Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / Feb. 1, 2003, edition 1 / Page 1
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BIACK HISTORY MONTH ISSUE ±9 SINCE CRANPOPEK HOUSE! FEB t&l CHARLOTTE’S LESBIAN&CAY COAIA^UNlnr CENTER LQ3'(XrrT^'LMt> WWW.q-NOTES.COM The Lesbian & Gay 0» mmunity Center FEBRUARY 1 . 2003 i Para Todds! ii Bob Smith jokes around at Oasis in Raleigh 29 Building coalitions beyond “our issues” 25 ONLINE Q.POLL www.q-notes.com . Absolutely. Somewhat .Hardly .Not at all The Civil Righteousness story of Quinton Baker “What the people want is very simple — an America as pood as its promise.” ... Barbara Jordan FEBRUARY 1 BLACK AIE>$ AWARENESS DAY • FEBRUARY 14 V-DAY: STOP VIOLENCE ACAINSr WOMEN Charlotte Gay Swim Club makes waves 4 An openly gay African American native son helped bring justice home in the 60s by Chris McGinnis Everyone in American society has some knowl edge of the Black Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Only recently, however, have historians begun to recognize and examine the important role GLBT people played in the struggle for Black Civil Liberties. Many of these activists, or people who knew them, are alive today — giving us a chance to fully document and explore this crucial facet of American history. Gay leaders in the struggle One of the most famous openly gay leaders of the Black Civil Rights movement, Bayard Rustin, was recently given the full recognition in a PBS documentary, Brother/Outsider. Rustin was an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King and the princi ple organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, where MLK delivered his stirring, “I have a dream" speech. North Carolina also has great African American civil rights leaders who. like Rustin, are homosexu al. Among them, Q.U i n t o n Baker, North Carolina native, civil rights advo cate and leader in Durham, Chapel Hill and Raleigh in the 1960s. This is the path of an African 1964 . Outside Hillsborough court house. L-R: civil rights activists Pat Cusick, Quinton Baker, and John Dunne photo courtesy of NC Collection, UNC Chapel Hill. American activist. A gay man from the segregat ed South, who marched with Martin into black civil rights history — who returned home to “keep the dream alive." Quinton Baker, born August 21, 1942 in Greenville, NC was the child of laborer parents. His own early jobs included shining shoes and occasionally working in the tobacco fields, he detested. [ lim Crow laws barred African Americans from access to employ ment as well as public places such as restaurants, hotels, and other facili ties, In the South especially, Blacks lived in fear of racially motivated vio lence.] In the segregated South under lim Crow, Baker attended C.M. Eppes High school where he continually witnessed injustice and discrimination in the community at large. He knew he had to do something. “1 always resented not being able to do things, or being see QUINTON on 18 Rolling Stone magazine gathers more than moss as it rolls over on gay men Rolling Stone's sensationalistic article about "bug chasers" has caught Jiakfrbr flagrant inaccuracy and misquotes Since its publication earlier this week. Rolling Stone’s February 6 article by Gregory Freeman enti tled “In Search of Death" has drawn fire for its inaccurate, sensa tionalistic portrayal of a phenome non known as “bug chasing." Newsweek, Salon.com and oth ers have critically reviewed the article — which examines the lives of two men who have active ly sought HIV infection and spec ulates on the scope of the prob lem — after the primary medical sources quoted by Freeman dis puted quotes attributed to them. Among the inaccuracies; • Dr. Bob Cabaj, director of behavioral-health services for San Francisco County, has asserted in Newsweek and to GLAAD directly that the state ments attributed to him on infection rates (that at least 25 percent of all newly infected gay men are seeking the virus) are “totally false. I never said that. And when the fact checker called me,and asked me if i said that, I said no. I said no. This is unbelievable." • Dr. Marshall Forstein, the medical director of mental health and addiction services at Fenway Community Health in Boston, was quoted in the Rolling Stone story as saying that ‘“bug chasers’ are seen regularly in the Fenway health system. and the phenomenon is growing." In Newsweek’s article, Forstein says that quote “is entirely a fabrication" and that “I said, ‘We have seen a few cases, but we have no idea how com mon this is.’" • Andrew Sullivan's Salon.com article refutes the reported size of this “epi demic" by stating: “Anyone with the faintest knowledge of the HIV epidemic knows that men who have sex with men make up a declining number of this group — now 42 per cent, according to the CDC. So even if you buy the bizarre 25 percent figure, you don’t end up with 10,000, you end up with 4,200.1 mention this not because 4,200 is somehow more credible. No one, I repeat, no one, has any solid evidence for either figure." • Shana Naomi Krochmal of the STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco says her entire conversation with Gregory Freeman was off the record and that her quotes were never intended for inclusion in the article. She posted commentary regarding her interactions with Freeman on www.poynter.org Ed Needham, Rolling Stone’s editor, contends the story is accurate and the sources confirmed their quotes with the magazine’s fact checker. seeACTiON! on 22 H9^PPY V9^LENTINE'S D^Y Cleric urges partners to apply to marry MCC founder, Rev. Troy Perry and partner will apply for marriage license on Valentine's Day LOS ANGELES —When the Los Angeles court house opens at 9:00 am On Friday, February 14 — Valentine’s Day— long-time activist Rev. Tfoy Perry and his partner Phillip Ray DeBlieck will be standing in line. They plan to apply for a license to marry. “And I’m encouraging thousands of gay and lesbian couples to do the same," said Perry, whose churches perform more than 6,000 same sex wed dings each year. “It’s time for equality. It’s time for the US to catch up with Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France and other countries according marriage rights to LGBT couples. “Imagine the power unleashed as thousands of LGBTcouples apply for marriage licenses on the same day,” said Perry. • Go to your courthouse or municipal office on Feb. 14 and apply for a marriage license. • Ask local media to include it in their Valentine’s Day news- coverage. • Invite friends, family and LGBT organizations “For me it’s not a religious issue, it’s a legal issue, it’s a-matter of equality and simple justice. “Before my life is over, I want to legally marry my wonderful partner Phillip.” info: Metroplitan Community Churches info@MCCchurch.org. www.MCCchurch.org
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