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PETA hires AIDS activist to stop animal testing ....Page 10 Lost art of the male impersonator Page 24 The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 12, Number 2 • June 14, 1997 • FREE Gang of Five” targets gays again A friend of the gay community? Yes, for Scher! by David Stout Q-Notes Staff Mecklenburg County Commissioner Lloyd Scher (D-District 4), 46, is the Inspector Columbo of Charlotte’s public servant set. His disheveled appearance — which perpetually leads one to think he rolled out of bed just in time to make this or that meeting — belies his clear understanding of the issues. The tuft of hair that juts from the front of his head — al ways at an impossible angle — covers what is arguably the sharpest mind in municipal poli tics. Scher’s leadership abilities, honed over three Commission terms, have been sorely tested these past two months as he has fought the “Gang of Five” for control of “the soul of this community” — as he terms it. Since five of Mecklenburg’s nine commissioners voted to defund the Arts & Science Council (ASC) on April 1, stemming from portrayals of homo sexuality in local works, Scher has been locked in a high-profile, occasionally bruising, batde with his anti-gay colleagues. One result of this stand has been the celebratory reception Scher has received from the gay and lesbian community. At one recent Commission meeting, he was greeted with spontaneous, rousing applause from support ers of the Charlotte Pride Alliance as he en tered the chamber. Q-Notes wanted to get Scher’s take on his new-found role of gay community hero and hear his report from the front, so we arranged to join him at his home for a Sunday-afternoon interview. Although he was candid and ami able — almost folksy — Scher maintained an air of studied concentration that left a strong impression on this writer. Q-Notes: Looking back to the first meeting of this current County Commission, did you have any idea that you would eventually be dealing with something like the defunding of the Arts & Sci ence Council due to homosexual themes and char acters! Lloyd Scher: Not Arts & Science, but I felt like we were going to deal with some kind of sexual issue because of the nature of some of the pre-election stuff that had occurred. So, yeah, I did see a possibility of some things com ing up. QN: Especially fiven your Jewish heritage, did Commissioner Hoyle Martins infamous statement that he would like to “shove gays ofijthe face ofthe Earth" connect the ASC resolution to some deeper level ofprejudice for you! Commissioner Lloyd Scher LS: Yes. If one statement bothered me, it was that one. I’m also bothered by the reaction that I took. I should have spoken out at that meeting — that was our December meeting — and I didn’t because I’d already had an agree ment that Hoyle would vote against [Bill James’] original motion. But even after that, when he made that statement, I should have just said, “To heck with the vote,” and chas tised him for that comment. But the vote was more important at the time because I was hop ing to hold it in line that we would never be faced with the issues we are now. But if I knew then what I know now, I would have chastised him for that quote. QN: Vfks it a conscious decision on your part to become the Commissions opposition leader to the Arts resolution! LS: No. I don’t even sense myself as a leader in that regard. I just think anydme there’s in justice, it’s my responsibility. Unlike other Commissioners, I leave my Bible at the door and I wrap myself in the Constitution. That’s what I’m sworn to uphold and defend; that’s what I served in the service for. The Constitu tion allows freedom of expression and freedom of religion and freedom of speech — freedom to do what we want to do in this society and that’s the way I look at it. QN: In some ways, the gay community has turned you into a quasi-patron saint since the vote. What do you think about that! LS: I’m embarrassed; I never looked at my self as being a... it’s hard to be a Jewish saint [laughs]. In all seriousness. I’m glad that they feel they have someone they can come to. They deserve as much representation as anybody else. And maybe, in some ways, it’s also something I’m a little upset with myself about in that when See SCHER on page 17 Media offers Day of Compassion by Richard Jennings Special to Q-Notes LOS ANGELES—The Fifth Annual Day of Compassion scheduled for Friday June 20 will include a powerful lineup of television pro gramming as well as a significant presence on the Internet. Day of Compassion is an interna tional media event designed to model compas sion and support for people affected by HIV/ AIDS. Last year, the event helped to generate over 80,000 calls to the National AIDS Hotline — more than any other AIDS-related event or news story since the beginning of the epidemic. For the first time this year, Internet service providers and search engines will join network and cable programmers to highlight AIDS com passion, awareness and hope. The list of par ticipating Internet companies already signed on includes America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, Yahoo! and Infoseek. A web page con taining regular updates on participating shows, photos, PSAs and other ways to participate is featured on Hollywood Supports’ web site: www.hsupports.org. Oprah! and The Rosie O'Donnell Show will join a host of other daytime talk shows that are either producing new episodes, updating pre vious shows or rerunning prior AIDS-themed episodes. The list of talk shows whose partici pation has been confirmed to date includes Sally Jessy Raphael, The Jenny Jones Show, Leeza, Montel Williams, Geraldo and Maury Povich. Daytime dramas participating this year in clude Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, One Lift to Live, Port Charles, The Bold and the Beau- See COMPASSION on page 25 6i by Dan Van Mourik Q-Notes Staff CHARLOTTE—By a vote of 5-4, the Mecklenburg County Board of Commission ers passed an amendment to part B of the April 1 resolution which defunded the Arts & Sci ence Council due to funding of groups that portrayed homosexual themes. The amendment to part B requires county-funded agencies to notify parents before speaking to children un der the age of 18 about sex, pregnancy or sexu ally transmitted diseases. Agencies will also have to advise children of North Carolina’s sodomy law when talking about sex. The amendment was proposed by Hoyle Martin (D-District 2), who also proposed the original resolution on April 1, and supported by the same four commissioners who supported the April 1 resolution — Tom Bush (R-At- Large), Joel Carter (R-District 1), George Higgins (R-District 5) and Bill James (R-Dis- trict 6). Again, this move is seen as an attempt to prevent counselors from addressing the is sue of homosexuality. Proponents and opponents to the amend ment were each given a total of 15 minutes to address the commissioners. While only one person spoke in favor of the amendment, over a dozen had signed up to speak against it. The time limit, however, allowed only seven. One opponent asked Martin to apologize for his statement that all gays should be “shoved off the face of the earth.” Martin did not apolo- gize. In addition to several speakers from the gay community, a psychiatrist and a doctor also ex pressed their deep concerns over the new rules. During the discussions by the commission ers, Hoyle Martin viciously attacked both Lloyd Scher (D-District 4) and Darrell Williams (D- District 3) for their opposition to his amend ment. Chairman Parks Helms (D-At-Largc) stepped in to stop the assault. Commissioner Becky Carney (D-At-Large) made a proposal to rescind the April 1 resolu tion, but it was quickly defeated. This amendment will only apply to county- funded agencies and there is an exclusion for doctors who are proteaed under confidential ity laws. Other exceptions would be made for counselors who fear for the youth’s safety if parents are notified, but they would have to obtain permission from the county health di rector before they could talk to the youth. With approximately 50 agencies which could be affected by this amendment. County Manager Jerry Fox asked that implementation be delayed by 60 days so they could notify all agencies and arrange new contracts should agencies choose not to abide by the new rules. “I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Martin said. “It’s time we moved on.” ▼ Forging a more colorful outreach by Gene Poteat Q-Notes Staff “There’s nothing for us to do in Charlotte — Let’s go to Atlanta or something...” These are words Pam Pompey, co-chair of the OutCharlotte ’97 OutReach Committee, hears often. “I hear it all the time,” she says, “from people of color in the Charlotte area’s gay, les bian, bisexual, transgender [GLBT] commu nity who feel that they are not being included.” OutCharlotte, which produces an annual fes tival celebrating the GLBT community, hopes to change that. “The GLBT community has the same ra cial make-up as the greater community as a whole,” says OutCharlotte ’97’s Festival Steer ing Committee’s co-chair Elizabeth Pruitt. “We are racially divided. Just as there is a great deal of division in the straight community, so is there in our community. We [at OutCharlotte] are trying to be inclusive of race and gender, inclu sive of all of us.” “Any community is made up of segments; college students, professionals, neighborhoods, etc.,” says Pompey. “People of color in the GLBT community don’t have a unified voice. I don’t think any one has stepped up to repre sent this group of people. OutCharlotte is do ing a great job of including us.” Toward that end, the group’s 15-member OutReach Com mittee has begun a newsletter targeting people of color. “Pam and Erik [OutReach co-chair Erik Norman] have put together a kind of cover page for our newsletter as an initial effort,” declares Pruitt, adding, “reaching out is really, really hard. People don’t want to talk about race is sues.” Pruitt feels that {wlitical correctness keeps people silent; they are afraid of offending people of color. “We want to educate everyone, to create dialogues,” says Norman. “The OutReach Committee wants to create dialogues between men and women, between the young and old and between the different races. We need to educate ourselves [the GLBT community] so we can educate others and if you are in the con versation, you can educate.” Both Norman and Pompey feel their efforts are an attempt to dismiss stereotypes and myths and create a unified voice for the entire GLBT community. “Issues such as Charlotte’s recent debate over arts funding affea all of us in the GLBT community, including people of color,” says Pompey, who wants to see everyone ac tively involved. “Our outreach doesn’t just in clude people of color; we are trying to make sure that the bisexual and transgender commu nity is also included, too.” Pruitt sees the efforts of the OutReach Com mittee as part of OutCh^lotte’s basic mission. “First of all,” she says, “we hope there will be individual growth. I know I have learned a lot already just by knowing Pam and EriL” Pruitt says that to a large degree people of color have a different set of issues regarding homophobia, but adds, “we all have some experiences in com mon. We hope our efforts will help bridge the gaps within the GLBT community by not only bringing people into [active participation] in our oi^anization, but also to get people involved in other organizations and aaivities.” “We thought the newsletter would be a good starting place,” she says, “because we already knew that a large number of people of color go to the clubs, arc on college campuses or other places where other gay news publications arc usually available. People are used to gening in formation about the community that way.” “As far as I know,” Pompey notes, “there is no other similar local newsletter, no formal way for us [people of color], men and women, to network or socialize as a group.” She describes the current OutReach Committee, which be gan working on the ’97 celebration this past January, as a “family” and hopes that this spirit of working together will extend to all the GLBT community. “We are not really looking to have a major publication; we arc looking to reach out,” says Pompey. “For now, we want to keep it simple, more of a flyer.” She and Norman are looking for stories, items of concern and events that may be of interest, or, as Pompey says, “any infor mation surrounding people of color that some one wants to share.” Care to share? Call OutCharlotte ’97 at (704) 563-2699. ▼
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 14, 1997, edition 1
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