Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1992)
just out s in c e 1 9 8 3 ed ito ria l contents PUBLISHER Renee LaChancc EDITOR VOL 9 NO. 10 AUG. 1992 Ariel Waterwoman We literally cannot afford CALENDAR EDITOR Meg Grace FREELANCE REPORTERS Jeff Williamson Jim Hunger Howard N. Dana to lose this battle STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Linda Kliewer Linda Carter Our community will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours to defeat Ballot Measure 9. COVER Surprising ally There seems to be no room in the Billy Graham crusade fo r hatred and bigotry ip. u ) % ADVERTISING Amanda Colorado Meg Grace E. Ann Hinds E. Ann Hinds Mary Catherine Lamb TYPESETTER Amanda Colorado FORMATTER Meg Grace DISTRIBUTION Up Front Distribution SUBSCRIPTIONS Carol Steinel Chloe De Segonzac CONTRIBUTORS Lee Lynch Dr. Tantalus Rex Wockncr Sandra dc Helen Matthew Nelson Barbara Bernstein Rachel Timoner Susan Baker Kris Shaw Just Out is published on the first day of each month. Q 1992. No part of Just Out may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. T he subm ission o f w ritten and g rap h ic m aterials is w elcom ed. Written material should be typed and double-spaced. Just Out reserves the right to edit for grammar, punctuation, style, liability concerns and length. We will reject or edit articles or advertisements that are offensive, demeaning or may result in legal action. Just Out consults the Associated Press Style Book and Libel Manual on editorial decisions. L etters to the ed ito r should be limited to 400 words. Graphic material should be in black ink on white paper. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of the month preceeding publication. Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns and features are not necessarily those of the publidier. Display advertising will be accepted up to the 17th of each month. Classified ads mutt be received at the office of Just Out by the 17th of each month, along with payment. Ads will not be taken over the telephone. S ub scrip tio n s to Just Out are available for $17.50 for 12 issues. First Class (in an envelope) is $30 for 12 issues. A free copy o f Just Out and/or advertising rates are available on request The mailing address and telephone num ber for Just Out are: PO Bo* 15117, Portfcnd. OR 97215; (503) 236-1252. Breast cancer Interviews with cancer survivors, activists and health-care professionals CREATIVE DIRECTOR PROOFREADER FEATURE (p. 18) n the midst of gearing up our resources and creativity to fight this war with the Oregon Citizens Alliance, a man’s voice rang clearly, asking, “Is it too late to get an obituary in?” The man’s lover had died of complica tions of AIDS just days before. It was the kind of bone jarring reality check that we needed to bring about perspective. This struggle against the OCA’s attempt to legislate dis crimination at the state level isn’t going to bring back our loved ones who have died from complications of AIDS. It is not going to generate funds for health care and hospices. It is not going to generate funds for lesbian and gay community service pro grams. But it will be taking hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours from our community merely to maintain the status quo. Losing this ballot measure will leave our community bank rupt. No money, no energy, no time. We literally cannot afford to lose this battle. We have to fight this initiative with everything we’ve got. We cannot rely on any one strategy to win. We all have to use our creativity and energy to do whatever we can to convince voters to vote no on 9 and eliminate the need to have to fight this level of discrimination ever again. There have been many civil-rights victories throughout history. We need to look at the successful strategics, see what worked, see what we can do, then do them. During the civil-rights struggles of the ’60s, bus loads of African-American people risked their lives traveling to various cities in the South going door-to-door registering voters, get ting people organized and informing them of the issues. They attended church services, town meetings, public forums, sat in restaurants and were present any where that helped the cause. We need to take our show on the road. Our show of solidarity and committment. Gay and lesbian communities in southern, central and eastern Oregon need bus loads of lesbians some and gay men traveling to their communities to bolster their strength and numbers and show the community-at-large our commitment to defeat the OCA and its hate-filled initiative. There are plenty of buses and lesbian and gay bus drivers in Portland. Call Just Out if you are willing to participate in this project and we’ll try to help facilitate it. Call especially if you can access a bus. Another idea we are implementing is to mail Just Out to non-gay community newspapers throughout the state so the editors of those papers will know about our struggles and victories and, hopefully, report them. This is going to cost us an additional $200 per month. If you can make a contribution to this project, please do. We are willing to shoulder the expense alone, but we could use your help. What are you doing to fight the OCAlJust Out invites you to send us a couple of lines about how you are fighting the OCA. Weare committed to printing all responses and your names. We all need to get our creative juices flowing to win this fight in November. With a strong popular win, we will never have to fight this level of discrimination in Oregon again. We can go back to the business of living, playing and healing in our community. We are going to win this battle with the OCA, and then we are going to win our battle with HIV. We are just that kind of people. In the August paper every columnist and re porter answers the question, “What am I doing to fight the OCA?” Our hope is that these statements will inspire you and give you ideas and the courage to take steps of your own. Here are the statements of our core staff: Amanda Colorado, Advertising Representative I get to talk about the OCA with a wide variety of people because I am openly lesbian at board meetings and 12-step meetings, I wear lesbian T-shirts and buttons everywhere, have queer stickers on my truck and stamp “Queer Money” on my checks. I write and phone thanks or feedback to businesses and groups, spend money in my community and take good care of myself. [Congratulations to Amanda for winning a blue ribbon at the Multnomah County Fair for her hand-woven towels. An other way she is fighting the OCA.] I W hat we are doing to Fight the OCA: Renee LaChance, Publisher Besides everything I do at Just Out, I am talking to all my non-gay friends about the OCA and what a threat it is to me personally and to my livelihood and how I need them to register to vote, and vote against this measure in November. By far the most difficult thing I am doing is keeping the defeat of Ballot Measure 8 out of my heart. Ariel Waterwoman, Editor I recently contacted my parents in Bend and am encouraging them to organize against the OCA in their community. My mother says, “The OCA makes me so mad I could spit!" My father is equally concerned, throwing his whole-hearted sup port into “the fight against white-supremacy.” E. Ann Hinds, Creative Director The most important thing I do to combat the hate of the OCA is to support and facilitate creativity and original thinking in all its forms, encouraging cooperation and empathy where fear and bias might otherwise take root. DEPARTMENTS Letters Suzanne Pharr sends "sort o f a love letter” (pp. 3-4) World briefs British Columbia bans gay and lesbian discrimination province wide (p. 5) National news A born-again gay man comes out as a born-again gay (pp. 6-10) OCA watch A camera’ s-eye view catches skinheads assaulting Tommy Strong o f Queer Nation at an OCA table (p. 12) Meg Grace, Advertising Representative, Calendar Editor I try to be an out lesbian wherever I go and engage people m discussions about the OCA and Ballot Measure 9. I encour- age my new friends to vote against the measure and to talk about this with their friends. Jim Hunger, Staff Reporter Whenever the subject of the OCA comes up, I don’t back away from it. I address it in the general context of hatred and bigotry J e ff Williamson, S ta ff Reporter My personal effort to combat the OCA really rests information-sharing, here at Just Out and with personal c tacts, at work and beyond. A lot of that relies on being e- tK °n r<AUt th! n r" thf P“ 1- Whcn stra'8ht People know w die OCA stands for, they want to fight them; when they r a know lesbians and gays, they usually want to stand by th< Getting the word out is key. J Local news A lawsuit alleges that the Portland Foursquare Church knew that a volunteer was sexually molesting 4- to 8- year-old parishioners (p. 14) Sports A weekend-long sports festival will attract hundreds to the Rose City (p. 27) COLUMNS Amazon Trail (p. 32) ARTS Cinema A League o f Their Own gives vicarious sports thrills (p. 28)
