The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper
The Latest Q^POLL Results
If the 1999 NC Pride Celebration was the last
one to be held, how would that impact the gay
community?
Severely
64'"“
Only Slightly
23“"“
Not At All
13”"“
Vote at www.q-notes.com
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 14, Number 3 • June 26, 1999 • FREE
North and South Carolinians come
out for annual Pride celebrations
by David Stout
Q-Notes Staff
COLUMBIA, GREENSBORO—This
year’s annual Pride festivities in North and
South Carolina shared many typical elements
— families, floats and parade queens among
them — but they also shared one unique com
ponent for the first time: a weekend.
Over a blistering June 12 and 13, GLBT
community members and straight-but-not-nar-
row supporters from each state gathered for one
and then the other March
to celebrate themselves
and press for legislation
on issues ranging from
hate crimes to employ
ment protections.
In Columbia, leaders
from the South Carolina
Gay and Lesbian Pride
Movement (GLPM)
kicked off their 10 th an
nual March on Saturday,
leading approximately
1000 folks from the
grounds of the historic
Hampton-Preston Man
sion to the State House at
the end of Main St.
Once there, the crowd
heard from several impas
sioned speakers including
Morris Dees, Jr., co
founder of the Alabama-based Southern Pov
erty Law Center, a legal firm that focuses on
civil rights cases and has represented a number
of gay and lesbian clients. Dees dedicated his
appearance to the memory of Billy Jack Gaither,
an Alabama native who was brutally murdered
earlier this year because of his sexual orienta
tion.
Linda Ketner at SC Pride
Robertson assaulted on three fronts
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—The Bank
of Scotland and televangelist Pat Robertson
entered into a business partnership whereby the
bank would oflPer its services in the United States
through Robertson Financial Services over
Robertson’s Chtistian Broadcasting Network.
The joint venture would have enabled the bank
to reach 55 million viewers at little cost and
could have doubled the bank’s customer base
to 10 million.
However, the deal has gone sour. The Bank
of Scotland has now agreed to pay Robertson
up to $10 million to pull out of the venture.
Uproar over the deal, announced three
months ago, was nearly instantaneous,
prompted by Robertson’s forthright views on
homosexuality, liberals and family values. Pro
testers handcuffed themselves to the bank’s
Clinton appoints Hormel as Hrst
ever openly-gay ambassador
by Dan Van Mourik
Q-Notes Staff
WASHINGTON, DC—On Friday, June 4,
President Clinton used the authority granted
him under a provision of the Constitution to
appoint openly-gay San Francisco philanthro
pist James Hormel to the temporary post of
Ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel becomes
the first openly-gay ambassador in US history.
Defying Senate Republican leaders, Clinton
gave Hormel a “recess appointment,” bypass
ing the normal requirement for Senate confir
mation, while the Senate was on a 10-day Me
morial Day recess. The process is rarely used
for high-profile appointments since it gener
ally annoys senators who value their confirma
tion prerogatives. And Clinton has used the
Additional rally speakers were Linda Ketner,
president of the Alliance For Full Acceptance;
Tracey St. Pierre, Senior Policy Advocate at the
Human Rights Cam
paign; Don Davis, board
member of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task
Force; and Angie Wilson,
president of the gay stu
dents’ group at use.
This was the first time
in three years that Pride
was held in Columbia
and in marked contrast to
previous years — when
the sidewalk in front of
the state house seemed to
overflow with ultracon
servative Christians —
only a few anti-gay pro
testors were present.
GLPM Secretary
Harriet Hancock attrib
uted the change to an in
creasing climate of under-
' ni^
faiTTH ^ V
C*WB«AT1M8
r«S£ 'S9
GLBT youth from Winston-Salem display their Pride in the NC March
standing. “Are gays and lesbians in South Caro
lina better off than they were 10 years ago?
Absolutely. Are people in South Carolina more
accepting of gays and lesbians? Yes. Ten years
ago, there were probably a lot of people living
in the closet, but I think a lot more people feel
comfortable coming out now that they have a
support system behind them.”
GLPM President Tony Snell echoed that
opinion. “We’re setting an example for the en
tire state,” he said.
A second helping of Pride
The only major North Carolina city to never
host the state’s Pride March rectified the situa
tion Sunday when a diverse throng estimated
at 3000 took to the streets for a rousing one-
mile trip around the block.
The parade began and ended at Phill G.
McDondd Plaza, a green oasis in the midst of
a concrete desert. At the pre-March rally, the
crowd cheered as Greensboro Mayor Carolyn
Allen presented a city proclamation acknowl
edging the contributions of the local GLBT
community; a life-sized Tinky Winky exclaimed
“I Am What I Am” to a disco beat — and with
out apology; and area female impersonators
performed camp and dance routines.
After completing the loop, patticipants
planted themselves unde- shade trees for an
other round of speakers-and performances.
See PRIDE on page 20
Edinburgh headquarters, church leaders com
plained and councils and charities threatened
to close their accounts.
The final straw came when Robertson de-
■ nounced Scotland as a “dark place,” inhabited
by gays. “In Scotland you can’t believe how
strong the homosexuals are,” he said in one of
his television programs. “It’s just unbelievable.”
The decision to abort the project came after
six hours of talks between the two sides. The
bank said that it would buy out Robertson Fi
nancial Services, part of the multi-millionaire’s
business empire.
The sum involved is estimated at between
$5 and $10 million. Robertson will effectively
get his money back, but the payment does not
constitute compensation.
A joint statement from Robertson and the
bank said that “changed external circumstances
See ROBERTSON on page 8
Apuzzo leaves White
House for gay think tank
provision judiciously, having made only 57 such
appointments in his 6 1/2 years in office, com
pared to Reagan’s 239 in eight years and Presi
dent Bush’s 78 in four years.
Hormel will be able to serve until January
3,2001. A recess appointment is effective with
out Senate confirmation until the end of the
next session of Congress.
“This is a clearly qualified ambassadorial
candidate who enjoyed strong support from the
foreign policy community,” said White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart. “This came down to
a couple of senators who thought that he
shouldn’t be ambassador to Luxembourg be
cause he’s gay. And the president thinks that’s
wrong and discriminatory and that’s why he
See HORMEL on page 20
by Betsy Gressler
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON,
DC—The National
,. . _ Gay and Lesbian Task
Force’s (NGLTF)
Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to re
search, policy analysis and strategic projects, has
announced that Virginia Apuzzo, the Clinton
Administration’s highest ranking lesbian offi
cial, is resigning her White House duties to
accept a position with the Institute in New York.
The Policy Institute’s Virginia Apuzzo Chair
for Leadership in Public Policy is the first en
dowed chair to be created by the think tank of
NGLTF, the nation’s oldest GLBT advocacy
organization. Apuzzo will join the Policy Insti
tute staff as the first holder of the Apuzzo Chair
on September 7. The move returns her to an
organization she served as both board leader
and executive director in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Apuzzo Chair is designed to recognize
leaders with a distinguished record of service
on behalf of the GLBT communities. During
Apuzzo’s tenure at the Policy Institute, she will
serve as a senior movement strategist, write and
lecture on a wide range of issues, and steer sev
eral specific projects to increase support for
GLBT equality in both the public and private
sector. Drawing on her experiences in the Wliite
House and her many years of public service,
she will bring activists, policy makers and aca
demics together to develop new strategies and
to broaden support for GLBT equality.
“The Apuzzo Chair creates a capacity long
missing in our national gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender movement — the capacity to
tap the wisdom of innovative leaders and har
ness their experience to strategically help our
movement succeed,” said Kerry Lobel, execu
tive director of NGLTF.
Lobel noted that with Apuzzo’s addition, the
Policy Instute houses some of the most seasoned
and distinguished strategists in the GLBT
movement. They include Institute Director
Urvashi Vaid, Senior Fellow Dave Fleischer,
/^ing and Religion Initiative consultant Ken
South, and Senior Fellow and Institute Founder
John D’Emilio.
Virginia Apuzzo is a long-time leader and
innovator in the GLBT movement. A former
educator and ex-nun, Apuzzo held the position
of Assistant to the President for Administra
tion and Management from 1997-1999, mak
ing her the highest ranking openly-gay official
in the Administration. Prior to this, she served
as Associate Deputy Secretary of the Depart
ment of Labor. She is former Commissioner of
the New York State Civil Service Commission
and former President of the State Department
of Civil Service.
In 1980, as an openly-lesbian delegate to the
Democratic National Convention, Apuzzo co
authored the first gay and lesbian civil rights
plank of a major political party. As executive
director of NGLTF from 1982-1986, Apuzzo
testified at the first congressional hearings on
AIDS and spearheaded the community’s re
sponse to HIV/AIDS policy on the federal level.
In addition, Apuzzo initiated the first national
anti-violence work in the GLBT movement and
helped develop the first anti-violence projects
in San Francisco and New York. Throughout
the 1980s, she was an outspoken advocate for
a progressive and inclusive HIV policy at the
national and state level.
“Creating change is about matching ideas
with a strategy that will ensure their success,”
Apuzzo observed. “As our movement grows
larger, the traditional pursuit of access and vis
ibility are no longer enough. We need to move
from access to responsiveness and from visibil
ity to full participation. We must not just think,
but do.” ▼