*
♦
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