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Atlanta women kick up their heels Good Friends for Good Causes, the annual dance benefit for the fight against breast cancer, will draw a well-dressed crowd to the Georgian Terrace. PAGE 19 A gay Jewish spin on Christmas What's a nice gay Jewish man doing di recting the holiday classic "A Christmas Carol"? For Lawrence Keller, a busy Atlanta direc tor, it's all part of the job. PAGE 27 PLEASE RECYCLE TAKING PRID E IN OUR CULTURE ■ NOVEMBER 23/1995 stunned by rights repeal ; : Ruethe Leuenberger (left), co-chair of the Domestic Partnership Coalition, is consoled by Elizabeth Silver in the wake of the defeat. Voters overturn domestic partnership by razor-thin margin by TZIVIA GOVER . Northampton, Mass.— Myth and reality collided on Nov. 7 in Northampton, Mass., when a referendum repealed'domestic partner ship—by a margin of less than one percent—in a city known nationwide as a les bian and gay mecca. ; On election night a crowd of more than 200 hopeful sup porters gathered in the ball room of a downtown hotel ready to celebrate. But as cal- j culators clicked and precinct totals were tallied, the mood turned somber The ordi nance, which was passed unanimously by the City ■Council last May, was losing to a popular vote. Within an hour the official results were in: defeat by 87 votes-—just one percentage point With tears in her eyes, the city's lib eral mayor, Mary Ford, took to the podium to address the crowd: "We really wanted to win this battle, but we knew in a lot of ways that change is slow." That sentiment was hard to swallow for residents who thought they lived in a cut ting-edge community. Simi lar ordinances, which allow unmarried gay and straight couples to officially register their partnerships, have been tried around the country. But the defeat in Northampton— a city recently dubbed "Lesbianville U.S.A."—was particularly devastating. In reaction to the election re sults, many worried about the strength of the religious right, whose eflorts helped kill the ordinance here. Oth ers argued that North ampton's \ isible lesbian com- nituutv belies a deeply rooted tonsenahve, and largely Catholic, majority. It took this referendum to make the chasm between the sides clear . > "This is a small New En- >- Continued on Page 14 The steamy love scenes in writer-director Patricia’Rozema’s lesbian romance have stirred audiences and created a controversy over its NC-17 rating Atlantans can judge for them selves when the film opens here—without a rating—on November 24. PAGE 27. rj v\ d imuxft.w Warner Rnbitto, Ca - - Nancy Rodi igutv, a Geor gia parent whose son was brutally murdered by ga\ bashers, says she was had from her job the morning alter she spoke out against anti-gav vio lence at a rally held by Parents, Families and Friends of lesbians and Gays (1TLAG) on local I\ news . In a statement released through I’FLAG, 'Nancy Rodriguez appears in one of two PflAG television ads. to her boss after she went public as an advocate ot PI TAG. Her former employer denied the br ing, saying Rodriguez could still work on an as- needed basis. Rodriguez hadn't returned phone calls at press time Rodriguez reluctantly became a national spokeswoman for PFLAG after her 27-year-old son, Paul Broussard, was stabbed and beaten to death by five teenagers outside a Houston bar in 1991 Continued on Page 16