March 1990
PAGE 9 Q-Notes
Charlotte Chapter BWMT Formed
By Woodie Mitchell
Special to Q-Notes
After many months of discussion and
planning, Charlotte has joined the growing
list of cities that are home to Black and White
Men Together chapters. In the final months
of 1989, the decision was made that a chapter
headquartered in Charlotte would have much
to offer to its surroimding communities and
to the other BWMT chapters located along
the east coast and throughout the southeast
ern United States. Drawing upon its close ties
to Triangle BWMT, the newly-formed chap
ter has already begun the process of building
a strong foundation on which to grow and
move toward its goals. As a developing
chapter of the National Association of Black
and White Men Together (NABWMT),
Charlotte BWMT is likewise devoted to
fostering an environment supportive of those
who desire to be in interracial relationships
or who would simply like to move in a circle
that allows for multiracial social contact. In
addition, the group seeks to encourage an
atmosphere in which racial and cultural bar
riers can be overcome to the betterment of the
gay community and society in general.
The group was formed in Charlotte with a
view to serving the gay community in the
metropolitan Charlotte area, western North
Carolina, and the neighboring areas of South
Carolina. One of its main objectives is to
establish a regular schedule of social, cul
tural and educational activities in support of
its members and any persons in the commu
nity who would like to participate. The chap
ter also expects to do a considerable amoimt
of outreach work with other gay and lesbian
organizations in the area. One outreach proj
ect is likely to involve NABWMT’s Hot,
Homy & Healthy workshop (most people
would refer to it as a playshop). The work
shops were made possible by a $378,(XX) per
year grant to the NABWMT from the Cen
ters for Disease Control in Atlanta. While
other gay-oriented organizations had their
funding cut, the CDC realized that the
NABWMT nationwide network provided an
efficient and effective system for dissemi
nating information and educational material
about AIDS and AIDS prevention. Charlotte
BWMT expects that its members and inter
ested persons in the area will find these
workshops (playshops) both interesting and
valuable.
Another goal for the organizers of the
chapter is to dispel some of the myths that
have grown up around BWMT with the help
of people who know little or nothing about
the organization or its reason for existing.
Many people have die impression that BWMT
is solely composed of black men who are
searching for white lovers. Or that it is the
creation of well-to-do black gay men who
want to separate themselves from other black
gays. Some people think the group is merely
a sex club. TTie list of inaccuracies goes on
and on. In fact, BWMT is none of those
things. (If it were, it is highly unlikely that the
group would be in its third year of CDC
funding. The United States Treasury is not
easily opened to gay groups asking for large
sums of money.)
BWMT began in January of 1980 as the
brainchild of Michael Smith of San Fran
cisco. As a gay white man who was inter
ested in pursuing an interracial relationship.
Smith pushed forward with his ideas in hopes
of creating an organ of the gay sub-culture
wdiich would respond to the nee^ of gay men
involved in or interested in mixed-race rela
tionships. By the suimner of the same year.
Smith’s ideas had already begun to move
across the United States and overseas. The
first International BWMT Convention was
held in 1981 and North Carolina’s first chap
ter was started by one of the attendees when
he returned to Fayetteville. The original
Fayetteville chapter eventually found itself
in Durham and, in 1988, came to be known as
Triangle BWMT. Yadkin BWMT was started
in the spring of 1989 in an effort to support
BWMT goals in the western half of the state.
Charlotte BWMT is now the state’s third and
newest chapter. Charlotte itself joins a fist of
cities that includes New York, Los Angeles,
Southern Women’s Music
And Comedy Festival
The Seventh Armual SWMCF is sched
uled for the weekend of May 24-28,1990, in
the northeast Georgia Mountains (80 miles
from Atlanta).
Held in a private camp, the beautiful,
wooded, 200-acre site has cabins, a large
lake, tennis courts, and showers. Prices range
from $120 for camping only (your tent!) to
$185 for five days in a cabin, all meals
included. The price includes music, comedy
acts, crafts, sports, dancing, workshops, food,
and fun...including a dance every night!
Among the many performers appearing
this year are Holly Near, Kate Clinton, Di-
arme Davidson, Sue Fink, Betty, Two Nice
Girls, and The Sensible Pumps. Comics will
include Lyrm Lavner and Robin Tyler.
Speakers include Urvashi Vaid (Execu
tive Director of National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force), Patricia Ireland (Executive
Director N.O.W.), Paula Ettelbrick (Direc
tor, Lambda Legal Defense & Education
Fund) and Sandra J. Lowe and Susan
McGreivy, attorneys.
The festivals are always accessible to
disabled women and interpreted for the hear
ing impaired.
For ftirther information and an applica
tion form, send a self-addressed, stamped
envelope to SWMCF, 15842 Chase Street,
Sepulveda, C A 91343 or call (818) 8934075
M-F 9 am to 5 pm PST.
San Francisco, Atlanta, Dalla.,, Chicago,
Memphis, Washington DC and numerous
others.
The Charlotte chapter — along with At
lanta, Memphis, Yadkin, and the Triangle —
is part of the Southeast Region of BWMT.
The regional network allows chapters to work
together to serve their extended communities
as well as their own members. Nonetheless,
the individual groups are free to establish
their own priorities and set their own pace.
This freedom allows the chapter to lend itself
to being different things to different people.
To this end, Charlotte BWMT is open to
people who are in interracial relationships,
seeing such relationships, in same-race re
lationships, or desiring no relationship at all.
Although it is a somewhat specialized
organization, the members of the group share
in the breadth of common experience that
stems from their sexual identities. As indi
viduals and as a collective whole, the chap
ter’s members seek to do their part to tear
down the obstacles created by racism, sex
ism, and homophobia. As an entity com
posed of no less than 15,000 active members,
BWMT is very much aware of the impact
these negatives have on society in general,
the gay community in particular, and indi
vidual gay men and lesbians everywhere.
The gay rights movement that began with
Stonewall has often resembled the civil rights
movement of the sixties and the continuing
fight for women’s rights. Countless men and
women straggled, suffered and sacrificed in
these movements and have left behind them
a message that must be clearly imderstood:
homophobia can never be overcome and
gays can never be acknowledged, respected
memlrers of a free society as long as racism
and sexism are allowed to exist. No group in
a society can consider itself safe from preju
dice and discrimination until every group in
that society shares the same luxury. For Black
and White Men Together, tliis is simply a fact
of life.
Anyone who wishes to contact Charlotte
BWMT can do so by calling (704) 554-9361
or (704) 563-0067. Interested persons can
also write to the group at P.O. Box 411734,
Charlotte, NC 28241.
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Friday, 3-2
Saturday, 3-3
Friday, 3-9
Saturday, 3-10
Sunday, 3-11
Friday, 3-16
Saturday, 3-17
Friday, 3-23
Saturday, 3-24
Friday, 3-30
Saturday, 3-31
Mardi Gras Night with The Tradesmen Night Out
Kcisey King, Gypsy Starr, UKany Storm
Linda Locklear and Tina Terrell
Linda Locklear, Tina Terrell, Sasha Tate
Eleneht for Tony Lenoir with an all-star cast
Bryan Murphy from New York City and Gypsy Starr
Bryan Murphy, Grand Prix, and Veronica Lee
Veronica Lee and Brittany Gwen
Boom Boom LaTour, Kasey King and Jim Brady
Ashley Jordan and Kasey King
Ashley Jordan, Kasey King and Gypsy Starr
Oken
1831 S. Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C. 373-9604
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