PAGE 6 Q-Notes ■ July 1986
Offer By Bookstore Elicits Praise
Two truisms I've learned through
the years.
■ There are no tree lunches. You
pay for everything one way or
another sometime or another.
■ Everyone, and I do mean
EVERYONE, has an opinion. They're
like noses (this is a clean
newspaper; I usually use a different
term). They come in all shapes, sizes
and colors.
The first truism: there are no free
lunches. It takes time, work, money
and sweat to put out the newspaper
you're holding right now. Nobody
gives us the newsprint, computer
time, paste-up sheets, pictures and
ink. They all have to be bought with
the same hard earned cash we all
strive for every day. Ads help pay
the cost, but they didn't cover the
full amount of the first issue. You see
no price tag on this newspaper
because QCQ doesn't think you
ought to have to pay to be a better
informed person.
1708 South Boulevard
Charlotte, N.C.
Phone 704/333-3859
Open 365 Days A Year
24 Hours A Day
Rooms, Lockers, Sauna, Steam Room
REMODELED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT!
But you can help pay lor this
paper in another way. SUPPORT THE
ADVERTISERS. And when I say
support, I don't mean just go there
when they have a special.
Advertisers are like any other
business: they need your continuing
patronage on a week-to-week
basis.
Which brings me to the second
truism: opinions are like noses.
QCQ needs money for this and
other projects for our community,
We get this money through
fundraisers either at a bar or other
places. It's these other places that I
speak to now.
A local business in May told QCQ
that it would donate 25% of all
profits on a given item rented for the
month of June. Interested? Read on.
This business is an adult bookstore
— those much maligned ventures
we've been seeing on the evening
news.
Now I don't know how you feel
about the situation, but it's my
opinion that people ought to be
able to read or see anything they
want to see or read, be it the King
James Bible or the latest issue of In
Touch. Like I said, opinions and, to a
great extent, tastes come in all
shapes and sizes.
It was the opinion of the board of
QCQ that other people shouldn't
make decisions as to what people
read. If you're over 18, you can
make that decision for yourself.
A note in passing: I've not seen
ANYONE being beaten over the
head with a baseball bat and being
drug into an adult bookstore. People
seem to go in quite willingly. It is
because of this opinion of the board
of QCQ that we accepted the offer
of this business.
If you've been with me this far,
you're totally hooked and I love it.
Now for the good stuff. The guys
name who made that offer is
Richard Wilds, and he's the
manager of the Joy Adult Books at
1301 East Independence. Richard
promised to give to QCQ 25% of all
the profits on the rental and sale of
gay themed tapes for the month of
June. And he did.
Whether you like the idea or not,
it's good policy and good
neighborship — not to mention
good brother/sistership — to return
to the community some of the
money that you make from that
community. It's like a renewable
resource. So if you're of a mind to
THEY WANT YOUR BUSINESS
Designs By Michael
Interior And Exterior Renovation ,
Custom Crafted Furniture i'
Painting ■ Decks And Patios
MICHAEL AMRHEIN *
563-7140
i
, Writer/Communications Consultant
j Experienced Copywriter □ Advertising
y Brochures □ Speech Writing □ Audiovisuals
Quality Special Events □ Parties And Workshops
’I Convention Planning
1 Mark Drum, 525-1606
,
-
International Travel Club
Mr. Kim Frankenfield
372-5200
Member, IGTA
ii
1 YOUR BUSINESS CARD
CAN RUN, TOO,
IN },000 COPIES OP Q-NOTES
j For details^ call Don King, 332-3834.
1
j
check out Richard's place now that
he's made that donation, please do
so. And thank him for it.
Could be he just might want to do
that same thing again sometime.
With your patronage, you'll be
letting him know how much you
appreciated his helping out the
brothers and sisters all across this
town we call home.
— DEAN GASKEY
QCQ Board Member
Baxter Feted
As 'Carolinian
Ot The Year'
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the invitation of a high school friend.
He liked the small-college,
small-town atmosphere and the
freedom from home, and stayed,
quickly involving himself in the
community, particularly the arts.
"When I graduated in 1975 with
an English major," he said, "there
was a recession and I could afford
working at the Pizza Hut and living
in North Carolina while trying to get
my career off the ground. Going
back to Washington was too
expensive and there were no jobs.
After awhile. North Carolina
became home."
While still at Guilford, he had
written for an underground
newspaper called The Greensboro
Sun. In a 1974 article, he wrote,
"Gay liberation, true freedom, is not
in the bars, the baths, or other such
places. It is in the streets, in the
courts, on the job, in the family and
among friends."
He was out of the closet and living
his own philosophy even then.
His only concession to the closet
came when he founded TFP. He was
working at the time for the man who
lent him the money to start the
paper, and agreed to use a
pseudonym, Michael Baker. But
when fag bashers killed a man they
thought gay near Durham in 1981,
he dropped the pseudonym with the
blessing of his former employer.
Jim is continuing to look for a
well-paying job that will allow him
to continue working with TFP. But his
determination to be himself shows in
his resume where he states
forthrightly that he has been editor
and publisher since 1979.
As is his wont, he even found a
silver lining in the assault.
In an October, 1985, issue of TFP,
he wrote, "One very touching
aspect of this incident has been the
response of my friends. The parade
of visitors through my hospital room
was incredible. I knew that my
friends were my friends before this
happened, and there was no need
to put them to any test; still, it is
enormously gratifying to know that
they would respond so quickly and
strongly.
"Perhaps my favorite experience
of this sort involves a close friend
who is, for several reasons, not
entirely out of the closet. The idea of
attending the Southeastern Gay
Conference in Chapel Hill last April
(1985), for example, terrified him.
But when he heard what had
happened to me, he put on his
bright purple conference T-shirt, a
gift from me, drove the 50 miles
from his house to the hospital, and
insisted on being allowed to spend
the night in my room. And so he did.
Every time I woke up that first night
in the hospital, he was there."
That's Jim Baxter: activist,
humorist, finder of something good
even in the bad, lover of
humankind. Someday, perhaps,
he'll find time to write a book about
it all,
— DON KING