The Way I See It

To make all the projects of CAMP Rehoboth fly takes the love and dedication of countless volunteers performing a wide range of tasks—some more bizarre than others. None of us can predict, for example, what Murray will have his decor volunteers doing to get ready for a big event—just ask Joe Mirabella how many buttons he had to sew in order to hang the spandex for last year’s Sundance! Most of our volunteer activities are a little less exciting, but very much appreciated. Last weekend, Harvey Sharpe helped Murray hang Rod Cook’s watercolors at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center, Joan Glass and John Speicher served as hosts for the same Destination Art event, Mark Aguirre and Wayne Gleason picked up the Beach Books in DC—where Greg Albright and Wes Combs had them printed—and drove them to Rehoboth, where Tom Minnuto delivered them to the beach. Every event, every project, has a chain of volunteers making it happen. That’s love, too.

As we go to press on this issue of Letters, there seems to be an air of guarded optimism in the Delaware GLBT community about the revival of HB 99. Day by day, the situation seems to change, however, and I’m never quite sure if I’m hearing rumor, exaggeration, or fact. HB 99 is, of course, the state legislature’s bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public accommodation, and insurance. To the local GLBT community its passage is of great importance and would be a significant victory. In a recent interview that I participated in for WBOC-TV, the reporter tried to connect Canada’s recognition of same sex marriage with the passage of HB 99. Most of what I said ended on the cutting room floor—probably because I disagreed with the reporters premise—but the gist of it was that a marriage law in Canada shouldn’t distract us from our own fight at home. HB 99 is an equal rights measure to protect everyone regardless of their sexual orientation, and a big step toward achieving an equal place in our society for gay and lesbian people. Marriage is another issue, and one that we in the United States may not win anytime soon.

Over the years, the CAMP Rehoboth courtyard has been a Mecca for gays and lesbians—and their dogs. We have many regular visitors whose pets know exactly where the dog goodie jar is located. Lately, however, we’ve seen more and more gay and lesbian couples with children—some creatively conceived, and some adopted. Recently, I overheard someone buying a ticket for Love. When asked if he wanted the deluxe VIP pass to all eight Love events, he said no because of the difficulty in finding a baby sitter. "We’ll just put him in the Love day care," Kathy Weir joked as he paid for his ticket. Well, we’re not there yet, I suppose, but "the times they are a changing." Who knows? Maybe someday we’ll actually need a kiddie CAMPground!