Vol. 8, No. 7
July 1993
And the
winner is...
...page 4
Handicap
accessible
...page 16
Columbia extends rights to gays
The CaroWnae hAoet Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper Printed on Recycled Paper
CMS begins
final assault
Party will give
local assistance
FREE
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C.— President
Clinton is expected to unveil his plans for
dealing with gays and lesbians in the military
on July 15, and the Campaign for Military
Service (CMS) is working feverishly to make
the proposal one that allows homosexuals to
serve openly.
CMS is the gay community’s response to
the political batUe that erupted after Clinton
announced his intention to repeal the ban in
January 1993. At the end of that month, the
leaders of the country’s most powerful gay
and lesbian organizations agreed to form a
coalition to deal specifically with the ban
issue. Represented groups included the Na
tional Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Human
Rights Campaign Fund, National Organiza
tion for Women and People for the American
Way.
From thatcoalition, CMS was bom. Since
its inception, the agency has been racing both
the Religious Right, and its well-organized
efforts to keep the ban in place, as well as its
own planned dissolution in August. CMS
will be dissolved in late summer because the
groups backing it do not want to form another
national organization which will compete for
members and funds or further overlap ser
vices.
In the short time it has been lobbying,
CMS has initiated many services and pro
grams.
Glo Ivory oversees CMS’s Southern Re
gion, which includes both Carolinas, and says
that the organization has been very effective,
very quickly. “We have hired professional
lobbyists on the Hill, we have our postcard
campaign for the individual members of Con
gress, Senator Sam Nunn [D.-Ga.] and the
President, and we have our telephone mes
sage line for those who don’t want to write a
postcard. Also, we have Instituted a testimo
nial campaign. Gays and lesbians who served,
or straights who served with gays or lesbians,
are being encouraged to write us letters about
the duties they perfonned. We are passing
them, generally, to Sen. Kennedy [D.-Mass.]
who is reading tliem into the Congressional
Record.”
Even though CMS has hit the ground run
ning, the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force reports that ban supporters are contact
ing legislators by a margin of 50-1 and possi
bly even 100-1 over opponents.
As with most battles, the deciding factor
may be the amount of money die opposing
sides are able to raise. Ivory says that CMS
needs a strong financial base to launch its last,
all-out offensive. “We need money to keep
this going. There’s a lot of ‘undecideds’ that
we have to reach.”
One thing that has Ivory optimistic is die
grassroots financial support the organization
is receiving. “We’re very hopeful about the
local fundraisers being held for us, such as the
one in Charlotte.”
The Charlotte fundraiser that Ivory re
ferred to is a benefit party called The
M*A’^S’^H Bash.
Continued on page 5
by Kevin Menken
Special to Q-Notes
COLUMBIA—An addition of "sexual
orientadon" to the language governing work
ers for the City of Columbia was adopted
June 15 by the city manager's office.
The policy change, which protects some
1,714 permanent and temporary employees
of the city's 32 departments, was approved on
a recommendation from the Subcommittee
for Civil Rights of Lesbians, Gays, and Bi
sexuals under the Human Rights Committee.
It is the first city in South Carolina to extend
sexual orientation to municipal guidelines
covering employment.
"Columbia is one of the first Deep South
cities to do this and to me it is very important
that a city that was on the wrong side of a civil
rights issue is now moving quickly to the
right side of a civil rights issue," said Pete
Tepley, a member of the subcommittee.
"I think that it serves as an example to
businesses in the city of Columbia and other
cities of South Carolina that they too can
stand up for the civil rights of other people."
The inclusion of sexual orientadon in the
city employment code underwrites Columbia's
commitment to provide a working environ
ment in which employees are free from dis
comfort or pressure from jokes, ridicule, slurs
and harassment reladng to individual disdnc-
tions, according to a press release issued by
city officials announcing the change.
Assistant City Manager Mike West said
the city viewed the inclusion as a means of
cementing policies designed to insure an open
workplace.
"It has always been the city's policy to get
the best employee—whether they can do the
job or not is our primary consideration," he
said.
Employees with complaints about viola
tions of the new policy can follow standard
grievance procedures for redress. West said.
"It's obviously our intent to protect our em
ployees from any abuse from the general
public," he said.
Although policies covering city employ
ees are determined through city manager Miles
Hadley's office, some gay and lesbian activ
ists viewed the victory as the first step in
securing legislated rights in employment,
housing and public accommodations in the
capital city.
"We think it's fantastic that the city of
Columbia has shown it cares about all of it's
citizens," said Debra Brandeis, another mem
ber of the committee.
State report on sexual practices released
by David Jones
Q-Notes Staff
RALEIGH—Two important reports on
AIDS surfaced recently after being buried
during the last years of two Republican ad
ministrations.
The first was a report on the epidemic in
the United States, released by US Surgeon
General Dr. Antonia Novello. Many of the
subjects it discusses were taboo under Presi
dent George Bush’s administration. It in
cludes detailed instructions on the use of
condoms and clean drug users’ needles, the
growing threat of AIDS to women and the
rising rate of infections in the general popula
tion.
The second report that has surfaced late is
on a survey of gay men in North Carolina
conducted in March of 1990. The survey was
conducted in gay bars with the help of local
AIDS service organizations. It attempted to
determine their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs
and behaviors about HIV disease.
The basic conclusions of the report are that
gay men made significant progress in reduc
ing their risk of infection, but that risky be
haviors continue to result in transmission of
HIV, particularly among men who are young,
less educated, live in rural counties, and/or
use drugs or alcohol heavily. Further, knowl
edge of what constitutes risky behavior is not
enough to discourage it and efforts are needed
to motivate people to become and stay safe as
well.
S urveys such as this are considered impor
tant by public health experts, first in order to
determine a base-line of data on populations
at risk. Surveys should then be repeated
regularly to determine whether progress is
being made. The U. S. Centers for Disease
Control required regular surveys when fed
eral money was first made available to states
in 1987 for HIV education and risk-reduc
tion. However, several factors seem to have
contributed to the fact that North Carolina’s
first report is six years late.
Activists recall that there was resistance
within the administration of Governor Jim
Martin to even conducting a survey, and one
state official recently remarked to this re
porter, but off the record, that “we needed to
ask questions that nobody wanted to talk
about.”
There were also concerns expressed by
some in the lesbian/gay and AIDS communi
ties about how the survey should be con
ducted (e.g., through the community press or
at bars), and how to assure that confidential
ity was protected. That led to several meet
ings and proposals that also delayed the sur
vey.
According to David Jolly, once head of tlie
state AIDS Control Branch and now a PhD
candidate in public health, desi gning a survey
to reach gay men that is representative and
statistically is very difficult since it is a popu
lation that is hard to identify and reach. “This
is not really a survey of gay men,” he said in
a recent interview, “this is a survey of gay
men who go to bars, and there is a difference.”
Even with a survey in bars, there were
important factors that had to be considered in
how the data were to be analyzed. Many
people visit more tlian one bar in an evening.
There is a chance that they could be surveyed
more than once in one night, therefore. Jolly
Continued on page 14
Homophobic ads warrant strong response
As Q-Notes was going to press, the Char
lotte Business Journal and the Triangle Busi
ness Journal, both owned by American City
Business Journals of Charlotte, were begin
ning to come under fire for accepting an
advertisement that was, es,sentially, nothing
more than a virulently homophobic edito
rial.
The Triangle ad was placed by Raleigh
radio station WZZU 93.9 FM while
Charlotte’s WRFX 99.7 FM sponsored the
ad in their city’s publication.
Robert Raiford penned the text of the ad
entitled, “Why Can’t Homosexuals ‘Just
Say No?”’
Some of Raiford’s inflammatory pas
sages included, “It [homosexuality] is still
alien to the procreation of life and must be
considered aberrant human (or animal) be
havior,” and “Although there is an orches
trated propaganda movement to glorify tliis
mutation...,” as well as “But can’t the
pedophile, the sadist, the drug addict, et. al.,
make the same plea for acceptance [as the
homosexual]?”.
Certainly the ad text was meant to be
provocative to attract listeners who might
be interested in a local “Limbaugh-esque”
ultra-conservative.
Raiford issues similar tirades daily on a
syndicated weekday morning show originat
ing on WRFX and simulcast on WZZU. The
top-rated program is co-hosted by “John Boy
and Billy” and all three men have been criti
cized in the past for their intolerance of mi
norities.
Charlene Gruenwald, publisher of the Tri
angle Business Journal says that running the
ad was a mistake. “I’ll be honest witli you, the
ad never should have run. It slipped through—
but I can tell you that it does not reflect my
opinions or those of the Triangle Business
Journal.”
The publisher of tlie Charlotte Business
Journal was unavailable for comment at press
time, but the editor, Joanne Skoog, stated
opposition to the ad. “I don’t agree with iC’
she said, adding, “But I have no control over
ad content, only the publisher can determine
whether we’ll accept or deny individual ad
vertisements.”
FIGHT BACK
It is imperative that we convey to the
involved institutions our tinger and disap
pointment over the placement of this adver
tising. Neither of die publications would have
let a similar ad “slip tlirough” had the target
been a racial, religious or ethnic minority, nor
would the radio stations have funded such
an advertisement.
Let these businesses know tliat the gay
and lesbian community will not allow its
people or relationships to be diminished for
greed and ratings.Write and/or call these
businesses and request that they issue print
and on-the-air apologies for the pain they
have needlessly inflicted.
Charlotte Business Journal, Mark
Etheridge, Publisher, 128S.TryonSL, Char
lotte, 28202, (7(M) 347-2340
Triangle Business Journal, Charlene
Gruenwald, Publisher, 3125 Poplarwood
Ct., Raleigh, 27604, (919) 878-0010
American City Business Journals, Ray
Shaw, President, 128 S. Tryon St., Char
lotte, 28202, (704) 375-7404
WRFX 99.7 FM, Jack Daniel, General
Mgr., 915 E. 4th St., Charlotte, 28204, (704)
338-9970
WZZU 93.9 FM, Keith Yarbcr, General
Mgr., 2500 Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh, 27607,
(919) 787-9390