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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1992)
.J im « Institutionalized fear t Using distortions and false information...people undereducated in the issues follow like rats ▼ by Lee Lynch P robably I’m not the only 46-year-old The Oregon agenda of the Rightwing Chris for whom fascism was a word from tians is a proposed amendment to the state consti history. I never needed to know more tution, by way of a ballot measure, that would than that it was evil. Today I’m learn legalize discrimination on the basis of sexual ing to understand the term from the orientation by declaring homosexuality to be “ab inside out. Fascism is institutionalized fear. normal It is behavior,” forbidding the “promotion of the politics of manipulation of human emotions in homosexuality,” and yanking state certification order to obtain and keep power. from nurses, hairdressers, counselors, etc. Oregon Fascism is at work in our country today, sin- may feel very distant from other parts of the gling out tradi country, but the insidious web of the Right is well- tionally disen financed and well-placed. They have the ears of franchised groups the highest reigning powers in America. Wins for and attempting to the Right in current battlegrounds-Califomia, legalize discrimi Florida, Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts or nation against Oregon-would create a clearer picture than we these groups. I should need of this major threat. live in one of six What exactly is fascism? According to my of the states to be dictionary it’s a system of government character chosen as test sites ized by a rigid one-party system, forcible suppres for attack by the organized Christian Rightwing. sion of the opposition (including m inority groups, Across the country these, often fledgling, organi leftist parties and unions), belligerentnationalism zations have ties to such pillars of the Christian and racism, glorification of war and the retention Right as the Heritage Foundation, a conservative of private ownership of the means of production think tank, and the Christian Broadcasting Net under centralized ¡governmental control-or a po work, the largest broadcasting system in the world. litical philosophy based on such doctrines and In a move of frightening significance, this policies. Is this what the Christian Rightwing network’s chief, Pat Robertson, has attempted to wants? Can we afford to wait and see? purchase United Press International. When I tell out-of-state (and some Oregonian) In my state, the Right has chosen to attack gay friends what’s going on in the six targeted states, people. Although I am astonished that a group of and what’s likely to be hatching in the other 46,1 people whose agenda, composed of hate and usually get a response like, “Oh, they’re a bunch motivated by fear, can even make a bid for power of kooks. No one will take them seriously.” If so, in a democracy, I am glad for the chance to these are wily kooks. Using distortion and false prepare. information-such as a video that the local fear- I was bom at the end of World War II, just a mongers are distributing in Christian churchcs- month after the atom bomb was dropped on peoplc uneducated in the issues follow like rats Nagasaki, four months after Germany surren after a piper. I’ve seen the video. It’s made up of dered. There was no TV and of course I couldn’t clips from San Francisco and Washington marches read. I knew, though, what the Nazis were and and features nudity, small children with their gay who they’d been after. Many of my playmates parents, gay youth, S/M practitioners and were Jewish. I spent my dreams fleeing Nazis. At N.A.M.B.L.A. members. The message is that gay first, they pursued all of us kids. As my under people are dangerous. The response is signatures, standing grew, I futilely tried night after night to promised votes and increased contribution of protect my friends. My dreams were a sad train- funds. A war chest filled through duplicity is none the less a war chest. And gays are forced to ' ing ground; now I am a target of the fascists. Suzanne Pharr, author of Homophobia, A defend, defend, defend, when we should be using Weapon of Sexism (Chardon, 1988), explains. “In our energy to help our own people or simply to each test site, the Christian Right focuses on one live our own lives. We can’t afford to underestimate the Christian issue as an entry point to develop a constituency base for its broader agenda. They believe that the Right. In the cities it may seem that such groups source of the national economic crisis, the chang could not possibly be strong enough to do any ing structure of the American family, the prolif thing but harass. This simply is not true. Though eration of drug trade and abuse, social violence, the Right warns heterosexual Christians of the and AIDS can be traced to people of color, homo militant homosexual agenda, it can only conceive sexuals, feminists, the poor and communism. In of this non-existent agenda because it has one of their view, these groups want ‘special rights,’ and its own. Month after month our strength is sapped the demands for rights are causing the destruction with the overwhelming numbers of volunteers of society. Hence, their agenda is to eliminate the amassed. Nice church ladies sit at petition tables fundamental rights and protections of those who not understanding the depth of the issues, only are not the majority voice by targeting them and knowing with the certainty of ignorance that by playing on the fears and confusion of the homosexuality is wrong. Old men afraid of their pasts, young people afraid of their own sexualities, general population.” Is this news? Hardly. What is news is how parents terrified that their children won’t con close they are coming to their obscene goal. An form, all flock to shove us back into our closets. I went to town last week wearing a bright early battle was won in Oregon in 1988 when the protection of state employees from discrimina orange anti-Right button. A saleswoman at the tion on the basis of sexual orientation was suc nursery asked about it "They’re trying to take away the rights of gay cessfully blocked. That experience enabled the local Rightwing fringe to gather more followers. people this time,” I explained to her, hoping to Today, outside post offices and malls in Oregon, appeal to some memory of the great war for I see sympathetic supporters literally lining up to democracy. “Who will they go after next?” “You’re right,” she replied, bustling off. “What sign any petition that advertises itself as opposing starts out as a good idea can turn out bad.’ “special rights for homosexuals.” AMAZON TRAIL IS S N U t We Buy Books collections both large & small scholarly £sf antiquarian used £sf rare tif 'Pow ell's Books 10 0 3 Well Burnside open every day o f the year buying hours yam -8:30pm fo r more information call 228-0340 ask fo r Chris Hagen or Scott Kirk, x 448 OREGON'S LESBIAN AND GAY NEWSMAGAZINE ...celebrating rhe spirit of Woman in sculpture, photography and fi ne jewelry DAVID ROLIN DESIGN By appointment ▼ 233-1383
