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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1988)
L E Male heterosexual finds anal sex repugnant T T a female sex organ involved. I think the statistics alone testify as to the safety of this practice, and even before the aids epidemic surfaced anal intercourse was usually considered a perverse pleasure enjoyed by few. E R s Female reader offended by phone sex ads ing ways of narrator Steven Fulmer, the clich6d roles of Dionysus, Julia and Caesar himself (and most of the lesser roles), and the sadly predictable double entendres in dialogue. One is willing to forgive the Chorus for over reaching itself, one can even applaud it for trying. But surely the gay community has come further than believing that a “ gay opera” has much to do with staging stylized orgies, near nudity, capering silliness and gaudy costumes. For many this is what it meant to be gay in the 1950s. As a community coming of age through the double agony of laying claim to our rights and coping with a killing epidemic, surely we have learned that this sort of shallow stereo typing of gay people cannot serve our or any one’s interests. The real question lies not in whether the Chorus achieved its artistic goals, but why any one chose this stereotyped vehicle in the first place. • lb the Editor: I’ve seen two different pieces in your paper recently objecting to calling anal intercourse as anything but “ deviate intercourse’’ and find it amazing that you actually earned it. The notion that forcing an erect penis into an organ nature designed for defecation is normal is at best ludicrous, and to call people “ homophobic” because they find this activity gross and revolt ing is just putting another nail in the coffin of the homosexual ideology. I myself believe in live and let live but please, no more whining about how we heterosexuals who find anal sex repugnant are hysterically homophobic because they (j/cJ can’t accept the picture of two males having intercourse without Michael Avance Portland Editor's response: We appreciate your opinion, Mr. Avance, but we seriously doubt that you will find much sympathy for it in this community. May we assume that it is only anal intercourse between males that you find repugnant. Cun nilingus and fellatio arc also labeled “ deviate intercourse” and are legally proscribed in 24 states. Homophobia, and the physical and mental abuse against gays and lesbians it encourages, is firmly based on such attitudes as you express. If you really believe in “ live and let live” nothing would be “ normal.” Don’t buya spa with your clothes on. To the Editor: As a regular reader of Just Out, I have watched the ads for telephone sex for several months. As their numbers increase each month so does my dissatisfaction with the paper’s advertising policies. I understand that this paper is a business, and that advertising pays the bills. However, last month’s ad show ing a man’s bare buttocks went too far. I am offended by the “ meat marketing” of sex for gay men — and the sexual exploitation of anyone. I urge you to reconsider accepting such ads. They appear to be consuming what is otherwise an excellent paper, one which I look forward to reading from cover to cover. April’s edition had one full-page ad for telephone sex (in addition to numerous smaller ones); May had two full pages. I am a little nervous to look at June, let alone July. Jerome Perlinski St. Helens Juniper House appeal gets results Meg Rowe Portland Showcase for gay stereotypes To the Editor All of us at Juniper House want to thank Just Out for publishing the story on the needs there. The response was fabulous: qualified nurses, flower arrangers, people who can cook, a furnace fixer, guys who have cars, one who wants to give money for “ daily luxuries,” several who have no money but only time and love — the most-needed thing of all. Because of that same article, Linda Lee, the gorgeous female impersonator, and her troupe will give a free performance at the House. Who could ask for anything more? Again, a thousand thanks. To the Editor: Almost two months after the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus’s production of Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar, I have still to see any comments on the contents of the opera. The scathing Oregonian review, Mr. Berggren’s letter to Just Out and the two Just Out reviews by Dr. Tantalus and Harold Moore seem to have focused on how adventurous it was for the local chorus to have undertaken the work. However, no one seems to have stated the obvious: Young Caesar is a showcase for gay stereotypes that predate The Boys in the Band. 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