children as well as having as its m ain purpose
providing a support system by parents o f
gays fo r parents whose children are gay.
Parents/FLAG "speaks up fo r us" says
Parfiet, who considers the group to be “ go d
parents” to W indfire. Ann Shepherd, found
ing m em ber o f Portland’s Parents/FLAG and
contact person fo r the Bridge Group, says
that at each m onthly m eeting there is at least
one new parent
B ut where in all this are the young women?
Jenkins adm its W indfire has not been able to
attract w om en in the same quantity as men,
separatism , not all are learning it from adult
lesbians. Susan, a young wom an who had
been to W indfire, said that she had attended
Lesbian Forum , but that it had scared her
m ore than W indfire. She did qu it going to
W indfire because it "w asn’t helping," and
suggests that W indfire find a fem ale
co-counsellor. Young men in W indfire, she
says, d o n ’t have the tim e or patience to deal
w ith w om en’s issues (and most, I found,
don t particularly know, after they had
brought it up. w hat "women s issues " are:
in response to my question as to w hat these
... in response to my question as to what these (women's
issues) m ight be, one young man shrugged and
replied, “ hysterectomies? M astectomies?"
and has not been able to keep them as m em
bers. W hen asked why, Jenkins cites figures
fro m Kinsey — there sim ply are fewer les
bians than gay men. Both Jenkins and Parfiet
h in t th a t the “ separtist” nature o f the Portland
lesbian com m un ity has som ething to do with
the lack o f young w om en’s involvem ent in
W indfire, w hich seems unlikely since neither
is aware o f any organized group in the lesbian
co m m u n ity that is specifically w orking with
— o r “ proselytizing” — young women.
B ut if young lesbians are “ learning”
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Teenagers have always been inventive in
sacrilizing places to go and be seen, and gay
teenagers no less. Some o f the options: For
the trendy, there’s hanging out w ith the inter
national students at the Metro. The daring
m ay favor Pioneer Square, while outdoor-
m inded males lo ll at the “ F ruit Loop” in
W ashington Park. Roxy Heart’s is strategically
located near The City and gives access to
w atch the male, older foot traffic on Stark
S tre e t And those yet to young to cruise else
where do so on 82nd Avenue. S cootchie’s
(the other night club) is “ fine for dancing”
and w hile displaying a sign proclaim ing "no
overt hom osexual behavior allow ed" is, ac
co rd in g to all, "fu ll o f closet cases.” And, at
least according to some, the advent o f the
W indfire and Bridge groups, w hich facilitate
gay interaction outside a bar-type m ilieu, are
allow ing the em ergence o f a generation of
gay youth w ho are not bar-oriented and who
fin d the r own, less structured ways to meet
and socialize.
m ight be, one young m an shrugged and
replied, "hysterectomies?, m astectom ies?”)
Susan said si ie hoped that their lack o f un
derstanding, tim e and patience was due to
th e ir age.
(Ann Shepherd tells a droll, possibly
sym ptom atic, story o f a young wom an who
had contacted her about W indfire. After
m uch urging and m uch hesitation, the girl
finally attended a W indfire m eeting. O nly to
sit throug h an otherwise all-m ale safe sex
w orkshop.)
A nd then there’s The City. Started in 1983,
The C ity N ightclub has proved to be the m ost
successful o f Lanny Swerdlow’s under-age
clubs (the other ventures have been M ildred's
Palace and the M etropolis). Prim arily a dance
club, The C ity boasts som e o f the best and
m ost recent m usic in town, as well as a front
foyer where kids can talk. Swerdlow prefers to
th in k o f The City not as an underage club, but
as an all age club, though he estimates the
average age to be 21.
Sw erdlow adm its that he isn 't running a
church. “ W hat goes on in society at large in
P ortland goes on in The City.’’ Randall Parfiet
considered The C ity to be w ilder than the
Fam ily Zoo and C.C. Slaughter’s put together.
N ot perhaps “ju st wilder, but different” 40%
o f The C ity’s clientele is female, and, accord
ing to Swerdlow, a significant num ber is
s tra ig h t “They com e to be with their gay boy
friends," offers one W indfire m em ber. The
dance flo o r isn’t the only place o f interest
there are often as m any kids ju st sitting in the
fro n t room talking, discussing circum stances
o f various em otional contests as if it were half
tim e in a peculiar sort o f game.
The perhaps anticipated spector o f older
m en preying rem orselessly on innocent vic
tim s is alm ost never the case at The City. First
o f all, “ o lder” o r “ adult” to m any in The City
m erely m eans old enough to go to the bars,
i.e., 21. And according to Jenkins "older gays
have gotten a bum rap" about their exploiting
younger gays. Before clubs like The City or
groups like W indfire existed, where could
young gays go but to adult bars to explore
the ir sexuality, and once there, with whom
else but adults? Swerdlow adds that m ost
kids go to the City to be with friends and, for
better o r worse, do n’t want to get picked up
and have their friends see it O lder men (al
ternatively “ Chicken Hawks” o r "T rolls” )
co m in g to The City looking fo r young game
are apt not to find it since young gays are
scared o f being called names — "C hicken
Queen," fo r example. (Swerdlow finds this
Scootchie's (the other night club) is “fine for d a n cin g "
a n d while displaying a sign proclaim ing “ no overt
homosexual behavior allow ed" is, according to all, “full
of closet cases."
iro nic since kids com plain that there aren’t
m ore older — 21-30 — men. “A lot o f kids
can’t rlate sexually to som eone their own
age.” ) A lthough both Jenkins and Swerdlow
dism iss prostitution at The City as a problem ,
I was assured by others that “ ready m oney”
m ig h t turn a young head.
Sw erdlow ’s goal with The City is to make
kids feel that what they're doing is OK. Bar-
ring “ overt heterosexual behavior” in The
C ity gives gay kids the freedom not to con
fo rm to straight roles when they’re not
straight themselves. It is a place — fo r som e
perhaps the only place — to go and be gay
w ith out consequences. And The City,
according to Swerdlow, is som ething gay
kids can be proud of. The City is “ as good or
better than anything straight kids have.”
B ut there are still problem s. In general,
“ kids are sim ply ignored by the rest o f the gay
com m unity," says Swerdlow. Adults do n’t
seem to realize there's anyone under 21.
Som e adult organizations allow younger
m em bers, but these are then barred from
attending functions o r m eetings because
they’re held in bars. They gay com m unity
needs to establish m uch m ore outreach to
gay youth.
A ccording to another form er m em ber o f
W indfire, education and counseling about
gay issues are still sadly lacking in high
school. In his high school, there was no read
ily available in form ation about gayness and
he was left to explore his sexuality through
textbooks and encyclopedias th a t labelled it
— and him — as de vian t
He also feels that the gay co m m un ity
needs to address the situation o f street kids,
and all the m ore so in tim es o f a health crisis.
W indfire, however else it m ay w ish to see
itself, is m iddle class, and male. And even
th o u g h The C ity m ay get kids o ff the stre et
the $4 do or charge is self-lim iting. To the
street kids, W indfire m em bers and City
habitues are "m id d le class stuck up faggots"
w ho have “ cute sex," and prostitution, to
som e, is "te m ptin g, easy money.’
And there needs to be increased outreach
to young lesbian and bisexual wom en. One
young w om an thinks it should be a top ic fo r
W indfire and not just fo r the sake o f the young
w om en. O ne w ould th in k that the tim e to
educate people about the realities o f privilege
and concerns associated with gendered
identities in this society, w ould be while those
identities are still being form ed.