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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1994)
21. 1 Ju sto « « ▼ New videos highlight struggle for lesbian and gay equality rus, will perform. Admission is $5-$10 sliding scale and proceeds will benefit the Film Center and the Rural Organizing Project. The Berg Swann Auditorium is wheelchair accessible. Inga Sorensen Gay Lives and Cultural Wars, a new video showing “real gays and lesbians and their fami lies,” will premiere Oct. 24 at Portland’s Clinton Street Theatre. But the video’s co-producers say they’d ultimately like to take their project far beyond Oregon’s borders. “What we really hope to do is counter the lies that the right wing is constantly putting out about gays and lesbians—claims like gays recruit chil dren and are all child molesters. We also feature What is ideo ▼ 27 The Straight Agenda Filmmakers John Binninger and Jacqueline Tumure have produced an answer to the question on everyone’s lips: “What is the straight agenda?” It’s a blatantly anti-straight propaganda video made to parody The Gay Agenda, a video released in 1992 as part of the right wing attack on lesbians and gay men in Oregon. Binninger and Tumure turn the tables on the religious right with this video. It opens with scenes of pollution, desolation, hunger and overpopulation and moves on to link heterosexuality with these evils. Using the same strategy that was used in The Gay Agenda, the video delivers former heterosexuals who discuss the deg radation of living the straight “lifestyle.” A drag queen psychotherapist offers a “cure,” and scenes from Mardi Gras and Fort Lauderdale’s raunchy spring break festivities reveal the truth behind the myth of the heterosexual nuclear family. families who have come to terms with a child’s homosexuality,” explains co-producer Barbara Bernstein, a journalist who has covered the reli gious right for years. “Unlike other videos, this one is specifically designed for people who think they don’t know anyone who is lesbian or gay. We’d eventually like to distribute hundreds of copies nationally, including to members of Con gress.” According to co-pro ducer Elaine Velasquez, the tape runs approximately 30 minutes and includes cover age from Oregon, Florida and California. The video features legal experts, psy chologists, ministers and a diverse array of gay men and lesbians, as well as their families. “A lot of the footage is very m o v in g ,” says Velasquez. “For instance, we profile Mary Griffith, whose gay son committed suicide back in 1983 by jumping from the Everett Street over pass. At that time, Mary Griffith was a very active fundam entalist Christian who was opposed to homo sexuality. Her son, who was struggling with being gay, couldn’t take it and killed himself. Because of that, Mary Griffith has become very active in the gay rights movement.” Bernstein and Velasquez are working with groups such as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, People of Faith Against Bigotry, and the Rural Organizing Project to distribute the video. Two Jackie Beat as Dr. Roberta Yeast in The Straight Agenda years ago, the duo produced Fighting fo r Our Lives, which focused specifi In several scenes, Tony (Craig Chester), con cally on the contentious Ballot Measure 9 cam fesses the emptiness of his sexual conquests of paign. ‘This is much more broad-based,” says women. He claims no personal aversion to straight Velasquez. “We don’t focus on one or two cam people: “There’s research to show they’re possi paigns. We address a number of different issues bly bom that way.” and talk with people all over the nation.” One of the more entertaining aspects of the Gay Lives and Cultural Wars will begin at 7 video is that as it begins, fact and fiction are so pm Monday, Oct. 24, at the Clinton Street Theatre, neatly merged that it takes a while to catch on to the parody. As scenes progress, they become more 2522 SE Clinton St. Tickets are $5-$l0 sliding scale and will benefit the Portland chapter of the and more blatant. Heterosexual sex is made to Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation sound like torture. Witness Audrey (San Fran and Feather and Fin, Velasquez’s production com cisco comedienne Suzy Berger), formerly married and miserable, now happily involved with a pany. Copies of the tape are $ 10, and can be woman. obtained by calling (503) 452-6500. Binninger is a Portland native whose work has On a related note, Ballot Measure Nine, a new screened at international film festivals in Berlin, video by filmmaker Heather MacDonald, will be shown at 7:30 pm Tuesday, Nov. I, at the North Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Tumure is an award winning filmmaker from Australia. The two were west Film Center, Berg Swann Auditorium, 1219 brought together by a mutual desire to expose the SW Park Ave. in Portland. absurdity and inaccuracies of The Gay Agenda. MacDonald and a Portland crew shot hundreds The Straight Agenda will be shown with Gay of hours of tape documenting that campaign from Lives and Cultural Wars on Monday, Oct. 24, at both sides. Following the screening, Sweetwater, the Clinton Street Theatre. whose members include singers from the Portland , -w i ’<.' Jann Gilbert Lesbian Choir and the Portland Gay Men's Cho » .<j-,t Sunday N ovem ber 27 • 8:00__ A rlen e S c h n itz e r C oncert H all tickets at all GI Joe’s/Ticketmaster locations hone 224-4400. HAL JONES AUTOMOTIVE JOY ENTERPRISES Ron Joy We love our Just out customers. See us for your automotive needs. 5111 NE Fremont Portland, OR 97213 288-1130 OUR s anm ve GAY MEN'S CHORUS (J)fe te m akin g hibkyig! The fifteenth season of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus P G M C opens its fifteenth season is beginning with a rich shared history for our choral with a showcase of choruses from family. We reflect on the rich dynamic experiences opera, Broadway and ballet. The that we hove shared and look forward to the future. original music composed for men's We invite you to join us in our celebration! voices by such notable composers All performances this season are at the Intermediate as Monteverdi, Mozart, Sullivan, Theatre, Portlond Center for the Performing Arts and ore Bernstein and Lowe...all presented A.S.L. interpreted and wheelchair accessible. in PGM C's highly original fashion. For Tickets Please call PGMC at 699-8586. The Portland Gay Men's Chorus Post Office Box 3223 Portland, Oregon 97208-3223 m v w « .« « ^ 1 ■ -1 1 ■ ■ i ■ % w * - .» ■' 1, • % % ,* ** 1 ■ ■ 1 * ... . i 1
