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The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper Judge finds military policy unconstitutional....Page 4 Movie portrays mother’s loss of gay son Page 16 Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 12, Number 5 • July 26, 1997 • FREE No blues for The Indigo Girls •*1^ * by Brian D. Holcomb Q-Notcs Staff I used to envy my sister for her musical con nections. Living in Athens, GA, it was hard for her not to have some. The B-52’s had been around the city for years. She used to fight witH Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who lived two houses down, when he would steal her paper. And you don’t get between a lesbian and her newspaper, no matter who you are. There was also this new group that had a record out (we still called them records then). The Indigo Gitls. Now, The Indigo Girls are the hottest thing in Contemporary Folk Rock. A nineteen year old girl that I work with now loves the Indigos. She can only name one R.E.M. album {Auto matic For The People), and thinks she has heard of the B52’s. They sang something about riding in a big car to some house somewhere, she thinks. The times, they are a’changing. At the end of this month. The In digo Girls are going to appear at Block buster Pavilion as one of the leading acts on one of the hottest bills of the year. It is the Lilith Fair, a celebration of women’s music and the brainchild of Canadian folk rock singer Sarah Mc- Lachlan. The tour has featured Jewel, Fiona Apple, Joan Osborne, Tracy Chapman — only some of the biggest names on the circuit. The specific artists vary from city to city, but each stop is a day-long orgy of estrogen-fueled music. The Indigo Girls hold a special place in the heart of most of the lesbian and gay commu nity, because they have always been open about who and what they were. The mid 1980s was not the best time to be gay and record on a major label, but Amy Ray and Emily Sailers have refused to hide. And they have made some damn fine music while being out. Here are some of their achievements and milestones: 1985: “Crazy Game” is released as a single on the Indigo label. 1986: Inkigo Girls, an EP also on the Indigo label is released. Some songs that you will hear of later appear on this recording: “History of Us” and “Land of Canaan.” 1987: Their first full-length album. Strange Fire, is released on the Indigo label. 1988: The Indigo Girls sign with Epic Records and begin recording. Participating musicians include Michael Stipe, Hothouse Flowers and Luka Bloom. , 1989: Their first major-label album is re leased and reaches #22 on the charts. The single, “Closer To Fine,” peaks at #52. Strange Fire is reissued with an added track, “Get Together.” The Indigo Girls win their first Grammy Award (Best Contemporary Folk Recording). 1990: Nomads/Indians/Saints is recorded in Athens and released. 1991: A live album. Back On the Bus, Y’all, is recorded. 1992.- Rites of Passage, including the single “Galileo,” is released. 1993: The Indigo Girls stage their “Ten- DollarTour,” where all tickets and t-shirts cost only $10.00. Big hit with the college circuit. This season begins the most active period in the Indigo’s career, in which they play not only their own concert Indie Grrrls: Emily Sailers and Amy Ray tour, but the Ben & Jerry’s Newport Folk Festival, Voices For Choice and Honor the Earth. Rockers with a so cial conscience. Don’t you just love them? 1994: Original 2 movie soundtrack c for Philadelphia is 3 released with the & Indigo’s single “I 2 Don’t Want To Talk S About It.” Swamp £ Ophelia is released to critical praise. A massive tour fron June to October ends at Radio City Music Hall. 1995: Most artists take at least, oh, six weeks between major recordings, but not the Indigos during this period. 1200 Curfews, a live double album, is released. Also the film Boys On The Side (I know you saw it; don’t lie), which marked their major film debut. And in a lesbian bar. Fantastic. 1996: The Indigos perform at the Newport Festival (for the fifth time) as well as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in a tribute to Woody Guthrie. Amy Ray’s independent Daemon la bel releases Honor, a benefit CD. 1997: And here we are. Just 12 years ago, there were no Indigo Girls, at least not that anyone had ever heard of Now, their latest CD, Shaming of the Sun, is released to a huge ad vance sale and the first single, “Shame On You,” is getting heavy airplay across the region. July, 1997: The new album, coupled with one of the best discographies in contemporary music, much less folk rock, guarantees a great show for Indigo Girls fans. If you don’t have your tickets to Lilith Fair, get them now. You’ll be sorry if you miss it. I’ll see you there. T IRS to take ^‘fresh look” at GLASS by David Stout Q-Notes Staff GREENSBORO—The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has admitted it was wrong to de mand that a support group for gay, lesbian, bi sexual and transgender youth explain how it discouraged “homosexual attitudes and propen sities” among its participants as a qualification for tax-exempt status. The Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Support System (GLASS) of Greensboro, a three-year- old organization that has served about 120 young people between the ages of 15 and 21, received the IRS stipulation in a letter last fall after the group submitted an Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) application requesting desig nation as a non-profit educational and social welfare group. In response to the application, IRS repre sentatives wrote back, “Please describe in de tail the procedures and safeguards in place to assure that counsellors (sic) and panicipants do not encourage or facilitate homosexual prac tices or encourage the development of homo sexual attitudes and propensities by minor in dividuals attending your programs.” When the situation was brought to the at tention of the Lambda Legal Defense and Edu cation Fund, staff attorney David Buckel lam basted the federal agency in a correspondence of his own. “GLASS’S very purpose is to raise the self-esteem of youth who fiice harassment and violence because they are gay, bisexual, or See GL^S on page 20 Alleged gay killer linked to Versace’s murder Cunanan by David Stout Q-Notes Staff MIAMI—The brutal murder of celebrated fashion designer Gianni Versace is being linked by police to a San Diego gay man who is sus pected of killing four others since spring. Authorities believe Versace, 50, who was shot outside the front gate of his lavish South Beach home, is the latest victim of alleged serial mur derer Andrew Phillip Cunanan (pronounced Koo-NAH-nihn), 27. Versace was returning from his morning ritual of buying magazines and newspapers at the News Cafe, an Ocean Drive shop, at ap proximately 9am when an unidentifed man approached him from behind and fired twice into the back of his head. The killer left Versace bleeding face up and walked north on Ocean Dr., then west on 12th St., followed by wit nesses. The assailant cut through an alley and entered a parking garage at the intersection of 13th Street and Collins Avenue. When he real ized he was being followed, he pointed his gun at the pursuers who immediately dispersed. The killer changed his clothes in a red Chev rolet truck, then left on foot. Police later recov ered a gray, blood-stained warm-up suit from beneath the vehicle. The truck was littered with parking tickets indicating it had been sitting in the parking facility for almost a month. Eyewitnesses described the killer as a white man in his mid-20s, about 5’ 8” tall. This cor responds to Cunanan’s FBI profile: white male, 5’ 10” tall, 160 to 180 pounds. Police linked Versace’s killing to Cunanan by the presence of the abandoned Chevrolet 1500 pick up truck. It belonged to a Pennsville, NJ cemetary caretaker who is believed to have been murdered by the suspect in May. The FBI placed him on its Ten Most Wanted list after that slaying and posted a $10,000 re ward for information leading to his capture. Cunanan was well-known in San Diego’s gay community as a party boy who moved in ex clusive social circles with the men who paid him for his services as an “escort.” Cunanan’s mother told The Chicago Sun-Times that her son was simply “a high priced male prostitute.” Cunanan’s friends have described him as a charming yet enigmatic person whose life seemed to be a contradiction. He said he Was from a wealthy family, but shared an apartment with a waiter. He spent money without con cern, but never seemed to have a steady job. He graduated from a tony prep school in La Jolla, but his mother claims the family was poor. He sometimes used the alias Anthony DeSilva. Investigators believe Cunanan began his deadly trek across the country after he left San Diego, telling friends he had business in Min neapolis. Once there, it appears he murdered his former lovers Jeffrey Trail and David Madson on April 29. Police found Trail’s blud geoned body in Madson’s apartment after neighbors reported they hadn’t seen Madson in days. Trail, a 28-year-old gas company man ager, had dated Cunanan while he was stationed near San Diego with the Navy last year. Police say Cunanan killed Trail with a claw hammer. Madson’s body was pulled from East Rush Lake, MN, on May 3. The 33-year-old archi tect had been shot. Police think the suspect might have killed Madson because he witnessed Trail’s murder. This is the only killing for which Cunanan has been formally charged. Because Minneapolis police were unable to find Madson’s Jeep Cherokee, they assumed Cunanan had fled the area in it. Madson’s Cherokee was found near the murder scene of Chicago millionaire Lee See lULLER on page 20 Hawaii law extends benefits to gay and lesbian couples by David Stout Q-Notes Staff HONOLULU—Hawaii’s historic “recipro cal beneficiaries” bill became law July 8, extend ing to gay and lesbian couples, as well as other pairs of adults who can’t legally marry, a num ber of the rights and benefits given to married couples. The list of rights includes about 60 benefits such as workers compensation, hospital visita tion rights, auto insurance coverage, mental health commitment approvals, family and fu neral leave, joint property ownership and in heritance rights. However, what the law doesn’t provide for is still significant, opponents say. Gay and les bian couples continue to be denied such things as child custody rights and the ability to file joint tax returns, among other privileges. In November 1998, citizens will vote on a constitutional amendment specifying that the Hawaii Legislature can legally restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples. Lawmakers hope that by providing the benefits law and establishing a constitutional definition of marriage, they can head off a forthcoming decision by the State Supreme Court that is expected to sanction gay marriages. The government began issuing reciprocal beneficiary certificates on the day of the bill’s passage and 35 were disbursed by the close of business! Among the first to be certified were a mother and her adult daughter. This underscored many officials’ complaint that the bill is not limited to gay and lesbian couples. Gov. Ben Cayetano was so troubled by this point that he let the bill pass into law without his signature. “When you see in the preamble of the bill where it talks about a widowed mother and her son could qualify, that wasn’t the intent of what I wanted to see accomplished,” he said. “I was opposed to same-sex marriage but recognized the need to be fair to gay couples to provide for loved ones. It’s a concern that it’s opened up to other people.” Cayetano commented that lawmakers caved in to pressure from religious conservatives by including non-gays in the biU. “By placating that segment of our community, they created problems for the state and employers.” Business leaders were opposed to the inclu sion of non-gays because they were concerned it would lead to increased health insurance costs. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Terrance Tom said he didn’t want to limit the bill to gay and lesbian couples because it might be construed as discriminating against hetero sexuals. “We did it this way to ensure the law would be constitutional. This bill was attempt ing to provide a package of benefits to all couples who can’t legally marry.” T
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