Q&A about the treatment
of impotence Page 3
Howling with a
not-so-lone wolf
. Page 9
Comprehensive Gay
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 12, Number 8 • September 6, 1997 • FREE
Conference, networking group
Savoiy new plays offered on
culture festivaPs latest menu
keep youth resources growing
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff .
ATLANTA—^The third annual Southern
Regional Conference for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
& Transgender Youth & Allies will be held over
the weekend of October 24-26 at Georgia State
University, Atlanta. Entided “Reaching Out
in the South” and sponsored by the National
Youth Advocacy Coalition, the conference will
be an opportunity to share experiences, net
work, socialize and explore cutting-edge issues.
And there are a lot of issues to discuss concern
ing today’s gay youth.
While more and more youth organizations
seem to be appearing across the country. North
Carolina recently lost one. OutlLlght!, a
Durham-based group dedicated to providing
direct services to gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender youth, has officially dissolved, do
nating much of their assets to A Safer Place
Youth Network (ASPYN), a program within
the organization Triangle Community Works!
(TCWi).
“It is a melancholy donation,” said Michelle
Topal, ASPYN’s program coordinator. “ASPYN
is modeled on the OutRight! concept. On one
hand, the donation is greatly needed to con
tinue to provide the direct services we deliver
every weekend. On the other hand, it marks
the end of a very supportive and cooperative
relationship.”
TCWI will redouble its efforts to help serve
the entire Triangle area youth population. In
an attempt to meet those needs, ASPYN vol
unteers are discussing holding youth meetings
in Durham.
While the closing of OutRight! is sad news,
there are many positive things happening for
our gay youth. The recent American Psycho
logical Association resolution on “conversion”
or “reparative” therapy (see separate article in
this issue) is being viewed as a positive step for
all GLBT people and especially for youth.
“For many young people dealing with their
sexual orientation, going to an allegedly help
ful mental health provider turns into a night
mare of inappropriate questions, hospitaliza
tion, shock treatment and other archaic mea
sures,” said Rea Carey, Director of the National
Youth Advocacy Coalidon. “All too often, ‘con
version’ or ‘reparative’ therapy is being pushed
on young people who are seeking affirming
support but are met instead with long sessions
of shame.”
Student Pride, an organization to support
high school activists, begun by Chicago student
Miguel Ayala in the fall of 1996, is now being
implemented by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight
Educators’ Network (GLSEN), the nation’s
largest advocacy group combating homopho
bia in the schools.
“The important and courageous work be
ing done by students like Miguel all over the
country is inspiring to us and we wanted to
make sure Student Pride didn’t die when Miguel
graduated. Our goal is to make sure that these
young people have a place to turn for support
See RESOURCES on page 24
UFMCC conference gets attention
and good turnout in Australia
by James N. Birkitt, Jr.
Special to Q-Notes
SYDNEY—^The largest gay spirituality con
ference ever held in the Pacific Rim took place
July 20-25 under the sponsorship of the Uni
versal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches (UFMCC). The impetus for the gath
ering was the 29-year-old denomination’s 13th
biennial conference.
More than 1600 participants from 15 coun
tries gathered in the historic Sydney Town Hall
in Sydney, Australia on July 20 for the opening
rally of UFMCC’s General Conference XVIII.
The conference was the Fellowship’s most
international to date and the first held outside
of North America. Inter
national growfth of the
predominandy gay,
lesbian, bisexual
and transgender
denomination was
a focus of the con
ference. Since 1993,
UFMCC, composed
of more than 300 local con
gregations in 15 countries, has welcomed
10,000 new members internationally.
A highlight of the conference was the pres
ence of noted South Korean eco-feminist theo
logian Dr. Chung Hyun Kyung, professor of
ecumenics at Union Theological Seminary in
New York City. She presented the conference
keynote address entitled, “Love In The Time
Of AIDS: Reflections on a New Civilization
Which Empowers our Resistance, Liberation,
and Healing for the 21st Century.”
The use of technology to share gay spiritu
ality formed a second track of General Confer
ence XVIII. UFMCC has made a significant
commitment to Internet technology, accord
ing to the Rev. Elder Troy D. Perry, founder
and moderator of UFMCC.
More than 34,000 p>ersons around the world
visited the UFMCC Virtual Conference website
at http://www.ufmcc.com during conference
week, said Perry. The website carried photos of
the conference, the “State of the Fellowship
Address” (available through RealAudio), daily
conference news and the transcripts of online
conference Internet chats from Sydney.
Media interest in General Conference XVIII
was exceptionally strong, according to UFMCC
officials. Rev. Perry appeared on the Australian
Today Show and the Australian Broadcasting
Company filmed a documentary which aired
nationally on August 10. The documentary fea
tured scenes from conference workshops, semi
nars and worship sessions.
Conference news coverage was provided by
mainline newspapers across the continent and
the Australian gay press provided exceptional
ftont-page coverage of this historic conference.
The Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, UFMCC’s Chief
Ecumenical Officer, conducted an extensive in
terview with the press service of the World
Council of Churches.
During conference business, delegates re
elected the Rev. Darlene Gamer (Falls Church,
VA) and the Rev. Hong Tan (London, England)
to the UFMCC Board of Elders and elected
Mr. Clarke Friesen (Tucson, AZ) to the Board.
In other business, delegates approved by-laws
changes, rejected a proposal for a triennial con
ference system and approved new denomina
tional mission, vision and values statements.
Additional information on UFMCC and
General Conference XVIII can be found on the
denomination’s website. T
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
The folks behind OutCharlotte 97 have re
leased information on two more menu items
to run during next month’s annual cultural fes
tival celebrating the artistic contributions of the
GLBT community. Both offerings are plays and
are.making their Queen City debuts.
Here are the latest ingredients for the sure-
to-be-tasty OutCharlotte 97 stew:
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me (by
David Drake; performed by Kevin Fabian.)
In The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, Obie-
winning actor/playwright David Drake docu
ments a gay man’s journey
of self-discovery in a series
of meticulously crafted
scenes that are alternately
lyrical, brutal and hilari
ous. The tide refers not to
an actual caress, but to the
night the author received
the “kiss” of pride and self-
awareness from seeing
Kramer’s play The Normal
Heart. The Night Larry
Kramer Kissed Me is not
only a valuable record of a
landmark theatrical event,
but also an important con
tribution to the literature
of gay pride, enlighten
ment and activism.
Seattle actor Kevin
Fabian stars in this one-
man tour de force. He has worked with Seatde
Children’s Theatre, Greek Active, The Oregon
Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe in San
Diego and the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
• “Fabian is agile and cogent, has the right
pumped-up physique and is a very credible
younger David; naively buying a gay disco
record for his mom as a Christmas present.
Where Fabian truly shines, though, is in “A
Kevin Fabian
Thousand Points of Light,” a vividly written
recollection of AIDS losses.” — Seattle Times
• “He demonstrates a wide range, capturing
with equal finesse the sensitivity of an effemi
nate eight-year-old, the blas^ posing of varied
gym rats and disco bunnies....” — Seattle Weekly
• “Mr. Fabian is also excellent in the low-
key but climactic final scene; lighting candles
and relating a personal story of each friend who
died of AIDS, all with nicely observed,
unsaintly yet heroic detail.” — The Stranger
Meal times: October 10 and 11; 8:45pm;
Theatre Charlotte (501 Queens Road); $12
Next Year in Sodom (by the Eggplant Faerie
Players; performed by
members MaxZine Wein
stein, TomFoolery and
Delilah DeVille.)
Next Year in Sodom was
specifically written for a
radical faerie summer pil
grimage to Israel by three of
the Eggplant Faerie Players’
Jewish members. Created
by queers living in the
middle of the Bible Belt and
performed in a land
drenched in conflict. Next
Year in Sodom celebrates
freedom amidst repression.
Opening the door for
the prophet Elijah during
the Passover seder, Ben
jamin, Mark and Seaweed
are not prepared for the pa
rade of eccentric characters that come march
ing into their dining room — Bible heroes, jug
glers, a transvestite member of “Meals on Heels”
and a door-to-door arms deder.
The rituals and symbols of the holiday take
on new meanings through irreverent interpre
tations such as “Name that Matzoh,” a televi
sion game show. The play explores universal
See FESTIVAL on page 24
IRS grants gay youth group
federal tax-exempt status
by Peg Byron
Special to Q-Notes
GREENSBORO, NO—The Internal Rev
enue Service (IRS) issued tax-exempt status to
the Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Support Sys
tem (GLASS), a gay youth support group, on
August 26 after reviewing a complaint from
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
asserting that the tax agency had asked inap
propriate and anti-gay follow-up questions
about GLASS after receiving its filing.
“This is a wonderful and timely victory for
lesbian and gay youth and their parents across
the country just as a new school year starts,”
said David Buckel, the Lambda staff attorney
who filed the written appeal on July 1 on be
half of the Greensboro-based organization.
“Faced with cruel, at times dangerous, anti
gay attimdes in many communities and schools,
gay youth desperately need the kind of support
that groups like GLASS offer,” Buckel com
mented. “The federal government not only has
admitted it made a mistake in its hostile re
sponse to GLASS, it also has signaled hope to
the rest of the country about building such
volunteer pro-gay efforts,” he added.
GLASS was formed to meet the needs of
young people feeing anti-gay bigotry and abuse
by providing support groups and educational
resources. It is staffed entirely by volunteers and
has served about 120 youth between the ages
of 15 and 21 since it started in 1994.
The IRS backed down on its earlier com
munication with GLASS, officially withdraw
ing the letter it had sent after the group ap
plied for 501(c)3 status. That letter had de
manded assurances “that counsellors [sic] and
participants do not encourage or facilitate ho
mosexual practices or encourage the develop
ment of homosexual attitudes and propensities
by minor individuals....”
In withdrawing its letter, the IRS acknowl
edged that Lambda, the oldest and largest gay
and lesbian legal organization, was right in criti
cizing the agency’s attempt to police the view
point of a group because it serves gay youth. ▼