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
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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
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as a lawyer for Technical Assistance for C om
munity Services. Subsequently she worked
for City Human Resources and works pre
sently for city housing.
Forst had been invoked with FTC since
com ing to Portland in 1976, and was named
executive director in 1979. At that time, Forst
says, the FTC had difficulty gaining the in
volvement o f women. 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