The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper
Anna is back on
Barbary Lane —
Dukakis reprises
Tales role to spin
more magic.
See page 14 for details.
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 15, Number 25 • April 28, 2001 • FREE
First openly gay
soldier completes
term of service
Gay & lesbian bank launches non-profit
program at Charlotte Pride
by Mami L. Grant
Special to Q-Notes
Jfn a city of banks — in a nation built on
capital power — why get excited about anothet
financial institution? Charlotte as a banking
center, for instance, has more than its share,
but none except the new, national G&L
Internet Bank take the gay and lesbian com
munity as its namesake. Imagine that. A bank
for us.
More than a token gesture, the G&L
Internet Bank is devoted to serving GLBT cus
tomers in every state and vows to support
GLBT non-profit organizations. According to
its web site, G&L Bank will “provide unparal
leled service and comfortable banking to all
individuals, regatdless of sexual orientation,
race, gender, creed, color, ethnicity, HIV sta
tus, physical ability, and gender identity.” The
mission statement also promises that G&L
Bank will only purchase products and services
from companies that have a non-discrimina
tion sexual orientation and equal opportunity
policy in place for all employees. Pretty impres
sive. What’s the catch?
You need a computer with Internet access
and a penchant for ATMs. It’s an Internet bank.
That means there is no familiar “brick-and-
mortar building," said Dixon Taylor, G&L
Bank’s National Business Development Direc
tor. You can still write checks, but to withdraw
and deposit money, you must rely on ATMs,
debit or check cards, employer direct deposits,
Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) transactions,
wire transfers, pre-authorized automatic elec
tronic payments (ePay), your phone, and the
United States Postal Service. It’s a new way of
banking. -“It’s the way of the future,” remarked
Taylor. “In 10 years, everyone will be banking
online.” She might be right. Technology ad
vances faster than we, as a society, can imple
ment it. “It’s ready and waiting to be used,”
Taylor emphasized. “Most of us are accustomed
to using ATMs, and many traditional bank cus
tomers already take advantage of Internet bank
ing and bank-by-phone options.”
The advantage of an Internet bank like G&L
Bank, argues the G&L Bank Question and
Answer webpage, is that by keeping overhead
costs low — that is, by not having to maintain
physical bank branches — an Internet bank can
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offer lower interest rates on mortgages and loans
and higher interest rates on checking and sav
ings accounts, CDs, and retirement accounts.
It also means that you, the customer, can bank
anywhere, any time. Instead of waiting in' long
lines that make some of us cranky, you can bank
at home while petting the cat, enjoying a cup
of coffee, and lounging around in your under
wear.
Most importantly, the gay, lesbian,
transgendered, and bisexual customer can be
open and out when applying for a loan or open
ing an account. It means same-sex partners can
introduce themselves honestly to a G&L Bank
See BANK on Page 9
UNCC’s Pride yields groundswell of support
Judy Shepard receives a check for
the Matthew Shepard Memorial
Fund at UNCC.
by Mami L. Grant
Special to Q-Notes
I~)pA\r^tpA UNC Charlotte students in
concert with other campus and community
groups; a soft-spoken but powetful mother
from Wyoming; a brave university president; a
civic-minded mayor and county commission
chair; a far-sighted state senator; and a group
of North Carolina citizens who write letters,
make calls, and donate money, together created
a landmark week of events in the Tarheel State.
During the week of April 15, while the state’s
Senate Judiciary II Committee met in Raleigh
to discuss the fate of the Matthew Shepard Me
morial Act (an act that adds sexual orientation
to the existing North Carolina hate crimes law),
Judy Shepard visited college campuses in
Asheville and Charlotte spreading the word
against hate.
The passionate debate about the Matthew
Shepard Memorial Act (S392) and its introduc
tion to the full senate — for the chance to be
voted into law — and Judy Shepard’s speaking
with audiences in North Carolina are the re
sult of a lot of hard work by ordinary citizens,
gay and straight.
A groundswell of support for increasing
GLBT awareness surged to the forefront dur
ing the week of Shepard’s visit. UNC Charlotte
PIUDE members collaborated with UNCC stu
dents, faculty, and st^ff and other community
members to rally against discrimination in a
series of campus events. Dr. Philip DuBois,
president of the University of Wyoming and
former provost of UNCC, gave a moving pre
sentation detailing why and how institutions
need to respond when intolerant acts and hate
crimes occur. Charlotte Mayor Patrick
McCrory and Mecklenburg County Commis
sion Chair Parks Helms declared April 15-21,
2001, “Remember Matthew Shepard Week.”
In a groundbreaking act. State Senator T.
See UNCC on Page 4
by Steve Ralls
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC —On April 14, Lt.
Steve May, an openly gay Republican Arizona
State Representative, completed his term of ser
vice in the United States
Army Reserves. May
faced discharge under
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,
Don’t Pursue, Don’t Ha
rass” for remarks about
his sexual orientation
made during a debate on
the floor of the Arizona
Lt. Steve May Legislature in response
to an anti-gay bill. The Army dropped the dis
charge action in January to allow him to com
plete his service.
C. Dixon Osburn, Executive Director of
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said,
“The Army tacitly recognizes that it should have
never pursued May. He made comments as a
civilian with no real expectation that he would
be called back to the active reserves. And he made
those comments in his capacity as an elected of
ficial. The Army would have had a hard time
explainuig to a federal judge why the gay ban’s
reach extended to civilians and elected officials.”
May said, “I did what any soldier would do
when called back to the active reserves. 1 put
on my unifotm and reported for duty.”
Prior to his Reserve service. May served in
the US Army’s First Infantry Division (from
1993-1995) as a Nuclear, Biological and
Chemical Defense Officer. Before leaving ac
tive duty as a first lieutenant, he served as an
assistant battalion operations officer, platoon
leader and company executive officer. He is one
of very few qualified as a nuclear submariner
(Silver Dolphins) and paratrooper (Airborne).
Osburn said, “May’s service directly under
cuts the rationale that gays hurt military readi
ness. May is exactly the sort of soldier the Army
should fight to retain. Congress needs to wake
up and recognize the cos t of the gay ban to our
country.”
“It was tough,” May told the Arizona Re
public about leaving his unit. “I’m never going
to wear this uniform again. I’m not going to
see my soldiers again.” ▼
Bush scores historic first:
Names out gay AIDS Czar
by Veronica Schwartz
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC — President George
W. Bush has named openly gay Wisconsin resi
dent Scott H. Evertz as director of the Office
of National AIDS Policy, a post commonly re
ferred to as AIDS Czar. The appointment marks
the first time that any Republican White House
has named an openly gay or lesbian person to
an Executive Branch position. Additionally, a
gay man was named as a civilian consultant to
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the
Pentagon.
The leaders of several conservative groups
have expressed outrage at the administration
for hiring Evertz
despite his qualifi
cations for the job
— because he is
gay. Several reli
gious political ex
tremist groups re
portedly met at the
Family Research
Council’s Washington headquarters to strategize
on ways to thwart the selection of Evertz. Na
tional GLBT activist groups applauded the
move and quickly responded to right-wing ob
jections.
See EVERTZ on Page 13
Netherlands ends discrimination
in civil marriage: Gays wed
Scott H. Evertz
by Bob Pileggi
Special to Q-Notes
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
— The Netherlands has become the first na
tion to allow same-sex couples to marry, con
ferring upon those couples full equality and re
sponsibility in the eyes of Dutch matriage law.
Just three years after enacting registered part
nership, which allowed same-sex couples to
access most of the protections of civil marriage,
last December the Dutch Parliament by large
majorities passed legislation to end discrimina
tion in marriage itself As the law took effect
just after midnight on Aptil 1, same-sex couples
were married in a ceremony in Amsterdam’s
City Hall.
“Non-gay people throughout the world, in
cluding here in the US, will see that the sky
does not fall when same-sex couples are in
cluded in the protections — and the public cel
ebration — of civil marriage,” said Lambda Le
gal Defense and Education Fund’s Evan
Wolfson.
The Dutch action follows 10 years of steadily
increasing international support for same-sex
couples’ freedom to marry. Denmark enacted
its own registered partnership status for same-
sex couples in 1989, and was quickly followed
by Norway, Greenland, Sweden, and Iceland
See NETHERLANDS on Page 31
The latest Q^Poll results
The internet 28%
Where do you look for GLBT news and information?
GLBT papers 25% Queer Magazines 23% Word of mouth / gossip 22%