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