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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 13, Number 17 • January 9, 1999 • FREE
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Honeycutt (back row; 3rd from left) with Journey Pathmakers and members
Journey explores spiritual pathway
by Juli Treadway
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—This past summer, Kim
Honeycutt spearheaded Breaking Down the
Wall of Homophobia, an ambitious art project
that brought the struggle for gay youth visibil
ity to life in a trendy NoDa (North Davidson)
gallery. Recendy, she has undertaken another
impressive project with the creation of Jour
ney, a non-profit organization that aims to nur
ture spiritual grov«h and increase educational
opportunities among GLBT young people be
tween the ages of 13 and 24.
Honeycutt, 27, holds a Masters Degree in
Social Work which allows youth support agen
cies such as Mecklenburg County Social Ser
vices, The Willows, Charter Pines and others
to make referrals. While pursuing her degree,
Honeycutt served an internship with Time Out
Youth and remains an avid supporter. She says
that the two organizations focus on different
needs (“our youth need more than one option”),
but plan to work in conjunction.
Honeycutt believes that the creation of Jour
ney was divinely inspired. “God called me to
do this. I’ve lived my life for myself; it’s time I
gave something back to society.” The effort to
pull it together, however, took place in the
material world with financial backing from her
family.
A dedicated group of 20 or so volunteers,
called Pathmakers, help the organization live
up to its tag line “Youth Making a Path.” Cur
rent and planned Journey programs include
offering spirituality workshops, providing aca
demic scholarships, offering free tutoring, pay
ing for SAT application fees, paying school
parking fees and hosting summer camps for gay
youth. During Christmas, Journey worked with
the Carolina Bears on their annual Share-A-
Bear Program. They are gearing up to host the
first summer camp in 1999. It will focus on
spiritual and educational enhancement. In its
short existence. Journey already has several suc
cesses, including leading one discouraged youth
back to college.
One of the first projects for Journey mem
bers was to create the programming for a spe
cial “YES (Youth Empowerment Sunday)” ser
vice at the Metropolitan Community Church
of Charlotte, of which Journey is an affiliate
See JOURNEY on page 11
Shepard case and the legal system
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
LARAMIE, WY—As reported in the last is
sue of Q-Notes, three of the four suspects —
Aaron James McKinney, Chasity Vera Pasley
and Kristen LeAnn Price — in the Matthew
Shepard murder case had confessed to partici
pating in the crime. But these confessions were
not in writing and were given outside of the
official court hearings where pleas are entered.
When they appeared in court for their arraign
ments, the three, along with fourth suspect
Russell Arthur Henderson, entered pleas of “not
guilty.”
However, on the day before Christmas,
Pasley changed her plea to “guilty.”
On October 7, Shepard, a gay University of
Wyoming student, was severely beaten and pis
tol-whipped, left tied to a fence, and died in a
hospital on October 12 without having regained
consciousness.
The two men, Henderson and McKinney,
are each charged with first-degree murder, ag
gravated robbery and kidnapping with intent
to inflict bodily injury or to terrorize the vic
tim. Both are being held without bond.
The two women, Pasley and Price, are ac
cused of helping to dispose of bloody clothing
that police say was worn by Henderson, Pasley’s
boyfriend. The two women are each charged
with being an accessory after the fact to first-
degree murder. Price faces a May trial.
There has been a great deal of legal postur
ing by both the prosecution and defense teams
in this case.
Prosecutors wanted a single trial for
Henderson and McKinney, claiming two
people accused of the same crime should be
tried together. Defense attorneys opposed a
combined trial, but would not say why pub
licly. District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell ruled that
the two men will be tried separately, giving no
reason for the decision. Henderson’s trial was
set for March 22, McKinney’s for August 9.
In late December, prosecutor Cal Rerucha
filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty
against both men. Neither oudined his reasons.
“To request the death penalty on an indi
vidual like Russell [Henderson] who does not
have a significant criminal record and who does
not have a juvenile history, and if convicted
would be involved in basically his first crimi
nal act is really heavy handed,” said Wyatt
Ska^s, an attorney for Henderson. “I think it’s
heavy handed to say the least and somewhat
politically motivated.”
Tangeman, one of McKinney’s attorneys.
See SHEPARD on page 22
Court decisions yield opposite
outcomes for gay parents
by Peg Byron
Special to Q-Notes
BALTIMORE, MD—Maryland’s highest
court issued an important ruling that the best
interest of children in divorced families with a
lesbian or gay parent requires that the children
have unrestricted contact with their gay parent
unless evidence establishes that such contact
causes demonstrable harm.
In a disappointing setback handed down just
two days prior, an Ohio appeals court rejected
a lesbian couple’s request to allow a second-par
ent adoption, denying an eight-year-old girl the
added protections of a second legally-recognized
parent.
In the first case, the state Court of Appeals
decision closely mirrored Lambda Legd De
fense and Education Fund’s arguments on be
half of a gay Anne Arundel, MD father, Robert
Glenn Boswell, whose visits with his 10- and
7-year-old son and daughter would have been
severely limited by a 1996 trial court order. The
new opinion affirmed an appellate ruling
against the restrictions and rejected the mother’s
argument that the best-interest standard per
mitted the trial court to impose restrictions on
the father even in the absence of proof that they
were needed.
Lambda’s legal director Beatrice Dohrne
said, “The decision that judges may not rule
based on personal bias or stereotypical belief is
tremendously important to lesbian and gay
parents in Maryland. In the national context,
this ruling strengthens a trend among many
other states that children’s best interests require
that courts not use anti-gay bias or stereotypes
in making visitation or custody judgments.”
Added Nancy Polikoff of American Univer
sity, Lambda’s cooperating attorney in the case,
“This decision recognizes that a child might feel
uncomfortable around a gay parent and his or
her partner, and also that children of lesbian
and gay parents might face a difficult adjust
ment period. But the Court accepts those as
facts of life, not reasons to restrict the parent-
child relationship.”
In a 40-page decision, the high court said,
“We make no distinctions as to the sexual pref
erence of the non-custodial parent whose visi
tation is being challenged. The only relevance
that a parent’s sexual conduct or lifestyle has in
the context of a visitation proceeding of this
type is where that conduct or lifestyle is clearly
shown to be detrimental to the children’s emo
tional and/or physical well-being.”
The court also noted, “Thus, while this
Coun sympathizes with the difficult adjustment
these children may be having with not only their
parent’s divorce, but also with their father’s
homosexual lifestyle, it has not been shown to
be in [the children’s] best interest to curtail visi
tation so as to restrict [the father’s live-in part
ner] from their lives. ...[T]he reality is that their
father is a homosexual who shares his home and
life with [his partner]...”
The case was on appeal from the state Court
of Special Appeals which vacated a 1996 trial
court ruling prohibiting Boswell from having
overnight visits with his children, and from vis
iting his children while with his partner, any
one with whom he was living in a non-marital
relationship or “anyone having homosexual ten
dencies.” The children are in the physical cus-
See DECISIONS on page 11
Navy cannot rubber stamp discharge
by Danny Reed
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC—Former Navy
Petty Officer Jim Turner received a Christmas
present two days early this year: a decision from
the United States District Court for the Dis
trict of Columbia that the Navy’s decision to
uphold his discharge under “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell, Don’t Pursue” was “arbitrary and capri
cious” in violation of the Administrative Pro
cedure Act. The decision marks the first time
that a court has held that a military service
branch violated administra- _________
tive law in its review of a
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,
Don’t Pursue” case. Along
with the case of Master
Chief Petty Officer Timothy
McVeigh, the decision
marked the second time in
1998 that a federal court
ruled against the Navy for
its handling of such cases.
District Judge Paul L.
Friedman ruled December
23 that the Navy erred when
a Deputy Assistant Secretary gave “absolutely
no indication of the grounds” on which she re
fused to accept a majority finding by the civil
ian Board for Correction of Naval Records. The
Board earlier had held that the Navy’s discharge
of Turner suffered from numerous procedural
and substantive failings (including the appar
ent undue influence of the lead Navy witness
by Turner’s command) and could not stand.
Judge Friedman remanded the case to the Sec
retary of the Navy for further proceedings, rul
ing that “the Secretary...may conclude on his
re-evaluation of the evidence and arguments
This decision marks
the first time that a
court has found a
military service
branch in violation
of “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell, Don't Pursue.
presented that Deputy Assistant Secretary
Heath’s rubber stamp ruling cannot, in fact, be
sustained.” The court noted “recent indications
that [the Navy’s lead witness] might wish to
recant his testimony” as well as other concerns
with the record.
“We welcome the court’s decision,” said C.
Dixon Osburn, co-executive director of
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an
independent legal aid and watchdog organiza
tion for those harmed by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,
Don’t Pursue.” “We have asked the Navy time
and again to give sailors a
fair hearing under ‘Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pur
sue’ rather than rush to
judgment. The Navy has
failed that standard repeat
edly, forcing sailors to seek
redress in court. The case of
Master Chief Petty Officer
Tim McVeigh was one ex
ample. This is another. We
simply ask the Navy to act
in good faith.”
“I feel vindicated,” said
Turner, now living in Connecticut. “I was rail
roaded out of the Navy after an exemplary
seven-year career. Because of the rampant fear
of homosexuality in my command, no one in
the Navy wanted to look seriously at the alle
gations against me or the known unreliability
of the people making the charges. I am grateful
that the court has held the Navy accountable.”
“This is a big victory,” said Allan Moore,
Turner’s lawyer and leading expert on the
military’s policy at Covington &C Burling, a
Washington, DC law firm. “It is extremely dif-
See DISCHARGE on page 22