3 2 ▼ January O, 1 0 0 3 ▼ juat o u t
A M A Z O N T R A IL
BLUESTONE
HOCKLEY
R E A L T Y .
Persecution
Our country is being perverted by the abuse o f the right to
vote and of the initiative process
I N C
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A proud member o f the community
fo r more than 25 years
by Lee Lynch
RICHARD C. LEVY
nee is harassment. Twice is mean
ness. Three times is stupidity. The
fourth time is persecution and noth
ing less.
Oregon’s third anti-gay and -les
bian ballot measure has been defeated, and by
margins so similar to our victory in 1992 that it’s
obvious the concerted attacks of the Oregon
Citizen’s Alliance on a group of fellow Orego
nians is a waste of time, energy and money.
Renée LaChance, publisher and editor of Just
Out, wrote in her Nov. 4, 1994, editorial, “Colo
rado lost the fight to keep discrimination out of its
constitution. Now, two years later, its Amend
ment 2 has been ruled unconstitutional in every
court except the U.S. Supreme Court, which is
expected to decline to hear the case. Meaning
Colorado is better off two years after losing than
we are, two years after winning. Go figure.”
While we’ve won the last two attacks on the
rights of gay men and lesbians, the OCA already
has two more initiatives
submitted for the 1996
ballot. Still, our newest
victory is not entirely
empty. This morning I
thanked a straight job
colleague who has done
what chicken-livered
me couldn’t manage to
do— canvass for the
cause. Another non-gay
friend who became a
U.S. citizen just weeks
ago has been canvass
ing, appalled to watch
this nation of immi
grants undermine its
own democracy. And
then there’s the friend
who is undergoing che
motherapy out of town.
He came all the way
home to cast his vote.
These people of convic
tion and courage are my
heroes.
In order to keep
treading water, we spent
at least four times what the forces of evil reported
spending. Renée LaChance: "The OCA and the
right wing’s true agenda is to bankrupt the sexual
minority communities— financially and emotion
ally—until we can’t fight any more.”
A whole generation of queer kids is growing
up under this pall. How is it affecting them?
Certainly giant billboards warning voters to pro
tect their children against us won’t make one less
kid queer, though they may well drive more queer
kids to suicide or into doomed attempts at hetero
sexuality.
Lisa Keen reported in the Nov. 28, 1994,
Washington Blade, “OCA’s most recent ad has a
young high school student named ‘Joe’ recount
ing an experience in which he said one of his
teachers ‘told us that we should have a least two
homosexual experiences to know if we were gay.’
‘In reality,’ said Julie Davis, head of the No on
13 campaign which is opposing Measure 13,
‘what the teacher said was that two homosexual
experiences shouldn’t make you believe you’re
gay.’ ”
It is exactly this sort of twisting of words that
enables the OCA to seduce voters. Once the OCA
has lied, even unshakable proofs won’t erase the
impression left on those already fooled. Prejudice
is thirsty stuff and drinks up more of the same
whenever it can. The lesbian and gay community
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PO R T L A N D
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personifies a defensive posture. We have usually
been outcast, and it’s beginning to feel like no
matter what we do, we can’t win.
These initiatives should not appear on the
ballots of any country that purports to hold human
rights sacred. In any country in which church and
state are separate. In any country with as much
access to good information and truth as we in the
United States could have.
But do any of those characteristics still de
scribe "America”? The takeover by radical-right
moral vigilantes is happening before our very
eyes. A Newt Gingrich as speaker of the house. A
president browbeaten by a religious movement.
Political offices purchased with the power of
money not used to advertise truth, but to fool as
many of the people as much of the time as the liars
can manage. Ralph Reed of the Christian Coali
tion whined on National Public Radio that the
Democrats demonized radical-right voters, pur
loining the very word “demonizing” that we have
been using to describe what is being done to
lesbians and gay men. We are not perverts, but our
country is being perverted by this abuse of the
right to vote and of the initiative system.
"Can’t we sue?” asked a friend. We are being
slandered; our livelihoods are in jeopardy. We are
being denied the pursuit of happiness, and we are
being forced to defend basic rights.
Reforms are needed to end discriminatory,
fiscally impossible, and unenforceable measures.
Initiatives are being used as a diversionary tactic.
With the money we spent fighting this one— and
the one in Idaho— we could have helped to put
more progressives into political office.
The outraged new citizen, my canvassing col
league, the by-then-hale-and-hearty cancer survi
vor will be cornerstones of our 21st century coa-
liiions. Courage, conviction and coalitions are
exactly what it will take to stop the current cruel
and unjust use of democracy. These everyday
heroes see that discriminatory campaigns are no
different from Christians burning witches. From
the KGB sending gay men to Siberia. From East
ern fundamentalists flinging gay men off cliffs as
punishment. The effects may not be as visible.
The raids may be on our consciousness rather than
our bars. The enemy may don sheep’s clothing.
Nevertheless, the fourth time is persecution—
nothing less— and we will stop the persecution.