Noted . Notable . Noteworthy . LGBT News & Views
Volume 23 . Number 07 July 26.2008 Printed on Recycled Paper FREE
Burying a fossil
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q-notes.com
G one, but not forgotten. That’s how most
. North Carolinians are thinking of the
late former Sen. Jesse Helms, a segrega
tionist Democrat-turned-Republican who
held his seat in the U.S. Senate for 30 years.
But where the mainstream media, conser
vative Republicans and fundamentalist
Christians have been busy whitewashing his
past and glorifying his memory, LGBT people
around the Carolinas, the nation and the world
will forever remember the real Jesse Helms.
North Carolinians first sent the hateful TV
commentator to Washington, D.C., in 1972.“!
might not agree with him, but at least I know
where he stands,” was the rejoinder that
echoed across the state every six years from
voters who’d re-elect him five separate times,
despite his racist, homophobic and
AlDSphobic politics.
Helms’ July Fourth death brings
a symbolic end to a dark era
of bigotry and malice.
Although his conserva
tive cronies would like
to lump his name in
with the likes of
John Adams and
Thomas
Jefferson — who
also died on July
4 — no amount
of praise will
wipe clean
by Matt Comer. Q-Notes staff
Helms’ record of pushing millions of racial
and sexual minorities to the back of the bus
during his reign as “Senator No.”
The early years
Bom Oct. 18,1921, to Jesse Helms, Sr. and
Ethel Mae Helms in Monroe, N.C., there was
hardly a thought that small-town country boy
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. would eventu^y
become one of the most influential and longest-
serving senators in the history of the nation.
Helms attended Monroe Public Schools,
after which he matriculated to Wingate Junior
College and Wake Forest College in Wake
Forest, N.C. In 1940, he would leave Wake
Forest without completing his degree and
begin his journalism career as a sports editor
for The Raleigh Times, now known as The
News & Observer.
In 1942, the second World War hit America by
surprise. As Helms was leaving his work to
serve in the US. Navy, he married Dorothy
“Dot” Coble. His 1945 return to journal
ism set him on a career path toward
international infamy.
Dixiecrat Jesse
Like most white North
Carolinians of the time. Helms
was a Democrat. Deeply
embroiled in the national strug
gle over the continued segregation
of whites and blacks, the
Democratic Party split. Southern
Democrats organized their own
Dixiecrat Party under the leadership
of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC).
Successful Dixiecrats ran for office and
won as staunch segregationists.
Thurmond, the only U.S.
Senate candidate to win
election through a write-
in campaign, would
have a weighty influ
ence on Helms’ politi
cal ideology.
After serving five
years as the city edi
tor at The Raleigh
Times, Helms became
an unofficial aide
and researcher in
the 1950 Senate
campaign of arch
conservative
Democrat and
segregationist
Willis Smith.
When the
Dbdecrat-in-all-
but-namewon
his primary
against the
more moder
ate Franklin
Porter Graham, the election was a done deal. In
those days, Democratic primaries were all that
mattered.
During the campaign. Helms was instru
mental in helping to frame a campaign ad that
read, “White people, wake up before it’s too
late. Do you want Negroes Working beside you,
your wife and your daughters, in your mills
Racism and homoptiobta will fore'/er be Helms’ legacy
and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling
of the races.”
When Smith took office, he brought young
Helms, the ever-diligent, unpaid campaign
worker, along with him. Under the tutelage of
a hardline segregationist and racist. Helms got
see Helms on 18
S.C. governor demands personnel
and policy changes after ad flap
Employee who approved ‘So Gay’ ad resigns, SC Pride responds
by Gareth Fenley . Contributing Writer
COLUMBIA — When South Carolina
Gov. Mark Sanford learned that his state
was being advertised as a gay tourism des
tination, he ordered a Cabinet-level depart
ment head “to do the right thing person
nel-wise or process-wise to ensure this •
does not happen again,” Sanford’s
spokesman Joel Sawyer told Q-Notes.
Sanford was reacting to U.S. media
reports that a subway poster mounted in
London, England, during Gay Pride week
was announcing “South Carolina is so gay^’
A state employee who approved the ads
was called to a meeting with management
and resigned, according to Marion
Edmonds, spokesman for the state’s
Department of Parks, Recreation and
Tourism (PRT).
If the employee broke any rule in the
conduct of her job, it was apparently an
unwritten one.
see Tourism on 16
South Carolina
is so gay
Explore an America most never see.
From planUtioru toTh« Ovil War. Golf to gay
HIHon Head, Charleston, Myrtle Beach.
There's nowhere quite like South Carolina.
Just as
deserving
Winston couple argues
for marriage equality
page 5
Crape Myrtle
is back
m
Festival still helping
after 25 years
H
page 29
High school
drama
Student production
highlights gay youth
page 30
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