PAGE 4 Q-Notes ■ September 1988
MCSP Releases Report
Metrolina Community Services Project
(MCSP) released a report summarizing its
activities during the first six months of 1988.
The Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, which
is open from 6:30 to 10:30 seven nights a
week, reported that the number of calls
continues to rise steadily. During the first six
months of 1988, 1049 calls were received.
This compares with 951 from January to
June of 1987 and 552 for the same period in
1986. This translates to a 90% increase in
just two years.
Queen City Friends (QCF), a social-edu
cational group for professional gay women
over 21, reported a significant increase in
attendance. Its twice-monthly meetings
regularly attracted an average of 40 to 60,
and 100 to 200 women have attended its
recreational events.
During the first half of 1988, the MCSP
Speaker's Bureau provided qualified speak
ers to two counseling agencies: Reachline,
Charlotte's suicide prevention telephone
counseling service and Alternative Resources
of the Triad (ART), a group which recently
organized the Gay and Lesbian Hotline of
the Triad in Greensboro.
Additional programming to address the
problems of the lesbian and gay community
is under consideration by the MCSP Board
of Directors. Under investigation are such
services as: Expanding the Gay and Lesbian
Switchboard; Enhancing the Speaker's Bu
reau by offering formalized training and
soliciting speaking engagements; Producing
a "Guide to Professional Services" for busi
nesses and professionals interested in work
ing with gay and lesbian clients; offering a
Welcome Wagon to new and relocating resi
dents to the lesbian and gay community;
publishing a consolidated newsletter; and
starting a gay and lesbian community center.
The problems facing our community are
great. MCSP, as the only community service
organization for gay men and lesbians in
Charlotte, is trying to address some of those
problems. We aren't "The Gay and Lesbian
Messianic Society," but we want to help
'vhere we can be most effective.
NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY '
SICO^
lAKE YOUR NEXI SEEP
HOTLANTA - The Weekend
By Robert E. Sheets
Special to Q-Notes
Being from the Carolinas, we have all
heard the saying "Hotlanta" and there are
even a few who have been on the Hotlanta
River Raft Race. The Hotlanta River Expo
celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with
close to 1,400 men from all over the country
attending. To have been there was to be
involved in a weekend that you would not
easily forget.
The Hotlanta weekend got started on
Thursday with the Miss Hotlanta Contest but
Friday is the big kickoff with the official
welcome party which was held at the historic
Georgia Freight Depot and Garden.
What a party it was with over 2,500 men
in attendance. It was a feast with carved
roast beef, crabmeat dip and so many other
good things to eat that it's hard to remember.
The welcome party was also a costume ball
and there were many hunks and semi-bare
numbers (one rarely dances with 2,500 other
men for long with their shirts on).
After the Ball ended at 1 am, there was
free admission for all the Hotlanta partici
pants at the bars in Atlanta and bar hopping
went on until the wee hours of the morning
along with private parties.
Saturday night was the Mr. Hotlanta con
test where 11 of the hottest men in the coun
try competed for the title of Mr. Hotlanta, but
the show that goes with the contest is not to
be missed.
The contestants were brought on stage in
horse-drawn carriages, and later Charlie
Brown did a number to the song Pink Cadil
lac, (with a pink Cadillac) and the contestants
in hot pink bikini trunks, Mr. Charlotte, Tufi
Bader, came in forth place. Sam Baker
(formerly of Charlotte) brought the audience
to its feet with a patriotic number with strands
of the American flag hanging from ceiling to
floor in the background, later to be raised
revealing a rainbow flag.
Again Saturday night, there were special
bar parties, with a number of people coming
in just in time Sunday to catch the trip down
the river.
The Event, rafting down the Chattah
oochee River, takes place on Sunday. There
was a group photo ttdceii at the hotel and then
everyone was bussed to the river to ride
down in six-man rafts. Men for as far as the
eye can see and...(was that a bathing suit)
I thought string bikinis were bigger than
that?
Going down the river is the part of the
weekend that IS NOT TO BE MISSED, and
if you survived it dry then you must have
walked.
It is something else to be bumbed, bor
dered, wetted down by six huriks from all
across the country, all the while doing your
best to get them wet at the same time.
Men of all ages being young again. Miss
Hotlanta was seen coming down the river
dressed as Cleopatra with her Egyptian slaves
(and yes she did get a bit wet). When we
finished we were taken back to the hotel
where there was another banquet happening
with photos of past raft weekends and shots
of the early events, and people partied into
the wee hours of Sunday night.
For those who were there, it was a week
end that they will not easily forget and many
are already making plans to attend next year.
I know that I am!
NOW OPEN
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Mon.-Thurs. 8 pm-1 am
Fri., Sat., Sun. 5 pm-2 am
3703 Wilkinson Blvd.
399-8413
MUSIC
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