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Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 16, Number 1 • May 26, 2001 • FREE
Massive demonstration in nation’s capitol
marks twentieth year of AIDS crisis
Thousands expected to
participate in historic
march and vigil
by Alan Klein
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC — To mark the
twentieth year of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
and to commemorate the 22 million people
worldwide who have died from the disease, a
massive demonstration and vigil will take
place in our nation’s capital in June. New
AIDS Quilt panels will be dedicated and the
names of men, women and children dead
from AIDS will be read. The demonstration
and vigil will take place at noon on Sunday,
June 3 in Washington, DC.
The reading of the names of people who
have died of AIDS is expected to begin at 7:00
am on Friday, June 1 and continue non-stop,
day and night, until Sunday, June 3 at 3:00 pm.
The group also announced the launch of a
new web site at www.aidsaction20.org. The
site features up-to-the-minute news and in
formation about the march and vigil, with
links to a coalition of more than 100 sponsor
ing organizations.
The event is intended to return national at
tention to the AIDS crisis and to increase ac
cess to life-saving drugs in the industrialized
world and in developing nation. Activists are
calling on the President and Congress to keep
the fight against HIV/AIDS a national and in
ternational priority.
“The third decade of AIDS brings with it a
legacy of 22 million dead, nearly 40 million
people HIV-infected and a devastating increase
in the rate of new HIV transmission,” said Cleve
Jones, spokesperson and founder of the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. “Now
is the time to renew the global struggle against
AIDS with more effective drugs, worldwide
access to those drugs and leadership from our
government and governments worldwide.”
The sponsors are demanding that the United
States and other wealthy nations contribute
sufficiently to fund education campaigns, pro
vide treatment and to find a cure.
On June 25, the United Nations General
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What’s inside...
Widows sex change
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HemeDepot
management adds
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to employment
non-discrimination
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Black and White
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See these aaemore news,
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The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in Washington, DC
Assembly will meet in special session to address
the global HIV crisis and in early July, a G-7
Summit of industrialized nations will focus on
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The national event was initiated by the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt with
the National Minority AIDS Council and the
National Association of People with AIDS. V
The Queen City to host national
Catholic GLBT conference
by Lainey Millen
Q-Notes Staff
CHARLOTTE — On September 20-23,
Charlotte will roll out the lavender carpet when
the Charlotte Diocese welcomes visitors from
across the nation to the annual National Asso
ciation of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay
Ministries (NACDLGM).
Nationally acclaimed preacher and theolo
gian, Fr. Walter J. Burghardt, SJ, St.D, will be
the featured speaker. The conference will utilize
Helms hold schools hostage
by Anabel Evora
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON—Jesse Helms (R), North
Carolina’s senior Senator, proposed an amend
ment May 16 to the public education funding
bill. Activists imme
diately labeled the
amemdment an un
necessary anti-gay
attack. The Helms
amendment would
prohibit federal
funding to schools
that choose not to
offer facilities to Boy
Scout troops because
of their policy ban
ning gay scouts.
But activists also note that the measure is
pointless, because the law already dictates that
the Boy Scouts have equal access to school fa
cilities. “Sadly, the old Jesse Helms is back, us
ing his position of power to bully those with
whom he disagrees,” says HRC Political Ditec-
tor Winnie Stachelberg. “The Boy Scouts have
always had — and still have — access to schools,
so this is really nothing more than a punishment
in search of a problem.”
Local school boards currently have the right
to impose limits on access and use of public
school facilities. The Helms amendment would
force local school boards to abandon these long
standing policies by mandating the creation of
an “open forum” once a school allows any com
munity group to use these facilities.
“The foundation of federal education policy
is based on the principle of local control, and
such decisions should be left to local school
boards,” said Stachelberg. “The Helms amend
ment is clearly a federal intrusion into the de
cisions of local school boards.”
On May 14, Helms was quoted as saying
on the floor of the Senate that “radical mili
tants” were trying to ban the Boy Scouts from
campuses. He also said they [gay activists] “de
mand that everybody else’s principles must be
cast aside in order to protect the right of ho
mosexual conduct.” T
Fr. Burghardfs “Preaching the Just Word” min
istry as its central theme. Fr. Burghardt is pro
fessor emeritus of theology at Catholic Univer
sity of America and was former editor-in-chief
of Theological Studies. He has authored 19 books,
the latest being Long Have I Loved You: A Theo
logian Reflects on his Church. Fr. Burghardt will
speak to the conference on the unification of
scripture, spirituality and justice.
Other speakers will include Rev. Raymond
B. Kemp, STL; Keith J. Egan, PhD; and the
Right Reverend J. Augustine DiNoia, OP, STM.
Rev. Kemp is a graduate of St. Mary’s Semi
nary and University, former pastor of the Afri
can-American St. Augustine Parish and Holy
Comforter-St. Cyprian Parish in Washington,
DC, current coordinator of “Preaching the Just
Word,” and adjunct faculty member at Wash
ington Theological Union and Georgetown
University.
Fr. Egan holds the Aquinas Chair in Catho
lic Theology at St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame
and also serves as founder and director for the
college’s Center for Spirituality. He also holds a
doctorate in Religious Thought from Cambridge
University, England. A past president of the
College ofTheology Society, he is coauthor with
Professor Lawrence Cunningham of Christian
Spirituality: Themes from the Tradition.
Dr. Egan will lead attendees in meditations,
along with sharing spirituality as a vehicle for
friendship with the Divine and with others.
Rev. DiNoia previously served as executive
director of the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pas
toral Practices of the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops and in 1997, Pope John Paul
II appointed him to the International Theo
logical Commission. He is a member of the
See NACDLGM on Page 19