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Have a Safe, P.C. Holiday While most people buy Christmas trees and wrap countless presents, some Atlantans dedicate themselves to reducing waste and consumption this season. Page 17 Still a 'Front Runner' It's been 20 years since Patricia Nell Warren wrote the 'The Front Runner.' Here, Warren discusses literature, gay youth and her new book, 'Harlan’s Race.' Page 29 PLEASE RECYCLE TAKING PRIDE IN OUR CULTURE DECEMBER 22/1994 So long, Eric Eric Spivey, pictured here as an openly gay candidate at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, died on December 13. Spivey, 35, died of complications from AIDS. Read about his life and contributions to Atlanta's lesbian, gay and AIDS communi ties on pages 4 and 10. A near-tragedy in the Fitzgerald family reunited an estranged gay son with his father just in time for the holiday season by ADAM J. SANK Atlanta—When he was a teen ager in his hometown of York, Pa., Sean Fitzgerald used to watch the Showtime series "Brothers" on his family's televi sion. On that program, several gay male characters were regu larly featured and, as it did for many other boys of his genera tion, Sean found that watching Brothers contributed significantly to his acceptance of his own de veloping gay identity. Then, one day, Sean's father watched the show with his son. The elder Fitzgerald canceled their subscription to Showtime the next day. Fast forward more than a de cade to June 12, 1994. Atlanta businessman Sean Fitzgerald, 30, was looking forward to compet ing in the triathlon at New York City's Gay Games. Though he had come out to his sister three years earlier and was living an openly gay life in Atlanta, Sean had yet to tell his parents of his sexual orientation because he feared they would react nega tively. "Growing up," he recalls, "my dad would be vocally ho mophobic and [my mother] would just sit there and not say anything." Yet his participation in the Gay Games, in which he placed fifth for his age group and 15th overall, proved to be a turn ing point for Sean and his par ents. "My father's a CNN junkie," he explains, "and so he knew what was going on in New York that week... My sister was going to come up and watch me com pete. Before she came up I told her, 'Give a call so I can tell you where to go, what to do there...' She happened to call from my parents' house. After we were through talking, she said, 'Wish Dad a happy father's day,' and he got on the phone and started ask ing questions... Over the course of the conversation he realized the reason I was in New York. As soon as he figured it out...he dropped the phone." Nor did the senior Fitzgerald come around after the initial shock wore off. Months later, Sean says, his father "went through the house and took down all the pictures of me from the walls." Meanwhile, while his father and he ceased communication al together, Fitzgerald worked on repairing relations with his mother. "My father was away one night, and I got a call from my sister telling me to call my mom... We talked for about a half hour, and I found out the reason she had been so short on the phone [in recent weeks] was that my father was standing next to her telling her to hang up." Mrs. Fitzgerald told her son she couldn't understand why his father had such a problem with gay people. "She was actually go ing through our family history Continued on Page 15