4 T M p tc m b a r 1092 ▼ just out
letters
Dyke-otomy
To the Editor:
I moved to Portland because Just Out is one of
the best lesbian papers on the West Coast.
I am a lesbian from African-American and
Native American parents, so when I came out one
and one half years ago in Idaho, it was clear that
I had to move somewhere else. I got gay and
lesbian papers from every city in the western
United States to help me decide where to go, and
I decided on Portland.
A newspaper not only reports on a community
but helps to form community values. In this
respect Just Out is stellar in its performance. All
the other papers were filled with articles and
pictures from fringe elements that do not contrib
ute to the struggle. Most of the advertising used
the objectification of the body to sell products, not
even mentioning the phone sex ads, which are not
only disgusting but dehumanizing as well. Just
Out has managed to keep that undesirable ele
ment almost entirely out of the paper. Not giving
validation to the outrageous things that are occu
pying the press in all the other “communties" can
only contribute to keeping the Portland commu
nity pure and committed to human rights and
dignity.
I was a little disappointed with your pictures of
the parade. In with all the pictures of wonderful
and committed groups was included a picture of a
leather group, which was bad enough, but in the
group was a man with no shirt who was tied up
with rope. I’m surprised that he was allowed in
the parade. I can only hope that the picture
somehow slipped past the otherwise eagle eyes of
your editors. This is the type of thing that we must
be very careful to keep from view, especially with
the OCA.
Naomi Martin
Portland
Editor's note: Thanks for the praise. Wehate
to disappoint you, but Just Out supports, accepts
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and joyfully embraces every "fringe” element of
the gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer-as-a-three-
dollar-bill community. The OCA can go fuck
itself.
OCA can’t win a fair fight
To the Editor:
Sen. Packwood’s “neutrality" on the Oregon
Citizens Alliance appalling anti-gay initiative.
Ballot Measure 9, is astounding. It is like remain
ing “neutral” on the Nazi’s edict in Germany.
I am a Jew and a target of the OCA’s drive to
shut up all opposition to their fascist plans for
Oregon. Anti-abortionist Paul deParrie, an OCA
activist, is attempting to sue me, Radical Women,
many other gay activist groups, the City of Port
land, Police Chief Tom Potter and Fred Meyer for
$14 million.
This lawsuit attacks the right to organize in
self-defense against the OCA and the growing
right wing in Oregon. If union members, women,
people of color, the elderly and the disabled join
the gay community, we can win this lawsuit.
Unlike Packwood, none of us can afford to be
“neutral” on the OCA. We must stop this lawsuit.
Ballot Measure 9 and the OCA in order to survive.
Adrienne Weller
Portland
Editor's note: See update o f the SLAPP suit in
local news.
Waking up
To the Editor:
I am a45-year-old gay man who has resided in
the Northwest most of my life and consider my
self to be an honest, hard-working citizen. Unfor
tunately, over the years, I have fallen victim to
that same apathetic lethargy that so many other
people in this country have succumbed to!
I have never felt compelled to speak publicly
about being gay, about gay and lesbian issues or
and doing volunteer work with No on Hate and
Campaign for a Hate Free Oregon, members of
the Portland community are the ongoing targets
of hateful and terrifying racist attacks. A family
in the Hawthorne neighborhood has, for several
months, been waking to swastikas and death threats
painted on their home, and a cross was burned on
their lawn several weeks ago. The perpetrators of
these crimes-the White Aryan Resistance and
other groups affiliated with the religious right and
the Ku Klux Klan-are the same element respon
sible for circulating hate literature and threats to
the lesbian and gay community. The issues of
racism and homophobia cannot be separated!
Racism is the institutionalized system that
oppresses people of color. Discrimination is the
practice, oppression is the result, and intolerance
is the attitude that allows hatred and violence
against people to exist. The same white “Chris
tian" male power structure is responsible for the
mentality of colonialism, racism, sexism, classism,
homophobia, disablism, anti-Semitism and cul
tural genocide. One of the primary tactics of
fascist organizations like Nazis and the OCA is
divide and conquer, diverting the opposition from
their primary goals and fomenting internal dis
sent. Singling out any group-such as the lesbian
and gay community-causes the energies of people
to be focused on a single issue. Other issues can
fall by the wayside. We cannot put the issue of
David A. Ditty
racism on the back burner until the OCA is de
Portland
feated. I’m not accusing the lesbian and gay
community of abandoning the battle for racial
equality, but I am dismayed by how little concern
Broad-based values
for this issue I see when attending meetings and
To the Editor
discussions as a part of my work against the OCA.
Amid all the high energy and emotion sur They came for people of color a long time ago.
rounding the effort to defeat the OCA’s shameful They came for Jews, Communists, Gypsies, ho
ballot initiative, I am concerned that the lesbian mosexuals and others in Nazi Germany. They’re
and gay community is losing sight of the impor coming for us now. Who will they come for next?
tance of the issue of racism. The battle against
racism needs to continue, and I believe that we Eris DeaArtio
should be putting the same amount of emotion, Portland
time and energy into it. While we ’re out marching
anything political in general. But recent develop
ments in the state political arena have suddenly
changed that complacency to anger. I can no
longer sit back and watch while a malignant
tumor continues to grow in Oregon under the
guise of a self-appointed protector of Oregonians ’
morals. The Oregon Citizens Alliance has suc
ceeded in putting Measure 9 on the November
ballot.
It’s time we Oregonians wake up and read
between the lines. Here we have a political
organization spending a great deal of time, money
and energy to change our state constitution to
reflect its own bigoted and prejudicial beliefs
while trying to solidify its own political muscle.
The OCA has singled out a small minority in this
state in an attempt to take away their civil liberties
and reduce them to second-class citizens. The
OCA is attempting to achieve this by presenting a
warped view of the gay and lesbian community as
a whole.
This is not just a question of gay rights but a
question of human rights. Start taking away God-
given civil liberties and equality from one minor
ity and eventually we all stand the chance of
losing the democracy we hold so dear. Allow a
right-wing political group to rewrite our constitu
tion and we open the door to anarchy! Vote "no"
on proposition 9 in November.
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