Letters: Who Reads The Front Page?
Dear Michael Baker,
Janelle Lavelle told me I should get in touch
with you. Since I consider myself a gay activist
I have sent copies of the enclosed letter to
many gay support groups around the state
and I run a counseling-support group for
young gays ages 16-24, so I’m trying to find out
the state of the gay population in N.C., I
undertand you did a survey through the Front
Page at least a couple of years ago. Are any of
those still available? And what other
information might you have that would help
me carry on my work?
Sincerely,
Stuart Norman
Greensboro, N.C.
Dear Front Page readers:
I am a gay activist in Greensboro, NC,
where there is little sense of community or
communication among gay people, although
it is a very tolerant city. We do have a strong
Gay Student Association at the University of
North Carolina and an active Gay Academic
Union chapter, but these organizations do not
and cannot serve the entire gay population. I
would like to create an organization which
could serve all the needs of gay people in
Greensboro, but that will take some time and
NEWS NOTES:
ERA FILM FEATURES NC
A highly-recommended documentary film
on the battle for and against the proposed
Equal Rights Amendment in North Carolina
will be shown on PBS Friday, April 16. The
program is entitled “Who Will Protect The
Family?”, and features Pulitzer-Prize winning
author Frances Fitzgerald doing on-camera
inteviews and commentary, and segments on
Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms and Sam Ervin.
Check your local TV listing for the date and
time.
GAY UNITARIAN TO SPEAK
The sermon at Raleigh’s Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship April 25 will be
delivered by Robert Wheatley, the head of the
national church’s Office for Gay Concerns.
The church is located at 3313 Wade
Avenue.
hard work getting people interested and
committed. And I would like to reach out
further. That’s why I’m writing you to let you
know what I’m attempting to do. I need to
know what your groups are doing.
I would like to start a network of
communication among the gay activists in
North Carolina. Perhaps in the near future we
could meet here to discuss the needs and
problems of gay people in our state.
Currently I am coordinator and chief
counselor for a Gay Counseling and Support
Group for young gays ages 16-24.
Unfortunately there has been little response. 1
am now advertising the group in the Front
Page and passing information by word of
mouth. My group is sponsored by a
rehabilitation center for young people, and we
have support from many community
agencies, although all the work is strictly
volunteer. We formed the group after seeing
the need of many young people having trouble
with their sexuality. Last year two boys
committed suicide here because they had
nowhere to turn when their parents
discovered them and rejected them.
By next year I plan to start a business to
give New Age Consciousness workshops.
One major workshop script I’m now working
GAYS PROTEST HELMS, EAST
Gay demonstrators joined in a group of
about 50 people in Raleigh March 21 who were
protesting an appearance by Senators Jesse
Helms and John East at the state fairgrounds.
An Associated Press story on the event
noted that one sign read “Gay and Lesbian
Christians.”
KKK PLATFORM
A Republican candidate for the state House
of Representatives has pledged to “work to
outlaw any form of public display of
homosexuality or pornography,” according to
the Kinston Free Press (3/16/82).
John W. Gooding, 29, who is running on
what he calls “a Ku Klux Klan platform,” is
seeking the GOP nomination for the state
house seat from the Third District.
on is a weekend-long Gay Awareness
Workshop which would cover all aspects of
gay culture and by using self-awareness
processes help us to integrate ourselves as
confident, loving, fulfilled and openly gay
human beings. The workshop would be
limited to 30 people. If there is sufficient
interest I would try to hold one at least twice a
year. I plan to advertise over the entire
Southeast. The fee would be in the range of
$50-$75 per person, exclusive of meals and
lodging.
If you are interested in sharing information
and/or participating in the Gay Awareness
Workshop please write me, in care of The
Front Page. Please let your friends know what
I’m attempting to do—spread the word and
get some feedback. Thank you.
In Gay Brotherhood,
Stuart Norman
Now About
Those Surveys. . .
Dear Michael Baker:
As the editor of SLAM, the S&M newsletter
which covers the same area as The Front
Page, I recently undertook a survey of my
readers. I thought you might be interested in
the results.
When I put the first ad for the newsletter in
The Front Page last summer, I expected to
get about a dozen responses—20 at the most.
I got that many readers the first two weeks.
After that, the number kept growing slowly
but steadily. As of December 15—the cut-off
date for the surveys—total readership was 85.
By the time you read this, it will be over 100.
SLAM is averaging 4 new readers per week,
with no sign yet of any tapering off.
The most interesting thing about the SLAM
survey, to me, was this: a high cluster of
readers in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
area, and a surprisingly low readership in
Charlotte. Of the total of 85 SLAM readers, 15
are in Chapel Hill/Carr boro, 12 in Durham,
and 10 in Raleigh. But in Charlotte, there are
only 3! Does this represent a circulation
problem for The Front Page? Is the paper
widely read in eastern and middle North
Carolina, and much less popular in the
western portions of the state?
The SLAM survey did point out, however,
that even though a lot of newsletter’s readers
live in the Triangle, they do travel to Charlotte
fairly frequently. The Capital Corral in Raleigh
was the clear winner of our survey, attracting
nearly twice the number of SLAMmers as its
nearest competitor—42nd Street in Durham.
That a Raleigh bar should be the most popular
with SLAM readers is partly a reflection of the
large number of readers in the Triangle. But
there was a strong showing by the two (non
dance) cruise bars in Charlotte: 30% have
visited the New Brass Rail and 28% have
visited Tags.
One other item that might be of interest to
you: while 45% of SLAM subscribers read
every issue of Drummer, 65% read every issue
of The Front Page.
By the way, whatever happended to The
Front Page survey? It’s been more than a year
since it appeared in the paper, but you still
haven’t published the results. What
happened? Other than that, you’re doing a
great job. Keep up the great work.
Tak Loufer, Editor
SLAM Newsletter
P.O. Box 1201
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514
First of all, Tak, thanks for writing, and
blessings upon your readers who say they
read every issue of The Front Page. Thanks
also for enclosing a copy of your newsletter, it
was helpful to see the total results of your
survey. The remark on your cover, though—
“SPECIAL BONUS: Nothing about
Stephen’s in this issue!”—was a little smart
alecky. Did 1 perhaps oversell the new Chapel
Hill nightspot?
Thanks for asking about our Reader’s
Survey. I know many readers are curious as
to whatever became of it. It’s still around; but
it’s proved to be a bitch to compile. When I
put it together, I never really thought about
that...I didn’t code the multiple choice
answers in such a way that they could be
easily tallied, either by hand or with the help
of a small computer. One volunteer labored
with the damn things for almost a year before
giving up, now the box full of them is sitting in
my kitchen.
Compounding the problem is the fact that
the survey got such phenomenal response.
continued on page 11
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