What befell Paul during his travels in this wide world... Reply? PaulBackhurst97@gmail.com

 
An Addendum to 13 conversations about one thing(the film)

I was invited to dinner this week by an acquaintance who had introduced Peter and me to Kyle--back in the early 90s. This friend, Keith, reheated a refrigerator-load of steamed vegies and brown rice, and we feasted. His partner(s) had rented a house on Fire Island for the week, so he was on his own.

Mid-meal I asked about Kyle and Rick, whom he and his main man, Andy, had visited on a cross-country road trip a few months ago in Madison. It seems Kyle is living in the house he bought on the south side of Monona Bay and Rick is living separately in an apartment. (As Roberto had intimated to me last year, they have split up.) In April Kyle was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors, to represent his district. Both Keith and I were surprised that Kyle has become a politician, although we recognize he has those abilities.

I checked out the county Web site the next day, natch, to see if there were any interesting tidbits. There's a pic, an interesting bio followed by a quote: about how Kyle believes with transparent government and citizen involvement people will have the society we deserve. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'd vote for him. After all I once put him so high up on a pedestal that I was left groveling at his size 13 feet. Too bad I could never find anything about him that I didn't like a lot!

Well, I'm happy about his success (however distraught about my continued doldrums) and happy that there's a place like Madison from whence a charismatic but (at least formerly) sexually adventurous gay man can set off to save Amerika. Of course he's sanitized his background slightly, representing the sedate southwest side rather than the rowdier Williamson-Marquette corridor. Still, if a dyke like Tammy Baldwin can represent Madison in the US Congress, Kyle can go far. Too bad I never hear from him.

posted by Paul at 11:11 AM