize instantly that this is someone that you definitely want to be friends with for a long time? I do, and I just had this experience. One of the benefits of working with Little Rock Capital Pride is coming across some amazing people and Carolyn Wagner certainly fits the bill. I just want to share some information from her site for Families United Against Hate (http://www.fuah.org)

A Very Short History of Families United Against Hate by Gabi Clayton
My son Bill committed suicide after a hate crime in 1995. I posted Bill's Story on my website and Carolyn Wagner found the story in 1996, after her son William was assaulted in a similar hate crime. (A 1999 article about the Wagner family is posted on my site here.)
We started an email correspondence and an amazing friendship began. In the fall of 1997 Carolyn, William and I met in person for the first time. Then in February 2000 we were in El Paso, TX for the opening celebration of the Lambda GLBT Community Center with William and his dad Bill, and with Dorothy Hajdys-Holman, the mother of Petty Officer Allen R. Schindler Jr., who was murdered in Japan in 1992 by a navy shipmate.
Carolyn and I realized that we, and too many others, had become unfortunate “experts” on what it is like for survivors and their families to cope with a hate incident and its aftermath. We talked about what we needed, and all the ways this had affected us – the emotions, the legal issues, dealing with the media, etc.
Neither of us wanted all we had learned (and continue to learn) to be wasted. Although we were already attracting others who were coping with this issue, we dreamed about finding a better way to share, and of building a coalition to support victims and their families as they cope with hate.
We are now creating FUAH's structure as a work in progress.

We're rolling now

2006-09-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

As I make this post, I am on cloud nine! First off, Little Rock Capital Pride was awarded a scholarship to attend the World InterPride conference next month in Portland, ME. I will be representing our group at this conference with Pride organizers from all over the world. This is going to be an awesome opportunity for networking and learning from other groups and I believe this will be such an advantage in our own Pride planning. Also LRCP is making head-way in recruiting corporate sponsorships and plans are well underway for our Boo Bash fund-raiser. We are also making some great contacts with other groups and organizations--- today alone I received calls from Governor Huckabee's press secretary, Holly Dickson of ACLU Arkansas and Kathy Webb our newly elected state legislator!

Updated URL on Jeremy Glick

2006-09-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed that the story on Jeremy Glick I referenced in the following post is no longer found, so I thought I would post an updated link http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20020911glick911p6.asp

5 Years later....still My New York

2006-09-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

To mark the 5th anniversary of September 11th, I thought I would share an email that I sent to all of my family and friends following the attacks. It is a very long post, so I will let it tell the story. The title of the message was "MY New York".....

As most, if not all, of you know, I moved to New York about a year-and-a-half ago and moved into the East Village of Manhattan in June. Many of you have written or called to make sure that I was safe and I want to thank you for your love and concern. In most cases I told you that I would write more later as I was understandably in a hectic state to reply to everyone and at least let them know I was "OK". Also, I didn't have the words yet to describe the impact of the tragedy. A week later, I think I am ready. Please bear with me (this message is quite long) as I try to salve the wounds and ease my own burden by getting this off my chest. First off, I was never in any danger during the catastrophe. I boarded the subway at Bleecker Street (about one mile from the twin towers) heading north to Grand Central Station about the time the first plane slammed into the first tower. I got to Grand Central and boarded the train to Westchester without knowing anything had happened. All of the sudden cell phones began ringing all over and the news was spread through the train car like wildfire. When the second plane hit, a sense of panic spread just as suddenly. We all knew that two planes crashing into the same building, the same day and near the same time is no coincidence. I am not ashamed to admit that I had the urgent need to call my mommy. I spoke with my mother and she updated me from Arkansas with information from the newscast. Throughout the 45-minute train ride people would shout out updates to the other passengers-- some true and some proving to be false. During the ride we discovered that we were one of the last trains to get out of New York before the lock-down began. Bridges and tunnels were shut off, no trains departed nor returned to the city, airports were diverting flights to Canada and it looked as if whichever stop you chose to take, you were going to be stuck there for the foreseeable future. I got to work and found my co-workers huddled in offices listening as the devastation continued to unfold. Then the realization hit me that the person I've been dating for the past couple of months worked in one of the buildings neighboring the towers. You can imagine my horror when the first and then second tower collapsed. It would not be until almost 8pm before we made contact with each other and I could breathe again. Needless to say, no work was done on Tuesday. Being a company that constantly travels, we were desperate to contact our co-workers and make sure they were all safe. By 10:30 we received the good news-- everyone was accounted for!! But we did not have any time for celebration as word spread of loved ones known to be in or around the buildings. Everyone seemed to know someone.I regret to say that out of the 5,000 people missing and presumed dead, I've counted 35 connections to my company (sisters, brothers, wife, cousin, close friends and two firemen that also volunteer at the same station as a few of my co-workers). Personally, I lost two acquaintences from my neighborhood bar. I would like to also share a story that you may have heard. This e-mail was sent by my friend, James thatworks in my department. There is a url attached to a story that is sure to bring you to tears if youhaven't heard it yet......."Jennifer Hurwitt (maiden name Glick) and her husbandDoug Hurwitt are friends of ours. Our friendship began at Union College. Many of you will remember Doug and Jennifer from our wedding in 1991. I was shocked to see the following story on MSNBC last week about Jennifer's brother Jeremy. This story will remain with me for the rest of my life. Please keep the Glick family, along with all the other families that have been forever affected by this horrible tragedy, in your thoughts and prayers." http://msnbc.com/news/629077.asp?cp1=1 Basically, we found out how small of a world thistruly is.I managed to get back to the city that night (it took a car ride to the North Bronx, two subways, a walk to 2nd Avenue, an over-crowded bus ride to 14th street and an eleven block walk to get there!) and discovered my apartment just as I had left it. Thankfully, the wind was blowing Southeast and I live Northeast. Tuesday night there was an uneasy quiet in my neighborhood. Traffic had been blocked south of 14th and the silence was deafening. Anyone that has ever lived in NYC can tell you that once you get used to the noise it is hard to sleep without it. I live on the same block as the Hell's Angels of NY motorcycle club and you can imagine the noise level as they ride down the streets with their Harleys! My office was closed on Wednesday and with nothing else to do, I wandered the streets. Not being able to donate blood and without an organized civilian volunteer effort established, I felt helpless. I ended up on the corner of West and Christopher streets where a spontaneous crowd had amassed to cheer on the rescue workers. It was quite a sight to behold. Every firetruck, cop car, ambulance, and even dumptrucks and forklifts were met with thunderous applause, signs calling them heroes and shouts of"thank you". Old Glory was taped, pinned, stapled, or strapped to anything that would hold it. Muscle-bound Chelsea boys, neo-punks, hippies, Wall Street brokers and even a homeless guy or two stood shoulder-to-shoulder to show these workers how much their efforts were appreciated. I was touched. I was raised in the South where the perception of NewYork is that you can be mugged or raped on the streets and no one will respond to your calls of help because they don't want to get involved. This is categorically false! On Thursday the volunteer effort mobilized in force. I was lucky enough to be allowed to direct incoming volunteers at the Jacob Javitz Center. I stood with a color-coded map and directed people to different staging locations according to what donations and/or services they offered. I watched as people came in from everywhere with whatever items were requested. The sheer volume of clothing (socks and underwear were the biggest need), water, canned food, masks, steel-toed boots, medical supplies (everything from O2 tanks to band-aids), cellphone batteries and chargers-- you name it, whatever was asked for people brought in. Corporations and individuals overwhelmingly responded. I watched a convoy of trucks from Maine bring in water, Canadians bringing care packages, fahsion houses donating clothing and (of course) the Red Cross with EVERYTHING, it was surreal. New Yorkers have and are responding to this crisis in a phenomenal way. I am going to paste a portion of a message that my friend Susan sent to me. She describes her impressions from visiting the city this week in a way that I can not...."Spontaneous shrines take root on sidewalks, streetcorners, in fences. Bases of statues erected to yesterday's heroes have been converted to testimonials of gratitude for the heroes of today. Bundles of flowers, letters of thanks, poems trying to sift sense into the terror mix with flows of multi-colored candlewax, absorbing street corners and telephone poles,making the mundane places holy. Paraffin tendrils of hope cling to the narrow tops of the traffic dividers around Union Square Park. Candles everywhere - lit,unlit, dripping unheeded; burned-out glass shells of spent wax stand in mute testimony to monumental loss. People move through the park, stopping to place a lighted candle amidst the sea of prayers and wax on the ground. People stopping to write messages on muslin sheets, to leave a piece of themselves on these massive murals of healing. A man sleeps on the ground, sprawled on a newspaper covered with images of destruction; a woman keeps the vigil even in her sleep, curled around the flames of hope which flicker in the ceramic pot next to her. The monuments are covered with our writing - pleas for peace and cries for justice scrawled side by side are a testimony to the freedom for which we are dying. The City is literally covered with flyers made by desperate families seeking missing members. Papers with wedding photos, people in birthday party hats, dancing, living. Every surface I see looks back at me; trashcans, mailboxes,light poles, construction vehicles, rescue vans. We who are moving through the streets stop to read every plea - to look into the eyes of the dead in their moments of greatest happiness. To honor their memory;to lend strength to their family's hope. These flyers have formed the most overwhelming of my experiences here. Forever in my mind will be this image: A massive conflagration obliterated the living and a heinous cloud of devastation blew their death into the air. Somehow they managed to re-emerge on every surface of the City, the faces of those forever missing. As it has always been in New York we represent every skin color, age, background, gender. We share only our indomitable, living, human spirit. I allow myself some healing in the thought that what we share is, by far, greater than that which divides us, and is a key to moving forward."
This is My New York. God Bless New York, God Bless America and God BlessYou All and thanks for allowing me to express my thoughts and feelings.

Growing groups....

2006-09-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today’s blog theme relates to both our Little Rock Capital Pride group as well as my own growing group of friends here in Arkansas. Yesterday we had our monthly meeting of LRCP and it was great to see a couple of new members getting involved, Amanda and Laurie. Amanda shared with the group information about SoulForce , which she is working with and Laurie shared that she is new to the Little Rock area (from Hot Springs) and is really looking forward to becoming active in the community. Ladies, welcome to our group and we are SO glad to have you. Jordan Krueger, who has been serving as our webmaster, was elected to our board to replace Casey Lynch, who resigned to focus on her new business. Jordan has done a great job in creating our new website and we are very pleased to welcome him to the board. After the meeting, David, Chad, Barb, Kamrin (who was officially elected as our Fund-raising Chair) and I went out for dinner and some adult beverages. Then Kamrin’s husband and two beautiful children, William and Alexandria joined us. It was so nice to hang out in a casual, non-meeting atmosphere with these guys and girls.

On Friday I stopped by my friend Michael’s house and met Jim and Nick. We chatted for awhile and it was great meeting more guys that I feel so instantly connected with. I look forward to seeing more of them.

I have only been back home for a few months now, but it is amazing how rooted I already feel. Here’s to more good friends and even more good times!

2006-09-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Getting more involved

2006-09-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have selected a theme for my blog that seems to apply to many different areas of my life.

First off, Little Rock Capital Pride-- I was recently tapped by our President, David W. Quinn, to head up recruiting our corporate sponsorships. Sponsorships are vital to the success of all Pride events and our board is committed to aggressively pursuing them to ensure the success of our event. I am proud to say that we already have 2 companies that have said that they would be glad to sponsor our event in addition to the 4 Circle of 100 sponsors we already had!!! If anyone knows of a potential sponsor, please send me their contact information and for more information check out http://www.littlerockcapitalpride.org/donatesponsor Also, LRCP has already begun reaping the benefits of our association with InterPride (international organization of Pride organizers). Our friends at InterPride (especially Trisha of Atlanta Pride committee and Radar of South Carolina Pride) have assisted us in preparing our sponsorship pamphlet, our sponsorship agreement and helped us to apply for a scholarship to attend the international conference in Portland, ME in October. I was in Atlanta this past week and got to have coffee with Trisha--- wow, what a wealth of Pride knowledge this lady has!! I can't wait to see her again and look forward to meeting our buddy, Radar, either in Portland or when he hosts the Prides of the SouthEast regional conference in February. LRCP is busy planning our first fund-raiser of the year—BOO BASH—on October 28th at Sidetracks in NLR. Kamrin, our fundraising director, has been hard at work planning a fabulous event. If you would like more information about the event or would like to help out, contact her at doddified@yahoo.com LRCP was recently highlighted by Out in America (check out http://www.outinlittlerock.com ) and was featured in this month's Star magazine (http://ozarksstar.com/pg-22.html ) We have published our first ever newsletter ( if you have joined our Yahoo group, you can view the file LRCP082306NL.pdf at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LittleRockCapitalPride/files/ ) ; if you would like to feature your group, event, business or website that would be of interest to the GLBT community in LR, then send me a submission at joelafountaine@littlerockcapitalpride.org Our next meeting is tomorrow, September 9th from 3:00 to 4:30 at Central Arkansas Library's Main Branch at 100 Rock Street. We will be in the Fribourgh Room on the 2nd Floor. There are a lot of exciting developments in our Pride planning and many opportunities for you to get involved; so please join us.
Secondly, I have started to get involved with Arkansas AIDS Foundation. As an HIV+ person, I know what AIDS Service Organizations provide to their clients. Everything from health care referrals, HIV testing, assistance with nutrition, housing, social services and case management for dealing with the bureaucracies like Social Security, Medicare and insurance companies as well as support groups, workshops for responsible relationships, providing condoms---these groups are TRULY life-savers. I met with Joan Gauthreaux (fellow Cajun) today and I am very excited about working with her in the future. My plan is to volunteer at health fairs, do some education/prevention speaking, and eventually be trained to do pre- and post-test HIV counseling. I am very excited about a CDC- sponsored program for HIV+ gay white men called Healthy Relationships. The workshop is 5 2-hour sessions running Monday-Friday night 6-8pm (with a meal provided) that helps participants make better decisions on disclosures, risk reduction behaviors and stress reduction. The next workshop starts on Monday, but I plan to attend the next series beginning on October 2nd. There is also a program designed for all of you negative folks called Positive Outlook Leaders that will pay you to teach other gay men about HIV and how to protect themselves. If you would like more information for either program, email Joan at joang@araidsfoundation.org
And finally, I am really beginning to build a circle of friends here in Little Rock. My friends James and Brian and Michael and Eric have introduced me to a lot of interesting people and I am so glad to see how we are getting each other involved in different groups and meeting new people thus extending our circles.
I am SO glad to have all of these things going on in my life and really hope that more people continue to get involved in our community.
Peace and Love,
Joe

Who Is The Queer Of The Year 2006?
	Laurel Hester
	Lane Hudson
	Kim Coco Iwamoto
	Mike Jones
	Rosie O'Donnell
	Soulforce

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