Hate In A Small Town 4 – it’s Déjà vu all over again

March 19, 2025

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The Internet meme definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. I’m beginning to think it might be slightly insane to expect Porterville to ever join the rest of us in the 21st century. Here we go, again.

My previous blogs about Porterville and it’s LGBTQ+ community can be found at these links:

Hate In A Small Town (1) – where a Mayoral Proclamation proclaiming June 2013 as LGBT Month in Porterville is trashed by the rest of the Council and results in the Mayor and Vice-Mayor being removed from their ceremonial offices, the proclamation rescinded (a first anywhere, as far as I could find), and a bland replacement proclamation designating June 2013 as “a month of community charity and goodwill to all in Porterville”. They also changed the rules so that a vote of the Council would be required to issue a proclamation, rather than leave it as a function of the Mayor alone.

Hate In A Small Town 2 – Does Your God Hate? – One the one year anniversary of the Pride Proclamation, the LGBTQ+ community held a rally across from City Hall. Some haters joined in proclaiming the hate of God towards gay folk.

Porterville City Council Still Snubbing LGBTQ Community – (3) the same council as above refuses a Coming Out Day proclamation request.

Fast forward to 2019, and a different City Council.

We thought Porterville was finally growing and becoming a loving place. On May 21, 2019, a proclamation was issued by the City Council (a different council than the first mentioned above, and different from the current one), recognizing Harvey Milk Day In Porterville. On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, by a three to two vote, Porterville’s City Council declared October 11, 2019 as National Coming Out Day in the city. Things were looking up.

We should have known better.

Hate In A Small Town 4 –

The current city council of Porterville, California (ironically enough, an “All American City”).

Mayor Greg Meister
Vice Mayor Ed McKervey
Raymond Beltran
Stan Green
AJ Rivas

The Mayor and Vice-Mayor have teamed up to introduce anti-trans resolutions in Porterville. One would ban trans women and girls from bathrooms, locker rooms, and team sports. The other would require schools in the city to report to parents any requests by students to use names, pronouns, restroom facilities, or play on team sports that do not match their birth sex. (This would violate California state law, but that doesn’t seem to faze this council. They know about it, but are trying to find a way around that messy problem.)

From the March 4 agenda:

24: Consideration of Proposed Establishment of Ordinance to Protect Women’s Safe Spaces

Re: Council direction on the proposed establishment of an Ordinance to Protect Women’s Safe Spaces.

From the March 18 agenda:

21: Consideration of Proposed Establishment of Ordinance Safeguarding Parental Rights in Education and Child Upbringing

Re: Council to provide direction on the proposed establishment of an Ordinance

If you want to find these documents online, go to this page, and select the appropriate date.

A lot of people spoke during “oral communications” (they really need to change that name. ‘Public Comments’ seems much more appropriate). You can see the You Tube video here, but the whole show is almost six hours long! (they love to talk, and talk, and talk. It’s important that they express how MAGA they are) Most comments by the public were against the proposed actions.

Dr. Kathryn Hall, M.D., a long-time pediatrician in the area, who has treated many from Porterville over the years, spoke.

I said a few words, too.

The MAGA runs deep in this council. The Mayor and Vice-Mayor, at least in the two meetings I attended, tried very diligently to out-MAGA each other. Go watch some of their meeting video, if you have the stomach for it.

The Vice-Mayor doesn’t like being challenged on his ignorance. He takes it personally. He views folks who oppose these hate proposals as “triggered activists”. And after I spoke, he amended it to “triggered activists, from out of town”. He said he would not “participate in their psychosis”, referring to anyone who believes differently from him. The Vice-Mayor spoke disparagingly of the local LGBT+ center, essentially blaming it for gains made by the LGBT+ community in Tulare County. He was annoyed that anyone would speak confrontationally, and not grovel or kiss his ring. He condemned speakers for (paraphrasing, I’m not going back and try to find the exact words he used) yelling at them, rather than having a ‘conversation’. He seemed to forget that during ‘oral communications’, the public can only speak, and the council can only listen. There is no ‘conversation’ allowed by the Brown Act. He chastised speakers for being condescending towards the council, when most of his remarks on the issue were truly condescending of the public. I tell ‘ya, it’s all projection with these guys.

I did invite the council to contact The Source LGBT+ Center, and educate themselves with factual information on transgender issues. I’m not holding my breath on that.

Hate in a small town. It hasn’t been rooted out yet. It’s discouraging, but like I said during my comments, “we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going away”.

Porterville steps back into LGBTQ hate

February 23, 2025

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It’s like déjà vu all over again. Porterville’s current Mayor, Greg Meister, has proposed a new city ordinance, which he is calling “Protect Women’s Safe Spaces”. In it, he wants to bar “biological men” from using women’s facilities, locker rooms, or playing in women’s sports. Meister is quoted in the Porterville Recorder saying the ordinance is “really drawing some lines for sure”.

In 2008, Porterville became the only city in California to adopt a formal position on Proposition 8, which would have inserted into the state Constitution limits that would only recognize marriage as between a man and a woman (it passed, but was later rendered moot as SCOTUS made marriage equality the law of the land with Obergefell v. Hodges)(In 2024, California voters removed the language of Prop 8 from the state Constitution with Prop 3). The city council voted to urge Porterville voters to support Prop 8.

In 2013, then Mayor Virginia Gurrola issued a proclamation recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month in Porterville. All hell broke loose. In a fiasco-ridden panic to rescind the Mayor’s Proclamation (a proclamation she was entirely authorized to issue), it took three months for the other council members to get their act together and not only rescind the proclamation, but to remove the Mayor and Vice-Mayor from their ceremonial positions.

In 2014, then Mayor Cameron Hamilton became the right-wing echo chamber’s darling for his infamous “grow a pair” remarks, when a student-led anti-bullying program called “Safe Zones” was brought before the Council for support, by councilmember Virginia Gurrola. The conservative majority on the council wasn’t having anything to do with what they thought was a LGBT positive proposal. They shot it down, and Mayor Hamilton earned his 15 minutes of fame on Fox by uttering his now-infamous line.

In 2019, glimmers of hope were seen in Porterville, as then Mayor Martha Flores issued a proclamation recognizing May 22, 2019, as Harvey Milk Day. It was signed by the Mayor, and council members Milt Stowe, Monte Reyes, and Daniel Penaloza. Vice Mayor Brian Ward (author and instigator of many previous anti-LGBTQ actions by the Porterville City Council) did not sign the proclamation. (He was out of town at the time, but rest assured he would not have signed it regardless, in my opinion)

Also in 2019, on October 15, (a few days late due to scheduling issues) Porterville City Council recognized October 11 as National Coming Out Day. That proclamation was signed by Mayor Martha Flores, Vice Mayor Monte Reyes, council members Virginia Gurroloa, Milt Stowe, and Daniel Penaloza. Mayor Flores did throw some cold water on the festivities, however, when she, in an attempt, I assume, to sound inclusive, mentioned that she had “it” in her own family, referring to homosexuality.

We thought Porterville had turned a corner. We should have known better.

In 2021, more animus towards the LGBTQ community was on display when the city council decided that it needed to regulate billboards in the city, after The Source LGBT+ Center put up a couple of advertisements for STI testing.

Fast forward to 2025, and with a new administration in power in Washington, D.C., Porterville has decided it hasn’t been demonstrating it’s LGBTQ animus strongly enough recently. The Mayor, therefore, has decided to jump on the ‘transgender women are the devil’ bandwagon. Even though it very likely violates California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, Meister wants the city staff and attorney to bring an ordinance before the council that would ban “biological men” from “women’s spaces”.

Here’s an email I sent to Mayor Meister and the other members of the city council:

From: Jim Reeves <jim.visalia@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2025 1:55:44 PM
To: Greg Meister <gregmeister@ci.porterville.ca.us>
Cc: Raymond Beltran <raymondbeltran@ci.porterville.ca.us>; Ed McKervey <edmckervey@ci.porterville.ca.us>; Stan Green <stangreen@ci.porterville.ca.us>; AJ Rivas <ajrivas@ci.porterville.ca.us>
Subject: “Protect Women’s Safe Spaces”

Greg Meister, Porterville Mayor, and members of the City Council:

If the anti-trans bathroom ordinance proposed by Mayor Meister passes, and should the person pictured below have reason to visit your city, do you REALLY want him to walk into the women’s restroom? 

Meet Luke Ireland, U.S. Air Force. Both of these pictures are from the Air Force Times, the first from about a decade ago, the other from about three years ago. 

He is a trans man, and your proposal would require him to use the women’s facilities in Porterville. This proposal is a solution in search of a problem. There are no verifiable arrests or convictions of a trans-woman sexually assaulting a cis-woman or girl in a bathroom or locker room. It’s just not a thing, but you seem determined to embarrass Porterville by adding to its already notorious reputation as anti-LGBTQ. I thought Porterville was making progress, but we’ll see if and when this comes up for a vote if that progress is real, or just fantasy. 

I want you to consider the following scenario:

A man decides to follow a woman (or a young girl) into a restroom in order to sexually assault her. He does not want to attract attention, so what does he do? Just walk in? Risky. He stands out dressed like a man. Maybe someone sees him following his target into the restroom. As the ordinances stand now, if he wants to get in without attracting attention, he’ll need to get into some kind of women’s wear. 

Under your proposed ordinance, it will be common to see people who look like men walking into the women’s restroom, because you’ve required trans-men to use them. Our bad guy can now just walk right in, and if anyone challenges him, he can claim to be a trans-man, who you required to use this restroom. Nobody will know the difference, unless you’re going to post genital inspectors at the door. 

Knock off the anti-trans discrimination and hate, Mr. Mayor. It’s a bad look for you, and sets Porterville back a decade.

Jim Reeves

Visalia

jim.visalia@gmail.com

I’ve received nothing back except the following, from the Vice-Mayor, Ed McKervery:

“Go read what HHS stated about this.

Thanks for your input”

Protest rallies are planned for the next City Council meeting, where the first of many actions to pass this proposed ordinance may occur.

The Tulare Stonewall Democrats plan a protest rally to “Standup For Our Trans Community in Porterville“, 4:30 pm, Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in front of City Hall, 219 N Main Street, Porterville.

The city council meeting starts at 6:30pm.

How do you take the “T” out of Stonewall?

February 13, 2025

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In the Trump administration’s ongoing attempt to make transgender people disappear, they’ve removed the “T” from LGBT on the Stonewall National Monument webpage. How incredibly ironic (and stupid) is that? Do they think we’ll forget who started the resistance to the police raid? Do they think they can tell the history of Stonewall without mentioning the “T”?

Martha P. Johnson is, at least apocryphally, credited with throwing the first brick (or rock, or bottle, or whatever it might have been), as police raided the Stonewall Inn in 1969.

The National Park Service, is of course, bending to the Executive Order that Orange Idiot signed recently. I don’t know how they’re going to be able to tell the story of Stonewall without mentioning transgender activists who led the fight. In moments of cynicism, I suspect they’ll figure out some way to credit the resistance to some obscure white guy, a bit like a recent movie tried to do. (whatever happened to that movie? I think it might have clunked it’s way down to the basement of forgotten films rather quickly.)

From the National Park Service’s Stonewall opening page:

“By the time of Stonewall…we had 50 to 60 gay groups in the country. A year later…1500.”
Before the 1960s, almost everything about living openly as a lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) person was illegal. The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969 is a milestone in the quest for LGB civil rights and provided momentum for a movement.

Check out our video series about the history of the Stonewall uprising, the LGB rights movement and Stonewall NM today!

Last updated: February 13, 2025

(bolding and italics added by me)

From another part of the Stonewall page on the National Park Service’s site I ran across the following:

(Someone missed some banned language and letters here.)

Stonewall National Monument

Stonewall National Monument

Read the President’s Proclamation delcaring (SIC) Stonewall National Monument

The Stonewall Inn, a bar located in Greenwich Village, New York City, was the scene of an uprising against police repression that led to a key turning point in the struggle for the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. In a pattern of harassment of LGBT establishments, the New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn in the early hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969. The reaction of the bar’s patrons and neighborhood residents that assembled in the street was not typical of these kinds of raids. Instead of dispersing, the crowd became increasingly angry and began chanting and throwing objects as the police arrested the bar’s employees and patrons. Reinforcements were called in by the police, and for several hours they tried to clear the streets while the crowd fought back. The initial raid and the riot that ensued led to six days of demonstrations and conflicts with law enforcement outside the bar, in nearby Christopher Park, and along neighboring streets. At its peak, the crowds included several thousand people.

The events of Stonewall, as the uprising is most commonly referred to, marked a major change in the struggle for “homophile rights” in the U.S., with lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender people beginning to vocally and assertively demand their civil rights. Stonewall is regarded by many as the single most important catalyst for the dramatic expansion of the LGBT civil rights movement. The riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize and within two years of Stonewall, LGBT rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the U.S. Stonewall was, as historian Lillian Faderman wrote, “the shot heard round the world…crucial because it sounded the rally for the movement.”

Today, the site of the uprisings in Greenwich Village is recognized as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) by the National Park Service and is considered significant under NHL Criterion 1 because of its association with events that outstandingly represent the struggle for civil rights in America. This NHL includes the bar, Christopher Park, and the streets where the events of June 28-July 3, 1969, occurred. The Stonewall Inn is located at 51-53 Christopher Street, New York City, New York and is open to the public.

The link to the President’s Proclamation, however, leads to this page:

Now, I don’t think Trump himself is all that worked up about transgender people. It’s his minions, especially Elon Musk, who are driving this. Musk has misgendered and dead-named his trans child, so I suspect much of this erasing is coming from his personal hatred of transgenderism. He’s not a person used to not getting his way, and he’s striking out and hurting whoever he can. And he doesn’t care who gets hurt.

Oh, BTW, don’t let NPS know they missed some of the forbidden words on this page. Let us hope they’re there because someone at NPS’s IT office knows the Orange Idiot’s minions wouldn’t think to look past the splash page. shhhhhh

It Will Always Be LGBTQ+, and more

February 1, 2025

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Screenshot

It doesn’t matter if Orange Dimwit orders the “T”in LGBT be dropped from government websites and documents. It’s not going away from where it really matters: our communities.
It doesn’t matter if the right wing echo chamber talking heads say trans people don’t exist. They’re lying and are fools.
It doesn’t matter because we have your backs, and won’t stop fighting the bigotry and hatred.
This applies to the “Q+” as well. And every other part of the “alphabet mafia”, too.
We’ve come too far, and destroyed too many closets. We’re not going to walk quietly into new ones.
We’re here, we’re queer, and they just poked the tiger.

In some minds, gay still equals pedophile

July 12, 2024

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Back on February 16, 2024, the Valley Voice, a local newspaper, published in it’s Opinion section a letter from the local PFLAG chapter. It generated a response that I should have expected, but was a bit surprised to see. I take hope in that it was only one such reply.

Basically, Dave M., a gentleman I know personally, took exception to the Pride flag, and Pride month, claiming that there were “a goodly number of gay pedophiles”. He finds the flag and the month offensive.

Here’s the Valley Voice article:

OPINION
PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties: Our families deserve better
Posted on February 16, 2024 by PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties


LGBTQIA2S+ people are under attack. Especially transgender and nonbinary folks. We know from history and science that there have always been those who are queer or intersex or gay or asexual or gender nonconforming. We know that these are normal variations of the human condition. Biology is complicated. Yet some people choose to see this as a danger. There has been a huge increase in laws limiting the freedom of individuals to use the names and pronouns they choose and the restroom best fitting their gender. There have been laws to prevent students from competing in sports as their own gender. There are laws to prevent minors from receiving the treatment that they and their parents want for them in accordance with their medical and mental health providers. The end game has been spelled out—the aim is to force transgender adults to detransition. To achieve this, laws have been passed in some states to prevent teachers, medical providers and mental health professionals from discussing sexuality, gender, race, abortion, and other important topics. By not allowing access to accurate information in schools and libraries, young people are learning from their peers and the internet—sometimes very unreliable sources.

Ignorance and hostility to the LGBT+ community put our youth at higher risk of physical and mental health problems, poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, and other adverse outcomes. When the entire community supports and celebrates its LGBT+ members everyone prospers.

This harmful and unnecessary anti-LGBT+ legislation is why the Human Rights Campaign has declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans. Limiting free speech, bodily autonomy, access to knowledge, and parents’ rights to appropriate medical and psychological treatment for their children is un-American, and we need to call it out. It is time for straight allies to stand up and demand an end to this persecution of our LGBT+ friends and families. Vote as if their lives depend on it—because they do.

PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties Board Members
Kathryn Hall, MD
Cathy Brass
Katia Clark
Jonathan Ward
Rev. Suzanne Ward
Jim Reeves

4 thoughts on “PFLAG Tulare & Kings Counties: Our families deserve better”
(Commenter ID is a unique per-article, per-person commenter identifier. If multiple names have the same Commenter ID, it is likely they are the same person. For more information, click here.)

kelly says:
March 4, 2024 at 12:18 pm (Commenter ID: e5ca2820)
I understand that what I just read is an “opinion,” its also a idiotic one that says “we know “ from history and science that there have always been LGBQ and on and on, kinds of people. Well there has always been mental illness, child abuse , and many more things that people can easily claim they were born with…. not everything should be celebrated and those who encourage those with gender dysphoria, especially minors to undergo radical surgeries that cut off body parts should be put in prison.

Reply
Jim Reeves says:
March 5, 2024 at 3:19 pm (Commenter ID: a93d4c73)
It’s clear from Kelly’s remarks that we still have a lot of educating to do in our area.
Only the first ten words of her post are factual. The rest spring from ignorance, misinformation, and outright lies told to mislead.

Reply
Dave M says:
June 15, 2024 at 4:46 pm (Commenter ID: 6690a22a)
Jim, I know you as a respectable and a respectful gay man. However, clearly you do not want to recognize the truth that there are a goodly number of gay pedophiles, (yes some teaching in our schools,) who are after especially the teens. Because your chosen flag represents those perverts, I cannot and will not support it! Yes, I find the whole month of June being set aside most offensive!

Reply
Jim Reeves says:
July 12, 2024 at 3:55 pm (Commenter ID: a93d4c73)
You’re simply wrong about that, Dave.
Straight pedophiles vastly outnumber those that are gay. You tend to hear about the gay ones because that sells newspapers and generates ‘clicks’ online. There is no more “a goodly number” of gay pedophiles than there are in any other group you might want to focus upon.
While there are certainly gay teachers, there’s no more of a likelihood of them being pedophiles than straight teachers. Indeed, if we go by the general population statistics, there is a 90% chance that any pedophile teachers are straight.
I also want to be sure you are clear on what pedophilia is: it’s the sexual attraction to PRE-pubescent children. I suspect you are equating pedophilia with hebephilia, the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14, and ephebophilia, the sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19.
Ask any woman how many men hit on or sexually harassed her almost the moment she hit puberty. Those were not gay men.
Most straight men are not pedophiles.
Most gay men are not pedophiles.
Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation, nor does it have anything to do with one’s sexual orientation.
Pride month and the Pride flag represent a large number of wonderful, intelligent, artistic, caring, loving, brave, outgoing, shy, professionals, artists, laborers, and more. Basically, every type of person you can think of.
I’ll keep flying my flag, and celebrating Pride month.

Déjà vu all over again: Liberty Hill, Texas

June 27, 2023

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In 2008, the City Council of Porterville, California became the first and only government body to formally vote to urge residents to support Proposition 8 on the statewide ballot. That proposition would go on to pass, and banned marriage equality (AKA gay marriage) in the state. In 2013, after appeals and rulings, the United States District Court would strike down the initiative as un-Constitutional. (In 2015, the United States Supreme Court would rule that marriage equality bans were a violation of the US Constitution as well, and struck down all bans.)

What has this to do with Liberty Hill, Texas? That’s the déjà vu all over again.

On June 14, 2023, Mayor Liz Branigan of Liberty Hill, Texas, issued a proclamation, designating June as Pride Month.

I’m sure Liberty Hill has, like most communities, a lot of issues for local government to deal with. It takes something like a Pride Proclamation to get the folks of the town to pay attention. They showed up at the city council meeting, most of them not happy. You’d think the Mayor had just imposed ‘wokeness’ on them, and the citizens now have to wear stylish clothes and listen to Drag Queens read them children’s stories.

Here is the text of the entire proclamation:

PRIDE PROCLAMATION
Whereas, Liberty Hill is a Loving, Wholesome and Family-centered community; and
Whereas, Liberty Hill is an inclusive and supportive community; and
Whereas, We value all of our citizens because of the unique and precious nature of all of God’s children; and
Whereas, We oppose hate, abuse, discrimination or bullying of any person,
Now Therefore, I, Liz Branigan, as Mayor, do proclaim the month of June as Pride Month in Liberty Hill, in harmony with the larger community of the United States.
Proclaimed this the 14th day of June 2023.

Mayor Liz Branigan

That’s rather bland, isn’t it? It doesn’t even specifically refer to LGBTQ. That didn’t stop the “loving Christians” from flooding the council chambers and going off on the ‘slippery slope’ the city was forcing on them.

This is almost a replay of the events of June, 2013, in Porterville, California. Porterville is a small city in Central California, smack in the buckle of the state’s very red, very conservative Bible belt of the central valley. Kevin McCarthy is the Congressman for the area, as Devin Nunes was before him.

Here’s a blog I wrote about the Porterville proclamation, before it was issued.

When the proclamation was issued by Porterville’s mayor, all hell broke loose. (Kudos to Liberty Hill for not having a scene anything like Porterville’s.)

It should be noted that up until this proclamation, the process to issue one in Porterville was similar to Liberty Hill’s. The mayor gets an application from someone in the community, they decide if it meets the very basic requirements, and if so it gets placed on the agenda. Someone on city staff prints up the proclamation, it’s slipped into one of those blue folders, the Mayor and, if they desire, the city council members sign it. It’s then presented at a council meeting, usually to the person that initiated the request.

The only person to sign Porterville’s proclamation was the Mayor, Virginia Gurrola. Here’s the Porterville proclamation.

Another one of those “divisive” “gay agenda” things being “rammed down their throats”.

The proclamation did not go over well.

Other city council members decided enact another first in the nation (as far as we can ascertain), and rescind the proclamation in a formal vote. That didn’t work out as first planned, because the council members were in such a rush to undo what the Mayor had done that they didn’t add it to the agenda correctly. Thus began a Keystone Kops caper stretching over the summer as the other council members struggled to get it right. They eventually did, and rescinded the Pride proclamation, and ‘replaced’ it with a proclamation of “A Month of Community Charity and Goodwill to All in Porterville”. Doesn’t that sound like something that was said in the Liberty Hill meeting?

So now Liberty Hill Texas has a choice. Will they wish their LGBT community a happy Pride Month, or will they go the Porterville route, and fight tooth and nail to remove a rather milquetoast proclamation? Will they vilify the mayor?

The Visalia Times Delta published a blog post I wrote about the entire situation in the September 21-22, 2013 print edition of the Opinion page. You can read it here.

It’ll be interesting to see what Liberty Hill decides to do.

Like I said, déjà vu all over again.

I’ve figured out who turned me gay…

March 17, 2023

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The right-wing loons have for a while now been going ballistic about drag queens “grooming” children. They claim that children will be ‘seduced’ (or something) into the LGBTQ lifestyle if they have a “man in a dress” read stories to them. It always seemed like nonsense to me, but I’ve been thinking recently about an event in my life when I was about 5 years old that may hold the key to my homosexuality. It all dates back to a home-made soft drink.

It is, apparently, very easy to turn someone gay. A rainbow flag, a drag queen reading a children’s story, gay characters on television. Franklin Graham thinks inviting gay children into your home won’t turn them straight, but will turn your kids gay.

Graham said, “I was talking to some Christians and they were talking about how they invited these gay children to come into their home and to come to church and that they were wanting to influence them.

“And I thought to myself, they’re not going to influence those kids, those kids are going to influence those parent’s children.”

The power of “the gay” is so much greater than the allegedly default heterosexual orientation.

This explains why I’m gay.

My parents were both straight. My sisters are straight. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and most (if not all) of my teachers were straight. I don’t recall seeing homosexuals on television or in the movies unless they were depicted as criminal, insane, predatory, molesters, or suicidal. Certainly nothing in the general media I ever saw was positive. So how did I end up gay?

Well, I think I may have been slipped a gay mickey when I was five.

One evening my parents took me and my younger sister with them to visit a friend of theirs. I remember being uneasy at his house, uncomfortable around him. Now this could just have been my natural shyness, but I’ve always had this memory of that man being somewhat effeminate. I could be mis-remembering that, however. (It was sixty years ago, after all!)

This gentleman had a bar set up in his home. (a popular thing in the 60’s was to have a small bar in the den or family room) He mixed up some drinks for my parents, and offered to make me one. I was not comfortable with the idea. In my 5 year old mind it seemed strange that a grown-up would be offering to mix me up a drink. I didn’t say anything, but my parents said it was OK.

He grabbed a glass, and began mixing up a drink, handing it to me when he was done. My parents told me to go ahead and drink it. I took a cautious sip, and was very surprised. “It’s a Pepsi!” I exclaimed. The adults laughed at me a bit, not in a mean way, and I continued to drink my soda.

Well, that must have been it. Along with the caramel coloring, flavoring, and soda water, he must have slipped the “gay mickey” in there as well. It’s obviously tasteless, because even at 5 years old I was very discerning in my soda consumption.

Acknowledging gay kids in school or church, having drag queens read children stories, and flying the rainbow flag “grooms” kids to be gay. I suppose the mickies aren’t needed any more, since those things are so much more powerful than “normal” orientation.

So here’s to being ‘seduced’ into gayness by a spiked soft drink. It only took another thirty years to come into full effect.

Disclaimer: I do NOT really believe I was turned gay by a spiked soda. There’s no such thing. Drag queens don’t “groom” kids, gay kids can’t turn other kids gay, and a rainbow flag can’t flap the gayness right into someone.

What I do believe is that the right-wing loons are simply haters who will do or say anything to disseminate their hatred of the LGBTQ community. Well, as the old saying goes, “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!”

Anyone want a soda? I’ve got this great recipe. 😉

Happy Pride 2022!

June 1, 2022

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Happy Pride! Make it a good month. Here in California, it’s going to be a hot one… and the weather will be on the warm side, too.

The Boys Are Back

January 26, 2022

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You just can’t keep a good guy down. Or two good guys. After a (very) short hiatus, the boys in Porterville are back up.

The first sign.

Their first appearance in Porterville generated some angst when a local preacher decided this was just too much for his poor high-school-aged son to see. Apparently, if you stand at the far corner of the school’s property, and look north, you could see our boys. This generated an appearance before the City Council, and a plea to do something about it. They did. Billboards in the city will eventually be timed out, but it’s going to take some years before that happens. No word on if the preacher is molified.

The second sign

The scheduled appearance of our boys was up, but since Tulare County has a severe STI problem, and has for decades, they have made a comeback! Another billboard further south has appeared, posted along State Route 65, just north of the Tule River.

These signs join at least two others in the county, alerting people to STI testing services at The Source LGBT+ Center in Visalia.

No word on whether the preacher is upset that homeless folks living in the riverbed may see the sign.

A sign of the times: more

November 15, 2021

Jim Reeves commentary, Gay, News, Pictures , , , , , 1 Comment

Another sign of the times, this one just south of Visalia on Mooney Blvd. One of several rotating messages on an electronic billboard, this one still promoting STI testing but with a different image.

I haven’t heard of any complaints, so far. I’ll assume the Visalia City Council won’t hear about it, since it’s in the county, but will someone complain to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors? We’ll see.

Stay tuned.

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