Editorial

We’ve all got a past — some mostly good and some not so great. It’s what happens to us as we grow up and begin to take on the mantle of adulthood.

Today, we celebrate Veterans Day across the U.S. On this day we recognize all of the veterans of all of the wars fought on behalf of our great nation. Those who have given of themselves, even be it life or limb or more, are owned a great deal of gratitude for their service. They served bravely.

City officials should have kept and expanded domestic partner benefits to include more households not based on marital status. Mecklenburg County has time to avoid the city’s mistake.

We tell ourselves we are a progressive, can-do, forward-thinking city that comes together to amicably solve our problems. It is the Charlotte Way, we exclaim. It is a lie.

North Carolina Sen. Joel Ford’s vote for Senate Bill 2 was a vote for a return to old, embarrassing days of widespread discrimination.

City leaders should ignore voices of discrimination and division and instead witness the wisdom of commonsense public policy and pass LGBT-inclusive protections.

QNotes, the Charlotte-based LGBT community newspaper of North Carolina, is publicly responding to several objections to our reporting made by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.

In the January 1987 issue of QNotes, then-editor Don King penned a commentary outlining his wishes for the new year. Though the commentary is nearly 30 years old, you, as I did, might notice some still-common themes, concepts and ideas with which Charlotte’s LGBT community still struggles.

Come Saturday, Uptown Charlotte will be filled with a sea of green, as Charlotteans of all stripes come together to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Though LGBT people will be present, they will also be invisible. And, that’s the way organizers want it.

Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon announced committee assignments for members of Charlotte City Council on Tuesday, with one glaring exclusion. Charlotte’s first openly gay or elected official, Councilmember LaWana Mayfield, now in her second term representing District 3, was the only Council member not chosen to chair one of nine Council committees.

With Pam Spaulding as a mentor, I got a jump start on my blogging and journalism career. We’ll all greatly miss her daily wit and wisdom.