Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN VOICE OCTOBER 14/1993
Billy McKinney ejected from candidates' forum
Nancy Schaefer beats
a hasty retreat as her
campaign manager scuffles
with security guards
Atlanta—Slate Rep. Billy McKinney, who is
managing the campaign of anti-gay mayoral can
didate Nancy Schaefer, had to be physically re
moved from a candidates’ forum last week after
tussling with security guards.
McKinney, already facing charges for alleg
edly punching a lesbian activist earlier this year,
marched toward the stage and began shouting at
the moderator after he learned that Schaefer,
who had missed a deadline imposed by the
forum’s sponsors, would not be allowed to speak.
“He was bodily removed from the room,”
said Sherry Frank, regional director for the
American Jewish Committee, which organized
the Oct. 4 forum at the Georgia Power Audito
rium. “He was there to create a disturbance, and
that didn’t happen because they got him out of
the room.”
As her campaign manager was being taken
out by security guards, Schaefer apparently left.
“She just disappeared,” said GAP AC lobby
ist Larry Pellegrini, who attended the forum.
“She was right at the back and she just disap
peared.”
Candidates interested in participating in the
forum were requested to respond to the commit
tee by 10 a.m. on the day of the event in order to
McKinney was “bodily removed from the
room,” says forum organizer Sherry Frank.
be included. Eight candidates responded, not
including Schaefer. So when she arrived at the
forum, she was told she could not participate.
“[McKinney] got hot and bothered by it,”
said Frank.
McKinney raced up the center aisle of the
auditorium as the forum began, shouting at the
moderator, Pellegrini said.
“He pointed up at her and said ‘you all are
being unfair,’ something like that,” Pellegrini
said. “Then he turned to the audience and said
that a very important candidate was not being
allowed to speak—Nancy Schaefer.”
According to Pellegrini, a security guard
crossed the room and asked McKinney to sit
5 down and be quiet. McKinney warned the guard
not to touch him, and when the guard put a hand
on the state representative’s shoulder. McKinney
reacted.
“He grabbed the officer around the neck,”
Pellegrini said. “He had him literally in a
hammcrlock.”
The security guard and two other forum or
ganizers managed to get McKinney outside the
auditorium, where a loud discussion continued,
with McKinney twice trying to force his way
back into the room.
The forum resumed as soon as McKinney
was escorted out, even though the sounds of the
argument from the hall could be heard inside the
auditorium.
Frank said that no charges were filed as a
result of the incident. Neither McKinney nor the
Schaefer campaign returned Southern Voice’s
phone calls for comment.
McKinney, an African American Democrat
who represents a district in southwest Atlanta,
allied himself with Schaefer, a white Christian
supremacist with Republican ties from the
northside, as the domestic partnership issue ex
ploded in the city this past summer. Their alli
ance is based primarily on their mutual opposi
tion to lesbian/gay rights legislation.
McKinney has been charged with assault for
allegedly striking lesbian activist Annie Archbold
during the City Council’s final debate on do
mestic partnership in August. Archbold has been
charged with striking a McKinney supporter.
Trial dates have not yet been set in either case.
KC WILDM00N
Discharge recommended for gay reservist
“I trusted Bill Clinton to do
what he said he would do,”
says Atlanta’s Danny Ingram.
“1 respectfully submit that I am a gay sol
dier.” -
With those words, written in a letter to Maj.
Gen. John C. Roth on Oct. 23, 1992, Danny
Ingram, a specialist with the United States Army
Reserve, informed his commanding officer of
his sexual orientation. He did so at Roth’s re
quest, knowing full well that discharge proceed
ings would be started against him simply be
cause of those words.
“1 trusted Bill Clinton to do what he said he
would do,” said Ingram. “And as time went by, I
felt like I might beat it.”
But it has not worked out that way. On Oct.
3, a three-officer panel recommended discharge
for Ingram, based solely on his admission that
he is gay. It is a story being played out across the
country as the battle over gays in the military is
fought in the nation’s federal courts.
“When the board [issued its recommenda
tion], the president [of the board] said, ‘You
know we hate to make a recommendation like
this, but we have no choice,”’ said Ingram, who
has served with the reserves for more than 5
years with a maintenance unit.
“I have an exceptional record—all kinds of
letters, awards. It was obvious I was very good
at being a soldier. I think the board thought it
was very unfortunate that they were going to
have to recommend a discharge.”
The military’s policy on gays and lesbians
remains in limbo. President Clinton’s “don’t ask,
don’t tell, don’t pursue” policy hadn’t even gone
into effect yet when the compromise was over
ruled by Congress, which instead approved lan
guage that says “homosexuality is incompatible
with military service.” Three federal court judges
have ruled the ban unconstitutional, but the
Clinton administration is fighting those rulings.
Ingram’s reserve status required him to work
with his unit one weekend each month and two
weeks each summer. He said that he had not
been open about his orientation with members
of his unit, because, he said, “I knew that there
could be problems.”
“This was a very heavily discussed topic
over the past few months,” Ingram said.
“Strangely enough, the older guys, particularly
the ones who had been in the military for a long
time, were accepting. They were fine with it. It
was the younger guys who had some very nega
tive feelings.”
“In fact, if the letter had never gone further
than the general and myself, he would be the
only one that knew.”
Ingram’s batde with the military began last
September when he met Joseph Steffan, the U.S.
Naval Academy midshipman booted from the
service shortly before graduation.
“I felt ashamed that 1 wasn’t doing any-
CONTINUES ON PAGE 17
Ingram on duty with the 81st U.S. Army Reserve Command
AIDS Walk
this Sunday
Six-mile walk raises
money for AIDS
service organizations
Atlanta—More than 13,000 people arc
expected to converge on Midtown’s Pied
mont Park Sunday afternoon for AIDS
Walk Atlanta.
Producers of the city’s third-annual
AIDS walk are hoping to raise $1 million
from the event, which directly benefits AID
Atlanta and Project Open Hand and also
provides grant money for other AIDS ser
vice organizations in the city.
Walkers are scheduled to begin regis
tering and turning in their pledge money at
1 p.m. in a tent on the 10th Street side of
the park. After a pre-walk opening cer
emony at 1:30 p.m., walkers will begin a
10-kilometer (6.2 mile) walk at 2 p.m. from
Midtown through Ansley Park and Vir
ginia-Highland and back to the park.
Craig Miller of Miller Zeichik Associ
ates, which is producing the walk this year,
said that the exact route of the walk is not
being released in advance for security rea
sons. This year, the walk, expected to take
about two hours, is twice the distance of
last year’s walk.
“We changed it because we think it
helps with fundraising,” said Miller, whose
firm produces AIDS walks in Los Angeles
and San Francisco. He said because people
often pledge a dollar amount per kilome
ter, increasing the distance of the walk in
creases the amount of money generated.
- Walkers are scheduled to begin
registering and turning in their
pledge money at 1 p.m. in a tent on
the 10th Street side of the park.
After a pre-walk opening ceremony
at 1:30 p.m., walkers will begin a
10-kilometer (6.2 mile) walk at 2
p.m. from Midtown through Ansley
Park and Virginia-Highland and
back to the park.
At 4 p.m., a post-walk concert will be
held at the park.
At press time, the only confirmed en
tertainer for the event is singer Michael
Callen. But, Miller says, “We have a num
ber of exciting irons in the fire.”
About 300 to 400 teams, representing
corporations, businesses and community
groups, are expected to participate. Walk
ers who have not signed up sponsors but
who would like to contribute can do so at
the registration tent.
After expenses are paid, 60 percent of
the walk’s proceeds go to AID Atlanta and
15 percent to Project Open Hand. The re
maining 25 percent go to the Metropolitan
Atlanta Community Foundation for distri
bution to other AIDS service organizations.
RICHARD SHUMATE
Correction
In an article in last week’s Southern Voice
about GAPAC’s forum for City Council candi
dates, the position of Chester Dixon, a candidate
in District 2, on the issue of domestic partner
ship was incorrectly stated. Dixon says he sup
ports domestic partnership. Southern Voice re
grets the error.