TrcutsgenD^ Remembrance Day - November 20
^north
& sout
CAROLIN
noted . notable . noteworthy GLBT issues
Dolly Parian talks about
music and inclusiveness 25
Elton John to perform in
Charlotte and Columbia 32
Teen’s sodomy convicb'on
overturned 19
Nancy Wislon new
moderator for MCC 20
Gay soldiers dying ■
in Iraq 23
North and South
Carolina
North Carolina:
Fire damages Charlotte
gay club 08
South Carolina:
Christian Exodus wants to
take control of the state 10
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VOLUME 20 . ISSUE S3
SINCE S98«
Q-Llving:
Tips for a
greatparty
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NOVEMBER 5.2005
One year and countinjg: Will S.C. turn its
back on gay and lesbian citizens over
marriage amendment?
T Mr 8
Vote set far Nov. 7, 2006, will dedde
whether or not the state becomes one
of the next to ban gay marriages
by Donald Miller
COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Nov. 7, 2006,
South Carolina voters will go to the polls to
decide the future of gay and lesbian equality
when they give an up or down vote to
HB3I33. The amendment to the state consti
tution will not only ban same-sex marriage,
it will refuse recognition of civil unions and
domestic partnerships, whether entered into
in this or any other state or country.
Organizers in the effort to squash equali
ty for LGBT families declared victory this past
March when members of the S.C. Senate, led
by Sen. John D. Hawkins (R-Spartanburg),
pushed HB3I33 through a subcommittee
chaired by Sen. Robert Ford (D-Charleston).
Hawkins and his colleagues called for a
vote to take HB3I33 out of Ford’s subcom
mittee, and it passed. The Senate was pre
pared to vote on HB3I33 — a bill that would
change the state constitution and enshrine
LGBT people as second-class citizens — with
no public hearings at all.
Through the efforts of Senate President Pro
Tern Glenn McConnell
(R-Charleston), the LGBT
community was granted
two hours of public tes
timony. Despite their
best efforts, 37 senators
voted in favor of a bill
described by McConnell
as “unconstitutional.”
Sen. Ford cast the only
dissenting vote. However,
nine senators abstained.
With a year to go
before the big show
down, activists in S.C.’s
LGBT community are
working hard to educate
voters across the state.
Volunteers with South Carolina Equality
Coalition (SCEC) recently staged a political
outreach through a booth at the South
Carolina State Fair.
“When we talked to South Carolina voters
at the fair,” SCEC volunteer and South
Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement
(SCGLPM) President Ed Madden explained,
“we found that most \yere unaware of the full
text and full impact of the amendment.”
“The amendment denies gays and les-
Acrivists in S.C.'$ LGBT community are working hard to educate
voters across the state.
bians and their children not just access to
marriage but to any basic legal protections,”
explains SCEC co-chair Michael Drennan.
Of the 1,406 surveys completed at the
state fair booth, 925 people said that thw
would vote against the amendment, 53
they supported civil unions for same-^®
couples and would vote against the amend
ment, and 63 said they were unsure but like
ly to vote against the amendment. Seventy-
four percent of those surveyed — 1041 voters
see S.C. on 21
While the world moves
on, hurricane victims
still struggling
Carolina lesbians volunteer to help victims in
storm ravaged areas
by David Moore
Q-Notes staff
NEW ORLEANS, La. —
It’s been over a month
since New Orleans was
devastated by Hurricane
Katrina. Although the
world has moved on, hun
dreds of thousands of resi
dents remain displaced,
unemployed and still
unable to return to their
home — if in fact there is a
home to return to.
The statistics following
the disaster are grim; more than 1.050 dead have been recovered so far,
an estimated one million are homeless and storm-related job losses for
the area top 500,000.
In neighborhoods in New Orleans that were see DEADon 13
One of many scenes of destruction in
Pass Christian, Ms.
Notes from a gay
soldier
Editor's Note: These ore the thoughts of o gay soldier — a North CaroBna
notive — who has been deployed to Iraq. Because of the mflitary's "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell" policy, he must reman anonymous.
I mentioned in my last correspondence about being mobilized
with my military unit. We’re going through that.intensive training i
talked about and we’ll soon be shipping out of the States for Kuwait
and then Iraq to a camp just north of Baghdad.
I rarely have a chance to be alone these days — so it’s hard to be
alone with my thoughts.
There are so many racing
through my head right
now as I think about leav
ing my partner and so
many friends behind.
1 guess this experi
ence — being uprooted
from my daily life, facing
deployment and possible
combat situations, has made me seriously think about life, the peo
ple I care about and things that are important.
Over the past few days I’ve been poked with so many needles
I’m starting to feel like a pin cushion. You get so many immuniza
tions when you are leaving the country, it’s great because it pro
tects you from some of the diseases you
can get in Third. World countries. It gets see NOTES on 18