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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1992)
Just out ▼ oommlxr IS. 1902 ▼ IS Ireue K. Hislop, reporter It’s pronounced his-lop; his like the male possessive pronoun and lop like rabbit ears, and it’s Irish. I am a proud, queer, first-generation Irish-Catholic, third-generation Swedish, Italian, feminist, working-class, 25-year-old, socialist, lacto-ovo-vegetarian. I generally find it easier to be out as a lesbian than as a Catholic. A sa child, I spent time in both homeless shelters and riding academies. As a college student, I was active with the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alli ance speakers’ bureau. The Student Insurgent, the Women ’ s Center and the Student Campaign for Disarmament. I re cently returned to Portland from Eugene where I earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in June 1991. I also worked as reporter, volunteer coordinator and editor for The Lavender Network until I moved away. My inimitable partner and I will be celebrating our fourth anniversary in November. We own a small but ferocious dog. I don’t give a damn what size anyone’s hypothalamus is; no force on Earth could make me drink green beer, and I hate writing about myself. M eg 6race, formatter, ad representative I am the second of six children bom 34 years ago to an Irish dad and German mom. I ’ve made Portland my home since 1987. I live with my spouse, Anita Lacy, and two cats, Sappho, 11, and Minka, 13, in a Mount Tabor neighborhood. When not selling ad space for Just Out, I teach the art of sax play ing to students, aged 10 to 51. Teaching never fails to cheer me up after a bad day. You can also find me jamming with other jazz lovers when ever the chance arises. Jim Hunger, reporter When Ariel asked me to write this profile, it was the first time I ’d ever thought of myself as a retread. I started writing for Just Out many years ago, and returned this summer after a hiatus of five or six years. Words have always been impor tant to me. When I was growing up, books were my friends and solace when there were no others, as my dysfunctional, alcoholic, German Catholic family moved around, following my dad’s job changes. I was considered the family candidate for the priesthood, developing an overweening sense of morality and justice, with enough sexual energy and penchant for buffoonery to render the priesthood untenable. I was a flower child and a radical activist in a vaguely artistic way. Halfway through college I de railed for a decade, com ing to terms with my sexuality and starting to recognize a problem with alcoholism before becoming an English teacher, and then a frus trated fiction writer. Nowadays I earn my primary sustenance as a newspaper distributor, leaving precious little time for more compelling pursuits, including writ ing, working as a Personal Active Listener volun teer with the Cascade AIDS Project, weight lift ing, fixing up my house and entertaining my dog Guinevere. Matthew Nelsen, religion contributor It has been two years and two months since I began compiling and writing for Just Out. As an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, my work focuses on ed u catio n o f the churches on gay and les bian issues and encour aging the church to make stronger statements of justice. L m Lynch, writer of “The Amazon Trail” I write about dykes who reflect my own back ground: one foot in the white working class, one in the middle class. Like some of my characters, my family is from Ire land, France and En gland and settled in the Northeast and Northern California. Although it was bom in Just Out in 1986, “The A m azon Trail” is now nationally syndicated. My most recent fiction is the novel Morton River Valley, a geographic sequel to Dusty’ sQ ueenofH earts Diner. I work in the social services and live happily ever after with singer and songwriter Akia Woods in the large, vibrant and defiantly progressive southern Oregon rural community. Marilyn Davis, feature writer Amanda Colorado, typesetter, ad representative I am a queer-as-a-three-dollar-bill dyke les bian who was raised in a dirt-poor alcoholic household with eight siblings by a French-Cana- dian Cherokee fundamentalist and a Scotch-Irish Catholic. Spiritually I am pagan, politically I am radical as hell, ac tively working for our full civil rights and I vote! I am the 44-year- old mother o f a 24-year- old son. My spouse of five years is Pat Bates; we share a house near the ocean with five cats. I have good self-es teem and celebrate the integrity, honesty and courage that cause me to live my personal credo every day: “I live each day as cleanly, clearly and joyously as I know Photct by Linde Carter: Ranée LaChence. Ariel Weterwomai. Irene M a p . Jbn rtngw . Mertyn Dente. Lindi O te r. linde Klewer how. I walk the pentacle and act out of respect and love for myself and for others. I do as I will and I harm none.” My next personal challenge is to focus aware ness on the danger o f using words like "pedophile.” Pedo means children andphile means love; this is the word we use to describe those who sexually abuse children! Yet queers are called homo- sexuol, which denies that our unions are moti vated by love. Please join me in challenging the use of these words so that more accurate words will become common. I am the white, Anglo-Saxon daughter of a Methodist minister, bom and raised in northeast Ohio. A couple of years ago I moved West to consummate a 12-year, passionate friendship with m y lo v e r, w ho is a metalsmith and painter. I have a 19-year-old son who visits summers and holidays. H e’s one of my favorite people. I first appeared pub licly as a writer when I was 14. John F. Kennedy had just been assassi nated, and I read a poem in his honor at the me morial assembly in my junior high school gym. The audience was rest less. They passed notes and chewed gum. But I kept on writing and making speeches. Throughout the ’60s and ’70s I wrote anti-war leaflets and made speeches at SDS rallies. The Ohio National Guard shot at me in a parking lot at Kent State. By the m id-’70s, inspired by the W omen’s Movement and my Saturn return. I came out as a lesbian and a poet. I write and publish poetry, essays and feature articles for Just Out. 1 read at poetry readings and teach college English classes. Now that my hair is turning gray, I find that the audience is more respectful. Jim Van Dyke, aka Dr. Tantalus, music reviews Occupation: attorney Favorite comic book as a kid: Superman Last book read: Sex by Madonna Philosophical influence: Prince Spiritual advisor: J & B H ousehold m em bers: Faithful Companion and Tasha, Countess d ’Stark Age: between 30 and death Quote: "Louder. Faster. Pass out." Linda Kliewer, photographer I grew up in Virginia with a family attached to the television industry and a country club. My life was full of swimming and golf. I was supposed to be a debutante. My coming out was, in fact, the cul mination o f my white, privileged. Republican upbringing. I ’d known I was different since I was five. I do believe com ing out is the most pow erfu l actio n in any queer’s life. I am an artist and documentari an-whether behind a still camera, a video camera or a film camera. I believe in visibility. Linda Carter, photographer I am one o f the lucky ones-raised in a “nor mal” (what’s normal?), white, caring, healthy, loving Christian (the real kind, not the religious right) family. And it re mained that way even after I came o u t It’s for the not-so-lucky that I take pictures. I “speak” better through my art and photographs, hoping to convey that “If you re ally knew me (u s), maybe you wouldn’t hate my (our) guts.” Amante Caèorado. Photo by Unte Klewer: E Am Unita Photo by A riti Lacy Meg Grace. Photo by Q vtelopto Briecoe Lee Lynrfi ffiotoe ot Jte> Ven Dyke end Matiew Nteecn unknown.