Originally published in The Nation. OF ALL THE FAN LETTERS OUT NORTH Contemporary Art House has ever received, the most surprising has come from a former adversary. Shannon McDade, a member of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, had visited the theater to see June Bride, a one-woman show by Sara Felder about an old-fashioned lesbian Jewish […]
Southern Discomfort
Gays in Charlotte, N.C., strive for community cohesion as they struggle to get back on track after a virulent 1997. Originally published in The Advocate. CHARLOTTE, N.C., PRIDES ITSELF on being the best of the New South. The nation’s second-largest banking center, it’s a booming city of 60-story skyscrapers, historic neighborhoods, and suburbs that stretch to the […]
Helms’ Last Stand?
The Senate’s most renowned right-winger faces a new day in the Tar Heel state. Originally published in The Nation. FIFTEEN PEOPLE WERE WAITING when Harvey Gantt showed up at the Whitaker Mill Senior Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. In a small lounge room with straight-back chairs and a bulletin board full of photos, the Democratic U.S. Senate […]
No, Jesse, No
Is Senator Helms Gay Public Enemy No. 1? Originally published in Out. IT’S EARLY ON A TUESDAY afternoon, and a pack of reporters has clustered on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol building. With the Balkan conflict reaching a critical juncture, the national media are looking for some punchy sound bites from the top Republican senators […]
Statesmanship vs. Helmsmanship
How the senator from North Carolina holds the world hostage Originally published in The Nation. NOT TOO LONG AGO, JESSE FRIEDMAN, the deputy director of the American Institute for Free Labor Development, and several Nicaraguan union leaders came up with an idea to help low-income workers in that country: a home-improvement loan fund, from which union members […]
Statehouses Drop the Other Shoe
Originally published in The Nation. WHEN THE REPUBLICANS TOOK OVER the North Carolina Statehouse last January, Frances Cummings seemed a fitting choice to head the subcommittee on public education. As president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, she had lobbied for higher teacher pay and better funding for rural schools. She also spoke from experience: For […]
Highway Robbery
In 1992, The Independent Weekly (now Indy Week) and the Institute for Southern Studies collaborated on an investigative series called “Highway Robbery,” which examined how campaign contributions influenced North Carolina’s $1.6 billion transportation budget. The series spawned a grassroots reform movement and won two major awards: The Green Eyeshade (the South’s top journalism prize, from the Society for Professional Journalists) and […]
Harvey & Jesse Go A-Courtin’
The voters who will swing the nation’s hottest Senate race speak out. Published in Indy Week. IF HARVEY GANTT WERE TO INVENT THE TYPE of voter he needs to tip him over victory’s edge this November, he might come up with someone just like Stella Nolley. Thirty-nine, Republican, and living in Cary, she considers Jesse […]
Why Helms is Still at the Helm
N.C. politics illustrate an important national moral: Republicans don’t have to address the social and economic concerns of ordinary people in order to win elections. Democrats do. Originally published in the Washington Monthly. FIVE YEARS AGO, IN THE AFTERMATH of the biggest GOP sweep North Carolina had ever seen, a group of stunned Democratic Party leaders paid […]
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