Why The Media Silence On HR 676, The Universal Single Payer Health Care Bill?

'The time has arrived to help millions of Americans living without a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health...and [to have] protection...against the economic effects of sickness.' President Harry S. Truman September 19, 1945

The United States is the only industrialized nation without a universal single payer health care system. It's not for lack of trying. President Harry Truman tried to get one passed for us starting in 1945 but the W-M-D Bill to establish the system was thwarted by the dynamic duo of Republican Party resistance and the AMA screaming 'socialized medicine'.

In 1993 President Bill Clinton tried to pass universal single payer health care with then First Lady Hillary Clinton being the point person on the plan. 'Hillarycare' was drowned in $100 million of special interest money, lies, lobbyists, the usual refrains of 'socialized medicine' and the 'Harry and Louise' negative attack ad among others.

The takeover of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections by the GOP, the perennial Party of NO when it comes to universal single payer health plans also killed any further attempts by the Clinton administration at implementing it.



The soon to be nasty and heated debate concerning what direction the Obama Administration reforms of our broken health care system will take will make the 1993 one look like a church picnic. Out of all the plans under discussion, there's one option our corporate media won't talk about.

Universal comprehensive single payer health care.

So if the media won't kick knowledge about it, it's up to us bloggers to do so. I also found it interesting that 'Harry and Louise are back and singing a different tune in these 2008 ads, just like the millions of Americans who were hoodwinked and bamboozled into opposing 'Hillarycare'.



Since I believe that health care is a right, not a pay for out of pocket privilege, what I'm seeking to do is 'ejumacate' you about the once in a lifetime chance we have to get a health care system passed that benefits us, not large corporations.

Class is now in session. Time to talk about HR 676.

HR 676 is the United States National Health Insurance Act. It would expand and improve Medicare to cover all individuals residing in the United States.

If HR 676 is passed and signed by President Obama everybody would receive high quality and affordable health care services. People would receive all medically necessary services by the physicians of their choice, with no restrictions on what providers they could visit. If HR 676 is implemented, the United States National Health Insurance Act would cover primary care, dental, mental health, prescription drugs, and long term care.

In other words, the same high quality, low cost health care that other nations such as Canada, Great Britain, France and others around the world enjoy that's a major reason why their life expectancy rates are rising as opposed to ours would finally come to US shores.

'Our current national health care system is simple. Don't get sick.' Anonymous.

If you've seen the Michael Moore movie 'Sicko', you've already gotten a glimpse of what it's really like for the countries that use single payer health care plans.

Citizens in countries with universal health care pay small fees for medications we pay hundreds of dollars for. It's the reason US peeps who live near the Canadian or Mexican borders get their medications over there.

They get to see their regular doctors and never pay doctor bills. Doctors still get paid six figure salaries for practicing medicine despite working for the government, and you have luxuries such as house calls for doctors, therapists, et cetera.

Of course, the large HMO's and drug companies are against it and are already gearing up to spend truckloads of cash on PR firms and lobbyists to demonize and stop this bill from passing. They favor one that keeps the same tired Nixonian era HMO based system in place with its high costs, obscene drug prices, deductibles and high profits for them.


We also have a coalition of doctors, nurses and health care workers who are pushing for a comprehensive single payer universal health system to be created here in the United States as well. Physicians For a National Health Program is doing the myth busting work in order to get this passed so we'll no longer have 18,000 people a year die because of our jacked up system.

Contrary to the fiction that universal health care opponents and the GOP like to pimp, we don't have the best health care system in the world. We're 37th in the World Health Organization rankings when it comes to health care (France was number one).

The United States also fared poorly in a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund that compared our health care system to eight industrialized nations.

There are increasing numbers of cities such as Austin, TX and Louisville along with various organizations who have passed resolutions supporting and endorsing HR 676 along with various citizens groups. It's time once again to make our voices heard to our congressmen like we did on November 4 last year so it can happen.

It's time for the United States to stop the medical madness and join the rest of the world in providing quality health care to all its citizens.

Western Kentucky Pride Association Events

The Western Kentucky Pride Association will be hosting a variety of special events as part of this year's "Pride in 09" celebrations.

Among these will be a Luau Pool Party on May 16th, the 2nd Mr & Miss Stonewall Pageant on June 6th, and last but not least the 6th Annual Stonewall Picnic on June 27th.

The Western Kentucky Pride Association is a seven year old not for profit non-discriminational social organization, based in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and the Western Kentucky region, which is dedicated to promoting a positive image for the local Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgendered community. Membership is open to all who share similar values.

For more details on the upcoming events or the organization we encourage you to visit the official website at http://westkypride.tripod.com

Your support and or participation in these events will be greatly appreciated.

If you need more information, wish to help support the WKPA efforts or are interested in setting up a Vendor or Information booth then please contact Kenneth (Andy) McIntosh at (270) 886-0010 or by e-mail at kycowboy41@aol.com.

Advertising opportunities and sponsorship packages are available through the official website.


For any further information or questions, contact
Kenneth (Andy) McIntosh, WKPA President
http://westkypride.tripod.com
kycowboy41@aol.com
270-886-0010

Congrats Lady Cards!

Y'all knew I was gonna show some love for the lady hoopsters from U of L.

The 33-4 Lady Cards next game will be 200 miles west of Da Ville in St. Louis. As I predicted, Angel and the gang beat down number one seed Maryland 77-60 for the Raleigh Region Championship and helped earn the Lady Cards first trip to the NCAA Women's Final Four.

Angel McCoughtry is the woman. She scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Lady Cards never trailed in the game. There was also the added drama of Louisville women's coach Jeff Walz facing his old boss, Maryland coach Brenda Frese.

Warm up the bus. We'll be rolling on I-64 west to play either Oklahoma or Purdue on Sunday.

Going Out Tonight

In a few hours I'm getting all dressed and glammed up so that I can attend the local ACLU dinner being held at the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville.

I enjoy these events not only because I'll once again get to rub elbows with the rich, not so rich and famous, the power peeps in town and represent the community at the same time, but I get an opportunity to actually wear some of these nice clothes I have in my closet

Most of my working life I've been in jobs in which I've had to wear uniforms. While I don't mind it and that saves me on one hand from clothing wear and tear and the 'what do I wear to work?' quandaries, on the other hand I inherited the fashion diva gene from my mom that she passed on to my sister as well.

There are times I do envy the sisters that get to wear their own clothes to work. I get to check out their individual senses of style, good and bad and get ideas that I may want to try for myself.

I also have a constant stream of catalogs coming to the house from various stores for me to peruse that I check out as well to add to my mini Imelda Marcos sized shoe collection.

Yes, as I've said here on many occasions, femininity is about more than the clothes, it's a lifetime journey of discovery.

But I'll ponder some of those questions later. Time to get my glam on.

UK Fans, Told Ya You'd Regret Getting Rid Of Tubby

Back in March 2007 I wrote a post called 'Quit Hatin' On Tubby' in which I called out the racist elements of UK's fan base for their yearly 'Fire Tubby' rhetoric despite the fact the first African-American coach of this storied program had a winning record (263–83) during his award winning ten year tenure there.

His crime was despite leading the Wildcats to four Elite Eights and six Sweet 16s, five SEC regular-season championships, five SEC Tournament crowns, seven SEC East division titles, having a 52-18 record in March, a 35-4 record en route to the school’s seventh NCAA Championship in 1998, leading the Cats in 2003 to a 32-4 record, a perfect 16-0 regular-season SEC  record and a 19-0 sweep of league opponents, he wasn't winning enough championships to satisfy the impossibly high and unrealistic standards of UK basketball fans in a 21st century college b-ball landscape of increasing parity.

In that post I made this prediction about what would happen to UK's basketball program if they forced Tubby out.

So what would happen if the haters got their wish and Tubby got canned? First of all a coach with Tubby's pedigree wouldn't be unemployed long. He'd be coaching somewhere else before the next season started. UK would get lambasted in the national press and by the college coaching fraternity for doing so.

They would instantly cede basketball supremacy in the state to Louisville. The negative fallout from the firing would ensure that many elite and top-tier African-American players both inside and outside the state would bypass Lexington and play at U of L or elsewhere for at least five to ten years. UK will also have a tough time attracting the same type of high quality coach especially after his fellow coaches watched him get shabbily treated by a segment of the UK fan base.

I wrote a subsequent post called 'Mission Accomplished?' after the UK Tubby haters gleefully posted a George W. Bush style 'Mission Accomplished' picture on their 'Fire Tubby' websites in the wake of his resignation and subsequent hiring by Minnesota.

I had this to say about Billy Gillispie being hired by UK to replace him after several high profile coaches such as Michigan State's Tom Izzo, Texas' Rick Barnes and Florida's Billy Donovan, the coach UK faithful lusted after and desperately wanted, all turned down the UK head coaching position, thus fulfilling one of the prediction I laid out in the 'Quit Hatin' On Tubby post.

Gillispie left Texas A&M to come here and I hope he realizes what he's gotten himself into. He could've stayed at A&M, built that program into a national power to compete and beat the hated Longhorns and had the undying love and devotion of Aggies worldwide. I wonder how long a honeymoon he'll have if he doesn't meet the stress inducing expectations of the UK faithful.

Turns out it lasted until November 6, 2007, the night the then Number 20 ranked Wildcats suffered an embarrassing 84-68 home loss to Gardner-Webb.

UK is on the verge of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991 and losing its cachet as the winningest college basketball team to North Carolina. If that happens, the latest chapter of 'As Rupp Arena Turns' could get ugly.

But while we wait to see how this basketball drama plays out, let's check out the predictions I made in the wake of Tubby's departure.

*Coaching somewhere else before the next season started- Check
*UK lambasted in the national press for forcing Tubby out- Check
*Cede basketball supremacy in Kentucky to U of L-Check
*Elite level African-American ballers in Kentucky and elsewhere declining to play there and heading to Louisville for five to ten years- so far on target*
*UK program having tough time attracting elite level B-ball coach in wake of Tubby dissing-Check

In the meantime, Tubby is getting mad love in the Land of 10,000 Lakes for taking a Minnesota program that went 9-20 the year before he arrived to a 20 win NIT tournament appearance in his first year.

For somebody that some UK fans loudly claimed couldn't recruit, not only set the dominos in place before he left Lexington for the Cats to get Patrick Patterson, but grabbed a Top 20 class for the Golden Gophers that included Ralph Sampson III, the son of former NBA baller Ralph Sampson.

With their as of this writing 21-8 record (the 16th straight year Tubby's coached a 20 win team) Minnesota's poised to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade.

Tubby's 2008-09 Gophers squad also did something that UK didn't-beat Louisville.

How you like him now?

Kentuckians Value Fairness Rally

Kentuckians Value Fairness Statewide Rally in Capitol Rotunda Feb. 25

A Kentuckians Value Fairness rally to promote the passage of a statewide Fairness law in Kentucky prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations will be held in the Frankfort Capitol Rotunda Wednesday, February 25, 12:30-1:30 pm.

House Bill 72, introduced by Representative Mary Lou Marzian (Dist. 34), will be the focus of lobbying and rally support for the day. LGBTQ constituents, along with family and friends from across the Commonwealth, will lobby legislators in the morning with personal stories concerning the need for an anti-discrimination law. Supporters will then join legislators in the Capitol Rotunda for a rally and press conference beginning at 12:30 pm.

"Champion of Fairness" awards will be presented to legislators who have supported a statewide Fairness law in the past.

The media is invited to attend.

The Kentuckians Value Fairness Rally/Press Conference
 will take place on February 25 from 12:30-1:30 pm in the Capitol Rotunda, Frankfort, KY.

It will feature Fairness-friendly Legislators and representatives from the following organizations:

ACLU of Kentucky
B-GLAD (Centre College)
CFAIR (Louisville)
commonGround (University of Louisville)
Fairness Campaign (Louisville)
GLASS (Bellarmine University)
Kentucky Equality Federation
Kentucky Fairness Alliance
Lexington Fairness

For additional information you can contact Chris Hartman, Director of the Fairness Campaign at (502) 893-0788

Ice Ice Baby

As if it weren't bad enough we had the snow here, we're now dealing with a nasty ice storm as well.

We've had rain falling with temps at the freezing mark for almost 24 hours and it's already starting to cause problems with our local power grid. According to the roomies, we briefly lost power in the crib, so I have to reset the clocks in my room.

It could be worse. We have sections of town, and southern Kentucky dealing with no power at all as I type this.

The city crews have been on the job. They've gone through almost 500 tons of salt so far and have done a bang up job keeping the roads clear.

I also live in a section of town that has lots of trees. Pretty to look at, but not when they're coated with ice and we just had the remnants of Ike blow through here a few months ago. Whatever branches on those trees that were weakened by Ike's 70 mph winds back in September but didn't fall will probably snap under the weight of a few inches of ice.

Oops, right on cue just heard a large branch snap on my next door neighbor's tree.

Hmm, may need ice skates to get to work tomorrow.

Hate The Snow, Hate Winter Period

When I was growing up in Houston, falling snow was a cause for civic celebration. Living here in Louisville, I've leaned to despise snow if it falls in amounts of more than three inches.

As many of you know who watch the Weather Channel, we got whacked by a nasty winter storm last night and Round Two is hitting us later this evening. The kids are enjoying another day off from school, most businesses are closed and there aren't many cars on the roads either. I've got to trudge off to work later and hopefully I'll be back in the house before the next wave hits.

The worst snow we've gotten since I moved here was the 10 inches we got whacked with last March that I fortunately missed because I was rolling up I-65 with Dawn to Chicago for a fencing tournament. We also received 9 inches of snow from that 2004 Christmas eve storm that dropped snow along the Gulf Coast from the Texas-Mexico border to New Orleans and points north.

It's times like these I really miss home and walking around in 70-90 degree weather in January with shorts on. But cold weather has its purposes in the great scheme of things, and as long as it means I won't be swatting at hordes of mosquitoes this spring and summer, then I'll deal with it.

I'm Going Downtown

Downtown Louisville to be precise. About to jet out of the house and make a short run to downtown Louisville and the Kentucky International Convention Center to watch Dawn compete in a major fencing tournament here.

The NAC D is one of eight major fencing tournaments for competitive fencing in the United States. For US based fencers wishing to represent our country in the 2012 London Games, this is a first step to making the national team from which our Olympians will be chosen.

The competition will be fast, furious and high level.

I'll tell you how she fared when I get back.

Louisville Central Repeats

One of the things that I immediately noticed when I moved here was the difference in the level of interest in high school football versus that of my birth state.

In Texas, it's the state religion. State religion status is reserved for basketball here at the high school and collegiate levels.

But when it comes to fan loyalty, the fans of the various schools take a back seat to no one. They are just as loyal and school spirit filled as the ones back home, even if they don't always fill up major football stadiums to the rafters for title games.

Last year historic Central High, the alma mater of 'The Greatest' and the oldest African-American high school in Louisville, made history as its coach Ty Scoggins became the first African-American to win a KHSAA football title in front of excited alumni, students and fans at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium when they defeated Belfry to win the Class 3A title.

This year's edition of the Central Yellowjackets came into the season as the hunted, not the hunters. They also found themselves on a chilly December 12 day at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in front of 3,917 people playing for another Class 3A title as well.

The 11-3 Yellowjackets rolled up 323 rushing yards, paced by Chance Hughes 169 yards and two TD's as Central successfully repeated as 3A state football champs by beating Breathitt County 40-19 in front of their enthusiastic fans, students and alumni.

Congrats once again to Central as they proved they are the best 3A football team in Kentucky. Can they threepeat? We'll find out when the 2009 season kicks off.

2008 Bardstown Aglow

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of one of Louisville favorite events, Bardstown Aglow. From dusk until 10 PM many of the merchants, restaurants and shops along Bardstown Rd in the Highlands neighborhood open their doors for holiday fun, discounts and other assorted events to celebrate the return of the Christmas season.

Some of the churches in that strip also have events as well, and for the second straight year my church, Edenside Christian, as part of their Bardstown Aglow program asked me to put on my DJ hat again and play Christmas songs with soul.

As always they had hot coffee, apple cider, lemonade and cookies for people to snack on. In the church basement it was set up so that people could create Christmas cards for us to send to our troops abroad.

Edenside will also be celebrating the 100th anniversary in March in that particular building.

So yesterday I walked into my fave music store, the Doo Wop Shop to rent my DJ equipment from them. They have a great rental rate and if I so choose, I can convert it if I like the DJ setup into a monthly payment plan until I pay it off.

This was however, my first visit since the fire a few months ago, and while it looks the same on the outside, I almost didn't recognize the place on the inside. The same friendly, helpful staff got me registered on their new computer system, helped me select the components I needed, tested them and got me on my way in just under an hour. Once I got the equipment home I set it up and started practicing to get familiar with the equipment setup and rehone my DJ skills.

My DJ turn actually got off to a rocky start. I had the equipment set up and plugged into my roomie's power strip I'd borrowed, but I didn't know it was about to die. It would pick that moment to give up the electronic ghost.

After coming up with an alternate solution and additional cords the power problem was resolved and music began playing until 10 PM EST. I've got the equipment until next Friday, so I'm going to play with it for a few days before I turn it in and get my deposit back.

I had fun once again spinning Christmas tunes and I'm looking forward to next year.

Oh, Deer!

Hey peeps, if you're hitting the roads in preparation for Turkey Day, be careful since deer are out looking for love in the wrong places.

Like the middle of a highway.

There was a front page article in the Courier-Journal yesterday warning folks that October-December is prime time for deer vs. car crashes since they're out looking to get their freak on. The female deer that aren't in heat and don't want to be bothered loiter around the highways to prevent a love connection.

The article brought back memories not only what happened to Polar back in 2002 when he had an up close and personal encounter with a pregnant doe on I-77 in West Virginia, but some close encounters I've had with Bambis inside and outside the Louisville city limits.

In 2005 I was a passenger in a westbound van headed back to Louisville on I-64 from a meeting in Lexington. Near Waddy, KY I spotted the deer up ahead meandering blithely in the left lane and warned my friend Erica, who promptly changed lanes and fortunately passed the deer without incident. The 18 wheeler behind us probably turned it into deer burgers.

Last November I was headed home after I got off from work at 5 AM. I was four blocks from home when something told me to slow my butt down as I approached the curve near the back side of the Southern Baptist Seminary.

All of a sudden a deer jumped out in the road from the seminary twenty yards in front of my car and started running in the wrong lanes away from me. Fortunately for the deer, the TARC bus that's usually headed westbound hadn't approached my street yet otherwise me and the neighbors would have been feasting on deer sausage and venison.

While I'm making humorous cracks about it, deer vs. car crashes are serious business. Polar's encounter totaled his car, and people have been killed or seriously injured as a result of these types of car (and sometimes motorcycle) crashes.

When I drove to Dallas for my cousin's November 2006 wedding, I was concerned because most of the driving I was doing was going to be at night, when deer are most active. I made it a point to have 18 wheelers run interference for me on I-65, I-40 and I-30 while I was motoring through rural Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and northeast Texas enroute there and back to Da Ville. Better they hit Bambi than me.

But be careful, peeps. The car (and life) you save may be your own.

The 2008 Louisville TDOR Ceremony

Just arrived back home a little over an hour ago from the sixth annual local observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The mood was a little more somber than usual because one of our own was on the list. Nakhia's cousin Yana and twin sister Nicole were also some of the 40 people in attendance here along with our friends, LPTS students and allies.

After a welcome from LPTS Dean David Hester (no joke, peeps) the service began with remarks from Sienna (the local gender group) president Christina.

There was a prayer read before the reading of the names part of the ceremony commenced. As I silently read the list of names, many of them whose stories I've chronicled in this blog, I felt this feeling of sadness washing over me.

But what I was feeling probably paled in comparison to Yana and Nicole's reactions when their late relative's name was read aloud and the candle was lit for her.

We had a wonderful rendition of We Shall Overcome after the reading of the names performed by pianist Harry Pickens, an inspiring speech from Beth Harrison Prado, prayer and an additional song from Carol Kraemer.

Once the TDOR service concluded, we moved to the Winn Center for a reception and the announcement of the 2008 Butterfly Award winner.

It's a new award that the LPTS Women's Center began presenting last year to the person doing outstanding work in the local transgender community. Beth was surprised and pleased to learn that the award would be going home with her.

Beth in her short acceptance speech for the Butterfly Award hit the nail on the head about the purpose for the TDOR's.

While we mourn the people tragically taken away from us, it's also a celebration of the fact we are openly and truthfully living our lives as transgender people.

The ceremony reminds us that in any struggle in which oppressed minorities fight for their full citizenship rights, people will lose their lives along the way before the majority of them reach the promised land of equality.

We must keep fighting and pushing for that day while never forgetting the ones who paid the ultimate price for being their authentic selves.

The best way to encapsulate what I'm thinking and feeling right now is to close this with some words from Maya Angelou that were on the front of our TDOR program.

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Sleep well, my fallen brothers and sisters. You have risen to a better place. We who you left behind will continue the fight to make this a better world for us and future generations to live in.

Ten Years-400 Dead...And Counting

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's the day transgender people around the world pause and remember our fallen brothers and sisters along with our allies and friends.

It's also a day of mixed emotions for me. One of the people we'll be remembering this year is one of my friends.

Instead of lighting 30 candles on her birthday cake next month, instead we'll be lighting one candle for Nakhia 'Nikki' Williams at our 7 PM EST ceremony in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel later tonight. She unfortunately is one of the 27 transpeople killed this year due to the senseless anti-transgender violence directed at us.


Since the night ten years ago that Rita Hester's lifeless body was found in her Boston area apartment and outrage over the disrespectful way the gay and straight news media covered it triggered the first TDOR ceremony in 1999, we have read the names of 412 people over the last ten years of TDOR ceremonies according to the Remembering Our Dead web project site.

The 412 names listed are disproportionately transgender people of color, encompasses 38 states, 130 US cities and several nations. It also includes non-transgender people such as Nashville's Willie Houston and Barry Winchell, who was killed by a fellow soldier because he was dating transwoman Calpernia Addams.

This year's ceremony is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I'm angry about the continued loss of valuable lives. I'm saddened by the fact that one of my friends is on the list this year. I'm shocked but not surprised after reading the stats that we lost so many people this year.

But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with the increased media coverage of transgender people over the last year and a half combined with the upcoming change in presidential administration, we finally have the conditions in place to pass hate crimes and an inclusive ENDA.

They may be just laws to some of you, but for the transgender community they are literally life and death issues. They are symbols that we matter, our lives are respected and valued and when you read the 'We The People' in the Constitution's preamble, that includes transgender Americans as well. .

The TDOR also ensures that how and why our fellow transpeople died never fades from our memories.


crossposted to The Bilerico Project

The SPLC Wins Another Legal Battle Against Hate Groups

If you're looking for an organization to donate money to, send a check the Southern Poverty Law Center's way.

They not only have been documenting hate groups in this country, under the leadership of SPLC founding attorney Morris Dees they have taken an active role toward breaking them financially.

The SPLC strategy has been so successful that trial testimony in the Gruver case revealed a 1999 Klan plot to kill Morris Dees was broken up by the FBI.

There are millions of reasons why hate groups want to see the Alabama-born Dees expeditiously depart this Earth.

After the 1981 Mobile, AL lynching death of Michael Donald, in 1987 the SPLC on behalf of his mother Beulah Mae Donald filed a civil lawsuit against the United Klans of America. It resulted in a $7 million verdict that put the notorious United Klans of America out of business. The UKA was the group responsible for the 1961 beatdown of the Freedom Riders in the Birmingham bus station, the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church and the killing of Viola Liuzzo.

In the wake of the 1988 killing of Ethiopian college student Mulugeta Seraw in Portland, OR by three racist skinheads affiliated with the White Aryan Resistance, the SPLC sued on behalf of his father and won a $12.5 million verdict that forced WAR leader Tom Metzger to sell his California home to satisfy the judgment and put WAR out of the hatemongering business.

In 2000 the SPLC won a $6.3 million jury verdict in the Keenan v. Aryan Nations case that forced Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler to give up the group's 20 acre Idaho compound.

The latest Southern Poverty Law Center legal victory against an odious Klan group has been raging not too far from me in Brandenburg, KY.

After three days of testimony, yesterday a jury awarded $2.5 million in damages to 19 year old Jordan Gruver. In July 2006 the then 16 year old teen who is of Panamanian and Native American descent was severely beaten by members of the Imperial Klans of America who were recruiting new members at the Meade County Fair.

They taunted him with inaccurate ethnic slurs, spat on him and doused him with alcohol. Two men identified as Edwards and Hensley knocked Gruver to the ground and repeatedly struck and kicked him in an attack that left the teen with a broken jaw, a broken left forearm, two cracked ribs and multiple cuts and bruises.

According to the SPLC, The IKA members mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant and not an American citizen.

The all-white jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted Gruver, who is an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent.

Gruver filed the personal injury lawsuit last year seeking up to $6 million in damages from the Imperial Klans of America and two of its leaders, Imperial Wizard Ron Edwards and Grand Titan Jarred R. Hensley. The jury of seven men and seven women deliberated for five hours before rendering their verdict.

"The people of Meade County, Kentucky, have spoken loudly and clearly. And what they've said is that ethnic violence has no place in our society, that those who promote hate and violence will be held accountable and made to pay a steep price," Dees said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the Imperial Klans of America is the second largest KKK group after the Brotherhood of Klans Knights, based in Marion, Ohio. SPLC spokesman Booth Gunter said there are 34 named Klan organizations across the country with 155 separate chapters.

The Anti-Defamation League, who also tracks hate group activity, estimates there are more than 40 different Klan groups, with as many as 5,000 members in more than 100 chapters, or 'klaverns' across the country.

So congratulations to the SPLC for taking out another hate group and sending them the message that if you engage in inciting hate violence to the point where someone is harmed or killed, you will pay for it not just with jail time, but financially as well.

2008 Louisville TDOR Events

The 10th Anniversary of the Transgender Day Of Remembrance is rapidly approaching, and once again our sponsor for the local TDOR events held at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary will be the Women's Center at LPTS and More Light.

For the second time since the local events began to be hosted by the LPTS in 2002, there will be a heightened level of sadness for us in Da Ville this year. One of the names we'll read will be one of our own, Nakhia Williams.

The week of events leading up to the November 20 service will kick off tomorrow with a Transgender 101 Workshop from 12:30-1;30 PM in the Winn Center's McAtee Dining Room.

On November 19 there will be a 6:30 PM screening of the film Soldier's Girl followed by a discussion at the Caldwell Chapel's Fellowship Hall. Doors open at 6 PM for that event.

On November 20 there will be another panel discussion from 12:30-1:30 PM on Transgender Experience of Faith Communities in the Winn Center's McAtee Dining Rooms with the Memorial Service happening at 7:00 PM in the Caldwell Chapel.

As part of the service we have someone from the local transgender community as the featured speaker, and this year it will be Beth Harrison-Prado. (Just as an FYI, I was given that honor in 2002-2003)

Following the service will be a reception and the presentation of the 2008 Butterfly Award, which honors a person whose done outstanding service for the transgender community.

As of yet haven't heard if the GLBT group on the University of Louisville campus is planning anything for the TDOR, but if they are I'll post it to the blog.

For further info on the 2008 TDOR events at the LPTS, click on this link to the Wimminwise Blog. Hope to see you peeps there.

Nightmare on Hillcrest Ave

Happy Halloween, peeps!

GLBT people aren't the only folks that like to celebrate what we jokingly call in the community the 'Gay National Holiday'

One fast growing tradition here in Da Ville is checking out a group of Crescent Hill homes by the reservoir on Hillcrest Ave. It's a must walk through destination for pint sized ghouls, goblins and costumed candy seekers of all ages.

For twenty years those homeowners in that stretch have done lavish decoration jobs for Halloween. It has grown so popular that they draw crowds of up to 20,000 people from all over the Louisville metro area to see them. Some of the owners bought their homes specifically so that they could participate in this annual neighborhood frightfest.

My favorite in that four block stretch of homes between Frankfort Ave and Brownsboro Rd is 'Dante's Disco Inferno'.

The owner of this house puts down an authentic flashing lights disco floor, has mirrored disco balls, has tombstones with death dates for disco and Tony Manero (John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever) and plays disco hits all night long. Usually people walking along that stretch will hear a song they like, stop and shake their booty's.

Themes range from the Peanuts gang Linus welcoming the Great Pumpkin to ghostly cemeteries. Freddie, Leatherface and various Hollywood horror monsters pop out from behind trees at inopportune times to scare you.

They spend tons of cash on candy, and sometimes to one up each other. One memorable Halloween Dawn and I stopped by this house that rented a 16 piece orchestra. They played Halloween and Christmas music as they served hot chocolate and passed out candy on a clear but cool night.

Others will show screenings of classic and current horror movies. The Peanuts themed one runs the classic 'It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' cartoon all night long.

Many of the homeowners say that the annual project has helped them get to know their neighbors and built a close knit community in the process. Neither they, the civic association or any group gives out an official prize for the best decorated home, but it's obvious there's a little bit of a competitive streak going when it comes to putting together these themed decorations.

And it's deeply appreciated by all of us looking for interesting stuff to do on Halloween night.