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Taking Pride in Our Culture
Booze
Substance abuse
is a significant problem
for lesbians and gay
men. Some reasons and
some help. 13
Bodies
Mr. Universe
returns to 7 Stages. Is he
every gay man’s
fantasy? 17
Bowiinq
DIBO’s Uth
Annual tournament
means there’ll be
thunder in the lanes
Easter weekend. 36
Atlanta Gay Basher Sentenced to 21 Years
Man convicted of aggravated assault
despite his defense of "homosexual panic"
by Patrick Garvey
Atlanta—Thomas Germain (a pseudonym) watched a 19
month nightmare come to an end on Wednesday March 13 as a
Sheriffs Deputy handcuffed Michael Shannon and led him out
of a Fulton County courtroom into a police van. A jury had just
found Shannon guilty of aggravated assault and simple battery;
Judge Frank Hull sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
On August 18,1989, Shannon had attacked Germain with a
sword—stabbing him in the chest, slashing his forearm to the
bone, leaving his fingers dangling from his hand and nearly
severing his ear. Since then Germain has incurred over
$100,000 in medical expenses. He goes to occupational thera
py three times a week to regain the use of his fingers. Germain
was fired from his job because of his injuries kept him from
working full-time; he remains unemployed.
But, Germain says, it's his experience with the police inves
tigation of his attack that has left him really despondent. He
feels that the District Attorney's office would never even have
been able to prosecute Shannon had Germain not taken it upon
himself to produce certain evidence confirming the violent
nature of the crime against him.
The sword Shannon used to attack Germain was lost in the
property room of the Atlanta Police Department until Shannon
tracked it down. He also followed up on a short-lived police
investigation by taking pictures of the bloodstained walls and
carpets in his apartment thus confirming the severity of the
attack.
The sword and the pictures proved vital in the conviction of
Michael Shannon because he and Germain offered distinctly
conflicting testimony during the three day long trial.
Germain testified that he first saw Shannon in the now
closed Pharr Library—a well known Buckhead gay club—on
the night of Saturday August 17,1989. He introduced himself
to Shannon in the parking lot outside the club. Shannon, saying
his name was Tony, asked Germain if he had any drugs.
Germain replied that he had some prescription sleeping pills at
his home. -
Together, said Germain, they went back to his apartment
where they each drank two beers and took a sleeping pill. He
said that they hugged and kissed for a while before falling
asleep on his bed.
The next morning, after cooking breakfast, Germain said he
noticed that two more sleeping pills were missing. He asked
Shannon about the missing pills and the man admitted taking
them, During this discussion Shannon was looking at an
antique Japanese sword that was part of Germain's antique col
lection.
Then without provocation, said Germain, Shannon attacked
him with the sword, slashing him three times. Germain said he
felt that his attacker would have killed him had he not maneu
vered his way out the front door, using the sword to push
Shannon away.
Germain ran to a neighbor's apartment and called the police.
Atlanta Police Officer Brooker Wolf testified that the apart
ment was "a bloody mess" when he arrived. Shannon was
nowhere in sight, but neighbors told police that the had seen a
man in white shorts (Shannon was wearing white shorts and a
California Angels T-shirt) fleeing the apartment complex short
ly after the crime occurred.
See Basher, page 28
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There are lots of reasons for remaining closeted and invisible. It's hard
to imagine a lesbian and or gay man who hasn't memorized the list.
But there are also some very good reasons for coming out of the closet
and acknowledging one’s identity as gay or lesbian. This is the first in a
series of articles about those reasons.
The intent of these articles is not to deny that some individuals have
good cause for keeping their sexual orientation a closely guarded secret.
These articles will simply show another perspective on going public about
who we are.
There’s a second reason for this series. On June 22-23, Atlanta will hold
its 20th consecutive Pride celebration. Atlanta's Lesbian and Gay Pride
Committee has set a goal of 20,000 for attendance at this year's celebra
tion.
Attending one or more Pride events does not require being out to every -
one in the world. It does require a degree of bravery, pride and self-accep
tance hard to come by in the darkness of the closet. We hope that this series
will enable some of our readers to emerge from that darkness.
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Out of the Darkness:
Family, friends, and support systems
by Debbie Fraker
For some lesbians and gay men, family
members are the first they come out to. For
others, the family home is the last place they
feel safe being often about sexual orientation.
The potential for loss when coming out to
one's family can't be denied.
Michael Bennett found himself complete
ly cut off from most of his nuclear family as
soon as they discovered he was gay, but his
family never was very supportive. Bennett's
experiences with his lover's family have been
quite different, however. He and his partner,
Stephen Henson, have been together for
. twelve years, and Stephen's family has served
as a solid support system for both of them.
"The very first time I went to Little Rock
(the Henson family home), I was standing in
the kitchen cooking when Stephen's mother
came in, put her arm around me and told me
how glad she was that one of her children
had married well," Michael remembered.
Bennett and Henson are also very close to
Stephen's sister and her family, who live in
Atlanta. But Michael has a special relation
ship with his mother-in-law. "Stephen just
happened to mention that I wanted a lace
tablecloth for the dining room table,"
Michael related, "and she said she had some
thing she wanted to send me." What she sent
was a handmade lace bedspread that had
been in the family for over a hundred years.
When Michael talks about family, he talks
about Hensons. He tells stories about their
nieces and nephew, about family holidays,
about sitting through family video sessions.
Some of his friends assume his own family
members are all dead. Michael may have lost
one family by being honest, but that same
honesty has gained him a far more supportive
one.
Teresa Dalton told her mother that she
was a lesbian only after giving herself a cou
ple of years to get comfortable with the idea,
herself. Ho - mother's reaction was "as long as
you're happy, I don't care what you're doing."
Other family members found out shortly
after. Since then, being "out" hasn't really
been an issue. She prefers to be discreet and
is generally not publicly demonstrative in
relationships, but she doesn't hide herself
from anyone.
Her mostly-straight, mostly-male co
workers are also her friends. And she doesn't
hesitate to attend their social functions with
her girlfriend. In fact, they met at work and
are usually invited to the same parties any
way. Because Teresa was hired by someone
she knew previously, coming out to her new
co-workers wasn't a problem. "I never felt
like I had to tell anybody, because everybody
already knew." But that was fine with her,
"I'd been in situations where no one knew
and it was terrible," she adds.
Most of the Daltons live in the Atlanta
area and get together regularly for holidays;
Teresa's lover is welcomed as family. They
have a rule that only family disciplines her
older sister's little boy, and KK, the nephew's
affectionate name for Dalton's girlfriend, is
allowed to discipline him. The two of them
enjoy babysitting together. Teresa is especial
ly close to her mother and older sister, and
the four of them get together often. "They're
two of our best friends," Dalton says, "we
even vacation together."
Melvin Ross came out to his family
while he was in college. Melvin says that
his father's immediate reaction was "we're
paying for your education and we're not pay-
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