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lOCil Newt: Gay Bashing Rallies Gays at UNC-CH, p.4 Local Nows: SC House Passes Marriage Amendment, p.14
March 4,2005_ Serving the Carolinas For Over 25 Years! Volume 26, Number 5
HRC Dinner Breaks Records in Charlotte
By Doug Shockley
Guest Writer
A small crowd of men, wearing red
flannel shirts and baseball caps stood
by die entrance to the log cabin home
snow with curious looks on their faces
as hundreds of gay men and women
from across the Carolinas descend
upon the Charlotte Convention Center
Saturday evening for the annual
Human Rights Campaign Dinner.
"Not to worry sir, we're really quite
harmless. We're just here to have a
good time", said one dinner attendee as
he walked past the group of flabber
gasted men with a look of bewilder
ment on their faces. And with that, the
tone for the evening was put into gear.
The party had begun.
Each year, tine Human Rights
Campaign holds its annual fundraising
dinner to raise money and promote
awareness for rights of GLBT individu
als and organizations throughout the
Carolinas.
Arid although Saturday night's din
ner was indeed similar to that of HRC
events in the past this year's dinner
superceded past events in numbers,
donations, excitement and overall
awareness for the cause.
This year was the first time in five
organization's 10-year history that the
event has been held in Charlotte. Based
on attendance, that was clearly a smart
move by event organizers. The
Charlotte dinner sold out every last one
■Keynote Speakers Robert Gant from Showtime’s Queer as Folk and Judy Shepard,mother of slain Matthew Shepard
of the 1350 available seats in Charlotte,
dramatically surpassing the previous
year’s dinner in Greensboro, in which a
then, record breaking 800 tickets were
sold.
Donations exceeding approximately
$300,000 were raised over the course of
the evening with one extraordinarily
generous gift of $50,000 by Mitchell
Gold and Bob Williams of The Mitchell
GcJd Cmnjpany^: . . ic '
As the evening began, excitement
grew as attendees were entertained by
the One ^Spirit Choir of Unity
Fellowship Church of Charlotte and an
unannounced, surprise performance
'Everybody Dance Now' and 'It's
Raining Men'. Without skipping a beat,
the entire room transformed into a
by Martha
as she sang,
dance dub and all 1350 attendees leapt
to their feet and danced.
Over the course of the evening HRC
recognized numerous individuals and
organizations that have made substan
tial contributions to the LGBT commu
nity throughout the Carolinas. Award
redpients induded Sandy Fitzgerald
and LeAnn Wallace, founders of
continued on page 19
Photos by Doug Shockley: Joni Madison (far left) and Shane L. Windmeyer (far right), co-chairs of the 2005 HRC Carolinas Dinner, flank Rick Myracle and Cheryl Ann Welsh as
they're presented with the Distinguished Leadership Award for their years of service to HRC-Carolina; Jonathan Nosan, an arial acrobat was among the entertainers; Joni
Madison presents the Equality Award for Community Service to Sandy Fitzgerald and LeAnn Wallace organizers of SWOOP (Strong Women Organizing Outrageous Projects);
and The One Spirit Choir of Unity Fellowship Church .of Charlotte singing "Power of Love."
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