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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1995)
ju s t o u t AMAZON TRAIL J u st f o r i . a u c ▼ a p r ii 7 . 1 0 9 5 ▼ 31 ; iik S u za n n e W estenhoefier Generations off queers »V *k ; B lo n d e a n d b o u ffy d iv a o f c o m e d y I have come to believe that I have a moral responsibility to the young Saturday May 20 • 8 pm by Lee Lynch Northwest Service Center • 1819 NW Everett Tickets at Fastixx outlets 224-8499 and It's My Pleasure 236-0505. nthony just called, in tears. It seems enough about it to consider living in that area. I that her college class discussed val immediately started ticking off cons on my ues today. The instructor gave the scaredy-cat questionnaire. Texas still has a sod class a list and asked for responses to omy law on the books. Texas just replaced Gov. various items like “a man in a dress.” Ann Richards with George Bush Jr. The Gulf Anthony, a drag butch, told me, ”1 walked Coast out. is I filled with conservative retirees. Norma couldn ’ t listen to their homophobia.” On the phone would call the moving van and play it safe once she kept saying, “They hate us. They just hate us.” she got there, but Anthony, Anthony might not go Gay men and lesbians are at an awkward stage there at all. Anthony gave me more news on the phone. on the road to independence. As difficult as it was “This girl has been following me, trying to get me for those of us who came out 30 or 40 years ago, to run for student senate. I kept saying no, but I at least we weren’t the victims of our own high finally said yes. Then she told me that all the other expectations. Anthony has had the good fortune senators are conservative. I don’t need that.” I to have come out into an era when she can buy agreed. Martyrdom is not a requirement for today ’ s tapes of lesbian music and take her girl to a lesbian dykes. movie. She even has access to Leslie Feinberg on But later, thinking about it, I decided maybe e-mail and has a college instructor who dares she did need it. Why shouldn’t a gay kid be able discuss difference in the classroom. But when he does, she is caught with out her armor. Older dykes would have been ready for the onslaught of misinformation, preju dice and contempt that she heard today. The young femmes and baby butches have nothing but the fledgling promises of queer liberation to com fort them. I know they are tak ing care of themselves just fine, like we all do, £ but it’s hard to watch yet 0 , another generation suf- T fer at the hands of a twisted dominant culture. In this time of redefining moral good, I have come to believe that I have a moral responsibility to the young. Yet the old ways die hard, or not at all. Coming out is not an option for everyone. A How can we persuade John the local florist and Joyce the alluring pump jockey to poke their heads out o f their closets when they are like groundhogs who never found spring? I asked Mean Norma Jean if, when she and her lover retired here, they had checked out the area for kindred spirits, for local attitudes toward gays, for safety. She replied, “No! We were too closeted.” So closeted none o f those things mattered, be cause no one would ever, ever know. The gay groundhogs don’t even believe in spring— fight ing for it would never occur to them. “I went back, though,” Anthony told me, “and talked to the teacher. He wanted to know why I was so angry. He just didn’t get it.” I kept looking for words to comfort and support her, but all she really needed was to be told that she’s OK. That a gang o f heterosexists had insulted and degraded her— and they were wrong. So I told Anthony she is OK. I hope it helped. The problem is, there’s only one o f me and so many Anthonys who need to be reminded that they’re OK. Most o f them have no one to call. Joyce and John are still sound asleep, not even dreaming o f spring. I don’t blame our groundhogs. The reason I asked Mean Norma Jean about how she had approached relocating was that Lover came back from a trip to the Gulf Coast o f Texas excited to develop her leadership skills in college— whether she wears a tie or not. Why shouldn’t a young lesbian find out if politicking is for her. The Victory Fund will need new candidates to support 10 years down the line. Beyond Anthony’s immediate ambitions, there is the fact that gay-hating is a societal disease, just like child abuse is a family disease. All it takes is one generation to break the cycle. Not only is Anthony telling the straight world how wrong it is, but she is the future. When today’s newborn comes out in 20 years, it will be Anthony she turns to. Anthony’s not going to tell little Sappho that she, Anthony, unlike Mean Norma Jean, was too closeted. Anthony’s not, like me, going to cau tiously agree with her fear. Anthony’s going to say, “Coo-ool! Go for it!” Even in the old days young dykes had their mentors. In 1963 I knew a gay gym teacher who spoke to me in code, at least letting me know she acknowledged me as a “member o f the club.” She passed on the torch, but dared not light it. My generation has set that torch ablaze. And Anthony— Anthony called me back and said, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to run for student senate. Fuck ’em.” Lee Lynch will read from her work at I t’s My Pleasure on Friday, April 28, at 7 pm. ASL Interpreted and wheelchair accessible a S k a T urt l e P r o d u c tio n (5 0 3 ) 3 3 5 -0 2 2 1 CLARISSA FlNKÔLÂlJI Author of ESTÉS, P h .D & WOME N WHO RUN I W I T H T HE W 0 l V E $ MONDAY MAY 1 EMU Ballroom, U o f Oregon 7:30 pm, $15.50 adv. Tickets Subject to Service C h a rg e TUESDAY M AY 2 Northwest Service Center 1819 NW Everett, Portland 7:30 pm, $15 adv. ^ T ickets available at Fred M eyer FA STIX X ; EMU Main D esk Store(346-4363); V M other Kalis B ooks; Peralamlra B ooks and M usic; N ew R enaissance B ookshop; In Other Words B ooks, It's M y Pleasure; Looking G lass Bookstore. L N FO R M A T IO N : 1 -8 0 0 -8 1 3 -1 3 7 6 CLASSIFIED AD INFORMATION RATES: Ads for private individuals are $5.00 for up to 25 words. Each additional word is 50 cents. Rates are per insertion. JUST FRIENDS ADS: Just Friends ads require a Post Office Box or a Blind Box. For a Blind Box, add $7.50 per insertion to cost of ad. Replies will be forwarded weekly for up to two months. ADS FOR BUSINESS: Ads for businesses are 75 cents per word or $20 per column inch. 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