Well, it’s a sad day for one reason. Pam Spaulding is officially closing down Pam’s House Blend today:
Gee, what a time to stop blogging, you say? There is so much more left to say and do. But it’s time; someone else, sadly, has to take the baton from me. As I said in my announcement post, sometimes real life — in my case, serious health matters — have rendered me left to focus on the more pressing task of holding down the full-time job that puts a roof over my head and health insurance to keep me going for as long as I can.
Please take some time to read Pam’s full post and wish her well. There will be a missing piece in today’s LGBT discourse without Pam, but we’d obviously rather her be able to take care of herself, and I have a feeling she won’t completely disappear.
I can honestly say I probably wouldn’t be sitting here doing what I’m doing right now if Pam hadn’t thought enough of diaries that I posted at her old site that she regularly promoted them to the front page. For that, Pam, I thank you. She blazed a trail as a Southern, African-American, lesbian voice in a world dominated by East and West coast white dudes. I’m a white dude, but I always felt a kinship with her (and still do) because of the Southern thing. When I shake my head and want to throw something at a wall over LGBT struggles in Tennessee, I’m pretty sure Pam’s doing the same thing in North Carolina. I also learned a lot from her and her site, when I was in my Budding-Activist-Yet-Still-Kind-Of-Ignorant phase of development, as she gave me and so many others new ways to understand the worlds and struggles of people around us.
If you haven’t seen it, Melissa Harris-Perry did a great segment on the groundbreaking work Pam did as a citizen journalist:
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So long, farewell, be healthy, and we’ll try to keep implementing the lessons you taught so many of us.
Finally, Pam’s favorite band is Journey, but I don’t know which song is her favorite, so here’s the whole Greatest Hits record that I found on YouTube:
