Noted . Notable . Noteworthy . LGBT News & Views
Volume 23 . Number 10 September 20.2008 Printed on Recycled Paper FREE
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Documenting the crisis
Forty writers contribute essays,
recollections, speeches and sermons
to help gay youth
by David Stout . Q-Notes staff
If there is any uncertainty about the state
of lesbian and gay youth in America, openly
gay furniture magnate Mitchell Gold wants
the truth to come out loud and queer: they
are in trouble.
“There are
teenagers all over
the world today
in crisis mode
because they fear
what will happen
if others discover
their sexual orien
tation,” he says.
“They suffer
debilitating
‘I hope and pray that not one more teenager will have
to live this way, the way I grew up,’ says ‘Crisis’ editor
Mitchell Gold.
depression, isolation, addiction and possi
bly suicidal thoughts.”
Gold’s dismay has led him to assemble and
edit “Crisis” (Greenleaf Book Group
Press), a new hardcover col
lection of essays, recollec
tions, speeches and sermons
from 40 gay and allied individ
uals who document — to quote
the book’s subhead — “the per
sonal, social, and religious pain
and trauma of growing up gay in
America.”
“I hope and pray that not one
more teenager will have to live this
way, the way I grew up,” says Gold, who
has achieved much in life despite his
painful experiences. In 1989, he estab
lished furniture company Mitchell Gold + Bob
Williams with his namesake business partner.
also openly gay, in Taylorsville, N.C. The com
pany now boasts more than 750 employees.
Many people don’t realize how unbridled
homophobia manifests in the lives of
America’s 1.6 million lesbian and gay teens,
however, the facts are sobering. And literally a
matter of life and death.
Because gay teens face an increased risk of
violence, prejudice and shunning, they are up
to four times more likely to attempt suicide
than their heterosexual peers. Tragically, one-
third of all gay youth try to end their own lives.
In addition, approximately 28 percent of
gay students drop out of school, more than
three times the national average. The odds of
illegal substance use among gay youth are
about 190 percent higher than for heterosexu
al youth.
“Crisis” addresses these issues and more in
submissions from nationally known figures
including actors Richard Chamberlain and
Alec Mapa, former pro athletes Billy Bean and
John Amaechi, Episcopal Bishop The Right
^ Reverend Gene Robinson, U.S. Rep.
Tammy Baldwin, “Oprah”
design guru Nate Berkus and
MTV Networks President
Brian Graden.
“Crisis” also benefits sig
nificantly from an apprecia
ble number of contribu
tors who are not famous,
are not products of the
nation’s urban centers
and are still in their late teens and early 20s. A
handful of these individuals even reside here
in the Carolinas, while others are native
to the region but have settled else
where.
Q-Notes Editor Matt Comer is
among the the book’s Carolina con
tingent. “At 22, I’m young enough
that I still have vivid memories of
my own challenges as a gay
youth. And, to be honest, I
sometimes feel the effects of
those difficulties even now,”
he allows.
“You can’t just walk
away from all the hurts that
accompany being gay or lesbian in
this society and be instantly healed and com
pletely self-accepting. You have to go through a
see Leaders on 16
Hit hard
HIV rates continue to
climb in gay, bi men
page 13
Solo act
A Destiny’s Child goes
out on her own
page 18
q-notes.com
AIDS prayer ‘healing’ draws fire
Play producers create ‘Church
Mess’ at Winston-Salem university
by Matt Comer and David Stout
Q-Notes staff
WINSTON-SALEM — A play featuring
anti-gay and “ex-gay” religious themes will
be showcased at Winston-Salem State
University by a traveling Christian produc
tion company headed by an African-
American minister and his wife. The duo
claims a person can be healed of HIV/AIDS
through prayer and say an associate pastor
with their compa
ny has done just
that.
Winston-
Salem State is a
historically black
university. The
high rate of HIV
infections among
African-American
women and men
who have sex with
men make these
messages particu
larly controversial.
(See story on pagel3.)
On Sept. 28, the actors and actresses of
“Church Mess” are slated to perform at
Winston-Salem State’s Williams Auditorium.
According to C 3 Entertainment, the play
“features the religious church mother, the
money hungry deacon, the financially
strapped college student that is having an
affair with the deacon, the choir member
that lives an alternative lifestyle, the mem
bers that are in love with the pastor, the
‘down-low brother’ that’s hooked on pornog
raphy and the playboy minister of music.”
C 3 Entertainment’s management, the
Rev. Chad Everette Cooper and his wife
Alicia Robinson Cooper, also describe the
play as portraying “the church as the best
institution in the world for complete healing
and deliverance.”
In a February interview with “Praise the
Lord,” a program aired on Evangelical
Christian broadcasting network TBN,the
Coopers described homosexuality as a con
dition in need of a cure. They also related
the story of an associate pastor who was
“healed” from homosexuality and AIDS.
Cooper told the TBN audience that Kofi
Hemingway “was living a homosexual
lifestyle 10 years ago. He gives his testimony
at the end of the play about how he was so
engulfed in this lifestyle that all of his part
ners died of AIDS.”
Cooper further described how God
cured Hemingway’s HIV/AlDS infection.
“He was dying of AIDS,” Cooper
declared. He added that after three days of
prayer and fasting Hemingway “began to
pick up his weight and the sores began to
The ministry leaders producing the anti-gay ‘Church Mess’ hold
' skevred and dangerous views of the HIV/AIDS issue.
dry up and he went and took the test again
and he’s AIDS free.”
Hemingway told Q-Notes that he truly
believes he was cured of HIV/AIDS.
However, when questioned further, he
admitted that he had never taken an HIV
test prior to his “healing.”
“I was losing weight and my glands were
swelling,” Hemingway said.“What happend
was I came into a Bible study and the pastor
said that the Lord had shown him and his
wife that someone in the congregation had
the AIDS virus. At that moment I felt like it
was me.”
Hemingway said he felt he was infected
and dying because of his weight loss, visible
sores and the fact that he had been sexually
involved with other men who subsequently
died from AIDS complications.
The “ex-gay” pastor also allowed that
it was possible he was HIV-negative
prior to the“healing,” accounting for the
negative test result afterward.
see Ministry on 22
Pride Guide
Event listings, nightlife
and more for SC/NC
page 24
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