SECOND STATEWIDE MEETING
RALEIGH—About 40 persons, representing
more than 12 organizations and 10 cities,
attended the second meeting this year of
North Carolina’s gay groups April 25 in
Raleigh.
The first meeting, sponsored by AWARE,
was held in Winston-Salem in January. The
next statewide get-together, to be sponsored
by Greensboro groups, will be in late summer
or early fall.
The April 25 meeting, sponsored by the
North Carolina Human Rights Fund, focused
on improving the legal and political position of
the state’s gay population through better
communication within the gay community.
The meeting began with a brief
presentation by a former Baptist minister,
who discussed the importance of religion to
many gay persons, both those who belong to
gay religious organizations like MCC and
Dignity and those who remain, either in or out
of the closet, in mainstream churches.
John Boddie, a Raleigh lawyer, discussed
the legal position of North Carolina’s gay
community. He stressed that, as individuals,
most gay people should be concerned with
laws that, as a group, the gay community
should not be working to change. For
example, Boddie painted out that the average
gay person has a much greater chance of
being arrested for driving under the influence
than for crime against nature. However, as a
community, Boddie pointed out several laws
that gays should work to change. The most
Vandalism at NCSU
RALEIGH—N.C. State University’s Gay
Awareness Week was marred April 23 when a
group of hooded men (presumably students)
ransacked a display of gay books in the lobby
of the student center, throwing books onto
the floor and spilling soft drinks on the display
table. About $100 worth of damage was done.
Lambda Rising, the Washington, D.C.,
bookshop that had provided the books,
announced a $500 reward for anyone who
turned in the culprits. No suspects had been
identified at presstime.
Posters and banners put up by the NCSU
Gay Community, the campus group that
sponsored the week, were also torn down
during the course of the week.
Workshops and other events were held on
the campus for four days beginning April 21,
with mixed response. Two workshop
participants contacted by TFP, who asked
not to be identified, said they were distressed
by the attitude of the event organizers.
“The leaders of the State Gay Community
seem to be a lot more interested in creating
confrontation than in the real work of campus
groups—which should be educating both
gays and straights about gay concerns,” one
of the workshop leaders said. “I have no
intention of doing another workshop at State
until they figure out what they ought to be
doing.
continued on page 17
VA Politician Comes Out
ROANOKE, VA—Samuel A. Garrison, III,
who was chief Republican defense counsel in
the Watergate hearing but who later went to
prison for embezzling $46,000, has told his
family and friends that he is gay. He has also
said that he is not ashamed of being
homosexual but is ashamed of embezzling the
money.
Garrison, who grew up in Roanoke and
now lives in Fairfax, told the Associated
Press, “I was gay when I was elected
commonwealth’s attorney, but people didn’t
know it. I was gay when I worked for the vice
president, but people didn’t know it. 1 was gay
when I worked on the impeachment inquiry,
but people didn’t know it.”
“You see, gayness has been the greatest
single burden of my life,” Garrison said. “Now
I feel, with all the cards out on the table, that I
have more peace with myself and just a
generally better feeling about my interaction
with other people than I have ever had in my
life.”
urgent need is to try to repeal the crime
against nature law, he said, which makes it a
felony punishable by up to ten years in prison
for even consenting adults in private to
engage in oral or anal sex.
Bob Hellwig led a discussion of political
involvement by gay individuals and groups.
One participant, a lawyer who has held
political office, said the last thing gays should
do, he felt, is to hold demonstrations and
marches on the state capitol. The important
thing, he said, is for gay persons to work hard
in political campaigns and earn the respect of
the state’s political leaders before pushing
them to support gay rights.
Hellwig described how easy it is to write
state and federal officeholders, and how big an
impact even a single letter to a legislator can
have. Hellwig, who is the local representative
of the Gay Rights National Lobby, said the
GRNL is prepared to provide some funds to
any North Carolina congressional candidate
who would support the gay civil rights bill
pending in Congress. He also urged everyone
present to write their Congressman to oppose
the Family Protection Act, which could deny
federal funds to any gay person or group if it
were to pass the U.S. Congress.
Finally, there was a discussion of the
development of better communication within
the gay community. An NCHRF spokesman
said the organization hoped to put together a
mailing list, with safeguards for the privacy of
persons on the list, that would enable more
rapid communication when something
happens that requires immediate action. He
noted that New Right groups can generate
thousands of letters at the punch of a button
on their electronic typewriters. While the gay
community cannot come close to the
capability of groups like Helms’
Congressional Club, he stressed that we had
to begin now or be swamped when bills of
importance to gays come before Congress
and the state legislature.
Organizers of the meeting said they were
delighted that people came from all parts of
the state except the far west. They said they
were especially glad to see five people from
Charlotte.
LETTERS
Dear Editor:
I wish to thank members of the gay
community for their enthusiastic support of
the Durham Theatre Guild’s production of
The Boys in the Band: four of the six
performances were sell-outs! The cast was
elated and we, the management, were so
impressed that we plan to include in next
year’s season anothe play about
homosexuality, and would appreciate greatly
any suggestions. If anyone has a particular
play in mind he or she can send them to: The
Durham Theatre Guild, 120 Morris Street,
Durham , N.C. 27701, or can phone it in to
688-4259. We’ve been batting around The
Killing of Sister George — but what do we
know? Again, many thanks!
Yours,
John G. Younger
President, DTG
Pooh on Poetry
Dear Michael Baker:
My thanks to J of Wilmington for noticing
my letter (about TFFs first unfortunate
venture into poetry) and for perceiving that it
contained a point. (These letters appeared in
Vol. 3, No. 1 and No. 5—Ed.) This point was
not, of course, the relative importance of
native talent and hard work in the production
of worthwhile art, and I’m sure hell forgive me
for not going into that moot non-issue. The
issue, 1 thought, was whether, along with all its
other services, TFP should take on the
function of a regional arts journal and, if so,
whether it should exercise quality control.
The purpose of my letter was to register my
single and emphatic vote of No on the first
question and Yes on the second.
Ordinarily a literary magazine, of which
continued on page 15
ADVERTISERS WANTED
Next Issues On The Streets By Ad Deadline
May 25-June 7
June 8-June 28
Tuesday, May 25
Tuesday, June 8
Friday, May 14
Friday, May 28
Some Rates: Full Page-$130 / Half Page-$70 /
Quarter Page-$40 / Eighth Page-$25
Call us for a complete rate card or for
further information. Better yet, call us
to place your ad. Thank you!
(919) 829-0181
Box 25642, Raleigh, NC 27611
SUBSCRIPTIONS
A year’s subscription to The Front Page,
mailed in a plain, sealed envelope, costs only
$8.00. If for some reason you desire 1 st class
mailing, the cost is $16.30. A subscription
guarantees that you won’t miss
a single issue!
Name ____
Address
City
State
Zip