FEBRUARY 12 . 2005 • Q-NOTES
north
& sout
CAROLIN
noted . notable . noteworthy GLBT issues
Volume 19 • No. 20 • February 12, 2005
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contributing writers
Michael Alvear, Janice Carney, Carisa
Cunningham, Lawrence Ferber, J.S. Hall,
Robert Kirby, Charlene Lichtenstein, Ed
Madden, Lainey Millen, Donald Miller, David
Moore, Steve Ralls, Leslie Robinson, Ed
Salvato, Michael Shernoff, Roberta Sklar, Mark
Smith, David Stout, Trinity, Brad Ward, Michael
Wilke, Shane Windmeyer
on page one
• LGBT cximmunrty response to address
• N.C Marriage Amendment
• OSA goes after Charlotte Pride
12
20
19
04
16
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22
30
39
03
37
03
06
08
10
32
31
39
14
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articles
Bbck History Month: HRC-Cs long history
Congress passes recruitment resolution
Gays protected ftom discrimination
Israeli Pride celebration gets threats
Kennedy gets nod ftom GLAD
Rare STD alert issued
The Ann Curry scurry
Valentine messages
features
Keep the relationship spark
Top ten romantic getaways
Weddings and unions, N.C. style
columns
Audiophile
Classifieds
Commercial Closet
Community Cards • 35-37
Curbside
Editor's Note
General Gayety
Letters to the Editor
News Notes: Global
News Notes: NC
News Notes: SC
Out and About
Out in Print
Out in the Stars
Para Todos
Q-Poll
Tell Trinity
The Big Screen
advertising space deadlines
issue: 26 February
issue: 12 March
issue: 26 March
deadline: 02-16
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deadline: 03-16
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vditors note
I don’t like the
way things are look
ing in this country
politically right now.
Not at all.
I’m not an alarmist,
but it is starting to
make me worry a little. Take a look at these
headlines:
Psychiatrist Testifies 'Gay Rage' Legitimate
Oshkosh, Wis. — A forensic psychia-.
trist has told an Oshkosh court that ‘gay
rage’ exists and that a man was legally
insane when he killed a gay Wisconsin
man after having sex with him.
New Anti-Gay Attack From Ed. Secretary:
'Schools Not Place For Gay Issues'
Washington, D.C. — Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings says she has
no apologies to make for criticizing a PBS
children’s series which features an episode
with a lesbian family.
Charges reinstated against gay marriage mayor
Albany, N.Y. — Criminal charges
against New Paltz Village Mayor Jason
West for marrying gay couples were rein
stated by a judge Wednesday.
Virginia anti-goy Rcense plates gain momentum
Richmond, Va. — Cars in Virginia could
soon have license plates extolling tradi
tional marriage.
Throughout the late 20th century we all
watched as the struggle for gay and lesbian
civil rights moved along, stymied by the
AIDS crisis in the ’80s and then reinvigo
rated by the election of a relatively liberal
Democrat — Bill Clinton — in the ’90s.
Things looked good. There were gay
people all over thy place — in television
and film we were no longer played as men
tal cases — we actually had entire TV
shows about us. In politics there were
openly gay congress people and senators
and queer staffers could be found every
where in the Clinton administration.
Nobody was talking about gay mar
riage then — but it seemed like a good
time. The poison and hate-spewing evan
gelical anti-gay Christian right-wingers
weren’t organized to go after us with such
a vengeance just yet.
That all changed, of course, in the pres
idential elections of 2000.
I often wonder how things would have
turned out if jeb Bush wasn’t
the governor of Florida and
the electoral votes had gone
to Al Gore — the man who
should have rightfully been
president.
How would Gore have responded to
9/11 ? Would Republicans have launched a
never-ending attack on Gore like the one
they maintained against Clinton through
out both his terms?
Things looked pretty dark after George
W. Bush was appointed to office.
Gone were the gay cabinet members.
No more big parties with Ellen DeGeneres
and her crazy girlfriend.
In the beginning, however. Bush
attempted to make an effort to reach out to
LGBT Americans. Remember this?
Bush meets with gay supporters - o positive
first step for GOP nominee
Dialogue begun this week in effort .to
unite the Republican Party
April 13, 2000 — As part of an ongoing
dialogue with gay Republicans this week,
Governor George W. Bush of Texas, the
presumptive nominee for the GOP presi
dential nomination, met today with a
group of his gay supporters in Austin and
welcomed gay Americans to join his
campaign.
“I welcome gay Americans into my
campaign,” Bush told reporters after the
meeting. “I want the Republicans, conser
vative Republicans to understand we
judge people based upon their heart and
soul, that’s what the campaign is about.
And while we disagree on gay marriage
for example, we agree on a lot of other
issues and it’s important for people to
hear that.”
Where did all that positive energy go?
What happened? How could a campaign
that seemed to propose such promise give
birth to a ravenous, hate-filled political
party that maintains in many of its own
party platforms that gays and lesbians are
an aberration?
In North Carolina, the Republicans’
platform states that homosexuality “is not
normal and should not be established as
an acceptable ‘alternative’ lifestyle either in
public education or in public policy.”
In South Carolina, Republicans say
that they “support tolerance,” but “do
not agree that unnatural or unhealthy
sexual practices ought to be legitimized
or promoted in the classroom, nor do we
believe that known practicing homosexu-
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etters to editor
On President Bush's
State of the Union:
where is the outrage? I was stunned with
President Bush’s remark on the need for an
amendment to the Constitution to ban same-
sex marriages. Has this man no shame? As
he goes on and on about America being the
world’s cradle of freedom, as he goes on and
on about America bringing freedom to the
mid-east, he then inserts his
support for a amendment to
the Constitution to deny mar
riage rights to all gay, lesbian,
intersexed and transgender cit-
izens.
With his Vice President sitting directly
behind him, he calls for an amendment to
the constitution to ban his VP’s daughter
and her partner the same rights as other
loving couples.
Where is the outrage? How can this
just slip by the mass media, as if it means
nothing?
— Janice Josephine Carney
via email