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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1988)
On getting involved Our legal system allows individual involvement . Our lives and rights depend on it. BY BRADLEY T . CcuM^tf your bar stool and act oh-so-tired about the life-and-death struggle against AIDS and against those who would discriminate against us. This column invites you to get involved and do it now. There is no American political institution older than that of direct action by the people to assert our rights and make the government and power brokers respond to our needs. From the Boston Tea Party, Revolutionary War and Shay’s Rebellion to the anti-war movement of the late ’60s and the Stonewall Riot, our people have a proud history of speaking loud and clear to the government, to those in power and to each other on the important issues of the day. The right of the people freely to assemble, to associate, to picket and protest, to make noise and to demand action is uniquely American. Perhaps no other people in history have had such sweeping rights to control their own lives and political destinies and to Fight for change. Right now there are countless ways one can be involved in the struggles for gay rights, for the rights of AIDS patients and for fair reporting of lesbian and gay news. If you are not yet involved, please get busy! Your time, energy, ideas and money are needed now. A huge effort is needed to beat back the religious right and ultraconservatives who have placed on the ballot a measure to overturn Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s executive order banning job discrimination against gays in state executive-department employment. This executive order is the one solid achievement But do electoral politics leave you cold .’Then join the direct-action group Queers United Against Closets. QUAC sponsored the highly successful picketing of Hinson Memorial Baptist Church and The Oregonian, and will organize other fun — yes, fun — protest actions this summer and fall. Those who were involved in the anti-war or free-speech protests in the late ’60s recall the exquisite exhilaration that comes from a mass of people united in purpose and struggling together. Those who never were in a real protest march don’t know what they’ve missed. You’ll remember your First demonstra tion for the rest of your life, and you’ll feel good about being involved. Don’t like politics? Then get involved in a service organization. Phoenix Rising, Cascade AIDS Project, Outside-In, the Brinker Fund and others all have needs that you can help to meet. If you don’t have money, donate time, equipment or food. The CAP fund-raiser “ From All Walks of Life” is coming up; so is the second annual shopping-cart parade for the Brinker Fund. Contact these organizations to learn how you can become involved. Not only will you be helping others, you will help your self by taking power, taking control, making a contribution. You just can’t lose, unless you sit on your hands and do nothing! The time to sit and whine is long gone. This is the year for action. Our political and legal system permits it, and our lives and rights demand it. Do your part today! • rfimi i iniL Psychological Services for W omen, Men, and C ouples J. W O O D W O R T H we’ve won in this state, and those religious zealots want to take it away from us. But what his writer has observed and participated in can you do? Plenty: donate money, get others to the Oregon gay rights movement since donate money, get ready to do door-to-door 1975. In that time there have been the ups and campaigning and education this fall, join downs, ins and outs, unity and backbiting that Oregonians for Fairness (the gay community's accompany most political movements. There organization to beat the initiative measure), talk have also been long periods of apathy where it with your straight friends and family about the seemed as if no one cared any more. But apathy measure, write letters to the editor, read the gay and non-involvement are going back into the press, bring your friends and join the marches closet now — it’s really not fashionable to sit on and rallies that are announced and attend the fund-raisers — even sponsor a fund-raiser of your own. PEOPLE'S ////////J° ° d store- / nn ! * • * • * . * . * .* . Kristine L. Falco, Psv.D. c»*« • '.» f . r r Psychological Resident Supervisor Jean A. Furchner, Ph.D. GOOD FOOD- FRIENDLY PEOPLE 654-9866 3029 s.e. 21st Milwaukie, Oregon • • • • • oils watercolors sculpture glass ceramics Mixed Media Painting by Lee Bogle rHt. 1Hilton Gallery 715 s w seco n d a v en u e • portland, Oregon 97204 • 503-274-9544 ROSETOWN RAMBLERS Portland’s Gay & Lesbian Square Dance Club Bradley J. Woodworth is a lawyer in private practice and maintains an office in the Oregon Trail Building in downtown Portland. N E W BASIC CLASS ju st out O regon’s monthly newsm agazine icr W o m e n a n d M en W e lc o m e Starts Thursday September 1 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Northwest Service Center Lower Level 18th and Everett Sts., N.W. Use the 18 th Street Entrance Cßventr Cycle ' works o* See Vue Experience the unusual 95590 Highway 101 6.2 miles south of Yachats, O regon 97498 (503) 547-3227 PEUGEOT • PANASONIC FAGGIN (From Italy) OPEN TUESDAY-SUNDAY 230-7723 2025 SE Hawthorne Blvd. N o P a r tn e r N e c e s s a r y F o r M o r e I n fo r m a tio n C a ll L arry C heryl 2 2 8 -7 1 4 7 7 7 1 -0 0 4 5 ju st out • 23 • August 1988