“Ryan White funding does not consider ‘food pantry/home delivery meals’ a core medical service,” AFH chief executive officer, Kelly McCann, said in an October 19 statement to the press. “Therefore, effective immediately, Houston’s Resource Group and the Department of State Health Services have changed the eligibility requirements of this service category, which funds our Stone Soup Food Assistance Program.”
On October 7, 2009, American Planning Association recognized the Montrose neighborhood as one of its 10 Great Neighborhoods. Ranking among 30 US neighborhoods cited for exemplary character, quality, and planning, Montrose represents “the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow,” according to APA’s website.
As it does each year to commemorate National Coming Out Day, the Houston GLBT Political Caucus presented its annual leadership awards. Texas State Rep. Garnet Coleman received the Eleanor Tinsley Award, given to a person who does not identify LGBT but has been an outstanding advocate for the LGBT community. Rep. Coleman represents the 147th District in the Texas House of Representatives.
Though the state of Texas does not recognize same-sex marriages performed within its borders or in other states, a Dallas-area judge has approved a divorce between two men married in Massachusetts in 2006.
Last November, gay artist Kelly Faltermayer was chosen from nearly 200 applicants to be the featured artist at Houston’s annual Via Colori festival, a celebration of pastel chalk art on concrete. He won the prestigious top billing as a result of his vivid interpretation of a mandrill, a baboon-like primate with colorful facial markings found in tropical rain forests.
Faltermayer delighted early visitors as he created the festival’s large signature artwork on a Saturday morning, layering and blending colors, slowly bringing the animal to life. “It takes strong thighs” he laughs, recalling the creation process.
It begins, most obviously, with the articulation of her name. The “Kay” appears to rhyme with “day” but instead rhymes with “die.” This disjunct is symbolic of everything about Nellie McKay. She seems, in photographs and on paper, as a sweet, doll-like charmer. But McKay is no amusement park kewpie. Beguiling, true, but artistically and intellectually McKay confounds easy expectations, refusing to be placed peacefully onto some neat, categorized pop music shelf.
Our cat got out last night. Balmy summer evenings must be the call of the kitty-wild to Dear Pussy (not her real name).
Wifey and I took turns calling her from out the front door and then the back. She ignored our coaxing. Maybe you heard us—or some other equally desperate cat owner—stage-whisper, hissing into the past-bedtime darkness, “Psss-psss-psss, kitty kitty kitty, psss-psss-psss!”
It would have been difficult to imagine that the young woman who penned a firebrand bestseller known for its frank depictions of lesbianism in the early ’70s would later become more noted to a new generation of readers through a series of books “co-authored” by her cat. Still, whether it’s the pungent citrus of the Rubyfruit Jungle or the sweet confection of the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries, Rita Mae Brown has continued to confound, surprise, and enthrall with the diversity of her talent, as well as political and sociological fearlessness. This is a liberation advocate who famously tussled with pioneering protofeminist Betty Friedan over Friedan’s vocal exclusion of lesbians in the women’s right movement. This is a cultural explorer who sported a mustache and man drag to infiltrate the infamous Club Baths in New York, all in an effort to study gay male sexuality. Brown’s private life was as attention-getting as her literary and socio-political excursions. Among her list of lovers were politician Elaine Nobel, the first openly gay candidate elected to a state legislature, and actress-comedienne and Fried Green Tomatoes author Fannie Flagg. In the late ’70s, Brown scandalously bedhopped from tennis star Martina Navratilova to Navratilova’s notorious, litigious ex, Judy Nelson.
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading “Achtung, Baby: AIDS is a mass murderer” [“AIDS Watch” by Kelly McCann, October]. It has enlightened me on some things and taught me some things, too. Please give a special thank-you to Kelly McCann for the great job she did on this article.
Prince Bailey
Houston, Texas
RuGone are the days when dog kennels resembled something out of an all-canine version of Oz. Three of Houston’s finest puppy palaces are more like four-legged Four Seasons. A dog’s life? We should all be so lucky.
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