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orientation becomes known, they would lose their jobs. A lot of times people do not want to come out.” Hard Rock Cafe, however, is sticking by its promise to be the location for a silent auction fundraiser for local charities the night of Friday, May 1 with hopes of an outdoor concert. Nightclubs Metropolis by the Sea, Time Out! and Illusions Nightlife are some of the sponsoring businesses. On Feb. 27 a Mardi Gras fundraiser is planned with live entertainment at 2001 Nightclub with in-kind donations made by Official All-Star Cafe, House of Blues, Hard Rock Cafe, Charleston Bed & Breakfast, restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues. There are social and sporting events planned. The Patricia Grand Hotel was cited as the host hotel. Organizers said House of Blues in Barefoot Landing will be the site for a VIP Social and headliner concert by a national artist Thursday, April 30. A rally is set for Saturday, May 2 downtown in a street festival atmosphere that will include national, state and local speakers, and workshops will be sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, Victory Fund, the Metropolitan Community Church and other groups with entertainment and 100 vending spaces. The group will march for a mile through the Pavilion area and downtown with groups representing S.C. cities, other states and a variety of organizations and religions. Organizers hinted at an “international” entertainer for a Saturday night outdoor concert. The festival will close Sunday with a catered picnic at Myrtle Beach State Park with local entertainers and a beachfront interfaith worship service. In September 1989 about 50 people from Columbia and across the state organized the movement with a rally and march in Columbia. The group has grown, forming the Carolina Rainbow Family Coalition, establishing a community center in Columbia. The first seven marches were in Columbia, and in 1997 the march was held in Greenville. “Members of the Myrtle Beach gay community readily accepted the opportunity, viewing it as a stepping stone in their long-range plans to create an annual festival in Myrtle Beach similar to Disney World’s Gays Days in Orlando, a news release reported. The Local Pride Committee chairs are Linda Robertson and Patrick Evans. This was not Eisnerville. Patrick, a Catholic, was HIV positive, and was very nice to me throughout my coverage. Pride celebrations began to commemorate the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969, and 10,000 attended the 1996 N.C. rally in Winston-Salem. The 1996 S.C. march drew 6,000, and the Greenville event drew about 4,000. Organizers are looking at Charleston for its next march. Speakers included Tony Snell, co-chair of the S.C. Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement, Columbia attorney Harriet Hancock, who has a gay son, and local Pride Committee chairs Linda Robertson and Patrick Evans. Evans has lived in Myrtle Beach for 15 years and is a former consultant to the hotel and restaurant industry. I would see Patrick later at many events, and I would have to apologize to him for crying at the events, which included an emotional AIDS memorial church service. He started an AIDS outreach ministry at St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden City. “Hate is not a family value,” said Evans. “Homosexuals have families too.” Evans said homosexuals should not be judged on a “narrow interpretation of certain passages in the Bible.” Evans pointed to positive trends of acceptance in religion, citing a pastoral message from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops “Always Our Children,” the Episcopal Church’s stand, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ. Robertson is founder of Pro Rights for Individuals Demanding Equality (Pride Inc.). She is also a member of the board of directors for Metropolitan Community Church. “Last year we took it on the road to show the state who we are,” said Snell. “We get phone calls from all over the state. We hope to grow. Voter registration is important to us. A lot of money is spent here by gays and lesbians.” Homosexuals have more money to spend since there are usually no children, he said. “We’re not coming down here just to talk politics and protest. It’s more than that,” said Snell. “Being gay is not a choice,” said Stevie Wyatt, 26, of Myrtle Beach, who works at Metropolis by the Sea. “Gay people are everyday people. We’re your sisters, your brothers, your daughters, your sons, your co-workers.” City Council candidate Sharon Brown, who lost, supported Mayor-elect Mark McBride, even though they disagree on issues like homosexuality. Brown is a transsexual and the performer of a Whitney Houston act at Metropolis by the Sea. Brown is a friend of Lady Chablis, the Savannah drag queen who is riding the crest of Clint Eastwood’s film version of the novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” The other day I was taking photos of a gingerbread village at the Pavilion parking lot, and I noticed Metropolis, a former theater where I saw “Night of the Living Dead” one Halloween, and on the building was a marquee showing the Lady who was to visit Halloween. McBride said in a mayoral debate that he opposed homosexuality as a separate litigation area of discrimination. My third return to POINT, after a feature on artist Howard Finster and one on the new museum partially funded by Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc., was a take-off of the novel which made Savannah a tourism nightmare. I got more positive comments and negative ones from more people than any other story I had done in two years. And the ones who I thought would hate it, loved it; and the people who I thought would love it, hated it. It was heavily edited, and much of this never made it, and some was never written by me. That’s why I can’t write for them ever again. Plus I think the newsmonthly has gone under. After it was written, my boss at The Myrtle Beach Herald, publisher and founder Deborah Boggs Johnson, got blazing mad at me and almost fired me. From then on I’d fax the Price ‘98 press releases to Burroughs & Chapin as soon as I’d get them because I felt sorry for them for a brief period. This is the unedited version. MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF BURROUGHS & CHAPIN By Tim Bullard If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people, but I don’t regret having concerned myself with them because I think most of us are disturbed. Tennessee Williams on the psychological condition of his characters, N.Y. Herald-Tribune, Jan. 5, 1958 MYRTLE BEACH - Sipping a drink, an older aristocrat raises his voice to thunder over the din of chattering voices, clinking glasses and rank perfume inside Collector’s Cafe art restaurant at the winner’s mayoral party Nov. 18 around 10 p.m. He’s telling a racist joke. I laugh - at him - and exit into the night. It’s approaching 12 o’clock, and as the homeless scatter for bushes, it’s midnight in the Garden of Burroughs & Chapin. Everybody’s sporting a sticker at the party: “Another Dishwasher For Mark.” Former University of South Carolina student Mark McBride (R), a city council member, just edged out Mayor Bob Grissom (D) by 42 votes, so this party is more lively than the losing camp’s vigil at St. John’s Inn on Ocean Boulevard. McBride’s 33, the youngest mayor to Grissom’s 76. His last day on the job will be Jan. 6. Why was this military veteran ousted? Atlantic Beach’s annual festival, a black biker Memorial Day Weekend, which follows Harley Davidson’s Biker Festival, last year provoked already perturbed business owners and homeowners after the incident that really incited residents - when a couple allegedly attracted a crowd on the Boulevard while making love in a chair. The Bike Task Force, comprised of the police chief, Atlantic Beach officials and Harley weekend representatives, had failed. The city is mired over Black Biker Weekend, and McBride suggested bringing out the National Guard as a last resort next time. Voters remembered this and the failed TPI theme park, which allegedly bilked investors out of savings, forced the city to build infrastructure additions and left critics wondering if the area was satiated with entertainment venues. A CAPITAL “B” Rewind: A promoter was trying to land a gig at Doug Shaw Stadium before the council, and I asked members to repeat the name of the band, faking deafness. “The Butthole Surfers.” Surreal levity. The request was denied to shield residents from loud music July 4th. (Fireworks from the annual July 4th display there last summer caught a school roof aflame.) “That’s with a capital ‘B,’” said council member John Maxwell, a motel owner, with a grin. John supported a monorail system, which never caught on. John was the only candidate I saw at CareTeam’s AIDSWalk. Tonight, election night, there was a grim look on his face as he quickly left the Law Enforcement election central headquarters, kissing eight years goodbye of faithful service to his run-off victor Chuck Martino, the Rotary Club’s Citizen of the Year. The low point of the runoffs was when Martino reported death threats, 17 calls in four days from males and females. A xenophobic rumor spread around the office was spread around town, incorrectly identifying him as an Italian man who fatally shot a woman years back. The publisher wrote that he was an unfriendly person, and he later one and became a great council member. “I’m disappointed,” said Maxwell after the final totals were announced. “But I’ve had a great eight years. It’s a time for somebody else to step up to the plate.” PANTS ON FIRE In a WPDE-TV 15 debate McBride claimed City Manager Tom Leath had lied to him on occasions. Grissom said a major crime problem was prostitution. Prostitution is a problem in Marlboro County, S.C. Last year here I thanked Gov. David Beasley for turning my stories on Trucker’s Motel, a Marlboro County bordello, over to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division, which has popped Darlington County’s Shady Pines twice and Trucker’s Motel twice, netting the arrest there of an ex-mayor of McColl. Trucker’s Motel is still open. Aside, Beasley told me, “I’m surprised nobody has taken a shot at me.” “I know what you mean,” I replied. Prostitution is just as open here in Myrtle Beach with escort services and an influx of strip joints and XXX shops. Crime - The ectoplasm of a female murder victim, a bookkeeper for a video poker joint, still haunts downtown where she was found murdered, and the Myrtle Beach Police have been traveling to Pennsylvania to solve the open case. Bottomfeeding became an Olympic sport in the mayoral election as one political ad featured caricatures of Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. CEO and President Doug Wendel as a cartoon puppeteer, a godfather fingering the strings of marionette Grissom. “Vile and despicable,” B&C called the cartoon. Bob’s ad described McBride’s job experience, saying he washed dishes at a local restaurant. 1859: F.G. Burroughs, a Martin County, N.C. native, becomes partner with B.J. Singleton of Conway in operating a general store and manufacturing naval stores; 1869: F.G. in 1870 becomes partner with B.G. Collins, incorporating as Burroughs & Collins in 1895; 1901: Seaside Inn first beach hotel built by Burroughs & Collins Co. ($2 a room per day); 1904: The new Burroughs School is built, founded by F.B. Burroughs in 1876; 1912: Simeon B. Chapin, a N.Y. stockbroker, joined the Burroughs with the incorporation of Myrtle Beach Farms; 1914: “New Town” is named Myrtle Beach by the widow of F.G. Burroughs (Miss Adline Cooper Burroughs); 1934: Myrtle Beach State Park founded on 350 acres donated by Myrtle Beach Farms; 1938: Myrtle Beach is incorporated (Myrtle Beach Farms had provided trash collection and mail delivery); 1942: The Pavilion opens through MBF; 1949 Chapin Foundation builds library; 1990: MBF joins with Burroughs & Collins Co. to form B&C; 1995: Broadway at the Beach opens. “THE GOOD”: Jerry Garcia’s guitar is at Hard Rock Cafe, cornerstone of B&C’s Broadway at the Beach (awarded the 1997 South Carolina Governor’s Cup by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism). The $250 million complex is surrounded now by Planet Hollywood, NASCAR Cafe, Official All-Star Cafe, The Palace, an IMAX theater, Cinema 16, Celebrity Square’s lounges, shops, the $33 million Ripley’s Aquarium, a coming Hampton Inn and Revolutions, a popular “retro” disco club. Where else can you see a plastic toy man, bending over, blowing soap bubbles out his rectum in a shopfront? B&C recycles bucks into the economy through payrolls and donates a lot of dough into charities like the new art museum, the Waccamaw Youth Center, a new Community Kitchen, the Arts Council, the Vivace! arts festival and oodles of other projects. “THE EVIL”: Residents resented what they perceived as preferential zoning treatment to B&C, which owns a lot of land here. With the Infrastructure Bill poised to fund millions in Horry County to alleviate stranglehold traffic, B&C would benefit if highways are near its properties. When B&C decided not to move the Pavilion due to slow revitalization, Grissom got the credit. When the city council and county council agreed to go in on an $8 million baseball stadium for an Atlanta Braves franchise after Capital Broadcasting pitched a Durham Bulls curveball deal, B&C donated land across the street from Broadway at the Beach, sweetening the deal, which Grissom supported. Voters still believe the baseball money will reduce roads funding. Across U.S. 17 from Broadway at the Beach, residents in the exclusive Plantation Point section protested B&C’s go-cart track being built because of noise. ONLY IN AMERICA Candidates, like boxers with promoters, were accompanied during the campaign by “political consultants” paid to emulate Lee Atwater. In Mullins all it takes is a chicken bog. McBride based his campaign on a wholesome, family-oriented platform of cleaning up the beach, and voters, demanding change, agreed. Last year, unshaven, he bought a bong at a head shop on the Boulevard in a publicized effort to cast a light on paraphernalia sales. The council tackled obscene T-shirt sales. But when McBride took on the homosexual community by opposing a proposed gay nightclub, people listened as did a nearby Methodist church. McBride said he was against separate discrimination litigation involving homosexuals. Although employment discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is now prohibited in only nine states, according to march organizers, there are many cities, colleges and companies which prohibit such discrimination with private sector employers with non-discrimination policies including Ben & Jerry’s Corp., which has a shop at Broadway at the Beach. At the victory party McBride’s USC roommate Johnny Lott, grinned as he recalled their school days. “I think it’s great,” said Lott, nursing an Amstel Light. “I introduced Mark and Laura when we were in college together. It’s a big night for him. He’s always been a person with a vision. Now it’s his day. This is very important to him. He was basically the same. He was a little bit ahead of his time. People weren’t capable of grasping it at all. Mark chased after Laura three months before he had the courage to talk to her. After that, they just kind of bonded.” When asked about McBride’s view on homosexuality, Lott said, “From an outside perspective, he just expressed his point of view. I don’t think he had a problem with the gender. To each his own. Everybody’s different.” Lott wore a button that read “IMPETUOUS DISHWASHER FOR MARK.” When Grissom ran an ad listing McBride’s experience as a former dishwasher, some felt, like Lott, the strategy backfired. “Everybody had to start somewhere,” said Lott. “Tourism is the number-one industry in the state.” Lott served as a poll watcher at First Baptist Church, and as voters streamed in, Lott saw it as a good sign. “I knew it was going to be close,” he said. “I really started believing.” Paul Scott of Myrtle Beach smiled, but declined, as did two others at the party, to say who he voted for. “Myrtle Beach has spoken,” said Scott, who is black. “I supported him. I feel like Myrtle Beach needed a change.” STOP THAT RALLY! On Tuesday, Nov. 25 a press conference was held at the Official All-Star Cafe to discuss the 9th Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride March and Festival to be held in Myrtle Beach April 30-May 3 with local and statewide representatives from the S.C. Gay & Lesbian Pride Movement with 10,000 projected to attend. By mid-day, Official All-Star Cafe was withholding a commitment as a registration and welcome spot. Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. was working its magic. According to B&C, the gays “have every right to have their march.” “It’s just not an event that Burroughs & Chapin chooses to support,” said a B&C spokesperson. “We don’t have a heterosexual march or heterosexual day. We don’t have a Protestant Day or Protestant March. We’re certainly not discriminating. We certainly welcome persons from all walks of life to our properties.” “I find that tragic,” said Harriet Hancock, a Columbia attorney at the press conference. She has a gay son and founded the Columbia chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in 1982. She does pro bono work for persons with HIV and AIDS. “They do not choose to be gay. They are not child molesters. They are an important part of their communities. They have to live in the closet because they fear if their sexual orientation becomes known, they would lose their jobs. A lot of times people do not want to come out. Local Baptist pastors have joined the fray over the rally, suggesting a boycott of businesses that support the events set for April 30-May 3. The Rev. Ray Cribb of South Conway Freewill Baptist Church has joined with the Rev. Mack Hutson of High Point Baptist Church in Conway to organize a march and boycott against the gay rally. “I’m opposed to this here march and gay rights,” said Cribb. “Any of these places who support this, I’d encourage them to boycott them.” Hard Rock Cafe, however, was sticking somewhat by its pledge for a silent auction fund-raiser for local charities Friday, May 1. Nightclubs Metropolis by the Sea and Time Out! are some of the sponsoring businesses of the rally. On Feb. 27 a Mardi Gras fund-raiser is scheduled with live entertainment at 2001 Nightclub with in-kind donations made by Official All-Star Cafe, House of Blues, Hard Rock Cafe, Charleston Bed & Breakfast and other businesses. Sporting events planned. The Patricia Grand Hotel was listed as the host hotel. Organizers said House of Blues in Barefoot Landing have a VIP Social and headliner concert by a national artist Thursday, April 30. The rally is slated for Saturday, May 2 downtown in a street festival with national, state and local speakers, and workshops will be sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, Victory Fund, the Metropolitan Community Church and other groups with entertainment and 100 vending spaces. The group will march for a mile through B&C’s Pavilion area, and downtown with groups representing S.C. cities, other states and other groups. On Sunday the festival’s end will include a catered picnic at Myrtle Beach State Park with local entertainers and an interfaith worship service on the beach. In September 1989 about 50 people from Columbia and across the state organized the movement with a rally and march in Columbia. The group has grown, forming the Carolina Rainbow Family Coalition, establishing a community center in Columbia. The first seven marches were in Columbia, and in 1997 the march was held in Greenville where conservatives protested. “Members of the Myrtle Beach gay community readily accepted the opportunity, viewing it as a stepping stone in their long-range plans to create an annual festival in Myrtle Beach similar to Disney World’s Gays Days in Orlando,” a press release reported. Pride celebrations began to commemorate the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969, and 10,000 attended the 1996 N.C. rally in Winston-Salem. The 1996 S.C. march drew 6,000, and the Greenville event drew about 4,000. Organizers are eyeballing Charleston for an upcoming march. Speakers at the Official All-Star Cafe included Tony Snell, co-chair of the S.C. Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement, Columbia attorney Harriet Hancock, who has a gay son, and local Pride Committee chairs Linda Robertson and Patrick Evans. Linda Robertson of Myrtle Beach is founder of Pro Rights for Individuals Demanding Equality (Pride Inc.). She is also a member of the board of directors for Metropolitan Community Church. Evans has lived in Myrtle Beach for 15 years and is a former consultant to the hotel and restaurant industry. He is also on the conference committee of the National Catholic AIDS Network. Evans pointed to positive trends in religion in regard to homosexuality, citing the “Always Our Children” Catholic pastoral message, the Episcopal Church’s attitude and the evolving movement of mainstream denominations. QUEER? LOBOTOMY! “Hate is not a family value,” said Evans. “Homosexuals have families too.” Evans said homosexuals should not be judged on a “narrow interpretation of certain passages in the Bible.” He must have been talking about Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” According to the Reader’s Companion to American History, Christian tradition was “ambiguous” in its attitude toward homosexuality until a change in canon law under the influence of Thomas Aquinas. In Colonial times five dudes were executed for being gay. Tar Heels didn’t stop capital punishment of gays until 1869; Thomas Jefferson’s bright idea was that death be replaced by castration for the crime. It was better than the 19th century’s lobotomy, electroshock and aversion therapy and hysterectomy. In the late 1950s, a D.A. in Sioux City, Iowa used a psychopath law, committing 29 male homosexuals to asylums. Did you know that Ike had an executive order in ‘53 barring gay men and lesbians from all federal jobs? It wasn’t until 1974 that the American Psychiatric Association erased homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. “Last year we took it on the road to show the state who we are,” said Snell. “We get phone calls from all over the state. We hope to grow. Voter registration is important to us. A lot of money is spent here by gays and lesbians.” Homosexual couples have more money to spend since there are usually no children, he said. “We’re not coming down here just to talk politics and protest. It’s more than that,” said Snell. “Being gay is not a choice,” said Stevie Wyatt, 26, of Myrtle Beach, who works at Metropolis by the Sea. “Gay people are everyday people. We’re your sisters, your brothers, your daughters, your sons, your co-workers.” In one survey 19 percent of gay men and 25 percent of lesbians report suffering physical violence at the hands of a family member as a result of their sexual orientation, according to the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force. Of homeless youth, 42 percent self-identify themselves as gay or lesbian, according to Victim Services/Traveler’s Aid. Gay and lesbian youth represent 30 percent of all completed teen suicides with a successful attempt every five hours, 48 minutes, according to the march organizer’s press release. After the press conference, McBride was interviewed by WBTW-TV 13 for reaction, and the mayor-elect said, “My personal belief is that it is a behavior-based lifestyle that I don’t simply agree with. I like the individual. I’ll do everything I can do for individuals and welcome those individuals to the city. But I mean there has never been really a lot of controversy here.” *************************** It’s all over now. Months after the festival, a guy told police in Conway that somebody threw a brick through his window because he was gay. After Burroughs & Chapin Co. had earlier decided recently to kill a May 2 Village People concert set for Broadway at the Beach’s Celebrity Square, the S.C. Gay & Lesbian Pride Movement organizers released a statement. The concert may still be held but at another venue. The band finally decided not to come. “The S.C. Gay & Lesbian Pride Movement is disappointed that Burroughs & Chapin has taken this egregious action but not surprised,” a press release reported. “This decision by B&C is a slap in the face to gays and lesbians, their families and friends. We are deeply saddened that prejudice and bigotry have influenced their decision to selectively invoke a contract clause with Broadway tenants, a clause that has not been enforced in the past. This is an apparent example of a conspiracy to silence and punish a group of individuals. They are afraid to see that gays and lesbians are human beings, everyday citizens and neighbors. “Is it a traditional family value to coerce and threaten business and individuals? It’s time for the merchants to take a stand and defend their right to make an honest living. Thousands of dollars will be lost by tenants of Broadway because of this restriction of trade by their landlord. The tenants should demand compensation in return for their loss of revenue. The days of the plantation owner and their sharecroppers are long over in the South. The days of bigotry and hate must come to an end. B&C has strengthened our resolve to carry forward loud and proud on the Grand Strand in 1998.” Tony Snell, SCGLPM co-chair, said, “Homophobia has raised its ugly head again in the form of censorship based on inherent bigotry and discrimination. What’s next? Will they prohibit music by openly gay and lesbians artists, like Elton John and k.d. lang at the clubs on B&C property? Will they attempt to set up barriers at Broadway asking individuals their sexual orientation before entering to spend their money? Will they begin a witch hunt and seek to fire employees that do not meet their family values because they are gay?” Harriet Hancock, co-chair of the Columbia Chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said, “We do not believe this is the American way, nor do we believe that such discrimination is supported by the principles upon which this country was founded.” Burroughs & Chapin was adamant about its opposition in a press release. Music of The Village People plays at a Revolutions, popular retro club at its Broadway at the Beach. “We have decided that it is in the best interest of Broadway at the Beach not to have any special events during April 30-May 3, 1998, which can be misinterpreted as an endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Pride March to be held during the same period. We stand by our original statement in this matter.” Official All-Star Cafe will be the main registration site for Pride 98, the 9th Annual S.C. Gay Lesbian Pride March and Festival, despite pressure from B&C to persuade their properties not to help sponsor the event. Download 2.99 Mb. Share with your friends:
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