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January 1994 PAGE 3 Q-Notes Index News AIDS fund created by restaurant 7 DOD defines "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" 5 Federation endorses Rainbow Roll 13 Foundation develops AIDS adult day care 1 G/L Film Series begins 4th season 6 MAP treasurer arrested, charged 1 NC Governor presents AIDS volunteer awards.. 1 New Life MCC update 10 SC meeting attracts activists 9 South Carolina loses important AIDS advocate . I Features Silver added to our rainbow 11 The Rising Right Apocalypse Now 17 Are we in a state of grace? 16 Ballot Battles 16 Battle strategies of the Religious Right 15 The Carolinas become Ground Zero 17 Grassroots coalition building 15 The Pharr Right agenda 17 Sears evaluates New South 16 Thinking of freedom 15 Columns Between The Covers 24 Classifieds 23 Community Cards 26 Disclosures 14 Drops of Water 21 For The Record 22 Gay-la Word Search 20 GLAAD Notes 12 National Notes 4 One Of Our Own 10 Organizations 31 Out and About 30 Out of the Darkness 9 Personals 28 QFYI 6 Quips and Quotes 7 ZodiAscope 20 SAY AND LESBIANe PRESS ASSOCIATION Q-Notes Vol. 9, No. 1, January, 1994 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 221841 Charlotte, NC 28222 Phone: (704)531-9988 Fax: (704)531-1361 Street Address: 4037 E. Independence Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28205 Publisher & CEO Jim Yarbrough Editor David Stout Associate Editor David Prybylo Associate Editor Dan Van Mourik Raleigh Bureau Eagle White Typesetter David Prybylo Office Assistant Paris Eley Personals Larry Jackson Production Frank Dalrymple Contributing Writers: Ken Berg, D.J. Instant T, Frank Dalrymple, David Jones, Brent L. Pack, Jonathan Padget, David Prybylo, Gordon Rankin, Marcie Rollins, Mab Segrest, Donna E. Shalala, David Stout, Elisabeth Tate, Dan Van Mourik, Steve Wessells, Eagle White, E.L. Wiggins, Darryl R. Williams, Amy Wright Q-Notes is published monthly in Charlotte, N.C., by Pride Publishing & Typesetting, a for-profit coiporation, and is distributed free of charge throu^out North Carolina and South Carolina. Press tun is 13,500 copies and except for 100 file copies and complimentary subscriptions all copies are distributed to the public. To advertise in Q-Notes, contact Q-Notes, P.O. Box 221841, Charlotte, N.C. or call 704-531-9988. Advertisements are published with the understanding that the advertisers are fully authorized to publish submit ted copy; having secured any necessary written consent for all copy, text, photos and illustrations, and that no ad submitted is in violation of a patent, copyright, first tight of publication, ora tight to privacy. The advertiserassumesall liability for claims of suits based on the subject matterof its ad, and agrees to hold Pride Publishing & Typesetting, and Q-Notes harmless from any such claim. The Publisher assumes no liability for typographical errorsoromissions beyond offering to run acorrection. The entire contents of Q-Notes are copyright (c) 1994 by Pride Publishing & Typesetting, and may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or part, without the express written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articlesor advertising in Q-Notes is not to be construed as any indication ofthe sexual orientation of such person or organization. The official views of this newspaper are expressed only in editorials. Opinions e.xpressed in bylined columns, letters, articles, and cartoons are those of the writers and artists and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Q- Notes. Health reform and AIDS by Donna £. Shalala In 1987, John McGann lost his health insurance. Not because he didn’t pay his premium. Not because he lost his job—and not be cause his employer dropped health cov erage from its ben efit package. McGann lost his in surance because he had AIDS. Donna E. Shalala McGann died in 1991 without ever re gaining his insurance.' But his fight, taken eventually to the Supreme Court, taught us that we need to reform our health care system so that people with life-threatening diseases such as AIDS don’t face this greatest of personal crises without the protection of health insurance. Since the epidemic began 13 years ago, thousands of people with AIDS and other life-threatening or chronic diseases have systematically been excluded from the pri vate insurance market. In particular, women and children and minority group members are constantly confronted by obstacles to insurance coverage. Profit-conscious insurance companies have used both crude and sophisticated meth ods to keep those people from getting cover age. For example, many insurers require individuals and employees of small compa nies to submit to HIV antibody screening tests. Others refuse to sell insurance to entire communities where AIDS is prevalent. Some invoke pre-existingmedical condition clauses to refuse coverage. And a growing number of insurers impose unrealistic lifetime limits on insurance coverage or specifically limit reimbursement for AIDS-related services. Employers, worried about the cost of Gearing up for a Right fight Throughout the ages, battles have been waged and people have been persecuted in the name of religion—The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Tri als—and now the Religious Right has gotten around to us. With leaders such as Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell and Donald Wildmon, to name a few, homosexu ality has become the focus of their organized intolerance. Set aside the fact that gays are asking for no more than the most basic of human rights because the Right’s moralistic attack runs much deeper. We have been handed the task of proving the merit of our very existence before even being granted the opportunity to ask for anj^hing more. Our right to live our lives as our sexual orientation dictates is being challenged on ballots across the country. And while no such political maneuvering is currently tran spiring in our area, there’s no reason to doubt that it could. If, and more likely, when it does, our community needs to be prepared. We cannot afford to react to anti-gay propo sitions; a plan of action should be in place long before the threat manifests itself We have devoted a special section in this issue of Q-Notes to anti-Right activism. Hopefully, this information will better pre pare our region for an action similar to Colorado’s Amendment 2 or Oregon’s Mea sure 9 or Lewiston, Maine’s Amendment 2. We need to know our legal rights before we have cause to use them. We need to know the strength of our community before it’s tested. We need to know the power of our opponents before we face them. As individuals, there is probably not much we can do on our own. But as organized groups of individuals, we begin to build power and strengthen our voice. We’ve already seen the effectiveness of some of our national organizations, but their resources are being stretched thin as more and more anti-gay initiatives erupt across the country. Very soon, the responsibility for combatting these initiatives will have to come from smaller, more localized groups. And we can learn from our attackers. The Religious Right is not a single entity with a master plan. It is comprised of re gional, state and city/county groups of indi viduals who have adopted the arguments and agenda of a few national religious organiza tions. And the strategy is working. It was not Pat Robertson nor Jerry Falwell who defeated sexual orientation protection in Charlotte and Raleigh. It was local minis ters, their very vocal followers and groups which had been originally organized for other purposes (anti-abortion, anti-pornog raphy, etc.) And to offset their efforts, we would be wise to do the same. But that will not be easy. Because exist ing law keeps many of us from being open about our sexuality, it will also keep many of us from joining any group which might place us in jeopardy of losing job, home or secu rity. Unfortimately, sacrifices will have to be made. More and more homosexuals will have to relinquish their anonymity for the greater cause. And that will not happen overnight, which is why we need to form activist groups now. The longer they exist, the more it can be shown that they are effective, and the more varied their agenda, the more willing will be the timid to exercise their constitu tional and political rights as human beings. Organizations of several types are needed. In addition to those which are very visible and very vocal, groups working behind the scenes are equally as vital. And existing groups (social, sport, artistic, etc.) can par ticipate as well in non-threatening ways by offering financial support, encouragement, or through whatever means that will not jeopardize its members. There’s something each of us can do, if we simply choose to do it. And now for our list... their insurance policies and the risk of losing coverage for all their workers, have gone along with these limits. Some, like McGann’s employer, the H & H Music Co., have even chosen to self-insure in order to gain an exemption from state insurance rules. As a result, today an estimated 27% of people living with AIDS are uninsured— nearly double the national average. Another 45% rely on Medicaid for their coverage, and 4% get coverage through Medicare. The remaining 24% live in daily fear that their often limited private insurance coverage will either disappear or be priced beyond their reach. This spotty coverage can lead to reduced life expectancy for those with AIDS who are insured and who cannot avail themselves of medical and preventive treatments. Simi larly, among those who are HIV-infected, a lack of insurance can lead to a more rapid acceleration to full-blown AIDS and an in ability to take advantage of the research and treatment advances we have achieved. For a desperately ill person without insur ance, the news of a new drug approval or research breakthrough may not be a cause for celebration, but a cruel hoax. The cost of treating such patients does not go away. Rather it is shifted unevenly to other parts of societies, including inner-city hospitals that are left with the burden of uncompensated care. This has got to stop. And when Congress enacts President Clinton’s Health Security Act, it will stop. The Health Security Act provides all Americans with coverage that is affordable, portable, and permanent. For people with AIDS, those who are HIV-infected, and those with other life-threatening or chronic dis eases, these benefits are of tremendous value. First, insurance reforms will prohibit ex clusion on the basis of a pre-existing condi tion; bar the use of lifetime or disease- Continued on page 14 Tradition holds that January is the time for us—individually and collectively—to pause for a moment and reflect on our lives; to reminisce about the year that has just ended and to envision the possibilities ofthe year to come. Tradition also holds that media outlets use this time of year for list-making, usually in the form of grandiose-sounding but mean ingless superlatives: The Twenty Most Ex citing People of 1993, for example, or The Ten Cutest Pets On TV. So, since ’tis the season for list-making, we at Q-Notes have done just that: The Five Most Significant Events of 1993 1. The 1993 March on Washington. De spite incongruent head counts by the U.S. Parks Department and complaints from the gay/lesbian community that the march was everything from too assimilationist to just a bunch of dancing drag queens, flitting fair ies, and leather lesbos, the 1993 March on Washington was the loudest noise this com munity has ever made. No matter what you thought about the March, if you didn’t know it was happening, you were probably dead. 2. The Hawaiian Supreme Court Deci sion on Marriage. When the Supreme Court of Hawaii decided to force the lower courts to prove that the state’s best interests were served by denying marriage licenses to same- sex couples, our struggle for equal treatment under the law took a quantum leap forward. Although the verdict is not yet in, at least the Hawaiian judges have moved the discussion from whether or not we should be allowed to Subscriptions are by 1 st and 3rd class mail in sealed envelopes mailed in Charlotte, N.C. Subscription rate is $25.00 (1st class) or $15.00 (3rd class) for 12 issues (free to PLWAs). To subscribe contact Q-Notes, PO Box 221841, Charlotte, N.C. 28222. Make checks payable to Q-Notes. exist to whether or not we should legally marry. 3. Keith Meinhold’s reinstatement in the Navy. Although the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was thwarted by the U.S. Justice Department in its attempt to reinstate all excluded gay and lesbian military personnel, the fact that Meinhold is back at work could be the momentous first strike against the wall of oppression. 4. Amendment 2 ruled unconstitutional. Judge Jeff Bayless, in ruling that Colorado’s Amendment 2 was in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, sent a clear message to the Far Right that the millions of dollars they spend trying to nullify our exist ence might be better spent feeding the home less or on other forms of Christian charity. 5. Bill Clinton’s innaguration. OK, so the man let us down on the “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” thing, but the fact remains that gay men and lesbians are enjoying a prominence and visibility in a presidential administration that would have been unthinkable even a year ago. And despite the Log Cabin Club’s whining about how the number of gay and lesbian appointments fall short of a 10% “quota” (which sounds an awful lot like a demand for affirmative action to us). Bill Clinton is the first American president to appoint an openly gay or lesbian person to anything, let alone high-ranking positions in his administration. And his decision to issue a series of directives instead of an executive order to ban discrimination in federal jobs might mean that he has learned something about Washington politics. Name Address City, State, Zip.
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