Subject: News Release re: Jim Baxter & The Front Page
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:54:49 EDT

NEWS RELEASE FROM FOREWORD COMMUNICATIONS
For Additional Information, Contact:
Wayne Smalley, 803-779-7257 or [email-masked]
For Photos, Contact: M. .J. Sharp, 919-286-1972 or [email-masked] 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THE FRONT PAGE AND PUBLISHER RECEIVE '99 PRIDE AWARD
North Carolina Rainbow Publication Celebrates 20th Anniversary

(COLUMBIA, SC) - In an age of video and virtual communication, The Front 
Page, a print publication, and its publisher Jim Baxter received the 
prestigious North Carolina Pride Statewide Award of Merit by the board of 
North Carolina Pride.

The award, one of only two Awards of Merit, was given at the 1999 NC Pride 
banquet held Saturday, June 12 in Greensboro.  The other recipient was John 
Parks, a commissioner in Guilford County who was successful in getting an 
inflammatory, anti-gay clause removed from a piece of county funding 
legislation.

Given yearly since the early 90's, the 1999 Award of Merit recognizes the 
significant contributions that The Front Page has made to North Carolina's 
rainbow society and the publication's 20th anniversary.  The Front Page 
published its first issue on October 25, 1979.

"The very essence of community is communication; and, it would be hard to 
overstate the importance of The Front Page to North Carolina's gay, lesbian, 
bisexual, and transgender community," stated Art Sperry, a former business 
associate of Baxter's.

This year also marks publisher Jim Baxter's 25th anniversary in journalism.  
Born in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Baxter studied first at American 
University in 1971 and moved to North Carolina in 1972 to attend Guilford 
College in Greensboro.  He helped found the on-campus Guilford Gay Alliance 
and the off-campus Gay People's Alternatives.

In 1974, Baxter began his career as an openly gay columnist for the 
Greensboro Sun.   Sun publisher Jim Clark noted that Baxter's column, "On 
Being Gay," "...received more response than any column in the history of the 
paper."  Five years later, Baxter began his own publication, The Front Page.  
This was no small feat in a state known for its ultra conservative politics 
and social climate.

"Jim really deserves his own award apart from our recognition of The Front 
Page," said Dr. Mike Katz, a NC Pride board member.  "Jim is the 
quintessential role model for gays and lesbians.  He had a dream, and through 
enormous effort and hard work established a newspaper for the gay and lesbian 
community."

"Jim and the team at The Front Page have been a voice cheering the efforts of 
building North Carolina's gay community and of sharing our history," 
commented Phillip Pendleton, a friend of Baxter's since college and 
co-founder of the Guilford Gay Alliance.  "Part town crier, part educator, 
part matchmaker, Jim Baxter deserves all our praise."
 
Though The Front Page is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, its 
informational reach extends far beyond the geographical boundaries of the 
Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) and of the state itself.  
With the demise of In Unison, (a South Carolina gay publication) and Our Own 
Community Press (a Norfolk, Virginia monthly), The Front Page is 
strategically poised to assume a journalistic leadership position in three 
states.

"I like to think of The Front Page as a community center," added Katz.  "We 
have so few real places to go, so few structures.  Through the printed word, 
The Front Page has connected the gay and lesbian communities of North 
Carolina and the Southeast."

In addition to its award-winning, in-depth reporting, the publication also 
plays a journalistic advocacy role.  Born from gay activism of the mid 
1970's, The Front Page, has served as a vital link to gays and lesbians 
living in the remotest parts of North Carolina and other rural areas of the 
Southeast. 

Publisher Baxter himself noted, "While I'm honored by the acclamation of the 
NC Pride Board and this award, the real affirmation is when someone comes up 
to me and says, 'When I was struggling to come out, The Front Page was the 
first thing I found,' or writes a note and says, 'The paper is a lifeline for 
me out here in the boondocks.'  Suddenly I realize the reason I ever got 
started in the first place." 

"Twenty years ago, Art Sperry, the fellow who loaned me the money to begin, 
and I reasoned that if there was ever going to be change in North Carolina, 
it was going to have to be a statewide effort," Baxter explained.

"That effort was going to take a statewide gay and lesbian community.  And 
that community was going to need a means of communication, a regular, 
dependable forum.  That's why The Front Page was created," he continued.  "To 
serve that community-to-be and help create a regional sense of identity."

From the beginning, The Front Page pushed for social and political change, 
walking the fine line that separates a movement from one particular agenda.  
Part of that change included persuading North Carolina's gay and lesbian 
population to jell as one community.

"Jim has been a leader and visionary for all of us in North Carolina," said 
M. K. Cullen, executive director of NCPridePAC, a gay and lesbian political 
organization.  "He was involved in grassroots organizing long before there 
were statewide political groups.  He convinced us to constantly push the 
boundaries."

In addition, Baxter and his publication pushed for the start of an annual gay 
and lesbian pride celebration; and, in 1986 the first NC Gay and Lesbian 
Pride March was held.  Jim Baxter was on the steering committee for that 
first march 14 years ago.  The pride celebration has occurred annually ever 
since.

Being presented with the Award of Merit by the NC Pride Board brings Baxter 
and The Front Page full-circle in terms of vision and accomplishment in the 
gay and lesbian community.

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