Davodd.com

• AP: Mich. high court says gay partners can’t get health benefits
  The court ruled 5-2 that Michigan’s 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers.
  (tags: LGBT same-sexmarriage)
• Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson joins Ball State faculty
  Bart Peterson, former two-term mayor of Indianapolis and most recently a fellow with the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has accepted an appointment as distinguished visiting professor of public policy at Ball S
  (tags: Indiana ballstate)

 Carrie Coyle, Anka Terry, Doug Cruzan, Kristin Noble, King David Rudolf and Brad Wagner pile on the couch at Hollywood House.

This was the “entertainment tower” I had in 1988 in the infamous Hollywood House as Ball State, with matching mini-fridge. Notice, it is decked out with an actual dual-deck cassette tape player – which was used for making mix tapes. Good times (analog style). And notice the “hanging clock” proving my sense of style was screaming for a Queer Eye makeover.

 This sign hung on the Hollywood House’s bathroom door for years. It was a gift from my sister-in-law.

Hollywood House interior. Fro living room looking into kitchen.

 Julie Hall at a Hollywood House Party, 1989.

Doug Cruzan Rob Miller David Rouille at a Hollywood House Party

Here, Dan Barcus, not wanting his picture taken at the Hollywood House, poses showing his best side. Gotta love the late-1980s acid washed jeans, tres chic.

Chris Barton was sick and tired of being permanently single. He decided he needed a new pick-up line since most of the guys he met were nominally heterosexual.

He settled on, “You need to come to terms with your sexuality, and the demands I want to place on it.”

I’ve told this story a few times to a few people, but usually in passing and not with as much detail as I’m about to go into now.

I met Hillary Clinton briefly – very briefly – back in 1992 when she was just the wife of then-candidate Bill Clinton. I think it was at a rally in the Detroit area — but it could have been in Illinois. There were so many last-minute events I attended that year that they are starting to blur together into one big happy memory of when things were going right for the United States.

Anyway… back to the point.

Along with being active for LGBT rights in Indiana and at Ball State, I was one of the leaders of the University Democrats at Ball State and as a result spent many weekends (and some week days) traveling to cities all around the Midwest working for and meeting candidates.

When I met the Clintons, at one such event, Bill was dutifully schmoozing with the big shots. Somehow in my hovering at the periphery, I ended up in a group of people that included Hillary.

If I remember correctly, I was wearing some random “practice Safe Sex” shirt that day. She read my shirt, and looked me in the eye like I was an old friend and introduced herself, as she did everyone else in the group. Then she started talking about issues to the group of people I was in – real substantive issues. This was a shock to me. As a semi-veteran of political events, even in my early 20s, I was quite familiar with candidate’s expected “wifey” behavior roles.

The candidate wives were and probably still are a Stepford-type of semi-robot who smile and nod and compliment the city/state/region you are in. That’s it. Nothing else that mattered came out of their faces, like marshmallow fluff – sweet and leaving you with a slight icky feeling once they left.

But not so with Hillary. She listened to us intently and took particular interest in hearing the ideas of even the people who normally didn’t speak up. And when the topic of gay and lesbian rights came up, Hillary didn’t shy away or try to change the subject to AIDS prevention. She dove right in with a message that has stayed consistent to this day.

To her, women’s rights are basic human rights. Gay rights are basic human rights. She said in so many words, we need to fight for what we believe in in a systematic an logical fashion to eventually whittle the bigots down in order to claim victory.

I was surprised by her depth of understanding on the topics people brought up and her realistic approach to how to get incremental, permanent change in an all-too-conservative world.

I left that brief meeting impressed with the Clintons – and more than slightly disappointed that quite possibly the wrong Clinton was running for president in 1992.

I know there is no way Hillary could remember me, I was but one of a group of people. But she still took the time to make each of us feel important enough to have an opinion that deserved to be heard. So, I will never forget her.

Ever since then, I have been a big fan of hers and the glee in my household with her come-from-behind win in New Hampshire Tuesday was palpable.

And that’s why, when I got my absentee primary ballot earlier this week, within 5 minutes, I skipped past Obama, Edwards and the rest and voted for Hillary with a fond smile.

PHOTO CREDITS: HillaryClinton.com