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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 15, Number 12 • October 28, 2000 • FREE
SC Gay and Lesbian Pride events
rescheduled for December
by Scott Rickert
Special to Q-Notes
FLORENCE, SC — The South Carolina
Gay & Lesbian Pride Movement (SCGLPM)
has announced that SC Pride 2000 will be held
December 1 - 2 in Florence. The events were
originally slated for the weekend of October
21, but had to be postponed because of time
considerations and legal issues surrounding the
chosen venue.
The weekend will kick off with a Black Tie
Dinner on December 1, to be held at the
Ramada Inn. Cost is $100 per person or $150
per couple. Formal attire is required and tick
ets will be sold on a first come basis. Seating is
limited to 100 people.
Then on December 2, a Statewide Network
ing Conference will provide an excellent op
portunity for exchanging of ideas, meeting the
Board of SCGLPM, training and networking
with other organizations in the Palmetto State.
Pride will also include a fundraiser for Camp
for Kids and the Saturday night Miss Pride Pag
eant.
The host hotel will be the Ramada Inn on
Highway 52 in Florence, which is offering
rooms for the event at $49.00 per night.
To encourage greater participation,
SCGLPM has announced the creation of Re
gional Chapters. SCGLPM is divided into the
following Regions for more localized organiza
tion and representation. Regions are: Central
Region, Piedmont Region, Pee Dee Region and
the Costal Region. The first Region to actu
ally form a Chapter is the Pee Dee Region. A
group of very active people have formed a
Chapter and are already planning events and
holding regularly monthly meetings. The Pee
Dee Chapter meets the first Sunday of Every
Month at various locations.
If you are interested in participating as a
volunteer. or being a vendor for the event, email
info@scglpm.org. To keep current on the lat
est SC Pride News, visit www.scglpm.otg. V
Outed TG officer is out of a job in
Cumberland County
by Clay Ollis
Q-Notes Staff
FAYETTEVILLE, NC — Cumberland
County Sheriffs Deputy Richard K. Sylvestri
was forced to resign after years of dedicated ser
vice when the department
learned Sylvestri spends off
hours living as a woman.
According to Sylvestri,
who is known in the
transgender community as
Kathy Louise, Cumberland
County Sheriff Earl Butler
offered the deputy the choice
of resigning or facing a full
internal affairs investigation.
After initially refusing to re
sign, Sylvestri later submit
ted tht resignation in order
to protect family, friends and
associates from a “witch
hunt.”
Captain Van Parks noti
fied Sylvestri of the depart
mental investigation. Ac
cording to the memo, viola
tions included “making pub
lic your transgender lifestyle,
how that admitted lifestyle
affects your ability to per
form your duties as a Deputy
Sheriff and to interact with
your co-workers, and the
public perception of any ap
parent endorsement by the
Sheriff’s Office of such a
lifestyle.” The memo also
charges that the deputy “participated in occa
sions where one or more children were involved
in or exposed to this transgender lifestyle and
... failed to take appropriate action as a Deputy
Sheriff” Sylvestri was also cited for violating
an order not to wear earring studs to work.
Sylvestri says ones personal life shouldn’t
concern the Sheriff’s Department. “I didn’t
bring it to work.” Sylvestri told the Fayetteville
Observer. “I’ve gotten a lot of support from a
lot of officers. I was good at what I did. 1 did
my job. The accusation was that I was not do
ing my job, and that’s baloney. 1 want my job
back.” Deputy Sylvestri worked as a training
officer.
Sylvestri believes some
one told the Sheriff’s office
that Richard could be found
at the Cross Creek Girls
Club, a web site providing
outreach and support to lo
cal transgender folk.
Another web site tells the
personal story of Richard/
Kathy Louise and features
photos of Kathy Louise in
casual and evening dress as
well as pictures of her on a
shopping trip to secondhand
clothing stores.
Before going to work for
the Sheriff’s'Department,
Sylvestri was a paratrooper,
retiring from the Army after
20 years. The officer has
been in law enforcement for
14 years. Sylvestri was mar
ried for 25 years and has two
grown sons, who know all
about Kathy Louise.
Sylvestri’s wife, who
learned of Kathy Louise
shortly after their marriage,
was shocked at first, but later
came to help Kathy pick out
clothes and do her hair.
Eventtially, though, Mrs. Sylvestri grew uncom
fortable with Kathy Louise going out in pub
lic. The relationship soured and the couple sepa
rated. Their divorce became final just days be
fore the officer’s termination.
Since living alone, Kathy Louise comes out
more often, including most days after work.
“On weekends, when I meet with friends, I go
See TRANSGENDER on page 25
Crime rate drops, but FBI report
shows increase in GLBT hate crimes
by David M. Smith
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC — New FBI statis
tics show an increase in reported hate crimes
based on sexual orientation. On October 15,
the FBI released the Uniform Crime Reports
for 1999, the latest year for which statistics arc
available.
As overall serious crime continued to de
crease for the eighth consecutive year, hate
crimes based on sexual orientation have con
tinued to rise and increased 4.5 percent from
1998 to 1999.
Reported hate crime incidents based on
sexual orientation have more than tripled since
the FBI began collecting statistics in 1991; com
prising I6.7percent of all hate crimes for 1999
at 1317. Hate crimes based on sexual orienta
tion continue to make up the third highest cat
egory after race and religion, which make up
54.5 and 17.9 percent, respectively of the to
tal, 7876.
It is widely believed that hate crimes based
on sexual orientation are generally under-re-
ported, and evidence indicates that FBI data
does not paint the whole picture. The National
Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
(NCAVP), a private organization that tracks
bias incidents against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people, reported 1965 incidents in
1999 in only 25 cities/jurisdictions across the
country while the FBI collected statistics from
12,122 reporting agencies for the year.
These disturbing statistics come only days
after Republican Presidental CandidatcGcorge
W. Bu.sh misinformed debate viewers about his
stance on hate crimes legislation, saying that
Texas had an effective hate crimes law. Although
Texas has had a weak penalty enhancement stat
ute since 1993, it does not cover sexual orien
tation. Legislation was introduced in 1998 that
would strengthen the existing state law, while
also adding sexual orientation. Bush opposed
this bill because it protected gay and lesbian
Texans, even after the family of African-Ameri
can hate crimes victim James Byrd Jr., of Jasper
Texas, asked him to support it. Bush said he
supported a federal hate crimes bill put forth
by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. But this version
docs not include sexual orientation.
“These unprecedented numbers indicate
that somewhere in America every day at least
three gay and lesbian Americans are being tar
geted for a crime just because they are gay,”
said Human Rights Campaign Political Direc
tor Winnie Stachelberg. “People continue to die
and American families continue to be torn apart
while Bush anef the GOP leadership pretend
these types of crime do not exist.”
While the statistics are alarming, the need
for better federal hate crimes legislation is made
See FBI on page 10
j ^ Ti 11 1 know anyone who has been through an “ex-gay" program?
IdtCSt K^^xOll results Yes, successfully - 0% Yes, unsuccessfully - 6% I don’t know of anyone - 96%
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