PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY QCQ AS A PUBLIC SERVICE
Q-NOTES
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 1988
I PRIDE IN PRINT I
Switchboard, Charlotte 704/525-6128
AIDS Hotline, Charlotte 704/333-AIDS
PFLAG Hotline, Charlotte 704/364-1474
AIDS Hotline, Columbia 803/779-PALS
Call Line, Wilmington 919/675-9222
TO ADVERTISE: 339-0679
BEST BETS
Cabaret At Charades. Feb. 4
Queen of Hearts Pageant at
O’Leens Feb. 5
Political Action Meeting
at CCP House Feb. 9
Valentine’s Dinner at
Steven’s Feb. 14
Skating Party at
Roll-A-Round
on Delta Rd Feb. 18
Miss Charlotte World at
Scorpio Feb. 24
Show starts at 9:30 p.m.
NTE Dancer’s
at O’Leens Feb. 27
INSIDE
Safe Sex Works pg. 4
AIDS in the Lesbian
Community. pg. 4
Comedy Crown Review.. pg. 7
Social Highlite pg. 7
Editorial & Letter to the
Editor pg. 7
INDEX OF
MONTHLY FEATLHRES
Best Bets 1
Business Cards 8
Calendar 2
Classifieds 8
Editorials 7
Health: To Your Health... 4
Organizations 2
Publishers’Box 2
Queens’ Cuisine 7
Social Highlights 7
Women’s: The Soft Spot... 4
County Delays MAP Decision
by
Dean Gaskey
Mecklenburg county commissioners
have put off until their February 15th
meeting, their decision on the funding
of Metrolina AIDS Project (MAP).
One of the reasons the decision was
delayed, is to give the county board
more time to look into the operations of
MAP in a more detailed manner.
Sources close to Q-Notes have in
formed us that they Mieve the county
commissioners wanted to put off the
decision in order to keep from making a
“knee jerk” decision about the organiza
tion, and that MAP has generally good
support on the county board.
The county commissioners have been
asked to defund MAP by the Reverend
Joseph Chambers, pastor of Paw Creek
Church of God, who claims the AIDS
organization is “a gay club” being
funded with tax dollars, and that the
group (MAP), through its safe sex litera
ture, promotes homosexual practices
that are felonies in the state of North
Carolina.
On January 14, Rev. Chambers held
a news conference demanding that the
county defund MAP, and to bolster his
point he produced a card that had been
distributed by MAP as part of MAP’s
outreach to Charlotte’s gay community.
On the card was printed what could be
described as graphic and explicit de
scriptions of safe and unsafe sexual
practices.
Believing that county money had
been used to buy the card. Chambers
demanded that the county defund Met-
roliha AIDS Project.
But according to MAP officials the
January 14th news conference was not
Chambers’ first meeting with MAP con
cerning the card.
On January 5, county commissioner
Rod Autry asked for a meeting between
himself. Rev. Chambers and MAP rep
resentative Les Kooyman. In that meet
ing the card was discussed in detail and
MAP agreed to stop distributing the
card. Believing the issue settled, MAP
went back to business as usual, sans the
card.
Then the January 14th news confer
ence hit like a bombshell and MAP
found itself in the middle of a media
battle with the Rev. Chambers. MAP
went into a damage control mode and
tried to minimize the effect of the
Raleigh City Adopts Pro-Gay Law
by
Dean Gaskey
Q-Notes Staff
council of
a city ordi-
On January 5th, the city
the city of R^eigh adopted
nance that amends city laws to make
discrimination based on one’s “sexual
orientation” illegal in the city of Ra
leigh.
The measure was soundly voted in
with a 7 to 1 vote, with only the city’s
mayor voting alone to keep the rules the
way they were. It might be added that
the mayor has no veto, and there is no
provision in the city rules that permit
legislation to be recced once enacted.
The new rules took effect immediately
upon adoption.
The new city policy had teams from
newspapers, radio stations, and televi
sion taUdng about the city council ac
tion all day. One local AM station went
so far as to do a 1 hour special on the
issue. WLLE broadcast news every half
hour with a I hour special edition news
report in the evening explaining to the
public what effect the new law would
have on Raleigh.
And the effects will be sweeping. The
new city ordinance states that people
may not be discriminated against be
cause of “sexual orientation.” This
means that if you do business with the
city of Raleigh you would have to adopt
the same policy of non-discrimination,
said Willie PiUdngton, a chief propo
nent of the policy.
According to Pilkington, the city or
dinance is the result of many hours of
work on the part of Raleigh area activ
ists, and was the outgrowth of public
hearings held in the capitol city area late
last year. “I was celebrating in Novem
ber ... I knew it would work (then).”
Pilkington told Q-Notes, “Currently,
this is the strongest policy in the south
east.”
As a result of the public hearings held
late last year, a list of 11 items were
drawn up. They included:
(1) Suggest that Raleigh city council
adopt a non-discriminatory policy for
gay and lesbian persons.
(2) Appoint a gay or lesbian to the
city community relations committee (a
city advisory committee).
(3) That the city collect pertinent data
as to the violence directed toward per
sons because of sexual orientation.
(4) That relations with the city police
department be improved.
(5) New police reports be developed
that report anti-gay crime in a “blind
manner.”
(6) New police training procedures be
adopted, so as to sensitize the city police
department to lesbian and gay issues.
(7) Train a crime victims’ advocate
for gay related crime.
(8) Establish a 24 hour hotline for
counselling and information (Raleigh
has no gay community information tele
phone line at this time.).
(9) Compile and maintain a list of
resources for gay and lesbian persons,
including a list of outside agencies that
follow a no-discrimination policy.
(10) That the city of Raleigh find
some way to assist in the implementa
tion of the above objectives.
(11) That the city of Raleigh support
the repeal of Section 14-177 of the
North Carolina penal code (North Caro
lina Crime Against Nature Laws).
The new policy is bearing fruit close
to press time. Q-Notes learned that item
number 2, requesting that a gay or
lesbian be appointed to the city’s com
munity relations committee, has be ful-
fiUed.
John H. Voorhees, longtime gay
rights activist, and former assistant city
planner for the city of Raleigh, has been
appointed to the Raleigh city council’s
advisory committee for community af
fairs.
Chambers media campaign against
them being led by Rep. Autry, former
proponent of county funding for MAP.
In its January 19th meeting, county
commissioners heard from Marion Mc
Ginnis, president of MAP, who again
stated that the card could have offended
some people and that the card would
not be distributed by the agency. Mc
Ginnis agreed to allow county health
director Basil Delta to review all litera
ture, and to remove any language that is
found to be offensive.
Metrolina AIDS Project served 61
clients while also answering 709 calls on
its AIDS hotline. The agency also pro
vides Risk Reduction seminars and con
ducts workshops for industry concern
ing AIDS in the work place.
For further information on MAP and
its services, call the AIDS Hotline at
704/333-AIDS, 7:00-10:00 M-F.
QCQ Vote
January 31st
By Joel N. Smith
The five-member nominating com
mittee for Queen City Quordinator’s
1988 board held its final meeting on
January 17. It was the third meeting for
the committee, which included two
members of the current board and three
persons representative of the local les
bian and gay community, and was ap
pointed in accordance with QCQ’s by
laws.
Eighteen persons were nominated by
QCQ’s nominating committee, includ
ing two nominations for each of QCQ’s
four offices. The remaining ten nomina
tions are for the eight at-large or general
positions available on the board. Nomi
nees for offices are also eligible for these
at-large positions. QCQ’s current by
laws also provide for a thirteenth board
position of Immediate Past President,
but only if the current year’s president is
not re-elected.
To maintain the privacy of the candi
dates, their names are not released for
print, but the nominations are available
by calling the Gay/Lesbian Switchboard
at 525-6128 between 6:30 and 10:30 pm
nightly. Election results will also be
available from the Switchboard after
Jan. 31.
QCQ’s elections will be held on Sun
day, January 31, 7:30-9:30 pm, at the
Carolina Community Project Center.
Votes may be cast anytime during these
hours. The Center is located on the
comer of 7th and Laurel.
Anyone in the gay/lesbian commu-
CGLA In Funding Fight
Two representatives to the student
congress of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill have gathered
more than 2200 signatures on a petition
to the student congress, requesting that
the university defund the Carolina Gay
and Lesbian Association (CGLA) on the
grounds that CGLA “promote(s) homo
sexuality, a felony in North Carolina.”
CGLA representatives see the de
funding as nothing more than outright
homophobic behavior on the part of the
two representatives, and as an attack on
the ri^ts of lesbian and gay students.
The two representatives, David
McNeil, a senior and H.F. Watts, a fifth
year senior, see the drive as merely an
exercise in the democratic process.
However, no other organizations are
targeted in the defunding debate.
In articles published m “The Daily
Tarheel,” the student newspaper of
UNC, Rep. Watts stated that CGLA
“promotes the spreading of AIDS.”
Watts also said, “It (homosexuality) is
immoral to all religious beliefs, and it’s
disgusting.” Watts in the same article
claims not to be homophobic.
CGLA serves as an outreach organi
zation to more than 2000 gay and
lesbian students a year.
Here in Charlotte, Susan Furr, a
faculty advisor for a similar support
group on the UNCC campus sees no
effect on the Charlotte group as a result
of the UNC action, as the group has no
university charter and receives no uni
versity funds.
If you want more information on the
UNCC student group, please contact
Susan Furr at 547-2104.