Perry Watkins' Joplin Pie

With Pride picnics and county fairs coming up, here is a wonderful “down home” meal. BBQed Ground beef in cornbread crust. What's not to like. If you prefer a hotter taste add your favorite hot sauce.

This dish is to honor an LGBT hero and leader who is often forgotten and overlooked. Perry Watkins. Please be sure to read the short article after the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef ½ c. chopped red onion 1 tbsp. Oil ¾ tsp. salt + ½ tsp pepper 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce1cup BBQ sauce 2 tsp corn starch 1 pkg. cornbread mix, mixed according to directions 1 cup Corn 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese Directions: Do your cutting. Chop up the whole red onion and freeze all but ½ cup. Spray a 9 x 9 baking dish and set aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (with a pizza stone in the oven.) In a skillet heat 1 Tbs oil. Add the onion and ground beef, cook until brown, about 8 – 10 minutes. While this cooks, mix BBQ sauce and corn starch in a medium bowl. When beef is done, remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate. Wipe out the grease from the skillet with a paper towel.    Return to a clean skillet the meat and the BBQ sauce mixture. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.    Hand mix the corn muffin mix according to package directions, Stir in the corn and milk. Do not overmix. Pour half of corn mix into the greased baking dish. Sprinkle the half of the shredded cheese on this lower layer. Now spread beef mixture – (should be really thick), over the cheese and top with remaining cheese. Spread the remaining corn mixture evenly to form an upper crust. Place on the hot pizza stone, this will ensure the bottom crust gets cooked. Bake 30 minutes. or until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving. Yields: 6 to 8 servings.

Serve with a side vegetable, no bread is needed for this country fair tasting meal.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCBVRiUW-4Y&list=PLMATWUx3t7L8QeY5IrBhRmQk0pXJTN3tB&index=168

Serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

 by 

Dan White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM%20via%20@amazon

=========

Perry Watkins

 Perry Watkins was an African-American gay man. Watkins was the only person ordered reinstated to active military duty by a court after being dismissed for gay.

Watkins' case is very interesting and deserves study in LGBT history.

Perry Watkins was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1948. He was very open about being gay in high school. He studied dance and won speech tournaments. In August 1967 he was drafted. This was a time when the Vietnam War was calling for more and more military draftees. At his initial examination he told an Army psychiatrist he was gay. During his induction in May 1968, he stated agin that he was homosexual. The doctor still categorized him as "qualified for military service".

Randy Shilts in his "Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military" (1993) speculated:

"The doctor probably figured Watkins would be drafted, go to Vietnam, get killed, and nobody would ever hear about it again," Mr. Shilts wrote. "At least that was how Watkins sized up the situation years later with a wry chuckle."

A year after his induction, Watkins signed an affidavit stating that he had been a homosexual from the age of 13 and that, since his enlistment, he had engaged in sodomy with two other servicemen, a crime under military law.

When his first enlistment period expired in 1970, Watkins received an honorable discharge. Shortly thereafter, he reenlisted for a second three-year term.

In 1972, Watkins was denied a security clearance because of his homosexuality, and the Army again investigated him for allegedly committing sodomy and again terminated the investigation for insufficient evidence.

At times he dressed in drag and performed as a female impersonator under the name Simone, first in civilian life and then while stationed in West Germany. He would perform at shows sponsored by the Army. This led to engagements at enlisted men's clubs on other U.S. bases in Europe. At one point in 1972 military investigators considered removing him from the service. They ended their investigation saying that his own admissions were insufficient and ended their investigation when Watkins would not provide the names of any others.

Following another honorable discharge in 1974, the Army accepted Watkins’ application for a six-year reenlistment.  

In October 1979, the Army yet again accepted Watkins’ application for another three-year reenlistment.

But in 1981 the Army had a new regulation that mandated the discharge of all homosexuals regardless of merit. After 14 years of military service Major General Elton recommended that Watkins be discharged.

Watkins fought the discharge and on October 5, 1982, the district court forced the Army to reenlist Watkins. He was signed up for another six-year term in November (which would give him a 20 year career with retirement benefits).

In 1989, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, ordered the Army to allow Mr. Watkins re-enlist.

This was the first time a U.S. appellate court ruled against the U.S. military’s ban on service by gays and lesbians.

Watkins had planned to reenlist, but settled for a retroactive promotion to sergeant first class, $135,000 in retroactive pay, full retirement benefits, and an honorable discharge.

Then in the early 1990s, President enacted his Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Watkins rushed to help the gay community but was ignored.

According to Lambda Legal, Watkins’ experience as a drag artist and frank admissions of sexual encounters with other male service members created a “public relations problem".

Unfortunately, Perry Watkins did not live to see the repeal of DADT. He passed in 1996 at his home in Tacoma, Washington of complications relating to AIDS .

Lets not gloss over the accomplishments of this fine LGBT leader and remember his legacy this month of Pride.