The Straight Stuff
Things are rotten in the Big Apple; Maggie's anti-gay campaign;
Babies; to boom or not to boom?; and bigots and
activists in Willamette Week.
B Y
W
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M c R A E
Bess Myerson, Fag Hag fatale
ll is not well in Gotham. Corruption
in New York politics is as common
as rain in Portland, but recently New
Mayor Ed Koch’s administration has been
up over its waders in malfeasance. The
Bess Myerson jobs-for-divorce scandal
was already a heady high calorie confec­
tion for the media. But the top blew off
when columnist Jimmy Breslin, in an
editorial in the New York Daily News,
linked the Myerson affair with the homo­
sexuality of a top Koch aide and close
Koch friend, Herb Rickman.
Myerson had campaigned as Koch's
steady date and Girl Friday during Koch’s
first successful mayoral race. In return,
Myerson received the title of Commis­
sioner of Cultural Affairs for the city.
However, when her real-life boyfriend (a
Mafioso-type presently in prison) wanted
concessions in his divorce settlement,
Myerson gave a job to the presiding judge’s
daughter in return for a favorable divorce
ruling. When Myerson’s swap went public
in the press, Koch was isolated — not just
politically but also as a soi-disant straight
man: where had all the girlfriends gone?
Breslin’s column all but drove the final
spike: he accused aide Rickman (who had
also “ dated” Myerson) of covering up
Myerson’s dealings so she in tum would
not reveal him as gay. From here to Ed
Koch is only a matter of connecting the
dots.
New York magazine described the Bres­
lin editorial a s 4 ’the most outrageous piece
of political writing in recent memory, and
perhaps the first time in history that a daily
newspaper had revealed a public figure's
homosexuality against his will.”
Clearly, no one at New York has heard of
the Oregonian or Gordon Shadbume.
A
What I did fo r effect
W
as 1 the only one who found it
tacky when, on National Public
Radio’s “ Morning Edition,” the
announcement of choreographer
Michael Bennett’s death from AIDS was
accompanied by the song “ What I did
for love” ?
See Maggie run
ritish media, never known for its
restraint, aided Maggie Thatcher's
successful gay-baiting campaign in last
June’s British election. The lesson was not
lost on Republicans, according to colum­
nist David Broder, who reported that top
GOP operatives swarmed around That­
cher’s campaign, hoping that “ if Thatcher
wins . . . the Republicans will gain im­
portant clues on how to win here.”
Lesson number one for the vacationing
Republicans was Maggie’s successful
politicization of AIDS and gay rights —
and manipulation of British press — to
isolate the opposition Labour Party. In a
billboard campaign, the Conservatives un­
der Thatcher ridiculed Labour’s belief that
homosexuality be addressed positively in
sex education classrooms. “ Is this
Labour’s idea of a comprehensive educa
tion?” read the billboard, which pictured a
book cover with the title “ Young, Gay and
York
Proud.” The British press made gays and
lesbians the object of ridicule and scorn:
one tabloid printed photos of Elton John
supposedly in gay flagrante delicto-,
another revealed that Queen’s Freddy
Mercury had lost lovers to AIDS, and that
Mercury feared he could develop AIDS:
“ 1 would have thought he’s got a jolly
good chance,” reported one columnist,
“ serves him right, too” ; “ Poofters Para­
dise” concluded another headline. Con­
servatives succeeded in linking Labour’s
pro-gay stance with the spread of AIDS: a
spokesman for Labour candidate Neil Kin-
nock said “ the gay and lesbian issue” was
costing them votes.
Thatcher succeeded in creating such a
firestorm of publicity that CBS’s 60
Minutes devoted a segment to the uproar.
It is important to note that the Conser­
vatives are not officially anti-gay. They
merely know how to make political hay.
However, the American Republican party
is anti- gay. Once GOP campaigners realize
the vote-getting potential of AIDS/gay
smears, the current croquet game between
AIDS hawks and doves (testing vs. educa­
tion) in the Reagan cabinet will end.
Can the Democrats be far behind?
Reagan has won his elections by conjur­
ing up visions of a home and hearth always
beset with an external threat — high taxes,
unions, communists. How handy for a
successor that AIDS, and by inference,
homosexuality, is here to provide a timely
“ malaise” for the next election.
Tolerance — nay, acceptance
— in the weeklies
he best part of Willamette Week's
story “ The New Crusade Against
Gays” was the photos: the “ s le n d ^ t^
Keeston Lowery in front of City Hall; Joe
Lutz, the Ken Doll of the Far Right, pos­
turing before a nylon flag; Drew Davis
over-exposed in his search for exposure.
Jim Redden’s accompanying article
adequately revealed the contrast between
being “ out” as a gay activist, and being
“ out” as a bigot. His analysis of the is­
sues, however, was tentative, even queru­
lous. Portland, writes Redden, “ has long
had a reputation for tolerating — even
accepting — homosexuals.” No! Even
accepting? This is understatement in the
garb of journalistic discretion — event
solicitude.
T
Designer children are in. Oregonian As­
sistant Editor David Sarasohn, in a recent
editorial, finds that three new magazines
— Child, Children, and Parenting — have
sprung up to meet the needs of upscale
parenting. “ Children can even be useful
fashion and career accessories,” notes
Sarasohn.
However, not everyone has blissed out
with lullabies on their Walkmans. On al­
ternative days, the press has wrung its
hands over reports on the lack of free
white babies in the world. According to
Ben Wattenberg in his book The Birth
Dearth, birth rates in Western nations have
declined to such a degree over the past 200
years that the societies of the West — our
birth rights — are in danger of expiring
under the coming tide of the great unwash­
ed of the Third World, who do not have the
worries of art investment to prevent them
from procreating. The halls of media talk
shows have echoed to Wattenberg’s query:
“ Could a Third World culture become do­
minant? Will we worship cows?”
In discussions like this, gay people
never get their fair share of credit for the
drop in the birth rate. Contraception, abor­
tion, and working women get all the honors.
It is clear that the Reagan administration
is as worried about the white baby birth
dearth as Wattenberg: the nomination of
Robert Bork to the Supreme Court is
just what the Procreationists ordered. To
ensure there are more babies, Bork has
publicly stated he would rule to deny wo­
men access to legal abortions, and has
stated that the Constitution does not
guarantee citizens free access to contra­
ception; to make sure that a gay lifestyle
will not tempt young breeders from the
straight and narrow paths of destiny, Bork
has ruled that no one has a constitutional
right to engage in gay sexual activity; to
ensure that non-white children don’t
threaten the rights of endangered white
children, Bork has written that poll taxes
against racial minorities should be legal,
and that whites may bar access to public
facilities to blacks.
To ensure that this Edenic world of smug
white babies doesn’t prevail, write the
Oregon Senate delegation and oppose
Bork's nomination: Senator Robert Pack-
wood, Rm. 385, Federal Bldg., 1220SW
Third, Portland, OR 97204; Senator Mark
Hatfield, Rm. 114 Pioneer Courthouse,
555 SW Yamhill, Portland, OR 97204.
Birth Dearth, Bork Dork, it all sounds
like white male supremacy to me.
The Times they are a changin'
he New York Times has finally
agreed to use the words “ gay and
lesbian” in news stories instead of
“ homosexual.” This new leniency extends
only to adjectival uses of the words.
“ . . . We will write ‘gay author’ but not
‘a gay’ or similarly ‘gay men’ or ‘homo­
sexuals’ but not ‘gays’, ” reads a Times
internal memo.
•
T
Bork defects
epending on how you read the press,
we are either experiencing a new
baby boom, or our culture is dangerously
close to a state of child depletion: as goes
the ozone, so goes children. On the one
hand, trend-setting Yuppies are supposed
to be amassing children with the same
sense of calculation that leads them to in­
vest in wine futures and European cars.
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D
lust out
Black and white and rad all over
G
R I
< » » H
< >S ' I I
H I V S < . V » ' I W\l< I ( f N T f M
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