iF-at' Tnclo'?! 13
columna nueva en espanol
INSIDE
Helping Hands: salons
raise $$ for AIDS. Nov 24 4
The Community Center
hosts its 2nd annual
“Giving Thanks”potiuck 8
Common Woman Chorus
Holiday Event: Nov. 23 9
Women In The Life start
new non-profit group 12
Did anybody even read it?!
reknown author GrimsIey
has a justified gripe 35
South Carolina 29
New Column:
by Ed Madden
Q-POLL
www.q-notes.com
ffynij nwn nun,
friifrir...
. sport. collecting
. protection
. sport & protection
. don’t own a gun
Q*POLL RESULTS • 34
VOLUME 17 . ISSUE 13
WWW. q-NOTES. COM
Jesse Helms' outing party was pure MAJIC
CHARLOTTE — Jesse Helms’ official
retirement party tooi place at Velocity this
past Saturday night —’’FINALLY OUT" was
hosted by the Human Rights Campaign. It
was a different crowd at Velocity from 8-10
pm. There were lots of women, lots of
couples, lots of
graying hair,
receding
hairlines; lots
of talk, and
lots of ...
cake to
accompany
libation!
Everyone had
oppor-tunity
to sign a
large
“FINALLY
OUT”
banner
which will
go to
Senator No.
No need for
an exit poll
here. No question how happy the ending.
No one could help remembering
horrendous Helms moments when he spat on
MAJIC Moms LR: Eloise
Vaughn and Palsy Clarke
and on about homosexuals and blacks and
the poor. He doesn’t deserve more than this
mere mention of all we want to forget, but
force ourselves to remember his loathing that
it may never be repeated.
The night really belonged, not to Jesse, but
to MAJIC — Mothers Against Jesse In
Congress — who since 1996 have railed and
rallied against him. TWo conservative moms,
to honor their dead gay sons, have shown a
nation how to love their children, how to
accept them, how to keep them whole.
Patsy Clarke, connservative, wrote a letter
in 1994 Helms describing her son on his
deathbed, hoping Helms would stop his
vicious, volatile homophobic attacks.
He did not. And then MAJIC appeared.
Saturdy night, Patsy and Eloise wrote him
another letter...
Dear Jesse,
It has been over six years since we last wrote
you a letter. At that time I remonstrated with
you about your stand on human rights ... in
particular, the way you view the gay
see MAJIC on 26
Gaston Gazette forced into acceptance
GASTONIA, NC— Earthshaking news. The
Gaston Gazette will accept photographs and
announcement of same-sex civil unions and
comittment ceremonies.
That’s because its publisher, Duane K.
McAlliseter, was forced to recant and retreat
from his initial refusal to do so by the paper’s
owner. Freedom Communication.
He said he “was only the publisher” and
not the owner — and that policy came from
on high, his bosses, at Freedom
Communication. He said he had joined the
company because of its values and fair-
minded positions.
it was still clear that, had he been in
charge, his “moral decision” would have stood
forever. Thankfully, Freedom Communication
lived up to its name and its principles.
To appreciate the reversal, one needs to be
priwy to the original editorial in which
McAllister offers his adamant refusal to
publish things homosexual. It so happens, we
have a copy we will share:
The Gaston Gazette has had a long standing
policy of not accepting advertising or free
announcements acknowledging same sex unions.
And we are not going to change that policy.
The reason for the policy is pure and simple:
North Carolina law does not sanction such unions
and we have never felt it our place to recognize civil
unions that were not considered legal under the laws
of our state.
In mid-August the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation launched an initiative called
'Announcing Equality Project" According to their
website, they have as their one year goal “to double
the number of local and regional newspapers that
list same-sex announcements.
Included on that list are most of the large metro
papers across the country. Also among that group
are the North Carolina dailies in Raleigh, Winston-
Salem and Fayetteville. And recently the paper from
across the river (The Charlotte Observer) decided
see GAZETTE on 26
"Out & About" Pride flies in the face of Falwell
Soutforce holds first-
ever Lynchburg Gay
Pride in homophobe's
backyard
LYNCHBURG, VA —
Gay activists gathered in
Reverend Jerry Falwell’s
hometown and in his
backyard to announce a
permanent presence in
central Virginia.
“It’s safe to come
out,” the Rev. Mel White,
founder of the gay rights
group Soulforce, told a
rally of about 500
crowded under a chain
of balloons tied like a
rainbow. “God has made
you gay. You are all
beautiful!”
White, a California
minister who was friends
with Falwell, as well as
his speech writer before
coming out, said he
decided to move to
Lynchburg last year
when Falwell said God
allowed terrorists to
attack America because
of the work of gays,
abortionists and
feminists.
"Jerry Falwell is the
source of misinforma
tion about sexual or
ientation,” White said.
“He’s a gadfly. He likes
to say these horrible
things.”
sea LYNCHBURG 0/10