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PAGE 8 T Q-Notes T February 21,1998 GAYELLOW PAGEA* NFORMING THE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL & TRANSGENDERED COMMUNITY SINCE 1973 All editions now include a SEPARATE WOMEN’S SECTION Complete gay-friendly resources and businesses: accommodations, bars, bookstores, dentists, doctors, lawyers, therapists, travel services, printers, organiotions, media, religious groups, help lines & HIV/AIDS resources. Listings broken down by State & City, index & fast access phone list. UPDATED ANNUALLY. USA/CANADA: $16 by first class mail Includes all states and provinces, national headquarters of organizations, mail order companies, etc. SOUTH/SOUTHERN MIDWEST: $10 by first class mail AL, AR, AZ, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NM, NC, OK, PR, SC, TN, TX, US Virgin Is, VA, WV. A GREATER NORTHEAST $10 by first class mail CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, Rl, VA, VT, WV. Find us at gay-friendly stores like Malaprop's BOO-441-9829 Rainbows End 704-285-0005 White Rabbit 704-377-4067,336-272-7604, 919-856-1429 For an application to be listed (no charge), current editions and prices, mailing labels, etc., please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Renaissance House, PO Box 533-QN, Village Station, New York, NY 10014 212-674-0120 Fax:212-420-1126 GAYELLOWPAGES@juno.com http://gayellowpages.com Would you Buy a used house from this man? Joe O’Connor An openly gay man that deals ‘straight’ in business: a vocal activist within the L.G.B.T. community, seeking your continued support. “I SELL CHARLOTTE” 704-375-7130 http://members.aol.com/charncjoe Midwood: 2800 VirginJ^ Refinished hard' new kitchen inclui 3br, Iba, bungalow, k, gas water heater, ances. Hurry! Only $92,500, Another Midwood House: 2863 Virginia Ave. 2br, Iba bungalow with many updates, including refinished hardwood floors, nice kitchen with refrigerator to remain, gas logs and alarm system. Nice formal spaces. All for only $85,500. Midwood/Country Club: Over 3200 s.f. home with 4br, 2,5 ba, split bedroom plan with two fireplaces, .8 acre beautifully landscaped lot, huge deck, all formal spaces and large den. This elegant home has many updates. $289,000. Country Club Heights: 170 vaulted ceiling in tM^^v ^ numero great hardwood floors, landscaped yard with mea, at $109,900. Contemplating a move? Inquire about my marketing plans. We all agree, Joe is the one to call for your real estate needs. Carollnas ReaNy IF: lesbian notions Talking about sex by Paula Martinac Special to Q-Notes 'With the barrage of media coverage on the alleged Clinton sex scandal, I find myself haunted by the story. Even in my dreams. I’m engaging in risky sex — in my parents’ house, in my old bedroom, with the door slightly ajar. More importandy, all this talk about White House shenanigans has me thinking seriously about sex education, sexual ethics, and the way those topics are handled in our society. A lot of people around me, from the check out clerk at the supermarket to the guy who runs the neighborhood copy shop, have ex pressed sympathy and support for the president. Some lesbians and gay men are righdy con cerned about the damage that could be done to the most queer-friendly administration in history; others throw up their hands in an “Oh, those crazy heterosexuals!” resignation. 'What I haven’t heard is very much concern that Monica Lewinsky, at the time of the al leged affair, was just 21 years old. In fact, a re cent New York Times poll found that only one- third of the people questioned thought her age was an issue. People are more concerned that “an intimate encounter” may have occurred in (gasp!) the West 'Wing. For me, all the elements of this latest scan dal capture the problems we, in this country, have talking about and viewing sex in a mean ingful way — as a normal, integral part of life that is too often subject to sensation or abuse. First, there’s a young woman — a “bad girl” — with a history of clandestine sex with older, married men. What we know about her sug gests a life defined pretty much by sex not unusual in a society that still views women and girls as sexual fodder for men. Second, there’s a powerful man who stands accused of using his authority to attract women for sex. That’s a fig ure whom any woman who’s ever worked in an office is familiar with. Instead of discussing what’s wrong with this scenario, there’s a pub- SOt S^teedef Fast, Friendly and Courteous Service Printing • Typesetting • High Speed Copying • Binding • Notary Public • Invitations • Laminating • Resumes • Business Cards • Full Color Copies • Rubber Stamps • Union Announcements • Much Much More! 1400 East Morehead Street Charlotte, NC 28204 (704) 375-8349 / FAX (704) 342-1066 Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30 Sat 10:00-2:00 lie obsession with, and tee-heeing over, the lu rid details. Reportedly, even members of Con gress have been telling each other dirty jokes about Monica and Bill. Why this unmature preoccupation with sex? As immature children, most of us learned al most nothing at school or in our homes about sex beyond the facts of what makes a baby and the supposed joys of premarital abstinence. Sta tistics show that the United States has one of the worst records on sex education. Conse- quendy, it also has one of the highest teen preg nancy rates (and 77 percent of those pregnan cies result from girls having sex with adult men). In addition, the US has an alarmingly high rate of HIV transmission among those under 25 — a rate which continues to grow rapidly. On the other hand, European nadons like Holland and the Scandinavian countries have solid sex edu cation programs, low teen pregnancy figures and a lower rate of HIV transmission among the young. It isn’t a coincidence that those coun tries also have the most liberal policies on ho mosexuality. In this country, 41 states do not have any training requirements for sex education teach ers. The subject is usually taught by physical education or home economics faculty with no special training. Many of those teachers find their hands tied by parents when they try to talk about any kind of birth control or safer sex except abstinence. In addition, conservative, re ligiously-motivated school boards across the country continue to ban books from libraries that could offset the inferior sex education most kids get — “threatening” tides like The Color Purple by Alice Walker (which sensitively deals with issues like incest and lesbianism) and 100 Questions andAnswers about AIDS. Board mem bers outlaw these books with a squeamish prud ery that suggests that they themselves got very little positive sex education when they were young adults. “What it said on the first page was all I needed to hear,” one school board member in West Virginia was quoted as saying about Walker’s novel. The truth is, sex education in this country fails most of us, straight and queer, because it focuses on biological descriptions and not on people’s sexual realities. It doesn’t deal with sex in the context of complex human relationships that aren’t about love or marriage, but that many people experience. It doesn’t talk, for example, about sexual abuse, harassment or objectifica tion — so a lot of us can convince ourselves that those things don’t exist. It doesn’t address power imbalances in sexual relationships be tween younger and older partners, students and teachers, employees and employers — so the fact that Monica Lewinsky was 21 seems irrel evant to a majority of people. These are exactly the kinds of topics, how ever, that would have been useful to Lewinsky when she was growing up — and, for that mat ter, to Bill Clinton, too. As a friend of mine points out about the White House scandal, “Well, it’s good the country’s talking about sex.” But unfortunately, we’re still talking about it in a very limited way. V {Paula Martinac is a lesbian activist and writer. Her most recent hooks are the novel Chicken and the nonfiction guide. The Queer est Places: A National Guide to Gay and Les bian Historic Sites. She can be reached be writ ing in care of this publication or at her email ad dress LNcolumn@aol.coml\ “Can above ground burial actually save me money?” We’re glad you asked! Introducing the newest addition to our beautiful Chapel Mausoleum at special pre-construction savings, only at Charlotte’s premier cemetery — Sharon Memorial Park & Crematory Monroe Road at Sharon Amity With no obligation, call 537-5011 or mail this coupon tn: Sharon Memorial Park & Crematory, PO Box 220346, Charlotte, NC 28222 NAME: ADDRESS: CITY/STATE/ZIP: PHONE:
Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.)
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