Sometimes I Can't Stop Cryin

I have known a lot of people who have passed away due to AIDS complications. That's what it's called when the virus has successfully been able to hinder a necessary function of your body.

Sometimes I feel lonely, because so many of my good friends are gone and I cry.
Sometimes I wonder why AIDS didn't get me and I cry.
Sometimes I think about all the pills that are necessary for someone with AIDS to take and how at times the pills make them sick or don't work at all, and I cry.
Sometimes I run across a picture of one of my friends smiling as they posed for the camera and I cry.
Sometimes, I can't recall all the names of everyone that I've known to pass away from AIDS when you watch one of those shows about AIDS and at the end they do something to pay tribute to those that have gone, and I cry.
Sometimes I think about my friends who passed before the drugs that came around to make them look like they are healthy, and I cry.
Sometimes I think about the new people in my life that over the years I have learned to love to fill the empty spaces of my other friends and I cry.
Sometimes when I see one of my departed friends relatives and they hug me real tight, I cry.
I miss my friends and I cry.

Sometimes I can't stop crying. When will I be able to stop crying?












Photo by Greg McNeal

Emile Griffith

This is Emile Griffith, from the Virgin Islands. He was a boxer in the late 50s and early 60s. There were a lot of rumors about whether he was gay or not. Evidently Emile has never given an answer that has quite satisfied anyone. So much so that it seems he has been deemed to even have a medical condition that causes him to be confused about whether he is gay or straight.

Now I don't know anyone that has ever had this condition before and I'm not saying that he doesn't have it by any means. However, he supposedly developed this disease after being mugged and beaten badly. An article about Emile on Wikipedia states...

In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, allegedly after leaving a gay bar. Today, Griffith requires fulltime care and suffers from pugilistic dementia. According to Sports Illustrated, the Alzheimer's-like condition makes him confused about his sexuality, and he sometimes declares himself to be heterosexual, other times he identifies as gay and other times, as bisexual, but one that prefers women.






There were rumors about Emile long before 1992 one boxer (Benny "the Kid" Paret) that he fought who unfortunately died due to there fight on March 24, 1962, called him a maricon (spanish for fagfot).

The death of Paret caused much controvery in the boxing world. Boxing was not televised until the 1970s after Paret's death.

I write all this to say the following:

• He was born on an extremely homophobic island, why wouldn't he deny his homosexuality?



• He was a boxer. In the sports industry even today we know how difficult it is for someone to admit that they are gay.



• I'll never understand why it is so important for people to be able to categorize and undermine those that they deam less worthy of respect than themselves.



• Lastly, homophobia is the fear of becoming a homosexual. Why are so many people afraid of becoming what they supposedly don't think that they are. If one knows they are straight are they afriad that they'll fall on some dic azz first or into some azz?
  

If you get the opportunity rent the DVD Ring of Fire that documents this time in Emile Griffith's life and his present life. It's a sad story that doesn't talk a whole lot about his homosexuality but one commentator in the documentary makes no hesitation in stating the Emile is Gay. It's a tragic story that I'm sure would effect the lives of anyone that would have to go through what he did. Watch the deleted scenes too. Those are even more interesting.

In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we just all get along?"

Jennifer Lewis

I went to the Jennifer Lewis one woman show Bipolar, Bath and Beyond last Saturday.

Thank you Fred!

The show was great! She is just plain funny. If you saw Jackie's Back then you know what I'm talking about. If you don't get a chance to see Jennifer's one woman show then at least rent Jackie's Back. Trust me you won't regret it if your looking for a good old fashion laugh.

Jennifer has the ability to make you feel as if she is talking directly to you or as if you are listening to one of your relatives who just can't do anything but tell it like it is.

I'm going to the show again this Saturday. I can't wait. And like Fred said on his site. Don't do anything that might be considered disrupting to her show cuz she will clown you. I mean she will stop right in the middle of talking and address yo azz. Some folks had the nerve to come into the show 30 minutes late. Didn't she stop talking and literally ran up the aisle to address them and tell them to sit the hell down. Then mumbled motha fukahs. Sounded like something I would say...after all those are two of my favorite words. :-)

Oh yeah if you do go to the show I hope you are not offended by ...uh words that a pristine woman of leisure might describe as gutter talk. If you are she won't care anyway!