WooHoo! When I checked the Walk's page while writing this, they were up to 61% of their goal raised. Earlier this week, I was getting worried, because they were only around 50%, but people are coming through. Thousands of our neighbors are counting on us to be heroes.  They are counting on us to make sure that ASA and the other beneficiary agencies  continue to be able to provide their clients the services and support they need and deserve. The money raised for the AIDS WALK allows AIDS Services of Austin (ASA) to provide vital services to this community- our community. ASA currently serves over 1,500 clients, providing vital prevention, education and other support services.

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report and Texas Kaos

Today is the mid-point for Seven Straight Nights, a national event that is providing straight Americans with opportunities to do justice and motivate new allies to stand up and be counted for equal rights. This is an action of Atticus Circle and Soulforce. It consists of a coordinated campaign of overnight vigils led by straight allies, sweeping across capital cities throughout the nation during the week of October 7 - 13, 2007, gaining momentum in the national media as more states participate in the event.

More on Seven Straight Nights and an appeal for AIDS Walk Austin below the fold:

On Sunday, October 28, the  20th annual AIDS Walk Austin will take place. I have been to every one of them. Um, 20th..... that means I've been doing this since.... um, I must have been a child when this started. Yeah, that's the ticket. I was a small child. But really - I walked back in the bad old days, when we used to get heckled by religious zealouts. (I actually kinda enjoyed getting heckled by Mark Weaver & his merry little band of troglodytes, as I called them. I walked taller when going by them. If Mark Weaver is yelling at you, trust me, you are doing something right. Also, I could make them turn amusing shades of red & purple. They'd yell something horrible like "God hates fags" & I'd yell back "No, She doesn't!" and watch the color changes. Great fun. Yes, I am a mean, mean person.)

Seven Straight Nights is a series of events sponsored by Atticus Circle and Soulforce. It will consist of a coordinated campaign of overnight vigils led by straight allies of the GLBT community. It will sweep across capital cities (though, it looks like we in Texas have 2 events!) throughout the nation during the week of October 7 - 13, 2007, gaining momentum in the national media as more states participate in the event.

There is a big impeachment rally in Austin next Saturday, the 15th. If you're within driving distance of Austin, you should come! Information from the flyer I got is below the fold. Also, plans to publicize the rally (stuff I copied from the website)

I know that there is also a nationwide Iraq Moratorium Day on the 21st, but I haven't heard if there's a rally here or not. If you do know -  please post info here!

I wrote a couple of diaries about this a few months ago - figured it is time for an update. The story so far: there is a group of neighborhood people fighting a proposed 24-hour super Walmart in the neighborhood. It will gridlock traffic, no doubt. There's some funny stuff going on with the required traffic study, which just makes me more sure that the traffic it will generate is unsuitable for the already very busy Anderson Lane. I am not an officer or official spokesperson for this group. I'm just barely involved - gone to some protests, have a t-shirt & bumpersticker, etc.

Below the fold is an e-mail I got from the group RG4N. If you live in Austin, this is of interest to you (and if you're a Travis County candidate, I know where there will be a crowd on Saturday morning. Besides at the Farmer's Market):

So, I've been talking to a friend about our congressman, Michael McCaul, and we were comparing our level of service as constituents. I sent Mr. McCaul an e-mail from his own website a week & a half ago (they've had it for 8 working days, by my count), about a legitimate constituent concern (funding cuts for the National Library Service for the Blind). Completely non-political. Well, as non-political as funding for a federal program can be.

I have had no response whatsoever from my congressman. Nada, nothing, crickets chirping. Yes my e-mail address is somewhat partisan (anotherdemocrat), but I'm still his constituent & I deserve a response to my concerns. When Jake Pickle was my representative & I was involved in the University Democrats, we had some very intense discussions about whether or not we should endorse someone so conservative. I'm sure that the congressman &/or his aides were fully aware of what was said in those meetings. I still would have had a written response by now if I had contacted him with similar concerns. And if he was going to fix this problem, it would be on the way to being fixed.

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report & Texas Kaos

On June 16 - 24, all over the world, people have a chance to help out a great organization, Equality Now, and see a great movie. For the second year in a row, for Joss Whedon's birthday, screenings of the movie Serenity will be shown all across the globe as a fundraiser for Equality Now.

According to the Can't Stop the Serenity website, "Equality Now was founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and mobilizes international action to support their efforts to stop these human rights abuses."

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report and Texas Kaos

Well, the Hill Country Ride for AIDS was on Saturday, and it was fabulous! The weather was great (a bit warm, but we are in Texas, and at least it wasn't so hot that the bluebonnets were already gone, and at least there wasn't torrential rain), I raised over my goal for the first time ever, and even better, the Ride as a whole raised over $529,000 for local AIDS agencies! Woo Hoo!

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report and Texas Kaos

So, I was going to write a diary today about the incredibly successful AIDS Ride I did on Saturday, but something more important has come up. AIDS Ride diary after I figure out how to make pictures show up instead of red Xs.

I just saw a commercial that scared the hell out of me. It is by a group called faith2action.org and, if their commercial is anything to go by, they are the kind of people that make me reluctant to wear the label "Christian". The commercial is just a woman on screen, talking. She's talking about how she went to a "homosexual meeting" (I didn't record it, so I'm going from memory here) to share her faith. She says she was arrested and charged with a hate crime, and urges people to call their congressman to stop the hate crimes bill "before it becomes a crime to share your faith." When I googled the group, only their stuff came up, no sites telling about the facts of this incident. folks commenting when I first posted this found lots more info than I did, so there is more downthread

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report and Texas Kaos

Before you slam me for writing repetitive diaries, this one is different. I'm not going to give you the grim numbers about funding for AIDS organizations. I've already done that here: http://www.dailykos.com/... and here: http://www.dailykos.com/...

In this diary, I'm asking for your creative help, not just monetary help. (You didn't think I'd totally leave out the plea for donations, did you?) Here's the link to my donation page (you can go from my page to the main Ride page & make a general donation if you don't want to make a donation on my page - all the money goes to help the same people) http://tinyurl.com/...

cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report & Texas Kaos

Yes, this has been the topic of most of my recent diaries. But, ya know what - people still are dealing with HIV & AIDS, and the funding cuts are still atrocious. I am doing the ride on Apr. 28, and I have raised 55% of my goal, which isn't so bad. I know some of my biggest donations are still out there. But -- if YOU are in the Central Texas Area, why not join us? There is still time to train enough to ride with us, and if you are really really sure you can't do that, you could volunteer. If you've never done one of these events, you have no idea how important the signage, the people giving directions, handing out food, and cheering you on are.

cross posted at Burnt Orange Report & Tx Kaos

yes, my diaries have a repetitious theme this time of year - sorry, but this Ride is the Thing That Eats My Brain until the end of April

I was going to write a purely upbeat diary, to make up for the really bad news about funding for AIDS Agencies in my last AIDS Ride diary. And this one will have upbeat stuff in it, I promise. But one of my friends sent me an e-mail about the impact of the cutbacks in the Ryan White funding & this y'all gotta see.

Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report & TexasKaos

Shortly after last November's election, while many people were celebrating the great Democratic victory, a group of people in Texas decided that we wanted a victory ourselves. The candidate for the 10th Congressional District, Ted Ankrum, was a first-time candidate and had little money
($65,000 altogether) but still managed to hold incumbent Michael McCaul, the son in law of the guy who owned Clear Channel, to 55% of the vote. That's the smallest victory margin of any surviving GOP congressman in Texas.

cross-posted at TX Kaos & Burnt Orange Report

So, I have asked folks who work at AIDS agencies about their finding, and, as usual, it isn't good. Warning, the following diary is not for the faint of heart. Actually, it is purposefully intended to break your heart.

About AIDS in Austin (this, as with most of my diaries, is Austin-centric): Austin has experienced over 4,400 diagnosed AIDS cases through December, 2006. Over 2,300 of these men, women and children have died.The CDC estimates 25%-30% of HIV-infected people – perhaps as many as 1,500 Central Texans – do not know that they are HIV-positive, because they have not gotten tested or tested recently. Of Austinites with full AIDS, about ⅓ are 20-29 years old. Given an average incubation period of about 10+ years from infection to AIDS, this suggests they were infected with HIV in their teens or early 20's. Of 1,300+ HIV cases in the last 7 years, 53% are white, 22% are black, and 23% are Hispanic. Currently, about ¼ of those with full AIDS are African-American, but only 10% of the population is black. Latinos are about even (about ¼ of both cases and population), as are whites (55% vs. 60% of population).

This is my first diary for this year about the HCRA. I have done every one of them - this will be number 8. I haven't ridden every inch of every one of them - I like to think of myself as the person who gioves the SAG vehicles something to do. I have also done every AIDS Walk Austin - we must be getting close to 20 by now, I don't know. But I'm there every time. At the end of one of the Rides a couple of years ago, I was interviewed by the newspaper, and I said that I'll be doing these until we don't need to do them any more, and I paraphrased the bumpersticker you've all seen: "Some day AIDS agencies will have all the money they need and the Air Force will have to have a bike ride to buy a bomber."

More about this great ride, and some links below.

Saturday morning, the rally I've talked about in my previous 2 diaries happened and it was a great success. I was on three streets of the protest, looking for t-shirts, and from what I saw, they met the goal of encircling the mall. That's a lot of people. And about half of the cars who passed by were honking their support & waving. Seriously - if I were WalMart, I would be re-thinking this thing. Of course, the local media have massively underestimated the number of people who were there. But that's no surprise.

Links to pictures and news reports below.

I wrote a diary the other day that was just an announcement of a protest against a new Wal-Mart in Austin. I did not include background info on why it is being protested, just the info on when & where the protest will be. Some were not pleased with this. So, here is some background info. It is largely lifted from the www.rg4n.org website, with some of my own experience and knowledge thrown. I am not in any way an official representative of the RG4N organization. I haven't even been to an in-person meeting. I've just seen the news coverage, read the blog, and done some e-mailing. I have fought battles like this before. If you've lived in Austin long, you may remember the battle over the Traingle development. As much as I don't like what's there now, what they were originally going to put was much worse. So - more info below.