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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1994)
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All faret A rata* t abject to chango ■ tome ret trietlatis Apply TRAVEL SERVICE One SW Columbia, Suite 1010 Portland, OR 97258 (503) 227-3639 FAX (503) 227 -602 Mystery benefactor C loseted gay man leaves hundreds o f thousands o f dollars to H R C F a n d P hoenix R isin g v Cinry Luckey Feb 28 - Mar 8 The Biggest Gay Festival in The World MICHAEL SCOTT local news VN 1 i VU \ Thurs.,Aug. 11 *7-9pm S p e a k e rs B ureau O rientation It’s My Pleasure, 4526 SE Hawthorne S p e a k o u t fo r le sb ia n s e ve ryw h e re ! Sat/Sun.Aug. 13-14 To u rn a m e n t o f C h oice 9th Annual Softball Tournament Prairie Reids - Brush Prairie. W A A membership o rg a n iza tio n -jo in today! (503) 223-0071/TDD Fax 242-1967 f P.O. Box 5931 C V Portland, OR 97228 Anti-Violence Project 796-1703/1 800-796-1703 by M artha Allen “I assumed he was a transient,” Weller said obody really knew John James V asey, recently. “I thought it would just be a matter of the World War II Navy vet who spent cleaning out his hotel room.” the last years of his life in a Seattle By the time of Vasey’s death, in December Veterans Hospital. Vasey lived in 1992, the GRNL no longer existed. In 1986, faced Portland in the late 1970s and early with financial problems, the board of the GRNL 1980s, leading a quiet life in a hotel for transients. agreed to merge with the Human Rights Cam The manager of the Jack London Hotel doesn’t paign Fund. As a result of that merger, and Vasey ’ s remember Vasey. A local lawyer hired to act as generosity, the HRCF has inherited Vasey’s farm, executor of Vasey’s estate never met him. And worth more than $400,000. Vasey’s few living relatives hadn’t seen him for The farm will be sold at auction within the years before his death in late 1992. month, Weller said, adding that he did not know But though the man’s life remains shrouded in what the HRCF planned to do with the money. mystery, one of his final acts will be remembered. Vasey also left money to the Phoenix Rising When Vasey became ill with leukemia, he de Foundation, Weller said. That organization can cided to write a will. In it, he left an estate worth expect to get a check soon for about $180,000. more than $400,000, including an Illinois farm, to “I’m sure, in 1981, that Mr. Vasey had no idea a national lesbian and gay rights organization. what the farm would be worth today,” Weller Vasey contacted William Shepherd, an attor said. “But he knew he had money. He lived a very ney he had apparently read about in gay newspa solitary life and a very frugal life. This is a great pers. Shepherd and his wife were the founders of the support group Parents and Friends of Lesbians benefit to the HRCF, and it’s great that he watched the work I did and had enough faith in me to leave and Gays in Oregon. Shepherd helped Vasey write his will, in which the veteran laid out his this money to the organizations I was involved in.” Weller said he tried to find out more about plans to fund the fight to end discrimination against lesbians and gay men. Vasey after the man’s death. Vasey chose another prominent activist, Jerry “I read some notebooks he left, and talked to Weller, as the executor of his estate. At the time, some distant cousins,” Weller said. “He was es Weller was serving as co-chairman of the board of tranged from his family, and had basically left the Gay Rights National Lobby. Vasey named the Illinois to join the Navy and never went back. His GRNL as one beneficiary of his will, and Weller cousins didn’t even know where he lived— that’s agreed to serve as executor without ever meeting how he wanted it.” the man. N Gov. Roberts joins HRCF effort to fight radical right Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts is joining forces with retired Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater and a team of campaign organizers and leading political strategists to fight the radical right. Rob erts, Goldwater and others have joined a cam paign launched by the Human Rights Campaign Fund in states w here homophobic ballot initia tives are attempting to insti tutionalize discrimination. The ballot measures would block or repeal state and lo cal policies that prohibit dis crimination based on sexual orientation. “The radical right take over of state and local Re publican parties is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Stacie Spector, director of the cam paign, which is called Americans Against D iscrim ination. Spector said, "They seek to institutionalize discrimina tion and promote a narrow agenda of intolerance. Anti-gay ballot initiatives are being used by radi cal right groups to raise money and turn out the extreme right wing vote. In a year when moderate incumbents are under attack, a heavy radical right turnout could shift the political landscape.” Discrimination against sexual minorities is emerging as an issue in election campaigns across the country and could influence the outcome of local, state and congressional races, according to Tim McFeeley, executive director of the HRCF. Idaho and Oregon, where discriminatory mea sures have recently qualified for the November ballot, face contested races for governor and the U.S. House of Representatives. “While their rhetoric focuses on gay people, the radical right’s agenda is much broader,” McFeeley said. “Radical right groups seek to roll back progress on civil rights, freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and any other freedom that doesn’t meet their agenda of intolerance. The radical right’s agenda is sponsored by a network of multimillion-dollar politi cal organizations working to elect extremist candi dates and institutionalize discrimination. They have already won seats on local councils and school boards, and they are determined to carry their divisive agenda all the way to the White House.” Americans Against Dis crimination has assisted state and local efforts in seven states to defeat radi cal right signature-gathering efforts that would have placed discriminatory measures on local ballots. The campaign provides training, funding, research, communications and political support to local and state campaigns working against the ballot measures. It also works nationally to edu cate the public about anti-gay and -lesbian dis crimination and the need for legal protections. Goldwater and Roberts are honorary leaders of Americans Against Discrimination. Martha Allen > I