Just out., October 01, 1990, Page 8, Image 8

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Conference focuses on
college campus visibility
Scholars to discuss combatting homophobia
groups; exploring the development, process,
findings and recommendations of the
President’s Task Force on Lesbian and Gay
Concerns at the University of Oregon;
he Oregon Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual
discussing the recent findings from social
Campus Union in conjunction with the
research on behavior and HIV transmission in
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Phoenix
gay men, minorities, women and children, and
Rising Foundation, and the Lewis and Clark
the implication of these findings for the campus
College student group Homophile will present
community;
training how to design workshops
its second annual statewide conference “Vision
about combatting homophobia using the model
’90: Pathways to Change," Oct. 19 and 20.
and materials developed at U.C. Santa Cruz;
The “Vision ’90" conference is designed for
and exploring issues of intimacy, dating,
students, faculty, staff and alumni, and will
relationships and safer sex practices in a
focus on the emergence of lesbian, gay and
“Dating Game” format.
bisexual visibility on the college campus. The
At this event Kathleen Saadat, affirmative
conference's purpose is to facilitate discussion
Action
Officer for the State of Oregon, will
of sexual minority concerns to create a secure
give a lunchtime address during the Lunch-in-
and accepting place to work and study within
a-Box Social Saturday afternoon.
campus communities.
Other conference events include keynoters’
“Vision ’90” begins Oct. 19 with an address
reception
hosted by The Lavender Network,
by Dr. John D’Emilio, co-chair of the board of
Lesbian Community Project and Right to
directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Privacy PAC; a book sale hosted by Ladd’s
Force. He is co-author of Intimate Matters: A
Editions Bookstore; and an information and
History o f Sexuality in America, and author of
resource fair of social and political organiza­
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The
tions.
Making o f a Homosexual Minority in the
The Lavender Cup Tournament of the
United States, 1940-1970. D’Emilio is a Fellow
Lesbian,
Gay and Bisexual College Bowl, will
at the Center for Advancement Studies in
run concurrently with and following the
Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
reception. College teams will compete in fast-
People are welcome to attend this lecture
paced and entertaining games of lesbian, gay,
without registering for the entire conference.
and bisexual trivia. Schools interested in
In addition to Friday evening’s keynote
bringing
a team can contact the conference
address, D’Emilio will present a Saturday
planning committee.
workshop entitled “Scholarship and Visibility:
The conference will conclude with a dance
Up Front and Doing Our Work.” Drawing from
hosted by the Lewis and Clark College student
his personal experiences, D’Emilio will discuss
group Homophile.
the joys and concerns of being both an effective
Although the conference agenda is designed
scholar and an openly gay man.
to address the concerns of lesbians, gays, and
The second day of the conference will open
bisexuals, this event is open for everyone to
with a keynote address by Dr. Nancy Stoller-
attend. To encourage maximum participation
Shaw, who is an associate professor of
by students, the only events for which they will
Community Studies and the first open lesbian
be asked to pay include the Lunch-in-a-Box
faculty member to receive tenure at the
Social and the dance. The preregistration price
University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a
for Saturday’s lunch is $5, $8 if lunches are
researcher, lecturer and author who addresses
available for purchase at the conference.
issues of women, lesbians, and gay men within
Limited free student housing is available on a
campus and health care communities, including
first-come,
first-serve basis.
the AIDS community. Stoller-Shaw is the
For campus professionals, alumni, and other
acting provost of Kresge College, U.C. Santa
interested persons the preregistration fee is $25.
Cruz.
This includes all conference activities. The fee
Stoller-Shaw will also present a workshop
for those registering at the door will be $25
Saturday afternoon entitled “Sexism and
which will not include lunch. If still available,
Homophobia: Issues for Lesbian Activists — A
lunches will be sold for $8 at the door.
Workshop Not Solely Designed for Women."
Since workshop enrollment is limited and
In this workshop Stoller-Shaw will talk about
lunches must be ordered, preregistration is
her challenging experiences as a woman,
strongly encouraged. Preregistration deadline is
feminist, and open lesbian who has been
Oct. 10.
successful in a male-dominated university
For more information or to request confer­
system.
ence brochures write: Vision ’90 Conference,
Saturday’s agenda includes six additional
c/o Homophile, LC Box 158, 0615 SW Palatine
workshops: examining the emerging research
Hill Road, Portland, OR 97219; or call (503)
on bisexuality and the unique issues of the
234-0368 or (503) 236-2597.
bisexual community; organizing, promoting
and programming for campus-based student
KE L LY BURKE AND GRE G AS HE R
T
to be announced in the near future.
ART/AIDS is a coalition of Portland area
artists and The Research and Education Group,
Oregon AIDS Task Force (OATF). Established
eier & Frank has selected ART/AIDS as
in 1987, it was created to address the pressing,
the beneficiary of the Nov. 9 gala
unmet needs of people with AIDS/HIV disease.
opening of its Lloyd Center store. In doing so,
All funds raised through ART/AIDS events are
the company becomes one of the first corpora­
dedicated to the Long Term Care Fund of The
tions in Oregon to respond to the dire needs
Research and Education Group, OATF, a
posed by AIDS and HIV disease in this
public,
non-profit group.
community.
Tickets for the event are $100 per person,
The Meier & Frank Benefit Gala will
and
are available from steering committee
showcase prominent regional artists, including
members, or by calling Amanda Baines Ashley,
George Mitchell and Gordon Lee, and
ART/AIDS coordinator, at 292-0218, or
performers from the Oregon Symphony
Michelle Simone, Meier & Frank Public
Orchestra, Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet
Relations, 241-5328.
Theatre. The highlight of the evening will be a
performance by a nationally recognized artist.
Meier & Frank opening
to benefit ART/AIDS
M
Club 927's reign ends
Owners begin again with nude dancers
she remarked. She also noted that the decline in
the Club’s business is a trend that all alcohol-
related establishments are experiencing to some
degree.
lub 927, recently Portland’s best known
The new Sassy’s, however, has an advan­
lesbian bar, has closed. In a surprise
tage
over similar bars in the area, since it will
move, owners Orlando and Rudy Yazzalino
be the only nude dancers’ club serving hard
radically changed it—to a straight club
alcohol.
featuring nude entertainment.
The Yazzalino brothers’ chances of success
The Club closed for minor remodeling on
will be affected by other factors as well,
Aug. 13 and reopened Aug. 17 as Sassy’s. No
Hartmann said.
announcement was issued to the women’s
“They have a real good possibility of
community. Club staff members, including
making this work big,” she commented, “but
manager Aleson MacFarlane, were given only
they are overlooking the C lub’s reputation.
five days’ notice before the bar closed.
Club 927 has been real well known. People
On Aug. 26, Club 927 would have marked
know it’s been a women’s bar for-10 years.”
10 years as Portland’s most frequented, and
In addition, the Yazzalinos’ overhead
most frequently notorious, lesbian bar.
expenses will skyrocket with the employment
MacFarlane managed the establishment for two
of dancers. Such bars generally run shifts of
and a half years over the last five years.
four to five hours daily, with two dancers per
According to MacFarlane, the Yazzalino
shift. Unless the Yazzalinos wish to hire
brothers hope to increase business by changing
dancers independently, they will have to pay an
the bar format.
agency $8-$10 per hour for each dancer.
“Business has dropped off a lot,” she said.
Hartmann also noted that with no previous
“As of July, we were doing a little more than
experience in operating a dancers’ bar, the
half of the business that has been consistent
brothers are “unaware of the problems inherent
over the past five years.”
in employing dancers, and the situations that
The major reason for the decline in
can arise.”
business, according to MacFarlane, centers
The abrupt and completely unannounced
around an issue that continually created
closing of Club 927 has created some problems
controversy in the lesbian community.
not only for the lesbian community, but for
“Women are tired of supporting a women’s
some of Portland’s other gay bars.
bar owned by straight men who don’t reinvest
Steve Sus9, manager of The Embers, said,
in the community,” she said.
“When Club 927 first closed, we were
Linda Hartmann, co-producer of women-
inundated by women. It was very rough. Things
only erotica shows at Club 927 and manager of
have changed tremendously. T hey’re much
a dancer’s bar, agrees with MacFarlane.
better now.”
“Women in this community have been
crying out for a different place for a long time,”
BY
R O S A N N E
K I N G
C
Workshop offered by LCP
eginning Oct. 17, the Lesbian Community
Project (LCP) will sponsor a special pilot
workshop on coming out Coming out: A
Practical Guide is a six-session class designed
to examine the dynamics, risks and rewards
involved in being ‘out’ in the following life
areas: work and school; family; friends and
acquaintances; neighbors and the public.
Each participant will assess her own level of
‘outness’ in each of the four life areas, using
objective self-assessment tools which are based
on individual response to real and hypothetical
situations.
Participants will develop a ‘coming out’
plan based upon their self-assessments in each
of the four areas.
The initial class will be offered to LCP
members only, but will be available to the
B
House votes to suppress
feminist art work
community at large in the near future. Carol
Steinel, the workshop’s designer and presenter,
says the workshop is a response to increasing
community discussion on being out, "a
discussion that often touches on ethics and
issues, but doesn’t offer any ‘how -to’ or
support”
The workshop will run W ednesday evenings
from 7 - 9pm. The pilot has only 15 slots
available on a first come, first served basis, and
is offered at a special pilot rate of $20 for the
entire six-session workshop (later workshop
fees may run $80-$ 120 for the six sessions,
depending on overhead). Some work exchange
will be offered for the pilot. If you are an LCP
member and wish to register, call 223-0071. If
you want to schedule this workshop for your
organization or receive more information about
future sessions, call Carol Steinel, 235-1356.
been highly acclaimed by critics, and exhibited
internationally.
According to Peri Jude Radecic, NGLTF
legislative director, “the donation o f this
he U.S. House of Representatives voted
important work should be celebrated by
to cut funding for "The Dinner Party,” an
Congress, not denounced. Since the exhibit will
installation by feminist artist Judy Chicago. The
occur anyway, it is clear that this cut in funding
move outraged activists from the National Gay
was designed to punish the University for
and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), who are
accepting a significant feminist work.”
waging a battle against censorship.
Radecic blasted Congress for meddling in
The House voted 297 to 123 on July 26 to
District affairs and using this issue as a test case
cut $1.6 million from the D.C. Appropriations
for future art censorship. “The vote was a
Bill in response to the scheduled acquisition of
serious blow to freedom of expression and
“The Dinner Party.” The piece is slated for
serves as a prelude for future attacks on the
display at the University of D.C. The money
NEA,” said Radecic.
deleted by Congress is the amount the univer­
The bill now goes before the Senate floor
sity had earmarked for the renovation of the
for ratification. Lobbyists, who had only 24
school library, in which the art work will
hours’
notice before the vote in the House, are
appear.
hopeful they will be able to defeat the funding
The work, created to symbolize the
cut amendment in the Senate.
achievements of women throughout history, has
T