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The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper
Task Force honors
three GLBT allies..
Page 11
Titleholder wants to
be a role model Page 12
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 12, Number 10 • October 4, 1997 • FREE
Festivals celebrate arts, visibility
by Brian D. Holcomb
Q-Notes Staff
The historic 1987 March on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights is remembered each
year on Oaober 11 — the date on which it
was originally held. Now, that day is set aside
as National Coming Out Day, a time when gays
and lesbians make a concerted effort to be vis
ible. Additionally, October has been designated
National Lesbian & Gay History Month and
honors the humanitarian, artistic and techni
cal contributions that homo
sexuals have made in the , ' ‘
world. , : ~ ,
Charlotte is marking the
month of October, and the
weekend of the 11th, with the
third annual OutCharlotte
festival, a cultural celebration
for the gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender community.
OutCharlotte was born of the desire of many
in our community to express ourselves in a vis
ible, unified and constructive fashion. Other
communities throughout the Carolinas are fol
lowing suit, with celebrations planned for sev
eral cities.
The Triad region of North Carolina is home
to almost 30 GLBT groups and organizations.
The Power of One is the name of a consortium
formed by all of these groups that allows them
to discuss community-wide support, as well as
keep all member groups informed of upcom
ing events of other groups. This year. The Power
of One is sponsoring the Triad’s National Com
ing Out Day celebration. Out and AbOut.
Out and AbOut will sponsor a dinner and
dance on Friday, October 10 at Greensboro’s
Cultural Arts Center. On Saturday, there will
be a family fun day at the Unitarian Universal-
ist Church in Winston-Salem, with food, games
and information about local organizations. On
Sunday, there will be a special Coming Out Day
service at the church, followed by a performance
of “Good Sense” by Steve Willis.
The Lowcountry Gay and Lesbian Alliance
CHARLOTTE
\
has scheduled a week of activities around Na
tional Coming Out Day in Charleston, SC. A
Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will show features
on October 3, 5, and 7. The SC Comedy Jam
on October 8 stars Scott Kennedy and Kevin
Maye, who are partners and tour together. The
final event is OutFest, an outdoor festival at
James Island County Park.
And, of course, there is OutCharlotte. The
1997 festival promises to be the best and most
entertaining yet, with a lineup of local and na
tional talent, all served up with that Queen City
hospitality. The events begin on Oaober 8 with
See FESTIVALS on page 5
Greensboro tapped as host site
for new fundraising program
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
GREENSBORO, NC—A. national philan
thropic foundation supporting the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender community an
nounced that it has selected Greensboro as one
of the first nine cities to offer a new multi-ses
sion training program focused on effective or
ganizational fundraising.
The training program, called OutGiving In
Community, is scheduled to begin November
10 with a training seminar on “Fundraising
Fundamentals.” It is open to anyone and will
especially benefit non-profit board members,
staff, community aaivists and volunteers. The
session begins at 6:30pm in the Founders’ Hall
Commons on the Guilford College campus,
5800 W. Friendly Ave. There is no cost to at
tend, but reservations must be made by No
vember 5.
The session is the first of four that will be
offered by the Gill Foundation, the national
grantmaking organization staned in 1994 by
Tim Gill—the openly gay founder of the Quark
computer software corporation. Mickey
MacIntyre, the Foundadon’s OutGiving Projea
Director, will lead the trainings. MacIntyre is a
nationally recognized leader in the field of
fundraising who worked with the AIDS Action
Council and the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force—^where he increased the operating in
come four-fold in two years—before joining the
Gill Foundation in 1995. MacIntyre was also
the director of major gifts at the American Red
Cross. He currently lives in a suburb of Wash
ington, DC with his husband and three dogs.
The sponsors for the first training include
Alternative Resources of the Triad, Guilford
College Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Resource Cen
ter, People of All Colors Together/Greensboro,
Power of One, Triad Business and Professional
Guild and UNC-Greensboro’s Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual Student Association. Statewide spon
sors are NC Pride PAC and NC Pride Inc.
Future training sessions are scheduled to deal
with face-to-face solicitation, direa mail and
telemarketing, fundraising events and planned
giving.
NC Pride PAC Executive Director MK
Cullen is encouraging everyone to take advan
tage of this tremendous opportunity to
strengthen and empower the movement across
the state. “We want any organizers in our state
wide community who think they need this
training to attend. Understanding the basics of
good fundraising techniques is one of the most
important needs for our community’s organi
zations, right now.”
She stressed that Greensboro’s location made
it an optimal spot for bringing the community’s
movers and shakers together. “With its central
location and more than 50 LGBT organizations
in the Triad alone, Greensboro is a logical site
for bringing our statewide community together
to benefit ftom this kind of initiative.”
Other cities hosting the OutGiving In Com
munity program are Little Rock, AK; Colorado
Springs, Denver and Ft. Collins, CO; St. Louis,
MO; Helena, MT; Albuquerque, NM; and
Columbus, OH.
For more information on OutGiving In
Community, or to register for the first session,
call the Alternative Resources of the Triad
switchboard at (910) 855-8558. T
Study proxies gay and AIDS leaders
by Bob Mteck
Special to Q-Notes
LOS ANGELES—^The leaders of many of
America’s most respected nonprofit AIDS and
gay and lesbian community organizations
present a compelling profile, according to a new
study released last month. The survey reports
these individuals, as a group, are strongly rooted
and deeply cause-dedicated, highly educated,
accustomed to demanding hours and yet re
main modestly compensated for the profes
sional obligations and challenges they face.
Most revealing perhaps, the vast majority (86
percent sampled) state they are “satisfied” with
their current position — and if they were to
leave their post, only 27 percent say that it
would be to seek a new opportunity in a new
field; 25 percent would seek a new opportu
nity in the same field. The most common ex
planation for departure was from a perceived
“lack of board support,” given by 21 percent of
respondents. Most did not single out the cus
tomary low pay (10 percent of responses) or
expected long hours (5 percent of responses)
that accompany their roles.
The confidential poll was conducted be
tween June and August 1997 by McCormack
& Associates, a national executive search firm
headquartered in Los Angeles, and specializing
in diversity recruiting at the senior management
level. This report is the first-ever quantitative
benchmark of 321 nonprofit agencies through
out the US that respond to HIV/AIDS or pro
vide social services to the pay rsnd lesbian com
munity. The response rate percent repre
sents 142 agencies throughout the US, in large
metropolitan areas to smaller, more rural com
munities and in every geographic region.
According to the findings, the typical execu
tive director (for a surveyed organization);
• Will have responsibility for an annual bud
get approaching % 1 million.
• Relies on public funding for almost half
(48 percent) of their budgets (with roughly 20
percent from major gifts, annual and planned
giving and 18 percent from events/fundraisers).
• Works relatively long hours (68 percent
record between 41-60 hours weekly and 20
percent report they are on the job for 61-plus
hours each week).
• Has been in their present position for at
least 3-5 years (37 percent) or between 6-10
years (22 percent).
• Has mixed—gay (55 percent) and straight
(45 percent) — representation on their board
of direaors.
• Has significant management and profes
sional career experience (61 percent report over
10 years experience; of this number, 40 per
cent measure between 16 and 20 years related
experience).
• Is between 40 to 49 years old (46 percent).
• Have advanced education (57 percent re
port graduate degrees).
• Report annual earnings of $75,000 or less
(73 percent).
• Is more likely to self-identify as gay or les
bian (66 percent).
• Is still likely to be white (78 percent) and
male (60 percent).
Along with its benchmark of leadership in
the US, the McCormack poll asked all 142 re
spondents to informally rank their own peers.
Specifically, they were asked to identify the three
best managed AIDS service organizations
(ASO) in the nation, as well as the top gay/
lesbian service organizations.
The toji responses ii. order for best managed
ASO in the country — as recognized by their
peers, include: 1) Gay Men’s Hedth Crisis, New
York; 2) San Francisco AIDS Foundation; 3)
AIDS Action Committee, Boston; 4) AIDS
Project Los Angeles; 5) Whitman-Walker
Clinic, Washington, DC; and 6) National Mi
nority AIDS Council, headquartered in Wash
ington, DC.
The top responses in order for best managed
See LEADERS on page 5
Interfaith group affirms ENDA
by Mohamad Elleithee
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC— The Interfaith
Alliance announced its endorsement of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
(ENDA) during a press conference on Septem
ber 22. If passed, ENDA would extend current
federal protections against employment
discrimination to include sexual orien
tation.
The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) is a
national grassroots coalition dedicated
to promoting the positive role of reli
gion in public policy and challenging
the use of religion as a weapon to di
vide people of faith. Founded in 1994,
TIA has grown to over 60,000 mem
bers from over 50 communities of faith
and has over 100 chapters in more than 30
states.
“ENDA strengthens civil rights by extend
ing them to those who presently suffer legal
discrimination in the workplace,” said Rev. Meg
Riley, TIA board member and director of the
Unitarian Universalist Association’s Washing
ton office of Faith in Action.
The group also expressed its disappointment
in the efforts of Pat Robertson of the Christian
Coalition, James Dobson of Focus on the Fam
ily and other political religious extremists to
block passage of ENDA. “On ENDA, as on so
many other things, Pat Robertson and James
Dobson do not speak for all people of faith. In
fact, they do not even speak for all Christians,”
said Rev. Dr. Herbert Valentine, TIA founding
president and executive presbyter of the Balti
more Presbytery. “The simple truth is that the
vast majority of Christians and other people of
faith believe in fairness and equality and thus
support civil rights for all Americans. What
ever their particular views on homosexuality,
most people of faith believe that no group of
“Clearly the Christian Coalition
is out of step with the majority
of Christians and Focus on the
Family needs to focus on the
facts" — Rev. Langston
citizens should be singled out for legal discrimi
nation and that no American should be treated
unfairly in the workplace.”
The Interfaith Alliance also pointed to a re
cent poll released by Greenberg and Associates
which shows that 70 percent of all Christians
believe that “gays and lesbians should be pro
tected from discrimination in the workplace,”
and 63 percent of all Christians favor passage
of “a bill which would extend current civil rights
proteaions in the workplace to cover gays and
lesbians.”
“Clearly the Christian Coalition is out of
step with the majority of Christians and Focus
on the Family needs to focus on the facts,” said
Rev. Ken Brooker Langston, spokesperson for
TIA.T
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