Miss Kitty Says...

I got the following excerpt from a posting to a Judy Garland fan group on Yahoo (shut up, I know...I'm such a fag). Somehow, we strayed off topic for a bit and someone brought up Miss Kitty. Here's the posting:


"Slightly off-topic, but I interviewed Amanda Blake for Emmy Magazine not long before she passed. I was doing a 'round-up' collection of interviews focusing on actors and behind the scenes talent who had substantial television careers in the 1950's and 1960's. She was wonderful...we didn't talk about ASIB because the focus was on TV and she was obviously frail so I didn't extend our lunch interview too long. Of course, I didn't say anything about her fragile appearance but she brought it up, saying, "I'm dying of AIDS." That, of course, shocked me in what she told me and also her frankness about it. She said that her last husband was bisexual but she didn't know it until well into their marriage and she contracted HIV from him. "He gave it to me but didn't tell me or tell me he was bisexual or gay until it was too late," she quietly said, looking down at the table. I'm not sure if he was still alive when I interviewed her or if they had just recently divorced. This was about 1990, I think. I was stunned at her candor in telling this to me, a writer she had never met; we had only spoken briefly on the phone to set up the interview. She was a lovely woman, bright, funny, sharp...but she had a sad air of resignation about her. She didn't seem angry at what fate had dealt her, nor did she display anger or bitterness towards her husband..she had accepted what had happened and what was to come. Of course, I didn't include any of that in my story. When she showed up for the interview, she was an older but still glamorous and beautiful "Miss Kitty." The memory of her still haunts me. I don't know how long it was she passed after I did my interview with her. She was a class act."

The only thing I can add to this is that AIDS was then and even now for many, still a gay disease and that's a bloody shame. Amanda Blake alluded to the fact that since her husband was Bi/Gay, he should have (of course) been suspected of having AIDS. That sort of mentality makes me want to scream and beat my head against the wall. This is why gay men can't donate blood even if they're HIV negative. One night on Larry King, I recently heard a well known pathologist that was writing a book on the history of AIDS make the statement that it was pointless for straight people to blame gays for "starting" AIDS in America and went on to say that AIDS just happened to get to the gay community first in America (such was not the case in many other countries). It could just as easily started amongst the heterosexuals first and spread through penis/vagina contact. Being gay or Bi doesn't guarantee you a one-way ticket on the AIDS train, folks... having unsafe sex does. It amazes me the number of straight girls that still let guys fuck them without a condom, getting pregnant their only concern...

Bye for now. Be good and wrap that shit up, bitches!