1988
▼ 1988, and the right wing marched on. The
Oregon Citizens’ Alliance filed a petition to
revoke Goldschmidt’s executive order. While
gathering signatures, OCA members
displayed a 10-foot banner reading “No
Special Rights for Homosexuals.”
▼ In the heat of July, a Multnomah County
Circuit Court jury decided that Priscilla
Martin, longtime anti-abortion activist, would
have to put money where her mouth was. The
jury determined that Martin slandered Tim
Shuck, an employee at the Lovejoy
Surgicenter in Northwest Portland, by
declaring publicly that he had AIDS. Shuck
was HIV-positive, but did not have AIDS, and
Martin was fined $175,000.
NO SPECIAL RIGHTS
FOR HOMOSEXUA
Homophobe of the Decade Priscilla Martin
strutted her stuff.
.. t
▼ The company that oversees advertising on
Tri-Met vehicles removed Cascade AIDS
Project posters showing two men embracing
and the slogan, “We Can Live. Together.” The
Names Project Quilt came to the Chiles
Center, and obituaries became a periodic
feature in the pages of Just Out.
▼ The election brought sour tidings. Measure
I 8, which revoked the governor’s anti-
discrimination order, passed by a vote of 53
percent to 47 percent.
Wfe can live. Together.
Tine be« ck*s we
have Htm a«£ AHJS w is each other
,
1989
Tri-Met yanked CAP’s AIDS education poster
following a negative editorial by The
Oregonian's David Reinhard. The actions
prompted demonstrations against Tri-Met and
the newspaper.
▼ Summer, as always, brought the Rose
Festival, but this time with a twist. The
Margins to the Mainstream project sponsored
a gay and lesbian float in the Starlight Parade,
a city-wide first.
T Nationally, courts began to recognize the
various shapes of gay and lesbian families. In
New York this past summer, the state’s
highest court expanded the definition of
“family” by allowing a man to remain in his
rent-controlled apartment after his lover,
whose name was on the lease, died. In
Vermont, a probate judge awarded custody of
a baby conceived through artificial
insemination to his mother’s partner after the
mother was killed in a car accident.
Desert Hearts became the lesbian love film of the 'HOs.
Camp icon Divine achieved stardom and died
(literally) almost simultaneously.
'* > * * ■
Governor Neil Goldschmidt addressed the
seventh Lucille Hart dinner.
_
▼ In 1989, the Oregon Legislature gave the
gay community reason for hope. A bill to
count hate crimes against gays and lesbians as
well as other minorities passed, as did a
measure making it a crime to intimidate
homosexuals. A bill that would have
prohibited gay men and lesbians from
becoming foster parents never got out of
committee.
ACT UP I Portland led an action at Federal
Drug Administration office in Portland. Sev
eral demonstrators were arrested and strip-
searched.
▼ It’s the end of the decade, and a quick
glance through the pages of Just Out shows
how the texture of life has changed. Few bars
advertise, and the “Groups” section includes
66 listings, including the Gay Hiking Group,
Gay Men’s ACOA, Lesbian History Group,
Newly Coming Out Lesbians, Women with
Women and Children and Bisexual
Community Forum.
A small box on page 34 announces
‘Transitions,” naming Darren N. Roth, Darrell
Robert Geisler and Keegan Christopher
Floren Mohr. Two deaths and one birth. The
1980s circle around. And we continue.
just out ▼ 21 ▼ December 1989