tion. “ Many women are afraid to receive our
newsletter, even though they are mailed very
discreetly . . . People will be afraid to sign up on
the mailing list; they’ll talk to me for half an
hour, asking, ‘Who gets your mailing list?
Where does it go?’ ”
“ There are a lot of really wonderful women
out there who are afraid to be associated be
cause it has the ‘L-word’ in its name,” said
Jordan. “ We need to reach those closeted wo
men out there and say, yes, there are women
who are willing to come out and say, ‘Yeah, I’m
a lesbian,’ and nothing happens. They don’t get
shot.”
Homophobia doesn’t live exclusively in the
closets o f women LCP hasn’t yet reached, or in
the voices o f right-wing extremists. It crops up
at LCP functions, too, in auditoriums and of
fices and, sometimes, in the minds of lesbian
leaders.
“ O ur first board training was at a hospital,”
recalled English. “ I went in and requested that
we have coffee, and the woman I asked said,
‘W hat’s the name of the organization?’ and I
got that feeling, you know, sweating, the knot
in the pit o f the stomach, but because of the
strength o f all these women being there, I was
able to say, ‘It’s the Lesbian Community
Project.’
“ I ’ve been able to conquer a little bit of my
own homophobia.”
“ I don’t feel I’ve learned as much as been
changed,” said Siemens. “ I ’ve learned to take
m yself more seriously, to respect and value
m y self. . . I ’ve learned about banging your
head up against people’s internalized sexism
and internalized homophobia. It limits how
w e’re able to think; it limits how we’re able to
dream .”
Pittock Mansion.
Although LCP drew some criticism for host
ing the party, a women-only affair, on the
weekend o f the Lesbian and Gay Pride March
stressing “ unity,” members say the event was
successful in drawing women who might shy
from more strictly political events.
It was also an event that, for one night,
seemed to bridge differences in the community,
juxtaposing old and young, dissolving barriers
o f occupation, ethnicity, geography. Siemens,
a veteran leader of Portland’s lesbian commu
nity, stood on the winding stairs in silver shoes
and presented Baldwin with an award for new
leadership. There were lesbians in leather vests,
lesbians in sequinned gowns, lesbians in satin
tuxedos, several hundred lesbians, in all, walk
ing and laughing through the rooms of the ele
gant Pittock Mansion. For a few hours, it
seemed as if the lesbian community had gathered
under one roof. For a few hours, it seemed
possible that such a thing could happen.
” 1 want to reach mainstream America.” said
Jo rd a n .4 ‘That‘s my thing, and it freaks out a lot
o f people who aren’t willing to be as public. I
want to reach out to mainstream America and
work on some homophobia stuff.’ ’
‘‘It would be nice to see LCP encourage
higher education to teenagers, education about
how to become a parent, education about how
wonderful life can be without drugs or
alcohol,” said Baldwin.
‘‘I would really like to be . . . focussing on
issues like racism in the community,” said En
rico. “ 1 would like LCP to be a model, maybe
for the country, to prove that we can work
through the oppressive messages w e’ve gotten
about each other.”
Katharine English wants to see the member
ship list grow. "1 really wish all dykes would
become members . . . so LCP can become
financially solvent. Then I’d like to see it be
come a real moving political force. I’d like to
see a community center purchased, a permanent
• • •
building . . . The bottom line is — and we never
would have said this ten years ago, either— all
ith the party over, in the bright glare of
o f that depends on financial support, and we’ve
got to get it from lesbians.”
daylight, there is business at hand for
LCP. Members are searching for a building — She would also like to redefine the word
for office space so Siemens can move the bulg
“ community.”
ing files from the third floor of her house, for
4 ‘One reason I objected to this project is that I
meeting rooms, for a place women can go to
don’t believe there is such a thing as a lesbian
seek information and resources. There are dead
community, any more than there is a Republi
lines and meetings, tax-exemption papers and
can community . . . There is a real need for this
membership counts, fundraisers and heated dis
kind o f organization to spread its fingers out to
cussions. There are, always, the varied visions
all lesbians so they can pick and choose what
o f the women whose ideas are shaping LCP.
they want.”
4 ‘I would like to see LCP have a solid funding
The visions are different, but they pull in the
base in the community,” said Siemens. “ I
same direction, tugging at the concept of com
would like to see it have a center where people
munity until it stretches to cover all the things
could go and pick up any information on gay,
lesbians do and don’t have in common, all the
• • •
lesbian, feminist, progressive communities. I'd
ways there are to live.
like to see a more coherent political presence, to
“ I want to see LCP being strong in all areas
be better linked with lesbian groups nationally
C P's literature shows pieces of the dream
— educational, social, political,” said Enrico.
. . . I think in a couple o f years, if all goes well
“ I have this picture o f LCP’s arms being . . . all
I coming to life. Funds raised from grants
over the place. And that each arm is really
and individual pledges have paid Siemens's sal with LCP, w e’ll take this show on the road to
say, ‘Here, this is how you can do this in St.
strong.”
ary for a year and a half; they have financed
Louis.’
”
printing, telephone and other costs. There is a
phone list and a mailing list; there is a place for
someone to call if they need information about
the lesbian community.
Siemens is proud of the accomplishments,
at the City Nightclub] are bisexual, and it’s
t was 1980, five years before the Lesbian
pleased with the membership roster. But she
Community Project was a spark in any
‘Lesbian Community Project* — it doesn’t
and LCP board members believe there are many
body’s vision. Liz Konsella was applauding at include them at a ll. . < This girl was saying,
women they haven't yet reached. Young les
You're so PC. You wear Reeboks and are in
her first Holly Near concert. She was 11 years
bians and older ones. Lesbians who say they’re
old.
LCP.’ She was into drugs and wears a leather
not political. Women who feel the word “ les
jacket. She got kicked out of her house when
“ I can remember going to this Holly Near
bian” excludes them because they’re bisexual.
she was 17,
concert, and it was really exciting,” said
O r unsure.
“ it seems like LCP is for people who are
Konsella, now 18 and the youngest member o f
LCP has touched “ the tip o f the iceberg,”
already established, who already have some set
the LCP board. “ Somehow, I knew. She was
says Siemens. “ Under the tip . . . are the folks
pattern o f what they're doing with their lives.
singing, ‘We are gay and lesbian people,' and I
who have retreated totally into private lives . . .
For somebody who’s just coming out, their
was going, ‘Yeah!’*
that next layer of women who may be more
main concern would be trying to figure them
“ Somehow, I think I have a totally different
closeted or more identified with their careers.
selves out, not being members o f a community
perspective [on LCP] because I come from a
And it would be nice if we had more older
they don't even know if they’re part of.’ ’
different generation.
lesbians involved.”
In high school at Grant, where Konsella
“ I came out when I was 15, and, when I was
Part o f the solution may be pragmatic. Figure
graduated last spring, “ I wasn’t really out. You
1 6 ,1 got involvedm Windfire,” apeergroupfor
out what might interest potential members,
really can't be. I came out to a few teachers and
gay men and lesbians under age 21. “ It was
what their concerns are, then create activities
a few friends the second semester of my senior
good for me to meet other gay people who are
that fill those needs. Softball tournaments and
year. It wasn’t until the middle o f this year that I
young----- I’m one o f the oldest members now.
square dances. Forums on racism and concerts
started being able to speak up if someone was
[At meetings] sometimes we just gossip, but
o f folk music.
being an asshole or a homophobe.
last week we had a really good meeting —- a girl
“ For LCP to exist, to function, it has to be
“ I’m glad LCP does exist because we need a
was trying to decide if she was gay, and we were
more mainstream than extreme,” said one
all giving her advice. She was asking, ’If I feel
powerful lesbian organization. We need to have
board member. “ It’s not going to be all things
people who are there and ready to speak for
this way, does it mean I’m gay?’
for all lesbians — it never will be.”
other lesbians, who are there when some anti-
“ Most o f my friends who I hang out with at
“ What LCP is trying to be is a resource
gay thing comes along. But I feel like I’m not
the City [an underage club] or at Windfiredon’t
center so no matter what your interest you can
really a part of it. in a way. I've never had any
know what LCP is doing, or they can't afford to
draw on what LCP has to offer. There can be a
experience with anything like the 1970s wo
be members. . . I was talking to this girl who
lot of isolation for us, and LCP can act to
men’s movement. I wasn’t old enough. I just
1 'm friends with, and we were talking about PC,
contradict that," said Enrico. “ Can we all
don’t know how much I'm contributing.
you know, political correctness, and it’s almost
gather under the same roof? . . . I don't think
“ I can't imagine a lot o f my friends being
like if you're not PC then you might be con
that is a realistic picture.”
political; they don’t even know where they’re at
sidered kind o f out o f it . I think it would be
• • •
. . . I’ve always had a lot of support in coming
really hard to get someone from the City to
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Liz Konsella
I
represent anybody on the LCP board because it
wouldn’t be ‘cool.* “
he brochure describes LCP as having a
“ multi-issue perspective,” and the roster
Others in LCP agree that younger lesbians
o f activities follows suit. Members have trained are a particularly difficult group to reach. ‘‘l
Portland police officers in cross-cultural sensi
think we need a higher profile in the bars and
tivity. organized letter-writing parties to urge
with women age 21-25,“ said LCP’s executive
director. Cathy Siemens.
passage of the statewide gay rights bill, awarded
“ Spirit of Portlandia" recognition to individu
“ A lot o f us arc still in school,” said Kon
sella. * ‘Or are just coming out. or are living at
als and groups for serving the lesbian commun
h o m e .. . alotoffyoungwom cnm Windfireor
ity and sponsored a sold-out party in June at the
T
out and I’ve had pretty much kind o f a stable
life, so I’m not dealing with things like being
kicked out o f my house or having to be on my
own and support myself.
4 ‘ But LCP is ready nothing my friends can
relate to. Some people 1 don't really mention it
to because it’s hard to explain. I would just feel
better if I was able to do more, to reach out to
people my own age.”
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