just out ▼ novombor 1, 1903 ▼ 2 1
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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.
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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