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arts & Iifestyle Inside the halls of power Gays and lesbians have served the Carolinas well by Matt Comer. Q-Notes staff In the 1980s, the chances for any openly gay man or lesbian woman wining an election to public office were pretty much slim-to- none. That didn’t stop scores of gay and les bian North Carolinians from throwing their hat into the ring and giving it a shot. With this year’s candidacies of openly gay Mark Kleinschmidt for Chapel Hill mayor, Lee Sartain for Raleigh City Council and Owen Sutkowski for Charlotte City Council, LGBT Carolinians’ attention has turned to queer pol itics and the history of the trailblazers who came before our modern day politicos. Kleinschmidt, Sartain and Sutkowski have a wealth of LGBT political history preceding them. They stand on the successes, failures, lessons and legacies of the brave men and women who came before them. Bob and Lightning On 'August25,1981, openly gay N.C. State University graduate student Bob Hoy filed to run for the Raleigh City Council where just a generation before, arch-conservative Jesse Helms held office. Hoy was ultimately unsuccessful. Even The Front Page, North Carolina’s most comprehen sive gay and les bian newspaper at the time, said Hoy Wasn’t a “serious contender.” The Front Page’s •Writers changed their tune when Lightning A. Brown l>e Henenberg in 1991. came onto the scene, extolling his abilities and platform. Just weeks after Hoy filed to run in I^aleigh, Brown filed to run for the Chapel Hill Town Council. Come election day, neither Hoy nor Brown ''^on. Hoy picked up only three percent of the '’ote in his primary. Brown picked up more ftan 1,400 votes in his primary, but ultipiately failed to capture the 2,100 votes required to continue on to the general election. Hoy’s and Brown’s candidacies are likely fhe first openly gay candidacies for public office in the Carolinas. ‘The Mayor of Franklin St.’ Brown’s partner, Joseph Herzenberg, would go down in history. At the same time Brown was fighting for his chance to become Chapel Hill’s first openly gay town council man, Herzenberg — not yet out — lost his chance to continue serving on the council. Herzenberg had run for the council before. In 1979, he was narrowly defeated. He was later appointed to the council when University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student Gerry Cohen resigned. Trying to keep that seat in 1981, Herzenberg barely missed the mark, losing his seat in the same primary election that saw his partner’s defeat. That didn’t stop Joe. In 1987, he ran again and won, becoming the state’s first openly gay elected official. Serving until 1993, Herzenberg was instru mental in political organiz ing statewide and was a co-founder of the Equality North Carolina Political Action Committee. He died of complica tions from diabetes at the age of 66 on Oct. 28,2007. Queen City politico Robert Sheets, a presi dent of the 1980s-era Queen City Quordinators (once the non-profit publishers of Q- Notes), was no newcomer to the political arena. As a child. Sheets watched his mother serve on the Charleston, W.Va., City Council for 12 years. He served on the Kanawha County (W.Va.) Democratic Executive Committee for sLx years and ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner. After moving to Charlotte, Sheets managed the city Julia Boseman speaks at an Equality North Carolina legislative panel with General Assembly colleagues Rep. Susan Fisher (D-Buncombe) and Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham). Photo Credit: Equality NC Sheets Enters Council Race Bobwt Sheets, presideat o( QCQ in 19S6. bos entered the race ogaliBt five other Democrcdi tor the Oiariolte City CouncQ's tour at-large teats. Two will be ellmiiwted In the primary eledton on 22: survtvors will tac» tour Bepuhltcans In the genetal election on Nov. 3. Sheets said his rea sons tor runntno were that "I wonted to. and I ieet that gay people have to be more In- volved in the deci sion-making process." He sold that adeed whether he is gay. he will reply, "Would you edt such adomaglngques- tion ot an candidates?" While he was pretidetd. QCQ revived Q-Noles. arranged Chailotie's first goy skating rdght and bowling league, and tounded Carottna Drummer. Q-Notes^ September 1987 article on Sheets’ first run for Charlotte City Council council campaign of Republican Jim Soukup. In 1987, Sheets entered the Charlotte political scene as a candidate himself, run ning in the at-large primary race for Charlotte City Council. While there was no hiding the fact that Sheets was openly gay, he wasn’t too keen on the idea of being com pletely open. Q-Notes reported, “He said that asked whether he is gay, he will reply, ‘Would you ask such a damaging question of all candidates?”’ Sheets came in last against five other Democrats in the 1987 race. He tried once more in 1989, again unsuccessfully. Liberal Triangle . North Carolina’s Triangle — home to some of the state’s most liberal cities and towns — have given the Carolinas a stew of most of its openly gay elected leaders. Mike Nelson, elected in 1993 to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, became the state’s first openly gay mayor in 1995. He served five consecutive terms before moving to Hillsborough and running successfully for his current office as a member of the $ Orange County Board of Commissioners. In 2007, Nelson announced his intention to seek election to the N.C. Senate. Ultimately, he decided not to run after incumbent Democrat Ellie Kinnaird reversed her decision to retire. If he had run and been successful. Nelson would have become the state’s second openly gay or les bian rnember of the legislature. Nelson’s former partner, Mark Kleinschmidt, who is running for Chapel. Hill mayor, is in his second term on the town’s council. First elected in 2001, Kleinschmidt will become the state’s third openly gay mayor if successful this fall. , Right outside of the hustle and bustle of the inner Triangle area, openly gay Elic Senter was elected mayor of small town Mark Kleinschmidt Franklinton, N.C., in 2007. A former teacher at West Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, Senter moved back to his hometown of Franklinton to accept a position teaching at Wakefield High School in see Served on 2 / Mike Nelson next issue July 11, 2009 Queerly faithful A look at the Carolinas' MCCs Timeless Pride Part two of Q-Notes' LGBT Carolinas history www.q-notes.com/qliving • QNotes
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 27, 2009, edition 1
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