north
& sout
CAROLIN
June Lt National Gay PrUe Montis!
s
noted . notable . noteworthy GLBT issues
/P ra To os
El parlamento Turco recibe .0
asociaciones gay
Jayne County to be honored at Out
Music Award ceremony
North and South
Carolina
North Carolina:
Gay marriage supporters
denounce NC.
constitubonal ban 08
South Carolina:
HRC meetings held across
state 09
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JUNE 5
Marriage equality begins in Massachusetts
Passage of law incites Bush to call
for quicker action on ban,
by Toby Eglund
BOSTON, Mass. — When Tanya
McCloskey and Marcia Kadish got mar
ried at 9:15 a.m. in Cambridge, Mass,,
on May 17, they kicked off a new era in
equality for same-sex couples in the
United States and beyond.
Cultural change is always slower.
Fred Phelps and his small crew of hate-
mongers held their classic “God Hates
Fags" signs, this time with pictures of
two dogs getting married. Lesbians
were portrayed as pigs.
• in a statement released as President
George W. Bush was observing the
50th anniversary of the landmark civil
rights ruling in Brown v. The Topeka
Board of Education Bush accused
Congress of foot dragging in passing a
constitutional amendment limiting the
rights of gays.
“I called on the Congress to pass,
and to send to the states for ratification,
an amendment to our Constitution
defining and protecting marriage as a
union of a man and a woman as hus
band and wife,” the president’s state
ment said.
“The need for that amendment is
still urgent, and 1 repeat that call today.
“The sacred institution of marriage
should not be redefined by a few
activist judges,” Bush said referring to
the justices of the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts which struck down that
state’s ban on gay marriage.
Later, Bush praised the justices of
the Supreme Court for their ruling in
Brown which banned the concept of
separate but. equal in education. The
case is considered the catalyst for all
civil rights rulings which followed,
and has been cited in numerous gay
rights cases.
Parallels in the cases are
inescapable. Massachusetts oppo
nents lobbying to ban same-sex mar-
see fi^TTLf on 7 ,
Chris McCary (left) and John Sullivan, v
both from Anniston, Ala., show off
their wedding rings after being
married in Provincetown, AAass., May
17, 2004. They were first in line to file
for a marriage license at the
Provincetown Town Hall.
Anti-gay 'Love Won
Out' conference
coming to Raleigh
Conference will include seminars
on 'reparative therapy'
by Donald Miller
RALEIGH, N.C. — As Americans in Massachusetts
have rallied to show their support for same-sex marriage,
the notoriously anti-gay group Focus on the Family is
planning to strike at North Carolina’s state capital when.
their “Love Won
Out” conference will
offer up a plateful of
hateful rhetoric enti
tled “Straight Think
ing on Gay Mar
riage.” The anti-gay
organization brings
its 28th international
“Love Won Out”
conference to Raleigh’s
Crossroads Fellowship
Focus on the Family's anti-gay Church on June 12.
'Love Won Out' conference will "The foundation
be held in Raleigh June 12. of marriage as a
union between male and female has been recognized and
accepted throughout all of human history,” said Glenn T.
Stanton, “Love Won Out”
conference speaker, author see CONFERENCE on 6
Two prominent N.C. LGBT
community members die
unexpectedly
John Green, aka Divinity, was a prominent trans activist; Curtis
Johnson, a former Q-Notes employee was once a-castmember at
Scorpio in Charlotte
Tragedy struck twice in the final
weeks of May as two prominent
North Carolina LGBT community
members died unexpectedly in
unrelated incidents.
John Green, 63, a well known
transgender activist who published
the newsletter All the Beautiful People,
was also known by the name
Divinity. Previously a resident of
Charlotte, in recent years he had
resided in Greensboro.
At the time of his death on May
25, he was working in Myrtle
Beach. S.C. His passing was
reportedly from septicemia bought
on by complications arising from
Hepatitis B.
Curtis Johnson, 27, was a former
employee of Q-Notes and a comic
drag performer known as Bam Bam,
who had previously performed as part of the Scorpio
Cabaret.
John Green, aka Divinty, at Fayetteville's
AAagnolia Ball.
see DEATHS on 4