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A $afe, H^Hh;yi Hapf^ 2003
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noted , notable . noteworthy GLBT issues
comes riding out of
the closet, into
the comics! 33
VOLUME 17 . ISSUE 16
SINCE 1986
WWW.q-NOTES.COM
DECEMBER 2i . 2002
toGuierriero 11
ONUNE
vtf v/w. q >no»STcom ^
Your wish for the
new year ;: ,
. -•« *1.-1 V
health. Happiness
lieace. prosperity
Finally! Tasting victory at Cracker Barrel
by David Stout
After ten years of intense lobbying and
, precedent-setting court battles, GLBT and
progressive activists won a monumental
victory December 4 when the board of
directors of Cracker Barrel Old Country
Stores voted to add sexual orientation to
the company’s non-discrimination poli
cy and effectively rescind a previous
directive prohibiting the employment of
individuals who fail to "demonstrate nor
mal heterosexual values”
"This small step has enormous signifi
cance for every gay or lesbian employee
who has ever experienced job discrimina
tion,” said Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Education Director Kim I. Mills, who oversees the
organization’s workplace advocacy project HRC
WorkNet. “Cracker Barrel has undergone impor
tant cultural changes in the last 10 years, but until
now has resisted rewriting its non-discrimination ■
.policy. This long^awaited change is a-watershed/
and we welcome it."
The flap began in 1991 when the popular
family style restaurant chain fired II workers in
North Carolina, Tennessee (where the company
is headquartered), Georgia a.nd Florida for being
gay. The company-wide policy, was reportedly
prompted by a customer’s complaint at one of
the chain’s then 94 locations.
The firings generated a flood of publicity and
sparked ongoing protests at Cracker Barrel units
across the Southeast, including the Charlotte
franchise at the 4-85 Service Road from which
lefferey Sherrill was terminated.
In an April 1991 interview, Sherrill described
the scene to Q-Notes, "It was right before 2 pm
in the afternoon, halfway through'my shift,
when I was called to the manager’s office
for something. We were doing inventory
so 1 didn’t think anything about it."
Awaiting Sherrill was General
Manager Dave Pittman along with the
gift shop manager, the district gift shop
manager,and the district restaurant
p manager. When asked what was going
on, Pittman said it had been brought to
his attention Sherrill was a homosexual in
violation of company policy and would have
' to be let go.
"I really didn’t understand; I was a good
employee. 1 always did everything, more than what
was expected of me. On my last review I was given
a 95 percent rating and over the course of my two
and a half years of working for Cracker Barrel, had
even traveled for the store.
“Then to be fired for violation of a company
policy on homosexuality, which 1 didn’t even know
see\l\CTOWfon 3
Above and beyond Law lies the awful truth
Disclosed documents show cardinal
coverup and church complicity; and
it's not just in the USA
BOSTON, MA — Despite denials, church
officials in Rome and the US have tried to
channel public anger away from the hierar
chy’s handling of priests known to be serial
sex-offenders and refocus it on gay priests in
general, the vast majority most of whom are
not guilty of any crime.
These intense efforts by Roman Catholic
officials to scapegoat gay priests suffered a
crippling blow in Boston with the release of
church documents detailing a long history of
crimes and coverups.
As recently as October, the Vatican was cir
culating draft proposals to bar gay men from
becoming priests. The policy has long had the
backing of Pope John Paul II but became a safe
and convenient method of responding to the
abuse crisis without sacrificing church control.
The documents detail years of attempts by
the Archdiocese of Boston to shield abusive
priests from the law with full knowledge of
their crimes.
According to the Boston Globe,” one priest
regularly terrorized and beat his housekeeper,
another traded cocaine for sex, and a third
had enticed.young girls by claiming to be ‘the
second coming of Christ.’”
The reports of out-of-controL clerical con
duct - locked for years in secret church per
sonnel files - became public after lawyers for
alleged victims of Rev. Paul R. Shartley made
2200 pages of internal documents on eight
priests part of their courtroom file.
"It is very clear from the documents that
Cardinal Law and top diocesan officials knew
far more, far earlier, about far more priests and
their abusive behavior than officials have ever
let on. but did so very little to protect not just
innocent children, but adults, boys and girls,
church employees, and regular lay people,”
said David Clohessy, national director of the
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
While the number of abusive archdiocesan
priests has been known for months, the
church fought efforts to divulge details of the
abuse. The records released
were made public only after
victims’ lawyers won a ruling
from a judge, who bluntly crit
icized the church for trying to
sidestep her order to produce
the personnel files.
Pope allows Law to leave
The church has always
been chained to heirarchy —
ruling from the top down.
Cardinal Law went to Rome
where Pope John Paul —
reversing his earlier decision
last April not to
allow Law to
resign —
accepted the
resignation.
The
Vatican
initially '
refused
Law’s res
ignation,
accord
ing to
Paul II