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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1990)
Just briefs Our House volunteers needed Our House of Portland, residential facilities for those living with AIDS and other HIV positive illnesses, needs volunteer psycholo gists and other mental health professionals. Their residents are often on Medicaid or have limited financial resources. Ability to provide psychotherapy, prepare psychological assessments, conduct support groups and assist the Our, House staff in formulating treatment plans and intervention strategies for psycho-social needs is desired. Call Lee Drucker, 231-2966. CAP Walk to benefit six AIDS agencies The fourth “From All Walks of Life,” is set for Sept. 9. The 10K pledge walk is sponsored by KGW 620 AM, US West and KGW Channel 8, and will benefit Cascade AIDS Project, HIV Day Center, Oregon Hispanic AIDS Project, Oregon Minority AIDS Coalition, Our House and Phoenix Rising. Marsha B. Congdon, Oregon Vice-President and CEO of US West Communications and gallery owner William Jamison will be honorary chairpersons. Registration will be at 8 am at Waterfront Park, warm-ups at 9, with the walk starting at 10 am. Traveling through the streets of downtown, it will end up back at the water front. Prizes will be awarded to the team and individuals who turn in the most pledge money on the day of the walk. To participate in the walk as an individual, team member or captain, or for more inform a- tion, call 223-9255 (223-WALK). Oregon okays lesbian foster parents The Children’s Services Division recently certified a lesbian couple, Tracy Hanson and Dee Ferguson as foster parents to a 14-year-old girl, whose mother is also a lesbian. The state needs minority foster parents and families willing to take siblings, troubled teens and babies with medical problems. “I wonder how many kids come from broken and dysfunctional homosexually-oriented families," said Ferguson, “and then have a harder time after being placed in a heterosexual foster home?” Demonstrators support Mohawk sovereignty On Monday, July 16, a group of 25 people gathered in Terry Schrunk Plaza to demonstrate support for the continuing defense of life and their native lands by Kahnestake Mohawk people of Oka, Quebec, and to protest repeated attacks against Kahnestake Mohawks by pro vincial officials and the Canadian government leading up to, including, and following the July 11,1990 incident in which Mohawks blocking a public road to protest usurpation of their lands by the city of Oka were attacked * with tear gas, stun grenades and gunfire by provincial police. Demonstrators recognized that the July 11 attack against the Kahnestake Mohawks was launched to remove them from their native lands so that a 9-hole golf course could be extended to 18 holes. “People are getting killed,” said Harvey Nicholas, Mohawk spokesperson, “because boys want to run around and play golf.” Support Indian sovereignty. —Scott Nakagawa t Pow-wow for lesbian and gay Native Americans August 1-5 in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), the third gathering of native American gays and lesbians “Spirituality in the ju st ota V 16 ▼ August ¡990 ‘90s” will be held on a 40-acre wooded campground, 45 minutes north of Winnipeg. There will be a pow-wow, programs concerning AIDS, child abuse, sexual abuse and health issues, along with traditional native ceremonies, such as a feast and tobacco offering. For more information, call (all 204 area codes) Albert 772-3606, Myra 582-3726, Roger 774-6310 or Marilyn 783-4950. New quarterly for Native American gay men and lesbians The American Indian Gays and Lesbians (AIGL) organization in Minneapolis, Minn., published the first edition of a new international quarterly newsletter in June called Two Eagles, according to the Gay Community News. Two Eagles features articles and art, with a special emphasis on spiritual and cultural concerns. One of the goals is to break down isolation which exists for many lesbian and gay native Americans. Submissions from gay and lesbian indige nous peoples are encouraged and anyone is welcome to subscribe. For more information, write: AIGL, PO Box 10229, Minneapolis, MN 55458. Auditions for chorus to open Beginning their eleventh season, the Portland Gay M en’s Chorus (PGMC), is holding auditions on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and Wednesday, Sept. 5, from 6:30 pm-9 pm. Call 232-0867 for location and an appointment. Participation requires attendance at regular rehearsals on Monday evenings. Under the direction of new conductor, Jon Rollins, the holiday concert will consist o f two shows, scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 2, at the Intermediate Theater, Portland Center for the Performing Arts. For further information or season tickets, call 233-0650. A first for Portland Lesbian Choir The Portland Gay M en’s Chorus will have an arts organization booth át Artquake, which it will share with the Portland Lesbian Choir, who are participating for the first time. Nancy Vanderburgh, the earned income coordinator of Artquake and a member of the Choir, would like to see the lesbian and gay community come to the festival and support the bravery o f these two very “out there” organizations participating in this mainstream event. The PLC/PGMC booth would love to see a few lesbian and gay faces in the crowd. Artquake is held Labor Day weekend. Sept. 1-3. The festival takes over Southwest Broadway between Morrison and Madison. Portland Shadow Project On August 6,1945 in Hiroshima, Japan, everyone within 300 meters o f ground zero was instantly vaporized by the atomic bomb; they left behind only the shadows of their bodies. The shadows of these victims provide the image and theme for the Portland Shadow Project: To help people imagine and c o ra r e - hend the disappearance of human life from nuclear war. Before dawn, between 2 and 5 am, Monday, Aug. 6,1990, silhouettes o f human shadows will be painted, said Lisa Roegner, coordinator. These shadows will be found on streets and sidewalks in various locations throughout the city. If you plan to participate in the project, attendance at a training meeting is required on Thursday, Aug. 2, 7-8 pm at MCC, 1644 NE 24th. For further information, contact Lisa Roegner, 233-1853. Barney Frank Fundraiser One o f only two openly gay Congressmen, Barney Frank is visiting Portland on Aug. 24 to drum up support for his September re-election as US Representative of the fourth Congres sional District of Mass.. Frank is highly regarded in the gay and lesbian community as a top spokesman for gay and lesbian issues. He will be honored at a cocktail party and dinner as part of a west coast fund-raising swing. — Information supplied by Chad Schroer One more time. . . Every August, over 7,000 women converge on women’s land in Michigan for the annual Women’s Music Festival. As they have for over a decade, a substantial community of S/M women will be attending this year’s festival. The festival organizers have released a statement outlining strict parameters for their [S/M women’s] behavior at Michigan. What follows is their statement (in part), with a response from the Outcasts (also in part), a San Francisco-based lesbian S/M club. “___ We believe that 7,000 womyn can live together for a week, bringing together all of our similarities and differences-----There is welcome for all womyn at the Festival. There is welcome for all behavior at the Festival. We encourage S/M womyn who want group activities to create their own event at another time and place with the necessary elements for privacy and community consent. We are not set up to provide this and it is not our purpose. Furthermore, we must be clear that we are unwilling to take the responsibility, and the comparable liability that would accompany a space defined by use in that way.” —We Want the M usic Collective (organizers) “The fact that there is a stridently vocal minority which opposes the right of S/M women to be on the land should, we think, be a key into the fact that S/M women need their rights and safety protected, by festival security, if necessary. S/M people have a shared ethic: make it ‘Safe, Sane and Consensual.’ What we do is not violence, but S/M is something that makes us, as a group, different. If it is true that you intend to have a festival where difference is respected as diversity and not feared as a threat, then it is the responsibility of you, its organiz ers, to make the hard decisions to back up that professed intent.”—Victoria Baker, writing for the Outcasts. — Reprinted from the San Francisco Bay Times, Community Forum, July 1990 Gay bars support Marlboro boycott Gay bars in Washington, DC ¿ id Atlanta, Georgia, have removed Marlboro cigarettes from their vending machines and are placing “Boycott Marlboros” stickers over the slots in response to the nationwide request from ACT UP/DC. Philip Morris’ toll-free numbers are also being found in Seattle’s public phone booths. The idea is to call: (800) 446-7030, (800) 343- 0975 and (800) 552-2222 and use their money to voice our opinions. NEA update The American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force charge National Endowments for the Arts’ chair, John Frohnmayer, with homophobia and are demanding a meeting. O f the four performance artists denied grants by the NEA, three are gay or lesbian. They plan to appeal the decision. Portland’s Chamber Music Northwest has decided to keep their grant. David Shifrin, music director o f the group, said that while he might be in sympathy with arts groups that returned grants to the NEA . . . it would be like “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Gay, lesbian and bisexual veterans form new group A group of determined veterans have formed the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans Association (GLBVA). This organization will assist gay, lesbian and bisexual veterans and active duty personnel in matters which pertain to discrimination, harassment, and less-than- honorable discharges. In addition, the GLBVA will organize a concerted effort to challenge Department of Defense policies and administra tive policies which now prohibit persons with alternative sexual orientation from serving in the US military establishment. GLBVA has a permanent telephone number: (414) 342-6543. Callers are guaranteed a personal response within 24 hours. Anonymity and security is also assured if the caller is requesting legal information or is under investigation. Nazis and attacks on reproductive rights Far-right groups like nazis pose a serious threat to women’s right to life and freedom from male domination. Male supremacy is a critical factor in the overall racist and anti democratic political strategy o f right-wing groups. Neo-fascists recognize that control over sexuality is a key factor in instituting eugenicist programs o f white supremacy. That’s why white supremacists from nazis to the Oregon Citizens Alliance have launched attacks against lesbians, gay men, and freedom o f choice activists. Consider the following information: In Dallas, Texas, five Klansmen marched with Operation Rescue to shut down a clinic. In California, Tom Metzger, leader o f the national neo-fascist group White Aryan Resistance (WAR), has claimed that “ abortion is white genocide.” M etzger w ill stand trial in Portland in October fo r alleged involvement in the racist murder o f M ulugeta Seraw. (Empha sis Just O ut's.) WAR affiliate “Aryan W omen’s League” claims that the role o f white women is to reproduce the white race, and stands opposed to abortion. In Florida, John Burt, a leader o f anti abortion activism, former state grand dragon of the KKK. Two years ago, four of Burt’s recruits were involved in bombing three abortion clinics, and Burt himself led a violent attack against a clinic that was bombed twice in the past. Additionally, new right syndicated colum nist (and not surprisingly a supporter of homophobic New Dimensions magazine), Pat Buchanan proclaimed last August that Islam would destroy Western civilization because white Europeans and Americans, under the domination of Planned Parenthood, were not having enough babies. Leading advocates of anti-choice direct action like Joe Scheidler of Chicago appeared as guest speakers at a conference sponsored by supporters of white supremacist Lyndon LaRouche. The involvement of far-right terrorist groups like the KKK in the movement to restrict women’s rights is not simply coincidental. The far-right shares a white and male supremacist ideology and political agenda with groups like the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance and the Advo cates for Life, and therefore have a real stake in controlling sexuality and reproduction. For more information on to how to help fight these people, contact the Coalition for Human Dignity, 232-2159.
