qnotes » Featured Stories

Don’t mind doing it for the kids

Lawrence Ferber — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:16:02 +0000

To prepare Julianne Moore for her role as a lesbian parent in “The Kids Are All Right,” out director/co-writer Lisa [...]

Youth of today. Leaders of tomorrow.

Matt Comer — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:19:19 +0000

After the passage in 2008 of California’s Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that banned recognition of same-sex marriage there, the [...]

Gay through Z

Matt Comer — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:16:20 +0000

A AIDS — The AIDS Crisis of the 1980s shaped and molded our community in ways that continue to impact [...]

Singing out: Celebrating 20 years of song

Tyler DeVere — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:17:00 +0000

Lonnie Green, a new member of One Voice Chorus, says that joining and singing has been a great experience for [...]

The QList 2010, Best of the LGBT Carolinas

QNotes Staff — Sat, 29 May 2010 04:19:35 +0000

Throughout April and the first week of May, qnotes readers had the chance to submit their ballots in a contest [...]

InFocus: community non-profits

QNotes Staff — Sun, 16 May 2010 00:24:33 +0000

Throughout spring, qnotes sent requests for 990s (the tax returns non-profit groups submit to the IRS each year) and [...]

Doing more with less

Matt Comer — Sun, 16 May 2010 00:23:31 +0000

Addison Ore, executive director of Greensboro’s Triad Health Project, says it’s something that makes her want to bang her head [...]

Charlotte murder prompts community concern

Matt Comer — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:16:13 +0000

CHARLOTTE — After news spread of the shooting death of a transgender Charlottean in early April (see “Info sought in [...]

The Graying of Gay America

Matt Comer — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:20:59 +0000

It’s the graying of America. Millions of Baby Boomers, folks as young as 50 or older, are retiring. They’re living [...]

Uncounted on the streets

Nathan James — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:17:23 +0000

A person’s life can change in seconds. Sometimes it can be the death of a loved one, or it could [...]

Escape from crystal city

David Stout — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:18:08 +0000

Carl remembers sitting at his home computer one fateful evening obsessively trolling internet sex sites for a hook-up. What he [...]

Movers & Shakers

QNotes Staff — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:21:15 +0000

A philanthropist, author and businessman. A trans and faith advocate involved in local and state non-profit boards. A Somali-born, Canadian [...]

Capital Pride?

Matt Comer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:20:15 +0000

RALEIGH — Community members and representatives from several organizations in the state’s capital city have come together to discuss the [...]

Love and Lust: 2nd Annual Sex Issue

QNotes Staff — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:17:19 +0000

In our Feb. 6 — Feb. 19 print edition, qnotes honors Valentine’s Day with a look into love and how [...]

Spring A&E Guide

QNotes Staff — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:21:58 +0000

In our Jan. 23-Feb. 5 print edition qnotes highlights upcoming arts and entertainment stage productions, dance performances, concerts, television series [...]

The year ahead

Matt Comer — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:18:59 +0000

The winter holidays…done. New Year’s celebrations…done. Schools are back open, holiday breaks between now and Easter a few and far [...]

Another year bites the dust

Matt Comer — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:15:23 +0000

From battling the religious right to battling each other, 2009 was a year full of high profile LGBT news. In [...]

Moving mountains of oppression

Matt Comer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:16:44 +0000

Pamela Jones is adamant: Faith communities from all traditions should be more welcoming of LGBT worshipers. A transgender advocate and member [...]

Q&A: Charlotte’s new mayor-elect on LGBT equality

Matt Comer — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:19:08 +0000

Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx. Photo Credit: Henk Jonker, henkjonkerphoto.com. In November, Charlotte voters ushered in a new era of local government, electing the [...]

Firmly committed: Obama working on DADT, ENDA

Matt Comer — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:17:31 +0000

Urban art by graphic artist Scot Lefavor (www.scotlefavor.com) portraying President Barack Obama is glued to a brick wall on U [...]

Metrolina AIDS Project comes to an end

Matt Comer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:00:51 +0000

Originally Published: Oct. 22, 2009, 6:02 p.m. Updated: Oct. 31, 2009, 2:00 a.m. After almost 25 years of service to the greater [...]

On LGBT equality, when will Charlotte get with the game?

Matt Comer — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:15:54 +0000

There’s no doubt the LGBT community has seen success in North Carolina. Our achievements aren’t quite as grand as those [...]

How Bayard changed Carolina

Matt Comer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:14:56 +0000

In a week’s time, thousands of LGBT and straight ally community members will gather in Washington, D.C., for Equality Across [...]

escape: artist

George Shapiro — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:17:43 +0000

While many of today’s top DJs complain of the lull in today’s dance scene — arguing crowds are waning and [...]

National stage

Matt Comer — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:13:23 +0000

Sitting in a coffee shop in Pittsburgh, Penn., during the weekend of the nation’s largest gathering of progressive bloggers and [...]

Liberty’s empty promise

Matt Comer — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:13:44 +0000

inDepth For countless millions of people in America and around the globe, Lady Liberty and her torch light the way to [...]

Thousands celebrate Pride in Uptown Charlotte

Matt Comer — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:13:40 +0000

Thousands of LGBT community members from across the Carolinas gathered at Uptown’s Gateway Village for the 2009 Pride Charlotte festival [...]

Perdue signs two controversial, historic bills

Matt Comer — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:16:37 +0000

While LGBT community members celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots this June, political advocates, insiders and state legislators [...]

Timeless Pride

Matt Comer — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:16:29 +0000

The history of the LGBT community is a tough subject to study. The community has been oppressed and maligned for [...]

The QList – Best of the Carolinas, Readers’ Pick

QNotes Staff — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:18:32 +0000

You asked for it. We gave it to you. You voted. The results are in. Q-Notes’ first annual QList — [...]

Ménage à trois four

Matt Comer — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:18:52 +0000

In a quiet and ordinary apartment complex on the south side of Charlotte live three not-so-ordinary young gay men. Jim [...]

Carolina Southern Summer

Matt Comer — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:17:36 +0000

Are you longing to get away from the hustle and bustle of our busted, dog-eat-dog economy? You aren’t the only [...]

Murder in Fayetteville

Matt Comer — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:19:48 +0000

Update (May 11, 2009): A suspect has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the case of Jimmy Ali [...]

Blooming with Pride

Matt Comer — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:15:21 +0000

Dogwoods bloom. Trees regain their leafy greens. April showers soon give way to sultry, southern summer days. Spring is in [...]

Come out, Shop local

Matt Comer — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:15:44 +0000

In these trying economic times, everyone is searching for way to save a dollar and make a quick buck. Most [...]

Stamp of approval

Matt Comer — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:14:46 +0000

Public high schools; libraries and museums; public and private colleges and universities; hospitals; foundations and charities — the list of [...]

A mid-Nightlife crisis

Matt Comer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:17:54 +0000

I can still remember my first night in a gay club like it was yesterday. I guess it helps that [...]

What you didn’t know about the Human Rights Campaign

Matt Comer — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:14:00 +0000

The Human Rights Campaign is known to almost every member of the LGBT community, even if only in the slightest [...]

End of an era

Matt Comer — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:19:59 +0000

CHARLOTTE — It is the end of an era, as Charlotte’s largest AIDS service organization, founded by six gay men [...]

Culture War (reprise)

Matt Comer — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:16:30 +0000

CHARLOTTE — March 1996. The Charlotte Repertory Theatre was one of only six regional theaters selected by playwright Tony Kushner [...]

What 2009 will bring

QNotes Staff — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Have you bought new calendars yet? 2008 was just too fun. Didn’t you just hate to see it pass? A [...]

Over it!

Matt Comer — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:18:17 +0000

From AIDS service organizations and LGBT youth groups to the highest levels of South Carolina state government, no one was [...]

Season of Light

Matt Comer — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:18:23 +0000

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule and Solstice. And I’ll bet you didn’t [...]

Second Stonewall

Matt Comer — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:19:28 +0000

It’s a national turning point. A figurative call to arms for the queer community. The cross-country response to the passage [...]

Tar Heel blue

Matt Comer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:17:47 +0000

President Barack Obama. Governor Beverly Perdue. Senator Kay Hagan. What do all these names have in common? For LGBT North [...]

Jason & deMarco— This is love

David Stout — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:15:51 +0000

The Great Smoky Mountains are a world away from the Great Plains, but the prairie is nonetheless on the minds [...]

On the brink

Matt Comer — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:19:06 +0000

In the past few weeks, the nation has looked to Wall Street with shock, confusion and anger as the stock market and every other part of the U.S. economy seemed to do nothing but slip away. When the Dow Jones dropped 777 points on Sept. 29, after a failed attempt by Congress to pass a Wall Street bailout plan, folks on Main Street took notice — in a big way. Even after President George W. Bush signed a more than $800 billion bailout plan, the Dow stumbled again — more than 600 points. In early October, for the first time since 2004, the Dow plummeted below 10,000 points — reaching an unheard of more than 5,000-point drop in only one year. At press time, the markets were still struggling from their dangerous Oct. 10 dip below 8,000 points.

Down to the wire

Matt Comer — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:09:38 +0000

With less than a month to go before the Nov. 4 general election, voters across America are making their final choices on which boxes they’ll check when they head into the polls. A plethora of issues are on the minds of Americans: the mortgage crisis and ensuing economic turmoil, terrorism and national security, foreign policy, the continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic, healthcare reform, Social Security, climate change, the continuing military conflict and occupation in Iraq, immigration, civil liberties and civil rights.

Documenting the crisis

David Stout — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:09:12 +0000

‘I hope and pray that not one more teenager will have to live this way, the way I grew up,’ says ‘Crisis’ editor Mitchell Gold.

If there is any uncertainty about the state of lesbian and gay youth in America, openly gay furniture magnate Mitchell Gold wants the truth to come out loud and queer: they are in trouble. “There are teenagers all over the world today in crisis mode because they fear what will happen if others discover their sexual orientation,” he says. “They suffer debilitating depression, isolation, addiction and possibly suicidal thoughts.” Gold’s dismay has led him to assemble and edit “Crisis” (Greenleaf Book Group Press), a new hardcover collection of essays, recollections, speeches and sermons from 40 gay and allied individuals who document — to quote the book’s subhead — “the personal, social, and religious pain and trauma of growing up gay in America.” “I hope and pray that not one more teenager will have to live this way, the way I grew up,” says Gold, who has achieved much in life despite his painful experiences. In 1989, he established furniture company Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams with his namesake business partner, also openly gay, in Taylorsville, N.C. The company now boasts more than 750 employees.

Always forgive, never compromise

Matt Comer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:08:46 +0000

I don’t think I’ve interviewed a more laidback person than Jay Bakker. Sitting at my desk, safe from the sweltering humidity of what had to be one of the hottest days all summer, I dialed Bakker’s cell phone number at our scheduled time to chat. “Hi, Jay Bakker?” I inquired. “Yes,” the voice on the other end replied. “I’m Matt Comer, with Q-Notes in Charlotte. Is this a good time?” “Well…I need to finish up some laundry. Can I call you back in about 15 minutes,” Bakker asked with a slight laugh.