1986
[The Carolina’s Most Comprehensive Gay 5 Lesbian Newspaper
wwv/.q-notes.com
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume
Political
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of the Past
coverage.
Number
November 10,
Hear ‘GrouiulIero"neitijf
oftlietenoilstattackson
iheWorfirnaifeCenteis
9-im
"Mew York Impressions ”
page 9
inside:
Montreal awarded
2006 Gay Gaines 4
Contacting deployed
gay/lesbian partners 8
ONC-Charlotte
PRIDE history 10
Salvation Ariiiy offers
partner benefits in
Western division 12
Enoaiity NC
Action Alert 12
NYC Pride Agenda
re-directs Red Cross 14
Pres. Ford believes in
fed benefits for all 24
Democrats appoint
lesbian and gay as
AMarge members 29
FuPinifexonpagee
Take ne latest Q-Pall;
Would you accept coutributions
fromCoorsP..
Coors’ advertising dollarsP
•YEStoboth
•YES, contribution/
NO, advertising
•YES,adverdslng/
NO,contribiitions
•NO to both
The Q-Poll is online at:
www.a-notes.Gom
10-27 Q-Poll results: pg30
What gives at the Adolph Coors and the (quite
conservative) Casderock foundations?
by Jen Christensen
Exclusive to Q-Notes
The success of last year’s Charlotte Pride Fes
tival rested in part, on what twenty years ago
' would have been an untouchable funding source.
Charlotte Pride, like many other regional and
national gay and lesbian groups, got financial help
from the Denver-based Coors Brewing Company.
But it was only until recently that some commu
nity activist edged off their fierce boycott of Coors
products, started over alleged discriminatory
company practices. As the company now tries to
win back LGBT support, some activists wonder
if it’s good politics to take Coors money
“We at the Gill Foundation believe gay and
lesbian groups should establish policies around
accepting gifts,” said Donna Redwing, an orga
nizer with the gay-supportive granting agency
the Gill Foundation. Redwing was just in
Charlotte trying to teach local gay and les
bian groups successful fundraising techniques.
“That way when these groups are faced with
a provocative gift like Coors, they can respond
in an appropriate way”
Coors Brewing Company is now consid
ered one of the most progressive companies
when it comes to gay and lesbian issues, but
it wasn,t always that way.
“Drama, drama, drama,” said Bob Witek
whose firm does LGBT targeted public rela
tions for Coors. “Coors has seen a lot of drama :
over the years from the gay community.” ^
In 1977, gays and lesbians across America
began boycotting Coors products to protest
the Coors, discriminatory treatment of its gay
and lesbian workers and to protest the Coors fam
ily members, financial and public support of right
wing groups. High profile gays and lesbians like
Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected
to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors led the
charge against the company
The November issue of the gay and lesbian
magazine. The Advocate, said that this boycott
was the first time gay economic power had an
an Cammonluealtlj
Townhome Style Condominiums
The art of avini
getting and mai
by Leah D. Sepsenwol
Editor
People’s names get on buildings in one of
two ways. They put it there themselves —
Trump comes to mind; or someone else puts it
there to honor lives of selfless contribution —
Blumenthal comes to mind. Trump built tow
ers. Blumenthal funded foundations.
Herman Blumenthal’s generosity flowed
from a compassionate, ethical core: parental
example, Torah precepts, his own appreciation
of opportunity, sense of right, search for jus
tice, which shaped the breadth and vision of
his philanthropy.
No limelight. Just light. No hoopla. Just
hope. He made us understand that giving was
less about money and far more about everyone’s
obligation to do good with whatever we pos
sessed. He did plenty.
Andrew Reyes gave plenty. He left us with
questions. He took all the answers.
“He did such good.” “He worked so hard.”
“He gave so much.” “You just don’t know.” “He
was a good man.” True enough.
True also: twelve years before all this, he was
bankrupt. No crime. But getting a second so
cial security number ... instead of opting to
do whatever it took to build renewed fiscal
trust, that’s troublesome. Did he leave here for
the same reason he left there — to finally get
out from under.’
For all he gave, he got. His giving was pri
marily public, predominantly political and cap-
effect on a company. Profits were down slightly,
and well into the 1990’s customers would be hard
pressed to find a Coors, Coors Light, or a Zima
served in a gay or lesbian bar.
, “Coors back in the 70’s, had been anti-orga
nized labor,” said Witec. “But the company be
gan to put steps in place to pre
vent discrimination
ARE THEY FOR
OR AGAINST US?
tIHE ANSWER IS
riU "YES.*'
with a different kind of company management.”
The new management paid off, at least where
the LGBT community is concerned. In 1995,
V Management, a gay social investment com
pany, ranked Coors as one of the top 20 com
panies for gays and lesbians. And in January
2000, POZ Magazine listed Coors as one of the
nation,s top 25 employers with the most en
lightened policies towards employees with HIV
and AIDS.
Coors gets these awards because they have put
specific company policies in place that makes
LGBT discrimination at their company difficult.
* In 1978, Coors became one of the first com
panies to offer its employees a non-discrimination
policy, which included sexual orientation.
* In 1993, Coors, gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgendered employees formed an employee
resource group called LAGER. The group con
tinues to have management support and com
pany funding.
* In 1995, by an unanimous vote by its board,
Coors became the first national brewing com
pany to offer same-sex domestic partner benefits.
* And currently, the company mandates a sen
sitivity training, which includes gay and lesbian
concerns for all its employees.
The company has gone even further than
company policies to solicit the gay
community’s support. According to
spokesperson Witec, in the last decade
Coors has given over a million dol
lars to gay community and AIDS-re
lated non-profits throughout the
United States.
Columbia, South Carolina’s Gay Pride
Week, Atlanta’s Hotlanta River Expo and Armory
Softball Classic even the IGBO International Gay
Bowling Organization are just a few LGBT
groups the region to receive Coors, money. At
the national level, they,ve given thousands to
groups like the Human Rights Campaign, the
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD), and the Parents, Families and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
In Charlotte, the Pride committee received a
$5,000 check from Coors. According to former
board member, Kevin Washburn, this made
Coors one of Pride’s largest sponsors. Through
the local distributor, Cunningham Wholesale,
Coors saved the organization thousands of addi
tional dollars providing the beer
See COORS on page 11
>e even gettmg
tured in pictures by his own hired photogra
pher who chronicled the famous with Reyes
—mounted and framed and mounted again
on what he called his “wall of fame.”
Other giving was secret, kind of anony
mous, albeit very generous, but alas, perhaps
illegal. What to make of frenzied, allegedly-
fraudulent finagling of candidate financing,
bypassing the legal limits of campaign contri
bution? We won’t know. Unless Reyes tells us.
Church groups to chorus groups sang his
praise. He helped. He lifted. He pledged. He
delivered ... until recently: Great Aunt Stella
never got her $10,000.
Employer Doug King (who died in a mo
torcycle crash) trusted Andrew as friend and
accountant, he told his daughter so. Perhaps
King had authorized the otherwise-secret, sec-
ond checking account and knew of the
$426,000 Andrew paid himself, $891,000 to
Andrew’s businesses, the $300,000 for
Andrew’s favorite democrats, local, state and
national. And perhaps King knew also of two
six-figure dividend checks to Andrew’s ex.
Butch, a banker. What does he know? His law
yer won’t tell us. We’ll have to ask Reyes.
Had King not died suddenly, there would
be no family fighting, no FBI prying and all
King’s documents and all King’s money would
still be accounted by Reyes.
No one knew the promises would become
empty, maybe not even Andrew. The small
places where so little goes so far to so many —
iving and
in all of this — pity the struggling non-profits
whose coffers were boosted and futures bol
stered by the promise of more from the disap
peared donor. These folks who miraculously
stretch dollars as thin as strudel dough, deserve
all we can do to help them keep going. We
don’t know who you all are. Please tell us.
As for the larger beneficiaries of Reyes’ lar
gesse — $50,000 to the Democratic National
Committee in one check in one day, for ex
ample, imagine their quandary. Of course, it’s
in escrow, no? We’ll never know. They’ll never
tell us.
Everyone still wants the hero to be real and
the reality to be perfect. We still want so to
believe, despite the “if it seems too good to be
true ...” adage relentlessly interrupting our
good, kind thoughts.
Andrew Reyes, “our boy” of the LGBT com
munity Andrew Reyes, honored man among
Latino brethren. Andrew Reyes, cheered Chair
of the Democratic Party. Andrew Reyes, part
ner and Andrew Reyes, friend. You are cham
pion and lesson for us all.
We have learned to accept rather than take,
understanding it is responsibility which sepa
rates the two.
And it is the way we give away, from which
place inside us, and how much of ourselves we
give along with it that really matters: this be
comes legacy —or not— when we leave or
when we’re gone.
Andrew, we care, we are worried, call us.