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North and South
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North Carolina:
Jonadian Perry addresses
Harvard audience 10
South Carolina:
Indianapolis Gay Men’s
Chorus to perform at
Piccolo Spoleb) 13
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VOLUME 20 . ISSUE 1
SINCE
VSrWW.q-NOTES.COM
MAY 21
I Are we in the middle of a Holy War?
The religious crusade against gays has
been building for 30 years, now the
movement is reaching truly
biblical proportions
Part one of a two-part series
by Bob Moser
On June 26,2003, the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned the convictions of two Texas men
arrested for having sex. Writing for the
majority in Lawrence v. Texas, Justice Anthony
Kennedy said that the two men were “enti
tled to respect for their private lives.” The
state, he declared, “cannot demean their
existence or control their destiny by making
their private sexual conduct a crime.”
The decision was unusually popular. A
national survey found that 75 percent of
Republicans and 88 percent of Democrats
wanted to see sodomy laws struck down. But
not everyone cheered.
“Six lawyers rob>ed in black have magical
ly discovered a right of privacy that includes
sexual perversion,” said Jan LaRue, chief
counsel for Concerned Women for America.
“This opens the door to bigamy, adult incest,
polygamy and prostitution,” said Ken Connor,
president of the Family Research Council.
For anti-gay crusaders, who have been
fighting gay rights for three
decades, Lawrence was the
most unsettling court deci
sion since Roe v. Wade.
Fundamentalist groups had
filed 15 briefs supporting
Texas’ sodomy laws, only
to see their arguments —
that gay sex was a threat to
public health and “tradi
tional family values,” and
that gay people do not
deserve equal rights — shot
down. And with the
Massachusetts Supreme
Court widely expected to
rule that fall (as it did) that
gay citizens had a right to
marry under that state’s
constitution, anti-gay lead
ers realized the time was
ripe to ratchet up their call
to arms.
“America stands at a
defining moment,” said
Lou Sheldon, founder of
Values Coalition. “The only comparison is
our battle for independence.”
Faces of hate: Power mongers behind the anti-gay movement —
(clockwise, from left) Ken fonnor, president of the Family
Research Council, D. James Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge
AAinistries, Pat Robertson, founder and chairman of the Christian
Broadcasting Network, Lou Sheldon, founder of the Traditional
Values Coalition, and Jerry Falwell, founder of the AAoral
AAajority.
Traditional
see TACTICS on 14
SWOOP cleans up the
Triangle area
Women's volunteer group open to all women
by Donald Miller
According to LeAnn Wallace, one of the founders of the organization
known around the Triangle area as SWOOP (Strong Women Organizing
Outrageous Projects), the group unofficially began in September 1996 in
the aftermath of Flurricane Fran in Raleigh
“Flurricane Fran made
this all happen,” says
Wallace. “After the storm a
bunch of friends got togeth
er to help each other out —
working on friends’ homes
and eventually helping peo
ple out of town, as well. It
was so empowering to see a
place that was a disaster
fotaliy cleaned up by the
time we left.”
It was Wallace’s partner
and the other founder of
SWOOP, Sandy Fitzgerald,
who came up with the idea
of giving this group , of
empowered women a name.
“It’s like we swoop in and
everything is done,”
Fitzgerald had told her partner after a particularly challenging clean-up. “So
we decided to choose that name,” says Wallace.
“Over the years the group has grown from just 16 see SWOOPon 7
4
LeAnn Wallace (left) and Sandy F'rtxgerald
(right) flank HRC Carolnas Dinner Co-Chair
Joni Madison at the recent HRC banquet,
where Wallace and Fitzgerald received
the 2005 Community SM-vice Award.
Charlotte Pride
draws 3,000
Low turnout, protestors don't deter organizers
by David Moore
Q-Notes staff
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An estimated 3,000 individuals attended
Charlotte’s gay Pride celebration, held in the city’s Marshall Park
on Saturday, May 8. Figures for last year’s event were reportedly
higher, but organizers are enthusiastic about more nationally-
Crowds listen to performers and speakers at Charlotte Pride.
known acts this year’s event attracted and the increase of partici
pants in the vendor market.
Despite an estimated turnout of around 70 protestors from the
Concord-based anti-gay organization Operation Save America
(OSA), festival organizers were still pleased about Pride and prom
ise to be back next year, regardless of continued efforts by OSA to
shutdown the event.
“I’m proud of the fact that the par- see CHARLOTTE on 4