Southern Voice
                                                September 3, 1993
copied with permission from Southern Voice

                    RURAL GAY COUPLE GETS DEATH THREAT

  Willacoochee, GA - A gay couple who woke up a month ago to find a burned
cross on their lawn have again been the targets of hate.

  And after returning from a recent trip to Florida to find their mailbox
trashed and a crude death threat on their answering machine, Roy Kirkland
and Doug Sebastian are considering leaving the small south Georgia town
where they have lived for the past severn months.

  "`What should we do?' That's what we're really talking about," said
Kirkland, who had vowed after the cross burning that the couple would not
leave.

  In February, Kirkland, a Willacoochee native, returned to live in the
house left to him by has father with Sebastian, his lover of seven year.
On July 21, they woke to find a burned cross on their lawn.

  News of the attack prompted an outpouring of support from the community,
which the coupe found heartening.  Then, when they returned from
Jacksonville two weekends ago, they found the death threat and a message
Kirkland describes as "very vulgar."

  "It was a redneck's way of describing gay men," said Kirkland.

  The cross burning, which is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation, has not been solved.  Kirkland said he has reported the
second attack to local authorities, who, he says, have not been helpful.

                                                Richard Shumate