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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1990)
ju st briefs Starlight Parade wants encore March takes pride to new locale Last year, for the first time, Oregon gay men and lesbians, clad in rainbow cummer bunds and waving lightsticks to a choreo graphed routine, rode a float through the Starlight Parade. This year, parade officials asked for a reprise. The Portland Rose Festival Starlight Parade Committee called the Lesbian Com munity Project office to make sure the gay/ lesbian float design would be submitted on time. This year’s Lesbian and Gay Pride March, Saturday, June 16, will be longer than ever. The rally will still take place at Waterfront Park, but further south, in the "bowl” near the Hawthorne Bridge. Marchers will assemble as usual, in the North Park blocks, then march up Broadway past Nordstrom, Pioneer Square, the County Courthouse, the Justice Center and the Federal Building. The rally will feature entertainment, politics, music, drama, speeches, demonstra tions and more than 50 booths. Volunteers are still needed; for more information call 232- 8233. The float, conceived as part of LCP’s 'Margins to the Mainstream' Campaign designed to boost the visibility of lesbians, marked the first time in the city’s history that a gay and lesbian float entered a major parade. This year, the float committee wants the community’s help. “We want as many people in the community as possible to feel like they own a piece of this float,” said co-chairperson Donna Red Wing. Preliminary auditions for those who want to ride on the float will be Saturday, May 19, 1 p.m. in Wallace Park at 25th and Raleigh. Kopetski gets gay support The Human Rights Campaign Fund, the largest national lesbian and gay political organization, has given Congressional candi date Mike Kopetski the maximum amount allowed by federal law for a primary cam paign, $5,000. Kopetski is running against anti-gay/lesbian Congressman Denny Smith in the*state’s fifth congressional district. “Mike Kopetski represents our best shot to take out a sitting Congressman who is anti- gay/lesbian and who is consistently out of touch with the mainstream politicians in Congress working for a responsible federal AIDS policy,” said Eric Rosenthal, HRCF’s political director. Rosenthal said he hoped Kopetski, if elected, would join Oregon Congressmen Les AuCoin and Peter DeFazio as a co-sponsor of the federal Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Bill. The Human Rights Campaign Fund is starting a Portland field committee to support the Kopetski campaign. The first meeting will be Wednesday, May 9,7 p.m., at Portland City Hall, 1220 SW 5th, room 154. Road service says gay spouse is family Does a gay or lesbian partner qualify as “family" for an associate membership with a road service? It depends on which company is doing the driving. An employee at the downtown Portland AAA/Oregon Automobile Service said gay partners don’t quality as associate members, who must be either the husband, wife or child (between 16 and 23 years old) of the member. Chase Advantage Road Service, an Illinois-based company with branches in all 50 states, refuses that sort of de facto discrimina tion. For $45 a year (slightly more that the basic AAA membership) a member can sign on his or her gay partner as “family.” For details, call Chases’s toll-free number, 1-800-323-1244. Helpline to count crimes The Eugene HELPLINE is now collecting anonymous statistics of all hate crimes against lesbians and gay men for the state of Oregon. The count will include incidents of: verbal abuse, harassing phone calls, threats of violence, physical assaults, vandalism, arson, homicide and bombings. The statistics will be compiled by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which issues an annual report on hate crimes against gays and lesbians nationwide. ^ Incidents can be reported anonymously Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. The HELPLINE number is 683-CHAT. May 1990
