From: "Clare Howell" Subject: IYF-Slain Soldier's Girlfriend Says Winchell Wasn't Gay Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 07:39:49 -0700 MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Editor: Clare Howell, clare@gpac.org Contact: Monica Helms, Mhelms@webtv.net SLAIN SOLDIER'S GIRLFRIEND SAYS WINCHELL WASN'T GAY ======================================== [Nashville, TN: 17 Aug 99] REFERRED TO IN PRESS reports as 'a man' and 'a female impersonator,' Calpernia Adams, slain soldier Barry Winchell's girlfriend, is a male- to-female transexual who lives full-time as a woman. PFC Winchell, 21, was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat on 6 Jul 99. A fellow soldier, Pvt. Calvin Glover, has been charged with murder. Ms. Adams, 28, cooperated with the Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network (SLDN) in portraying herself as a man to highlight Winchell's murder as a gay hate crime. Callie, as she is known to friends, works at The Connection, a gay night club in Nashville. It was there that she met PFC Winchell in March. She says that Specialist Justin Fisher, 25, who was later charged as an accessory to the murder, had attended the club previously, met her, and had returned with several friends, among them Winchell. It was Fisher who introduced Adams and Winchell. Ms. Adams said that she found Winchell 'cute, polite, calm and masculine.' He asked her for a date and they became intimately involved. She says Winchell was not gay-identified. She maintains that they had a 'straight' relationship, and that Winchell had never had sex with a man. She says that it was only after she and Winchell became involved that the anti-gay harassment he suffered in the barracks began, probably instigated by Spec. Fisher. Fisher, in addition to being charged as an accessory to murder after the fact, has been charged with participating as a principal to premeditated murder by encouraging Pvt. Glover, making false statements to Army investigators, and obstructing the investigation. ### Subscriptions. Please contact: Subscribe@Gpac.org For prior releases, check the GenderPAC website at: http://www.gpac.org (c) 1999 InYourFace GenderPAC's independent online news-only service for gender activism. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of GenderPAC's Board, Officers, or membership.