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0
International News
by Andy Harley . UKGayNews
Praise for Phelps ban
LONDON — British Immigration
Minister Phil Woolas publicly thanked the
Labour Campaign for Lesbian, Gay
Bisexual and Trans Rights (LGBT Labour)
organization on Feb. 25 for their campaign
against the homophobic group Westboro
Baptist Church.
The campaign led to a ban on Fred Phelps
and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from
entering the U.K. by Home Secretary Jacqui
Smith.
“The Home Secretary responded to calls
from LGBT Labour — and others — to ban
the hateful preachers who run the homopho
bic website, godhatefags.com,” he said in a
statement issued at lunchtime by his House of
Commons office.
“Thank you to the LGBT Labour — the
Labour Campaign for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual
and Trans Rights — for their persistence
and vigilance,” Woolas said. “The lobbying
on the Westboro Baptist Church was timely
and precise. The Home Secretary has con
firmed the exclusion order.
“I am grateful to the group whose argu
ments were strong and convincing. The
Labour Government will always oppose
homophobia,” he pledged.
Simon Wright, co-chair of LGBT Labour
had written to Woolas about the Westboro
Baptist Church’s planned visit to the U.K.
Subsequently, the group met with Woolas and
spoke regularly on the phone about the issues
as they developed.
Fred Phelps had announced that his
“church,” which is not part of the Southern
Baptist Convention, would be picketing a pro
duction of “The Laramie Project” on Feb. 20
by a theatre group at a Basingstoke school. In
his press release Phelps attacked the Queen,
using a derogatory remark.
Following the announcement that the
Westboro Baptist Church had been banned
from entering the country, Wright said that the
ban showed that the government was taking
homophobia very seriously.
“We are very pleased that the Home
Secretary has barred these preachers of
homophobic hatred from our country. It
sends a strong message that homophobia,
see next page >
Flurry of events blanket area
from page 7
In recent years, NARTH has come under
fire for racist and other seemingly preju
diced positions and statements made by
their staff and other leaders affiliated with
the group.
Besen said that he wit
nessed more youth present
at the Charlotte Love Won
Out conference than he had
at any other he’d attended.
“It was heartbreaking to
see more young people
than I ever had before at
this traveling‘ex-gay’ road
show,” he writes in his latest
syndicated column (read it
in this issue, page 26).
“There was a cardboard
sign that read‘Youth Track’
[inside the conference] and
several teenagers — some
that appeared not much
older than 13 — were
being taken inside by their
desperate and confused
parents.”
That evening, 900 LGBT community mem
bers from across the Carolinas gathered at the
Charlotte Convention Center for the 14th Annual
Human Rights Campaign Carolinas Gala.
U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) was the
keynote speaker for the event. HRC President
Joe Solmonese also spoke. EqualityNC and
Lesbian & Gay Community Center of
Charlotte Board Chair Denise Palm-Beck were
honored with the 2009 Equality Awards.
Volunteer LaWana Slack-Mayfield received the
group’s 2009 Volunteer of the Year Award.
HRC Gala co-chair Michael Holmes said
they had not yet finalized the numbers for the
amount raised at the benefit dinner, but said the
group was “on track” with all the other dinners
in the nation, “given the state of the economy!’
“We just slightly exceeded what we made last
year on sponsorships,” he said.“Overall, we are
all very pleased with where we have ended up.”
Outside the Gala, members of the trans
gender community
protested HRC
alongside anti-gay
group Operation
Save America.
Janice Covington,
chair of
TransCarolina, said
her members
wanted HRC to
know about their
displeasure with
the group’s deci
sion to exclude
them from the
Employment Non-
Discrimination Act
in the fall of 2007.
Covington said
she and another
transgender activist
were able to meet with HRC President Joe
Solmonese the day before the Gala.
The flurry of activity in February — and
the combination of several high profile events
— sparked intense community ffiscussion
and heavy media coverage. Through mid-
February, every TV news station and The
Charlotte Observer covered the LGBT and anti
gay events at least once. I
Lesbian & Gay Community Center of
Charlotte board chair Denise Palm Beck
accepts the 2009 HRC Equality Award.
Online extras:
L(^on to Q-Notes Online at
www.q-notes.com to see photos and
videos of the various LGBT and anti-gay
events, including the video montage,
“Queer Fd>ruary ’
8 MARCH 7.2009 *j[jNotes