P R O F I
Cherry Hartman is
moving on
hired administrator. See Just Out. Vol. 1. No.
20 .)
Recruitment is still underway for Hart
man's counseling director position. "It's a
wonderful job — other people haven’t
noticed that. We’ve been very fortunate in
getting competent counselors, so the pro
gram will stay intact," Hartman Commented
on the future of Phoenix Rising.
Hartman says that in the four years of
Phoenix Rising's existence, substantial gains
have been made in the relations between gay
men and lesbians in the Portland community.
"There was a m an/wom an split at the begin
ning, but our very successful Tuesday night
group helped a lot The Tuesday nights are a
growth and social group, the people trust
each other and work together. It is a way of
coming out and building social networks and
it is fun. And there’s the freshness of people
who are not professional counselors. The
Tuesday groups are run by people who have
b y Ja y Brow n
When Cherry Hartman first heard that a
lesbian and gay social service agency was
being created by the now defunct Portland
Town Council, she went after the job of run
ning the counseling program. “I was the best
person to do it," Hartman said.
Hartman had more than ten years of ex
perience in counseling; she had worked in
children’s welfare for three years in Grants
Pass right after college and had originated
and run the counseling program for Luthe
ran Family Services in the Portland Metro
area for eight years. Her experience and her
feminist politics proved a winning combina
tion for the fledgling organization.
Cherry Hartman has always been a political
person and she has always been a public
person, “when I lived in Grants Pass, I was
one of only three single women in town. It’s
very conservative there. I finally had to move
to Ashland and commute to work in Grants
Pass,” Hartman commented.
Back in the early seventies, when this writer
was living in Southern Oregon as a publicly
gay person, Cherry Hartman’s name was
mentioned in many conversations I had with
people in Ashland. She left the area just about
the time I moved there so I didn’t meet her
until after I had come to Portland, but her
name was familiar. She had left her mark
there and was remembered for her activism
in the human rights struggle.
In the late seventies Portland Town Council
was offered a substantial sum of money to
establish a social service organization to pro
vide counseling for the lesbian and gay com
munity in Oregon. That organization became
the Town Council Foundation and was one of
the first gay non-profits in the nation. "At that
time there was open discrimination against
gay non-profit organizations,” Hartman
added.
The Town Council Foundation became an
entity separate from the Portland Town
Council, and for a time the name similarity
caused quite a bit of confusion in the com
munity. " . . . so we had a naming contest and
Phoenix Rising was the winning name,"
“Hartman said.
Phoenix Rising lost its major funding
source about a year and a half after the pro
gram was founded. Since the summer of
1981, Phoenix Rising has depended on
counseling fees, private donations and infre
quent small grants. The program’s staff con
sists of seven counselors, an administrator
and the director of counseling. The program
also utilizes fifteen paraprofessionals who run
the Tuesday night groups, Phoenix Rising’s
successful and long-lasting social growth
program.
Hartman has been the only counseling di
rector at Phoenix Rising in its four year history
and she will be leaving the position in Sep
tember. Hartman’s immediate plans include
a doctorate on the sociology of women which
she will pursue at the University of Oregon in
Eugene. “Maybe Liz and I will go to Europe.
We want to take our bicycles and travel
around,’ Hartman said with a twinkle in her
eye.
"After four years," Hartman says, "it’s time
to give it up. It’s time for someone else to
bring in new energy. It’s time for someone
new, with fresh ideas. I feel good that Helen
[ Lottridge ] is there; Phoenix Rising is in good
hands.” (Lottridge is Phoenix Rising’s newly-
been through the program and are trained to
lead the groups," Hartman explained.
Hartman s job at Phoenix Rising involved
her in many activities in the wider commun
ity: she has talked to students in high schools
and colleges in the area. She has counseled
staff at local hospitals as well as professional
organizations such as the Oregon Personnel
and Guidance Association and the National
Association of Social Workers in ways to im
prove relations with the gay community.
What are Cherry Hartman’s long-range
plans? “There must be room for openly gay
people in Eugene." Hartman says. "There are
many professional lesbians down there. But
they don’t have much openness or political
power."
Whatever she decides to do in the future,
we can be assured that Cherry Hartman will
be in the forefront of the struggle. As she
always has been.
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