InterstateQ.com

Headlines: Gay freshman elected, Q-Notes gets online revamp, Police harassment, ‘Naked Boys’ banned in Winston-Salem

The latest headlines from the May 3 issue of Q-Notes, Carolina’s multimedia LGBT news source.

Openly gay freshman elected student body prez at N.C. college

by Matt Comer | May 3, 2008

Michael Tuso does not describe himself as an activist, but lives his life to help others.

GREENSBORO — An openly gay freshman at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG) won the student government spring election for student body president by an overwhelming majority in mid-April.

Michael Tuso, 19, a native of Raleigh, officially took office Apr. 29. His duties as student government president include overseeing funding for hundreds of student organizations, serving on the university’s board of trustees and acting as a liaison between students and university administration. Read the rest…

Q-Notes Online gets makeover

by Q-Notes Staff | May 3rd, 2008

Regular visitors to Q-Notes Online have already noticed a change in our online presence. A week prior to this current issue, Q-Notes staff rolled out our website’s new design.

The new Q-Notes Online features daily news, RSS feeds, article talkbacks, staff blogs, a daily email news update and more. The new site and its behind-the-scenes construction enable us to better serve you and helps us get the news out faster and better than ever before.

On the new website readers can engage in community discussions on each published article. You can also sign up to receive a daily email delivered right to your inbox every morning containing the latest LGBT news from around the Carolinas. Read more »

Students have run-in with anti-gay preachers

by Will Billings | May 3rd, 2008

UNC-Charlotte students walk past Belk Tower, where LGBT students say they were verbally attacked by anti-gay preachers.

CHARLOTTE — When LGBT and allied students affiliated with the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s PRIDE student group held their Day of Silence observances, they were confronted with loud and disruptive protests from anti-gay preachers. The events and their aftermath have led to calls for campus policy revisions.

On Apr. 17, students were holding a peaceful demonstration at the campus’ Belk Tower. PRIDE President Braxton Midyette told Q-Notes that about seven preachers “invaded the space PRIDE had reserved for the event” and “verbally attacked” supporters with the slurs they were shouting.

Midyette said, “They were also ‘preaching’ on the fact that it was good that [15-year-old California student] Lawrence King was murdered for being gay and that he, along with the rest of us, were going to Hell for being homosexuals or friends of homosexuals.”

Organizers called campus police, Midyette said, but they took “very little” action. “It was a struggle to even get them out there and actually do something about these individuals,” he charged. Read more »

Gay man, trans woman allege police harassment

by Matt Comer | May 3rd, 2008

CHARLOTTE — Two members of the city’s LGBT community allege that they were victims of police harassment and unfair profiling based on one’s gender-identity and expression.

On the evening of Apr. 10, gay man Kevin Grooms, who writes for Q-Notes as “Miss Della,” and a transgender friend were stopped in their neighborhood by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Nathan J. Crum.

According to a complaint Grooms filed with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, at approximately 10 p.m., he and his acquaintance were walking into their East Charlotte apartment complex when the officer stopped his car and approached them. Reportedly, Crum asked the pair how they knew each other, then he told Grooms that his friend had previously been “chased away” from the complex by police.

Grooms claims the officer referred to his trans friend with derogatory, mixed-gender pronouns several times and stated that she “may or may not have been involved” in an arrest for prostitution at a nearby establishment. Read more »

‘Naked Boys’ banned from state-operated facility

by Matt Comer | May 3rd, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM — The Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance’s production of the gay-popular musical “Naked Boys Singing” has been postponed after state officials with the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA) told the company they could not produce the musical at SECCA’s performance venue.

According to Alliance organizers, SECCA and N.C. Department of Cultural Resources officials gave the group a flat “no” when they approached them with a request to house the performance. The State took operational control of the venue last year. It was established as a private, non-profit entity in 1956.

“Naked Boys Singing” was set to open later this year.

Q-Notes contacted SECCA director Mark Richard Leach about the situation. He declined to comment and directed our questions to Mary Ann Friend of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources press office. Read more »

Be sure to check out the rest at the brand new Q-Notes Online.