Diversity’s PDA

Summer Diversity proved to have a fine public display of affection (PDA), that annual celebration in Basin Spring Park for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered communities along with their Straight friends and supporters. Kisses and hugs and good feelings abound. Sparky, one of the organizers from Eureka Pride, always gets hats for the crowd. This year it was red hats and Viking helmets. At some mysterious time, everyone gathers for the Big Picture. The ever-shy Sparky is the one with arm up, kind of (?) lower right:

This year was particularly noteworthy for the lack of counter-demonstrators, organized biker crews who had come in and raised the ramparts to high heaven. (They were neither large in number not high rampart-raisers but they tested the mettle of the peaceful PDA.) We’d heard the rampart-raisers were again coming this year, but they didn’t show– at least while we were there. We saw bikers for sure, but they were all, so far as we could tell, of the rainbow clan.

We ran into Mark Hughes, who had a couple of placards ready for the anti-gay crowd with quotes from the Bible. One was the famous quote from Leviticus forbidding the eating of seafood:

A second that’s become popular recently is God’s love of immigrants:

We ran into the Turnocks, Don and Marie. We asked Don what he was celebrating as a Viking this year, and he said, “Anything.” Marie had donned a red hat for the day, making it look like they were indeed celebrating:

This Diversity was also the year Deborah Rose and her partner, of Diversity Pride, had a spiritual gathering for our communities as part of the weekend. We ran into Rev. Debbie Starnes at the PDA, minister in the Inclusive Celtic Church, She would be part of a later panel at THE Aud.

I thought, none of my old ministers had Starnes cache, and enjoyed the informality of it all. I asked the reverend what her church was like, and she said all-inclusive though mostly from the LGBT communities.

She added that the church is “in Anglican in tradition, and Celtic in heritage.” As a one-time Episcopalian who has never lost my love of that tradition, I was interested, Anglicans being a sort of mama in a way of the Episcopalians.

Starnes was there with her partner Lynn Whitley, left, who had been booked to sing in two different places over the weekend.

We chatted a bit, and they told me they had just bought “Garden of Dreams,” the lodging and wedding chapel that had belonged to Steve Shell and Jerry Ganong. They are moving in soon. The two plan on holding wedding ceremonies in the wedding chapel, which will be a boon to our communities in this town, and those who come in for the Domestic Partners Registry.

While we were there, Mountain Sprout entertained the crowd. One of the most popular groups in town, they are, and it’s no wonder.

Here’s a snippet of them while at the Park but you’ll probably want to cut off before the end, where things begin to fade out. No idea why. (Please wait for file to load after clicking.)

mountain-sprout

Vendors were there. Among those I caught was Vicki Rose who was charming the youngsters with her tattoos. I didn’t know that you needed to put talc on a tattoo to give it staying power. Hmm.

Two groups of Native Americans were showing their hand-crafted jewelry. Alan and Kaylynn Flucard were there. We had known Alan and Kaylynn from the Cherokee Store, when Alan had brought us fresh trout from Roaring River. The trout were so good my partner talked me into a Missouri fishing license, and we started fishing ourselves, bringing in enough for last winter.

We caught a shot of a second Native American couple, Jamie and Arthur Graham. We’ll no doubt be hearing more from them in the near future.

As for the rest– our camera batteries went dead. But the day was alive with good folk, all the day and the night. It was a great time for Eureka Springs.