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.