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SOUTHERN VOICE MARCH24/1994
Report calls Cobb County a hotbed of hate group activity
Walter Reeves of the Neighbors Network unveiled the re
port last week.
County leaders urged to target
extremists, not law-abiding
gays and lesbians
Marietta—An extensive report on hate
group activity reveals that the Ku Klux Klan,
Nazi skinheads and other racist, anti-Semitic
and anti-gay groups have made the Cobb
County their base of operations, with little
resistance from county officials.
And since last August, when the Cobb
County Board of Commissioners passed a reso
lution condemning homosexuality, the report
found that harassment against gays and lesbi
ans has increased in the county that J.B. Stoner
and Ed Fields and a host of other white su
premacists and hatemongers call home.
Walter Reeves, co-chair of the education
and outreach committee of Neighbors Network,
which produced the report at the request of the
Cobb Citizens’ Coalition, took the commis
sioners to task for targeting gay and lesbian
people while ignoring KKK and Nazi activity,
including recruitment of Nazi skinheads in the
county’s public schools.
“It was clear to us that the official action of
a government authority singling out a specific
class of otherwise law-abiding citizens had
great ramifications in a county where this level
£ of hate group activity
i occurs,” said Reeves at
a press conference last
8 week at which the report
z was released.
Noel Lytle, co-chair
of the Cobb Citizens’
Coalition, which formed
last summer to counter
the commission’s anti
gay/lesbian stance, said
he found the report
“shocking and appall-
• _ »>
mg.
“Rather than con
demning a portion of its
peaceful citizenry, the
commissioners should
have been condemning
the activities of these of
ten violent hate groups,”
Lytle said. “The people who argue for white
supremacy and contend that the Holocaust
never happened are the same people we saw
on Marietta Square last summer holding ‘Praise
God for AIDS’ signs.”
Calling on the commissioners to speak out
Queer Nation/Atlanta decides to call it quits
Group cites low attendance,
other commitments by members
Atlanta — After nearly four years of street
activism, the members of Queer Nation/At
lanta decided last week to call it quits.
“We continued to have low attendance,
and a lot of the members were focused on
other commitments,” said spokesperson Dave
MacDonald. “It feels like an appropriate clo
sure for us right now.”
Started as part of a loosely-organized na
tional movement, Queer Nation/Atlanta burst
on to the scene in October 1990 with its bold
slogan, “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Get Used
To It.” It targeted a straight Midtown sports
bar, Jocks ‘n Jills, with a kiss-in and released a
report card on then-Mayor Maynard Jackson,
giving him an “F’ for keeping his promises to
the lesbian/gay community.
Many gays and lesbians in the
assimilationist camp found Queer Nation’s in-
your-face approach discomforting. But the
Atlanta chapter’s insistence on using peaceful
demonstration, based on the philosophies of
Martin Luther King Jr., was equally contro
versial among people who thought the group
needed to be more radical. Even Queer Nation
chapters in other cities criticized the approach.
“There were some groups that were angry
at us because we weren’t angry enough at our
oppressors,” MacDonald said.
Queer Nation reached its zenith in 1991,
Queer Nation reached its
zenith in 1991, when it took
the lead in protesting the
firing of gay and lesbian
employees by the Cracker
Barrel restaurant chain.
Several members of the group
were arrested during sit-ins at
Cracker Barrel restaurants in
Lithonia and Union City.
when it took the lead in protesting the firing of
gay and lesbian employees by the Cracker Bar
rel restaurant chain. Several members of the
group were arrested during sit-ins at Cracker
Barrel restaurants in Lithonia and Union City.
A DeKalb County jury acquitted the Lithonia
protestors, prompting prosecutors in Fulton
County to drop charges against those arrested
in Union City.
Despite the demise of Queer Nation, the
members say they plan to stay involved in the
Cracker Barrel fight, working through the Boy
cott Cracker Barrel Coalition and the Buy One
Campaign, which encourages people who sup
port lesbian/gay rights to buy a share of stock
in the company.
“[The Cracker Barrel fight] has taken on a
life bigger than Queer Nation,” MacDonald
said.
The most lasting legacy of Queer Nation
may be the community leaders it produced —
people who got involved in the gay movement
through the organization and went on to other
positions. Among them are GAPAC lobbyist
Larry Pellegrini and Jeff Cheek, who served
as gay/lesbian liaison to former Fulton County
Commission Chairman Michael Lomax.
And though Queer Nation may be gone,
MacDonald said a network still exists that will
allow people to be pulled together for direct
action if events warrant.
RICHARD SHUMATE
Pride gets more time to settle with T-shirt maker
Atlanta—A Fulton County judge has given
the Atlanta Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee
and a T-shirt maker additional time to negoti
ate a settlement of a $65,000 unpaid bill.
Last week, a lawsuit filed over the debt
reached the docket of Fulton County Superior
Court Judge William H. Alexander, but the
judge granted attorneys’ request for more time
to negotiate a settlement before hearing the
case.
“We were prepared to go to trial,” said
Carolyn White, the Pride committee’s attor
ney. “But the judge has given us more time to
work out the setdement. And we feel confi
dent we can work out a settlement.”
White and an attorney for Screenpeace,
which made the official 1993 shirt, met pri
vately with Judge Alexander on March 14 be
fore he granted the delay.
Screenpeace filed the suit against the Pride
committee and its 1993 co-chairs, Skip
Marklein and Paul Stone, last fall when the
committee failed to pay a $65,000 bill for T-
shirts for last year’s event. In July, the com
mittee reported a loss of about $50,000 for the
annual event, due largely to less-than-antici-
pated merchandise sales and sluggish fund
raising efforts.
While fundraising efforts have been con
tinuing since Marklein and Stone resigned, re
placed by Richy Howard and Donna Narducci,
no monies have been paid to Screenpeace pend
ing resolution of the lawsuit.
Bart Hardison, co-owner of Screenpeace,
said he had not spoken with his attorney since
the two parties appeared at court, but that he
was hoping for the best.
“I took out a personal loan to do this,”
Hardison said. “It has crushed me financially
over this one deal.”
Hardison said earlier negotiations have
been unsatisfactory, including a proposal to
drop Marklein and Stone from the suit and a
payback amount of less than the original
$65,000.
“I don’t see how they can do that,” he said.
“[The $65,000 amount] doesn’t even include
attorney fees or interest. It’s left a bad taste in
my mouth.”
Hardison did say that he believes this year’s
committee appears to be better organized.
“It sounds more professional,” he said.
“They’ve got some pretty good ideas for rais
ing money. It seems a little bit better planned,
and that’s good. All I can do is hope they do
real well this year and they can pay me off.”
But unless the Pride committee’s latest of
fer satisfies him, Hardison says the issue will
be Judge Alexander’s to decide.
“Until they can come up with what we feel
is a reasonable offer, we’re going to court,” he
said.
KC WILD.MOON
against the hate groups’ activities, Lytle said,
“Cobb County is our home. All that we ask is
that our home be made safe, not only for gay
residents, but for all residents.”
The Neighbors Network’s report, titled “In
the Shadow of Hatred,” details the Cobb ac
tivities of KKK leader Ed Fields and others, as
well as the newer development of violent Nazi
skinhead groups. The report shows the con
nections these groups have to one another, as
well as to international ultra-right groups in
Britain and Germany.
Pointing out that at least 16 leaders of vari
ous KKK and Nazi factions were observed at
the commission’s public hearings and at ral
lies against gays and lesbians in Cobb County
last summer, the report concludes that the Cobb
commissioners’ actions signaled a tacit ap
proval of their activities.
“Whether or not people agree with some
thing is not the issue,” Reeves said. “The issue
is the irresponsibility of public officials
grandstanding...in a county where hate group
activity is so rampant. It has created a situa
tion that can only lead to harassment and
violence...Pandering to the politics of hatred
CONTINUES ON PAGE 18
Hit-and-run blamed
on gay stickers
Roswell—A Cobb County man was
nearly run off the road on Georgia 400 last
week, apparently because the driver of a
white Ford pickup truck didn’t like the gay
bumper stickers he saw.
Tony Vicari was on his way to work on
March 15 and had just turned onto north
bound Georgia 400 from 1-285 when he
noticed the truck tailing close behind.
“I was going with the flow of traffic,
so I got into the other lane,” said Vicari.
“This person got on my tail in that lane
too. I got back into
the fast lane and
sped up. I was go
ing 95 miles per
hour, and this per
son was on my tail
at 95 miles per
hour. So I slowed
down.”
Vicari’s pur
suer slowed as _ ...
well. Staying as Tony Vicari
close as a foot from his rear bumper. Even
tually, the truck pulled alongside Vicari’s
car, and Vicari saw the driver laughing.
“I was honking my horn, and he started
coming in at me, swerving more, trying to
ram into me,” Vicari said. “He meant to
ram me into the [retaining] wall, but he
didn’t.”
Instead, the truck’s bumper caught
Vicari’s wheel well and ripped his front
bumper from his car. Vicari was uninjured
and managed to get the truck’s license num
ber. He reported the hit and run to Roswell
police, who told him a detective would be
assigned within a week but that an arrest
would not be made for probably three
weeks.
Vicari believes that his gay-positive
bumper stickers—“homophobia is a social
disease” and others—incensed the truck’s
driver.
“The cop told me I was asking for
trouble [with the bumper stickers],” he said.
“But you can’t be intimidated by people.
I’ve been told by everybody to take them
off, but you’re tom.”
For now, Vicari says he’ll leave only a
rainbow sticker on his car—but the rest
will be gone.
KC WILDM00N