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PAGE 4 Q-Notes T March 1994
County rejects civil rights bid SC Pride moved tO April
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by David Jones
Q-Notes Staff
ORANGE COUNTY, NC—Orange
County Commissioners have been asked to
add gays to the civil rights ordinance the
county adopted in December 1993. The com
missioners said no.
The county obtained authorization from
the General Assembly to enact an ordinance
to prohibit discrimination based on sex, reli
gion, age, race, disability, familial relation
ship or veteran status. The original bill in
cluded sexual orientation but was taken out
by the sponsor. Sen. Howard Lee (D-Chapel
HiU).
The Orange Lesbian and Gay Association
(OLGA) asked commissioners to seek legis
lation to add sexual orientation, but at a meet
ing on February 16, the board told OLGA to
obtain more support and come back. Orange
County Republican Chair Betty Ibrahim
claimed that protecting gays is not needed
because, “It is not possible for the general
public to discriminate against gays and lesbi
ans because the general public does not know
who the gays and lesbians are.”
According to OLGA co-chair Doug
Ferguson, long-time activist and UNC law
student, OLGA will' now consider several
options, including asking the towns of Chapel
Hill and Carrboro to either pass resolutions
calling on commissioners to expand the ordi
nance, asking the towns to delay endorse
ment of the ordinance without vetoing it until
gays and lesbians ate added, or rejecting the
ordinance outright. Ferguson told Q-Notes
that OLGA wants to work with and continue
to support advocates for other groups, and
fmd a solution that keeps those alliances
strong.
“I am very, very disappointed at what the
commissioners did,” he said, “particularly
the resistance we got from even putting the
subject on the agenda. We still have a lot of
work to do, and we will continue to develop
support for including us in the ordinance.”
Public hearings will be held in Chapel Hill
on March 2 and in Carrboro on March 8.
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Special to Q-Notes
COLUMBIA—^Dealing cards at Casino
Night, marching in the Columbia S t. Patrick’s
Day Parade, cooking out at the SC Gay and
Lesbian Community Center, picnicking in
the park—it sounds like an odd mix of work
and recreation, but it’s all helping the South
Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement
(GLPM) gear up for its fifth annual Gay and
Lesbian Pride March.
This year. South Carolina’s Gay and Les
bian Pride March will take place in Columbia
on Saturday, April 16, two months before the
usual June date. “Stonewall 25 and the Gay
Games were our main motivation for moving
the march,” says Matt Tischler, co-chair of
GLPM. “We’re expecting a large number of
South CaroUnians to head to New York for
Stonewall and want to make sure people will
be able to do both.”
In addition to changing the date of the
march. South CaroUnahas moved thestarting
time to 1:00 p.m. from its traditional noon
kick-off. This too, according to Tischler, is
designed to increase participation. “Each
year we travel to marches in neighboring
states as a show of solidarity for these organi
zations,” he says. “We want to do everything
we can to encourage participation from South
Carolina as well as neighboring states.”
Having the Pride March in April translates
into more political recognition. Tradition
ally, the Pride Rally, held on the State House
steps, has been a symbolic gesture of solidar
ity among the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender communities, its friends and sup
porters — symbolic because the General As
sembly is not in session during the third week
of June. This year, holding the rally while the
General Assembly is in session will trans
form that symbolism into substance.
“There’s a growing realization that the
South will be the battleground in the gay and
lesbian civil rights movement,” saysTischler.
It is this momentum that South Carolina hopes
to tap into while preparing for the April
march.
The theme for this year’s march is “Proud
To Say.” The theme, presented by Bill Dalton,
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GLPM’s Treasurer who died of AIDS com
plications in December, invokes the growing
sense of solidarity and commiunent of South
Carolina’s gay and lesbian conununity.
As always, there’s more to pride in South
Carolina than the march, rally and celebra
tion. On Sunday, April 10, at 1:00 p.m., the
Land of Earlewood Neighborhood Associa
tion, one of Columbia’s “family” neighbor
hood groups, will sponsor a cookout in
Earlewood Park. The Bisexual, Gay and
Lesbian Association at the University of South
Carolina will hold its “B-GLAD” week April
11-16. A number of other organizations, both
religious and civic, will hold events leading
up to Saturday’s festivities.
On Saturday, April 16, marchers are asked
to assemble at noon on the comer of Main and
Calhoun Streets to prepare for the march
which steps off at 1:00 p.m. North Carolina’s
Pride Marching Band will lead participants
down Columbia’s Main Street to the steps of
South Carolina’s S tate House for the Gay and
Lesbian Pride Rally. Mandy Carter of the
Human Rights Campaign Fund will emcee
this year’s rally.
The featured speaker at the rally will be
Mel White, former ghost writer for Oliver
North and Jerry Falwell as well as a colleague
of Billy Graham. That all changed when
White came out as a gay man. He is now
pastor at Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan
Community Church in Dallas. White knows
well the working of the right wing and is
making his experiences known throughout
the country.
As part of this year’s rally, GLPM is
sponsoring a number of quilt making work
shops with the AIDS panels dedicated at the
rally. Special tribute will be paid to Bill
Dalton, GLPM’s Treasurer, and to Bill Edens,
executive director of PALSS, both of whom
recently died of complications due to AIDS.
A number of other speakers from the state and
Southeast will round out the rally.
Following the rally, the annual Pride Cel
ebration will be held from 3:00-6:00 p.m. at
The Edge, 1801 Main Street The celebration
will feature local and regional entertainment
as well as vendors and information bootlis.
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