Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / Oct. 1, 1991, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Vol. 6, No. 10 October 1991 w^FKEE HIV/AIDS housing in the Carolines .page 3 New free teen hotline nixes gay message page 14 The Carol'ma’e Meet Compreheneive Oay & Leebian Mewepaper ^Jubilant’ PFLAG Lesbian director’s “drag” documentary hits big Invades Charlotte Special To Q-Notes CHARLOTTE — At least 400 people are. expected at the Omni Charlotte Hotel Oct. 11-14 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of an organization founded by mothers and fathers of gay men and lesbians. In spite of opposition from Charlotte’s most radical anti-gay sect and Jesse Helms’ expressions of hate in political campaigns and in the U.S. Senate, the tenth annual Con vention of the International Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays will go on as planned in Helms’ home state. It’s the first convention hosted by a south ern chapter of PFLAG. “Celebrating the Jewels in our Crown” is the theme with “jewels” standing for gay sons and lesbian daughters. And the conference is called “The Crown Convention” because founders of PFLAG — 31 people who gath ered in a Los Angeles living room in 1981 — will be honored at the Coronation Banquet on Sunday, Oct. 13. At least two parents from the United King dom will attend to learn how to establish a parents-of-gays federation in England. If visa problems can be whipped, a delegate will attend from the Soviet Union. Two dozen parents are expected from Canada. Television crews have applied for press credentials from 21st Century News, an Ari zona documentary specialist that has pro duced gay-positive work, and from the Cana dian equivient of PBS. Convention organizers have formulated plans to accommodate national and local media while protecting privacy rights of at tendees. One such step is that people willing to be interviewed or photographed will wear green imitation jewels on name tags, and media will have free access to them while forbidden to approach other attendees. Expected picketing by a group calling itself Concerned Charlotteans has not fazed organizers. “They have as much right to picket us as we do to picket them,” said convention chair th,€' m Cl^OUH October 11-14,1991 T Saturday/12 Our Family Celebration, an evening of gay and lesbian entertainment, welcomes par ents and friends at Dana Auditorium on the Queens College Campus, 1900 Selwyn Av enue, 8:30 pm. Over 70 performers will be making music and making laughs. Get ad vance tickets, $10-$20 on a sliding scale (patron tickets available at $40, $70 and $100 with some great perks) from Bloomingdeal’s or Metro, or call 704/536- 1372. Net proceeds from the evening will benefit eight gay/lesbian gay or gay-sup portive groups in Charlotte. NCOD to be observed October 11 Come out, come out wherever you are by David Stout Q-Notes Stair Thousands of gay and lesbian Americans will again commemorate National Coming Out Day (NCOD) by taking another step in their coming out process. Now in its fourth year and observed annually on October 11, NCOD coincides with the date of the historic 1987 gay-rights march on Washington. The brainchild of Los Angeles gay-iights activists Rob Eichberg and Jean O’Leary, NCOD is officially defined as, “A call to Jennie Livingston, inset, and the featured performers of Paris is Burning. Jennie Livingston burns down the world Dub Rankin of Dallas, a small town north of Gastonia. “We welcome the press attention they’ll bring to the convention. By picketing the Omni, they’ll help us tell our own mes sage.” Rankin penned the message when he wrote a preamble to the convention brochure. He said: Continued on page 10 by David Stout Q-Notes Staff First time director Jennie Livingston, 29, is red hot - her film Paris Is Burning, about the underground drag balls of Harlem (New York) is a commercial smash, garnering rave reviews from critics alt over the world. Q- Notes caught up with Miss Livingston in Vermont for this inter- @67!K3eiSI action, a campaign for truth, power, and lib eration.” Jean O’Leary still resides in Los Angeles, but Rob Eichberg now lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico, where the national head quarters of NCOD are located. A full-time staff of three, consisting of Eichberg, Executive Director Lynn Sheppod, and Spokesperson Skip Rosenthal, work year- round coordinating national coming out events, soliciting funding, and preparing press releases for Gay America’s only national holiday. In a telephone interview. Skip Rosenthal stated that another very important service provided by the NCOD staff is that of switch board and information referral, “Since we have the “800” number, a lot of people who are just coming out call us to find out what groups or organizations exist in their own area.” Rosenthal gives a good deal of the credit for getting the word out (and phone number) to the general public to Oprah Winfrey. “Her show propelled it (NCOD) to national status. We were able to reach gay and lesbian people whom we had never been able to reach be fore,” said Rosenthal. However, after covering the event its first twQ years, producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show declined to feature it last year because they wanted one of the panelists to be some one who was angry about being “outed” and Continued on page 9 view. QN: Where are you from originally? JL: I grew up in Los Angeles. QN: How did you end up in New York? JL: I went to school at Yale which is in Connecticut. Then after that I stayed on the East Coast and a lot of people I know went to New York and so I did too. QN: What were your plans for going there? JL: I basically mov^ to New York to get into films. I really didn’t know what I’d be doing; I just went thinking that that was what I wanted. QN: How did you learn about the drag Paris Is Burning comes to Charlotte and Columbia start ing October 11. Q-Notes makes FREE tickets available — see ad on page 7. balls? JL: The first month I was there I was taking a film production class - a summer course - and I happened to run into some guys who were vogueing in the park. In the sum mer of 1985 no one knew what that was, no one outside of the people who were going to the balls. So I saw them doing this dance and thought it was really great. I asked them if they’d come back so I could film them and they never did; but eventually I ran across some other guys in the park doing the same thing so I filmed them with the little wind-up camera I had from class. That’s when I started going to the balls. QN: Where was the first drag ball you ever went to held? JL: I went to my first ball that summer of ‘85 at the Gay Community Center; it was a mini-ball and my friend Jim went with me. We were utterly confused because we had never seen such a thing. Continued on page 8 Q-Notes gets new look, increases circulation to 10,000 In the works for several months, Q- Notes unveils its new banner on this month’s front page. A shapely new Q, a new typestyle and new front page format are all part of the Carolinas most comprehensive gay and les bian newspaper. And this month, for the first time, printing will reach 10,000copies. “We’ve been making subtle changes here and there the past few months,” said Pub lisher Jim Yarbrough. “We want to thank our readership for responding to our publi cation. Good word of mouth, timeliness, and consistent quality are the main reasons for our increase in the number of copies being made available.” Q-Notes was print ing 7,000 copies only four months ago. The paper has dramatically increased its distribution sites throughout the Carolinas, looking for locations that will accommo date the openly gay person as well as a person in the closet who wants information on where to find support groups or social activities. Therefore, the paper is more and more beginning to appear in traditionally non-gay locations. “The entire staff is proud of the growth spurt we’ve been going through,” related Dan Kirsch, Editor. “Many of the style changes we have been incorporating came about because of roundtable meetings with other gay and lesbian newspersons. Their input was invaluable, and our readers see the results.” In addition to the new banner and accom panying article promo box, the index will move to the top of page two. We invite your comments, compliments, and criticisms on all facets of Q-Notes. This paper is for our community and we wel come everyone’s input.
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 1, 1991, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75