March 20, 2009

I was selected for jury duty this week. I assumed it would be just a day watching TV and not be called. Late Tuesday I was seated on a civil case. When the attorney asked questions as to personal viewpoints on a number of subjects, I needed to be totally candid, lest my judgment be clouded by the causes for which I fight. It turned out to be a case that had no relation to my activism.

Without a lot of detail, we finished up at 11 AM Thursday. It was a relatively simple case, but also interesting. When you do things like this, you soon form a bond with the people you see every morning and all day. I'm actually going to miss a few people on the jury. Perhaps we can run into each other in some other venue.

This was the first time I'd been on a jury since my transition became complete, so it was one of those 'firsts' we all have. Last time I was called was the morning of 9/11, so obviously everything was canceled that day. We had a shock when a false alarm was turned in late Wednesday. The loud speakers blared that there was an emergency in the building and for us to evacuate the courthouse. We had to follow the deputy down six flights of stairs, which meant I picked a bad day to wear heels. It turned out a child pulled the lever. That meant we had to go back upstairs to have our parking tickets validated. Someone said they hoped the kid was doing hard time over this. Of course, I would never say anything like that.

It was announced last month by The Southern Poverty Law Center that the number of hate groups has jumped 54% since 2000. California has the largest number, but there are 45 known hate groups within the state of South Carolina where we do most of our outreach in Sean's Last Wish. Those are the groups we know of. It also means SC has the largest number of hate groups on a per capita basis. You can read the article here. There are some good people working hard in SC, including The South Carolina Progressive Network. We know it's an uphill battle.

Our Sean's Last Wish board of directors and volunteer meeting was two weeks ago. We heard the voice mail Sean's killer left while Sean was dying. I won't repeat what he said but it sent chills down my spine. It was best we heard it. People need to know what we are working against.

My six month physical was last week. This one was intensive and all is well. As I get older, I become increasingly thankful for my health. It's something I don't take for granted. Of course there is a procedure you need to have after hormones have taken effect. This will be my third one and it's as uncomfortable as they say it is.

One final word on the HRC dinner of Feb 21st. A gentleman who once served with HRC wrote an insightful article in Q-Notes. I thought his thoughts were very much on target. Read it here.

I should have written a couple weeks ago that the 32nd anniversay of the ABBA tour of Australia was March 3rd. I wonder if anyone else keeps up with the things I do.