*
Q-NOTES
April 1990
PRIDE IN PRINT
Switchboard, Charlotte (704) 525-6128
AIDS Hotline, Charlotte (704) 333-AIDS
PFLAG Hotline, Charlotte (704) 364-1474
AIDS Hotline, Columbia (803) 779-PALS
Call Line, Wilmington (919) 675-9222
(704)364-1467
Quilt Display Moves People At Conference
BEST BETS
Apr. 7 7:30 pm Mature Gay
Men
Apr. 8 10:30 am One Voice
performs at Unitarian
Church
Apr. 8-J 4 HOLY WEEK (See
schedule of church
services on page 14)
Apr. 15 EASTER SUNDAY
Apr. 18 7:30 pm WOW Video,
Discussion
Apr. 25 7:30 PM Queen City
Friends
Apr. 28 MCC Charlotte
Potluck Supper
INDEX
Business Cards
Page 18
Calendar
Page 2
First Tuesday
Page 5
It’s My Opinion
Page 2
Letters
Page 14
Mark Drum
Page 9
Organizations
Page 18
SE Conference Picture
Spread
Page 10
Soft Spot
Page 3
WOW - 5,000 Lesbians
Page 8
By Don King
Special To Q-Notes
There was the gray-haired lady, using a
cane, reading every one of the 800 or so
panels sent to Raleigh by the Names Project.
She had come from Florida to add her
dead son’s panel to The Quilt, and she was
honoring other people killed by AIDS by
spending hours in the Raleigh Convention
Cento:. She liked for people to call her “Char
ley."
For more than 4,000 others. The Quilt was
what brought them to this part of downtown
Raleigh — a football field’s expanse of brick
and stone and planters and benches flanked
by office buildings, hotels and the Conven
tion Center.
Hundreds came to see the laying of The
Quilt on Thursday night, March 22. Hun
dreds more witnessed the closing ceremo
nies on Sunday, March 25, when Charley’s
son’s panel and a handful of others were
added to the thousands that represent some of
the people killed by AIDS. So many have
died that less than a tenth of the panels could
be sent to Raleigh, and the Wake County
Health Department paid the $3,000 cost.
The Quilt was the quiet part of the 15th
Southeastern Conference for Lesbians and
Gay Men, the oldest regional gathering of its
sort in the country.
The busy part buzzed for three days at the
Radisson Plaza Hotel just 100 yards distant,
and attracted more dian 400 people to attend
workshops, hear nationally prominent speak
ers, and be entertained.
A snapshot: leading off the last night of
entertainment was the 35-person choral
group. One Voice, from Charlotte. They
performed “Meow,” a take-off on operas and
“Edelweiss,” and other numbers. And they
were so good after only two months of prac
tice, that the audience stood to applaud and
cheia".
Another snapshot: Charlotte’s Nila and
Stokley Bailey, both in their 60s, conducted
Continued on page 8
Kooyman Steps Down As Head Of MAP
By Tim Moore
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE — Les Kooyman made a
promise to himself when he founded Metro-
lina AIDS Project in August 1985 — he
would use his every resource to educate the
public about AIDS, and offer support to
those afflicted with the disease.
Five years later, Kooyman has fulfilled
that promise and plans to fight a different
battle in the nation’s war on AIDS. He re
signed his position as Executive Director of
MAP effective Jime 1 to pursue a Master’s
degree in counseling.
Kooyman is leaving an organization which
began with a handful of volunteers. Today,
MAP’s armual budget is close to $200,000.00.
Six full-time and two part-time employees
are on staff; the volimteer ranks recently
topped 200, and MAP’s client caseload is
expected to reach 400 this spring.
“1 feel good that I’m able to leave while
MAP is in good shape,” Kooyman said. I’ve
known from the beginning one day I’d need
to pass the reins onto someone else,” he
admitted, “and I’m leaving knowing that this
(counseling) is the path I need to follow.”
Last summer, times weren’t so good for
MAP, however. Financially strapped, the
organization was forced to lay off its paid
volimteer coordinator, and a volunteer filled
the px)st until grants and contributions made
a rebound in the fall.
But, by far, Kooyman confessed, raising
the genei^ public’s awareness about AIDS
and its effect on society has been the most
difficult task to undertake.
“How do you convince so many pieople
that this is not a moral issue?” he asked. “One
of the most fiustiating things about this job is
trying to prove to pieople that this is a health
care issue affecting all human beings, not just
gay men that some pieople insist we should
not be helping in the first place.”
But Kooyman has made good on his prom
ise to educate the public. While MAP has
grown drastically, the organization’s accep
tance in metro-Charlotte has broadened.
RepubUcan County Commissioners Carla
DePuy and Jerry Blackmon have consis
tently voted for funds for MAP, as has
Democrat Bob Walton.
Kooyman attributes the Commission’s
fairness and commitment to MAP to the
public image it pirojects.
“These Commissioners look at MAP as
providing a service that we need in our
community. As opposed to looking at who
we’re serving, they are looking at the quality
of work we’re doing, and supporting it.”
While he’s maintaining a fogh profile in
Charlotte’s media, Kooyman is mo^st about
his part in MAP’s success as a non-profit
Les Kooyman
organization. He attributes the success to a
strong board of directors, and to what he calls
“the backbone” of the organization — volun
teers.
Ironically, Kooyman will be joining
MAP’s “backbone” as a volunteer counselor
while working toward his Master’s this
summer.
And, while Kooyman admits any major
change in an organization as large as MAP
may be difficult, he’s certain MAP’s strong
commitment to those affected by AIDS will
continue.
“I’m not too concerned about the future of
the organization because I know it’s going to
grow tremendously out of need, but most
importantly, out of snpport from the commu
nity,” he said assuredly.
“A lot of people see me as the founder of
MAP, so that makes it hard to step away.
Moving on can be exciting and challenging,
but also very painful and scary,” he con
fessed. “But, MAP is ready for a change,” he
said with a smile, “and I’m ready to help in a
bigger way.”
HRCF To Help Organize
Charlotte Against Helms
The Human Rights Campaign Fund, a
national political action committee and lob
bying group for gay and lesbian civil rights,
has assigned a staff member from its Atlanta
office to assist Charlotte in organizing votes
against Jesse Helms in this year’s U.S. Sen
ate race.
The first meeting of HRCF’s Charlotte
field committee will be held at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 15, at the Unitarian Church of
Charlotte. The church is at the comer of
Hardwicke and Sharon Amity a block north
of Cotswold Shopping Center.
HRCF’s Cathy Woolard, a lesbian activ
ist from Atlanta, will help motivate gay and
lesbian voters througli house parties, a method
the National Abortion Rights Alliance has
successfully used to elect pro-choice candi
dates.
“We urge any gay man or lesbian who
wants to defeat Jesse Helms to come to the
May 15 meeting,” said Don King, an early
volunteer for HRCF’s Charlotte action.
“HRCF’s program has lieen tested and
well thought out,” he said. “Cathy will have
very specific things for all of us to do the
night of the meeting and later.”
King praised HRCF for committing time
and resources to the Dump Jesse movement.
“For this national group, which gave $100,000
to pro-gay candidates last year, to target
Charlotte for action shows how determined
lesbians and gay men all over the country are
to retire Jesse to his cottage on Topsail Island
where he can spend the rest of his days with
his grandchildren.”
King also said he expected Charlotte to
organize fully behind the state’s new gay/
lesbian-organized political action commit
tee, N.C. Senate Vote ’90.
Continued on page 5