Q-NOTES
Switchboard, Charlotte 704/525-6128
AIDS Hotline, Charlotte 704/333-AIDS
PFLAG Hotline, Charlotte 704/364-1474
AIDS Hotline, Columbia 803/779-PALS
Call Lin**- Wilmington 919/675-9222
April 1989
I PRIDE IN PRINT I
TO ADVERTISE: 339-0679
United Way Proposals Must Cross Hurdles
BESTBETS
Apr. 2 Bingo at Steven's
Apr. 3 Bowling, Coliseum Lanes
Apr. 6 First Tuesday, CCP
House, 8 pm
Apr. 8 Wet T-Shirts, Hide-A-Way,
RockHill
Apr. 13 PFLAG
Welcome Boom Boom
Party, Charades
Apr. 14 DeidreMcCalla Concert,
South Meek High
Apr. 15 Jimmie James, Scorpio
Apr. 21 GIL Forum 10:00 pm
Cable Channel 33
Apr. 22 MCC Charlotte Pot Luck
Supper
Apr. 26 Members Party, Charades
Apr. 29 Talent show, Hide-A-Way,
RockHill
INDEX
Animersons, The
Page 4
Ask The Pastor
Page 6
Business Cards
Page 10
Calendar
Page 2
Classifieds
Page 10
Horoscopes by Korwin
Page 8
Organizations
Page 2
The Soft Spot
Page 3
To Your Health
Paged
Letters to the Editor
Page 4
By Don King
Special to Q-Notes
“A breath of fresh air,” a Charlotte Ob
server editorial said.
“Sounds like it was either written by a
homosexual or by a person who was a pawn
in the hands of homosexuals,” said Joseph
Chambers, pastor of Paw Creek Church of
God and founder and member of Concerned
Charlotteans.
Both comments were about a subject with
a long name: A Report From The Study
Committee On AIDS to the Human Services
Planning Board of United Way of Central
Carolinas, Inc.
As of the Q-Notes deadline on March 21,
the report - unanimously approved by the
study committee’s members, according to
The Charlotte Observer - and its recommen
dations still had hurdles to clear before ac
ceptance and implementation.
A year ago, Mecklenburg County’s board
of commissioners asked United Way to re
view AIDS programs in the county and study
how best to focus the battle against AIDS.
United Way was ideal; it had already decided
to tackle issues concerning AIDS.
By accepting the task. United Way - which
has no elected officials - relieved the county
commissioners, who are elected and are
therefore subject to special-interest pressure,
of a hot political potato.
The special committee held hearings,
consulted experts and read volumes of printed
material, then presented its report to the
Human Services Planning Board of United
Way six weeks ago.
The Planning Board approved the report
on Feb. 22 and passed it up two ladders. On
March 7, the Health Committee of the Meck
lenburg County Human Services Council
accepted the report in principal. The next day
the Executive Committee of the United Way
LaTour Resigns From Scorpio Staff
Boom Boom LaTour, entertainer and
stalwart member of the Scorpio staff for
more than 12 years, resigned following the
show Wednesday, March 26.
In a surprise statement at the end of the
show, LaTour said he was leaving the Scor
pio and that he would team up with Tony
Lenoir at Charades, a competing bar.
Richard Wilds, spokesperson for Scorpio
Lounge, told Q-Notes, "I wish her, gosh, a
world of luck. She was good to me. She gave
me advice, direction, and she helped me. But
she told me she would discuss it with me
before she left...and I feel she should have
discussed that with me first."
LaTour, contacted later by Q-Notes, said
he had informed Wilds of his intent to leave,
saying, "I have nothing against Rick (Wilds),
I love Scorpio to death. It was time for a
change after 12 years. The last time I had a
good time was Christmas Eve. I should have
quit on New Year's Eve, but Marion asked
me to stay."
LaTour said one of the major reasons for
leaving was because he found it very difficult
to relate to the new, younger crowds that
Scorpio is attracting under the new manage
ment.
LaTour reflected in the interview that he
missed the older crowds he used to play to
over the years, and felt that he had found
many of the older crowd at Charades.
LaTour also acknowledged that another
reason was to join back up with a favorite
performer of his, Tony Lenoir, saying, "I
miss working with Tony real bad."
By Don King
Special To Q-Notes
The first step in a months-long process to
start eradicating anti-gay discrimination in
Charlotte-Mecklenburg takes place April 21-
24.
That’s when First Tuesday, Charlotte’s
gay/lesbian political group, will conduct
Town Meetings and hearings at three - pos
sibly four - locations.
“We’ll have tape recorders at the Scorpio,
Charades, Oleen’s and possibly the Brass
— Want to Testify? —
Tell your stoiy of discrimination, vio
lence, harassment in school and police
entrapment to First Tuesday with total
anonymity if you like. Sorry, but stories
of such experiences that occurred out
side of Mecklenburg County will not
help at this time.
Scorpio: 8 p.m. until closing Friday,
April 21
Charades: 7:30 p.m. until closing
Saturday, April 22
Oleen’s: 7 p.m. until closing Sunday,
April 23
To Be Arranged
Brass Rail: Monday night, April 24
(call the BR, 399-8413, to confirm that
testimony wifi be taken)
By Phone
Call the Switchboard, 525-6128, for
the number of the First Tuesday Docu
mentation Project.
Want To Help Plan?
Call Don King, 332-3834, for the date
and location of the next planning session.
Anyone tired of second-class citizenship
is welcome.
Rail to take information about people who
have suffered harassment, discrimination or
violence because they’re gay or lesbian,”
said Sandra Bailey, one of the new co-chairs
of First Tuesday. The other co-chair is Matt
Irvin.
First Tuesday members also plan to at
tend a meeting of the lesbian group Queen
City Friends and the gay men’s group Mature
Gay Men to take testimony.
“We’re so tired of gay men and lesbians
being treated like second-class citizens,”
Bailey said. “In silence, we suffer job dis
crimination. We’re told to leave apartments,
or don’t get them in the first place. Male
police officers feel free to give the impres
sion to gay men that they are willing to
discuss sexual activity, then arrest the gay
men they’re talking to. And kids in school
take all kinds of verbal abuse and sometimes
get beat up.”
She said that First Tuesday plans to go
before Charlotte’s city council and Meck
lenburg County’s board of commissioners to
begin a process, expected to take years, to
raise gay men and lesbians to full citizenship.
And First Tuesday has pledged to work
with the Charlotte chapter of Parents &
Friends of Lesbians and Gays to start eradi
cating harassment of gay and lesbian adoles
cents.
In a strategy session on March 19, mem
bers of First T uesday, PFLAG and Metrolina
Community Service Project decided the first
step should be to gather examples of prob
lems encountered by gay men and lesbians.
“We need examples, not names,” Bailey
said. “As far as we’re concerned, everything
can be totally anonymous. But we have to
have some documentation that harassment,
discrimination and violence occur.”
Some of the immediate goals established
in the strategy session were these:
Continued on Page 3
Board of Directors accepted and endorsed
the report and Charlotte’s news media told
the public about selected parts of it.
Still ahead:
The report must go to the full Human
Services Council. That is expected to take
place March 29. If the council endorses the
report and recommends it to the county
commissioners, the commissioners will first
see the report officially on April 3.
“We cannot assume that the Human Serv
ices Council will approve the report in toto,”
said Donna Arrington of the United Way
staff. “We hope they will, but they have their
process to go through and study.”
The county commissioners also may ac
cept and reject parts of the report that survive
semtiny by the Human Services Council.
The report drew favorable comment from
Marion Meginnis, president of Metrolina
AIDS Project, and Les Kooyman, MAP’s
executive director.
Continued on Page 5
Eradicating Second-Class Status
Recommendations
• AIDS Community Coalition. Form a
group that is responsible to the Board of
County Commissioners and is funded by
public and private funds to do these things:
lobby for the rights of HIV-infected per
sons; promote general AIDS education;
evaluate safer sex education programs;
review grant requests; assure that ifiV-in-
fected persons know about available serv
ices; provide information through an AIDS
library and learning resource center; sup
port the rest of the recommendations.
• AIDS House. Encourage all sorts of
care for PWAs including studying whether
to establish an AIDS house such as the
Shanti project in San Francisco.
• Insurance. Work with legislators and
insurers to address the concerns of HIV-
infected persons who have lost or been de
nied coverage.
• Free condoms. Review programs pro
viding free condoms.
• Free needles. Review programs pro
viding free syringes and bleach for IV drug
users.and consider establishing a pilot pro
gram.
• Discrimination. Encourage legisla
tors to pass laws prohibiting discrimina
tion against HIV-positive persons.
• Schools. Encourage an AIDS curricu
lum appropriate to all grade levels begin
ning K-6.
• Anonymous testing. Encourage
county commissioners to support anony
mous testing.
• Child-bearing women. Make fecial
efforts to teach women of child-bearing
age the risks of unsafe practices to unborn
children and to themselves.
Recommendations also addressed train
ing of caregivers, expanding drug abuse
services, recommending that all hospitals
care for PWAs, providing direction and
support to businesses, and expanding serv
ices for families and friends of PWAs.
Free Copies
For a copy of the report, go to the
United Way office at 301 S. Brevard St. in
downtown Charlotte, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
weekdays. A limited number of copies are
available. A United Way official said to
phone before coming to the office: 372-
7170. : .