FACING
THE
CHALLENGE
photo by Me tj Grace
BY
A N N O EE
he Oregon Citizens Alliance helped make
an activist out of Jim Cross.
Until the conservative OCA began pushing to
repeal Gov. Neil Goldschmidt's executive
order banning discrimination against gay men
and lesbians in state hiring and services. Cross
was happy to let other people struggle for gay
rights.
“ I’ve let other people do my Fighting for me
and have basically reaped the benefits of it,' ’ he
said recently. “ Now there are people out there
who. for the first time, are starting to say. ‘I’ve
had enough.’ ”
A successful campaign to defeat the OCA
ballot measure and preserve the executive order
may depend on thousands of gay men and
lesbians around the state speaking — and acting
on — the same ultimatum. According to
organizers of Oregonians for Fairness (OFF),
the Portland group leading the fight against
Measure 8, their success also will rest on how
well they can reach, educate and influence non
gay voters about the executive order's
implications.
On the surface, the statement Goldschmidt „
signed into law last October is simple and
straightforward. It adds “ sexual orientation” to
an existing provision that bans discrimination in
state executive-branch hiring and services
based on “ non-job related factors.”
"Today the State of Oregon affirms that this
simple justice extends to the private sexual
orientation of our citizens.” the order reads. “ It
does no more than recognize the right to privacy
of our citizens."
But the battle to repeal the order is larger than
that language. On one side is the OCA. a
coalition of political conservatives and religious
fundamentalists who state clearly in their litera
ture that homosexuality is immoral and
repugnant They believe the executive order is a
state-sanctioned smile on a lifestyle they abhor
On the other side are gays, lesbians and their
supporters, for whom the ballot measure is a
critical and emotional test — the first time an
issue involving gay rights has been put before
Oregon voters statewide
In the middle are thousands of citizens who
have not made a decision yet.w ho may not even
have seen the executive order or the text of the
reoeal measure The real strueitle between now
T
I
HOCHMAN
juit >ur •
12 • A f u J MWt
and November 8 will be the effort to change
those minds.
“ This will be the first time the Oregon
electorate has voted on this issue,” said Cathy
Siemens, a member of the OFF steering com
mittee, at a July 14 gay and lesbian community
meeting. “ If it goes down, it will send a very
damaging message to the Legislature.”
A measure of symbolism
regon House Bill 2325, which would have
banned discrimination against gays and
lesbians in housing, jobs and public
accommodations, never made it out of commit
tee, although 400 people showed up in Salem to
lobby for it in February 1987.
The language of executive order No. EO-87-
20 is more specific and limited than that bill. It
is explicitly not an affirmative-action measure,
as OCA members have claimed. A spokesman
for Goldschmidt called it “ a fundamental issue
of fairness.” But the question on the ballot is a
symbolic one for both sides.
Lon Mabon, state executive director of the
OCA. which subtitles its newsletters
"Promoting Historic American Values in
Oregon." said the order "is just one small part
of an overall strategy to grant minority status to
homosexuals.” The winter 1988 report of the
OCA went even further, with the somber
prediction that “ how this issue is resolved will
determine in a major way the future of public
morality in our state .”
The issue is a charged one for gay men and
lesbians, too. No matter how carefully the
campaign against the ballot measure tries to
stress issues of job equity and privacy, “ on
some level, whether we like it or not. it’s going
to be. ‘Are gays OK or are gays not OK?’ “ said
Laurie McClain* an organizer against Measure
8 in Eugene
The effort to change minds will cost both
sides money. Representatives of the OCA. at a
jubilant press conference the day they delivered
116.000 signatures on their petitions to the state
elections division, pledged to raise $600,000.
Oregonians for Fairness — so far a coalition of
the Right to Privacy PAC. the Lesbian
Community Pro ject. the ACLU Commission on
Lesbian and Gay Rights, and Queers United
Against Closets (QUAC) — plans to raise
$400,000 to fund statewide polling, an exten
sive media campaign and other activities.
O
So far, OFF has led two major events in
Portland — a July 8 kick-off rally and the
community meeting to gather ideas for strategy
about a week later. The rally, held on the day
OCA delivered its petitions in Salem, drew
polite enthusiasm from the crowd of about 150,
in spite of an impressive line-up of city, county
and state elected officials who spoke against the
ballot measure.
“ This place should be packed,” said Judy
Tallwing McCarthey, a member of QUAC, as
she glanced around Terry Shrunk Park.
“ There’s still too much apathy. People say,
‘Oh, it doesn’t affect me.’ But in the larger
picture, it affects every single one of us.
They’re going to take our freedom away bit by
bit. Every time we experience a defeat, it’s big
— even if it seems small.”
Multnomah County Commissioner Gretchen
Kafoury, State Sen. Shirley Gold and State
Rep. Beverly Stein — all longtime allies of the
lesbian and gay community — pledged their
support for the fight against Measure 8. The
strongest words came from Portland City
Council member Mike Lindberg. Opponents of
the executive order “ are extremists; they are
bigots, and they should be called that,” he said
as the crowd applauded. “ Calling people
extremists when they are and bigots when they
are is important in this campaign.”
One week later, at the Bijou, the mood was
considerably more heated. About 70 eager
participants filled the cafe, taking notes,
sharing stories of past political battles and ask
ing pointed questions about strategy and fund
raising. “ What do we do next. . . will someone
call us? Because we’re all revved up," one
woman called from the audience.
Organizers passed a motorcycle helmet to
collect money, and Siemens announced the
total just minutes before the meeting ended;
$955.
Let’s make it $ 1.000 before we go,’ ’ some
one shouted. And they did.
By the end of July. Siemens said, OFF had
collected money or pledges for nearly $30,000
and had talked with organizers in Ashland.
Baker, Bend. Coos Bay, Salem. Roseburg and
Eugene. OFF plans to conduct voter-registration
drives in gay and lesbian bars and clubs, survey
people around Oregon to find out the most
persuasive tactics and seek national support
from gay and lesbian groups. “ We will be all
over the place.” Siemens vowed at the
community meeting.
Educating statewide
lthough none of the Oregon groups
fighting the ballot measure have
developed detailed strategies yet, their
approaches all seem to share anger, a demand
for justice and a sense of the campaign’s wider
implications.
Bryce Johnson, organizer of a Rogue Valley
group called the Coalition for Human Rights,
said many people were spurred into action by
the “ No Special Rights” banners displayed
wherever Oregon Citizens Alliance members
tried to gather signatures.
‘ ‘ I think the OCA with their booths and signs
were very powerful and galvanizing in getting
people to do something about it. They really got
a lot of people talking,” he said. Forty people
came to a meeting in Ashland early in July to
discuss opposition to Measure 8. Johnson said
his group will coordinate efforts with OFF in
Portland and probably will focus on the “ anti-
discrimination aspect” of the issue.
In Roseburg, activist Billy Russo was more
blunt. “ Our first line of attack is to kick those
fundamentalists right in the ass." he said.
Organizers in the Douglas County area handed
out copies of the executive order in the post
office while OCA members were there seeking
signatures. Russo said the campaign will focus
especially on the work force and young voters.
“ We’ll be trying to educate them to see that fear
of homosexuality paralyzes them, too, that
[without the executive order) you can be fired
for someone thinking you’re gay.”
In Eugene, the campaign against Measure 8
carries the mixed blessing of dejavu. Some
Eugene activists remember how it was in 1977,
in the sour tide of Anita Bryant's national anti
homosexual campaign. In October of that year,
the Eugene City Council passed a gay-rights
ordinance that protected lesbians and gay men
from discrimination in jobs and housing.
Opponents scrambled for signatures to put the
measure to a vote and got 4,000 more names
than they needed. Meanwhile, voters had
trounced gay-rights measures in Dade County.
Florida; Wichita. Kansas; and St. Paul,
Minnesota. On May 23, 1978, Eugene voters
followed suit, favoring the repeal by a nearly
two-thirds margin.
Laurie McClain, then a steering committee
member of Eugene Citizens for Human Rights,
worked to the point of exhaustion on that
campaign. She said ten years has taught her.
and other activists, some lessons.
A