ju s t o u t ▼ ju n o 2 . 1 0 9 5 ▼ 9
B ridges V ocal E nsemble
local news
JUOY ROSE, director • CHRIS JONES, accom panist
presents
A legacy of caring
----------------------------------------------------------- -
PAIRIE HOM E
CO M PAN IO N
stories from Lake Homophobegone
Bob Ralphs leaves an eclectic legion of friends and an
enduring contribution to human rights
&
Sunday June 18, 8:00 pm
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ob Ralphs will probably be remem
bered most for being the driving force
behind an expressive and creative cam
paign designed to keep anti-gay and
-lesbian rights initiatives from getting
on the ballot. The colorful strategy became known
as “bigot busting,” and Ralphs will undoubtedly go
down in Oregon history as Mr. Bigot Buster.
But friends of Ralphs, who died in early May
from a cardiac arrest at the age of 45, say he was not
only a brilliant political organizer, but also a man
of many talents and interests.
“He was definitely a Renaissance man. He
raised show horses and prize
chickens, cats and dahlias. He
was an absolutely wonderful
union organizer and political
strategist,” says longtime les
bian activist and fellow bigot
buster Linda Shirley. “He
made his own applesauce and
his own bread. He made his
own jam. He was an exquisite
cook.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” says
civil rights activist Suzanne
Pharr. “He would come by
with homemade jam, and it
was just marvelous. One time
he pulled up to my house and
told me to come out and look
in his car trunk—it was filled
to the top with apples he had
just picked.”
Pharr, who moved to Or
egon from Arkansas two years
ago, says Ralphs was ex
tremely sensitive to the needs
of others. “I first met Bob
during the No on 9 campaign
and we immediately hit it off.
When I later moved to Or
egon, Bob knew that I missed
Hob Ralphs
the South, so he took me out
to an auction in Woodbum
where there were farmers and
pigs and all sorts of countrylike things. He took me
to the state fair and to the beautiful flower fields to
see the tulips and irises. He was an immensely
sensitive man who not only said he cared about
things but proved through his actions that he cared.”
Ralphs, who spent nearly his entire life in
Oregon, was involved in many groups including
the Keeston Lowery Democratic Club; the Oregon
Public Employees Union; the Rainbow Coalition;
No on Hate (a grass-roots group that opposed
1992’s anti-gay Ballot Measure 9); the 1993 March
on Washington for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgendered People; and the recently formed
grass-roots group Progressive Queers. Pharr says
he was a blues and jazz enthusiast with “extraordi
nary storytelling skills.”
In 1991 when the Oregon Citizens Alliance
unveiled its “Abnormal Behaviors Initiative,”
Ralphs organized a “bigot busting” campaign.
Under Ralphs’ dispatch, opponents would travel
out to the various signature-gathering sites, such as
malls and shopping centers, and engage potential
signers in dialogue about why they should not sign
the petitions. The tactic was bold and sometimes
led to confrontation, but it also taught people how
to engage with one another even under the most
stressful and contentious circumstances.
“I can remember heading out to five shopping
malls in one afternoon under Bob’s direction,”
Friday June 16, 8:00 pm
$10 advance, $12 at the door
says 68-year-old Millard Word, one of Ralphs’
closest friends.
“I met Bob back in 1972 when he came to work
at Dammasch State Hospital and I was assigned to
train him. He was 22 and skinny and had lots of hair
back then,” W’ord laughs, adding, “Bob was very
wise and open-minded. After a couple of months of
working with Bob, I got to thinking he was prob
ably gay, so I asked him if he was. Bob— who came
from a very religious Quaker background—re
sponded, ‘No one ever asked me that before. Let
me think about it tonight, and I’ll get back to you
tomorrow. ’ Well, he came to work the next day and
r “He was an
* immensely
■ sensitive
man who not
gi*
only said he
M cared about
u things but
— proved
through his
actions that
he cared. ”
—Suzanne Pharr
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he said, ‘You know, I’ve thought about it, and yes,
I am gay.’ ”
“I have a phenomenal appreciation for the
contributions Bob has made in terms of how we
engage,” says Marcy Westerling, who heads up the
Rural Organizing Project, a grass-roots organiza
tion that assists human rights efforts in communi
ties throughout the state. ROP is currently promot
ing its “Enough Is Enough” campaign, which is
designed to create community cohesion through
dialogue.
“We try to come up with ways that entire
communities can come together,” she says. “Bigot
busting, which emphasized the need for people to
engage each other, is the prime cornerstone of our
campaign.”
According to Word and Shirley, Ralphs had a
multitude of friends representing a vast cross-
section of the population.
“The different types of people who showed up
for Bob’s memorial service were incredible,”
Shirley says. “You had little blue-haired Quaker
ladies, you had horse people and flower people and
folks from labor and queers. Bob had a great gift of
bringing people together.”
Ralphs, who worked as a mental health thera
pist at Portland’s Adventist Hospital, is survived
by his mother, Leila Ralphs, and his sister, Sandy
Voss, both of Oregon, and a legion of friends.
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