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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 11, Number 4 • July 13, 1996 • FREE
Gay youth plan
for national
conference
by Susan Tedder
Q-Notes Staff
WASHINGTON, DC—Nearly
500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered youth are expected to at
tend the 2nd annual lYG National Youth
festival in Washington, DC October 11-
13, 1996. The festival will once again run
concurrently with the Parents, Family and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) con
ference, since, as conference organizer Michelle
O’Mara said, “the youth really enjoyed being
around the P-FLAG group.”
O’Mara noted that last year’s joint effort
proved to be suprisingly successful, and this
year’s festival is the outgrowth from “an obvi
ous need.” Young people from all over the
country made the journey to Indianapolis last
fall to take part in an opportunity to find sup
port and socialize with others like themselves.
It is an invaluable opportunity for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered people under age
21 to enjoy the peer support often found by
heterosexual adolescents in everyday activities,
in a safe environment.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Free
2B Me,” and it will be held at the Ramada Inn
in nearby New Carrollton, MD. The goal is to
create a supportive context for youth to share
their stories and experiences, while gaining
strength, hope and support from their non-gay
friends, relatives, and allies. Workshops, socials,
tours of the Names Project AIDS Memorial
I
UFMCC purchases headquarters
by Susan Tedder
Q-Notes Staff
LOS ANGELES—For more than a year, the
Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Commu
nity Churches (UFMCC) has been in the
dreaming, planning, and praying stages of ob
taining a facility to house the denominational
headquarters and the historic “mother church,”
MCC Los Angeles. On June 7, that dream fi
nally became a reality.
The capital campaign, “For the Next Gen
eration,” led founder and moderator Rev. El
der Troy Perry to member churches all over the
world in an attempt to raise the $1 million
down payment, while other denominational
officers worked on clearing hurdles such as fi
nancing the remaining $2.8 million balance on
the buildings and working with the West Hol
lywood Planning Commission to get a permit
to use the facility as a place of public assembly
for worship.
The Fellowship’s current headquarters be
came too small for the denomination years ago,
and MCCLA was irreparably damaged in the
1994 earthquake. This new facility could eas-
ily meet both needs, and offer opportunity for
future growth. The Fellowship headquarters, a
five-story structure, will house a memorial
chapel, denomination offices, resource center,
international services and the UFMCC Tech
nology Center, to guide the church into the in
formation explosion of the 21st Century.
MCCLA will have office, classroom, meeting
and worship space, child care area, and an au
dio/visual area. Both spaces are designed for
efficient use and are easily adaptable as the needs
of the Fellowship or the mother church change
with time.
On the day escrow was closed. Rev. Elder
Troy Perry said, “This is a great day for
UFMCC, and for lesbians and gays everywhere.
As conservative religious groups of the far-right
continue their relentless assault on our dignity
and freedoms, our Fellowship is preparing to
consolidate our gains and strengthen our net
work of churches to position ourselves in the
forefront of the struggle. This West Hollywood
property is ideal for us. Once established there,
our new Global Headquarters and the new
MCC Los Angeles will be a highly visible sym
bol of the maturity, stability, decency and per
manence of the gay/lesbian community.”
UFMCC has over 300 churches in 18 coun
tries, and is the fastest growing Christian
' denomination. Visit the UFMCC
website at http://www.ufmcc.com
for more information. T
City Council cuts support for
AIDS agency to meager $7K
Quilt, the Holocaust Museum and the
Smithsonian will fill the weekend, with the
awareness raising Youth March on Washington
scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
The cost for the conference ranges from
$120 to $225 depending on the number of
young people sharing a room. Some scholar
ships are available to offer financially disadvan
taged youth the opportunity to attend. This
cost includes registration, hotel, all meals, and
a conference t-shirt. Conference attendees must
complete a registration form, and those under
18 must submit a completed consent form
signed by a parent or legal guardian, and nota
rized, with the registration.
For more information, to register, or to con
tribute a scholarship, contact Michele O’Mara
or Carrie Ann Fisher at (317) 541 -8726, e-mail
IYG@Indy.net, web site http://www.youth.org/
loco/iyg. Local P-FLAG chapters or youth or
ganizations should also have information about
the conference available. T
by Eagle White
Q-Notes Staff
RALEIGH—A week before Raleigh’s AIDS
Service Agency (ASA) presented the City Coun
cil with a plan to build affordable housing for
PWAs, Mayor Tom Fetzer and his conservative
minions on the council sent the agency a mes
sage of their own — in the form of a 30 per
cent cut in city funds allo
cated to ASA. For the up-
coming fiscal year,
Raleigh’s already meager
$10,000 contribution to
the agency has been cut to
$7,000. The city allocation
is to assist ASA in the
maintenance of Hustead
House, a group care home
for PWAs. Since opening in 1990, Hustead
House has provided shelter and care for over
50 persons living with HIV/AIDS.
ASA wasn’t the only organization to suffer
from the cuts, which were announced June 13
— the day the Council voted on Raleigh’s $246
million budget. Planned Parenthood saw all
$20,000 of its funding cut. Regarding the elimi
nation of Planned Parenthood’s subsidy, Fetzer
told the Raleigh News & Observer, “They pro
vide birth control devices to minors without
parental consent. I don’t think taxpayers ought
to be paying for that. And there are many other
organizations we could be funding that are not
controversial.”
The city’s Human Resources and Human
Relations Advisory Commission studied the re
quests of human services organizations and
made recommendations to the council regard
ing funding — recommendations which were
virtually ignored..
Mayor Fetzer responded to complaints about
funding reductions to human services and arts
programs with disdain. According to the News
& Oberver, he commented, “I just never cease
to be amazed at the audacity of the people who
think they have a constitutional right to get into
the taxpayers’ wallet.” Councilman John Odom
was also vocal about city funding for organiza
‘7 never cease to be amazed at the
audacity of the people who think they
have a right to get into the taxpayers'
wallet” — Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer
tions which assist the less fortunate. “Human
services are not a part of what the city of Ra
leigh ought to be doing. I’d like to see, over a
period of time, the whole thing eliminated.”
In the wake of this hostile climate at City
Hall, ASA has, for the second year, submitted a
housing proposal for city certification — a
project which requires no city funding. The pro
posal, which was delivered to the council on
June 21, involves construction of a 24-unit,
independent-living apartment complex for low
income persons with disabilities — specifically
those living with HIV/AIDS. The proposal,
which could provide housing for up to 68 per
sons, requires city certification before it can be
submitted to the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) for funding
consideration. The plan would fall under
HUD’s Section 811 grant program, which
would provide money for land purchase and
See COUNCIL on page 11
Community ally moves away,
legacy of integrity remains
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
RALEIGH—^After fighting the good fight
for a long time. Rev. Jimmy Creech has moved
on to his reward — in Nebraska
Creech, a 51-year-old, heterosexual, Meth
odist minister, was drummed out of his pulpit
at Raleigh’s Fairmont United
Methodist Church in 1990 for
supporting gays and lesbians.
After serving as program asso
ciate for the NC Council of
Churches since 1991, he was
called at the end of June as the
new senior pastor of First
United Methodist Church in
Omaha, Nebraska. First
United’s decision returns
Creech to congregational
pastoring, his first ecumenical
love. He described the situa
tion as “...the chance of a life
time.”
Creech’s removal from
Fairmont arose from his active
and visible participation in a clergy organiza
tion created to dialog on the complex issues
between gays and mainline churches. Creech
saw his involvement with the group as an ex
tension of his commitment to minister to the
oppressed. Unfortunately, his congregants did
not make that connection. They decided to fire
Creech after he participated in a statewide gay
Rev. Creech
work for Gay and Lesbian Equality.
Losing his ministry at Fairmont was a se
vere blow to Creech, but it was only the begin
ning of his difficulties.^Since he had been liv
ing in the church rectory, he was soon home
less and in financial .disarray. Because of his
stand on homosexuality, none of the available
Methodist churches in the area
would consider him for their
vacant pastorates.
Despite the hardships,
Creech never backed away from
his beliefs. In fact, when he was
hired by the NC Council of
Churches, his social justice work
escalated. He successfully cam
paigned for the Council to rec
ognize Metropolitan Commu
nity Churches — which caused
the Council to lose funding
from the Methodists — and be
came one of the state’s most out
spoken critics of capital punish
ment. He told one reporter,
“The church has to respond to
the problems of injustice in our society and all
over the world. As long as there’s someone fac
ing oppression, the church has to be at the fore
front advocating for their salvation.”
It appears that Creech has found a good fit
in First United Methodist; the church is known
for its progressive social leanings and even hosts
a chapter of Parents, Family and Friends ofLes-
Pride march with the Raleigh Religious Net- bians and Gays (P-FLAG).'