Defend rights
in unison
To the editor:
O n January 24,1986, the C om m unity
C linic Defense C oalition (CCDC) organized
an abortion rights rally at Portland State U ni
versity w hich m obilized 340 abortion rights
defenders. The rally was inspiring to those
w ho got in to hear the rousing panel o f speak
ers. B ut it was m arred by a lockout o f 140
pro-choicers, who were left alone to face 60
rightw ing bible-thum pers and hostile police.
CCDC organizers allowed the lockout to hap
pen o u t o f fear o f confrontation with the right
w ing and intim idation by police and PSU sec
urity. And CCDC security enforced the cops'
line rather than putting up a fight fo r control
over ou r own rally.
At post-rally evaluation meetings, Radical
W om en, a m em ber o f the CCDC, raised our
criticism o f the lockout policy and urged the
com m ittee to adm it their m istake to the com
m unity and pledge that a lockout would
never happen again. However, CCDC's de
fense o f its actions in a March 1986 letter to
the com m un ity requires a response.
Radical W omen is glad that the C oalition is
com m itted to preventing sim ilar situations in
the future. But we disagree w ith CCDC's
statem ent that the large turnou t o f abortion
Kicking homophobes
in the 1-800's
by Rhia Weinhaus
F o r the past few years, Jerry Falwell and his
obedient cu lt follow ing have delivered heavy
blow s to the civil rights o f lesbians and gays.
O ur attem pts at fighting back have often left
us frustrated and e m p ty— we have struggled
fo r so long and seen so little m ovem ent But
recently, Jerry Falwell’s em pire o f hom o
phobia has begun to show signs o f cracking.
In a six-page, hand-w ritten fundraising let
ter to his follow ing, Falwell announced that
lesbians and gays are putting him out o f busi
ness: “The m ilitant gay com m unity have en
couraged their people to jam our to ll free
counseling lines. They have ordered
thousands o f Bibles, books and materials —
and we are to ld that they have burned them."
Falwell closes his letter with the best news
o f all: “ We are in trouble. We do not have
enough regular m onthly support to continue
m uch longer.”
Falwell says he has been forced into clos
ing dow n his toll-free num ber, no other
choice, explaining that “ gays have made over
a m illio n phone calls, at a dollar a call. They’re
breaking us."
Falwell says he has to lay o ff staff people at
his Liberty University,
and m any o f his other so-called
"m inistries." He says his debt has becom e so
heavy that m any cable com panies are drop
ping his broadcasts. Some cable com panies
have refused to run Falwell’s program s be
cause the com panies have been boycotted
by lesbians and gays.
How encouraging it is to see that our efforts
againt hom ophobia are w orking, but it is still
a long way from seeing our enem ies cru m
ble. We m ust continue to pound away at the
pow er structures that institutionalize
Hour
The Old Time Gospel
rights defenders “ necessitated” blocking ac
cess to the rally. A llow ing our supporters to
be excluded was an abdication o f CCDC’s
responsibility to those who cam e at our invi
tation. Instead o f running away from a fight
w ith PSU and the police, CCDC should have
led the dem ands fo r entry and protested the
outrageous violtion o f our right to assemble.
They should have insisted that PSU unlock
an adjoining room . And they should now be
protesting the tram pling o f pro-choicers'
rights o f free speech and assembly that
occurred.
The spirited crow d that gathered on
January 24th, eager to rally against right wing
violence, shows a strong m ovem ent is de
veloping in Portland. By w orking together, the
C oalition organized the largest abortion rally
held in this city since the right launched its
ugly assault. But the m ovem ent will be tru n
cated if fear o f rig h t wing violence and refusal
to con fron t the authorities causes the C oali
tion to abdicate its responsibility to defend
ou r supporters and their constitutional rights
to freedom o f assem bly and free speech.
. “ Pro-life,’ ” as Sandy Nelson o f Tacoma
Radical W om en said from the rally podium ,
“ is a fascist m ovem ent, and abortion is only
the first step in the ir program .” They aim at
the total destruction o f the rights o f women,
lesbians and gays, people o f color, workers,
radicals and the poor — all those whose de
m ands fo r equality challenge the capitalist
hom ophobia. We m ust also broaden ou r at
tack on hom ophobia to include all those
others w ho are attem pting to restrict lesbians
and gays from fu ll citizenship in this nation.
There are m any other "C hristian" televi
sion m inistries besides Falwell’s, and they,
too, regularly preach hatred fo r our co m
m unity. Three o f the m ost rabidly hom o-
phobic are: Praise the Lord Network,
1-800-435-0435 (toll-free); The 700 Club,
1-800-446-0700 (toll-free); Trinity
B roadcasting Network, 1-714-731-1000 (not
to ll free). Falw ell’s new phone num ber is
1 -804-847-2000, but it is not toll-free.
C hief hom ophobe on the 700 Club is Pat
R obertson, w ho is being touted as a presi
dential candidate in 1988. Robertson has
been receiving quite a bit o f m ainstream
m edia coverage recently. So give him a call
and let him know how
feel about his
candidacy.
you
G a y /L e s b ia n rights
on the m ove
by Jay Brown
A b ill allow ing certain kinds o f em ployers
to discrim inate against lesbians and gays was
narrow ly defeated in the W isconsin legisla
ture this session, reports The W indy City
Tim es. A sim ilar bill is expected to be in tro
duced in the 1987 session.
The b ill w ould pe rm it religions or non
p ro fit organizations w hich w ork with youth to
require adherence to certain religious beliefs
concerning m arital status o r sexual orienta
tio n by em ployees.
W isconsin’s law prohibiting discrim ination
on the basis o f sexual orientation in em ploy
m ent, housing, and public accom m odation
was passed fou r years ago and is still the only
such law to be passed by any state.
In New York City, Mayor Ed Koch has
system. Local and federal power structures
refuse to stop this vicious m inority, as abor
tion clinicians can testify. So it is up to us to
build a bold and organized m ovem ent o f the
m ajority to defend ourselves. We can t do that
if we collapse into fear and trem bling at the
m ere threat o f a confrontation with the rig h t
The right wing thrives on intim idation and
fear, but withers when faced with determ ined
resistance. We m ust let the right know that
they w ill never again see the abortion rights
m ovem ent divided and leaderless as they did
at PSU. W hen we defend our rights in unison,
these anti-life terrorists are vastly out
num bered and easily out-organized.
In struggle,
Adrienne Weller
for Portland Radical Women
Careless Love
not careless,
says author
To the editor:
I’m w riting in response to Sandra De
Helen’s review o f m y play
in
the M arch '86 issue o f
The play is
not intended to be, as Ms. De Helen asserts,
“ a subtle political piece." It’s a personal and
hum an story about two volatile individuals
Careless Love,
Just Out.
sought support for two am endm ents clarify
ing what the recently-passed gay rights bill,
know n as Intro. 2, can and cannot do. One
am endm ent does not require public or pri
vate schools to teach the nature o f hom o
sexuality. Another am endm ent would explain
that the bill does not require or perm it af
firm ative action goals or tim etables for hiring
gays and lesbians.
A ttacks against Intro 2 have com e from
m any quarters, including an attem pt at a
referendum which, according to New York
C ity C orporation Counsel F A O . Schwartz Jr.
m aintains that referendum s can only be held
on am endm ents to the city charter.
In W ashington state, Initiative 490, “ The
D obbs Initiative” would prohibit em ploym ent
o f gays and lesbians in positions which deal
directly o r indirectly with children, the elderly,
and disabled persons.
A petition for judicial review o f the anti-gay
Initiative 490 has been filed in Thurston
C ounty C o u rt The suit questions whether the
w ording o f the initiative is neutral or prejudi
cial in its contents. The initiative reads: “ Shall
know ingly em ploy, in certain jobs, persons
w ho have preferences for or orientation to
ward conduct defind as sexually deviant be
prohibited.”
Say, what?
LCP to host
homophobia
workshop
The Lesbian C om m unity Project is pleased
to announce two related workshops for les
bians on internalized hom ophobia and build
ing a lesbian com m unity, presented by
Suzanne Pharr, a national organizer from the
Arkansas W om en’s P roject
The first workshop w ill explore the ways
suddenly dealing with the problem s of un
planned pregnancy and parenthood. The
play is certainly not pro-life “ propaganda.”
R ight-to-lifers w ould, as we all know, take
away a w om an’s right to con trol what hap
pens insider her body and, in m y opinion, Ms.
De Helen has perm itted her understandably
passionate feelings about this to blind her to
the hum an dram a o f the play. It is a mistake to
interpret things a character says in em otion
ally charged m om ents as “ the author’s
message.”
U nfortunately, though, in her review, Ms.
De Helen goes beyond sim ple interpretation.
In fa c t she deliberately m isrepresents the
play’s c o n te n t A t no point does the text of the
play state, as the review says it does, that
“rape o r incest victim s should not have abor
tions.” O r that “ w hite people should not have
abortions because there are so many lovely
w hite folks w ho want to adopt these little
unexpected babies." To attribute such offen
sive statem ents to m y play is irresponsible
and slim y jo urna lism . The issues dealt with in
the p la y— pregnancy, parental responsibility,
abortion, the a rtist’s life in contem porary
A m erica — are im p o rta n t These issues, the
play and the artists at the O regon Stage
C om pany deserve a m ore honest treatment
than that given them by Sandra De Helen.
Sincerley,
John Olive
internalized hom ophobia affects our lives
and the connection between hom ophobia
and the con trol o f w om en. The second will
focus on developing strategies for the Port
land lesbian co m m u n ity to use to com bat
hom ophobia, organize p o litica lly and
im prove the quality o f lesbian lives.
To m axim ize both the num ber o f women
able to participate and the quality o f inter
action, the w orkshop on internalized hom o
phobia w ill be lim ited to 20 participants and
offered tw o tim es. Participants from both ses
sions o f the w orkshop w ill com e together for
the second strategizing w orkshop.
The w orkshops are scheduled fo r May 15-
17 at the C entral N ortheast N eighborhood
C enter at 5540 N E Sandy in Portland. The
Internalized H om ophobia W orkshop w ill be
offered fro m 7 p.m . to 10 p.m . on Thursday
and Friday, May 15 and May 16. The C om
m u nity B uilding W orkshop (strategizing ses
sion) w ill be 1 p.m . to 5 p.m . on Saturday, May
17. Rem em ber, the Inem alized Hom ophobia
W orkshop is repeated, choose only one of
the days to attend.
R egistration is open to any Portland les
bian and w ill operate on a first-com e-first-
served basis. To register call 233-9079.
A lthough Ms. Pharr’s w ork has been
funded on a grant we request a $2-$3 dona
tion to cover printin g and rental space. No
w om an w ill be refused because o f inability to
pay. C hildcare w ill be provided with advanced
notice, please contact us by May 12 to reserve
space.
P ortland’s lesbian com m u n ity faces many
challenges in the com ing years — attacks
fro m the R ig h t a backlash fro m th e AIDS
crisis, dim inished hum an services designed
to assist wom en. Now is the tim e to com e
together, to better ou r lives and to w ork for
ou r safe future. We look forw ard to diverse
participation in this eyent
Just O ut, May. 1986