Vol. 7, No. 10
October 1992
Womyn vs.
Women
...page 12
Election
Connection
...page 6
FKEE
The C^roWnse’ Wioet Compreheneive Gay &. Leeblan Hewepaper'i^ Frmted on Kecycied raper^
Gov. Campbell’s bloody hands cleaned by court
Chambers fighting
own denomination
by Jim Yarbrough
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE - Infamous homophobe
Rev. Joseph Chambers, pastor of Paw Creek
Church of God and the president of Con
cerned Charlotteans, has added the Church of
God denomination to his lengthy list of foes.
Chambers stated that the Paw Creek con
gregation voted to leave the denomination
due to the fact that "extreme liberals" were
leading it toward a more "worldly" stance.
One of the cited instances involved the
denomination's sanctioning of choreographed
dancing.
According to a statement from Robert
Daugherty, State Overseer of the Western
NC Church of God, Chambers was charged
with a number of infractions of church policy
and bylaws.
Chambers submitted to a trial conducted
by a denomination ecclesiastical court on
August 28. At that trial, he was found guilty
of several violations, including 1)witholding
tithes from the denomination, 2) insubordi
nation, 3) holding meetings to withdraw the
denomination, and 4) changing church prop
erty deeds without authorization.
Based upon the guilty verdict. Chambers
had his pastoral license stripped that same
day and was told to stay off the church
property. He was also given fourteen days to
vacate Ae parsonage.
Daugherty's statement also noted that the
church's Board of Trustees was removed and
another Board of his own choosing was put in
their place. An interim pastor was also named.
The new pastor. Rev. Lawrence Leonhardt,
was to take over the church on the evening of
September 2, but when he and Daugherty
arrived at the church, they were denied entry
by three sentries Chambers had posted at the
door.
Daugherty stated that "to avoid confronta
tion and conflict" he had hoped to personally
relate to the church membership what was
happening to both it and its fallen leader.
However, once he was disallowed to enter
the building, Daugherty realized that the only
way to settle the dispute would be in court.
Immediately thereafter, the Church of God
denomination filed a petition with the Meck
lenburg County Superior Court attempting to
gain control of the Little Rock Road property
which consists of the church, a school, the
parsonage and the parcel of land it sits upon.
The total value of the items in question is
estimated at $2.5 million.
Chambers responded to the lawsuit by
counterfiling for autonomous control of the
property.
Tlie cases were scheduled to be heard on
September 24, but were postponed.
Cuts affecting almost 60% of AIDS patients were sought
hospitalization per year; reduction in the re- only has the power to make across-the-board
imbursement levels to doctors and a limit of cuts. Based on this ruling, the Board trimmed
three doctor’s visits per year; and elimination
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
COLUMBIA—Citing the recession and
preservation of South Carolina’s AAA credit
rating as reasons for trimming the state bud
get by $ 136 million. Governor Carrol Camp
bell and the State Budget and Control Board
ordered a $20 million cut in the state’s Med
icaid program. Medicaid’s highest numbers
of patients are the elderly, the disabled, and
people with AIDS.
The cuts, issued in August, targeted those
agencies receiving the greatest amount of
new funding in fiscal ‘92 - ‘93. However, the
cuts would require much more than the elimi
nation of new funding alone. Many existing
programs have grown to the point where new
funding was necessary to keep them in opera
tion. The hardest hit were the Department of
Education and Health and Human Services
(Medicaid is administered by Health and Hu
man Services).
To implement such deep cuts in the Med
icaid program, some proposed revisions were;
elimination of the prescription drug program
as of February 1,1993 with a limitation of two
prescriptions per month through January 1993
(most people with AIDS need five or six
medications just to survive); a limit of one
Some proposed revisions
were a limit of two
prescriptions per month,
one hospitalization per
year, and only three
doctor’s visits per year.
of many optional services such as eye and
dental exams and transportation to clinics.
Because agency budgets were not trimmed
across-the-board, as had been done in previ
ous years, three groups facing severe cuts
sued the five-member Budget and Control
Board. The South Carolina Education Asso
ciation, the South Car olina Hospital Associa
tion and Richland Memorial Hospital filed
the suit on the basis that the Board exceeded
its authority by cutting some ageircy budgets
more than others. The South Carolina Su
preme Court agreed, stating that the Board
Initiatives target gays
by Gordon Rankin
Q-Notes Staff
With what many gay-rights activists con
sider to be far more serious implications for
the gay community than the Gantt/Helms
1990 North Carolina senate race, voters in
two states and a city in a third state will make
decisions on November 3 that may well have
a far-reaching impact on the future of the
national gay community.
Human rights organizations face battles
ranging from an attempt in Portland, Maine to
repeal the city’s recently-passed gay rights
ordinance; to an effort in Colorado to amend
the state’s constitution to declare gay rights
ordinances null and void; to an attempt in
P-FLAG produces national PSA
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
Washington, DC—The Federation of Par
ents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-
FLAG) has produced a 30-second public ser
vice announcement (PSA) which has been
distributed nationwide. A PSA is a
No resistance to broadcasting the PSA
was encountered at any television station in
the Charlotte market. Each of the Public Af
fairs Directors stated that the gay and lesbian
theme would not be reason to deny broadcast.
Not all stations had received the PSA and
some had not yet reviewed it. Jeff Johnson of
WJZY (Channel 46) called it a “won-
short, informational television or derful taiie’’ and felt certain it
radio soot produced to highlight
radio spot produced to highlight ^
an organization, an event or to
disseminate important infor- .
mation deemed to be in the .
public interest. The video •
spots for the National AIDS •
Hotline are one example of a '
PSA. Television and radio sta
tions are required by FCC regu- / .
lations to broadcast a certain num-
°MNS orv*
FEDERATION
ber of PSAs at no charge.
would air as soon as the general
manager had an opportunity to
. view it. Caroline Metz of
• WBTV (Channel 3) said it
* was a “great spot” and plans
' to schedule it for broadcast.
While the PSA could be
scheduled to air at times when
few viewers would see it, that has
not been the case. Many of the airings
P-FLAG distributed their PSA to over 80
cities, and by the end of July, it was airing on
at least 43 stations in 22 cities. The PSA
features more than 40 P-FLAG members
representing a diverse “family,” and provides
a voice-mail number (1 -800-4-FAMILY) for
viewers to call. More than 3(X) calls per day
were logged during July.
have been in prime time, and some have been
during popular local shows. One station in
Boston broadcast the PSA during the funda
mentalist “PTL Club.”
According to Walter Roberts, a Federa
tion volunteer who is monitoring the pro
gram, if all stations broadcast the PSA, it will
reach two-thirds of the national population.
nearly four percent from every agency in the
state.
The Board has come under attack because
two of its members are legislators. Many
view this as a violation of the constitutional
principle of separation of legislative and ex
ecutive functions, although the Supreme Court
has not found that sufficient reason to disband
the Board.
Joseph Hall. Executive Director of Low
Country AIDS Services, stated in an August
28 letter (before the Supreme Court found the
Board’s action illegal), “These budget cuts
will make it impossible for people with AIDS
who are not currently receiving Medicaid to
be admitted to the program. Someone will
have to die before any new admissions are
accepted. We must not allow the Governor of
South Carolina to murder people with AIDS.”
After the issuance of that letter, it was
learned that a total freeze was to be placed on
new admissions. Since the court ruling, the
Department of Health and Human Services
will need to trim a total of only $8.4 million
from all programs it oversees. It is now un
clear' as to what cuts, if any, will be made in
the Medicaid program.
Oregon to amend that state’s constitution so
that homosexuality is legally declared “...ab
normal, wrong, unnatural and perverse.”
Portland (Maine) City Code, Chapter 13-
A, which was adopted on May 12 of this year
after an overwhelming vote of 7-1 by City
Council, was the first civil rights legislation
in Maine to prohibit discrimination in hous
ing, credit, employment and public accom
modation based on sexual orientation. How
ever, an attack launched by the small but
vocal Concerned Portland Citizens (CPC)
resulted in a successful bid to obtain 1,604
signatures in petition to temporarily prevent
Continued on page 7
National
Coming Out
Day
October 11, *92
Year Five
M5SCT®ta5ii. gOMOKia wf
If AIDS has taught us
anything, it has made it
abundantly clear that we
will only achieve equality if
we are out and visible. We
will only be treated with
dignity if we demand it.
Twenty-three years after
Stonewall, one fact
remains: Wecainiot
achieve equality the
closet