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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2001)
Coming Out continued from page 1 ence is not necessarily a frightening thing,” said Green, who has written legislative proposals to increase rights and safety for people in the LGBT community. “When people are fearful, they act in a defensive manner, which turns into an ag gressive situation.” For people in the LGBT commu nity, the day shows them they have support and are not alone, psychol ogy Professor Pam Birrell said. Bir red, who spoke at “Becoming Gen dered: Identity and Crisis” on Wednesday, said coming out in an “entrenched, homophobic” society can be painful but enlightening at the same time. “I think it’s a double-edged sword,” she said. “It’s the healthiest thing you can do, but it also opens you up to prejudice and discrimina tion. It’s important to have a support ive community to do that within.” Ramenakis, who is now the LGBT issues coordinator at the Women’s Center, said having the community come together in one place also shows the large numbers of people in the LGBT community. “It’s a supportive sense of cama raderie,” she said. “It lets you know there are people like you, and there’s a community waiting for you. Coming out in numbers makes it easier for the next person.” She added that she is sometimes treated differently by outsiders. She has friends who have been targets of hate crimes, she said, but she has experienced name-calling and of fensive language, which she lets “roll off.” “I want to get upset about it,” she said. “I wish people weren’t homo phobic, but at the same time I don’t want to let it get to me. I have a lot of enthusiasm for the queer move ment, and I’m not going to let peo ple like that affect me.” LGBT Support Services director Chicora Martin and LGBT co-direc tor Maddy Melton agreed that visi bility, especially on campuses, is important to people both in and outside the LGBT community. “A lot of people probably don’t know they know someone who is queer,” Melton said. “ This puts a face to a name. You may already know queer people, and seeing that may make the word less scary.” History of Coming Out Day Oct. 11, 1987—Naif a million people marched in Washington, D.C., for gay and lesbian equality. Former head of the National Gay Rights Advocates Jean O’Leary helped recognize the first National Coming Out Day. 1990— National Coming Out Day expanded to all 50 states and seven foreign countries. 1991— Geraldo Rivera hosted a coming out day TV program featuring gay actors such as Dick Sargent, famous for playing Darren on "Bewitched." 1993—National Coming Out Day merged with the then Human Rights Campaign Fund. 1994—More celebrities joined the movement Actress Amanda Bearse of Fox's television series "Married With Children1* agreed to be chairwoman for National Coming Out Day 1994. The event grew into a year-round program promoting honesty and openness about being gay. 1998-^National Coming Oat Day's tenth anniversary. HRC hosted National Coming Out Day festivities in San Francisco, featuring emcee Joan Rivers. Candace Gingrich also returned to the project. site, www.hrc.org UNIVERSITY OF OREGON ^REER Explore your options. Find your direction. Now Is the time. The Career Development Internship Program (CDIP) provides a unique opportunity for undergraduates to explore their career options. Internships are available in a variety of areas. Now is the time to get started! Interview sign-ups will take place at the upcoming orientation, and attendance is required in order to participate. Join us, and see where you can go with an internship! CDIP Orientation Session: October 29, 2001 - 3:30-5pm EMU Fir Room STEWART COPELAND TREY ANASTASIO LES CLAYPOOL WITH SPECIAL GUEST NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS SALEM ARMORY AUDITORIUM 2720 17TH STREET, NE, SALEM, OREGON OCTOBER 24 DOORS OPEN B:30PM • SHOW STARTS 7:30PM Tickets available on line at www.ticketmaster.eain and at all tichatnitmter outlets, including G I Joe's, Meier and Frank locations and Ihe Rose Quarter ticket office Tickets available with no service at Portland State University Box Office, 510 Southwest Hall (between SW 5th & 6th) in downtown Portland between dam - Spin Charge by phone (503) 224-4400 All dates, acts, and ticket prices are subject to change without notice A service charge is added to each ticket price Visa, MC.accepted Disabled seating available at all ticket centers Six ticket limit per person A Clear C(ianne.l Event. WWW OYSTIRHf AD COM Ml OIIDI ALBUM flic Grand Peeking Older IN STORES OCTOBER 2 Get Tickets At QQ.C0M WRC continued from page 1 tractors ensuring that merchandise, such as T-shirts and sweatshirts with university insignias, are made under conditions the universities deem acceptable. The University wrote its own “Trademark Licensee Code of Con duct” in early 2000, mandating a living wage for workers, safety stan dards and the right to organize, among other conditions. After much debate, the University joined the WRC in April 2000, but was forced to withdraw after the State Board of Higher Education decided that, to maintain “the free flow of commerce,” Oregon universities could not impose codes of conduct on contractors. Members of the WRC say the de cision in Mexico has redrawn the lines in international worker rights issues. In the United States, col leges and universities debating merchandise codes of conduct can now look to these events as a victo ry, according to Scott Nova, execu tive director of the WRC. “This is the first time that we have seen universities’ codes of conduct truly bear fruit,” Nova said. “The question on many Amer ican campuses for the past several years has been, ‘Can pressures from colleges and universities make a difference in working conditions in overseas factories?’ We now know the answer is ‘yes.’” Nova said that the deal between the factory owners and workers would not have been cemented without shoe companies putting pressure on the owners to negoti ate. “There is no doubt in my mind this would not have happened without the intervention of Nike and Reebok,” he said. Vada Manager, a spokesman for Nike, said that after hearing of the incidents of intimidation and fir ings in Atlixco, Nike moved quickly to reach a solution be tween the workers and the factory owners. “We had a very engaged role in having our corporate code upheld,” he said. Over the past few years, Nike has gone to great lengths to shine a corporate image that had been tarnished by scandals involving child labor and unsafe working conditions. Tuesday, Nike re leased its first “Corporate Respon sibility Report” to describe Nike initiatives on a host of issues, in cluding reducing the amount of child labor and keeping factories safe and clean for its workers. The report noted the MexMode plant specifically and said the daily coverage from the WRC and other groups “ultimately made it difficult to resolve very complex local is sues.” Manager also said the methods of the WRC and other groups attempt ed to demonize Nike, instead of pressing ahead for the rights of workers. “Some parties made it a lot more difficult... rather than have a con structive dialogue,” he said. On campus, the events may spur activists to push the higher educa tion board to reconsider the code of conduct policy. Venus Killen, a member of the United Students Against Sweatshops at the Univer sity, said the decision in Mexico “convinces people that the WRC is legitimate, and now they can prove they can make a difference.” She said that putting pressure on the Oregon University System will be one of the main goals of the organi zation. Goldrich agreed, calling the board’s decision a “shameful” act because it was made without a hearing. “Their action does not do away with the problem,” he said. “It just sweeps it under the door.” John Liebhardt is the higher education editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached at johnliebhardt@dailyemerald.com. Hussein continued from page 1 The former intelligence chief was seeking proof that the man who planned the first attack on the World Trade Center, who lived in England in the late 1980s, was an Iraqi agent, officials said. Wolfowitz and several other offi cials have argued repeatedly in in teragency meetings that the United States should bomb Iraq and topple Hussein after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Secretary of State Colin Powell and others have successfully de flected those arguments so far, argu ing that such an attack would frac ture the international coalition President Bush has assembled. Powell, Vice President Cheney and other U.S. and British officials have said there is no evidence link ing Iraq to the Sept. 11 attacks. Mo hammed Atta, one of the suicide hi jackers, met with a low-level Iraqi intelligence officer, in Prague in June 2000, but U.S. officials said they don’t know whether the meet ing had anything to do with the ter rorist attacks 13 months later. Woolsey’s trips, however, suggest that the debate about whether, when and how to expand Bush’s war on terrorism is far from over. Wolfowitz and others at the Pen tagon “are seized” with the idea that Iraq was behind the attacks, and want to finish the job Bush’s fa ther started in the 1991 Persian Gulf war by toppling Hussein, said a senior U.S. official. According to this theory, Iraq’s intelligence appa ratus supported Osama bin Laden, accused of sponsoring the terrorist attacks. The argument that Saddam was behind the 1993 attempt to topple the World Trade Center was ad vanced by scholar Laurie Mylroie in her book, “Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein’s Unfinished War against America.” The man convicted of master minding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing used the alias Ramzi Yousef but was arrested with a Pakistani passport bearing the name Abdul Basit. He is now in a U.S. prison. Mylroie writes that Iraqi intelli gence officers likely stole Basit’s identity during Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, where a man named Ab dul Basit lived at the time. She and Woolsey point to the fact that Basit and his family disappeared during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, and to physical differences between Ba sit and the man in custody. FBI and CIA specialists met with Mylroie in the mid-1990s to exam ine her evidence, but concluded there was nothing to it, said a for mer government official with knowledge of the events. Woolsey went to England to de termine whether Basit’s finger prints matched Yousef’s, current and former officials said. Several of those with knowledge of the trips said they failed to pro duce any new evidence that Iraq was behind the attacks. © 2001, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. HIV continued from page 5 But that lack of trust is still there, she said, especially now that the government is requiring the names of all Oregon residents who test positive for HIV. But there is a way around it. “People have a choice between anonymous and confidential test ing,” Moore said. “We have to take part in the law, but if clients test anonymously, then their names won’t be reported.” The program has already suc cessfully tested more than 40 peo ple at two different locations since it began Aug. 11. “This is the best way to reach people,” Livingston, who was hired to test'youth because he is young himself, said. “Doctors may be judg mental, but here everyone is person centered. We want to help.” HIV Alliance has received sever al grants to conduct testing and prevention programs, which will continue throughout the year, Ha betler said. Lindsay Buchele is the community editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald. She can be reached atlindsaybuchele@dailyemerald.com.
