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Carpe diem
M ichelangelo Signorile talks about politics while charm ing
just out ▼ July 1, 1093 ▼ 13
reporter
by Grant Michael Menzies
T
he lobby of the Heathman
Hotel in Portland raises a
whole hardwood forest
about me while yards of
marble and travertine
spread underfoot, and Michelangelo
Signorile is taking a shower in his
eighth-floor room. His escort, Hallie,
tells me that the schedule is slightly
bungled. Signorile has just returned
from an early radio interview, and we
won’t have much extended time to
talk. Can I put up with grabbing a few
minutes here, a few there? “Is that all
right?” I gulp. I’m not sure. I have
heard about Signorile; I have read his
book. Queer in America’, I am aware
of his anger, his invective. This is the
fearsome journalist of OutWeek, the
fearsome outer of Assistant Defense
Secretary Pete Williams. The picture
on the book, and in Time magazine,
shows less social commentator than
unshaven street tough—glaring, dar
ing and scaring. “Is that all right?” she
asks again.
I nod and take a seat in the lobby to
await him. It’s then that the elevator
doors open. Out steps a young man in
a dark blue jacket, white crewneck
shirt and dark blue pants. He’s about
5-foot-7, compact in build, early thirties, with
short-clipped hair that still betrays its blondncss
in the Heathman gloom. His eyes arc large, blue,
expressive; his clean-shaven cheeks pink and
flustered. He is gnawing on a fingernail as he
approaches. Did a cherub fall down from the
ballroom ceiling? No—it’s the man I’m waiting
for.
Extending a polite hand, Signorile says, “How
are you? Shall we go inhere and talk till the next
interview?” He is referring to a noonish appoint
ment with KGW-TV a few blocks away.
More paneling rises about us, and now tapes
tries. We find a sofa and I ask him what his
reception was like in Los Angeles, where his tour
brought him before coming to Portland.
“It was one of the more lively and interesting
discussions,” he says. “We even talked about
other issues—racism, community problems.
There were something like 150 people at the talk
I gave. It’s strange how much movement there’s
been on the issue of gay rights and the closet since
the more contentious attitudes two years ago. I
went on the Michael Jackson Show while in
L.A.—he’s this perfectly straight British guy who
told me he found Queer in America incredibly
enlightening. That’s very important to me, to
make it clear to everyone, regardless of orienta
tion, be it political, sexual or whatever.”
I venture to bring up R.K. Sheppard’s review
of his book in Time magazine, which unfavorably
compared it with Randy Shilts’s book on gays in
the military. “I found it homophobic,” he replies.
“The accusation of using gossip... I don’t believe
he even read my book. But we knew it would be
that way with Time. I guess the best thing about
these diametric views is that they provoke discus
sion. And that will keep the issue alive.”
Hallie is back; the KGW interview spot is
drawing near. “Come with us,” Signorile says.
Many-faced Portland passes us by as we pro
ceed toward the television studio, and I comment
on what I sensed was the best part of his book, the
last chapter, titled “The Oregon Nightmare.”
Signorile grins a little—an apprehensive grin. “I
was almost afraid to come back here, after what
on the right-wing’s hit list. So to try to
make this appear something in the ab
stract, that a concept of rights is being
attacked, in a place as overwhelmingly
white as this, is strange—who would
believe that?”
It’s time for him to go on; I am left
in the great glassed lobby with a large
television set on which the noon news
is being shown. The anchors, Greg
Carson and Mary McDermott, are pre
paring their television audience for
Signorile’s appearance and the polemi
cal things he might say by steering
them into the troubled waters of Colin
Powell’s receiving his honorary
Harvard degree with the backs of gay
and gay-sympathizing students turned
toward him, and the case of a Navy
officer in California trying to remain in
the service despite being a lesbian.
Obviously the anchors are as surprised
as I was, and they rather nervously ask
the questions they think everyone wants
to know about Michelangelo Signorile
and his “crusade.” Could you briefly
explain your conspiracy theory? asks
McDermott, while Carson goes so far
as to ask what has happened to free
dom of choice. The unflustered
Signorile raises no sword at this but rather be
comes visibly incredulous, particularly when
Carson says, “Mr. Signorile, Chapter 15 of your
book is entitled ‘The Oregon Nightmare,’ refer
ring of course to Measure 9, the anti-homosexual
rights initiative that was defeated, actually, last
November. We’re not the only state with an anti
gay rights movement. Do you think that people
with more extreme views such as yours ignite the
conservative, anti-gay movement?”
Signorile is obviously thinking, “ What?” (he's
not the only one), but replies quickly, “I think
there is probably abacklash in this country toward
all gay visibility. Certainly someone like myself
is creating some of that.. .but the way I see it is that
it is better than our staying locked in the closet.
We ’ ve been almost picking this Fight for 20 years—
now they’re taking us on.... I think we have to
deal with that and live with that and take on these
people, not run or hide from them. We have the
right to live freely in this country.”
I wrote about the ‘Hill Crowd.’ So many have
asked about that. I just wanted to state what I saw
was happening and not happening. I didn’t feel it
was necessary to out anyone, under the circum
stances. But I think sometimes my arrival in town
is an implicit threat.”
We’re now at the studios of KGW-TV Chan
nel 8 and sitting on another sofa—less posh (but
more comfortable) than the one at the Heathman.
“You have to strategize to the specific market
you’re targeting. You cater your message to that
market but you still need to change perception
about gay people and refute the lies, let people sec
the truth. I don’t believe that 42 percent of the
people here in Oregon are that innately hateful,
that they hate lesbians and gay people. They think
they do, based on what was told them; they think
we shouldn’t have rights based on what was told
them we wanted. I really don’t think we’re going
to convince those people that this is actually a
larger assault on their rights. I just don’t think that
the average person, working and living, who’s
heterosexual and white and male, thinks he’s next Continued on next page