Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / Feb. 1, 1994, edition 1 / Page 4
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V ; . i \ ' L . I k i « PAGE4Q-Notes T February 1994 CASH FOR LIFE INSURANCE PWA's & Terminally III One Lump Sum Paid Within 30 Days SimpleApplication Process No Cost to You Confidentiality is Assured South Eastern Financial Management, Inc. 220 Third Avenue Eastman, GA 31023 1-800-537-1487 COMPELLING, often HILARIOUS, AND ALWAYS REBELLIOUS Feb. 17, Thur., 8 PM, Spirit Square Center for the Arts T - Forbidden Love is a portrait of Lesbian sexuality and survival during the 1950s and 60s. Against a fascinating background of Lesbian pulp-novel covers and archival film clips, nine women recount stories about their first loves and their search tor community in beer parlors and back-street bars. The ending sequence proves that lesbians do have sex! Opening film at the 1993 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Lynn Femie and Aerlyn Weissman, 1992,85 minutes Also Showing, Safe Sex is Hot Sex steamy scenes of men loving men and women loving women, all safe, entice and excite in this short. Maureen Bradley, 1992, 5 minutes CHARIOTTE GAV AND LESBIAN FILM SERIES For information call 334-5089. Sparkling, Spontaneous Sanctified, Sarcastic Salacious, Sultry Sordid, Silly SENSATIONAL S U PERSTAlR RElfllE A Cabaret PerformaiHie To Benefit Metrolina AIDS Project featuring the cast of JESUS CHUIST SUPiUSTAR 11:30 p.iti. Fridayt February 25y 1994 The Pre-Show Entertainment Begins at 10:00 p. Meet your friends for festive fun. Cash bar. RESERVED TICKETS $15.00-Show only $20.00-Show & After Party to Meet the Cast Tickets available at the Performing Arts Center box office (2nd floor of Founders Hall) or charge by phone, 704-372-1000 JESUS CfHRISV SUPERSlSlt MwttcK - ANDREW tiOYD WEBBER . - . Iwiab . TIM RICE Orange Lesbian and Gay Association The Orange Lesbian and Gay Association (OLGA) was proud to support LaVonda Burnette when she was a candidate running for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board. As a single African-American mother with a history of involvement in the system’s schools, LaVonda promised to bring a fresh perspective to the board. She would take her place among the mostly white and affluent officials in area government and give a voice to a community that all too often goes unno ticed and unheard. We were proud to support LaVonda be cause she wasn’t afraid to take a stand in support of the entire multicultural curricu lum, inclusive of sexual orientation. In her support of at-risk children, the gay and lesbi an community, and the right of all children to receive a sound education, LaVonda took many chances in her campaign by not hedg ing on the issues. Unlike most other candi dates, LaVonda put herself on the line by stating what she really believed. These reasons for supporting LaVonda have not changed. However, like many of her supporters, members of OLGA were confused and dis heartened by LaVonda’s misrepresentation regarding her status as a part-time UNC student. We were further disappointed with the mistakes which compounded the misrep resentation in the following weeks. We have many unanswered questions, yet it is clear to us that whatever path LaVonda takes in the next few months, she will face a continuing storm ofcontroversy and public outcry. That outcry, which at times has been unreason ably cruel, has already hurt LaVonda and impeded the School Board’s operation. While we understand and agree with the concerns of other School Board members regarding LaVonda’s actions, and we admit that her efficacy as a School Board member following this controversy is in doubt, we must stand behind LaVonda’s right to choose whether or not to remain on the board. If the other School Board members decide to pur sue legal charmels to remove LaVonda from the board against her will, they would set a dangerous precedent by holding her to a different standard than that to which other public officials in the area have been held in the past. Such a move also would damage race relations in this community in that it would appear to punish LaVonda for being from abackground outside the “mainstream.” One has to question why LaVonda felt the need to “impress” area voters with her pur ported affiliation with the University. Per haps her actions speak to the fact that we are not the open and accepting community we profess to be in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. After all, when a single African-American mother with an impressive history of educa tional activism thinks she must also have a college education to gain the support of her community, something has gone very wrong in the “Southern part of heaven.” If LaVonda is to leave the board, she should do so only through her own volition, or through a recall election-an option now being pursued by the board. LaVonda has not objected to a recall election, and such a move would give her a chance to prove that LaVonda Burnette is good for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools because of who she is: a single black mother who wants to make Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools better for all of our children. It would give LaVonda a chance to prove you don’t need a college education to care. If for some reason, however, LaVonda does leave the board, we caimot stress enough the need to replace her with someone, pref erably from the African-American commu nity, with a similar background ^d set of beliefs. Not to do so would be to ignore the voice of the voters which was heard loud and clear last November. Our sympathies lie both with LaVonda and the School Board during this very difficult time, and we hopie for a speedy resolution to this conflict that will build bridges in our community instead of erecting walls. —Doug Ferguson, OLGA Co-Chair —Gloria Faley, Member, Many Voices, One Community Shalala prescribes snake oil to Gay/AIDS community In one Gay and Lesbian newspaper after another. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala has been fraudulent ly promoting President Clinton’s Insurance Company Preservation Act as real Health Care Reform. Shalala reminds us of a snake oil sales man, peddling her wares to a community devastated by AIDS and Lesbian specific breast cancer much like her predecessors did in the old West. In promoting the Clinton plan, Shalala talks of a man with AIDS who lost his health care because of the disease. She creates an illusion that Clinton’s plan would change that. Nothing could be further from the truth. As members of numerous groups and coalitions, we are promoting real health care reform under the Single payer bills S491 (introduced by Senator Paul Wellstone) and HR 1200 (introduced by Representative Jim McDermott). Clinton would preserve the power and profits of the insurance industry by allowing them to create monolithic health alliances, in many cases using existing HMO’s (Health Maintenance Organizations). 47%ofHMO’s are owned by insurance companies. This is a prescription for disaster. Wellstone’s S491 and McDermott’s HRl 200 are tailor-made for our community. McDermott/Wellstone deserve our support. McDermott/Wellstone guarantee that all members of our community would have access to the highest quality health care. The Clinton Plan continues the same multi-tiered system that benefits suburban, white, yuppie, heterosexual, non-birth-control-using Volvo drivers at the expense of Gays, Lesbians, the working poor, people of color and others who live in the nation's urban centers. A particularly chilling clause in the plan touted and drafted by Clinton & Clinton states, “A health professional or a health facility may not be required to provide an item or service in the comprehensive benefit package if the professional or facility objects to do so on the basis of a religious belief or moral conviction.” The Clinton Plan maintains the status quo, permitting insurance companies and right wing, extremist, “c”hristian bigots to continue to choose who gets quality health care and who doesn’t. The premise behind the Clinton Plan is flawed. It assumes that the government can somehow manage com petition and that insurance companies would fight tooth and nail to get all our business. Insurance carriers will flock to the suburbs offering primarily upper middle class (peo ple that have been able to maintain their health) quality health care at low rates, but will avoid areas that have high crime rates, high rates of HIV infection, areas in close proximity to polluting chemical plants, areas ofhigh drug use. In other words, we are left out again. These areas will be left with poorer quality health care at higher rates and with higher deductibles. Shalala refuses to discuss single payer; instead she promotes the Clinton lie. McDermott and Wellstone will work. It is similar to the health care plans that are in place in Germany, Canada, Japan and most of Europe. All of the world’s other western democracies recogn^e the fact that health careisarightnotaprivilege. They recognize that private profit has no place in determin ing who lives and who dies. The Clinton Plan is untried. It assumes that insurance company executives are a collection of kind, compassionate individu als who would never deny health care to anyone. The Clinton plan will doom true health care reform for a generation. It is ironic that Hillary Clinton bashes the insur ance industry then hands them our Uves and money on a silver platter. The McDermott and Wellstone bills will guarantee us complete physician choice. If you want a Gay doc that is HI V+ who you can trust with your life, you have that choice. The Clinton plan will put us all into a plan that takes away your democratic right of choice. Some bureaucrat will choose your doctor. A health board will choose your plan and you still have to pay from 20 to 40% after Continued on page 23
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Feb. 1, 1994, edition 1
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