Newspaper Page Text
Queering the new year
Gay Atlanta will
I ringinl?96
with a spate of
events,
induding
"A Night at the
Tiopicana"
featuring
impressionists
Lucy and Ricky.
PAGE 15
PLEASE RECYCLE
Not-so-happy holidays
Manygaysand
lesbians must
choose between
lovers and
familyduring
the holidays.
Therapist Julia
Strong (pictured)
offers tips for
managing the
stress. PAGE 16
DECEMBER 21/1995
That's what HSUEFHJS are for
With say subplots and an upcoming lesbian wedding, the NBC sitcom “Friends”
is a hit with gay fans, David Crane, the gay co-producer of the show, speaks
with writer Franklin Sellers about his shoWs appeal. PAGE 25
Minister calls off pickets of Atlanta bars
by WALTER WOODS
Atlanta—The black minister who called for
a boycott of local gay and lesbian bars several
weeks ago now says she is softening her pro
test because of the negative backlash from bar
patrons and owners.
The Rev. S.F.Ma-Hee, pastor of the 150-
member Redefined Faith Unity Fellowship
Church, said there would be no pickets of the
five bars—Loretta's, Burkhart's, The Other-
side, the Marquette Lounge and Traxx/The
Warehouse.
The rhetoric in the community on both
sides of the issue was getting too hot and hate
ful, Ma-FIee said last week, "so we have de
rided to talk, to encourage more dialogue, be
fore we do anything else,"
"People are, starting to talk about things,
and I have a feeling that we will work this
out," she said.
Ma-Hee had earlier called for boycotts of
die five bars and threatened pickets. Since her
statements, bar owners and patrons, both
black and white, have strongly and some
times angrily defended the boycotted clubs.
Ma-Hee targeted the three black bars be
cause, she claimed, they resist AIDS educa
tion in their clubs and aren't involved enough
black community charities.
David Hampton, co-owner of Traxx/The
Warehouse, defended his club, saying that
Traxx has sponsored several AIDS fund-rais
ers with Outreach Inc. and AIDS Education/
Services for Minorities. Outreach workers
also regularly pass out condoms and AIDS
>■ Continued on Page 6
Police say motive was
- robbery, not hatred
AU'dfcrd, Ore— Police have ar
rested a man suspected in the brutal
slayings of an Oregon lesbian couple,
but they-say the motive was robbery,
not anti-gay bias ^ ^
Alerted by a telephone tip a po
lice SWAT team di sc encfoil on a motel
in Stockton Calif., early Dec 13 and
arrested Robert James Acremant, 27,
on charges of muidermg Roxanne Hlis
and Michelle Abdili in Medford An
extradition was scheduled tor
Dec 1? in Sain Joaquin County Supe
rior Court i
The bodies of the victims were
found Det 7 in the hack of their truck
The women lad been bound, gagged
and blindfolded and each shot tv\k.e
in the head
Acremant's father, Kenneth
Acremant of Stockton, told the Asso
ciated Press that his son said during a
jailhouse visit thafhh attempt to fob
the women went awry and he had to
lull them - .
"He said he needed the money to
get out ot the country," the eldci
Acremant said
The slayings ot Abdili and Ellis
alarmed mane m the gay community-
nationwide, who feared the women
were killed because of their gay
rights activism, but police, piosecu-
tois and the suspect's father said
there's no indication tiro crimes had
anything to do with anti-gay hatred
Oregon law requires verbal or writ
ten expression ot bias be made for
classification as a bias crime or hate
crime, i ’ ” 1
Activists associated with Parents,
Families and Fnends of Lesbians and
Gays (ITLAGj m Medford held a press
conference Dec 14 expressing concern
that, despite police statements, anti
gay bias might have factored into the
fillings.
"We know the killer enacted a de-
iiberate, calculated process of entrap
ment," the activists' statement said
'"We know the killerwanted both vic-
-tims. We know that money and credit
cards were left at the scene „ What
kind of robber leaves visible money
at the criine scene 7 Did this man re-
I allyhaveno knowledge thatRoxanne
ami Michelle were a lesbian couple
when, .to know than, even casually,
SW
I The murders of Rownne Ellis (left)
and Michelle Abdili ham shired I
. community lean nationwide.
or to walk into their office, was to
. know they were proud and out lesbi-
ans and human rights activists?"
Acremant hid moved to
Medford recently with his mother J
and rented an apartment four
blocks away from the scene of the 1
killings He knew Ellis thiough a
property management agency the
women ran. He had been shown the
apartment w here the women disap
peared two weeks prior to the-kili-
The suspect's father said that, in
addition to Abdili and Ellis, his son
admitted to killing a friend, Scott
George, 23, of Visalia Calif, on Oct
3 in a fit of rage after a night of