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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1995)
4 ▼ m a rc h 3 , 1»®5 ▼ j u s t o u t TRANSITIONS G o o d b y e D a v id B u r n s You were the most passionate consumer of life we have ever known. You have more triends in more places than we have ever known. Having had you as a friend for all these years has enriched our lives, perhaps more than W e will ever know. You have inspired us with your zest and courage, we will miss you very much and think of you often and with love. H A L J O N E S A U T O M O T I V E • J O Y ENTERPRISES "W e 'd like to get to know you" A special introduction Mention you saw this ad and CUSTOM FRAMING IS Assembly is free— You pay for the materials • Complete Projects only • Uniframes excluded ^Picture This’ FRAMING GALLERY 2801 SE Holgate • Portland • 236-1400 Plenty of FREE parking at our convienent Eastside location Mon.-Fri. 9:30 am - 6 pm • Saturday 10 am-5:30 pm Applies to complete protects only Not to be combined with other offers A remembrance Author and activist Paul Monette will be treasured T by Bob Roehr he gay community has lost one o f its most beloved and respected men. Paul Monette succumbed to AIDS, the dis ease that transformed his life and work, on Feb. 10. He was 49. I met Monette first through his writing— books like Borrowed Time and Half-Way Home — only later, in the flesh. He came to W ashington D.C. as recipient o f the National Book Award for nonfiction for Be T coming a Man: Half a Life Story, to deliver the National Book W eek address at the Li brary o f Congress. He spoke of hate and cen sorship, of hope and responsi bility. The politics o f silence, he said, “is as much self-im posed as imposed by our en emies. We learn the message of their hatred all too well, and we chose the closet, hoping to protect ourselves. And that veiy invisibility is just what our enemies want, the silence that stunts our self-esteem.” He readily agreed to have a Paul Monette portion excerpted for a national magazine. The details came quickly to pass, graced by M onette’s characteristic warmth. The entire address became an essay in Last Watch o f the Night. I f Y ou C an t G et a L oan F rom U s , Y ou C an ’ t G et a L oan L ife /lancile a f f conuentionaí We spoke again by phone last May in conjunc tion with the publication of that book. Monette was eager to again don the hat of AIDS activist, calling then AIDS czar Kristine Gebbie “a grotesquely unfortunate choice from the very beginning, which should have shown us what short shrift we were going to be given by the Clinton administration on such a deep-rooted crisis.” “As far as I am concerned, he [Clinton] is nothing but a liar. He has sold our people down the river. He is a W almart Lothario. He has a second- rate mind and a fourth-rate, small-town way of doing things,” spat Monette. “How dare he use our tragedy, and our crisis, and our struggle for civil rights as fodder to get money, so that he can sell us out to the religious right. “ I continue to feel that my country was stolen from me in the last 10 years, and I ain’t gotten back one bit o f it.” W hile M onette’s spirit was unbroken, his body was another matter. The stark physical transform a tion I saw a few days later was unsettling. I re corded the interview yet did not publish it, as if that act o f with h olding public notice could somehow stave o ff his decline. “ But the spirit, ah, the spirit seems to glow brighter still, al m ost as if flesh had somehow screened the internal, distracted H from it, and now, in dissipating, f allows even more o f the m an’s essence to shine forth in his voice and in his w ords,” I wrote in both awe and dread. “He seems to be metam orphosing into a purer being o f spirit, one day to be unencumbered by body.” “ 1 don’t know that AIDS has made me so brave as a writer. I don’t know w hether it has wid ened my heart the way the wit nessing o f the world at war widened Anne Frank’s heart,” Monette had told the packed audience at the Library o f Congress. “ But who would have thought, who would have known, that the greatest account we would have of that war, the one that would sear the hearts o f the future, would be written by a 14-year-old girl ? And a 14-year-old girl who went to her death believing that people were fundam entally good. That is where I fail much o f the tim e,” he said. Paul Monette was too hard on himself. He will be remembered and treasured for the goodness of his work and o f his life. A memorial reading o f Paul Monette’s writings will take place from 7:30 to 8:30 pm Friday, March 10, at Powell’s City o f Books, 1005 W Burnside St. Presenters will include Judith Barrington, Tom Spanbauer and Walt Curtis. a n d n on con u en {ion a i io ans. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ First Time Home Buyers Programs Self-Employed Borrowers Bankruptcies & Foreclosures Complicated Borrowers Investment Properties M ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Manufactured Housing/Lond Credit Problems Debt Consolidation 3% Down Programs Pre-approvals for Purchase e ’re y o u r fu ilse ro /c e m o rfyaye com pany. G a f f to d a y fo r a fr e e yuafif i c a i ton ouer tfie p fio n e 503 / 636-2066 Pager 505/870-1666 Christine C. Hall Mortgage Broker C ascaci twvie n * «! Nc Popular bar owner leaves legacy John L. Adams III, the owner o f popular gay- oriented establishments in Portland and Seattle, died Jan. 22 of complications from cancer. Friends and family of the 52-year-old founder of the res taurant and nightclub C.C. Slaughters say Adams leaves a legacy to the gay community. “He was 1,000 percent supportive o f the com munity,” says Paul Kirkbride, manager o f C.C. Slaughters in Portland. “He was a very generous and popular man and always w illingtohelppeople.” Adams, who was bom in Declo, Idaho, estab lished C.C. Slaughters 15 years ago. “ Back then my father was working at the Fish Grotto, which was a straight establishment with a gay clientele. He got it in his mind to open a place that was geared toward the gay community. He got some loans, saved a little money, and eventually opened up C.C. Slaughters right across the street,” says Adams’ son, John R. Adams. “He always tried to provide a place where homosexuals could feel comfortable going.” Adams says six years ago his father opened another Portland establishment “for the alternative community” called the Eagle. A year and a half ago, his father opened another C.C. Slaughters, in Seattle. The elder Adàms was also instrumental in getting Seattle officials to approve a plan that would create an AIDS M emorial Park in the Em erald City. The younger Adams, who has taken over as ow ner o f the various enterprises, says he is trying to raise $400,000 for the project. He says Seattle City Councilor Sherry Harris, an openly lesbian public official, has been very supportive of the plan and says the city has agreed to provide matching funds for each dollar raised privately for the project. “My father was always looking to give people a helping hand, and I’m very proud o f him for that,” says Adams. John L. Adams III is survived by his sons, John R. of Portland and Rod o f Seattle; father and stepmother, Jack and Emigene o f Paul, Idaho; stepfather and mother, Tom and Dicey Brunker of Renton, Wash.; sisters, Jackie Fairchild of Oakley, Idaho, Christy Tacherll o f Haybur, Idaho, Cindy Dalsogleo o f Sandy, Utah, and June o f Cincinnati; and brothers, Scott and K.C. o f Burley, Idaho. Disposition was by cremation. Remembrances may be made to the John L. Adams III AIDS M emorial Park Fund at Seafirst Bank in Seattle. Inga Sorensen