The News & Observer, July 2, 1996
By JOYCE CLARK, STAFF WRITER
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents hoping to catch a fireworks show this Fourth of July will be out of luck unless they roam to Durham, Raleigh or Cary.
For the first time this decade, the town's annual fireworks display at Kenan Stadium will be on hiatus while renovations are made to the football stadium.
The festivities will move to Chapel Hill as residents converge on McCorkle Place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for picnicking, music and a synchronized laser light show.
...
Joe Herzenberg, a longtime resident and former Town Council member who usually spends the Fourth of July at the Kenan Stadium celebration, said he plans to spend the afternoon picnicking at the Horace Williams House before heading over to McCorkle Place.
"I love fireworks," he said. "But I really don't like the idea of going to Durham, so I'm curious about what these laser lights are like. I'm loyal to my town."
Tuesday, July 2, 1996
Gays facing a changed atmosphere
The News & Observer, page A1, July 2, 1996
by RUTH SHEEHAN
It's been a tough spring for the gay community.
With national polls showing voters strongly opposing gay marriage, the General Assembly has banned same-sex unions. Congress is revving up its Defense of Marriage Act, and President Clinton has promised to sign it. Baptists are boycotting Disney for providing benefits to "domestic partners." And the N.C. Board of Education wants to instruct students that homosexuality is illegal and immoral.
...
The same-sex marriage legislation notwithstanding, gays and lesbians acknowledge that they have also seen many advances over the past four years.
...
To date, nine states have passed legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro offer benefits to domestic partners of their employees.
N.C. Pride PAC, which gives money to candidates who are sympathetic to gay issues, is among the top 20 political action committees in dollars raised. And the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reports that of 511,000 elected officials, 105, including Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson, are openly gay. That's the highest number ever, up from 75 in 1992, when the officials' national convention was in Chapel Hill.
Joe Herzenberg, a former Chapel Hill City Council member who was the first openly gay elected official in the state, said he and others at the convention overestimated the impact of Clinton's election.
"I thought this was a giant step forward," he said. Now, he said, he realizes that changes in society's attitudes toward homosexuality come in small steps - steps that have continued amid the backlash of the past few years. He said debate on these types of issues - positive or negative - is a step forward.
"In my life," said Herzenberg, 54, "I never would have expected to see a gay issue debated on the floor of the General Assembly."
by RUTH SHEEHAN
It's been a tough spring for the gay community.
With national polls showing voters strongly opposing gay marriage, the General Assembly has banned same-sex unions. Congress is revving up its Defense of Marriage Act, and President Clinton has promised to sign it. Baptists are boycotting Disney for providing benefits to "domestic partners." And the N.C. Board of Education wants to instruct students that homosexuality is illegal and immoral.
...
The same-sex marriage legislation notwithstanding, gays and lesbians acknowledge that they have also seen many advances over the past four years.
...
To date, nine states have passed legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro offer benefits to domestic partners of their employees.
N.C. Pride PAC, which gives money to candidates who are sympathetic to gay issues, is among the top 20 political action committees in dollars raised. And the national Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reports that of 511,000 elected officials, 105, including Carrboro Mayor Mike Nelson, are openly gay. That's the highest number ever, up from 75 in 1992, when the officials' national convention was in Chapel Hill.
Joe Herzenberg, a former Chapel Hill City Council member who was the first openly gay elected official in the state, said he and others at the convention overestimated the impact of Clinton's election.
"I thought this was a giant step forward," he said. Now, he said, he realizes that changes in society's attitudes toward homosexuality come in small steps - steps that have continued amid the backlash of the past few years. He said debate on these types of issues - positive or negative - is a step forward.
"In my life," said Herzenberg, 54, "I never would have expected to see a gay issue debated on the floor of the General Assembly."
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