Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man who was murdered in October 1998 will speak in the Multipurpose Room of the Student Center on the campus of Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC), Wednesday June 25th from 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. Judy and her husband, Dennis, created the Matthew Shepherd Foundation in his memory. She will discuss her experience of losing a child to a hate crime, her efforts to strengthen hate crime legislation, and her efforts to carry Matthew's message of respect and dignity for others.

Please join us for this event and show your support for our GLBT community! The public is welcome to attend.

Wednesday, 25 June 2008
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Multipurpose Room
Student Center
Northwest Arkansas Community College
(Click here for driving directions/map to the Student Center)

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In yesterday's report of our visit to the 2008 ACLU Membership Conference, we mentioned a fellow speaker by the name of Evie Farnsworth who has been working with a group called Support Student Safety.

Their mission: To convince the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the public school anti-discrimination policy.

At yesterday's meeting, the Metro Nashville BOE voted to approve Support Student Safety's recommendation.

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One hundred seventy three days after four ordinary civilians armed with laptop computers hunkered down in a Eureka Springs living room to Google the subject, the first Domestic Partnership Registry (DPR) in Arkansas became a reality on June 22, 2007.

Three hundred and fifty three days later, Jan and I traveled to Washington, D.C. to talk about Eureka's DPR at the 2008 ACLU Membership Conference.

I didn't think I was going to make it through the security checkpoint at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

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My father is now in an assisted living home since performing a half gainer down the basement steps, breaking a hip and smashing his face to the tune of 12 stitches.  He calls the place the assisted dying home, or The Prison.  Thankfully, the home is only about a mile from Hell's Half Acre, so I'm able to go see him every day, and I call him at least once per day. 

Physically, he's doing better than expected.  He gets around pretty well with the aid of a walker.  Emotionally, he's not doing very well at all.  He's becoming depressed.  I can't blame him.  The home, nice as it is, is not home.  Being there strips one of self esteem and independence, and on some days it takes a real toll on him. 

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