just out T January 1, 1993 T 13
Thalia Zepatos
A driving force behind the twelfth-hour success of the No on 9 campaign and a first-time author
by Marilyn Davis
▼
T
halia Zepatos, travel writer and politi
In talking with women I found it wasn’t that they
cal organizer, reached the satisfying
really needed any more information. They needed
end of two difficult journeys in No
someone to say, ‘You can do it. You’ll be OK.
vember. On Nov. 3, her work with the
You can go.’”
No on 9 campaign was rewarded when
At first Zepatos tried to balance working part-
Oregon voters defeated Ballot Measure time
9, and
for Governor Roberts with writing A Jour
three weeks later her first book, A Journey o f ney o f One’s Own, an effort she describes as a
One's Own: Uncommon Advice fo r the Indepen
“terrible failure. The writing just never happened.”
dent Woman Traveler, was published by Eighth
Then a group of friends organized a fund-raiser
Mountain Press. Now, a month after the election,
and collected several thousand dollars to support
she rests at home with a cup of tea, reflecting on
her while she wrote full-time. She had signed a
the No on 9 campaign, eager to talk about her new
contract with her publisher and was writing to
book.
meet a deadline as the No on 9 campaign heated
up last summer.
Zepatos, a self-described “straightperson from
a large Greek-American family,” has spent her
Zepatos had left political work to be a writer,
whole working life in politics, at first with con
but the commitment was hard to justify in the face
sumer rights, then with state and national
of the OCA and Ballot Measure 9. She had spent
abortion-rights organizations. As an organizer for
six years in the pro-choice movement, fighting
the National Abortion Rights Action League she
the OCA. “I saw how they started in just a couple
traveled around the country teaching local
of states, going for parental notification or limit
women’s groups how to set up pro-choice organi
ing access to abortions for poor women. If it
zations and run election campaigns. She worked
worked in one state they would go to others. They
with the Rainbow Coalition and helped direct
were testing in Oregon and Colorado the same
Barbara Roberts’s successful cam paign for
way. I felt so strongly that we’ve got to stop them
governor.
now or it would spread like a cancer across the
For years Zepatos alternated periods of in
whole country.” Sull she resisted the impulse to
tense work on political campaigns with adventur join the No on 9 campaign. “I had a pretty distant
ous travel to all parts of the world. The idea of a
role compared to what my heart was saying. I was
book for “the independent woman traveler” be
very tom. I went around and around and also saw
gan after one very long trip. “I came back and
the level of fear among some of my closest friends.
started doing workshops for woman travelers
The ante was going up and up and up.”
because I got so many phone calls from women
Then the day after A Journey o f One's Own
who wanted to have a cup of coffee and talk. They
went to press, Scot Nakagawa called from the No
had heard I had made this trip and they had long
on 9 office to ask Zepatos to help set up the door-
dreamed of doing something similar. Almost ev
to-door canvassing and telephoning phase of the
eryone has a dream or a fantasy of a journey, and
campaign, and she agreed. “I spent some sleep
women especially need a little more encourage
less nights and finally I couldn’t live with myself
ment to make those dreams come true.”
anymore. I thought this is not just another cam
A Journey o f One’s Own combines realistic,
paign. It’s not whether we have self-service gas or
triple-trailers. These are our lives, and all of us are
practical advice with anecdotes from Zepatos’s
affected.”
own travel journals and stories she has collected
from other woman travelers. “I found from doing
Eventually Zepatos and her publisher, Ruth
the workshops that it was the stories that capture
Gundle, agreed to delay publication of the book
women’s imaginations. A woman reads ‘The
until after the election, and Zepatos went to work
Ladies Compartment’ and thinks, ‘I could have
for the campaign. “This was my book, and I ’d
been working on it forever. I thought, how can I
been on that train in India. I could have taken care
of myself. I could have told that guy where to go! ’ put it off? But, on the other hand, how could I not?
WHEEL ALIGNMENTS & TIRES
It came down to being at a certain moment in
history. Whether you like it or not, you’re there,
and you’ve got to give your all. So Ruth and I
pushed back the publication date o f the book. We
thought it was that important."
In September, Zepatos went to work full time
for No on 9, lending her years of political organiz
ing experience to another fight against the OCA.
She describes the campaign as “being in a row
boat with a tidal wave coming. The whole world
came to look at Oregon and Measure 9. We had to
ride, to surf the wave, and not get caught rolling
under it. Once you get caught in the breakers, you
can never get out.
“There’s a huge job in a campaign of interfac
ing with the outside world, constructing a mes
sage and presenting it. There’s another huge job
of managing and training and supervising all the
people who work on the staff and all the volun
teers and activists all over the state. It’s a virtually
undoable task for one person. I was hired to help
split that work and get it done more effectively. I
felt that the skills and experience I had were very
much needed there, and that’s why I did it.
“And for me, as a straight person, it was an
opportunity to feel what it meant to be part of a
group of people that is reviled by society. I never
once wore that ‘Straight But Not Narrow’ button,
because I don't really like it personally, although
I understood why some people wanted to wear it.
W hat’s the difference if I’m straight or not? Here
I am on this side. I learned a lot. What frightened
me more than anything else was the hatred and
overt discrimination that was promulgated by
Measure 9. It pulled the veneer from our state and
allowed some ugly things to happen.” Her worst
moment, she says, came after St. Matthew’s Catho
lic Church in Hillsboro had been defaced and a
fire set. “I went in the church and saw painted in
red blood, ‘Kill Queers, Jews and Spies.' I broke
down sobbing. This is what we’ve come to? It was
horrible."
At the same time Zepatos knows the campaign
also changed people’s lives for the better. It gen
erated fear, but it also inspired courage. She tells
the story of a Catholic church where a member of
the congregation came out during a discussion of
Ballot Measure 9. “ People broke down and cried.
When they were talking about gay men and lesbi
ans it was some other people, until one o f their
own stood up and said, ‘This is me you’re talking
about.’ Many acts of bravery like that happened
during the campaign.” She remembers the first
big No on 9 rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square,
when 10,000 people gathered to fight the OCA.
“ For people to feel that level o f support was
important. We were all in it together, and w e’ve
got to be.”
Today, as she thinks about the campaign and
looks forward to a West Coast tour to promote her
book, Zepatos feels good about putting off publi
cation of A Journey o f One's Own so she could
work against Ballot Measure 9. “ Everything that
every person did around the state was necessary
for us to win. I feel that 1 made a difference. I don’t
know how much that difference was, but I ’m very
glad I was there.”
A Journey o f One's Own: Uncommon
Advice fo r the Independent Woman Traveler is
available at most local bookstores.
NO ONE MEASURES
UP TO
M
in
ib
lin
d
WE'RE NOT JUST MINIBLINDS ANYMORE.
VERTI CALS • WOODS • DUETTES • TOPPERS
«USCH’ • LEVOIOR- • HUNTED DOUGLAS* • lOllVEDODAPE- • N S !- • DEL HAD-
P R O B LE M : Consumers lose $1 billion a year mismeasuring
S O L U T IO N : M r Miniblind s Best Price Promise1’ Measured and
Installed on name brand blinds. Product for product, service for
service, we won’t be beat.
MarkHuckms-
The Original Ur Mmiblind
S T R A T E G Y : National buying power Owner operated Mobile
franchises dedicated to customer service across the U S A making name brands
affordable for everyone!
M O T T O : Were not afraid to work for your business
C O M P E T IT IO N : No one
? ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N A T I O N A L
292-6464
636-6588
Portland/Beaverton
Wash. Co
Lake Oswego/West Linn/
Clack. CoiTualatin