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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1989)
C O M M E N T A R Y Ifs not fair Ifs not right. Ifs mismanagement. All Oregonians for Fairness steering committee meetings before, during, and after the campaign have been closed to the public — Despite the surface calm, the aftershocks ol the defeat continue to reverberate through the halls o f Adult anil Family Services, the n case it hasn't sunk in yet. we lost state Health Division, and the Oregon legisla ture. Adult and Family Services reportedly Ballot Measure X. You know win. lose? acts more cautiously now with adoption and W ell. uc lost. Last November, Oregon voters said. Yes. Yes. Y es" to the Oregon C itizen’s loster parenting when gay or lesbian parents are involved; the Oregon Health Division Alliance campaign cry o f "N o Special Rights refuses to say "g a y ” in the state’ s AIDS for Homosexuals." In so doing, the voters prevention media campaign; and the House overturned Neil Goldschmidt’ s year-old execu Judiciary Committee killed a bill making gay tive order banning sexual orientation discrim i nation by and among those state workers who bashing a crime, not so much because the members dislike the concept o f such a law. answer to the governor. but because state representatives are squeamish The voters enacted this sentence into about voting in favor o f legislation that Oregon’ s law: " N o state official shall forbid contains the words "sexual orientation.” the taking o f any personnel action against any Those in-the-know say this attitude, in large state employee based on the sexual orienta tion o f such employee.’ ’ Lambda Legal part, is due to the perceived power o f the Defense and Education Fund has translated this Oregon C itizen’s Alliance following its success newspeak as follows: " I f you hate lesbians and with Ballot Measure 8. Though the No on 8 spin diK'tors present the illusion o f victory gay men anil they work for you in the Oregon state government, fire at w ill — with impunity.” (because a large minority o f voters went our Oregon has the dubious distinction o f being the way — 47 percent), the fact is we lost an only state in the country where something election that everyone in the state (except the like this has happened. No on 8 steering committee) viewed as a refer In my view, most members and friends o f endum on gay rights. Oregon’ s gay and lesbian community have There has been precious little public debate failed to come to grips with the ramifications about the campaign strategy chosen by the No o f the election loss. After an initial burst o f on 8 steering committee. But to figure out w hy shock and anger, most have become, and the strategy was unsuccessful, discussion and remain, complacent. debate are precisely what is needed. A mean > Y w A Y N I Photo by Juv Brown — H A R R I S I Food Front COO PI: I? AT I VIE G ROCIE R Y NW East Bank C hiropractic Clinic 2303 E. Burnside Street Portland. OR 97214 (503)239-7031 9am to 9 p m D a ily T h u rm a n at 23rd Place 222-5658 T ri-M e t Bus Routes 15 and 17 The City's Natural Grocery Community Owned — Open to All HAL JONES AUTOMOTIVE ingful debate requires a dialogue with one’s critics. This hasn’t happened. The one public meeting held at the Metro politan Community Church in December was more o f a No on 8 presentation o f voting patterns and expenses than anything else. Some participants likened it to a public rela tions ploy to diffuse anger rather than a true community forum where critics might speak out. The steering committee, responsible for formulating campaign strategy, didn’t bother to appear as a group and answer questions from the 80 community members in attendance. The campaign manager, responsible for running the campaign day-to-day, wasn’t there either. The steering committee is an elusive bunch. Although their names and addresses are a matter o f public record with the Secretary of State, the membership has never been identi fied in print before now (see sidebar). The original six-member steering committee formed in June o f 1988. Some shuffling took place in late summer and the group expanded to ten. Two members dropped out during the campaign. Technically speaking the steering committee still exists because it hasn’t filed the form required to officially disband. But for all prac tical purposes, it has dissolved. Oregonians For Fairness steering committee meetings — before during and after the campaign — have been closed to the public. The final meeting was held on December 14th. I understand that the steering committee held a "re tre a t" to discuss the campaign and review what was done. Certain staff members attended. Members o f the staff who were con sidered campaign critics weren’t notified as to time and place. The steering committee simply doesn’t want to deal with its critics. I am one o f the critics. As a volunteer member o f the campaign staff, I clocked about sixty hours a week. Among other tasks, I designed and maintained the No on 8 database, set up the word process ing center and prepared all o f the contribution and expenditure reports during the campaign. Given these responsibilities, it was appro priate and necessary for me to attend steer ing committee, as well as staff, meetings at OFF headquarters. As the campaign progressed, two staff members, Carl Goodman and myself, became increasingly critical o f various aspects o f the campaign. Cathy Siemens and Liz Kaufman suggested more than once that we should be team players and keep our criticism close to the vest for the sake o f presenting a united front to the media and the community (so fund raising wouldn’ t be jeopardized). We com plied with the request. W ell, $380,000 has been spent. The cam paign is over. And an event has come to my attention that has provoked me to make my criticism public. It involves an item o f p re -. vious controversy on the pages o f this publi cation — the OFF database. I anticipate that some people w ill focus on the mere fact that I am criticizing instead o f debating whether the criticism has merit. Others w ill portray my criticism as a personal attack when it clearly is not. The steering committee’ s stewardship o f the OFF database, a resource about which I main tain a special interest, is one example among many o f steering committee incompetence. The database contains a mailing list o f more than 4,000 names o f people who volunteered time or money to Oregonians for Fairness. Because the campaign raised $380,000 in three months, many political pundits regard the No on 8 database as the most valuable asset o f the campaign. Many groups, both local and national, want it, prim arily for fundraising. Throughout the campaign, I expressed the hope that the database would be given to an OFF successor group to help organize No on 8 volunteers and contributors for grassroots political activity. The need for grassroots organizing is apparent. For example, we have no mechanism in place to mobilize persons in a given senate or house district for letter writing campaigns to their legislators. But attempts at forming an OFF successor group were discouraged. Indeed, Liz Kaufman and Cathy Siemens severely criticized Carl BETTER HEALTH CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC "A Total Personal Health Concept" JOY ENTERPRISES • Deep Muscle Work • Exercise/Prevention • Sportsmedicine Ctf! it f iW 5111 NE Fremont Portland. OR 97213 / l i s t o n i ^ 1 4 ^ Vluy 288-1130 222-2888 Rena Sandler, D.C. Doctor on 24 hour page for emergencies 812 SW Washington, Suite 800 Workers Comp & Auto Insurance Cover Chiropractic Care Insurance Accepted