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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1985)
T July, 1985 Vol. 2 No. 9 STA FF Graphic Arts Director Rupert Kinnard Co-publishers Jay Brown Renee LaChance • Advertising Director Roger Hall Editor Jay Brown Advertising Associate Eve Sicular Contributors Lee Lynch Billy Russo Production Director Bev La Belle Proofreader Anita Quiton Jim Hunger Sandra DeHelen Patrick Caplis Bill McRae Eleanor Malin Lynn DeMont iz jr r —i i I Written and graphic materials are welcomed for submission. All written material should be typed and double-spaced. All graphic matenal should be black ink on white paper. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of each month. O u t A b o u t Town is a courtesy to our readers. Items must be received by the 15th of each month. Display advertising will be accepted up to five days before publication date, if camera ready, if not, then seven days prior. Classified ads must be received at the office of Just O u t ten days prior to publication date, along with paym ent Editorial policies allow the rejection or the edit ing of an article or advertisement that is offensive, dem eaning or may result in legal action. Just O u t consults the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual on editorial decisions. Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns, and features may not necessarily be those of the editorial staff of Just Out. Subscriptions to Just O u t are available for $7.50 for 12 issues. A free copy of Just O ut and/or advertising rates are available upon reguest The mailing address and telephone number for Just O u t are: P.O. Box 1 5 1 1 7 Portland. O R 9 7 2 1 5 2 3 6 -1 2 5 2 i r ....i .. i ; ■ 'V ,.."i i i -T v lr-z l) Critical of staff decision To the editor: I was very intrigued by the letter from J. Pinocchio regarding your staff s refusal to carry advertising by the North American M an/B oy Love Association (NAMBLA). I don’t know what went into your staff s deci sion and I am not going to try to second guess, but I would like to point out a few things. As an advertiser in your paper, you are aware that my business, The City Nightclub, is the only gay nightclub in Portland that does not serve alcohol and hence does not need to discriminate on the basis of age. As a conse quence our clientele, both male and female, is comprised of about Vs over twenty-one, about Yi between 18 and 21 and the rest under 18. During the seven years I have been in this business I have encountered many young people under the age of 18 who, for whatever reason, are sexually attracted to people considerably older than they are, principally people in their 30s and 40s, but even older is not as uncommon as some people might want you to think. In fact many young people do not discriminate in their sexual choice by age, but soon learn to do so by the pressure of society in much the same way that society puts the pressure on them to be heterosexual rather than homosexual. These young people who have these sex ual preferences for older people are quite often made ot feel that there is something wrong with them because of this preference. Although they may feel genuine attraction for an older person, their peers may put it down to that they're too ugly to get anyone else, or that they are just using the older person as a sugar daddy or mama depending on whether the young person is male or female. Hence a genuine emotion is belittled and the young person begins to question their own true feel ings and eventually hids them to the detri m ent of themselves and everyone else. As far as 1 know there are no support groups, outside of NAMBLA, that specifically and publicly help these young people find em otionally and physically satisfying rela tionships with the persons of their choice and deal with the consequent problems that such a choice may entail. Many people over 21 feel that any support for these young people opens them to the criticism of being called “chicken queens” and hence fear helping J im * Out, July 1985 Just O ut is published the first of each month. Copyright 1985. No part of Just O ut may be re produced without the written permission of the publishers. them. It takes a person of incredible internal strength and compassion to overcome this fear of ridicule by their peers. The very lack of any kind of active support from established gay social health groups for these young people lends credence to the above state m ent J u s t O ut's refusal to carry advertising for NAMBLA is one of the few visible signs of the fear that the gay community has in deal ing with gay people under 18 and their de sires for sexual contact with people of their own choice. Most of the time, the gay com munity refuses to even acknowledge the ex istence of gay people under 21 (let alone under 18) and just wishes that people (at least gay people) didn't become sexually active until they are old enough to legally drink. Being gay and lesbian means dealing with the sexual ac t The sooner we come to grips with th at the sooner we will be able to over com e the pressures that heterosexual society puts on us to keep away from young people lest we corrupt them. The churches and the new right know that and they further their real brand of corruption on the young through their assaults on the schools and through religious indoctrination. If we abandon gay people under 18 to their teachings, then in deed the gay movement will not only grind to a h alt but will shift backwards so far as to make the '50s look like the age of enlightenm ent Gay youth has wants, needs and desires that are as honest and valid as gay adults. (Jntil mainstream gay organizations make specific and consistent outreaches to our gay youth to fulfill these needs, any criticsims of organizations like NAMBLA is unfair. NAMBLA is attempting to provide support services for gay male youth and gay male adults who are sexually attracted to each other. So at least NAMBLA is doing some thing. Before you criticize them, step back and ask yourself, what are you doing? Sincerely, Lanny Swerdlow P.S. Please do not feel that this letter, although critical of your policy of refusing NAMBLA’s advertising is in any way a threat of my canceling our advertising in your paper. K is n o t Although I am totally opposed to censor ship of any kind, as an editor and publisher of two gay newspapers in Portland during the '70s, I also recognize a paper's inherent right to censor its own contents. I feel your papier is excellent and admire its style and brand of reporting and hope that you will continue to present news and information about our gay com m unity in the same enlightened context that you have been doing since you first started publication. I understand your action in regard to NAMBLA and just wanted you to consider it from a viewpoint that is often ig nored — the viewpoint of many of the young people that have been customers of my businesses over the past seven years. City Council should make Portland Nuke Free To The Editor: The City Council should pass the ordinance to declare Portland a nuclear free zone. Al though this ordinance, by prohibiting nuclear weapon production locally, will not end the war drive, it is an important step, both symbolically and in actuality. But its effect both as a symbol and as a law, is negated by exempting the U.S. government from its strictures. It is the U.S. government which is the primary international user and proliferator of nuclear weapons. From Hiroshima to the 100s of warheads on European soil to Star Wars. The ordinance should be passed with the deletion of the langauge exempting the U.S. government from its provisions. The U.S governm ent above all, should be prohibited from nuclear weapon production in Portland. Present U.S. nuclear stockpiles could de stroy the earth, and even if a war doesn’t explode the increasing production of weaponry is undermining the living standards of U.S. residents. The U.S. government’s call for national defense is an excuse to pick the pockets of working people, particularly the lowest paid. Jobs and social services are cut to the bone to pay for the war machine. This money is lavished on corporations. Wasteful war contracts cost U.S. citizens dearly, yielding profits to war industries, on the average, three times greater than civilian contracts. W hile giving these excess profits to muni tions corporations the government, with ma jor industries, spur the right wing, who scapegoat the chief victims of the cutbacks as the cause. They attack unions and stir up racism, sexism, red baiting and homophobia. Their goal is a divided and politically weak working force that is unable to fight the massive rape of the economy. To ensure that underpaid U.S. working people will accept severe cutbacks the Reagan administration drags out the “red menace." The U.S. government uses com munism to justify an attack on any country, such as Grenada, Nicaragua and El Salvador, that tries to improve their lives by rejecting the capitalist form of governm ent Nations that replace U.S. backed dictatorships that kept them subjugated and in poverty with forms of socialist economies are targets for U.S. international terrorism. We can defend ourselves and other countries by rejecting nuclear weapon pro duction. To make Portland a nuclear free zone is a step against a broad based attack on people's lives, in Portland and internationally. It is an example to other cities and a state m ent to the U.S. government that we want jobs, education, social services, and peace — not nuclear weapons. Sincerely, Adrienne Weller Just Out comes out by Jay B row n Beginning with the August '85 issue, Just O ut comes out of the plain white envelope. As Just O u t’s mailed circulation has increased, the handling process has become increasingly burdensome. And, of course, the cost of materials, handling and postage add to making the plain white envelope obsolete. For mailng purposes. Just O ut will be folded once with the front page on the inside; the address label will be on the lower right com er of the back page. The decision to dispense with the plain white envelope was not lightly made. The subject has been raised many times over the past year — you might say every month. So if there is anyone who feels trepidation at receiving Just O ut nude I would ask you to look at the Just O ut you are reading. As you can see, Just O ut celebrates Les bian and Gay Pride every month. And we know we are doing the right thing because of your positive responses. An option of obtaining first class mailing (in a plain white envelope) is available at $20 per year. 3