Vol. 7, No. 12
December 1992
...page 7
Make A
Wish
...page 15
The CawYmae' Wioet Compreheneive Gay &. ieeblan Hewepaper^^^ Frmted on Kecycied FREE
COUNCIL VOTES TO DISCRIMINATE
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—On Monday, Nov. 23 the
City Council voted down the Community
Relations Committee’s (CRC) request that it
add sexual orientation, family status, age and
disabUity to the city’s list of protected classes
as found in the Human ,
Relations Ordinance
and the Public Accom
modations code.
As was expected, the
lightning rod issue was
sexual orientation. This
quickly sparked a con
troversy that Council
man Hoyle Martin made
incendiary by rhetori
cally asking why the
CRC didn’t also move
to make “prostitutes” a
protected class.
CRC endorses call for
inclusion
The Committee over
whelmingly passed the
resolution to lobby the
•City Council to update
the Human Relations
and Public Accommo
dations ordinances.
They presented their re
quest to the Council at a
November 9 meeting.
The meeting quickly
bogged down in discus
sions of morality and re
ligious opinion. Itended
with a vote planned in
two weeks and Mayor
Richard Vinroot’s cau
tion not to discuss the proposal in public.
Ignoring the request, Martin exited the meet
ing and issued a barrage of inflammatory
statements to the local networks about homo
sexuality and the fact that there could be no
comparison between the struggles of Afri
can-Americans, such as himself, and gays.
Gays organize city-wide effort
• The gay and lesbian community began a
concerted telephone and mail campaign sup
porting the proposal. Addresses and phone
numbers of the City Council were circulated
and several benefactors had three versions of
a post card printed and disseminated.
Community leaders gave interviews, wrote
letters to newspapers, called in on radio shows
and held a press conference at the Govern
ment Center a week before the vote. An ad-
hoc organization calling itself Citizens for
Human Rights made a presentation to the
media on Wednesday, Nov. 17 announcing,
“Citizens for Human Rights is a coalition of
citizens who are concerned about the protec
tion of the civil rights of all persons. We are
here today to voice our support for a change
to our city’s anti-discrimination ordinance."
Although media polls indicated that the
resolution had little chance of passage, many
were still optimistic with several days left to
turn the tide.
Council adds insult to injury
After preliminary items of business, the
Council’s Nov. 23 meeting turned to the pro
posed CRC resolution. Vinroot informed the
overflow crowd that discussion on the resolu
tion would be limited to 20 minutes per side.
Before opening the floor to the crowd,
Vinroot introduced Rev. Clifford Jones of
the CRC. Jones recounted the long process
the Committee went through in approving the
resolution and closed with, "This discussion
is about discrimination. I want to make that
clear so let me say it again - discrimination."
Vinroot then yielded to discussion. Sev
eral members of the gay community spoke
eloquently in support of the resolution, but
their efforts turned out to be in vain. Even
>
Citizens For Human Rights addresses the media
former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt could
not sway the Council when he remarked, "No
matter how important or trivial you consider
this, you send a message about what we are all
about. I hope you send the right message."
The floor was next opened to the opposi
tion. Several area ministers spoke out against
the resolution and its "lifestyle endorsement,"
but the most extreme views came from a
speaker representing a national "family" or
ganization. Linda Oberfield raised eyebrows
when she quoted from an unidentified study
which indicated that 51% of gays said they
had sex in public. Then she further irked those
gays and lesbians in attendance by stating,
"although gays are only 2% of the population,
they are responsible for 80% of all child
molestations." Those statistics were likewise
quoted from an unnamed source.
Once time had expired, the Council began
its own discussion with Tom Mangum's mo
tion to deny the entire proposal. The motion
was seconded, and debate began.
Martin then offered a counter-motion that
the resolution be passed with the exception
that sexual orientation be redefined as "male
or female heterosexuality." This, in essence,
would have offered discrimination protec
tion to heterosexuality. Martin’s proposal
was later retracted.
One of the few supportive comments came
from Mayor Pro Tern Aim Hammond who
said, "This is not a religious issue.... North
Carolina leads the nation in hate crimes. That
should cause us some concern. That should
indicate some needs for protection for this
group.... I am deeply saddened."
Councilman Pat McCrory then stated in
opposition, "Charlotte averages 20 murders a
month. 1 think that is much more important
than the dog shelter [a previous controversial
debate] or sexual orientation."
In a fiery manner, Ella Scarborough in
toned, "Brother pastors, I am very disap
pointed. Who is your neighbor? He’s every
body around you in here tonight. God does
not give us the right to judge and we should
- . notjudge. With thatl
call the question."
Before the vote
was taken, Don Reid
remarked to Ham
mond, "We discrimi
nate every day, and
you do too, and 1 think
that’s right some
times."
Vinroot then
called for the vote to
deny the resolution as
a whole. Voting to
deny were Martin,
Lynn Wheeler, Stan
Campbell, Nasif
Majeed, Reid, Man-
gum and McCrory.
Votes in opposition to
the del-^ were cast
by Hammond, Scar
borough, Cyndee
Patterson and Dan
Clodfelter.
Once the measure
was defeated, Ham
mond moved that the
CRC conduct educa
tional, sexual orien
tation sessions for the
community, but
McCrory blocked the
motion by pointing
out that it was not on the agenda. Vinroot
announced that it may be placed on a later
agenda, but even that is uncertain based upon
the comments of Mangum," We’re leaving the
wound open and rubbing salt in it. Wearejust
asking for things to go on and on and on."
Staff writers Dan Van Mourik and Gordon
Rankin contributed to this article.
Newspaper
saysYMCA
homophobic
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—Local altemative/enter-
tainment newspaper Creative Loafing has
charged that the Central Branch of the YMCA
is deny ing that publication the right to distrib
ute on its premises because of institutional
homophobia.
Distribution Manager, Don Swan, reported
that on the evening of Nov. 10 one of his
employees was told by “someone at the Cen
tral Y that we could no longer distribute
there.” When the surprised disfiibutor asked
why, he was told that a YMCA employee had
discovered that a member had stated they
“worked out at the Cenfial Y in the ‘Man
Seeking Man’ section of the personals,” Swan
recounted. He further added that the YMCA
worker told the Creative Loafing employee
that this ad made the YMCA “look bad” and
the paper would not be accepted at any Char
lotte YMCA location therc^ter.
Swan said that the YMCA representative
did not identify himself so he did not know
who his distribution person had spoken to.
For this reason, Q-Notes contacted Dan
Wilcox, Branch Executive of the Central
YMCA, for infoiTnation. Wilcox stated that
our inquiry was the first he had heaid of this
particular incident; however, he did confirm
that the Central Y had, in separate incidents,
called Creative Loafing about some “ques
tionable ads” and asked the publication to
stop distributing there for housekeeping rea
sons.
He stated that someone had called the
publication “to simply make them aware of a
few ads we were concerned about. And when
we pointed the ads out to them, they were
surprised at some of them. ” When asked if the
Continued on page 28
First Tuesday folding in January
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—^First Tuesday Asso
ciation for Gay & Lesbian Equality, serv
ing Charlotte since 1988, will suspend op
erations shortly after the publication of its
January 1993 newsletter. First Tuesday
has been the only visible, political action
group in the Charlotte area.
According to an October 29 letter, only
two active board members remain - Darryl
Logsdon and Don King. Efforts begun last
spring to recruit new board members were
unsuccessful. While many in the commu
nity expressed a desire to see First Tuesday
continue its needed programs, no one
stepped forward to make a long term com
mitment to the board. "The biggest reason
I see is that the number of organizations has
grown, as it needs to, but I’m not seeing a
corresponding growth in the number of
people. We’re cutting the pie into smaller
pieces," Logsdon said.
When asked what it would take to keep
First Tuesday from shutting down, Don
King stated, "...a half dozen people coming
on the board of directors." He didn’t see
that happening, but is not pessimistic about
First Tuesday’s demise. "In its absence, a
vacuum will form, and there will be a
groundswell to form another activist orga
nization."
The documentation project which col
lects specific examples of anti-gay dis
crimination, begun % First Tuesday, will
continue. King said. Some funds will be
retained to maintain the project either by
an individual or another organization.
While First Tuesday is in good shape
financially, the lack of board members has
forced them to drastically scale back ac
tivities. "It’s going to leave a void in
certain areas, ’’ Logsdon said of the short
term impact on the community. "If a
Cracker Barrel! happens again, and if the
community wants to respond, it would
have to be started from scratch."
Withoutdedicatedleadersfortheir vari
ous committees, closing down operations
was First Tuesday’s final option. Anyone
interested in continuing any program be-
gunbyFirstTuesday should contact Darryl
Logsdon at (704) 527-0111 or attend Fu'st
Tuesday’s Board/Business meeting on
Tuesday, December 1, 7:30 pm at Christ
Episcopal Church in Charlotte.