Jim Neal
Bruised, not beaten
page 5
Hate crimes bill dies
Provision pulled in conference
page 14
Going home
Dealing with holiday family stress
page 29
Noted. Notable . Noteworthy. LGBT News & Views
Volume 22 . Number 16 www.q-notes.com December 15.2007
A new wind of
Q-Notes interviews new SCEC
Executive Director Ray Drew
by Matt Comer . Q-Notes staff
exclusive
COLUMBIA — The past year in South
Carolina has been tough. Ask any LGBT citi
zen and they’ll tell you it hasn’t been an easy
ride. The South Carolina Equahty Coalition
(SCEC) gained steam leading into the 2006
fight to defeat an anti-gay, anti-marriage con
stitutional amendment.
The organization received national and
regional attention and support, but after
their crushing defeat — and the victory for
anti-family, religious advocates — the organ
ization faced some real questions on how to
best continue
organizing in
an atmosphere
that had
become unde
niably hostile,
complete with
every legal and
constitutional
trimming the
state could pro
vide.
While there
have been chal-
Ray Drew brings a fresh lenges,the
perspective to SCEC. gouth Carolina
LGBT community has remained strong and
visible. After the horrifying gay bashing of
Sean Kennedy in May, the community had
even more reason to remain strong.
SCEC is taking yet another step toward
regrouping for the future. For the past sue
months the group has searched for an execu
tive director with the knowledge, experience
and abihty to lead the group in the state’s new
political and social reality.
At the end of November, that search
became complete with the announcement that
Marion County, S.C. native Ray Drew would
become the organization’s new leader.
Returning to his home state after 21 years.
Drew enters his new position with more than
enough political, fundraising and organizing
ejqjerience. He is a longtime leader in national
see fresh on 17
Emmy-winning Kathy Najimy to
appear at HRC Gala
Thirteenth annual event follows
record-breaking crowds in 2007
by Bert Woodard
Special to Q-Notes
CHARLOTTE — The Human Rights
Campaign Carolinas Gala committee has
announced that television and movie actress
Kathy Najimy will deliver the keynote address
at the 13th-annual HRC Carolinas Gala on
Saturday, Feb. 16,2008 at the Charlotte
Convention Center.
In the CBS drama “Numb3rs,” Najimy por
trays the saucy, brilliant head of the university,
Millie Finch. Najimy’s work includes more than
20 films, including starring roles in “Hocus
Focus” with Bette Midler, “RatRace” and “Say
Uncle.” She has also appeared in “It’s Pat,” “The
Wedding Planner” with Jennifer Lopez and HBO’s “If These Walls Could
Talk 2” with Ellen DeGeneres.
In more recent work, Najimy has provided the voice of Peggy Hill for
12 seasons on the Emmy Award-winning Fox hit “King of the Hill,” for
which she received an Aimie and WIN Award. In her most important ^
role of activist, she was
named Ms. Magazine’s
Woman of the Year 2005.
Najimy is international
ly known for her portrayal
of Sister Mary Patrick in
the blockbuster hits “Sister
Act I” and its sequel, “Sister
Act II,” which starred
Whoopi Goldberg. Those
performances won her an
American Comedy Award
for Funniest Supporting
Actress and a nomination
by the Hollywood Women’s
Ihess club for female
Discovery of the Year.
For her more than 18
years of AIDS activism, Najimy has been honored with the Los Angeles
Shanti’s Founder award as well as the L jV. Gay and Lesbian Center’s
Distinguished Achievement award. She is an enthusiastic supporter of
AIDS, Choice, Arabic pride, women’s and animal rights and frequently trav
els around the country to speak on these
issues. Najimy has lent her support to a see nafimy on 21
Acclaimed actress Kathy Najimy of
“Sister Act” fame will deliver the
Gala’s keynote address.
The final four
Q-Notes examines the candidates -
The last of a four-part series
by David Stout . Q-Notes staff
Over several issues we’re spotlighting
the Democratic presidential candidates in
preparation for primary season. (Our
installments on the three best-polling can
didates, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack
Obama and former Sen. John Edwards,
can be read online at www.q-notes.com.) The
first Democratic primary occurs in Iowa on
Jan. 3. South Carolina holds the earliest in the
South on Jan. 26. The North Carolina
Democratic primary takes place May 6.
We have made an editorial decision to limit
our coverage to the Democrats because, vis-k-
vis LGBT issues, the leading Republican candi
dates range from woefully lacking to openly
hostile, or they’re Rudy Giuliani, an Iraq war
hawk. Either way, the GOP slate is a disap
pointment and not worthy of consideration in
our opinion.
Q-Notes’ series on the hopefuls for the
Democratic presidential nomination ends
with mini-profiles of the four men trailing the
Big Three in the polls. (Due to space limita
tions, we are not including candidate
Mike Gravel, the former
^tion 08 Alaska Senator who is
polling around one per
cent.)
The quartet
spotlighted here
includes the candidate
who supports full gay
marriage rights, the candi
date with arguably the most
foreign policy experience, the candi
date who was part of an historic wave
of American liberalism and the candi
date who thinks homosexuality is a
choi...wait, what?no, scratch that!it’s
not, it’s really notll misunderstood the
question...
J oseph Robinette Biden, Jr. is
the senior Senator from Delaware, currendy
in his sixth term. This is his second run for the
Democratic nomination for president. His 1988
attempt ended over a tempest-in-a-teapot pla
giarism scandal that was later debunked.
Biden was born in Pennsylvania in 1942.
When he was 10, his family moved to
Delaware, where he would remain through
graduation from the University of Delaware in
1965. Remarkably, at this time he was only six
years from the U.S. Senate.
Biden graduated from Syracuse
University College of Law in
’68, passed the Delaware Bar
exam in ’69 and was elected to
the Senate in ’72. He was 30 —
the fifth-youngest US. Senator
in history.
Biden has been a member
of two powerful Senate com
mittees since his arrival on
Capitol Hill: the Committee on
Foreign Relations and the
Committee on the Judiciary. In
January, he began his second
non-consecutive stint as chair of the former;
see candidates on 15
Besen: Ex-gay ‘manly’ men?
page 6
Kennedy’s killer gets house arrest
page 19
SC insurer givesDP benefits
page 12