Kentucky Wedding: Robert and Nathaniel

This beautifully produced video is sweet, for more reasons than one - I think my truckbuddies will love it too. A little background to the story here.

Married but Not Equal

From In the Life, a look at the families and legal issues involved in several same-sex marriage cases now awaiting review by the Supreme Court:



Also, check out this quick summary of how the Supreme Court is likely to handle the marriage cases, written by New Yorker legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

James Meredith: Still at War, 50 Years On

James Meredith arrives on the Ole Miss campus, guarded by U. S. Marshalls

For us queer people, especially those like your Head Trucker who have lived well along into the afternoon of life, the progress of our struggle for equal rights and the equal protection of the laws often seems to be moving at a snail's pace. And yet we can take heart to some degree that such progress is always slow to come, for any group asserting its claim to the fullness of citizenship. The reason being, people in every age and clime are all too often fearful of losing their grip on the comfortable division of society into Us and Them.

This and other reflections may come to your mind too when you watch this excerpt from a BBC interview with James Meredith, who on October 1, 1962, became the first black person to register at the University of Mississippi, an event that was a major milestone in the Civil Rights Movement.



This excerpt from Episode 2 of the documentary Eyes on the Prize fills in the background of the Ole Miss riots, in which two people were killed, more than 300 injured, and 35 federal marshalls shot by snipers on campus.



Those of you who didn't grow up in the South should note that this kind of conflict and violence was local and infrequent - not an everyday thing, as you might think. Your Head Trucker remembers the days of segregation vividly from his childhood, the separate restrooms and drinking fountains and all the rest.

Yet, despite living, you might say, the first 20 years of my life in a small city of nearly a quarter-million population, there was never once any such demonstration or violent conflict as you see in documentaries of the period. All through the sixties, life went on as calmly and quietly as you could want - sometimes, to a kid, rather boringly so. (I was alternately excited and a bit ashamed of myself when one afternoon the oldest high school building in town burned down - of course, I had to go watch the flames and firefighters in person. What fun, in a place where everything was usually very routine and predictable.)

The big marches and demonstrations and riots and bombings, etc., that you see pictures of history books and films all happened far away. The grown-ups talked about those things sometimes, and of course they all deplored what Dr. King and other civil rights leaders were trying to achieve - the casual evil of indifference and ignorance - but the dramatic conflicts and violence were not an everyday sight for the vast majority of people living in the South at the time; it was something you read about in the paper, or saw on the evening news. The ironclad rules and customs of segregation kept everyone, white and black, in their places until, bit by bit, the laws changed, the schools integrated, and despite all the muttering and grumbling by whites, before you knew it, the seventies were here, and the revolution was over and done with, fairly painlessly in most places.

The old-time segregationist leaders sort of faded away, and the few who remained reinvinted themselves politically and began actively courting the black vote. All of this is not to say that there was no suffering and struggle on the part of black people - far from it. I'm just making the point that for most people the mainsprings of destiny lie somewhere beyond the confines of ordinary day-to-day life - the dramatic events, the turning points of history, tend to happen in a few specific points of space and time, not everywhere and at all times. And thank God for the courage of those who do take a stand when and where they can - otherwise, change and progress would never take place.

"So the Fuck What?" Sally Field Praises Gay Son at HRC Awards Dinner

I'd been wondering whatever happened to the delightful Sally Field; turns out she's been raising a gay son, Sam Greisman, and boy is she proud of the fact. Just listen to what she has to say about parenting a gay child "to be what nature intended" - and maybe keep a kleenex handy:

Sunday Drive: Vivaldi, Autumn

Well boys, the weather has finally changed here in Texas. Last night the thermometer dipped all the way down to 49 degrees, and your Head Trucker was sure feeling it when he crawled into a cold bed. I piled everything on top of me that I could grab, including my housecoat, and eventually got cozily warm and drifted off to sleep.

Uncannily, this change from summer to autumn nearly always seems to happen during the first weekend of October, for some reason. Tonight it's going waaaaay down to 38 degrees, brrr! I reckon you fellas up in the frozen Nawth are laughing your asses off at this news, no doubt, but it means something to this Southern boy. To mark the occasion, here's Vivaldi's classic:

Suppose Your Yearbook Labeled You FAG

That's just what happened in 1970 to Robin Tomlin in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tomlin is not gay, but the intimidation kept him from attending his prom as well as his graduation. Now he's finally gotten an apology from the school board, 42 years later - but even that took some doing, since it was such a "difficult" decision for the board to make. CBC covers the story and a couple of other bullying cases up there in kinder, gentler Canada:

Debate Wrap-Up

1.

2.




See also this cartoon.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Hating the Gays in Small-town Texas

Well boys, wherever you are and however much you love it or hate it, be glad that you are not stuck in a small town in Texas, as some of us are.

A couple up in Clarendon, which is about halfway between Childress and Amarillo, if that means anything to you, awoke on Monday morning to find "LEAVE OR DIE FAGS" painted in red letters on their front porch. Pronews 7 in Amarillo has the story, along with raw footage of the couple and the Church of Christ pastor who published a warning article about the horrendous "gay agenda" in the local paper a couple of weeks ago:








What I Say: Your Head Trucker's heart goes out to those guys. I have been that scared one time myself, many years ago, following a physical assault. It's a terrible feeling that you aren't safe in your own home, and all you can think to do is get as far away as possible.

Now at this late age, I know enough of how the world operates to believe that the probability is that this was done by some bored teenager who is having a big laugh with his friends now over "scaring the fags," and nothing more will come of it. Still - you never know.

You come for me, be prepared. But it's a mighty lonesome feeling to be gay in a small town far from modern civilization, and surrounded by people who hate your guts and think you are the devil's own spawn. I hope the guys find a new home in a better place real soon. Like my Mama always said - "Texas is a good place to be from." She was right, of course, as usual.

BTW - that Church of Christ in Clarendon is not to be confused with the very gay-friendly United Church of Christ, which has been conducting same-sex weddings for some years now. This Church of Christ is, I believe, the one that doesn't allow any musical instruments to be played in church, and thinks they are the only ones going to Heaven - like so many other half-baked, self-righteous fundamentalists who blacken the name of the one they claim to follow with their smug hatred and deep ignorance.

In the Life: Beyond the Rhetoric

An interesting couple of reports on gay Republicans and school bullying in Minnesota from In the Life, which will produce its last video this December.




The Associated Press reports that a record number of gay candidates are running for Congress this year. What is it with gay Republicans? Do you know one? Would you date one? Would you vote for one?

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Steve Hayes reviews the 1952 film:

Gregory Peck stars with Ava Gardner, Hildegarde Knef and the incomparable Susan Hayward in Henry King's adaptation of Hemingway's THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952). Peck plays an author searching the world for subjects to write about while ignoring the fact that they're right in front of him. This eventually leads him to Africa, where an accident forces him to review his life and see where he lived, who he loved and where he lost out. Shot in Technicolor, it's a big adventure, with big stars and big ambitions. It's also a great ride!

Catch more of Steve's fabulous movie reviews at his YouTube channel.