Lighting candles
in the dark
b y Billy Russo
EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT
TEN PERCENT
In darkness broken only by candlelight,
about 20 people gathered on the steps of
the Douglas County Courthouse Sunday
night to protest the California AID S initia­
tive and ask that gays and lesbians in
California and Roseburg be given the right
to love without government intervention."
— Greg Abbott
The N ew s-R eview
N ovem ber 3. 1986
O n the eve o f election day Roseburg’s daily
paper covered Southern O re g o n ’s first
lesbian/gay dem onstration. Both local televi­
sion stations also showed footage on the
evening news.
In his article Greg Abbott goes on to ex­
plain how the California initiative would affect
individuals carrying, a n d /o r suspected of
carrying, the HIV virus.
He also docum ented the hom ophobic re­
sponse that accom panied the candlelight
vigil: “T h e vigil was quiet, the only interrup­
tion being a few people driving by shouting
‘G et AIDS,’ or obscenities. S o m e [vigil
participants] joked that they were am azed
people of that mentality could actually read
the newspaper to know o f the vigil.” T h e de­
m onstration had been announced in the
c o m m u n ity section of the paper a few days
earlier.
I arrived at the courthouse a full hour be­
fore the vigil com m enced. It was a cool, but
clear, evening. Downtown Roseburg is usu­
ally peaceful on a Sunday n ig h t and N o vem ­
ber 2 was no exception. Half a dozen faggots
and dykes joined m e in the first half hour.
T h e n the T V crews arrived: first the PBS sta­
tion and then the N B C affiliate.
By six-thirty 16 GALA m em bers, two offi­
cers from the U m pqua River’s N O W chapter,
and two participants from the newly-form ed
A ID S Task Force joined the small assembly.
And with candles, speeches and songs, we
stood in protest for all to see.
In the days that followed the vigil som e
individuals Suggested that I had hired local
punks to drive by and scream obscenities.
Well, it does sound like something that I would
do: however, it isn’t true. In fact, I was genuine­
ly concerned that an overw helm ing hom o-
phobic resonse would have done consider­
able dam age: giving us the sense that we had
failed, especially if the hom ophobia spilled
over into the m edia coverage.
I well rem em ber what happened to M C C in
1983 when the Roseburg congregation re­
quested permission to use the chapel at the
First United Methodist Church and was re­
fused. T h e little M C C group had grown in
leaps and bounds until that point. After the
resounding defeat of that proposal, M C C
Roseburg rem ained at a plateau for a while,
and has since slowly declined.
T h e M C C scenario played over and over in
m y m ind in the days preceding the vigil. I
could easily imagine two or three “Joy Buses"
arriving from the Seventh Day Adventist
church, filled with sign-carrying, vicious
people, extolling their hatred and drowning
out our poeaceful dem onstration. T h e effect
of such overwhelm ing hom ophobia would
have been demoralizing, and the effect on
our social service organization would be far-
reaching.
M any closeted hom ophiles were watching
us that evening. A negative event would have
reenforced their fear of exposure. As it turned
out the hom ophobic response was quite
m anageable and the press was all good. And
it’s no conicidence that at its general m eeting
the following week, G A U \ signed up six new
m em bers. Norm ally we d o n ’t sign up that
m any in a whole year.
Just O ut. Decem ber. 1986
Jon Arterton, Jenifer Firestone, Tom Wilson Weinberg, Helena Snow, and Elliot Pilshaw
. . . jubilant in its affirmation of gay and lesbian love, life and culture.
The Advocate
. . . totally captivating . . . an entertaining, exciting and uplifting evening.
Bay Area Reporter
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