PROVIDING A VOICE FOR YOU 2 Femme 23 Lesbian? 7 . . 0" SayingGood-byeToAPet .26 BY COLIN MURPHY 11 March 6, 2001 many in the St. Louis GLBT com? Omunity were faced with a delightful dilemma upon entering the voting booth. The top three Democratic candidates in the mayoral primary were not only devoted public servants but also extremely gay friendly. So much so that PROMO (formerly the Privacy Rights Education Project), Missouri?s only statewide advocacy group for GLBT people, opted not to endorse a candidate rather than having to choose between the affable incumbent, Clarence Harmon, the ?ery former mayor, Freeman Bosley, Jr, or the accomplished alderman, Francis Slay. In the end, Slay prevailed and soon went on to handily defeat his Republican rival in the mayoral election. Born in St. Louis, Francis G. Slay was the second oldest of eleven chil- dren?three of whom are gay. His family strongly encouraged public service and after practicing law for nearly 20 years, Slay was elected to the St. Louis Board of Alderman, to represent the 23rd Ward in 1985. And a decade later he would become President of the Board of Alderman in a contested elec- tion. Today, Mayor Slay and Kim, his wife of 21 years, live with their two children, Francis Jr., and Katherine, in the same south St. Louis neighborhood where he grew up. On April 17th, his honor will mark his ?rst year in of?ce as the 45th Mayor of the city of St. Louis. To say it has been a challenging one would be an understatement. Whether defend? ing his support for the enormously unpopular new Cardinals ballpark, debating the fate of the Old Post Office and Century building, or juggling the missions of curbing crime, urban ?ight, and a crumbling school district?he has had his share of bumps along the way. Yet, he is accessible. Room 200 at City Hall is a very busy place. Its stately suites are a sea of city employees and citizens alike?but Mayor Slay graciously granted The Viral VOICE a rare and exclusive sit down interview at his Of?ce, about his record and views on Gateway City GLBT issues. Also in attendance were Ed Rhode, Mayoral Press Secretary, and Howard Meyer, community busi- ness owner and liaison to Mayor Slay for the GLBT and communities. Colin Murphy: At the ?fth annual Pride St. Louis Open House on Feb. 3, 2001 you were candidate Slay, and you told supporters and organizers: grew up in South St. Louis with 11 brothers and sisters-?three of whom were gay." You then introduced your sister Monietta and your brother Ray by say? ing ?some of my family members who are also part of your family. Wren did they come out to you? Mayor Francis Slay: It?s been at least 20 years since my broth? er ?tsr told me that he was gay. And since then, my two sisters have told me somewhere over the last ten years. CM: That must have made you very passionate about GLBT issues when you were Alderman and now Mayor. Did you find that it made you more vocal? F5: Well, yes. We have a very close family and of course I love all of my brothers and sisters very much. I certainly respect? ed them for being open about it and discussing it with me?I was very supportive. And when you have gays and lesbians that you are close to?particularly family members?I think it really gets you to understand some of the issues that they may face every day. It certainly was something that has caused me to bet? ter understand?more so than prior to that time. CM: Your siblings must have your Honor?s air?do they talk to you about issues of concern to the GLBT community? Mayor rancis FEATURESW irst ear In 0f i PS: Yes. My brother Raymond is the one that speaks to me about those issues. My two sisters really don?t bring it up much?in fact, they don?t bring it up at all?as far as any specif- ic issues affecting the gay and lesbian community. But my broth- er Raymond does. I think he?s actively involved in some lobby? ing e?om. He talked to me about that?wanting to know if I had an issue or a problem with it and I said ?absolutely not.? I don?t know if he went ahead and did it, but I know he was talk- ing about going to Jeff City to lobby for some legislation that?s pending up there CM: In March 2001, when you were candidate Slay, you responded to a Viral VOICE questionnaire regarding your position on GLBT issues. In it, you said, will investigate why insurance providers are reluctant to offer coverage to domestic partner dependents in the city system?I see no real reason why the city cannot obtain it.? But basically under the City?s Domestic Partnership Registration, all we are allowed is visitation if our partners are hospitalized or incarcerated. Have you found a way to expand this to possibly health or insurance bene?ts, etc? FS: What has happened so far, and what I did as President of the Board of Alderman, is I included the provision that gave city employees the tight to designate a bene?ciary other than his or her spouse for certain spousal survivor benefits. That has to do with pension. As far as health benefits?at this point?I?m going to have to check and see where we?re at on that. We just went out for a bid on the health package. . .but that?s something we are interested in continuing to look at. CM: Could you talk a bit about how you are keeping in touch with the GLBT community? FS: Howard [Meyer] has been a big help. He?s basically vol? unteering his effort to be a liaison with my office to the gay and lesbian community and to the organizations that are working on related issues. He?s been very active and doing a lot of work?he?s actually gone and traveled on his own dime to learn more about Ryan White Funds and the use of those funds. So, I do have a liaison with my office to the gay and lesbian community. I also have been actively soliciting people to serve in various capacities either with my administration or as appointees to various boards and commissions within the city government. And in those capacities, I work with and communicate with those individuals there. Also, I have attended?twice now, I think?the EMS?the St. Ibuis planning council for the Ryan White Title I funds, and I was told that I was the only mayor that ever attended those meetings. I wanted to demonstrate my interest in those issues?the importance of those issues to the citizens of St. Louis and the improvement of the quality of life for everyone who lives in the city. To make St. Louis a friendly SEE SLAY ON NEXT PAGE M. 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One was a management problem? a personnel and program management prob- lem?and the ether was a ?scal management problem. We?re getting a handle on both of them. . .we put new management over there. In facr, I met with virtually all of the Health Department employees to let them know that we?re very serious about straightening up the Health Department. I talked speci?cally about the programs that deal with because there were some threats when I Came into office that we would lose Funding because of the way those grant moneys were being han- dled. So basically what my objective 15, is to make sure that the Health Department 15 run? ning effectively and ef?ciently 1n a whole num- ber of different ways. But including our ability to operate those programs effectively, so that the organizations and agencies that rely on program funding that IS administered by the Health Department for related issues, get their money on time and so that we can administer those programs efir'ectively. CM: I?d like to touch on a few more issues. The Sexual Misconduct Law that out- laws same?sex, sexual relationships?outlaws gay sex?are you in favor of that being repealed? FS: Yes. CM: Can you do something here in the city or is that solely a state issue? -5pm: FS: That would be a state law. CM: Non-Discrimination and Hate Crime Laws: Meaning?Jaws speci?cally including GLBT community members along with other minorities such as African Americans, Women, and the Disabled. Are you in favor of that? FS: Yes, listing sexual orientation and trans- gendered people [in those laws] CM: What?s your position on gay ma:- riage? PS: I haven't been a supporter OFI?gay mar? riage.? I don?t know exactly what that means. CM: Do you think it?s the word that Frightens people? FS: Yeah, I think it?s the word. CM: 50 if we were to call it Domestic Partnership or something like that people would be more receptive? fIlon PS: I am in favor of some kind of Domestic Partnership Legislation that would allow same sex partners to have bene?ts similar to those of people that are married. I would support that. But I think ?marriage? is an issue that a lot of people are having trouble with. CM: In addition to Howard Meyer, how many openly gay people do you have on your sta?? PS: You know I haven?t counted them [laughs], but I was just talking to Howard about that. I could try to ?nd out?but I don?t know what we?d actually do to find out. Because sometimes I just don?t like to ask. Although sometimes there are people I believe may be gay or lesbian and we'll bring them on, and I?ll appoint them to a position. I have an SEE SLAY ON NEXT PAGE lVl:;: NEI WUI Lou usz Dodge has A proudly serving the GLBT Community, with respect, for over 25 years Stop in a see Vicki or Randy tOday with this ad fOr an addt1onalsavmgs 314-966-0630 1085 North Kirkwood A Selection Of Vehicles Diverse As You Are. Forest Green Durango Deep-i Sapphire Blue intrepid SLAY WNUED FROM PRECEDING PAGE inclusive and diverse administration and we're trying to ?nd people all the time to serve on various boards and commissions. I certainly know Joe Murphy?he was appointed to Municipal Judge?he?s very active and known in the gay community and the city of St. Louis. I know there are Others but I'm not going to start naming But we're cer- minly in making sure that we have diversity in city government. CM: As Mayor, you enjoy a very power- ful voice. You embrace Regionalism. How will you help lend your voice Statewide on GLBT issues? Most of the changes need to be made at the State level. PS: I think they need to be made at the state level and certainly as mayor of the city ofSt. Louis. I know that we have a signili? cant gay and lesbian population. 80 it does impact us as a city. We want to be known as DEAN TEAM a city where there are opportunities for every individual?where people would feel com- fortable coming here. Not only about races?about genders?but certainly about sexual orientation. I guess I could get active by discussing the issue with PROMO in terms of the issues there are and how I could be helpful. I?m not exactly sure how they approach the lobbying efforts in Jeff City, but I?d be very happy to do that. CM: I?d like to touch on the removal of the AIDS billboards; particularly those with the African American men in an embrace?? If you could go back in time, would you have handled it diHerently? It caused some controversy. F5: No. wouldn?t have handled it differ? m3- systems Before the loving begins, get tested. Know Your HIV Status A 5/ ?m?am/?y m' Sponsored by the Caty of St. Lotus Health 55 through the Heamh Educate)"; 6 Ruth. (Brunt I: ently. That's exactly the way I wanted to han? SEE SLAY ON NEXT PAGE This controversial billboard, near the intersection of 5. Grand and Meramec, was put up on Sept. 19, 2001 and removed on Sept. 20. 02 NEW BEETLE Only at the Dean Team 0% APR Financing Available 15121 Manchester Rll. 636.221.0100 Stk. #2602 List $18,945 Discount $2,495 Cash Down $4.000 Your Balance 512, 450 mama; deanteamcom Look for our Internet deals _online. All inventory shown onllne 02 GI. Stk.#6000 List $19,894 Discount $2,495 Cash Down $4,000 Your Balance 5 13,400 02 GOLF GI. Stk. #1010 List $18,095 Discount $2,495 Cash Down $4,000 Your Balance $11,600 02 PASSAT GL5 Stk. #3660 List $26,525 Discount $2.495 Cash Down $4,000 Balance 19,830 SLAY CONTINUED FROM PRECEDING PAGE dle it. Let me tell you what the problem was. First of all?the moneys ?owed through the city of St. Louis. In that regard, it was par? tially a city sponsored effort. It was a media eH?ort?In the sense that they were using bill- boards that were going to be all over the city of St. Louis to communicate a message. This was approved by a low-level employee in the Health Department. That person?s supervisor and the Health Department Director didn?t know about it. My office didn?t know about it. And that whole thing shouldn?t have been done. What we did was?because there were billboards that were offensive to a signi?cant amount of people. . .. CM: Did you ?nd them offensive? Did you see them? F5: I saw the billboards and I will tell you that they were not billboards that I would have approved. CM: But did you ?nd them offensive? FS: Well. I?m not easily offended but I didn?t like them. I understand what the mes- sage was?I agreed with the message. But there?s a way of projecting the message. What we did was we took down the bill? boards that we felt~after looking at them and listening to people?the ones that we felt were most offensive. CM: You took down the ones with gay imagery, correct? FS: I can?t talk about that because they?re not in front of me right now. I remember we looked through all of them. Here?s the deal?If we?re going to have our name on something?you just don?t put it up and just put somebody?s name on it. We need to be part of the effort. And I think that if any- thing went wrong it was that the city really wasn?t involved and nobody with any authority in the city was involved in talking about this media campaign. Any time you do a media campaign?m?rst of all, you want incorporated Web Site Design and Hosting Web hosting with 800 megabytes of disk space starts at under $21 a month. Enough space for thousands of web pages and images plus unlimited email addresses, SQL database connectivity and foil programmability with CGI, 3ava, C, PHP and Perl. Find out more at pwx.com. Print Design and Production Integration of Onl?rne and Print Media, brochures, letterheads business cards, catalogs etc. in ?wor of some leind of Domestic Partnership Legislation that would allow same sex partners to have bene?ts similar to those of people that are married. to make sure you get your message across. But at the same time you want to make sure that it?s an effective message and it doesn?t in your source for integrated media solutions Jiyphnet phone 314 401 7269 THE BAR-SCENE ALTE RNATIVE Gay and Single? Out?n- About, St. Lou/54 Me er men of: r? l/Jf rag/round and 5. A dining club for single? gay men Phone: (866) 3303.59? Tol/ Free Fax: (508) 5462582 outnaboutstlouis. tripodt com some way create a negative backlash at the effort you?re trying to get forWard. What we did was we ended up replacing those bill- boards with other the mes? sage across that was meant. And you?re right, it was the imagery of the billboards?what- ever it was?more so than what was said on the billboards that many people throughout the St. Louis area?North, Central, and South complained about. We got a lot of calls. The fact was if there?s going to be something that widespread in the city of St. Louis with our name on it?we should know about it?at least if nothing else we?re prepared to react in case something comes up. I agreed with the message but it was how it was portrayed. CM: Last question: You serve on the police board?can you talk about Father Nutt?s resignation amid the accusation of improper advances with two male of?cers? FS: Just so everybody understands, any? time you have an employee setting, and a employee files a complaint of discrimination or harassment of any kind we have an obli- gation?not only under law?but under our rules and procedures to do an investigation, and that?s exactly what we did. We didn?t do it because I called for one?I said we were going to do it because we were required to. And we did it. But shortly thereafter Father Nutt resigned, obviously. Which meant that no action could be taken assuming the alle- gations were proven true, and he?d done something inappropriate. There was no action we could take against him. We con- cluded the investigation, and basically the investigation involved looking at our rules and procedures and how this was handledv to see if it was handled properly. And the investigation concluded that we did [handle it properly]. CM: Thank You, Mr. Mayor. FS: Thank You. You can rear/2 Colin Murphy at @401. ram. Weddings and ommitment Ceremonies Pets 0 Children . Portraits Events OR LOCATION SIGNATURE ARTS Matting Framing Services 0 Photographic Restoration. 2001 RUSSELL BLVD, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. 63} 04. I . . Gdllesy- 314/564-4211