Newspaper Page Text
JULY 29 - AUGUST 4 /1993
NEWS
Charges dismissed against Pear
Garden Six PAGE 3
A peek inside the divorce file of Rev.
Charles Stanley PAGES
MILITARY DECISION
Atlanta's gays and lesbians give a
thumbs down pages S AND 7
Full text of the Secretary of Defense's
order page is
SOUTHEAST
Georgia's Confederate-laden state flag
draws boos In San Francisco PAGE 4
New Orleans adopts domestic
partnership registry PAGE 4
NATION
Colorado Supreme Court deals death
blow to Amendment 2 PAGE 11
SPORTS
Reports on the Pride run, Hotianta
softball and volleyball PAGE 17
OUT AND ABOUT
B00K8
"Stone Butch Blues" author coming to
Charls page ei
THEATER
Meet Eula Mae and the cast ol zany
characters In her combination beauty
parlor/bait store PAGE 24
PREVIEW
Round-Up '83, Southern County’s
country dance extravaganza, coming
In August page ei
IfOllim 6/NUMBER 23 PIUS! RICfCI! He VfHUI SOID
QUEER ANGER
Clinton's decision leads
to protest, arrests
Page 6
Front line view
HRCF lobbyist Cathy Woolard’s reflections on the military ban fight .
Five days had passed since she heard the news
from the president’s lips, knew that the cause she had
poured herself into for so many months had been de
feated. Still, as she talks to Southern Voice, Cathy
Woolard is surprisingly upbeat, and, as always, frank
and disarming.
“I guess crashing disappointment doesn’t last for
ever,” she jokes.
Woolard is well known to gay and lesbian Atlanta
as a long-time activist on the movement’s front lines. In
1991, she went to Washington to work full time for the
Human Rights Campaign Fund and became one of the
HRCF’s lead lobbyists on the issue that, like it or not
(and many lesbians and gay men don’t), has crystal
lized into the focus of the struggle—the admission of
openly gay and lesbian people in the military.
“You can’t spend this kind of time and this many
hours working on an issue—hoping for the maximum
outcome and getting the minimum outcome—and not
feel pretty devastated,” Woolard says. “Last week, I
was pretty depressed.”
On Monday, July 19, President Clinton announced
a compromise plan that would allow gays and lesbians
in the military only if they stayed in the closet or
promised celibacy, conditions those working to over
turn the ban told the White House were unacceptable.
“By Monday, [the announcement] was pretty anti-
climactic,” says Woolard. On Friday afternoon, she and
Lhc other lobbyists began hearing the news through
Anti-ban rally set
A dcmonslration against President
Clinton’s proposal on regulating gay and
lesbian personnel in the American mili
tary will be held this Saturday, July 31,
in Atlanta.
Entitled “Be All You Can Be, Just
Not In Sam Nunn’s Army,” the demon
stration will begin at 2 p.m. at the Armed
Forces recruiting station at 1447
Peachtree St. in Mid town.
The event is being organized by
Dykes and Faggots Bash Back and the
Lesbian Avengers.
Cathy Woolard
leaks. The president’s policy would be closer to that of
U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn that to the position of gay/lcsbian
groups trying to overturn the ban.
Still, working in Washington, in the middle of one
of the most divisive issues in recent memory, was a
learning experience for this newcomer to the scene.
“I have found this whole process enormously fasci
nating,” she says. “I even found Senator Nunn pretty
fascinating.”
One of Woolard’s tasks as a lobbyist was to talk to
her fellow Georgian, Sam Nunn. Or rather, talk to Sam
Nunn’s people, as she never got to sec the senator
himself. She says what was fascinating was the way
Nunn used strategy and his power, even if it was used
against her cause. And though he has become the focus
for much of the anger of the lesbian/gay community,
Woolard says that, in her view from behind the scenes,
Nunn’s behavior stems from his role as protector of the
military and friend of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not from
a mean streak of homophobia.
“Washington is a bigger picture. There are lots of
nuances that play into things,” she says. “Sam Nunn has
CONTINUES ON PAGE 14
JOSEPH K. VH-FAKIN'