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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1995)
ju s t o u t ▼ Ja n u a ry 6 , 1 0 0 9 ▼ 31 IT’S A QUEER THING at I masturbate, and I vote!" MIiTABOR FLORI57 Contem porary and Distinctive Designs gift ideas • cut flowers • plants • silks • balloon creations •parties • all occasions H ere’s hoping the New Year gets less interesting as it goes along ▼ by H ow ard N. D ana A century ago, coal miners would take after fighting so hard to keep it? a canary in a cage with them into the • Has anyone seen our George Stephanopolous mine. They needed a way to test the lately? air for dangerous gases. If the canary • Why is conservative Democrat Lloyd Bentsen fell off its perch dead, the miners bailing? knew they were in danger. In 1995, progressive • Why was Cuba shut out of the Summ it o f the people, queer and straight alike, are in grave dan Americas? ger. Our canary is dead— actually, fired. Upon • Who is the com m ander in chief o f the armed hearing the news that Surgeon General Joycelyn forces o f North Carolina? Elders had been fired by President Clinton, a rage • W ho slipped Sen. Bob Packwood a “get out o f and a sorrow welled up in me. Dr. Elders was and jail free” card? is a great hero o f mine. Rarely do I find a politician • Why are we courting China as a trading brave enough and with conviction enough to stand partner as it jails and tortures dissidents? up and tell the truth as she did. History will show • Why has military defense spending gone way that Dr. Elders was a woman ahead o f her time. It up lately? will also show that she was perceived by the • W'hy is the middle class getting a tax cut at the conservative power base as dangerous, subver expense of the poor, homeless and mentally ill? sive, and morally deviant, i.e., queer. • Why does the Bill Clinton o f 1995 sound just Let no one be mistaken, to be queer is to be a like Ronald Reagan in 1980? revolutionary. The “crim e” which cost Dr. Elders • W hat about health care? her cabinet seat was to speak the truth in a time • Why has Newt Gingrich recently discovered when lies are much more comfortable. In response “ family values”? to a question about masturbation raised at a semi • Why does Mr. Butts have cause for celebra nar on W orld AIDS Day, Dr. Elders said, “I think tion in Doonesburyl [masturbation] is something that is part o f human • Why has the black and Latina w om en’s cau sexuality and it’s a part of something that perhaps cus been suppressed? should be taught. But w e’ve not even taught our • Why has Time magazine named the pope children the very basics. And I feel that we have “Man o f the Y ear” ? tried ignorance for a very long time, and that it is • W hy is the Christian Coalition saying, “Let’s time to try education.” wait on school prayer” ? This position should have come as no surprise • W ho was behind the promotion o f the nuclear to anyone. Dr. Elders has been outspoken on issues bomb postage stam p? o f sex before. M aintaining her position as a pro • ¿Porqué es la idèa de “solo ingles” tan popular en un estado con m uchas ciudades que tienen gressive lightning rod, the surgeon general may nombres Hispaflos (por ejem plo: Los Angeles, have been controversial, but she was no loose cannon. So what really killed this progressive San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, etc.)? canary? • W hat cat has all our progressive leaders’ tongues? For tw o years, President Clinton, to his credit, There is an old Phoenician curse that says, stuck by his choice o f Joycelyn Elders for the “M ay you live in inter- position o f surgeon gen The “crime” which cost esting times.” We are liv- eral. He brought her from Arkansas to W ashington, Dr. Elders her cabinet seat was interesting . . . . . . R ather than the antici D.C., knowing she would speak the truth in a time when be controversial. Dr. El ders did her job for the lies are much more comfortable, and renewed hope in the New Year, politically, I good of the nation as she am filled with dread and incredulity. A good had for the good o f Arkansas. R ather than a shift in horror movie would be one in which Newt Gingrich, Joycelyn Elders’ rhetoric, we have seen, since Jesse Helms, and Pat Robertson kidnap President November, a drastic change in the president’s Clinton and turn him into The Stcpford President. rhetoric. It is Bill Clinton who has changed. Hillary would be lobotomized, and Chelsea would One o f the early lines o f Shakespeare’s Hamlet be locked up in a high tower. Having fired the is “Something is rotten in the state o f D enm ark,” entire Cabinet, the fiendish three would clone referring, o f course, to the politics o f the time. Strom Thurm ond enough times to fill the posi There’s a smell emanating from the W hite House tions. Well, you can see where I’m going with this. lately— a mixture o f fresh-baked cookies, fear, When I sit in a theater w atching a horror film, and the stench o f rotting ideals. As Mrs. Clinton I have a num ber o f subconscious defenses which puts away the Christm as tree ornam ents this week keep me from getting sucked into the mayhem. I and tries to get the pine needles out o f the White am able to keep my perspective and know that it is House carpet, the president will, no doubt, begin only a movie. W hile national politics have much writing his State o f the Union address. He will greater consequences than fake murders in a hor speak on issues o f importance to all people in the ror film, it is useful for me to keep perspective in United States. He will outline his foreign policy what seems to be a world gone mad. plan. And he will stress the need to work more I remind m yself that social change happens cooperatively with the Republican congressional very slowly and that, in the larger scheme of majority. But far more telling than the things things, this Republican backlash will be viewed as President Clinton will talk about are the things he a minor skirmish. It is also good for me to rem em w on’t mention about the state o f the union. ber that, rather than being linear, political time is Things are dangerously awry in W ashington, circular. W hat com es around goes around. The D.C., and anyone who is not white, heterosexual, United States is not the only country on the planet male, and well-to-do should be concerned. Here is Earth, nor is it the most important. I am reassured my short list o f signs o f the times to ponder: that my problems are no greater or less than those • Why has Hillary been relegated to giving o f someone in Poland or Zaire or Burma, just tours o f the White House? different. This country will muddle through. Here’s • Why is Rush Limbaugh the toast o f W ashing hoping the New Year gets less interesting as it goes ton, D.C.? along. • Why did our Dee Dee M eyers “quit” her job po O 256-2920 7819 S.E. Stark TUeflota We also provide many specialty' services including: Your Health is Just Up the Hill ❖ Care of HIV patients ❖ Quick access for acute illnesses ❖ Nutritional counseling At University Internal Medicine Associates at Oregon Health Sciences University, we provide everything from complete checkups to ongoing primary care for acute and chronic illnesses. ❖ Acupuncture ❖ Routine gynecological care ❖ Podiatry ❖ Travel Clinic ❖ Rheumatology (Arthritis) Clinic ❖ Geriatric Clinic Early morning appointments available. 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