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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 13, Number 22 • March 20, 1999 • FREE
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Another gay man murdered in brutal hate crime
Jennifer Bailey (1), actress, and
Samantha Gellar, student playwright
Banned play
receives raves
at free reading
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—“The play is wonderful.”
“It had many different levels of subtext —
very impressive.”
“The play is fantastic.”
These comments weren’t praising the latest
Broadway extravaganza to visit Charlotte, but
rather a student-authored play that attracted
national attention when it was deemed inap
propriate viewing for Charlotte-Mecklenburg
middle and senior high school students because
the lead characters are lesbians.
On Sunday afternoon, March 7, more than
400 people filled The Great Aunt Stella Center
to see a free reading of 17-year-old Samantha
Cellar’s one-act play Life Versus the Paperback
Romance. The piece was one of five chosen as
part of a local playwriting competition co-spon-
sored by The Children’s Theatre and the school
system, but the only one turned down for pro
duction. Representatives of the Theatre and the
district labeled the material “age inappropriate.”
The audience at the reading clearly dis
agreed. After an extended standing ovation,
supportive comments flowed during a feedback
session with the actors and the young play
wright. One mother, who attended with her
two daughters, observed, “I can’t imagine any
thing inappropriate about it. There isn’t any
difference between lesbian and gay relationships
and heterosexual relationships. This is the
world. This goes on every day.”
The play focuses on the relationship that
blooms between Sarah, who is blind, and Julie,
a romance novelist, after they meet on a bus.
More than a study of their sexuality, the play is
an examination of each woman’s isolation from
the world. There are no lengthy discussions of
See MVES on page 11
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
^ SYLACAUGA, AL—On February 19, Billy
g> Jack Gaither, 39, was lured from a bar and ex-
2 ecuted by two men in Sylacauga, AL, 40 miles
^ southeast of Birmingham. The two killers,
E Charles Monroe Butler, 21, and Steven Eric
T? Mullins, 25, were arrested shortly after the
o murder and confessed to killing Gaither because
Q. “he was a homosexual,” Coosa County Sheriff’s
Deputy A1 Bradley told newspapers.
As reported by The Birmingham News,
Mullins said he called Gaither and asked him
to meet him at a bar. They met and eventually
left together. Authorities told the newspaper
that the men apparently took Gaither to a re
mote location, bludgeoned him to death with
an ax handle, put his body on a stack of tires
and set him on fire.
In statements to local police, both confessed
to planning the crime two weeks in advance.
Apparently, Gaither was able to be lured into
meeting Mullins at the bar because his family
was friendly with Butler’s family. The two al
leged murderers are in Coosa County Jail on
$500,000 bond each.
This grisly execution follows the highly pub
licized murder of gay Lfniversity of Wyoming
student Matthew Shepard last fall, who was also
enticed to leave a bar, was bludgeoned and left
to die tied to a wooden fence outside Laramie.
“The brutality of this crime is evidence of
the pervasive violence and prejudice against gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in our
culture,” said Tracey Conaty, communications
director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force. “It is meaningless to say ‘no’ to hate but
‘yes’ to [discrimination]. The contradiction is
killing us. Anti-gay leaders must not only dis
avow hate violence, but also stop promoting
the prejudice and discrimination that feed it.”
Alabama’s hate crimes law does not cover
sexual orientation. Only 21 states and the Dis
trict of Columbia include sexual orientation-
based crimes in their hate crimes statutes.
In a statement released by the White House,
President Clinton said (in part), “I shate with
many Americans a sense of grief and outrage at
the tragic and violent death of Billy Jack Gaither
in Alabama. This heinous and cowardly crime
touches the conscience of our country, just as
the terrible murders of James Byrd in Texas and
Matthew Shepard in Wyoming did last year.
“In times like this, the American people pull
together and speak with one voice, because the
acts of hatred that led to the deaths of such
innocent men are also acts of defiance against
the values our society holds most dear.
“That is why I will continue to work for
passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act,
which can empower the federal government,
working with local authorities, to do even more
to deter, investigate and help prosecute crimes
of hatred. The legislation would remove need
less jurisdictional requirements and give the De
partment of Justice the power to prosecute hate
crimes committed because of the victim’s sexual
orientation, gender or disability.”
In response to the brutal murder, the moth
ers of two gay men who were also victims of
vicious hate-motivated murders asked that the
Gaither family’s request for privacy be respected
in this time of tragedy.
Mrs. Lois Gaither, mother of the victim, told
See MURDERED on page 11
Proactive initiatives proposed by GLBT think tank
by Tracey Conaty
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC—Leaders of 36 na
tional political GLBT organizations and asso-
clatiqns gathered at the National Policy
Roundtable to develop effective collaborative
initiatives on families issues, research and me
dia. The working session, held February 25-26,
was the fourth semi-annual meeting of the
roundtable convened by the Policy Institute of
the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF).
Urvashi Vaid, director of the Policy Insti
tute, explained, “By building a united force
among our movement’s national political or
ganizations we increase our capacity for imple
menting coordinated proactive strategies and
anticipating emergency situations.”
The families initiative will be a coordinated
organizing campaign among the national
groups to offer strategic support to states fac
ing anti-adoption bills. Across the country, state
legislatures are faced with bills designed to make
adoptions and foster parenting illegal for un
married and gay families and single people. Kate
Kendell, executive director of the National
Center for Lesbian Rights will coordinate with
participants of the National Policy Roundtable
to launch this national organizing campaign.
A research initiative was planned after
roundtable participants identified gaps in re
search and polling about GLBT people, public
sentiment on GLBT rights and the political
right-wing. Rebecca Isaacs, NGLTF’s political
director and Vaid will take the lead in conven
ing a meeting of roundtable participants, think
tanks, academics and public and private sector
researchers to identify studies currently under
way and to develop and pursue a comprehen
sive research agenda.
The creation of a media strategies project
was identified to increase systematic coordina
tion in response to right-wing messages and to
increase the presence of GLBT people of color
in the media. Ann Northrop, ACT UP/New
York member and veteran journalist, and
Joan Garry, executive^ director of the Gay
and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation,
will take the lead in convening a meeting
among public relations and advertising spe
cialists, media activists, communications
directors and roundtable participants. “The
purposes of this collaborative project are
to develop hard-hitting proactive public
education campaigns and to implement
mechanisms to better represent the diver
sity of our communities in the media,” said
Willa Taylor, chair of the Board of the Na
tional Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership
Forum.
National Policy Roundtable partici
pants also began discussions on how the
GLBT movement addresses racism and how to
increase racial diversity in the leadership of the
movement. “People of color GLBT leadership
is thriving in other social justice movements
and at the grassroots level, yet it is missing at
the executive level in the national GLBT move
ment,” said Richard Haymes of the National
Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. “The
next National Policy Roundtable will examine
structural racism and other barriers to national
leadership that exclude people of color and ex
plore how our movement can better address rac-
ism.
At the National Policy Roundtable the di
rectors were joined by leading political analysts
and activists making presentations on four is
sue areas: 1) public sentiment on the right wing.
The purposes of this
collaborative project are to
develop hard-hitting
proactive public education
campaigns and to
implement mechanisms to
better represent the
diversity of our communities
in the media." — Willa Taylor
GLBT rights, and politics; 2) the right-wing’s
recent political mobilizations around family and
race; 3) responding to biblical arguments from
faith-based perspectives; and 4) public educa
tion campaign strategies utilized by other so-
See INITIATIVES on page 11
Local artists will help raise money at “Genesis” circuit party
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE—To help the Metropolitan
Community Church of Charlotte purchase its
new church home, four local artists have agreed
to put a sampling of their work up for bid dur
ing “Genesis/Exodus,” a fundraising circuit
party scheduled for Saturday, March 27.
The pieces will be sold by silent auction
during “Genesis,” the portion of the event to
be held at Founders Hall from 8;00pm-mid-
night. Attendees who are interested in purchas
ing any of the original works will be able to
write their bids on a sheet of paper as they en
ter the building. At the end of the night, the
highest bidder for each piece will be able to
claim their new artwork.
The participating artists are Charlotte Foust;
Kimberlee Garrison; Francisco Gonzales; and
Jo-Ann Pinkney. Here’s a little about each:
Charlotte Foust: Most of Charlotte’s art
work deals with the human figure. She works
intuitively — without sketching or drawing
anything beforehand. This process lends itself
to letting images flow from the unconscious.
She says, “My most recent figures deal with the
outer and inner framework/structure of the
body. The work slowly — painting by painting
— continues to erode the outer shell of the
body, ultimately revealing the inner space of
the figure.”
Kimberlee Garrison: Though she is a Char
lotte native, Kimberlee attended the Savannah
College of Art and Design. She taught art for
10 years before embarking on the never-end
ing story of her “art walk through life.” Over
the years, she has worked in stained glass as a
glazier, created window displays for various
department stores and painted murals in NY.
Francisco Gonzales: As far back as Francisco
can remember, he has been creative and curi
ous. This precociousness led him to try
printmaking — an endeavor that he has im
mersed himself in ever since. He notes, “I have
always looked for ways to express my creative
force and printmaking is one outlet. The col
ors and architecture of my native Mexico in
fluence my work.” Francisco uses a variety of ■
mixed media techniques, including collage,
chine colie and viscosity printing.
Jo-Ann Pinkney: This artist loves diversity.
Her body of work includes oil paintings, mu
rals, air brushing, glass art, sculpture and trdmp
I’oeil. She has taught art for the public school
system and automobile art for Central Pied
mont Community College. Jo-Ann is currently
working on a calendar to commemorate the
millennium and will soon become the freelance
art director for a film animation company.
Let the music play
While party attendees occupy themselves
dancing, greeting friends, bidding on artwork
and generally having a ball, DJ Hex Hector will
be busy cementing his teputation as one of the
top turntable artists in the country.
In New York, he has a devoted following
See GENESIS on page 11