The Carolinas' Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper
SC gay-bashing victim
tells story to Senators Page 3
Miss Paige Turner takes
on bigotry at PBS Page 17
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 12, Number 3 • June 28, 1997 • FREE
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Groups from across NC participated in the March
NC Pride March
succeeds in gay-
supportive town
by Shane Wolf
Q-Notes Staff
CARRBORO—^The 1997 North Carolina
Pride March and Celebration was held in
Carrboro, just outside of Chapel Hill. Carrboro,
which is so gay-friendly that even the mayor is
gay, was all decked out with 50 rainbow flags
hung from lightpoles throughout the town. But
this year, Carrboros utopian image was momen
tarily in question when the two city workers
assigned to hang the flags refused to perform
their duties, both stating, “It’s against my reli
gious beliefs.”
“I guess they go to the ‘Church of Hang No
Rainbow Flags,’” quipped Sarah Titus, NC
Pride co-chair. “The March and festivities were
a great success. But if it weren’t for the two city
workers we might not have gotten any press
coverage at all. It seems the press is always in
terested in a controversy and it seemed as if they
were determined to make a story out of these
two men. In the end, the town manager and
some of the other higher ups put [the flags] up
on Saturday and took them down on Sunday.
“I think this was a great welcoming to the
march. The flags were purchased by individu
als who sponsored them and then received one
after the march. And not
a single one was stolen,”
Titus proudly noted.
Unlike previous years,
the weather was perfect.
With an overcast sky —
that carried an unfulfilled
threat of rain — it was just
warm enough for some at
tendees to bare a little
s: skin. The cooperative,
g unseasonal weather led to
.S a turnout of nearly 5,000
^ (officially 3,900 wrist
^ bands were handed out,
Q but people came out of
^ the wood work when the
march began). Vendors
were in full force and, ac
cording to Titus, had a great showing.
The economic impact on the surrounding
area was significant. Over eighty-six percent of
the rooms at the Omni Hotel were reserved by
marchers. With only one food vendor at the
march, area restaurants also benefited greatly.
Friday night’s dance was also a success. While
not as well attended as in previous years, there
were over 700 people between the open dance
floor and the special jazz concert at the King’s
Club (dubbed “Queens’ Club” for the evening.
The live jazz concert was a first for NC Pride.
It was especially enjoyed by the “mature” crowd
and is sure to be brought back next year.
Another major success this year was the NC
Pride Drag Tour fundraiser that preceeded the
weekend. “The tour went to 12 bars across the
state and really helped with publicity. In the
end it raised over $3,500. This really made the
difference in pricing some of the other events,”
Titus commented. Final estimates on the cost
of the march and festivities is in the $60,000
range.
Next year’s site has not been determined.
Though there is some discussion about
Asheville, no official bid has been received.
No money is necessary to make a bid to host
the march. However, if someone wishes to make
a bid, they must be willing to serve as co-chair
and have in place another co-chair of the op
posite gender (one male, one female). “It also
helps to have 8-12 people ready for key posi
tions on the board, but this is not required,”
said Titus. For more information and a Bid
Packet, contact Mike Katz at (919) 990-1005,
or email: ncprideinc@aol.com. ▼
ENDA reintroduced in Congress
by Kim I. Mills
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC—A bipartisan coa
lition of Senators and Congressmen reintro
duced the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act, a bill that would make it illegal under fed
eral law to discriminate in the workplace on
the basis of sexual orientation.
The five lead sponsors held a news confer
ence on June 10 to spodight the record level of
support for the measure among lawmakers and
the public. The bill — known as ENDA—is a
top legislative priority for the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest gay rights
organization, in this Congress.
“This bill is about cqui rights in the work
place for all Americans,” said HRC Executive
Director Elizabeth Birch. “The Employment
Non-Discrimination Aa rises above partisan,
religious and regional differences — and sup
port is growing as more people learn that job
discrimination based on sexual orientation is
legal in most of the country.”
ENDA would protect Americans from job
discrimination based on sexual orientation. It
would prohibit quotas, and it would not apply
to religious organizations, businesses with fewer
than 15 employees or the military.
Current federal law does not protect Ameri
cans from discrimination in the workplace on
the basis of sexual orientation. In 39 states, an
employer may legally fire workers solely be
cause they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or hetero
sexual.
Eleven states have laws prohibiting sexual
orientation discrimination. California, Con
necticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wis
consin have had these laws on the books for a
number of years; Maine and New Hampshire
enacted such laws earlier this spring.
Incidents of such discriminadon arc wide
spread. In nine of the 11 states where there is
legal protection, more than 2,000 complaints
of job discrimination based on sexual orienta
tion have been recorded.
Kerry Lobel, executive dircaor of the Na
tional Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF),
issued the following statement upon ENDA’s
introduction, “NGLTF joins our civil rights
allies in supporting ENDA, the Employment
Non-Discriminadon Act of 1997. The message
of ENDA is clear and straightforward. Dis-
See ENDA on page 4
Arts dispute erupts in NC House,
Guilford and Mecklenburg Counties
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
RALEIGH—The fracas over government
subsidies for “objectionable” art has moved to
a larger canvas as the NC House of Represen
tatives is now set to consider a bill that would
empower all municipal governments to halt
such displays if the presenter has received any
state-provided grants. While at the local level,
commissioners in both Guilford and
Mecklenburg Counties have voted to cut allo
cations for community-based artists from their
1997-98 budgets. In each of the counties, the
presentation of a play with homosexual themes
was the catalyst for the curtailment.
The motion in the House is three-sentences
long and embedded in the 343-page state bud
get proposal currendy under consideration. The
rider, introduced by Rep. Sam Ellis (R-Wake),
would require that all artists seeking state funds
sign a statement acknowledging that their work
is subject to the approval of elected officials. It
would extend to dl city and county govern
ments the right to halt “objectionable” presen
tations by any such artists.
In defense of his proposal. Rep. Ellis stated,
“It’s simple; if you’re going to take our money,
you subject yourself to our opinion. And ‘our’
is what I believe to be the opin
ion of the majority of the popu
lation.”
Not everyone was in agree
ment with that assessment,
however. “We feel it really
smacks of censorship, plain and
simple,” said Rob Maddrey,
president of the lobbying orga
nization Arts North Carolina.
Rep. Alma Adams (D-
Guilford) concurred. “They use
the word ‘objectionable,’ but
that’s just a code word.” She
noted that Ellis’ proposal is sim
ply a way for officials to force
their personal values onto citizens and subvert
forms of artistic expression that they disagree
with.
In Adams’ home district, the county is em
broiled in its own flap over the issue of govern
ment funding for contentious art.
It began with Community Theatre of
Greensboro’s May 9-16 performances of the
gay-themed farce La Cage Aux Folks and cul
minated in the Guilford County Commission’s
decision to withhold funding for all commu
nity arts organizations.
Nearly 200 citizens, most from area
churches, attended the commission’s mid-May
meeting to express their anger that ^ “anti
family” play was being presented by a group
that bad received money from the United Arts
Council of Greensboro, an organization that
receives money from the county.
At the June 4 meeting. Commissioner Steve
Arnold presented a motion to cut all arts fund
ing. After an hour of debate by funding propo
nents and opponents, followed by additional
discussion among the commissioners, the mea
sure was approved by a vote of 6 to 5 — split
along party lines with the Republicans (Arnold,
Joe Bostic, Walt Cockerham, Phyllis Gibbs,
Mary Rakestraw and Chuck Winfree) prevail
ing over the Democrats (Melvin “Skip” Alston,
Warren Dorsett, Donnie Dunovant, Bob
Landreth and John Parks). As a result, the
county is withholding $30,000 from the United
Arts Council of Greensboro and $ 15,000 from
the High Point Area Arts Council.
Through a compromise approved by
commissioner’s at their next meeting, the full
$45,000 was redirected to fund arts programs
More arts
funding
coverage
can be
found on
page 6.
solely in the Guilford County school system. in our youth.
Unfortunately, the situation may have pro
duced another troubling outcome besides the
loss of arts funding: a major rift between the
gay and arts communities.
The unchallenged homophobic tone of the
meeting left many gays and lesbians incensed
with Greensboro’s arts leaders. Gary Palmer, a
member of the Triad Advocacy Network, a gay
political and educational organization, stated,
“There are a lot of us who are very angry. We
had been assured that (the meeting) wasn’t go
ing to be a gay bashing and it was.” He ex
pressed dismay that none of the arts speakers
supported gays and lesbians in their comments.
“I guess we were kind of naive about this,”
commented Stephen Carrigan, president of
Alternative Resources of the Triad, a gay refer
ral service. “From now on, we must be prepared
as the gay and lesbian community to speak for
ourselves, because (arts leaders) won’t. No one
denounced the fact that gays and lesbians were
being used as a scapegoat.”
The scenario wasn’t the same in
Mecklenburg County. After Charlotte Reper
tory Theatre’s production of Angels In America
created a “traditional values” furor last year, arts
and even business leaders eloquendy denounced
the anti-gay stance of Commissioner Hoyle
Martins’ April 1 proposal to
cut the county’s $2.5 million
allotment to the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Arts & Science
Council. The result was the
same, though, and the bill was
approved by a vote of 5 to 4.
The move left commissioners
responsible for conducting the
application and review process
by which individual arts orga
nizations are awarded their an
nual allowances — a task for
merly carried out by the Arts
& Science Council.
Presumably, artists that re
flected “traditional family values” would be
funded while others would be turned away —
leaving commissioners iti the position of being
the arbiters of artistic merit. To some, this was
unacceptable.
At the commission’s June 17 meeting, the
situation was resolved when the Democratic
majority voted to end funding for all arts agen
cies rather than be forced into choosing which
were deserving. (Because the county owns Spirit
Square, commissioners did appropriate $1.2
million for its continuation.) Unlike the April
1 meeting, Mardn stood with his party col
leagues (Becky Carney, Parks Helms, Lloyd
Scher and Darrel Williams) to defeat Republi
cans Tom Bush, Joel Carter, George Higgins
and Bill James.
At several points during the rancorous de
bate Republican commissioners stated that the
Democrats were “hurting children” by their
position — especially in relation to $225,000
earmarked for Discovery Place, but the Demo
crats defeated three separate motions to fund
the agency. Commissioner Scher expressed dis
appointment that Discovery Place representa
tives came to the meeting and asked for money,
knowing that other worthy organizations were
being punished because of censorship.
The tragic result of these measures is that
the more “family friendly” an arts organization
is, the more likely it is to be dependent on gov
ernment subsidies for survival. The arts orga
nizations that produce the “objectionable”
works are the most likely to be self-supportive.
In the rush to make NC a more moral state,
officials might be sounding the death knell for
the arts organizations that seek to instill virtues