Staff reports | The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced Thursday that the state reached a 50 percent vaccination rate among eligible residents. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster says the milestone was important, but there was still work to do. Some 59 percent of South Carolinians have had at least one vaccination shot.
By Charlie Smith, special to Charleston Currents | I moved home to Charleston 23 years ago after two years at Clemson working on a master’s degree in planning and 12 years of living in Miami. Soon after returning, I walked into Dudley’s on King Street and ran into an old acquaintance who had lived up the street from me in graduate school. He asked what I intended to do for a living.
I told him that I intended to establish South Carolina’s first openly gay-owned and -operated real estate brokerage, marketing primarily to the LGBTQ community. His immediate response was “You’ll never make a dime in this town!” I never forgot those words. I immediately set out to prove him wrong.
Real estate was a tight-knit business community back then. It was not all that welcoming to people who had no intention of working under an established broker, but rather who planned to start an office from scratch. It was also 1996 and the internet was in its infancy as a real estate tool.
This year’s annual gala for the Alliance for Full Acceptance on Saturday night at Memminger Auditorium offered a special twist for the 300 or so folks who gathered to raise money for the nonprofit: Entertainment by the Citadel Cadet Chorale. Not only did the cadets sing a medley of songs from “Jersey Boys” and tunes like “Little Deuce Coupe,” but the college surprised many by sponsoring a table at the event. Photo by Andy Brack.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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