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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1986)
Rap on homophobia ILLUSTRATION E ANN HINDS O ur com m un ity played h o s t late last m onth, to a wonderful bunch of “ Evangelists." Well, not re a lly evangelists, but people certainly able to use evangelistic tactics to achieve their goals. The group, delegates and others partici pating in the Fifth International Convention of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, m et for a weekend at Portland’s Westin Benson Hotel. The theme of the convention, “ *R A P . on Homophobia: A Search for Un derstanding (‘ Religion, AIDS, Politics)," took m e on a wonderful journey. only for liberation from oppression for les bians and gays but also for our affirmation. W hat follows is an impressionist view. I questioned; and I listened with an ear for “family.” The questions I asked m ost frequently focused on local school boards, e g., "Are there any gay-supportive people on your school board?” I believe that affirmative infor mation can be disseminated through the pub lic school system and eliminate the need for re-education. Gay and gay-supportive people have yet to aggressively tap this source and use public education to eradicate hom ophobia. One person actually said, “ We can’t use public fu n d s ,. . . ” apparently unaware that she is the public whose funds are being used to perpe- tute ignorance and fear. Two people found my school board ques tion im pertinent and told me in no uncertain term s, "We are doing quite well in our churches, thank you very much." Parents and Friends o f Lesbians and Gays are, in fact, intensifying outreach through organized re ligious bodies and are including it in their national agenda. Using organized religion to com bat hom o phobia is appropriate, certainly, but it need not be the only avenue pursued. For in stance, the US Supreme C ourt recently affirm ed that 24 states in this country may prosecute gay people for m aking love. Those states need new laws, and laws are made by legislative bodies. Workshop: H om ophobia in the hig h school We came, 2 5 0 of us, from all over the US — fro m Connecticut to California, from Texas to Minnesota. And some of us came fro m Canada. We m et and talked in a variety o f sessions and workshops. We heard Gary MacDonald, Executive Director of the AIDS Action C ouncil (Washington, D.C.) announce that AZT will soon be released to qualifying PWAs. We heard young Rev. Christopher Jo h n son say o f his fellow Catholic, the recently muzzled Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, “ His only crim e is living the Bible." We heard the Rev. Eldon Olson declare, “ You’ve go t to com e out because then you perm it others to com e out." A Family Affair For m any years I have had no personal contact with anyone in m y nuclear family (parents and siblings) and for m ore than two years there has been no com m unication be tween us at all. About ten years ago I pushed to o far and m y m other said, “ I will never accept it as long as you live," firm ly slam m ing the closet door. After living without traditional fam ily ties for so long, and aware o f many people who are also alienated from their families, I had lost all sense that "fam ily’’ really exists for lesbians and gays. I could not have been m ore in error, because during the weekend I learned that there is a great network o f fam ily laboring not O nly one person of the fifty who partici pated in this workshop had been a m em ber o f a local school board; but at the tim e she served she did not know that her son was gay. She also remarked that she had very little knowledge about homosexuality at the time. A dism ally small num ber o f hands were raised when someone asked, “ How many parents knew their children were gay or les bian while they were in high school.” The fo rm e r school board m em ber said, "Many years later, m y son told me, ’If only one person had told me it was okay to be gay.’ " An activist from Houston, Texas, Freda Jer- rell, to ld about her experience with getting affirm ative gay/lesbian inform ation into the local public schools. When asked, “ How did you do it?" Ms. Jerrell clenched her fist, raised her arm and replied, ‘1 just bullied my way through." Workshop : Substance abuse in the g a y / lesbian co m m u n ity “A ddiction is very m uch a fam ily disease," and in m any cases grows out of the family situation: addicts begetting addicts. Chem ical dependency, which includes drugs o f all types, whether obtained by pre scription, on the black m arket or at the local alcohol dispensary, affects one in three people in the poulation. Addiction covers all areas of peoples’ lives. Particularly pervasive in the gay/lesbian com m unity, chemical and alcohol addiction, especially when com bined with internalized hom ophobia, is seen as a prim ary co-factor in debilitation and premature death. Substance abuse continues to be im pli cated in im m une system dysfunction. AIDS Looking about at the assemblage listening to Gary MacDonald explode the myth that "AIDS has nothing to do with the fam ily” confirm ed for me that fam ily is an integral part o f the battle, not only against AIDS, but against hom ophobia itself. MacDonald re m inded us that we m ust work together in exerting pressure on governm ent agencies and make sure that everything possible is being done in research and education. “Knowledge about AIDS is the best pre vention," Tom Kobe r stein, newly-appointed director o f O regon’s Cascade AIDS Project declared as he urged us to examine our own lingering hom ophobia. Addressing hom o phobia in the religious establishment, Kober- stein asked, "W hy are the voices of Hollywood stars heard louder than church leaders?" Politics At luncheon on Saturday, Barbara Roberts, O regon’s dynam ic Secretary of State told us, “ O ne person can make a difference," as if in echo of Freda Jerrell's assertiveness. Roberts recounted the story of the journey which took her fro m being a single m other raising two children (one autistic) to the Office of Secre tary of State. "I have learned that the experts do n’t have all the answers," Roberts said. She learned that just one person can make changes if he or she is willing to take a firm stand. "There m ust never be another season of silence," Roberts declared as she acknowl edged a standing ovation for her provocative and inspirational speech. Keeston Lowery: "The more Pat Robertson talks, the m ore I am convinced that we do have a serious drug problem in this country.” Gary MacDonald: "We m ust confront public officials with their homophobia.” D ick Springer: "If you have an issue, you m ust be political; but do not assume that a political candidate or legislator has any un derstanding of your issue." Nancy Ryles: “ It got so that it wasn't enough to be concerned about racism and sexism, I found that we m ust also be con cerned about discrim ination based on sexual orientation." Rev. Eldon Olson: “ The issue is human liberation. There is no basis for the other side.” At the session on religion on Sunday m orning, Rev. Christopher Johnson said, as if to illustrate hypocrisy in religious establish ments, “ It’s okay to be, but it’s not okay to do.’ Rev. Jo h nson’s statement clarified for me the note I jotted down during Martin W einberg’s speech at the awards banquet the previous evening. My note reads: “ There is no choice in sexual feelings but there may be choice in sexual behavior." Martin Weinberg, the author of Deuelop- m ent o f Sexual O rientation, is a researcher expanding on the w ork begun by Dr. Alfred Kinsey whose pioneering studies acknowl edged that sexuality is biologically limitless. Weinberg, a sociologist and co-author of H om osexualities: A S tudy o f D iversity A m o n g M en a n d Women, rem inds us o f the ways in w hich the scientific co m m u n ity has aided and abetted hom ophobic oppression. B ut how does the inform ation which Dr. W einberg’s research provides make changes when, as he said in answering a question fro m the floor, public funds form erly available for the kind o f research he does have been totally eliminated? If there is no public m oney for research there will certainly be no money for education. Religion I m ust adm it that as an atheist I had no little trouble swallowing the many justifications for circum venting religious teaching presented by the panel o f religionists, but I am certainly heartened to know that we have such elo quent and learned com rades in the struggle for liberation. In m y family, when the children entered public school they were also sent off to S un day school at the local co m m u n ity church. My parents never went into a church except to attend funerals. We children were allowed to m ake up our own minds. I was particularly lucky because very early in m y life I heard the stories o f the Greek m yths and what I had first heard as stories I soon learned was really a religion. I was a prodigious reader and first read Edith Ham ilton before I was 10 years old. (H am ilton was made an honorary Athenian in recogni tion o f her Greek studies.) So I came to believe that, like the Greeks and other so-called “ pagans," Jews and Christians also created their gods in their own image. In appreciation The blindered mainstream media in Port land missed an opportunity to enlighten their audiences when they snubbed the Parents- FLAG convention. The program s, speakers, interchange, networking and enlightened at titudes are very m uch appreciated in this quarter. I especially urge Just O ut' s readers to thank the Portland chapter of PFLAG for their w onderful convention program by contact ing them at PO Box 230266, Portland, OR 97223, and by becom ing involved. P/FLAG meets the fourth Wednesday o f each m onth at the Justice Building, 1111 SW 2nd. 5] S ' CELEBRATES LESBIAN & GAY p r i d e EVERY MONTH Food Front, the City's Neighborhood Grocery, Presto! in Northwest. Your stop for Whole Foods, Real Groceries, Quality Produce and Natural Treats! 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