CELEBRATING 17 YEARS!
P m To s
Violencia domestica 21
Rosie O’Donnell latest
Advocate guest columnist
WWW. Q-NOTES. COM
JUNE 7.2003
Henry Rollins:
Louct^mouth rocker
comes to CharlotiB.
31
Actor's Weatre produces
Hedwig & the Angry Inch. 06
CNN/Headline News:
Are they outing their
anchors? 30
Good Morning Baghdad:
Blogger back on the Net 13
SC Gay Pride:
Shows Its colors.
27
Charlotte Pride:
A photo rotrospecdve. tl
South Carolina
Battle
of the Billboards 25
IfClayAfken is gay
should he
come out?
■ b • ■ vk.AA;.'
Suspect in Atlanta Olympics and gay club
bombing captured In NC
Eric Rudolph suspected of planting bomb
at gay bar in '97 that injures five
by David Moore
MURPHY, NC — Eric Robert Rudolph, the
North Carolina fugitive charged with the fatal
bombing attack at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
and three subsequent attacks that included an
Atlanta lesbian bar and two abortion clinics,
was arrested Saturday, May 31 in the remote
mountain town of Murphy, NC.
Rudolph eluded authorities for over five
years, but in the end, his seemingly uneventful
arrest came about after he was spotted loitering
behind a Save-A-Lot Grocery store.
Beverly McMahon, former owner of the now
defunct Atlanta gay plub, the Otherside Lounge,
spoke with CtNotes the day of Rudolph’s arrest.
"My first thought when they caught him was
that maybe now my family and 1 could have
some kind of closure,” she offered. “We never
really got over this thing, we just didn’t talk
about it anymore to anybody. And we just
kinda’ disappeared into our own family.”
Authorities from the FBI notified McMahon
Saturday morning upon Rudolph’s capture.
Monday morning he was moved from Murphy to
Asheville, NC, for a hearing before he is transferred
to Atlanta or Birmingham to stand trial for bomb
ings that took place in those cities.
“1 want to see him,” McMahon says.
“I want to talk to him. I want to know
why. I want to understand.”
The july 27, 1996, bombing in
Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, took
place during the Olympic Games and
sent shards of metal spraying into a
crowd of hundreds. One woman was
killed and at least III people were injured.
Rudolph is also charged with two
other attacks in the Atlanta area. On
January 16, 1997, two bombs detonated
outside the Northside Family Planning
Service. A month later, on February 21, a
bomb detonated, at the Otherside
Lounge, injuring five people. At the same loca
tion a second bomb, presumably intended for
rescue workers, exploded while being handled
by a police robot.
About ISO people were in the club at the
time and injuries ranged from nail wounds to
pain in the ears.
One victim, a woman who had lost a signif
icant amount of blood, had a large 4-inch nail
imbedded in her right arm.
Despite his capture, McMahon is bittersweet
about the development.
Atlanta's Otherside Lounge
shortly after the 1997 bomb
explosion.
was overwhelming,”
she recalls. “The
insurance company
settlement totally left
us in debt and even
tually we lost our
business. I operated
in the red for a year
and a half after this
and 1 never was able
“The toll this took on our lives and our business
Eric Robert Rudolph at
the Cherokee County
NC jail on Saturday, .
May 31.
to turn the business around again.” The Otherside
subsequently closed in 2000.
According to McMahon, civil litigation is
planned in the event Rudolph is convicted.
Celebrating FatheKs Day - when you've got two Dads
by David Moore
Reid and Wayne Criffin-Russell have been
together for five years. They had their commit-
Reid, Wayne, Jett and Gabriel
Russell-Griffin
ment ceremony June 24, 2000. Together the two
make quite the happy pair. When you throw in
Reid’s daughter Nora and their newly adopted
sons Jett and Gabriel — the picture’s complete.
The Griffin-Russell family isn’t that much
different from many other American family
units: two parents, three children and a com
fortable, stable home environment
There’s one distinct difference: Jett and
Gabriel have two fathers.
“This has been a wonderful experience
for everybody involved all the way around,”
says Wayne.
Nora is Reid’s daughter from a previous mar
riage. That doesn’t make Wayne any less of a
father figure for the 21 -yeard-old woman.
“She was 15 when Reid and I met,” Wayne
recalls. “We’ve always been very close. She’s a
very important part of my life.”
“Wayne’s reaction to my daughter was one
of the things that clued me in to the idea that he
would be a good dad,” says Reid. “She’s always
part of the package and with any men I’ve ever
dated the rule was you accept me you accept
my daughter.
Jett and Gabriel were initially placed in the
Griffin-Russell home as foster chifdren.
“They were abused and neglected," Wayne
recalls. “Gabriel had a broken leg. As time went
on they terminated parental rights and we were
given first rights to adopt.”
These days Gabriel, who’s four years old,
and Jett, who’s two, are healthy and well-
adjusted kids happy to have a home with two
loving fathers.
Says Reid on his partner Wayne: “He really
wants to be a dad. He loves children. If only you
could watch him play with children — he enjoys
interateting with them so much.”
Wayne is equally effusive about Reid: “He’s
the one that roughouses on the floor and reads
to them and gets them ready for bed. He’s com
pletely in love with fatherhood.”
Caiy Kirkegaard and Tony Britt are longtime part
ners. In fact, they’ve been together for 13 years.
“We’ve always wanted to be fathers.” says
Britt. “We knew that when we met years ago. The
only drawback we ever saw to being gay was that
it wasn’t quite so easy to become a father when
you’re involved in a same-sex relationship.”
Despite the odds, Kirkegaard and Britt adopt
ed twins Austin and Brittney two years ago.
Kirkegaard is a doctor and Britt was an interior
decorator. He resigned from his position once the
two children came into their lives.
“Now I’m a full time dad.” he beams.
Like other same sex couples in North Carolina,
the two went through the Department of Social
Services and a program known as Adoption
Options. They also went through a foster parent
ing program with the Mecklenburg DSS.
Both organizations eventually offered sets of
twins, but Brittney and Austin were the first chil
dren the couple actually saw.
“The rewards are too many to mention,” Britt
boasts. “Watching them grow and seeing the joy
in their eyes has been such a blessing.”
Britt’s happiest moment as a father of twins
doesn’t sound too different from any experience
a same-sex couple might share: “It was the day
1 saw Austin pull his little sister Britney in a
wagon. He had the biggest grin on his face.”
Like many children placed in the care of
same-sex couples, Brittney and Austin were,
intially, special needs children. "They, were born
three months early and they had health issues,"
. .seeDADS on 22