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July, 1985
Vol. 2 No. 9
STA FF
Graphic Arts Director
Rupert Kinnard
Co-publishers
Jay Brown
Renee LaChance
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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
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Written and graphic materials are welcomed for
submission. All written material should be typed
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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
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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
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For mailng purposes. Just O ut will be
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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
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