Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN M
Debuque
VOICE
Gays Do It
orsyth Style
Page 3
| Vol. 1, No. 2 Taking Pride in Our Culture
March 15,1988
INSIDE
News in Brief
Gore courts gays; Britain anti-gay
bill passes; gay attorney sues
Connecticut Mutual; National
Security Agency fires open gay;
HRCF and Fairness Fund merge,
and more. Page 2
At Odds
Media watcher, Peter Dakutis,
takes on Jasper Dorsey and the
Neighbor Newspapers. Watch for
At Odds in each issue and wield
that pen! Page 3
Counterculture
Different under the microscope;
Mountain Climbing in Sheridan
Square and A Lesbian Photo
Album reviewed; Divine dead at
42. Page 7
Calendar
It's all right here for you; what to
do, where to go in Atlanta. The
next two weeks are full of it!
Check it out Page 8
Sports
It's volleyball, or is it? Sports
reporter Michael McMillan's look
at Hotlanta Volleyball makes you
wonder, folks. Page 11
Keep Refrigerated
More bittersweetness from
cartoonist, Charles Haver, Nadisa
puts her two "sense" in; and
Martia Proba reads your planets.
Page 14
Two in Twenty
The world's first lesbian soap
opera. Good fun and good politics.
Reviewed in Sojourner: The
Women's Forum. Why Two in
Twenty ?" Because one in ten
sounds so lonely!" Page 11
Score: LEGAL-3, The System-0
Dick Rhodes, Melinda Daniels, Lee Harrington and Paul Garrard Celebrate Victory
■photo by Leigh Connor
Gay Man to Run for Ga. House
In a surprise election night move, local gay
activist, Dick Rhodes, announced his
candidacy for the Georgia House of
Representatives in District 46. The seat is being
vacated by incumbent Rep. Cathey W.
Steinberg (D), who has announced her
intention to run for the Public Service
Commission.
In response to charges that his will be a
single-issue campaign, Rhodes stressed that he
is" a gay man running for political office, ...
not a gay candidate. As a gay man, I realize
that every issue is important to the gay and
lesbian community."
Rhodes circulated throughout Atlanta’s gay
and lesbian community prior to his
announcement assessing the support he might
receive as Georgia's first openly gay candidate
in recent history. The newcomer to Georgia
politics found a "reasonably wide base of
support" for his candidacy in the traditionally
conservative 46th district District 46
encompasses much of the Lenox Road-Buford
Highway area in Dekalb County.
The candidate attributes his burst into
politics to the efforts of Lee Harrington and
Tim Forchet of LEGAL (Legislate Equality for
Gays and Lesbians), who backed his successful
bid to be a Gore delegate to the Democratic
National Convention from the 4th
Congressional district.
Among the issues that Rhodes will
highlight, both during his campaign and the
Convention, are drug and alcohol abuse, human
rights, anti-lesbian and gay violence and adult
illiteracy.
During an exclusive interview, Rhodes
stressed his viability as a candidate among
mainstream heterosexual voters. He proudly
points to an award he received for his volunteer
work as a member of the Valley Brook Baptist
Church. The award, the Rainbow Award for
Positive Christian Living, was given for his
work organizing fund-raising dinners to send
economically disadvantaged young people to
summer camp, and a series of lectures on
alcoholism and spiritual economics. The award
is given for exemplifying a "positive Christian
faith in daily life."
At press time, Rhodes was planning an
organizational meeting for his campaign staff.
Interested volunteers may call (404) 636-5410
for information. Contributions may be sent to
Lynn Merkle, Treasurer, The Dick Rhodes
Campaign Fund, P.O. Box 7636, Atlanta, Ga.
30357.
The Atlanta-based Democratic
club, LEGAL (Legislate Equality for
Gays and Lesbians), hosted an
Election Central party the night of the
primary elections at Backstreet, a
local bar, to track incoming results,
and support the hopes of their five
delegate candidates to the Democratic
National Convention.
The five delegate candidates were
Gil Robison and Joe Williford from
the 5th Congressional district, and
Dick Rhodes, Melinda Daniels and
Paul Garrard from the 4th
Congressional district. All of the five
delegates-elect were slated to Senator
Albert Gore's (D-TN) campaign, and
were pinning their hopes to reach the
Party's July convention on Gore's
ability to win votes in the
metropolitan 4th and 5th districts. As
the night progressed, Gore, The Rev.
Jesse Jackson (D) and Gov. Michael
Dukakis (D-MA) battled back and
forth across the state of Georgia for
the lion's share of the State's
Democratic vote.
All of those present at Election
Central quickly ceded the 5th district
to Jackson, who swept all six of the
district's delegates. CBS News
Anchorperson, Dan Rather, predicted
that Jackson would win as early as
8:00 PM EST.
In the 4th district, however,
everyone watched with anticipation as
Gore, Jackson and Dukakis constantly
replaced each other as front-runner in
the heated race for delegates. (See
SouthernVoice Volume 1,Number 1,
for a detailed analysis of the Georgia
Democratic Party's system of delegate
selection.)
When the last votes were tallied,
Gore sneaked by Jackson with 21,461
(30.6%) votes. Jackson earned 21,306
(30.4%) votes, and Dukakis finished
the night a very close third with
20,036 (28.6%) votes. Due to Gore's
winning margin of 155 votes, Rhodes-
a gay man, and Daniels- a lesbian, will
be going to the Convention, along
with Rita Valenti, A Georgia Nursing
Association Gore delegate, who
promised during the January caucuses
to support lesbian/gay rights and
AIDS issues at the Convention.
Garrard, a gay man, will be attending
as an alternate.
A jubilant Lee Harrington,
President of LEGAL, proclaimed at a
press conference, "Aren't bloc voting
and slates nice words in Georgia
tonight?", referring to a traditional
reticence among gay and lesbian
voters to band together and vote as
one unit, the tactic that enabled blacks
to gain politcal power in the early civil
rights movement.
Continued on Page 3
AIDS Bill Awaits Signature
The Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed the
Committee of Conference substitute to HB 1281, the Omnibus AIDS Bill on March 7, the last day
of the 1988 General Assembly Session. The bill now awaits Governor Joe Frank Hanris' signature
before becoming law.
The final version of the bill, which was strongly revised from Representative George Hooks
House Health and Ecology Sub-committee's version, was rated a 6 on a scale of 10 by Gil
Robison, Lobbyist for the Georgia AIDS Legislative Coalition.
Robison reported feeling "satisfied that we got the worst provisions (of the original draft) taken
out." This same attitude was mirrored by other AIDS activists and organizations.
The bill is extensive in its exercise of the State's police powers, and mentions AIDS prevention-
education only in the opening section, which states, "The Department of Human Resources is
encouraged to contunue its efforts to educate all Georgians about the disease, it causitive agent,
and its means of transmission."
Continued on Page 3
