kengullette

I teamed up with Robb Dussliere and Beth Wehrman in 1995 to produce a weekly documentary on Robb's life with AIDS. I was news director at WHBF-TV in Rock Island, and recognized it as a good story that could break out of the typical local TV news format and tell a real, human story. From April, 1995 until his death in April, 1996, I followed Robb with a camcorder each week, telling his story on Thursday night's 10:00 newscast. I never appeared on camera, letting the medium tell the story through interviews, natural sound, music, and the activities of Robb's life. Along the way, the experience changed me. I had grown up in a Southern Baptist culture in Kentucky in the Fifties and Sixties, with all the prejudices that white children were taught in those days. By the time I met Robb, I had begun separating from my religious and hardcore conservative political beliefs, but the gay issue was still a stumbling block. This blog tells Robb's story, and the story of a guy who was lucky enough to meet him. The purpose of the blog is to help raise funds for Robb's favorite cause, the DeLaCerda House, which provides housing for homeless HIV/AIDS patients who still, after all these years, find themselves shunned, poverty-stricken, jobless, with nowhere to turn. Please follow the links to the DeLaCerda House website and donate -- even a few dollars at a time -- and help keep Robb's memory and work alive.