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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1994)
* ♦ t ♦ I I Ju «t out ▼ October 7 . 1 W 4 ▼ 3 HIV testing! Alan Hart: the real hero To the Editor: The Right to Privacy Political Action Com mittee in Oregon has a big fund-raiser every year that is called the Lucille Hart Dinner. When I am asked if I am going, I indignantly answer, “Not until they stop using the wrong name and gender for one of our heroes! His name is Alan.” Dr. Alan L. Hart was bom in 1890 with female genitalia and raised, unhappily, as a girl child. Upon reaching mature, educated, adulthood he took steps, including psychiatric counseling and surgery, to live his life as a man, even marrying twice. He made a slow [gender] transition while going to medical school, then started a practice in Oregon in 1917. He was outed soon after by a medical colleague and was forced to move. He never wavered from his identity as a man, and upon his death his widow continued to insist that he was a man. Why would such a straight man be called a lesbian by the gay community when today we would certainly call him a female-to- male transsexual? Is it because he did not call himself that? How could he? The term was not coined until 1949 and not widely used until the ’60s. He was lumped in with all of the “deviants” and called an “invert.” He had “the identity that dared not speak its name.” Historic labels aside, we should not misidentify him today. He was a transsexual or, at least, a transgenderist—a true pioneer. One who is seen as a hero by today’s transsexual commu nity. Alan Hart is one of our heroes. Please don’t let him be taken away from us by allowing his old name to be used as though it were a badge of honor. At best it is unthinking, at worst, insulting. My, how it rankles me to hear folks today using the wrong pronoun and name. Yes, his parents may have named him Alberta Lucille Hart, but he named himself Alan! Candice Hellen Brown Portland Goodbye to WOW To the Editor: Aug. 18 we said goodbye to the Westside Organization of Women. About a dozen lesbians, while sitting around a member’s backyard, decided that the organiza tion in the past seven years has done what it set out to do— bring women together—and there is no need for it anymore. It was voted into oblivion. Other women can take over and resurrect a new WOW if they like, but the old workers, the core group, have retired. They will refund any dues received in the past few months and go on their way. There will be one last “rest in peace” party to send the organization off (date is to be announced). There will be time to remember what WOW did in the past few years: enormously successful camp outs, countless brunches and potlucks, win ning a softball tournament in the first year, and raising money to battle Measures 8,9 and 13 with yard sales and dances. Women got together, worked together, talked, and made lasting friends. Thanks, WOW, for being there when needed. You did a great job. We’ll miss you. Kathy Bambeck Portland Mabon’s gift to Oregon To the Editor: Tonight a family of four grieves for the loss of an articulate, talented, caring and compassionate young man who, at the age of 19, had his whole future ahead of him. Tragically, he took his life— yet another victim of the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s relentless and merciless campaign of dehumanizing gay and lesbian people. A mother, a father and two sisters weep bitterly. Those of us who have lost a child know just how excruciat ingly painful that sorrow is. This is the ultimate reality of what OCA discrimination measures are doing to Oregon. The OCA will, of course, callously dismiss this young gay m an’s suicide as the result of one who lived a perverted and unholy lifestyle. We must no longer believe these lies. They are as ugly and untruthful as other OCA-initiated lies. This young m an’s lifestyle did not kill him. What did kill him was trying to live in a hostile and bigoted world: a world of endless queer jokes and cruel put-downs that he had to endure as a young boy; a world of verbal heckling, name-calling and physical bashings from his classmates when he was a teenager; and lastly a world of "Chris tian” condemnation and dehumanizing through the anti-gay measures of the OCA and the so- called “religious right.” What the OCA has done to Oregon for the past six years, and to gays and lesbians in particular, is the very antithesis of everything that Jesus Christ lived and died for. Truly God-loving people, whether they be Protestant, Catholic, Mormon or Jew, know deep down in their hearts that this is true. And there is nothing “right”—either mor ally, ethically, socially or politically— about the OCA’s innuendoes, half-truths and lies. Jim Shurtliff Portland V an cM vec W A (Not BC) (Not DC) It is not a big expensive place It is a great place to live & invest Just Ask Tom Foster Home & Investment Specialist SELLERS: T i l use my 30 Day Modern Marketing Action Plan for a fast sale.” BUYERS: Call me for a home list But Blanche, it's not half as scary as your sister Jane is! Speak To Your Brothers Drop-in HIV Testing fo r Gay and Bi Men Every Tuesday • 6-8pm 620 SW 5th, 3rd Floor fM Call Tam Faster Lutz (206) 573-8780 b n yd er It's something we nil need to do. T ravel A gents W I nternational 917 S.W. Washington St. Portland, OR 503 223-1100 800-357-3194 This is no joke To the Editor: Regarding [the article] “Communities within communities: Portland’s gay men of color are between a homophobic rock and racist hard place” [Just Out, Sept. 2, 1994]: Why don’t Portland’s gay people of color move someplace else if they are so uncomfortable with life in Portland? Maybe they should move to a state like California where people of color have become the majority in most areas of the state. I am a fair-skinned, blonde gay male who is in the process of moving to Portland from California because I am tired of living in a state where I have become a minority. I have many of the same complaints about my life as a gay Caucasian male in California that gay people of color have about Portland. While people of color can turn to affirmative action and equal opportunity laws for protection from discrimina tion, gay Caucasian males in California are in creasingly finding themselves discriminated against through the abuse of these laws, which have created a climate in California where re verse discrimination based on skin color and gender is not only tolerated but actively encour aged. Besides not being covered by affirmative action and equal opportunity laws, most gay Caucasian males in California are definitely not protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Not only do gay Caucasian males in California find themselves under attack from the conserva tive right wing consisting of religious fanatics and homophobic heterosexuals, we are also increas ingly finding ourselves under attack from radical left wing liberals, people of color, femi-Nazis, and separatist lesbians, who tend to lump gay Caucasian males with all other Caucasian males claiming that we are all domineering oppressors and the source of all their problems. It has become increasingly difficult to be a gay Caucasian male in California during the nasty ’90s, and I’ve decided it’s time for me to leave. David Gray Sacramento, Calif. E d ito r’s note: Please, please reconsider your plan to move to Oregon. We are having a hard time with our own racism. We can 7 afford to ha ve any more white supremacists here, regardless o f their sexual orientation. . . . A N D R E A PROUT has j o i n e d t he s t a f f o f T r a v e l Ag e n t s I n t e r n a t i o n a l , in t he p o s i t i o n o f C o r p o r a t e T r a v e l Manager. Andrea has over 8 years e x p e r i e n c e in the t r a v e l i n d u s t r y , w i t h a s t r o n g background in both Corporat e and I n t e r n a t i o n a l Travel . She has a l s o been an a c t i v e s upp o r t e r w i t h i n our community, most r e c e n t l y wi t h the Cascade AIDS P r o j e c t . Andrea w i l l head our Corporate Travel Department. From a l l o f us a t T A I - "We l c ome , Andrea!" Rip, Jessica, Jim, and Michael DOES YOUR OFFICE HAVE BUSINESS / CORPORATE TRAVEL? We combine the benefits and power of the large corporate agency, with the service and attention to detail provided by a local agency. Allow us to Introduce our services to your Travel Arranged Official Agency for the 1994 Lavender Law Convention Serving our Community by Meeting Your N e e d s ” -------------------, A p 'jlV I l'O nTA . IN T f.N a T lO N .l Q»T tU V (l . K . F& BA A U O C lA T IO N
