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letters
(cont. from page 3.)
property o f men. Most child abusers are hetero
sexuals. If you want to end child abuse, work for
women's equality and against sexism, don't per
secute the gay community. It was the feminist
movement, not rightwing bigots, that made this
country realize just how serious a problem abuse
o f women and children is."
The effect of Shirley’s column is to degrade
discussion to the level of personal insult This
intimidates others into silence. It shuts down
discussion in general and discussion of the de
veloping fascist nature of the OCA and prevents
grassroots policy setting in the anti-OCA cam
paign.
Whether readers of Just Out agree or not with
RW that it is wrong policy to offer to work with
OCA, please support the right to disagree without
the threat of being trashed in the media. Support
your right to a movement that you have a say in.
Demand ethical and responsible journalism
from Just Out and all its writers. They are sup
ported by the sexual minority community and are
accountable to us.
RW urges members of all the communities
under attack from the OCA to join the No On Hate
Coalition to fight the OCA, and to uphold free
dom of debate and dissent within the movement.
Jordana Sardo
Radical Women
Portland
Editor's Note: Two other letters were received
representing similar opinions.
Linda Shirley responds: Diverse and differing
opinions and points o f view make any community
stronger. It opens our minds to perspectives we
might have been unaware of. The only point of my
October Just Dish column was to point out that
calling Donna Red Wing a nazi collaborator
because Adrienne Weller disagreed with her
tactics is obscene.
All in our heads
To the Editor:
The topic to which Anndee Hochman refers in
her article, “All in our heads?“, is of great interest
to me not only as a lesbian, but as a psychology
instructor in a community college. I teach,
among other things, a class in Life-Span Human
Development (womb to tomb), and sexuality is
one of the key topics.
In terms of Dr. Simon LeVay’s research, first
of all, he, himself, has never indicated that he has
conductedsomekindofconclusiveresearch. This
has been the news media’s misinterpretation. All
the criticisms that were cited in Hochman’s article
were pointed out by LeVay. Research in a new
area usually begins with some type of pilot study
or exploration and observation. This is what
Le V ay’s study was. It raises questions and points
to directions for further study.
It’s significance, however, is within the con
text of scores of other studies on the biological
aspects of erotic orientation, as well as clinical
work being done by people like Dr. John Money
at the Psychohormonal Research Unit at the Johns
Hopkins Hospital. This whole body of informa
tion IS pointing to “a complex interplay,” as
Hochman describes it, and, biology and genetics
are very significant pieces.
Finally, I want to comment on Hochman’s
projection for medical school texts in neurobiol
ogy: “the homosexual brain: a study in deviant
development. Please keep in mind (pardon the
pun), that all behavior happens in the brain, in
cluding sex. All the wonderful stimulating we do
to our bodies when we have sex is feeding directly
into the brain-mixing with our favorite images
and fantasies-for the purpose of “getting ofT -
which also happens in the brain as well as in the
groin. Thus, the mixing of neurobiology and
sexology are a natural. I predict the chapter in the
medical school texts will read: “the SEXUAL
brain: a study in HUMAN development”
Kathy Bobula
Portland
More laughter,
less judgment
To the Editor
That outrageous Sandra Bernhardt. She’s
loud, obnoxious, wild and “offensive?” Her
performance at the Right to Privacy dinner invoked
laughter, some anger, and much confusion.
Someone interrupted the evening with critical
judgment on Sandra’s credibility as our spokes
person. Oh, please.
She is not a politician and she never claimed to
profess any particular political agenda. (But if
you listen to her you can pretty much figure out
where she stands.) She is an entertainer and was
invited here. Why couldn’t we sit back and enjoy
our coming together for this one special evening?
Why couldn’t we simply celebrate the fact that
1,200 people paid $100 each to raise money for
the Political Action Committee that serves the
gay community? Why did critical judgments of
her “status” have to come into play? Why was it
necessary to criticize one of our own?
All of us deal with labeling ourselves in our
own manner and in our own time. Every step we
take is a risk and nobody else can take those risks
for us. Isn’t it enough that she agreed to come to
Portland and entertain a room full of 1,200 lesbi
ans and gay men? That, in itself, is a risk for any
celebrity.
She undoubtedly made nearly every person in
that room somewhat uncomfortable at least once
during her performance. That’s usually what she
does. She is loud, she is straight-forward in her
viewpoints, and yes, she is obnoxious. She men
tioned her lover more than once and joked about
her “sexually ambiguous” reputation. She laughed
at herself, she laughed at us, and we joined her in
laughing at both. We need to laugh at ourselves
more often. We need more laughter and less
judgment on this planet.
Jill Hingston
Portland
An apology
To the Editor
I am a member of the Visibility Committee of
the No On Hate campaign, the group that put on
National Coming Out Day (NCOD) in Portland,
but I am writing this letter as the person who was
in charge of arranging ASL interpreting for NCOD.
I apologize to the deaf and hearing-impaired
community for the lack of access at NCOD.
I thought I had arranged for interpreters, but I
had not followed through with and had actually
left them up in the air. (I apologize to them, as
well). I appreciated the willingness of Laura
Laughlin to jump in and interpret; she was there to
perform with the [Rose City] Gay Freedom Band.
I also realize that another important part of
accessibility is advertising that the event will be
interpreted. About half of our posters and our ad
in Just Out failed to mention interpretation.
NCOD is past and I can only acknowledge the
inaccessibility and apologize for it I am now
educating myself on what it takes to make an
event truly accessible. I will work to educate No
On Hate overall, so that we can make future
events accessible. I would appreciate comments
and suggestions via No On Hale's post office box:
PO Box 6611, Portland, OR 97228.
Katharine Babad
Portland