Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1991)
S ▼ S * p t * m b * r 1 991 ▼ ju s t out B A N N E D BY OPB! Dahmer terror still reigns This critically acclaimed film by Marlon Riggs is a piercing and poetic look at the Black gay male experience in America today. This examination of the struggle against both racism and homophobia was recently passed over by 40% of the Public Television sta tions in this county including Oregon Public Broadcasting! The gay and African-American communities in Milwaukee and Chicago are still traumatized by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer I TONGUES I untiep I by Tom Flint J LA Film Critics Association AWARD WINNER 1 9 9 0 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 ONE NIGHT ONLY! 7:00, 8:45, 10:20 NO ONE UNDER 17 ADMITTED (CINEMA21) 616 NW 21st Ave • 223-4515 54 SW 2nd » 228 1693* Mon. - Fn 10 7«Sat. Sun 10-6 We’re Moving Too. Bridgetown Realty proudly announces the relocation of its offices September 1st, 1991 to the Red Lion Lloyd Center Complex, 10(H) Northeast Multnom ah in Portland, Oregon. O ur new, larger offices are close to the M AX line Uoyd Center stop, with ample parking, and wheelchair accessibility to serve you better. Thank you for your continued support, and feel free to stop by and let us help phui your next move. Red l ion Uoyd Center 1000 N.K. Multnomah Portland. Oregon 97232 Bridgetown Realty department to check on the safety of the boy. effrey Dahmer has confessed to and The police repeatedly assured the neighbors that been charged with the gruesome mur all was well and the child was safe. ders and mutilations of at least 17 Sinthasomphone’s family filed a missing per young men and boys over the past ten sons report in May. Print and broadcast media years in the Milwaukee/Chicago area. publicized the boy’s disappearance, even pub The grizzly nature of the murders has horrified lishing a photograph of him. The connection the whole country, but the Midwest is reeling in was never made. a sute of virtual shock, particularly the African- The three officers involved in this incident American and gay communities of Milwaukee have been suspended pending an investigation. and Chicago. But the local police guild has protested the sus Dahmer’s victims were primarily African- pension, calling for the resignation of the police American gay men he picked up in gay bars and in local shopping malls, where Dahmer is be chief. W hen the story first broke in Milwaukee, lieved to have cruised the bathrooms. Dahmer police and local m edia were quick to label picked up one o f his victims at a gay pride rally. Dahmer as a homosexual murderer and to call his During a recent visit to Chicago, the message crime “homosexual overkill”- a term being ban received in the street and from local gay activists died about in the M ilwaukee courts recently. was markedly different from what graces the The gay community brands the term as another pages of the mainstream press. Dahmer was a incidence o f “gay bashing,” pointing out there is familiar face to patrons of Chicago’s gay bars. no such crime as “heterosexual overkill.” He seemed so odd that most of the people in the It is not at all certain that Dahmer was a Halsted gay district (similar to Seattle’s Capitol homosexual. He is known to have frequently Hill) would not have anything to do with him. made comments about his hatred for homosexu Dahmer allegedly picked up most of his victims als and African-Americans. The media has re in outlying impoverished areas. ported that Dahmer confessed that he did, on one In 1987, Dahmer was evicted from occasion, have sex with one of his victims after Milwaukee’s Club Baths apparently because he killing him. Most gays and lesbians in Chicago was caught drugging people. No one in the Chi perceive Dahmer not as a gay person, but as a cago community was able to elaborate on the accusations. psychotic monster acting out his hatred toward gay people. M any activists are angry that African-Americans and gays are outraged at Dahmer has not been charged with hate crimes in the local police department, saying the depart ment is dragging its feet because of prejudice and conjunction with the murder charges. homophobia. Dahmer was on probation because Anti-gay bigotry has increased in the Mid of a conviction of child molesution in 1988, but west since the story o f the murders broke. Bar his probation officer didn’t sUy in conUct with owners have reported bomb threats and bar pa him. trons have been harassed from passing cars. Gay The incident that has the African-American leaders have received death threats via telephone gay community most outraged was the death of and mail. Konerak Sinthasomphone, a 14-year-old Laotian The murders have catalyzed both the gay and boy. The boy briefly escaped from Dahmer’s lesbian community and the African-American apartment and ran down the street, naked and community to organize against homophobia and bleeding. Two of Dahmer’s neighbors, Sandra racism. Local politicians are responding to the Smith and Nicole Childress, called the police and demands. 'State Representative Gwen Moore has actually physically confronted Dahmer until the criticized the police for negligence and called for police arrived. an investigation into charges of prejudice in the But the police returned the boy to Dahmer’s department. She said she has received reports of apartment when Dahmer told them the boy was jokes about “niggers” and “fags” circulating in his homosexual lover-and that they’d been hav the department. ing a domestic quarrel. Neighbors vigorously The gay and lesbian community has called for objected and the police threatened to arrest the a full-scale comprehensive investigation by out neighbors for obstructing an officer in the line of side authorities. They say the police department duty. has failed to “protect citizens who are people of Sinthasomphone spoke perfect English. His color, gay or lesbian, or poor.” They have also family speculates that he was drugged, in that he demanded an official liaison from the police did not speak to police about what was happen departm ent to work with the gay and lesbian ing to him. The police are reported to have community. physically carried the child into the apartment Some have remarked that the entire city of and laid him on the bed. Newspaper accounts Milwaukee is experiencing a “collective nervous say the apartment “was rancid" with the stench breakdown.” The city is bracing for a wave of of death and a corpse was decomposing in an suicide attempts. Special teams of crisis counsel adjacent room. The police were apparently not ors are being trained and brought to Milwaukee even aware of that. On the living room floor to speak with community members who have through which the police walked were also pho been traumatized by the murders. tographs of dead bodies and m utilated body parts. This article was first published in the Seattle Review of the 911 tapes reveal that Dahmer’s Gay News, in their Aug. 9,1991 edition and is neighbors made follow-up calls to the police reprinted here with permission. ( S03 ) 287-9370 Providing Individualized Realty Services Sin ce 1979