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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1993)
just out ▼ novombor 1, 1903 ▼ 2 1 ■% IO tii A n n i v e r s a r y S p e c i a l tional discussions dominating the lesbian and gay pride celebrations of the early ’80s are still real issues in 1993. The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé entered every session since 1973 with cautious optimism. Oregon has a strong history of support for legal protections for gays and lesbians. W e’ve had three floor votes since 1973 and narrowly lost in each case. W e’re positioned this year for an other close vote, and I think the outcome really depends on constituent pressure from several rural areas of the state." SB 896 fails to pass. April The Harvey Milk School, the nation’s first lesbian and gay high school, opens its doors in New York City. All 20 students— 14 boys and six girls, ranging in ages from 14 to 19—say they are openly lesbian or gay, have difficulty fitting in at traditional high schools and had previously dropped out. The Multnomah County Commission adds “sexual orientation” to the county’s civil rights ordinance. Commissioner Arnold Biskar asserts, “Civil rights legislation promotes human dignity, and minority status must be protected from ma jo rity c o e rc io n .” C om m issioner G ordon Shadbume is the sole dissenter, calling Portland’s lesbian and gay community “the stronghold of Satan.” Shadbume later resigns amidst allega tions of financial improprieties, drug abuse and homosexuality. 1985 The Lesbian Community Organizing Project writes an appeal to Portland-area lesbians: “We’re a groupof lesbians who share and desire to see our community more organized and more active. Some of us were active in the ’70s; some of us are new to the women’s community. All of us believe the lesbian community needs to and is able to develop a more powerful influence on social change poli cies in Portland.’’One year later, the newly formed Lesbian Community Project, wilhCalhy Siemens as its executive director, holds its first conference, bringing together over 500 lesbians from all over the state. March Queersville, a half hour lesbian and gay radio series premieres on KBOO 90.7 FM, with the warning, “Listener discretion is advised, espe cially if you suffer from homophobia, puritanism or tastefulness.’’Co-producer Howie Baggadonulz reflects in a 1988 interview, “What 1 like about Queersville was that it went 50 m iles__ So some closeted guy or girl— urn, some closeted man or woman— who wouldn’t feel comfortable picking up a Just Out could go home, go to the bedroom, close the door, put on a headset and listen to Queersville.” Its last broadcast is Aug. 8, 1987. October December The student body of the University of Oregon elects Lynn Pinckney, a second-year law student and lesbian, president. Two and one half years later, the U of O ’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance, the oldest lesbian and gay student union on the West Coast, celebrates its 15th annual Gay Pride Week in Eugene. 1986 The first African-American lesbian and gay super-hero team, the Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé, makes its debut, thanks to Just O ut'sow n designer diva, Rupert Kinnard. “Dieve on, girl!” Katherine English, longtime Portland lesbian and gay rights activist and attorney, is appointed the new referee of the Donald E. Long Juvenile Court, becoming one of the first lesbians in the nation to serve in such a capacity. In an interview in Just Out, English says, “If I ’m sitting in the judge’s chair, in a judge’s role, it is for me the right thing to do to force people to comply with the law, and the fact that the system out there beats me at it doesn’t make it not the right thing. Justice doesn’t always prevail, but that doesn’t make it not justice; it simply makes it defeated.” ______October Harvey Milk J u n e Largely due to the initiative of Steve Fulmer, proceeds from a Portland Gay Men’s Chorus concert provide the motivation for the founding of Community Health and Essential Support Ser vices. CHESS is the first Portland organization to provide direct services to those with HIV and AIDS. Among its offerings is the Personal Active Listener program, which prov ides one-to-one peer counseling. Larry Whitson, PAL training com mittee co-chair, says, “Diagnosis of a life-threat ening illness is always difficult. When AIDS is involved, stigmatization greatly complicates an ticipatory grief and bereavement processes. By providing a trained peer from outside the requestor’s normal circle of family and friends, we can help him or her sort out the emotions and problems just by listening and reflecting.” Even tually, CHESS and the PAL program are merged with the Cascade AIDS Project. A p r i l The Northwest Gender Alliance reports its fifth year in the Portland area as a social club for crossdresscrs and transsexuals. July Rural activist and producer Jemma Crae re ports on OWL Farm’s 10th anniversary: ‘T he Oregon Women’s LandTrust began in 1975 when several women got together to decide to purchase a piece of land so that women and children would have a safe, healing space to live . . . . These founding mothers searched in Oregon for such a place and found OWL (Oregon W omen’s Land) Farm nestled in a beautiful valley . . . 147 acres of forest and meadows.” Scptem ber Cascade AIDS Project sponsors its first“From | All Walks of Life.” Keeston Lowery, chairperson of the Right to Privacy PAC and neighborhood activist, is named administrative aide to Portland City Commis sioner Mike Lindberg. He quickly becomes one of the lesbian and gay community’s most vocal and active leaders in City Hall. More than 250 people attend the international convention of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Portland. Says one attendee, “I can’t recall ever having been in a setting of such sup portive, loving and caring persons in my life.” Portland’s first group for parents of gays and lesbians wxs formed in 1976, after Ann and Bill Shepherd set up a table at Gay Pride Day. H IS M JS! "if OURUSm M ; w m jg DAKKW r tor lo f t ()w CUiUm! VS Ahf < - ■ I li June PMÜi The United Stales Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, rules dial the U.S. Constitution docs not infer a fundamental right upon consenting adult homosexuals to engage in sodomy in the privacy of a bedroom. In Dowers vs. Hardwick, Justice Byron White writes in the majority opinion, “The proposition that any kind of private sexual con duct between consenting adults is constitution ally insulated from state proscription is unsup- portable.” The landmark case began in 1982, when Atlanta, Ga., police knocked on the door of Michael Hardwick. His roommate allowed the police, who were there to serve a warrant on ______January k ► PFLAGers William Shepherd and Marge Work Author Lee Lynch’s first column appears in Just Out. Lynch, who writes about lesbian life in southern Oregon and around the world, says in her first column, ‘“ Watch out,’ warned my friend Taz, calling from her snowed-in suburban house in Connecticut to make sure I was all right. ‘Don’t get involved in any of that weird stuff out there. That w itchcraft'___It’s the Amazon Trail, then, I’m traveling and writing about. Every dyke has found at least a bit of it. For some it leads only as far as the nearest gay bar. Others have criss crossed the country, the world, connecting with other lesbians along the way. For me, today, it’s the 1-5 corridor from Los Angeles to Vancouver.” ______March Hardwick for public drunkenness, free entry into the house. The police entered Hardwick’s bed room, found him engaged in oral sex with another man, arrested him and charged him with violation of the state’s sodomy laws. The decision sent the chilling message that individual states have the right to dictate what goes on inside the bedroom. October The Portland Lesbian Choir is founded by Cathryn Heron. The choir is the first women’s choir in the nation to proclaim itself lesbian. T “AIDS is a disease of choice."—State Health Division Adminstrator Kristine Gebbie, on KEX Radio, as reported in City Week, 1986. _____ The Portland Gay Men’s Chorus opens the 1985 Oregon Legislature. Hopes are high as Sen ate Bill 896, an anti-discrimination state employ ment bill, is introduced. Keeston Lowery, the chairperson of Right to Privacy, says. “W e’ve ▼ ▼ Steven Fulmer hands Reese House the first check for the formation of CHESS *V
