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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 15, Number 5 • July 22, 2000 • FREE
Confederate “Stepdaughters
99
protest battle flag in Columbia
by Charlie Smith
Special to Q-Notes
COLUMBIA, SC—South Carolina’s debate
over the Confederate battle flag took a turn
toward the downright outrageous on July 1 as
a group of about 15 gay and straight support
ers of the South Carolina Progressive Network
donned what they called “White Trash Drag”
on the Statehouse grounds and performed what
social justice advocate Tom Turnipseed labeled,
“The best political satire I’ve ever seen!”
Calling themselves the Stepdaughters of the
Confederacy, these 15 or so “women” of the
South — with names like Dixie Whitebread,
Lois Carmen DeNominator, Shalla Jean Pool,
Eileen Wayright, Ima White Ravenel,.!. Emma
Throwback and Vanna Very White — arrived
at the ceremony for the relocation of the Con
federate battle flag piled onto the backs of two
pick-up trucks. They sported signs that read
“If you get a divorce in SC are you still brother
and sister?” and “Hate is a family value,” among
others.
“Hello, we’re really embarrassed to be here,”
said Shalla Jean Pool. “The problem in this state
is that we got too many of the wrong people
votin’” said Eilene Wayright to chants of “poll
tax, poll tax!” from her supporters.
Her comments were followed by a rousing
rendition of the 1953 Tom Lehrer tune “I
Wanna Go Back to Dixie” sung by Miss Lois
Carmen DeNominator. This song has only
rarely been heard in public, and probably never
in SC — and certainly never like this!
Miss DeNominator had high praise for some
local politicians who have supported the Con
federate battle flag, especially Republican Rep.
John Graham Altman and Republican Sen.
Glenn McConnell, both of Charleston.
“When we was tryin’ to pass our education
bill last year to keep liquor out of public
schools, it was John Graham Altman what come
up with the idea to raise the drinkin’ age to
32!” Senator McConnell, who had said on Fri
day that he would not attend the ceremony
because of planned “protests,” was unsuccess
fully called to the microphone several times with.
“Where are ya, Glenn? Aren’t ya here?” and
“Wonder if the boys at Ft. Johnson ran that
fast!”
The Stepdaughters ended their program by
erecting their own monument to the 112th
General Assembly on the Statehouse grounds:
a seven-foot-tall “Lawn Jockey”which was given
to commemorate the cultural and racial insen
sitivity of the legislators. It is a fitting tribute,
they said, to a state government that would raise
See FLAG on page 5
Miss Lois Carmen DeNominator
Coca-Cola adds DP health benefits
by Anabel Evora
Special to Q-Notes
ATLANTA—The Coca-Gola Company an
nounced June 22 that it plans to extend health'
care benefits to same-sex domestic partners of
its US-based employees. The benefits will be
gin January 1, 2001, and employees will be able
to sign up during the fall benefits-enrollment
period. The company also said it is researching
the possibility of implementing the policy glo
bally.
“This is excellent news, and yet another sign
that domestic partner benefits are becoming a
standard component of benefit's packages at
forward-thinking companies,” said Kim Mills,
education director of the Human Rights Cam
paign (HRC) and overseer of WorkNet, HRC’s
workplace project. “With this announcement.
Coke becomes the 99th member of the For
tune 500 to take this important step.”
HRC and its business council have been
working with Coca-Cola and KOLAGE, its
lesbian and gay employee resource group, for
many months on this issue. Mills said. HRC
WorkNet provided data, strategy and other
advice as needed.
“Our company is committed to attracting
See COKE on page 5
VT civil unions law takes effect,
putting fairness in full swing
by Peg Byron
Special to Q-Notes
BRATTLEBORO, VT—In the first few
minutes of July 1, the'town of Brattleboro made
history by issuing the state’s first civil union li
cense to Kathleen Peterson, 41, and Carolyn
Conrad, 29. The license, and the ceremony
•which followed, give Peterson’s and Conrad’s
five-year relationship legal recognition. As about
a dozen protestors looked on. Justice of the
Peace T. Hunter Wilson told the couple, “By
the powers vested in me by the State of Ver
mont, I join you in civil union.”
The State of Vermont set an historic bench
mark for the recognition of lesbian and gay
families, extending to same-sex couples nearly
all the rights, protections, and obligations of
marriage. Starting July 1, gay couples in Ver
mont are able to apply for a civil union, a par
allel institution to civil matriage. Civil unions
provide protections in inheritance and prop
erty division, child custody and visitation, fam
ily leave, state tax advantages and other benefits
of marriage under state law.
Like those planning marriage, couples seek
ing a civil union must receive a license, while
dissolution proceedings will be handled in di
vorce court. The law exceeds even Hawaii’s cur
rent Reciprocal Beneficiaries legislation, as well
as all domestic partnership programs.
“Through this law, Vermont becomes a pio
neer for families and equality. Americans will
see that as lesbians and gay men are given ac
cess to most of the rights and obligations of
civil marriage, the sky will not fall and the in
stitution of marriage will be even stronger,” said
Evan Wolfson, director of Lambda Legal De
fense and Education Fund’s Marriage Project,
and a leader in the nationwide effort to secure
the freedom to marry for gay couples.
He added, “The majority of Americans to
day believe that gay and lesbian people will win
the freedom to marry. That gives hope that
those same-sex couples who ate civilly united
someday soon will be treated as fully equal,
which means one line at the marriage bureau,
rather than two.”
In April, the Vermont legislature passed the
“Act Relating to Civil Unions” which extends
to gay couples the effect of every state law, regu
lation, and court precedent that applies to mar
ried couples. The legislation was in response to
a ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court in
Baker v. Vermont vA\\cYi last December held that
the state was constitutionally obligated to treat
gay couples equally.
For the purposes of state law, Vermont
spouses in a civil union will enjoy the same state-
level protections and responsibilities available
to spouses in a civil marriage. Couples from
outside Vermont also will have a valid civil
union, although it is unclear how their home
states or the private sector will treat their civil
Lambda Legal Director Beatrice Dohrn said,
“We hope many states will follow Vermont’s
lead by recognizing these civil unions and es
tablishing their own civil union laws. Even the
more than 30 states which have disctiminatory
marriage laws are not exempt from recognizing
either the civil unions or the spouses’ familial
relationships.” She added, “For complete secu
rity, couples in a civil union should continue
maintaining wills, powers of attorney, health
care proxies, parenting agreements, and other
legal documents to safeguard their family.” T
[Additional reporting by Dan Van Mourik,
Q-Notes staff writer.]
\lctim of anti-gay murder
remembered at candlelight vigil
Officials increasingly
convinced that hate
was a factor in slaying
by Anabel Evora
Special to Q-Notes
GRANT TOWN, WV—A black, gay man
who police say was beaten to death, then re
peatedly run over with a car by two teenagers
was remembered at a July 11 candlelight vigil
organized by the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC). Arthur Warren Jr., 26, was found on
state Route 17, the spot where investigators say
his 17-year-old killers, both white, dumped him
and staged a hit-and-run. HRC called on local
law enforcement officials to thoroughly inves
tigate the murder as a hate crime.
“After spending several days in West Virginia
talking to people who knew Arthur, we believe
that racial and anti-gay prejudice played a role
in his death,” said HRC Communications Di
rector David M. Smith.
“We urge local officials to thoroughly in
vestigate and prosecute this case to complete
justice,” said HRC Constituent Field Organizer
Donna Payne at the vigil. “We must find out
why this happened in order to keep it from ever
happening again.”
Marion County (WV) Sheriff Ron Watkins
and Prosecutor G. Richard Bunner have failed
to adequately explain why they are refusing to
consider hate as a motive in the Grant Town
incident. Smith noted.
,The candlelight vigil took place at the
county’s community courthouse in Fairmont,
WV. HRC h.as dispatched three staff members
to assess the situation and to offer assistance to
the local community. They are Smith, Deputy
Field Director Liz Seaton and Payne who works
with people of color and faith communities.
The vigil was picketed by Westboro Baptist
Church, a Topeka, KS-based anti-gay group led
by the Rev. Fred Phelps, who also picketed the
funeral of Matthew Shepard. Phelps told The
Charleston Gazette in a July 10 news article,
“Every time they kill a young fag, the homo
sexual groups try to make a cause ceRbre out
of it.”
Warren, whose body was found July 4, had
left his parents’ house the previous day and
walked across town to a vacant house where
the two boys beat and kicked him to death,
according to local law enforcement officials.
After putting Warren’s body into the trunk of a
car, the two teens drove a mile east of Grant
Town, laid his body on the ground and then
drove over it several times in an attempt to stage
a hit-and-run accident.
The alleged perpetrators later burned their
bloody clothes, the officials said. A 16-year-old
boy who witnessed the murder confessed to his
mother and to the police that he had seen the
killing and helped the other boys clean up the
crime scene, officials said.
The alleged perpetrators have been charged
with first-degree murder, according to Chip
See VIGIL on page 21