New group to address gay issues

Southeast Missouri's gay and lesbian community will have a new advocacy voice this month when the SEMO Stonewall Democrats holds its first meeting at the Rose Bud Inn in Cape Girardeau.

The group will join more than 90 chapters in the national Stonewall Democrats, an organization that has official recognition as the intraparty voice on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, said James Coley, who owns the Rose Bed Inn with his longtime partner, Eldon Nattier.

The meeting, which is slated for 7 p.m. Feb. 20, will feature Perry Nelson, founder of the Gateway Stonewall Democrats in St. Louis, Coley said. The SEMO chapter aims to bring a voice on issues important to gays and lesbians to the Eighth Congressional District, he said. "The 8th Congressional District is a rather scattered congressional district, but it is very much in need of pulling our people together and giving them a voice," Coley said.

By acting in a single organization, the Stonewall Democrats give gays and lesbians a stronger voice in politics, Coley said.

"We still do not have full equality, and unfortunately it is still a long ways away. And we won't have it until my spousal relationship is honored in every one of the 1,049 federal benefits that are presently afforded legally married couples," Foley said.

The issues important to gays and lesbians don't involve special rights, he said. "What drives it is the very innate desire for fairness," he said. "We all have the innate desire to be treated equally and fairly."

Organizers are still working to get the word out on the new chapter, Coley said, so he couldn't give an estimate of expected attendance. "But I know I have told a lot of people and asked them to pass it on; and we are going to have people here from Poplar Bluff, from Perry County, from Reynolds County and Scott County. It is connecting people where before, they were isolated."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126