OUT
Fundamentalist
pickets confront
concertgoers.
Carrying signs saying “Repent! Or bum in
Hell!” about a dozen scruffy-looking funda
mentalists confronted people entering
Benson High School to attend the latest con-
cert of the Portland Gay Mens’ Chorus.
The confrontation last week was the first
tim e in the history of the PGMC that such an
incidence had occurred. The PGMC, a four-
year-old cultural organization, has appeared
before Northwest audiences 19 times. The
last three concerts were held in facilities
owned by the Portland public schools.
School district officials had received a tele
phone call the day before the concert advis
ing them of the planned demonstration. The
school district has been supportive of PGMC,
according to Steve Fulmer, PGMC spokes
person. "The district treats us like any other
cultural organization," Fulmer said, in a tele
phone interview. “No calls were placed to the
district after the concert, only one before,"
Fulm er added.
The pickets had a “galvanizing effect on
the audience,” according to Fulmer. “People
even came in and bought tickets because the
pickets were outside. It brought us more
together."
"The pickets did not attempt to be disrup
tive," Fulmer said. “They just exposed their
reactionary attitudes.”
Only once previously had there been ob
jections to the Chorus using school district
facilities; after the concert at Cleveland High
last spring there district had received about
120 calls in opposition. Fulmer said the calls
were from the congregations of two funda
mentalist churches in Northeast Portland
who had been urged by their pastors to call
the district with their complaints.
Lesbian and Gay
Pride update
Complete minutes of the weekly Lesbian
and Gay Pride steering committee meetings
will be posted at Roxy Hart’s and Judy’s.
Highlights of the minutes will be posted on
bulletin boards throughout the city. Commit
tee members say they want to make sure that
the community makes itself aware of the
planning process.
Monitor training will begin sometime in
May. Monitors are very important for many of
the activities during Lesbian & Gay Pride
Week. Monitors are
for the march
and rally. The steering committee says "Sign
up now! ” To make it easy for you to volunteer
to be a monitor, the steering committee sug
gests that you send a letter or post card to:
L/G Pride, PO Box 6611, Portland, OR 97228
or call Willow at 232-2251.
As for volunteering for any other commit
tee, the steering committee meets every
Thursday at MCC (N E 24th Broadway) or
write to the above address or call Willow.
The steering committee is in urgent need
of a phone line; that is someone willing to
donate the use of their phone and an answer
ing machine (the steering committee will
supply an answering machine if one is not
available.)
essential
&
Uncloseted bigot
declares
candidacy for
Congress in 5th
District
by Jay Brown
State Senator Walt Brown, D-Oak Grove,
said last week that he would definitely seek
the Dem ocratic nomination to Congress
from the 5th Congressional District
Brown, 57, is a lawyer and retired Navy
lieutenant He has served in the Oregon
Senate since 1975. During the 1983 legisla
tive session, during debate on the session’s
gay rights bill Brown said that “homosexu
als” are protected from discrimination in
Oregon because the state “already has a law
which prohibits discrimination of the men
tally handicapped.”
Brown’s com m ent was greeted with dis
may by gays and lesbians around the state.
Brown later defended his statement in an
interview with a reporter from a Portland
radio station but refused to talk with a lesbian
constituent from his district
The 5th District is currently represented in
Congress by Denny Sm ith, a Democrat who
has consistently voted in favor of the policies
of Ronald Reagan.
Also seeking the Dem ocratic nomination
in the 5th District are State Senator Ruth
McFarland of W oodbum, Portland lawyer
Jim Beall and Rep. Peter Courtney, D-Salem.
'tgxmr
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