PriBe: Celebrate, participate!
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16
oteworthy GLBT issues
Big Semen: ‘Connie & Carta’ mix of
‘\/ictor/Victoia’and Some Like it Hof
VOLUME 18 . ISSUE 2 5
SINCE 1988
WWW.Q-NOTES.COM
SI
APRIL 24- . 2004-
Don’tmiss
Sister Funk
at Chartotte Pride
29
Marc Weigle
takes to the
Ride Fesdval stage 29
Ashevilie’santi-gay
billboards captum
national attention 06
Gay Democrats
endorse Kerry 09
Trans teen’s
murdemrs convicted 23
North and South
North Carolina:
Charlotte’s Jonathan Perry
makes an appearance
on Oprah 12
South Carolina:
AFFIRM hosts pmm
forLGBTyouth 13
.1 -5
; openly gay or
I feet safe
J?
A war rages on
How does the conflict in Iraq
affect gays at home and in the
Middle East?
by Donald Miller and Paul Johnson
For gays and lesbians in the Caroiinas, it’s
time to celebrate Pride. At the end of April
Charlotte holds their annual festivities. l\vo
weeks later South Carolina Pride takes place
in Columbia.
Meanwhile, it’s been just a little over one
year since the United States invaded Iraq.
Estimates from the region indicate there are
10,000 dead Iraqi civilians. Nearly 700
American troops have died since the begin
ning of the war. Another 3,630 have been
wounded.
How does this affect LGBT folk — those
serving in the armed forces’ and involved in
combat and their loved ones at home, as well
as gay and lesbian Iraqis caught in a military,
political and religious crossfire?
Exactly how many gay soldiers currently
serve in the U.S. military is unknown. Aaron
Belkin, director of Center for the Study of
Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM),
says a conservative estimate is 60,000, but
the number could be much higher.
For any servicemember saying goodbye to
loved ones as he or she heads off to war the
experience is emotional. For gays leaving
partners behind it is a farewell said only in
private.
The CSSMM shared the stories of these
two gay military families at the
onset of the war.
When the love of his life pre
pared to leave- Fort Bragg for
deployment to the Middle East,
J.R. packed a Bible, a rosary and
the St. Michaels medal, symbol of
the patron saint of the warrior.
“We talked for over an hour that
night,” J.R. recalled. “I said, if you
ever get scared, you talk to the Big
Man Upstairs. He’ll listen and
He’ll take care of you.”
As families from across the
nation traveled to Fort Bragg, N.C.
to hug and pray for their person
al heroes from the 82nd Airborne,
j.R., who insisted his full name
not be used to protect his part
ner’s identity, sat at home alone.
Another military spouse, W.F.,
whose partner was deployed to
Kuwait in January from Good
Fellow Air Force Base in San
Angelo, Tx., was also relegated to the shad
ows as his partner left for wan .
Their soldier partners must often carry
out elaborate charades just to ensure that
suspicions do not arise. “If a straight soldier
gets a letter from his girlfriend,” says J.R., “he
can tell his buddies, pass the letter around,
show them pictures. If you’re gay or bi, you
can’t. If you get a letter or photo, you rip it up
or burn it; you can’t keep it.”
Before W.F. saw his partner off, he was
As war continues to rage in Iraq, how do gay soldiers
and gay Iraqis cope with the world around them?
told to strip his letters of any hints that the
two were involved. "Writing him letters, 1
have to be sort of careful what 1 say,” he
explained. “I have to be reserved and act like
we’re just good friends." Though W.F.’s part
ner is out to nearly his entire platoon, letters
to and from deployed soldiers are often
screened, so gay soldiers face discharge if
they are honest in even their most intimate
see GAY on 4
SCEC gets a new director
Greenville area resident Johanna Haynes takes leadership reigns
at South Carolina Equality Coalition
GREENVILLE, S. C. — SCEC Chair Johanna Haynes is keenly aware of
the state of civil equality for LGBT folk in South Carolina. A native of North
Carolina and a lon^ime Atlanta resident, she moved to a tiny town just out
side of Greenville called Six Mile seven years ago.
“I moved here just before the first Greenville Pride March,” Haynes recalls.
“There was a gay couple that were our neighbors. I remember on that Friday
one of these guy’s boss had just given him a
promotion. On Monday he got fired because
someone saw him at Pride. I thought
this was just unbelievable.”
Haynes admits that moving from Atlanta to
Six Mile, in many ways, was nothing short of
culture shock.
“1 was deeply saddened about the number of
people that were closeted — and still have to
be. Not for just losing family support, but jobs
and custody battles. I was astounded. ,
“It was so new to me. I’ve been out for so
long it never occurred to me that there were
people that couldn’t be. I was just totally
ignorant.”
That awareness was what prompted Haynes
Pro-aav billboard In
Grel-Sl oro
Triad Equality Allicance's effort motivated by
Charleston's AFFA
by Jim Sims
Driving down 1-40 through the Triad has just become more
politically engaging.
Gay or Straight
Americans deserve
protection under the law
If t.ul I qualiti \lli.uuvill \)
Johanna Haynes: 'Our
(focus, is on,educating.',
seeJOHAmAonXl
The billboard seen by an estimated 50,000 daily where
Business and Bypass 1-40 merge just west of Greensboro.
A few months ago in the State of the Union Address, President
George W. Bush declared to the nation that marriage should be “a
union of a man and woman as husband and wife." Many gay and
lesbian people across the state cringed, feeling that the compas
sionate, conservative president had just officially declared his
approval of their status as second-class citizens. This declaration
:' • • see TEA on 7
I,