0EI08EB 1998
11 0 L II h E 10 HHBEB 10
COMMUNIT^ONNECTIONS
SERVING WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA’S LESBIAN, CAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERED COMMUNITY
ANNUAL WNCAP AUCTION
SET FOR NOVEMBER 14TH
WNCAP HIRES
NEW DIRECTOR
a to R-Mort Jonas. Chair. "Raise your Hand " auction. Honorary Chair. Leni Sitnick. Mayor City of Asheville.
Leslie Burnside. Executive Director. WNCAP. Julie Jemerson. WNCAP client
BY MORT JONAS
The Western North Carolina AIDS
Project (WNCAP) has scheduled its
major fund-raiser of the year for
Saturday evening, November 14,
1998. The event will be held in the
historic S&W Cafeteria, 56 Patton
Avenue, in downtown Asheville. In
recognition of the important services
WNCAP provides in the Community,
Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick has
agreed to serve as Honorary
Chairperson.
A silent auction and social hour will
begin at 6:30 PM, an elegant buffet
will be served at 7:30, and a live auc
tion will begin at 9:00. Tickets will
CHAIR continued on page 20
NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY
SET FOR OCTOBER IITH
BY CANDACE QINGRICH
National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is cel
ebrated every October 11th. Nineteen-
ninety-eight marks a decade of NCOD,
and we at the National Coming Out
Project are hoping that this tenth anniver
sary year will be its most successful ever.
The aim of National Coming Out Day
specifically and the National Coming Out
Project in general is to encourage queer
and queer supportive people to come out,
be visible, and educate those around
them. We accomplish this goal by coor
dinating NCOD events in all fifty states,
providing ..ung out resources includ
ing the .resource Guide to Coming Out (also
available in Spanish),
conducting educa- a
tional and outreach
campaigns in the H
queer and non- ■
queer press, and act-
ing as a resource for all
See Related
story on page
2
people at various stages of comingout
There are over thirty million gay men, les
bians, bisexuals, and transgendered indi-
Out continued on page 20
ASHEVILLE, NC - The Western
North Carolina AIDS Project is
pleased to announce the hiring of its
new Executive Director Leslie
Burnside of Hickory. Ms. Burnside has
served as an advocate for People with
AIDS through the AIDS Leadership
Foothills Area Alliance as well as being
a board member of the Ryan White
Consortium of Alexander, Burke,
Caldwell, and Catawba counties. She
is an experienced prevention educator
and has volunteered her support to the
HIV community for ten years.
Ms. Bumside recently led the
Catawba County Department of
Social Service's Families for Kids ini
tiative, a program funded by the W. K.
Kellogg Foundation to speed perma
nence for waiting children in foster
care. Under Ms. Bumside's leader
ship, the agency became one of the
leading counties in North Carolina to
reduce its foster care population and
WNCAP continued on page 18