Ah, another beautiful Hawaiian Saturday... as usual, we made it volleyball around 2pm, although we've added a couple of stops along the way now, and Saturday is becoming just as much about getting stuff done as about Volleyball. See, we deliver flowers along the way, so we have to get up early and pick them and process them, before packing everything in to the Jeep for the trip across the island. Now, we have found much better prices on produce at one of the farmer's markets along the way, so we stop there too and load up with veggies.
It had appearently been raining heavily on the east side that morning, but it had pretty much stopped by the time we got to the Banana Boyz farm. And, although it stayed overcast, it was pleasant and not too cold. We got started playing volleyball almost as soon as we got there, and the activity kept us warm!
But, I guess we never got around to mentioning to anyone that we were planning on leaving early to make dinner at a friends beach house at the end of the day. So, when we quickly re-packed the Jeep, and began to make our exit (taking the music with us, the Jeep being the sound system afterall) we got all sorts of confused and troubled looks of: "Why are you leaving?! Its only 5!
Ooops, Sorry everybody!
We arrived at the gated subdivision long enough before sunset to have a look around, and getting to eat dinner before the two hour drive home is a real treat. The beach house was a cute bungalow packed with several others around a cul-de-sac of ocean, where developers had built right out to the edge of the water back inthe days before such things were regulated and frowned upon. There was a very pleasant breeze and the sound of the ocean breaking against the lanai. Around the bungalows have been built salt water fish ponds, and we got to see our first Humuhumunukunukuapuaa. (It's pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah)

Labels: Hawaii

link | posted by Reese at 9:14 AM
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A friend from San Francisco sent me a link to his video of the Radical Faeries celebrating John Burnside's 90th birthday. John Burnside, Harry Hay's surviving partner, continues to be a centering figure for the faeries in San Francisco. I truly miss Saturday tea where many of us would come together to reset ourselves from the previous week. 'Faerie Coffee', as it was called when I started going, still goes. See: California, San Francisco entry on http://www.radfae.org/localcircles.htm

The video gave me glimpses of some of those wonderful people who I miss so much, and it made me cry a little, in a good way. I have to remember something that one of them said to me the day before Tolver and I jumped off the mainland for Hawai'i: "Is it so easy for you to leave us all behind?" No, it was not, and will never be easy to follow where the universe leads. I love you and miss you all dearly. Still, it is quite evident that we ended up where we were supposed to be, so I cannot regret what I had to leave behind.

Sending out big hugs to all my peeps in SF!

Labels: Faeries

link | posted by Reese at 10:12 AM
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link | posted by Reese at 9:19 PM
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link | posted by Reese at 9:20 AM
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We read something today that really struck a chord. We are very happy to see this kind of thinking in a mainstream gay periodical.

The following article, by Tom Donaghy, is re-printed in its entirety from January 2007's Out Magazine. We will be willing to take it down, as soon as they ask me to, but we felt that it was very important, and should be available online.

When I was in my 20s I watched the generation before me - what is the word? Oh, yes, evaporate. They went away. They went missing. I'm trying to convey the pervasive spookiness and desolation of a decade that found Boy George singing "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and Ronald Reagan forgetting to mention an emerging pandemic...

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Labels: Our Queer Family

link | posted by Reese at 5:27 PM
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Previously, I have written about Tolver and my current engagement with the Protea farm, and our being indentured to Bob, its owner. I would like to explain it a bit further here.

One of the things that so intrigued Bob about Tolver and I during that first six weeks that we were on the island, before we moved in with him, was our story of how we had spent much of our relationship working towards new paradigms for homosexual "families." Initially, with our own first ceremony for our peers, on through our legal domestic partnership, and the eventually annulled, San Francisco wedding. Also, our "adoption" of a gay youth, and our ideas about the passing of resources and knowledge from one generation to the next in gay society; a system that has been so disrupted by the loss of two generations to HIV. These thoughts struck a chord in Bob's heart, as he had found himself seeking a way to pass his life's work, his knowledge of plants, and his farm, on to a future, queer generation, as opposed to leaving it to be dismantled by his surviving siblings.

After taking on Tolver and myself, and determining for himself that we were who we had presented ourselves to be, he began the process of creating a Living Trust into which he has transferred ownership of the farm, as well as all of his other property and assets. His intention is that the Trust will own everything, and will financially take care of those elected to care for the Trust's affairs, forever. With the requirement that the farm continue to make money, the trustees will be well cared for. While there is a hierarchy of oversight, and, obviously, Bob is still alive; Tolver and I are named as the inheriting Trustees. The intention is that Tolver and I will do the same, and pass the Trust on to a younger generation, who will prove themselves by taking care of the farm during our "retirement."

We, jointly, believe that similar mechanisms for the distribution of knowledge and wealth have existed through the centuries, in one form or another. It is a parallel to the mechanisms for the distribution of wealth within the heterosexual world. The passage of assistance from one generation to the next: the dowry, the father-in-laws who employ their son-in-laws, etc. In homosexual society, it happened silently, automatically, for thousands of years, but then it was almost lost in the twentieth century when a plague decimated almost 75% of two generations of gay men in this country.

We feel the need to make a statement, as Tolver and I did with our first wedding ceremony in 1987. We feel that this statement, delivered now, will begin a process that will eventually lead to real change. The homosexual populous needs a support base such as has existed for the traditional family, so that we can stop losing our children to the street, drugs, HIV, loneliness, and lack of love. The first step in this statement is the Trust. By our creation, and definition of the Trust we have established a legal mechanism by which inheritance can be managed, but that alone is not enough to be noticed in the social landscape. To that end, Bob has suggested, and we have agreed, that he should legally adopt us. Adoption, in this case, will set a legal precedent for the creation of a homosexual family unit, and make a public statement legitimizing this passage of resources and support from generation to generation.

Our adoption was approved and completed in Hawaii Family Court on February 7th, 2007. Bob is now a single father of two boys, just in time for his 68th birthday!

This is history in the making. When we marched in the 2004 parade with a blown up copy of our marriage certificate, Tolver and I realized that our statement, back in 1987, had been amongst the butterfly wings beating that led to the hurricane of support for gay marriage almost 20 years later. We were too naive then to realize what we were doing - now may we be wise enough to recognize what we might accomplish.

I can imagine a world where gay elders legally adopt their gay juniors. For us to create gay families, so that we too may share in familial love - and all the rewards that go with it. Not only does it establish legal rights to inheritance and medical care, it will give us fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, and we can fully share in the emotional bonding that was previously reserved for heterosexual family members. Young gays are OUR responsibility to raise, because the heteros won't. To take them in and give them some familial stability (a 22 year old needs stability), we will give ourselves strength and purpose in life. AIDS decimated us; society at large represses us; so we must help them in every way that we can if we want a better life for the next gay generations.

Labels: Our Queer Family

link | posted by Reese at 7:26 PM
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December and January brought very little rain to our little parcel of the Ka'u alpine desert. Our rain guage recorded just over an inch for the 60 day period. Now we spend so much time over on the wet side of the island that we would joke with our friends that when they come visit they should bring as much water as they can haul from over there.

Well, some fearie friends visiting Big Island, were staying over there for the last couple of weeks, but then came to stay with us for a couple of days, and they brought the rain with them! We received just over 5.5 inches of rain since the evening of January 31st. The wind was blowing warm air up from the south and hitting us on the side of the mountain head on. At times it was literally raining sideways.

Now it looks like the rain is past, and we have fierce winds blowing from the west. It is sunny and mild outside, but the wind is keeping us from getting any work done outside. I am grateful that the cinders are still moist, so at least we are not getting sand-blasted yet.

Seems that it is crazy weather everywhere.

Labels: Hawaii

link | posted by Reese at 4:18 PM
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