MYRTLE BEACH
Youth attend Center prom
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WjLMtNGTON
Veteran activist passes
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CAROLINAS
Vacation options from mountains to coast
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Noted . Notable . Noteworthy. LGBT News & Views
Volume 23 . Number 01 www.q-notes.com
May 17.2008
Students
excused for
skipping gay day
Watauga school superintendent
cites safety concerns
by Matt Comer . Q-Notes staff
BOONE — More than a third of the
1,500 students enrolled in Watauga High
School were absent April 25, the day set
aside for the National Day of Silence.
Under the direction of Watauga County
Schools Superintendent Dr. Bobbie Short,
all of them received excused absences.
On the other hand, LGBT and allied
students who came to school and par
ticipated in the nationwide day of
action, held this year in memory of 15-
year-old murder victim Lawrence
King, were reprimanded for not speak
ing in class.
Citing a policy that requires students
to respond to instructors, Marshall
Ashcraft, Watauga County Schools’ com
munity relations director, confirmed the
punishments. “Students [observing the
Day of Silence] were told in advance
they’d be required to participate in
classroom activities,” he said.
The disparate treatment between the
two sets of students drew criticism and
charges of homophobia from N.C.’s LGBT
community. In an interview with Q-Notes,
Short contended that while the decisions
might appear anti-gay, they were made
solely for safety concerns, given the con
troversy surrounding the Day of Silence.
Starting months ago, anti-gay “fam
ily values” organizations made a heavy
push for conservative parents to
protest and keep their children home
from school on the National Day of
Silence. In Charlotte, school board
member Kaye McGarry pushed an
unsuccessful motion to give excused
absences to Charlotte-Mecklenburg
students who missed the day.
“We erred on the side of safety,”
Short said. “We also had word that we
could be picketed, although it never
happened. It didn’t enter my mind
[when this decision was made] that it
would look like it was a tolerance issue.
It wasn’t for me. It was a safety issue.”
see excuses on 5
AIDS agencies rely on comfort food
Dinner fundraisers fuel the battle against HIV
by David Stout . Q-Notes staff
Most people have heard the term “comfort food”
before. It’s usually used to describe edibles that
evoke childhood happiness and security. In
other words, the stuff mom used to make:
meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy,
scratch biscuits, apple crumble and the like.
Here in the South we take comfort food
to another level, because the notion that
food is a balm is practically encoded into our
DNA. It’s something we see modeled from our
earliest understanding. If someone is sick, hurting
or down on their luck, you’re supposed to feed them.
Consider the number of times growing up you accompa
nied your grandma to take soup to a friend with the flu or tagged
along with your mom to deliver a casserole to an elderly shut-in.
Without even realizing it, you probably knew that the appropriate
response to the news that a neighborhood family had lost a loved one
was carrying over, a 21-piece bucket of chicken — original recipe, of
course.
Given this heritage it’s no surprise that food has become a critical
component in the fight against HIV in the South. Fundraisers for
AIDS service organizations in the form of privately hosted dinners
have proliferated throughout the region, raising millions of dollars for
care, case management and support. These life-saving meals are per
haps the ultimate expression of comfort food.
The 19th Annual Dining For Friends to benefit Triad Health
Project (THP) will be held May 17. According to Shane Burton, THP’s
director of community involvement, over TOO dinner parties will be
held throughout the Triad.
Dining For Friends is organized like most ASO dinner fundraisers.
Hosts plan their own events, buy the ingredients
and supplies, assemble their own guest lists
and set the minimum donation. The
agency provides pre-printed invita
tions for mailing. Guests come to din
ner prepared to give the requested
amount or more and all money goes
to the agency.
After dinner, guests from all the
events are invited to come together for
a free dessert reception. For this year’s
Dining For Friends, the Grand Dessert Gala
is being held at the Greensboro Coliseum
Special Events Center beginning at 9 p.m. Desserts
will be provided by area restaurants. The general public can give
donations at the door for admission.
Burton told Q-JVbtes, “Dining For Friends is absolutely, vitally
important to [Triad Health Project]. It is our largest fundraiser each
year. We’ve been doing it for 19 years now and it has raised over $2
million since its inception. Our agency would not be able to operate
day-to-day without the funds generated from this event.”
Last month, the Columbia-based AIDS Benefit Foundation of
South Carolina (ABF) sponsored its yearly Dining With Friends
fundraiser. ABF is a 20-year-old non-profit organization that exists
solely to raise money for AIDS charities and agencies, including
Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services.
see dinners on 15
Lesbian co-mom wins joint custody fight
Groundbreaking decision from N.C.
appellate court
by Arthur S. Leonard
Special to Q-Notes
RALEIGH —In a ruling
on an issue it had not previ
ously considered, the North
Carolina Court of Appeals
upheld a decision by Durham
County District Judge Ann
McKown to award joint cus
tody of a child to JoEllen
Mason and Irene Dwinnell,
former lesbian partners.
In the May 6 ruling on
what is known in legal cir
cles as a “case of first
impression,” McKown found that Dwinnell,
the birth mother of a boy conceived through
anonymous donor insemination, had will-
JoEllen Mason fought a
long, hard battle in her
custody suit.
ingly created a de facto parent status for
Mason that she could not unilaterally dis
solve when the women ended
their partnership.
Mason and Dwinnell lived as
domestic partners for eight years.
When they decided to raise a child
together, they held a commitment
ceremony, researched their options
for conceiving a child and jointly
decided that Dwinnell would bear
the child.
In that process, they identi
fied an anonymous sperm donor
who had physical characteristics
similar to Mason’s, and Mason
fully participated, attending
Dwinnell’s insemination ses
sions, prenatal care appoint
ments and childbirth classes.
When their son was born. Mason cut the
umbilical cord, and the couple gave the
child the combined surname of Mason-
Dwinnell on his birth certificate, but only
Dwinnell was listed as a parent because the
hospital refused to list both women.
Despite the birth certificate, the couple -
jointly agreed on who godparents would be,
held a baptism ceremony at which they both
acted as the boy’s mothers, involved Mason’s
parents as grandparents and raised the child
together as a family. On school forms and
other critical documents Dwinnell named
Mason as the second parent.
In 2000 when the child was three years
old they signed a parenting agreement draft
ed by an attorney, in which they agreed that
both of them were parents with equal
parental rights. Dwinnell also executed a
healthcare power of attorney authorizing
Mason to approve medical care for the child
and they jointly agreed on his education in a
see joint on 11
Fans await ‘Shelter’ opening
page 21
Eureka! Q-Notes takes a road trip
page 21
Fab travel...cheap
page 24