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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1992)
3 8 T ju n * 1 0 0 2 ▼ j u s t o u t • Stress • Depression • Coping with injury or illness • Childhood molest v y b-. We’re being battered by free-floating homophobia WAKING DREAM BOOKS All used • Gay & lesbian • Metaphysical • Interior design • and Architecture • General and rare • Kristine L. Falco, Psy.D. Licensed Clinical Psychologist 3903 SW Kelly, Suite 210 Portland, OR 97201 223-8071 Cevenfr Tues- Sun noon-6pm Cycle W orks D iscount for m entioning this ad 927 SW Oak Street Portland, OR 97205 TREK^NISHIKI MASI Next to Cafe Co- Existence Pizza OPEN TUESDAV-SUNDAY 230-7723 223-2784 2 0 2 5 SE Hawthorne B lvd. ¿¡feti X Foreign tongues I’m joining the fight against the OCA! , * E n c l o s e d is m y p l e d g e o f: □ □ O □ □ $ 1 0 0 a month $ 5 0 a month $ 2 0 a month $______a month a single contribution of $ _____________ I c a n a l s o d o n a t e m y t im e : D □ House Party Help at Headquarters □ Lawn Sign O Make Phone Calls O O th er______________ Campaign for a Hate Free Oregon M ail to: RO. Box 3 3 4 3 Portland, Oregon 9 7 2 0 8 Have pity on our staff—please PRINT! Name Address Day phone S TR EET O R P O BO X C fTY STATE ZIP by Lee Lynch was, “No! That’s too dangerous, you’ll get hurt!” recently read a book about a highly prin Read: the organizers didn’t want those big bad cipled dyke who resists the political wave threatening words, lesbian and gay, on a program. of her time, is arrested for exhibiting her We blended for a few more years into the general sexuality, hounded out of her vacation for populace. But, we’d been to Living Sober in San being who she is and, for lack of a commu Francisco and had tasted of freedom. nity, falls in love with a come-hither straight Recently I learned that last year’s gathering woman who doesn’t have the guts to act on her hosted the first queer meeting. When I was told feelings. who led the meeting I tried to keep my mouth from The novel, Another Love, by ErzsSbetGalgbczi, falling open. “But she’s not gay!” I protested. is tragic, but even i She’s a kind, brave, wise woman who’s been on more tragic is the the outside herself, but what does it mean when a fact that the tale non-gay must “lead” us? That we need a protec of a lesbian in tor? That we don’t think enough of ourselves or Budapest during our sobriety to take our own space? That we need the 1950’s Soviet a translator who speaks the language of our op o c cu p atio n o f pressors to stake our claims? That we really and Hungary should truly don’t belong? sound so s ta r During Women’s History Week I attended a tlingly familiar to local celebration. The audience was primarily day. The concept of gay exiles is as ancient as lesbian. The performers were lesbian. The exhib closets. The most famous lesbian citizens of the iting artists were lesbian. The history had been to United States during the first half of this century: a great extent made by lesbians. Yet the event Alice, Gertrude, Romaine, Natalie, Renee, Genet- dared not name itself lesbian and the keynote were literally exiles. Today w e’re holding our speaker was not a lesbian. She acknowledged the ground in D.C. and L. A., in Dallas and Seattle, but we’re no less exiles within our own lands. fact immediately (very immediately) and spoke How can we feel anything but other observ ing of the accomplishments of the straight women in the community. Her words revealed a clear di the presidential pseudo-election which speaks for us not-one-whit? How can we possibly feel part chotomy: Us and You. Only three of Us walked o f when millions of movie-goers enjoy films that out. Lesbians had invited her to speak. Lesbians depict us as enemies of Decent People? How can gave her a standing ovation. The woman was we hold up our heads to be counted when voters well-meaning, but don’t we respect ourselves cast ballots of disenfranchisement? This gay enough to want to hear a lesbian speak? To movement has been going strong for over 20 recognize when we are, even unintentionally, years and sometimes it’s hard to see through the being Matronized? backlash to the patches of space we’ve won. Something happened not long ago that took Sometimes it’s downright discouraging. me right back to grammar school. I still remem A friend just sent me one of my old letters, ber the humiliation I felt when my best friend circa 1963. I romantically wrote about my “life from first through sixth grade dropped me for a work,” about the need to change my impending boy-crazy girl. Is it significant that I ’d had my college major from Phys. Ed. to English so that I first lesbian experience with this lost friend? A could follow the example of Radcliffe Hall. few months ago Lover and I were hanging around “Someday,” I wrote, “I would try to help. One with anon-gay woman. She seemed glad to have novel, maybe, but a step further. One poem even. our company. Then she dropped out of sight. The I ’m going to help. I swear.” next time I saw her she didn’t acknowledge me, Thirty years later I sometimes wonder if I though she appeared to introduce her brand spank should have stuck to girls’ sports. A friend who ing new boyfriend to everyone else in the group. lives a closeted, apparently comfortable life re Is there a message here about where lesbians fit cently confided. “I hated the word dyke.” Right into society? after that still another friend told me, “I hate that I’m feeling battered these days; ultra-sensi word queer.” For at least ten years how many of tive. I see homophobia, internalized and free- us have been writing and talking about these floating, everywhere. Don’t even ask me what I being our words, reclaiming them from those who thought about the film “Fried Green Tomatoes,” have made each queer term a curse. If we rejected which demonstrated the most adept straddling of every word tainted with jibes, insults, and threats, antithetical worlds I’ve ever seen. Yes, the lesbi we’d have nothing to call ourselves at all. anism could have plucked at these queer little To remain visible citizens of the world we heartstrings, but my non-gay acquaintances as need to grab back what’s ours, claim it and stand sure me that you didn ’t have to see it, wouldn ’ t see up to be counted. Finally non-gay society is it, if you didn’t want to. You wouldn’t see it if you feeling a little bit better about using the word didn’t live in lcsbianland, a country within a “gay,” but it’s become a male adjective. Lesbians country, where women are still starved for images are exiles even in our own language. The words of ourselves. we use to legitimize our lives become foreign to And that’s what exile is about. The heroine in our tongues. As any oppressed people, we risk Another Love didn’t have to die escaping over the having not only no place, but no vocabulary that border. She could have gone into a quiet exile tells us who we really are. without leaving Hungary, the way so many of us The dykes and faggots in my small town live in exile right here within our hetero-totalitar talked for years about introducing a gay 12-step ian states. But she was highly principled, a meeting into a huge annual recovery gathering. resister, unpractically out. Like, thank the God The first response from the non-gay organizers dess, so many of us. I AMAZON TRAIL Evening phone Business/occupation (required by state election law) Authorised and paid for by Campaign for a Hate Free Oregon PO Box 3343, Portland, OR 97208 • (503) 232-4501 Correction In the April issue o f Just Out, Vol. 9 No. 6, the article by Tom Strong and Andrew Leavitt should have read: T his means: Stop the Oregon death plan and demand an apology from Gov. Roberts for supporting it; fight for increased, more comprehensive, coordinated and effective research for finding a cure for AIDS....” Just Out regrets the error.
