Visa for Victor!

Visa for Victor, finally!

We sent the last required documents, and then waited. Starting a few days ago, I've been checking the status daily:

• April 27:   Administrative Processing
• April 28:   Administrative Processing
• April 29:   Administrative Processing
• April 30:   Application Received
• May 1:       Issued

I thought it would be in hand a day or two later, but that didn't happen. When it hadn't arrived on Saturday, May 4^th, I was sure it would come Monday. But on Monday, I received an email saying they were only then giving it to DHL to deliver. Sigh. 

Victor received it May 7^th. I didn't want to say anything to anyone until he had it in hand. Not telling anyone for a week was difficult!

For unknown reasons, it has an expiration date of May 15!! Victor may come to Los Angeles next week!  No one can tell me why it isn't valid for six months, as we expected.

It's been two years since we decided to apply for a fiancé  visa, and it's been more than 25 years (!) since we first tried for a tourist visa. What an unnecessary ordeal!

P.S. We flew into Houston on May 14^th. I could not accompany Victor to his interview, which took about twenty minutes. But it was successful, and he entered the U.S. !! We arrived in Los Angeles on May 15^th.

And here is Victor in his first hour in the U.S.

On personal data privacy

When I saw Mike Godwin's op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, I recognized his name from CPSR and RISKS. And reading the piece reminded me of a handout I used to give my students. I sent this letter (not published):

Mike Godwin urges a tech code of ethics concerning censorship and privacy policies. The Code of Fair Information Practices would be an excellent start on the privacy part. Proposed in 1973 (!), it has five principles:

• There must be no personal data record-keeping systems whose very existence is secret.
• There must be a way for a person to find out what information about the person is in a record and how it is used.
• There must be a way for a person to prevent information about the person that was obtained for one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without the person's consent.
• There must be a way for a person to correct or amend a record of identifiable information about the person.
• Any organization creating, maintaining, using, or disseminating records of identifiable personal data must assure the reliability of the data for their intended use and must take precautions to prevent misuses of the data.

Porn Star Autographs

And then there's my collection of gay porn star autographs!

These were gathered at two events, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and the Bad Boys Pool Parties (BBPP) in the L.A. area.

I went to CES in January 1990 with a bunch of fellow Xeroids. Winter CES is "for the trade only," not open to the public. We got in as Xerox employees. We paid for the trip and accommodations ourselves. Then and now, CES is enormous. That year, it filled the Convention Center and parts of six hotels.  There were vast halls full of computer games, fancy home and car audio, video stuff of all sorts, calculators, security systems, and on and on.  

Best of all for me, one ballroom of one hotel was set aside for "Adult Video."   Yes, that means porn.  Of all varieties.  All these porn purveyors were there trying to convince retailers and video stores to stock their lines.  Most of them brought some of their "stars" (scantily clad, of course) to autograph photos, calendars, magazines, and posters.  I consider porn the highest and best use of video technology.

It was a great time to be an openly gay man.  There were these l-o-n-g lines of men (no women to speak of) waiting for an autograph and a few words with the female stars, and there was no waiting at all for the male models who were there.  Most of them were delighted to talk and sign stuff.  I met and brought back many autographed publicity photos and posters. It was lots of fun.

It was also the only time I ever kissed a porn star. Joey Stefano was supposed to be at one booth, but every time I went by, he wasn't there. Finally, when he showed up, I got his autograph and then reached to shake his hand and say thanks. But he pulled my head down and deep kissed me!

The Bad Boys Pool Party was an annual AIDS fund-raiser event for several years. It was first in L.A. and then moved to the Palm Springs area. The porn stars were the draw. Here's Chase Hunter signing:

and here's a lineup of screen studs signing:

 Click here to see all of my porn star autographs.

Counter-culture buttons

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I bought (and sold) lots of counterculture buttons and posters. I still have quite a few.

Naturally, one batch are gay-related. That theme continued in later years, too:

Another theme is the war on the war on drugs:

Sex is a popular topic:

A handful are about Middle Earth. (The last two translate to "Frodo Lives" and "Go, Go, Gandalf") :

And plenty are miscellaneous: