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SOUTHERN VOICE JULY15/1993
Jackson's veto holds, triggering another protest
Protestor S. Faybelle Ma-Hee says City Council could use an out, black dyke.
Okula removed from mayor’s
office, state legislators call for
anti-partnership bill
Atlanta—The fight over domestic partner
ship continued to boil last week, both at City
Hall and in the streets of Atlanta.
First, the City Council failed to override
Mayor Maynard Jackson’s veto of domestic
partnership benefits legislation, sparking an
other angry demonstration outside City Hall.
Then, a sudden reorganization in Jackson’s of
fice put a new layer of management over his
gay/lesbian liaison, Marcia Okula, who has been
publicly critical of the veto. And at week’s end,
three Atlanta-area state legislators announced
plans for anti-partnership legislation on a state
wide level, amid a hail of homophobic invec
tive.
On July 6, the council, as expected, failed
to override Jackson’s veto of the ordinance, as
more than 300 observers, about a quarter of
them gay men and lesbians, packed City Coun
cil chambers for the debate.
But the sponsor of the ordinance, Council-
woman Mary Davis, introduced new legisla
tion that would answer some of the financial
concerns that the mayor says led to the veto,
and the council then passed a resolution autho
rizing the city to begin discussions with the
city’s insurance carriers about the real costs of
such a program. It also voted down an attempt
by Councilman Dozier Smith, a partnership
opponent, to put the issue to a city-wide refer
endum.
Davis’ new legislation could come up for a
vote on July 19.
“We knew the veto override would be very
difficult,” said GAPAC lobbyist Larry
Pellegrini. “We’re really very angry dial we
have to go through all this again. But even
though we didn’t get enough votes for an over
ride, we did get enough to pass the legislation.
As unfair as it is that we have to do this over
again, we will not let up our efforts.”
While every attempt was made to success
fully override Jackson’s veto, acdvisls were
pleased that no votes were lost between die last
council meedng and this one. The vote—9 for
override, 7 against widi one abstention—was
idenucal to the vote cast for the bill on June 21.
Mayoral candidate and at-large Councilwoman
Myrtle Davis’ vote for the override replaced
that of Councilwoman Debbie McCarty, who
resigned to become the city’s parks commis
sioner.
“Those votes were crucial,” said Pellegrini.
“They took on the mayor and this issue at the
same time.”
Debate on the ordinance—and the resolu-
don to begin discussions with insurance carri
ers, which must be signed by the mayor by July
14—again focused heavily on the legitimacy
of estimates on the costs of providing insur
ance benefits to the partners of unmarried city
employees that were drawn up by the city’s
finance department.
“It is outrageous, morally indefensible for
our finance department to scare the people of
Adanta, the employees of Atlanta, and the tax
payers of Atlanta with false information,” said
Davis, pounding on the desk in front of her.
Smith defended the finance department fig
ures with claims that domestic partners pose a
“higher risk” than spouses. When pressed to
idenufy what that risk was by Councilwoman
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Cracker Barrel charges dropped
Atlanta—A Fulton County prosecutor has
decided to drop charges against 18 people
arrested during a 1991 protest at a Cracker
Barrel in Union City.
The demonstration was one of a series of
sit-ins staged by Queer Nalion/Adanta to pro
test anti-gay/lesbian employment policies in
stituted by the chain of roadside eateries,
which is based in Lebanon, Tenn.
In a letter to Cracker Barrel officials
explaing his decision to drop charges against
diose arrested on June 9,1991, Fulton County
Solicitor Paul L. Howard Jr. cited “the need
for healing and understanding rather than liti
gation with respect to the question of equal
employment opportunities.”
“We were not surprised,” said Lynn
Cothren, who was co-chair of QN/Atlanta
during the protest and one of those arrested.
“We were wailing for it.”
“In legal jargon, he was telling Cracker
Barrel what his point of view is,” said Cothrea
“He was basically on our side.”
Howard’s decision closed the book on 38
criminal' trespass charges filed in connection
with area demonstrations. The sit-ins were
triggered in early 1991 when Cracker Barrel
management sent a directive to store manag
ers which said hiring people who “fail to
demonstration normal heterosexual values”
would be “inconsistent with those in our cus
tomer base.”
At least 17 people were fired across the
Southeast as a result of that policy, including
Cheryl Summerville, a Bremen, Ga. resident
whose termination notice cited “Employee is
gay” as the reason for her firing.
Queer Nation/Atlanta began a series of
sit-ins protesting the policy almost immedi
ately after its release, demanding that Cracker
Barrel rescind the policy and rehire the fired
employees. The company insisted that it had
rescinded the policy, but to date no fired
employee has been rehired.
Twenty other arrests took place during
demonstrations at the Lithonia Cracker Bar
rel in DeKalb County, including eleven on
June 30, 1994. Ten of those eleven (one of
those arrested settled out of court) were found
not guilty of criminal trespass on April 2,
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Fired employee Cheryl Summerville
walks away from 1991 Union City sit-in.
Murder/suicide on Bulldogs' deck
Atlanta—An argument turned to tragedy
on the deck of a popular Midtown gay bar last
Thursday, when a man shot another man three
times and then turned the gun on himself.
As Southern Voice went to press, police
were offering very few details surrounding the
murder-suicide at Bulldog and Co. on Peachtree
Street, which left Ignacio Urbizu, 51, and Wil
liam Marshall, 28, both of Atlanta, dead at the
scene.
Witnesses told reporters that the pair had
been arguing across the street as they ap
proached the Peachtree Street bar around 6:30
p.m. on July 8. When they reached the back
deck entrance into the bar, Urbizu shot Marshall
twice in the chest and once in the head with a
.25-calibcr handgun, then shot himself in the
head.
Few patrons were on hand at the bar when
the killings occurred. Some reported that the
shots “sounded like fireworks” at first, but dial
they quickly determined what had happened
and called police. One patron attempted to re
vive Urbizu with CPR but failed.
The relationship between the men, and what
precipitated their deadly encounter, remains un
clear. The Atlanta Police Department’s detec
tive in charge of the investigation was not avail
able for comment, and the department issued
few details beyond the identities of the two
men.
Police Chief Eldrin Bell, who has ordered
increased police patrols in the wake of recent
gay/lesbian protests, came to the crime scene
himself and made statements to the press.
Dennis McGowan, the chief investigator
at the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s of
fice, said that as far as he knew', Urbizu and
Marshall were acquainted.
“I don’t know to what extern,” McGowan
said, “But they did know one another before
lire event.”
KC WILD MOON
Man gets life for shooting lesbians in Macon
Macon, GA—A man who walked into a
gay/lcsbian bar in Macon last January and fired
seven shoLs, killing one woman and wounding
another, was convicted of murder last week
and sentenced to life in prison.
A Bibb County Superior Court jury con
victed Dcion Felton of murder in the death of
Elie Davidson, of Kingsport, Tenn., who was
shot in the back and died later at a local hospi
tal. Felton also received a 20-ycar sentence for
wounding another patron, Diane Salyers, and
10 more years for shooting into a bar stool
where another patron, Frances Ryan, was sil
ting.
What turned into one of Georgia’s worst
incidents of anti-gay/lesbian violence began last
January 13, when Felton, Shawn Hightower
(who pled guilty to lesser charges) and four
other men went to a straight bar in downtown
Macon. Two men perceived by the group to be
gay walked in. As one of the Felton’s compan
ions, Eric Jackson, later testified, Felton began
to pick a fight and curse at the men, who then
left. As the men began to make their way out of
lire bar, Jackson said says that Felton remarked
that he planned to follow the men to the Pe
gasus Lounge, a nearby gay/lesbian bar, and
“shoot the place up and scare them.” Hightower
asked Jackson for a handgun, which he gave to
Felton.
Sometime after midnight, four men came
into the Pegasus and began to harass palroas
until asked to leave. Patrons had initially thought
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