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AIDS And Reconciliation
The heart-wrenching story of a loving family and their son, who has AIDS. In the
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Page 4
Charlotte
Switchboard
525-a^8
FEBRUARY 1987 □ Vol. 2, No. 2
TO ADVERTISE: 704/332-3834 after e:30 p.m.
Gaskey Elected GCG Head
The new president profiled: Page 6.
Dean Gaskey was the surprise choice during elections Jan.
8 to be president of Queen City Quordinators in 1987. Gaskey
did not campaign for the position, yet won the post over 1986
president Robert Sheets.
Gaskey had served on QCQ's board of directors three times,
the most recent in 1986 when he chaired the rules and Q-Notes
committees. He has long been a behind-the-scenes worker for
gay/lesbian activities and organizations.
Others elected to the board were 1986 treasurer Jim Yar
brough, vice president; Allen Saxon, secretary; and ot-large
directors Shawn Alexander, Ben Bagby, Lynn Cantrell, Rick
Carter, Steve Haney, Tim H., Tim Irby, and Linda L. Sheets as
past president is an ex officio board member.
"After losing a re-election bid like this," Sheets said, "some
people might take their marbles and go home. But we are not
children playing with marbles; we're adults dealing with
human rights and pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
"I will be one of QCQ's strongest supporters because we
need to work together as a community. There are enough
people in this world who will put us down without our doing it
to each other. QCQ is not there for just any individual or for
itself. It's there to help benefit the gay/lesbian community."
GREAT ’86!
9 New Groups Founded In Charlotte
By DON KING
Editor
A remarkable year, 1986, for Char
lotte's gay/lesbian community.
Consider merely the nine new groups;
B One Nation Indivisible, the first polit
ical activist group since the Lambda
Political Caucus folded in 1984.
B Queen City Friends, the first lesbian
social group not birthed by an MCC
church.
B A group for persons who call the
Gay/Lesbian Switchboard and are ex
periencing ambivalence about sexual
orientation.
B The Tradesmen, the first organized
group of levi-leather men.
B PFLAG, the city's first chapter of the
national organization of parents and
friends of lesbians and gay men.
B Gay Parents Coalition, a group for
gay men and lesbians who have chil
dren.
B Closet Buster Productions, which
had its first "Gay/Lesbian Forum" on
Cablevision of Charlotte's local access
channel 3.
B Charlotte Lambda Chorale, the
city's first secular choir formed out of the
gay/lesbian community.
BNew Life Players, under the aus
pices of MCC/New Life, who produced
the wrenching drama "Bent" for public
consumption at Spirit Square and
roused Acceptance with a Christmas
comedy production.
'The state of North Carolina also had
remarkable developments: a march in
Durham that drew 1,000 participants
and an avalanche of favorable public
ity; the hiring of uncloseted David Jolly
as the state government's primary AIDS
educator; and the defeat of homo-
phobic forces in Durham trying to recall
the city's mayor, Wib Gulley, for sup
porting the Gay Pride March.
Back to Charlotte:
Consider that the Metrolina AIDS Pro
ject, founded mainly by gay men in
1985, matured to become the Charlotte
metropolitan area's strongest entity in
educating the gay and nongay popula
tion about AIDS. And MAP founded
weekly support groups for persons with
AIDS and for persons who have tested
positive to the HTLV-3 virus. MAP's AIDS
Hotline also reached five-nights-per-
week staffing in 1986.
FT HAPPENED JN '86: WPCQ's Peter Combs (right) was just one of the television
journalists covering the start of "Gay/Lesbian Forum" on cable channel 3.
Consider that QCQ burst back onto
Charlotte's gay/lesbian community
scene after a near-dormant 1985, spon
soring a preliminary to the national
Drummer contest and resurrecting this
newspaper. QCQ also held Charlotte's
first-time gay skate nights and started a
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
QCQ Party
At Charades
On Feb. 12
Get your Valentine's weekend
started early. Party out on Thurs
day, Feb. 12.
It's Lincoln's birthday. But QCQ is
scheduling a big Valentine's Party
on that dote at Charades,
Wear your stovepipe hot or your
heart on your sleeve — it doesn't
matter.
Anyone 18 and older is invited
at $2 for Charades members and
$3 for nonmembers.
Some of the best female imper
sonators in town promise to make
it one very hot night: Boom Boom
Latour, Geri O'Neal, Tina Terrell,
Buffie DeMoreau, Grand Prix and
Kasey King. The show starts at 11
p.m. with doors opening at 9.
Charades deejay Lynn Benfield
will be in hand to provide dance
music.
Charades will donate all door
proceefc to QCQ.
Roller Skate For
The Switchboard
Thursday, Feb. 19
A mid-winter roller skating party
to benefit the Gay/Lesbian Switch
board of Charlotte wiU be held
Thursday night, Feb. 19, at Roll-A-
Round Skate Center.
The event is the first fundraiser of
1987 organized by QCQ, Proceeds
after expenses will be paid imme
diately to the Switchboard.
The skating begins at 9 p.m. at
the Delta Road rink just east of
Delta Road's intersection with Al
bemarle Road. Cost per person is
S3.50 and that includes skate
rental.
Business Responds To Protest
A protest by Q-Notes editor Don King got positive results
from a business in late January.
"I sow an ad in the Jan. 17 Charlotte Observer for Paw
Creek Church of God," King explained. "Paw Creek's minister
is Joe Chambers, a man who has spoken publicly more than
anyone else in Charlotte against gay men and lesbians. Text
at the bottom of the ad stated that it had been paid for by
Men's Name Brand Shoes."
Jimmy Guy Jr. is president of the retail organization operat
ing Men's Nome Brand Shoes, 'The Athletic Supermarkets,
Shoe Horn and Self-Service World of Shoes.
"Last year I bought three pairs of shoes at Name Brand and
two at Shoe Horn," King said. "It burned me up to think that
the profits from me and other gay and lesbian customers were
helping to pay for an ad for Charlotte's most vocal homo
phobe."
King wrote a letter of protest to Guy.
"I delivered the letter on my lunch hour on Jan. 21," he
said. "When I got back to the office, there was a note that
Jimmy Guy had called. So I called him back. He was
sincerely sorry that his business may have offended anyone
by paying for Paw Creek's ad.
"He told me that he had never paid attention to Chambers's
opinion about gay people and that the connection between
Chambers and antigay actions never once occurred to him.
He said that he knew he had several gay people working for
his stores and that he certainly has no prejudice toward them.
"What pleases me most is that he said he called Chambers
and said he wouldn't be able to make that kind of contribu
tion to Paw Creek again. Mr. Guy asked me to please accept
his apology."
King said that any gay man or lesbian who has a complaint
about businesses should voice them to the business.
"I think it would work almost every time if it's approached
maturely.
"The key to Mr. Guy's apology was that my letter assumed
the best — that he didn't know Chambers is so homophobic —
and therefore didn't back him into a corner. I also told him our
estimate of the number of gay/lesbian adults in the six-county
Charlotte market and the fact that a national magazine
estimates gay people command 19% of the country's discre
tionary consumer income. It's just not good business for a
retailer to alienate gay men and lesbians.
"He was really contrite about it and emphasized that he
meant no offense to anyone."