CommuniKate

Despite threats of secession from Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Lone Star State was still connected to the mainland when I visited San Antonio to speak to the Equality Texas folks. I called down the ghosts of Ann Richards and Molly Ivins to protect me on my journey. They showed me a really good time.

The co-chair of the brunch event, Barbara del Amo met me at baggage claim with a big smile and a big purple sign that read K8. She took me out to the curb where Tex, her partner of 28 years was waiting. Since I’d been delayed in Dallas – I was detained for not wearing teabags as accessories – we went almost immediately to a donor reception at the lovely Gallery Vetro on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. I chatted with lots of wonderful, big spirited Texans who have been legislating, organizing and partying for equal rights in Texas for years. I tried not to knock over any of the gorgeous hand-blown glass creations as I schmoozed.

A couple of the women I spoke to apologized for leaving early to go to another event in town. When I heard where they were going, I got Barbara and Tex to take me there after the reception.

For years Graciela Sancehz has been trying to get my partner Urvashi and me to come visit the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center that she founded. That evening they were honoring the work of Gloria Anzaldua, a writer and cultural theorist who died five years ago. I was thrilled to be able to finally attend. In a magnificent, colorful converted former car showroom, the Center was jammed with people milling around the visual art exhibit El Mundo Zurdo, a celebration of borderlands, sexuality, spirituality and queer identity. Graciela introduced me to her family, friends and proudly showed me around. Next time you’re in San Antonio, make sure you stop by.

The Equality Texas brunch the next day in the gorgeous converted train station was another festive-serious fundraiser for all the work that Paul Scott, executive director and his organization are doing for LGBT equality in Texas. Keith Price, a native Texan and XM radio personality, and I mean personality, emceed the event. I met everyone from elected officials, judges, major donors to the newly formed LGBT student group at a local Catholic! College. You really haven’t lived until you’ve experienced Tex run an auction with Keith Price.

If you visit San Antonio, don’t forget to see both cities. There is the gorgeous one you see above ground, but then there’s a whole lovely river city below street level. Three women, Kim, Judith and Denise were kind enough to take me on boat cruise of the two and a half mile river cruise through the city, even though Denise, a facebook friend from way back, had horrible allergies and was in tears most of the ride. After, they took me out of town for “authentic Mexican cuisine” at Los Barrios. Now when someone says “authentic Mexican cuisine” I get frightened because too often I’ve been served a gringo version – a large brown puddle of lumpen something. Los Barrios was the real deal.

Barbara and Tex took me to the airport at an ungodly hour on Monday morning and I spent the day flying and changing planes until I got to Provincetown – just in time for the lilacs and lilies of the valley. Ahhhhh.

Founded in 1999, the Club for Growth is a fiscally conservative political organization and an affiliated political action committee that raises money for candidates, AKA Republicans, who support a low-tax and limited-government agenda. Because the group was about to use its club dues to support Pat Toomey in the Pennsylvania Republican primary against him, Arlen Sphincter bolted to the Democratic Party. The Club had dubbed Arlen a RINO – Republican in Name Only. Now he’s a DINO. And not the urbane, smoking, drinking Rat Packer Dean Martin. Too bad. Arlen is a Democrat in name only.

The Club for Growth hates moderate Republicans. Just ask the former Republican Senator from Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee. Maine’s Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins cause the CFG to put their Club heads back in the darkening sky and howl like wolverines. It’s as if those Gathering Storm zombies did too much testosterone and then set off to find their gay prey. See that chewed up bow tie by the side of the road? That’s all that’s left of poor old Lincoln Chafee.

Club for growth. Nothing says it better. It sounds like a Monty Python sketch. I picture those Capital One “What’s in your wallet?” barbarians or those blue-faced Braveheart guys doing their creative destruction best, marauding, trampling new green shoots and thumping little baby seals. It’s very Conan the Republican. Cudgel for creativity. Shillelaghs for peace.

After thirty years of an ascendant, dominant Republican Party, the club-like pendulum is swinging back from its far outer reach. In the next thirty years it will swing out wide the other way and the Democratic Party will peak then diminish. A strong moderate Republican Party might save the Democrats from themselves but not by trying tag it “the Democrat-Socialist Party,” calling for secessions or tea-bagging its way into activism. Perhaps by the time the Dems are descendant again, there will be a viable third party waiting in the midpoint of the arc like a big brick wall to stop the inevitable oscillation once and for all and start a whole new movement.

In the spirit of self-criticism, I share with you my assessment of my own First 100 Days of Obama.

First, you know the MSM* is in a heap of trouble when they have to hype Barack Obama’s first one hundred days in office as if it were a new national, international, and intergalactic holiday. Wolf Blitzer re-assembled the BPTOT* pantloads. John King stroked his board. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talked some shit with Jon Stewart. Despite the party-poopooing, Gathering Storm meteorologists at FOX, the 100 Days celebration might still fire up the civic imagination. I see in the future special costumes, greeting/report cards, gifts, firework displays, parades, and special foods. Ixnay on the orkpay.

Ironically, midst all the news of the Swine Flu, came the news bomb that Republican Senator Arlen Specter was switching to the Democratic side. The news threw a wrench in some of the MSM’s planned coverage. They had an obituary in the can for Arlen, but not a switchuary. While I applaud the new tradition of giving a Republican-turned-Democrat as a 100-Day gift, I will never forgive the senator from Pennsylvania for his questioning of Anita Hill. He remains Sen. Arlen Sphincter to me.

Otherwise, on my own personal F100DoO* Report Card, under the “Effort” column, I have given myself a strong B. For the last three months I have tried to adopt the Obama Way into my daily life. I’m trying to be hopeful. I listen carefully to my friends for signs of work worry or money distress. I tried to get my building to donate food to the local food pantry. I did not leave a nasty note for the tenant who donated a dusty, bloated can of mandarin orange sections.

Good thing Barack Obama is so calm. He can’t seem to catch a break: the wars, the economy, swine flu and now a Supreme Court nomination fight. And that right there is another remnant of the Bushthink I’m working to root out. Hey, it’s an eight year old habit; it’s a slow recovery. Bush always seemed put out by governing. It so interrupted his daily two-hour workouts. Obama seems to welcome challenge.

I am making progress. Sometimes awful-izing is now actually my second thought, i.e. “Those bastard banksters are at it again.” When I think Obama is trying to do too much, I chide myself for sounding like the rest of the tired old white coots of my generation. They’re just jealous. After Meghan McCain told Dick Cheney to put a sock in it, I had two nice thoughts about John McCain. I have stopped watching TV news, except for Rachel Maddow, duh, so I can spend more time on my homework.

While I’ve made progress, under the “Areas for Improvement” I’ve got three personal goals for next semester:

Torture is torture. I recommit myself to vaccinating with truth every chickenshit avian flu sufferer who describes torture as “a mistake”.

War is war. I recommit myself to speaking loudly for pacifism. I want the troops out of Iraq and brought directly home with no stopovers in the historic quagmire that is Afghanistan.

Hetero-supremacy is hetero-supremacy. I recommit myself to challenging hetero-supremacist, bibliocratic, don’t-ask-don’t-tell denial of life.

With my 100-day chip securely in my jeans pocket, I’m off to the next 100 days. The Obama Way is not Pass/Fail. Change happens one day at a time. But who’s counting?

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*Glossary for Twitterers:

MSM – mainstream media, also men who have sex with men

BPTOT – Best Political Team on Television, CNN

F100DoO – First One Hundred Days of Obama