Austin Original Lost Last Week

Just last week, Austin got a little less weird with the lost of homeless activist and advocate, Jennifer Gale. For those who don't know Gale, she was famous around Austin for her unsuccessful bids at elected city government positions (including mayoral races in Austin and Dallas) and for her work to better her community in general.

I'd only spoken to Jennifer a handful of times, and her ideas could be a bit out-of-touch with reality - she once circulated a petition to legalize a smoking section in the Frank Erwin Center, for marijuana smoking, that is... Regardless of her politics, her life as a homeless person, her political style (she was known to address the city council in song) or her elusive gender status (she was presumed to be a male-to-female transsexual, though she never identified her gender status in any public way - and why should she? I don't go around informing people that I was born male and identify as male), Gale was a caring and kindhearted individual with a passion for grassroots organization and the empowerment of her community. Austin is a little less weird, a little less vibrant for its loss of Jennifer.

I once gave Jennifer an impromptu elocution lesson at the campus Gatti's Pizza. She was studious in every sense of the word; she told me of how she was studying the Bible at the time and finding inspiration, as well as a few inequalities in the Word. She learned quickly, and it was my hope that she would be better listened to if only she could better express her ideas verbally - she had habit to stutter and mumble so as to make some of her better talking points unintelligible. Above all else, I could tell that Gale loved and cared for her community. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this world would be a better place if only more people like Gale took the same initiative to better themselves and the places in which they live.

Gale, who was homeless, was found dead sleeping out a church's steps early last week. The Austin city council has honored Gale by keeping her assigned time to address the council on the books and replaying a videotaped address she gave the council in which she sang "Silent Night".

Friends of Jennifer have asked that, if you wish to honor her memory, that you consider making a donation to the Austin-based charity and advocacy group House the Homeless.