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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1990)
Just news New York Post, Daily News join tabloid outing orgy ainstream American journalism saw an CT UP/Portland, Oregon turned up the unanticipated rewrite of the rulebook in heat several notches April 25 in its year- early May when The New York Post and The and-a-half campaign to expose U.S. Sen. New York Daily News identified five Mark Hatfield (D-Ore.) as a closeted celebrities who are rumored to have had gay homosexual who votes against the gay and sex. lesbian community in Congress. The Post initiated the revision with a May Previously, the group had limited itself to 2 article entitled, “ ‘Outing’ articles pick up distributing flyers outside Hatfield events, steam. ’ ” saying that the senator is gay and charging “Outing” means dragging closeted him with “blatant hypocrisy” and celebrities or closeted anti-gay politicians out “collaboration in the AIDS genocide.” of the closet. But early the morning of April 25, activists The Post did it to actors John Travolta, carefully altered a Hatfield re - election Kristy McNichol and Richard Chamberlain. billboard on one of Portland’s main Two days later, the Daily News ran a thoroughfares so that the sign read: “Hatfield. front-page story quoting David Bowie’s ex- Closeted Gay. Living a Lie — Voting to wife, Angela, as saying that she caught Bowie Oppress.” The group also affixed a large and Mick Jagger in bed once, and that it was “Silence = Death” logo to the display. only one of Bowie’s many gay affairs. According to ACT UP, the doctored Angela broke the news on the May 4 billboard “was viewed by thousands in the edition of Joan Rivers’ TV talk show. morning commute and by hundreds of “Outing” articles have been the rage in the thousands when KATU-TV ran the story on US press for weeks, but the media has been the evening news.” * uniformly unwilling to reveal who is being “Hatfield was on notice that ACT UP outed. would act if he continued to gay bash with his Malcolm Forbes has been referred to only votes in the Senate,” said ACT UP spokesman as a publishing tycoon who recently died. Tom Schloeder. “He didn’t listen.” Chastity Bono only as the daughter of a According to ACT UP, “it is commonly famous singer actress. The Geraldo show believed in Oregon’s gay and lesbian recently bleeped about 15 references to Kristy community that the . . . extremely popular McNichol. senator is a closeted gay man who married to The article in the Post explored the fact provide the necessary cover to survive in that supermarket tabloid newspapers “are American politics in the 1950s.” storming the closets of allegedly gay “Any doubt of the truth about Hatfield’s celebrities for the sake of truth, justice and sexual orientation can be resolved in a court improved newsstand sales.” of law, if necessary,” said Portland attorney “Take this week’s cover story in the and ACT UP member Wayne Harris. Enquirer,” the Post reported, “in which a Hatfield’s Congressional record includes porno actor named Paul BarTesi claims he had votes to prohibit the use of federal funds for an affair with John Travolta. AIDS materials “that promote or encourage, “BarTesi alleges that Travolta was so directly or indirectly, homosexual sexual smitten with him that he followed Barresi into activities” or “use words stating that a shower to arrange a date. He also claims he homosexuality is normal, natural or healthy.” and Travolta had sex ‘dozens o f times’ during “Oregon voters have a right to know that a two-year span, while the ‘Saturday Night Mark Hatfield is a hypocrite,” said ACT UP’s Fever’ star was seeing Debra Winger [and] Lori Kohler. “He’s a closeted gay public Olivia Newton-John.” official who . . . supports enemies of the gay Such reporting about allegedly closeted and lesbian community like [Sen. Jesse] gays or lesbians is unknown in mainstream Helms [R-NC], [Rep. William] Dannemeyer American journalism, with the tabloids only [R-Calif.] and [Rep. William] Armstrong [R- have made the transition in the past few Colo.].” months. ACT UP said it took on the billboard “It’s a very complex issue,” said Post Page project afte'r Hatfield voted with Armstrong in Six editor Richard Johnson. “It’s a thin line March of this year to change the District of deciding what’s fair and what isn’t fair.... I Columbia Human Rights Ordinance to allow think the [May 2 article] was a legitimate the local Big Brothers organization to bar gay story.” men from participating in any program that Johnson said Post editors were notfcware “educates, coaches or trains any minor” or they were breaking any new ground when “holds out [a gay man] as a role model, they decided to the story. mentor or companion to any minor.” Jim Willse, editor of the Daily News, said Human Rights Campaign Fund spokesman his publication also didn’t see itself as taking Greg King has called the Armstrong any bold new steps. “The David Bowie/Mick amendment “a legislative hate crime.” Jagger story was just a story to us that “It’s contemptible for a closeted gay man presented itself off a TV show and we just as powerful as Mark Hatfield to perpetuate the reported what transpired on a TV show and lie that all gay men are child molesters who obviously tried to get the principals to talk prey on innocent youth,” said Schloeder. “We about it,” he explained. don’t object to Hatfield being in the closet, Willse said the Daily News has no policy but we won’t remain silent and let him gay on when to mention sexual orientation in a bash.” news story. “We would mention sexual Asked about ACT UP’s charges, Hatfield’s orientation if it were relevant,” he said. Washington press spokesman. Bill Calder, — Rex Wockner said: "If they have some evidence, let’s see it. I mean, I want to know. The senator has said publicly and to others within our office that M LRD D 7 EDITIOn/ BOOK/TORE — vy ~— It's Our 1 st Veor Anniversary!! T MON-SfiT 11 -7 SUN 12-5 ▼ 1864 S€ HfiUUTHOfiN€ BLVD. PORTLAND, Ofi 97214 (503) 236-4628 Christopher Eskeli, P h D , L M F C C ,C A S Specializing In: • Recovering Alcohol & Drug Addiction • Co-dependency / Adult Children • Interventions • Relationships / Intimacy 811 NW 20th, # 203 Portland, Oregon 97209 (503)635-6803 Advertising in ju s t: o u t: w orks. . . "In a very short time, just ou t has proven th a t it commands a broad and extrem ely loyal following which uses the goods and services of the advertisers who . support it." Eric Stromquist H ot Lips Pizza just out ▼ 14 ▼ June 1990 Spokesman invites smoking gun to come forward this is absolutely false. If somebody can convince me otherwise, bring it on. Let me see it. I’ll take it to the senator and say, ‘I think you’re lying.’” — Rex Wockner A FBI nabs Aryan bar bombers BI agents May 12 arrested two white supremacists en route to blow up a Seattle gay bar. According to an affidavit filed in United States District Court by Tacoma-based FBI special agent Thomas Trier, the Bureau had tracked the two men, Robert Winslow, 29, and Stephen Nelson, 35, for three months. Information was gathered primarily by phone taps at the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, where Winslow and Nelson planned their operations. The two men first discussed blowing up Neighbors Disco in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood during an April 8 phone conversation. FBI agents then trailed Winslow to a mountainous area outside Hayden Lake where he detonated a test pipe bomb. In an April 20 phone conversation, Winslow detailed the plans against the gay club. “He and Nelson were going to place explosive charges inside the bar,” Trier testified. ‘They would then telephone the bar, warn them that a bomb would go off in three minutes, and then detonate the charges as the patrons attempted to flee. According to Winslow, the patrons would enter the 'kill zone' at the time o f detonation." (Emphasis: Just Out) From further phone calls, the FBI determined that the Aryans planned to blow up Neighbors May 12. Agents followed Winslow and Nelson from the Hayden Lake compound to Seattle, where the supremacists bought a six-inch section of galvanized steel pipe with two end caps, and one pound of smokeless gun powder. “Because these components were identical to the [test] bomb that was exploded in Idaho, Federal Agents moved in and placed Winslow and Nelson under arrest,” Trier testified. During the phone tajDS, the FBI also learned that the supremacists planned to blow up black bars, a Jewish synagogue and several Korean businesses. Winslow and Nelson were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy, illegal possession of firearms and the possession of an explosive device. The 20 acre Aryan Nations Hayden Lake compound, 40 miles northeast of Spokane, is a center for neo-Nazi skinhead and Ku Klux Klan related conferences, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The newspaper said a national conference of neo-Nazi skinheads was held there in April, in conjunction with Adolph Hitler’s birthday. The Post-Intelligencer identified 72-year- old Richard Butler as the founder and pastor of the Aryan Nations Church in Hayden Lake and said he has been at the center of an effort to establish a whites only nation in the Northwest. — Rex Wockner F
