If you weren't in Eureka Springs for the first day of the Domestic Partnership Registry, we're sorry, but you missed it--the ceremonial opening of City Hall's official can of worms.

Dedicated Gay News Bureau staffers presented Mayor Dani Wilson with a lovely, recyclable container of genuine, imported Canadian Nightcrawlers--a deeply symbolic gesture since, after all, gay marriage is legal in Canada.

Mayor Wilson accepted this munificent, diplomatic offering with all the pomp we might expect from her high office. (In other words, a couple of worms got loose on the mayor's Oriental carpet and only two or three onlookers shrieked and jumped on chairs.)

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This just in from the Eureka Springs City Advertising & Promotion Commission (CAPC.)

Actually, we got it yesterday but we so busy celebrating with the first registered domestic partners in the entire State of Arkansas we dropped the ball right into our Martini glass. Fortunately, Ken Rundel at the CAPC was on the job.

And now a word from Ken....

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Don we now our gay apparel. Put on your best party frocks, boys and girls. It's time to celebrate!

Saturday
June 23rd
7 pm
THE ART COLONY

potluck music fun blessings art drumming comedy games dancing and LOVE!!!

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(Eureka Springs, AR) -- 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 in Arkansas became a reality today.

Even before the doors of Eureka City hall opened this morning, eleven couples--10 gay or lesbian and one straight--had lined up to be among the first Eurekans and the first Arkansans to have their relationships officially recognized by the city. Each couple paid the $35 fee, showed their ID, swore they were in a «relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment» and received a certificate signed by Mayor Dani Wilson and City Clerk MJ Sell.

What had begun on New Years Day 2007 had, six and a half months later, become law. Ordinance 2052 to be exact. It survived three votes by the city council and two ferocious attempts by an anti-gay minister to block it.

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(Eureka Springs, AR) For the second time in two days, an anti-gay minister's eleventh-hour attempt to halt enactment of the state's first Domestic Partnership Registry failed Thursday.

As a result, the Eureka Springs Registry will go into effect as scheduled today (June 22).

Fundamentalist preacher Philip «Flip» Wilson yesterday submitted a fundamentally flawed petition seeking a referendum election to block the Registry, unanimously approved by the city council May 14.

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When you last heard from us about the Eureka Springs Domestic Partnership Registry, we thought the registry had been blocked by a successful referendum petition. Turns out, that's not so.

The petition was declared to be «insufficient» today by MJ Sell, City Clerk/Treasurer of Eureka Springs. Yes, opponent Rev. Phillip Wilson and his merry band of canvassers did manage to collect enough signatures to bring the issue to a vote. But the petition itself was improperly prepared--a legal fact that renders all signatures moot.

Sell presented her decision, with supporting code annotations, to the Carroll County Election Commission. In part, Sell's decision reads, «I declare that the petition is not sufficient for placement on a special election ballot because the ballot title is not presented, copies of Ordinance 2052 were not attached to the petitions for signers to review prior to signing, and a special election is not requested by the petition.»

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What's with the brimstone preachers that every time they get a microphone, a TV camera or a group of 3 ants at a picnic they use the worn out terms of gay mecca and sex destination to tell their tale of woe?

Of course Eureka Springs, Arkansas is a gay mecca. Always has been. You don't put a 7 story concrete boy in a dress on the hillside and then not expect other boys in dresses to move to mecca. Then add a couple of thousand rooms, B&B's, cabins, cottages, luxury suites all complete with lipstick red heart shaped Jacuzzis, dimmer switches, twin wine glasses and then holler when heart-a-pumping love struck lesbians show up in town. Sex destination? Yes. Hell yes.

And just as comical is the highway motels with that Fish symbol dripping off everything. They proudly announce «family owned» or «family friendly» and then act shocked when Adam and Steve and the triplets arrive or Mary and Ruth come dragging in with 3 boys under 10 and Grandpa, who has been an added appendage for several years now. Whew! A Family (translate - GLBT) owned motel with a friggin' pool and a first floor room.

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OMC - Which these days stands for «Oh My Cod!»

Seems the fundies are still fishing for signatures for a referendum petition to put the Domestic Partnership Registry on hold. Again.

Last week, they turned in their names to the Eureka Springs City Clerk for certification. The next step of the process would have been to have the said City Clerk give the petitions to the Election Commission. then a date for the election would be set after the commission certified a valid petition.

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Eureka! The «I found it»

The slogan has been attached to Eureka Springs, Arkansas travel and relocation information for well over a hundred years now.

Evolving, welcoming, inviting, Eureka Springs has drawn an eclectic assortment of travelers and those seeking to make this «I found it» their perfect home since 1879.

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Citizen activists in Eureka Springs, AR have announced the formation of a new project, «Com3,» which is dedicated to ensuring a win for civil rights in the upcoming referendum vote on Eureka Springs Ordinance 2052, the Domestic Partnership Registry.

Organizers Marie Howard, Trella Laughlin and Barbara Lightner plan voter registration and education activities, plus an effort to get out the vote. Citizen and supporter input and participation are sought. See the announcement of Com3's purpose for details on how you can help.

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