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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1985)
Where have all the politics gone? by W.C. M cRae Th e goal o f these interviews is to introduce gay Portland to those people who are, in one way or another, its leaders and friends, and to present the history of the movements that affect us now. And into the bargain, hope that if there is more awareness o f ourselves as a community, then we might be interested in becom ing involved in a movement, and with people, that have been made more familiar. More interviews forthcoming in future is sues o f Just Out. Ben Merrill Though a native Portlander, Ben Merrill was in the East during the heyday of the PTC. Even so he was familiar with the organization and its accomplishments. When he returned to Portland to establish his legal practice in 1982, he joined the FTC "ready to invest energy.” But history had preceeded him: in the wake o f the "Forst-Weller estrangement,’’ as Merrill puts it suspicion and dissension held the day in Portland gay social activism, and certainly in the FTC. The political aims of the FTC were being assumed by the newly formed Right to Pri vacy PAC; and Phoenix Rising (FTC Founda tion) had taken over the counselling and speaker's bureau. There was little the old FTC could do except harbor memories o f the alle gations o f sexism and racism within its ranks. PTC had outlived its usefulness, he was told. After his initial, and perhaps naive, enthu siastic investment o f energy in PTC, Merrill says he felt that they “gave a picnic and no one came.” The decision to dissolve the or ganization, and the unpleasant duty of over seeing its dissolution fell to late-comers like Merrill. He recalls it was painful and difficult making decisions, not about going on into the future, but “about how to get out settle debts, close down.” Earlier this year, in the organizational void surrounding the handling of the Davis refer endum, and also feeling a need to address new issues in the community (AIDS, for ex ample), Merrill and Cynthia Cumfer called meetings, ostensibly to discuss civil liberties. The meetings were called for because Merrill felt a lot o f energy in the community, but after the first meeting he realized that the energy wasn’t suited to high profile political battles. The energy seemed more directed toward working in small groups for manageable, at tainable goals. At the second meeting, how ever, Merrill says a consensus emerged that the organization should becom e a “clearing house’’ o f interests and groups in the com munity that would form an "alert force” that could co-ordinate the community and its en ergy when necessary, and hopefully draw back those who had left the movement dur ing the ructions at FTC. This style of organi zation is perhaps best Merrill reflects, if the charges o f sexism and racism that plagued FTC are to be avoided. From the meetings Merrill feels educated about “ where people are.” He is surprised, though, that people don't seem willing to organize without an issue. Merrill feels, for instance, that the male community will soon begin to encounter a “ subtle discrimination” about AIDS. The disease may prove to be the beginning o f a new civil liberties issue: Civil liberties can be suspended in only two cases, in the event of war, and in the event of a health crisis. AIDS may well prove to be precisely such a crisis. In England, laws have already been enacted empowering doctors to incar cerate AIDS sufferers in hospitals. AIDS seems to be involving men more and more in the effort to raise money for research, and could involve women through volunteer assistance (Merrill sees this as a potential means of “ healing the rift” between men and women in the Portland community). He sug gests a lesbian blood bank donated for AIDS sufferers. It’s a “survival situation” medically and perhaps legally, and one that could and should galvanize the communtiy. Inasmuch as these issues are being ignored, Merrill fears that the gay and lesbian community has its “ head in the sand. We are being naive about the power of the right and the implications of the AIDS crisis. We are resting on the laurels earned by the gay movem ent in the '70s and we must ask ourselves how many gains have been made since. Merrill draws a parallel with the environmental movement, which has been losing ground recently because of inactivity. “A muscle atrophies when it is not tested," says Merrill. "One must fight the battle when it’s there,” for the dignity of it for the good of the soul. Another of Merrill’s general concerns is the oppression of gays by other gays: we make problems for ourselves among ourselves. Gays who are not out are embarrassed by those who are. It is Merrill’s belief that the next step for the m ovem ent is perhaps not political, but sociological. Until everyone com es out there can be no substantial progress: every gay person has to confront his family, friends, and fellow workers. Not only is personal freedom the beginning of political freedom, but repressive stereotypes held by the straight community would be shattered if all gay people were out “Confronting oneself is the beginning of politics" — confronting others is the expression of the inexorability of those politics. One must be secure in oneself be fore moving on to larger social issues. Mary Forst cirri OTGfnSjjg For many women and members of minorities, says Mary Forst working in the mainstream — even if that mainstream is gay politics — is irrelevant because to that main stream, "we are irrelevant” This mistrust o f mainstream politics and political motives results from her experience as the executive director of the Portland Town Council from 1979 to 1981. Forst came to Oregon from Detroit in 1973, to clerk at the Court of Appeals in Salem. But it wasn’t until 1976 that she m oved to Portland where she worked initially Presents ::::: ::::: PO RTLAN D S BEST PLUS San Francisco's Sylvester! Portla nd's H ottest S u m m er The finest imported coffee beans, teas, chocolates and beverage brewing accessories. DOW NTOW N DANCE PARTY & B en efit! 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In fact women were so wary o f being involved in what was perceived to be a male-directed organization that wo men were told if they would consent to be named to the board, they wouldn’t have to attend meetings. According to Forst prior to her directorship the FTC had becom e ridden with main-stream values. W om en and minority gays felt that there was little representation of their needs or feelings, or room for their involvement at a meaningful level in FTC. But the appointment of Forst to the execu tive position brought the involvement of many “strong wom en" to the organization and introduced new feminist values into its agenda, the FTC still continued its legislative direction — the gay rights bill in Salem (against, at least in 1979, the advice of friendly law-makers) — but under Forst's leadership the FTC wanted to "change direc tions,” to move more at the grass roots level. Forst warns that it is too easy to talk of the situation in the old FTC as “women versus men." In the gay community, and in the gay political arena specifically, the problem is not men against women, but between “feminists” — wom en or men who have jettisoned con ventional social roles and hierarchical politics — and "old boys” — mainstream men or wom en whose values and goals are complicit with conventional social and political structures. Men as well as wom en can be feminist; just as women as well as men can suffer from “testosterone poisoning.” The FTC becam e increasingly factional- ized as the PTC Foundation absorbed money and allegiances away from the FTC. And the gay community factioned off into those whose concerns were legislative and those who were more community oriented. Finally, in 1981, Forst left the executive position o f the FTC “the m ost burned out I’ve ever been in my life.” Gay men and lesbians “ have at best a fragile alliance.” That is to say, they share a com m on enemy. But given a general con sensus on goals to be pursued, Forst says w om en are prepared to work with men under the right conditions. W om en want to make sure that they aren’t overcom e and that they don’t becom e trapped in a male-dominated organization. “This is the third wave,” Forst says, referring to the group called together by Ben Merrill and Cynthia Cumfer, “We want to do it better." Forst is willing to becom e involved in a new organization, “but much," she says, “depends on leadership.” People are needed who can coalesce divergent aims and per sonalities and provide direction, without pursuing power for its own sake, for self advancement; and without becom ing imm ersed in the priorities o f money, power bargaining, and organizational details. W om en are willing to work with men to ward a com m on goal if the values o f women are represented, and if effective but con sidered leadersip is given. Forst says she doesn’t judge men perforce. She mostly feels sadness that the difficulties that she in particular has had with men in leadership couldn’t have been worked o u t She wouldn’t again, she claims, work in an organization similar to the old FTC. And she reminds that any new group — the “ library group” for instance — “won’t g o ” unless men do be co m e involved: women already have other groups am ong themselves to pursue much the same agenda. “W ho needs another group to attend?" Forst and other women are willing to becom e involved, but she “is goin g in with her eyes open.” i Just Out. July 1985