L
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Shocked, angered,
frustrated
was printed in the same issue to offset any
negative implications from the comic strip.
Curiously, the same issue carried the following
classified ad:
To the Editor:
’ * BOY. CALL ME N O W ! D on't keep your hot.
homy DADDY waiting for you on the Private.
Low-Cost, Sex-Link.” (Capital letters are from
the original ad)
I have been an avid reader and fan of Just Out
since moving to Portland several years ago. It is
usually an informative, well-written publication
that strives to address the countless issues per
taining to an extremely diverse gay/lesbian
community. It is the last place 1 would expect to
find bigotry, stereotyping, or catering to sexual
paranoia.
1 was therefore shocked, angered and very
frustrated to read the most recent installment of
“ Cathartic Comics,” which dealt in a deroga
tory manner with NAMBLA (North American
Man/Boy Love Association). In this particular
strip, the author (Rupert Kinnard) chose to
exploit a very real group of people in an ex
tremely one-sided, negative fashion.
NAMBLA was portrayed as an organization
whose very name strikes terror and paranoia
into the strip’s characters, a tactic, I presume,
designed to elicit a knowing chuckle from the
reader. I did not chuckle. I know better.
W hether or not you agree with its policies, or
are even mildly aware of the group’s activities,
NAMBLA is at the battlefront in the struggle for
human rights. It is a radical, politically active
group dedicated to securing personal freedom
for one of the most oppressed minorities in our
culture: youth. It is strongly opposed to any
form o f child abuse and/or molestation, and has
participated in numerous marches protesting
our governm ent’s human rights abuses in Cen
tral America. Yet, repeatedly, NAMBLA has
been ridiculed and persecuted in this country by
both the “ gay” and “ straight” media, which
persist in revealing only one side of a complex
issue. Mr. Kinnard. by employing ageist and
homophobic terms like “ jailbait” in his
suposedly humorous references to NAMBLA,
has done us all in the gay community a great
disservice.
After speaking to both Jay Brown and Renee
LaChance (the co-publishers o f Just Out ) I am
still very confused with the paper's policy con
cerning NAMBLA. In June, 1985 .Just Out
made it editorial policy to refuse any advertising
from NAMBLA, presumably because the staff
considered the group far too controversial.
Since then, little or nothing has been printed
about NAMBLA. When I voiced my concerns
about September’s “ Cathartic Comics.” I was
told that a small, unbiased article on NAMBLA
Your publication’s inconsistency is frighten
ing. Am I, as a reader o f Just Out , to assume
that it is editorial policy to reject legitimate
advertising by a legal, internationally recognized
organization, and yet ridicule this same organi
zation in a comic strip authored by someone
listed on the paper’s masthead as “ Graphic
Inspiration” ? Am I to assume that Just Out
accepts ads seeking ” boy(s)” (of unspecified
age) to contact “ your hot, homy DADDY,”
and yet feels that any advertising by NAMBLA
is too controversial? Am I, as a member of
NAM BLA. to feel compensated for this unjust
“ com ic” portrayal o f our organization by a
small article concerning the group? Would the
editor still have published that article if Mr.
Kinnard had chosen some other group to pick on?
It was pointed out to me (on page 3 of Just
O ut ) that “ views expressed in letters to the
editor, columns, and features may not be those
o f the editorial staff o f Just Out." This dis
claimer, however, does not let the editor off the
hook. Your newspaper’s policies also “ allow
the rejection or the editing of an article or ad
vertisement that is offensive, demeaning or
may result in legal action.” It would be interest
ing to find out if the latter policy also applies to
Rupert K innard’s “ Cathartic Comics.” It does
not appear to.
I will no doubt be chided by the editor for
choosing not to sign my name to this letter. I am
not an official spokesperson for NAMBLA,
only a dues-paying member, and I have not yet
made that very personal decision to be publicly
“ o u t” concerning my beliefs. Your feelings on
credibility are to be respected. Mr. Brown, but
at least acknowledge and/or show some respect
for those NAMBLA members who have put
their names, jobs and lives on the line to battle
ignorance. They deserve better than cheap-shot
cartoons. Perhaps when publications such as
Just Out can summon up the courage to be more
accurate and fair towards all of its readers will I
be able to summon up the courage to sign a
letter such as this.
E
Stunned, shocked,
disappointed.
To the Editor:
I am so stunned, shocked and. mainly, disap
pointed. that I'm not even sure how to begin.
I have been reading Just Out since its incep
tion. generally cover-to-cover. Perhaps you
have had articles like this before and they es
caped my notice, but 1 don’t recall ever seeing
anything about NAMBLA before, at least not in
so favorable a light.
And to think that it was only a couple of
issues ago in which my organization advertised
to your readership for volunteers for our child
abuse prevention program!!!
What you refer to as “ intergenerational sex”
is known by everyone else as child sexual
abuse. To refer to people who protest child
abuse as “ presuming to define (man/boy sex)
according to their own preconceptions and pre
ju d ice" is completely absurd. On those very
same grounds one can justify racism, sexism,
genocide and certainly homophobia and gay
bashing.
If everything, after all, is simply a matter of
personal preference, and those who protest are
merely prejudiced and narrow-minded, then
there is no room for questions of right and
wrong, power versus powerlessness, free
choice, personal rights or individual freedoms.
By approving of NAMBLA. you are agree
ing with the “ sex by eight" slogan. How much
free choice do you think there can be in a sexual
relationship between a grown person and a child
of eight, or five, or two years, or six months?
Have you ever spoken with an adult who was
molested as a child? Have you ever spoken with
a child who is currently in a sexual relationship
with a grown-up? Until now I considered Just
Out to be responsible, informative and enjoy
able reading. From now on 1 will be reading
only to monitor it for irresponsibility and misin
formation instead.
I am very, very sorry to leam aout what
seems to me to be a change in Just Out or maybe
just my own awakening to the truth of your
publication. 1 have spent hours and hours over
the years telling groups of skeptical adults that
no. it is not homosexual men who are raping
your sons. Now I leam 1 am wrong, and I leam
it from the very people I thought I was telling
the truth about.
Mr. Brown. I hope you deem my letter worth
responding to. because I most sincerely do wish
to know your paper’s position on this issue.
A rline Jacobson
Community Advocates
The Editor responds:
I have talked at length with both letter writers.
Both writers percei ve me as an advocate against their
respective points o f view, although / am neutral.
J ust Out provides a forum for many points o f view;
more than twenty people (not inluding the letter writ
ers) have contributed to the copy in this issue alone,
blot everyone agrees with everything in Just Out, the
Priscilla Martins, for instance, would have us not
e xist at all.
Just Out welcomes correspondence o f divergent
points o f view; we're just here to get the word out.
And. apparently, we do. Other correspondence this
month included a note from a teenager in a suburban
community who wrote. "Thank you. Just Out. I’d be
on the verge o f suicide without you!’ ’
T-
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Just Out • 3 • October. 19X7