Having grown up in Bessemer (side track homes all over the south-east: my step-father traveled for Goodyear Tire & Rubber), I am very glad to see leadership arising in Bessemer's Gay community in the works of Joe Openshaw (
http://www.examiner.com/x-17183-Birmingham-Gay-Community-Examiner) who was my neighbor in Bessemer when I first returned home after 30 years in Hollywood and travel around the world. We have stayed in close touch since I left Bessemer and moved to it's Big Sister City (Birmingham) after my house fire in Dec. 2008.
Joe has been a steady voice for all Bessemer residents as well as the emerging gay community on Bessemer's South Side. Always on top of events, nationally and locally, Joe is a fine representative and a great source for ANYONE concerned with their hometown and local political events. His Bessemer Opinions Blog (
www.bessemeropinions.com) will now concentrate on all issues affecting all the people in Bessemer, and the new Examiner site will be a clearing house of info on the gay community in Jefferson County, Alabama and, of course, nationally.
Jefferson County was in the forefront, good and bad, during the civil rights movement in the 1950's and it is proper and fitting that the struggle for equality under the law for Gay men and women have a strong voice here. There are no more or less gay men and women living in Jefferson County than when I was growing up--the difference is that the younger generation of Gay people are no longer willing to lower their heads in anonymous shame. There is less shame and more people willing to step forward and be counted. Martin Luther King said, and I loosely quote him, "The arc of justice for all humanity is slow, but moves slowly forward" Joe Openshaw should be acknowledged for what he is: a pioneer for Gay Rights in the heart of the heart of Dixie, Jefferson County, Alabama. We are, indeed, lucky such dedicated journalists are at work because the American and world-wide press is in a time of great change and needs solid, trustworthy investigative journalism. We have that in Joe Openshaw. Please do check out his sites.
I’m working on my French accent. Kitty Urquhart in Mountain Brook has been an angel and really helped me get a deeper understanding of the French people. She studied in France as a young woman and now splits her time between Alabama and a farm in the French countryside outside Paris. She has been an incredible resource during my research before shooting FINDING GAUGUIN. I am meeting so many wonderful folks in my hometown!
Everyone stay Cool. It's the 16th of July and the real heat (for Alabamians in particular) is yet to come!
