Newspapers / Community Connections (Asheville, N.C.) / Sept. 1, 1991, edition 1 / Page 15
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Community Connections, September, 1991 Page 15 COMMUNITY SNAPSHOT Name: Bonnie Smith Age: 24 Hometown: Dunedin, Florida Favorite book last read: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff Favorite Music: Jazz or New Age Favorite Sport: Hiking Favorite Color: Green A food I can’t resist: Quiche Occupation: Student As a kid I was: bored. Pet: Two cats, Patch and Lucy; a bird, Gussy; and some fish I’m really good at: motivating people. An aspect of myself I’d like to improve: Consistency For me, the best thing about being involved in the Upstate South Carolina gay/lesbian community is: when you get in touch with new people and they respond with "I didn’t know there was anything going on here." My idea of a good time is: doing something with my friends that is goal oriented with a positive outcome. Photo by Ron Hoskins Bonnie is the current President pro tern of the Palmetto Gay and Lesbian Association (PGLA). She is co-chair ofPGLA’s Switchboard. She is also on the steering committee of the Upstate Women’s Community. SPEAKING OUT! Send us a copy when you send letters or telegrams about gay/lesbian issues to elected officials, mainstream press, or companies. The Reverend C.A. Zabriskie All Souls Parish P.O. Box 5978 Asheville, NC 28813-5978 Dear Sir: As a member of C.L.O.S.E.R., the Gay/Lesbian community, and an involved PWA, I wish to sincerely thank you for your article in All Souls’ monthly publication, The Leaflet, entitled "Has All Souls Become A Gay Church?" I grew up in rural Western Tennessee, the son of a large family of Southern Baptists, my father being a minister of the same. I don’t believe that I need explain more. All Souls means a great deal to me. Although not a member of the church, she has influenced my life immeasurably. The Gay/Lesbian community does contribute to All Souls in very small ways, but it can never repay All Souls for its continual contribution to us. I personally have witnessed good works of All Souls that had nothing to do with the Gay/Lesbian community, and it does my heart good to see those works. All Souls’ non-judgmental involvement in its activities and services is to be commended. Joan and Dan Marshall are my adoptive parents, as they are to many others. Their involvement and support is priceless and precious, and cannot be measured. We are thankful to All Souls, its membership, its contribution to our community, for you and for the Marshalls. by Ron Huskins Bonnie describes herself as a "geek" while attending junior high and high school. She was in the Pep Club and served as Student Body President during her senior year at Dunedin High School. She was also very involved in the Girl Scouts and obtained the Gold Award, which is the highest honor given in the Girl Scouts. As a senior she served as a Girl Scout leader for a group of Cadettes in the area. It was the summer after she graduated from high school, and Bonnie was on an outing with the North Carolina Outward Bound School at Table Rock in Burke County, NC, when she realized she was a lesbian. "I had a three-day solo where I was by myself in the woods with no food and no company. I wrote in my journal that I would have to accept myself for whoever I am. I guess I was kind of working through some things, although I really didn’t acknowledge it," Bonnie remembered. She graduated from the Outward Bound course and started working at a Girl Scout camp. It was here Bonnie had her first affair with another woman and "that was it," Bonnie said. Sincerely, Bill N. Allen After returning home, Bonnie began to search for all the information she could find about homosexuality. "I would go to the library, but I wouldn’t check anything out because Mom or somebody might find it. I would call the gay switchboard in the area and I would hang up immediately. Then I’d call again, and hang up again." She says that now she can sympathize a little with the people who call the switchboard. "Whoever was answering the switchboard in Clearwater, Florida, thank you for your patience," she said. In the fall of that same year, Bonnie moved to Greenville, SC, to attend Furman. "Coming out in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida and coming to Furman, a Southern Baptist University in the buckle of the Bible Belt, I was positive I was the only homosexual there." Of course, she was wrong. It wasn’t long before she discovered others and soon had a small circle of friends. She went on to enjoy her four years at Furman. 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