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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1986)
/In 1 1 "W ]S AI penrose loses a couple more W hether we can call it a groundswell of support for a boycott is debatable, but we do keep hearing that more businesses are can celling their Alpenrose accounts; the latest being Mature s and Earthquake Ethel’s. Both businesses cancelled for the same reason that com pelled the people at Foodfront to do so. Carl Cadonau's hom opnobia. Portland's G ay Games II team s in training Approxim ately forty gays and lesbians fro m Portland have joined various teams and are in training for the upcom ing Gay Games II to be held in San Francisco August 9-17. Gay Games II will feature com petition in 18 sports, spectacular opening and closii iy ceremonies, and an array of gay cultural events. D ubbed “Procession o f the Arts," 25 diffe rent events will showcase the talents of the lesbian and gay com m unity in such fields as m usic, opera, art, poetry, literature, dance and film , which begins August 1 and con tinues through August 17. Organizers of Gay Games II expect about 3,000 athletes in com petition which is about double the number of participants in the 1982 games. General inform ation about Gay Games II m ay be obtained by writing Gay Games II, 52 6 Castro S treet San Francisco, CA 94117 or calling (415)861-8282. Desert Hearts breaks out KOIM Center Cinema’s first big h it Desert Hearts, has set a record in audience attend ance at the new multi-screen complex. Desert Hearts, the story of a love affair between two women in Reno during the late 1950s, drew sell-out crowds during the first three weeks of its extended run. “25% over its nearest com petitor" reported a spokesman for the Seven Gabies chain, owners of the KOIN Center complex. Penny vs The Rank & File: Stan Peters, Prop. Penny Harrington was newly minted; she had just been appointed Chief of the Portland Police Bureau. One of her first acts was to alter the image of the man on the beat, or as she put it: “ If they look like Marines, they’re going to act like Marines." Mot long after Ms. Harrington made that statement, I happened to witness the following: Scene: A Tri-Met bus ( 14-Hawthorne) Characters: Stan Peters (Police union president) accompanied by several others re sem bling Marines in mufti. Stan Peters reaches into his Marine Corps gym bag, pulls out his Marine Corps baseball cap and says, “So she doesn't want us to look like Marines, huh? Well, I got mine." Stan flashes a Marine Corps grin as he shows off the Marine Corps tie tack resting on What's » • • • * • going • • • • • < on here? by Jay Brown his portly belly. Sexism is what’s going on here. Too bad Penny Harrington didn’t use the same weapon against the "rank & file" (read Police Union: Stan Peters, Prop.) that was used against her and her husband: the spectre o f involvem ent with illegal drugs. Portland’s Bureau of Police has been plagued for years with scandals in its drug investigative unit (rem em ber Scott I>»npe for instance?) When Harrington reorganized the drug division, she didn’t take that extra step and order drug tests for the personnel under her com m and. D rug testing o f police personnel is som e thing new, but not so new that Penny Harring ton was ignorant of its implem entation in Boston several m onths ago. The law enforce m ent com m un ity in this country being what it is, she surely m ust have known that the Mew York City Police Commissioner, Benjamin Ward, had ordered mandatory drug testing for current and prospective members of its Organized Crim e Control Bureau, which in cludes the narcotics division. And on the same day that Ward recom m ended random testing for all police under his com m and, the FBI and the Drug Enforce m ent Adm inistration announced that both agencies had begun widespread programs o f testing o f new employees for drug abuse: the program s will eventually also require urinalysis for random ly selected seasoned FBI and D E ^ agents. Maybe Mayor Bud Clark will take a closer look at the obvious “drug problem ” in the Portland Police Bureau when he appoints the next Chief o f Police and require that testing for drug abuse be administered where it w ould really do some good: to the “ rank & file" of the Portland Police Bureau. Justice prevails? A Mew York State court, in unanimous de cision, recently ordered Roy M. Cohn disbar red, calling his conduct in four legal matters "unethical," "unprofessional,” and “ reprehensible." Cohn, who rose to prom inence and politi cal influence with his work for Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s, can no longer practice law before state courts or provide clients with legal advice about matters before Mew York State courts. At present, Cohn and his partner, Thomas A. Bolan, are very close to Ronald Reagan and are said to influence the selection of CIS governm ent officials, including judges. NGRA hits insurance industry National Gay Rights Activists (MGRA) has been very busy of late and insurance c o m panies are feeiing the brunt of their efforts. MGRA recently filed a com plaint with the California Departm ent of Insurance on behalf o f Edward Miller o f San Diego after North Am erican Life & Casualty Company hired a private agency to investigate his "m orals" and living arrangem ent with another man when Miller applied for a small life insurance policy. Following the investigation, North Am erican dem anded that Miller undergo “ HTLV-III screening.” The com plaint names both the insurance com pany and Hooper- Holm es investigating agency: Hooper- Holm es subm itted an investigative report to N orth Am erican in which th$y noted that a “ residential inform ant (Miller's neighbor) felt that applicant was a little too close to his partner." Earlier MGRA and the Em ploym ent Law Center o f the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco filed the nation’s first m ajor lawsuit challenging the AIDS-related underwriting practices o f a health insurance company. The com pany, Great Republic Insurance Company, has published underwriting guide lines which target unmarried males, in stereo t y p ic a l gay occupations, for discrimination. The E m ploym ent Law Center and MGRA contend that these guidelines violate both the California insurance code and the state's civil rights laws, which forbid arbitrary discrim ina tion by business establishments. The lawsuit, HGRA u. Great Republic, has been filed on behalf of the members of Na tional Gay Rights Advocates and David Hurl- bert, a resident of San Francisco. Hurlbert was rejected by Great Republic after he re fused to fill out their supplemental question naire. The s u it filed in San Francisco Superior Court, dem ands $ 100,000 in damages for pain and suffering and $ 10 million in punitive damages. The suit also demands that Great Republic be permanently enjoined from dis- LaRouche initiative qualifies in California An initiative backed by followers of political outcast Lyndon LaRouche that could help spread the AIDS epidem ic by making people afraid to seek medical help or tests has been certified by the California Secretary of State and will appear on the November ballot in that state. The initiative, signed by more than 443,000 eligible voters, would require health officials to quarantine thousands of people suspected of exposure to the AIDS virus as crim inating against applicants for health in surance on the basis of gender, marital status and sexual orientation. MGRA has also recently published the AIDS Practice Manual: A Legal and Educa tional Guide. The manual offers instruction and sample form s for lawyers to use when dealing with the special legal problems faced by persons with AIDS or ARC. The publica tion is a joint project with the San Francisco Chapter of the Anti-Sexism Comm ittee of the National Lawyers Guild. The manual includes chapters on such issues as wills, employment discrim ination, and the military. The manual can be purchased for $ 10 (including postage and handling) by writing MGRA at 540 Castro St.. San Francisco, CA, 94114. It is designed for a three-ring binder, and additional chapters and updates will be published in the future. MGRA is a non-profit public interest law firm which deals with gay civil rights issues and has a fully staffed AIDS Civil Rights Project The Anti-Sexism C om mittee of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is an organization of lawyers, legal workers, and law students com m itted to working on issues impacting wom en and gay people. Kimble Pendleton Mead, thank you. The drawing for the cover of Just O ut’s June 1986 issue was a gift from Kimble Pendleton Mead, a gay artist who lives in Brooklyn, MY. We hope he accepts this be lated note of appreciation. Thanks, Kimble, you made our month. Credit where credit is due Just O ut wishes to credit Ina Cohen, Art C oordinator of Gay C om m unity Mews, for inspiration for the illustration in our tribute to Sim one de Beauvoir and Jean Genet in our May 1986 issue. well as people already diagnosed with the disease. The measure, which has been denounced by the California Medical Association, would require blood testing on anyone suspected of carrying the HTLV-III virus, requires that the test results be reported to state authorities and bar people with positive test results from working in schools, restaurants, and the health field. Since scientists do not believe that AIDS is spread by casual contact or through the air the LaRouche initiative "serves no public health or health care purpose at all," said a California Medical Association spokesperson. B etter H ealth C h ir o p r a c tic C l in ic “A Total Personal H ealth Concept” X? dki Rena Sandler. D.C. • • • • • • Spinal realignment Non-force techniques Nutrition/Prevention Massage/Kinesiology Physical therapy Sports medicine 1130 S W M o rris o n , Ste. 301 222-2888 Doctor on page for emergencies œ W orker’s C om p & Auto Injuries Cover C h iro p ra ctic C are Insurance A c c e p te d Just Out July, 1986 5