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ju s t out
since 1 9 8 3
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PUBUSHER AND EDITOR
Renée LaChance
contents
VOL. 12 NO. 20 AUGUST 18,1995
REPORTER
Inga Sorensen
FEATURE
CALENDAR EDITOR
Kristine Chatwood
Out for business
PHOTOGRAPHER
Linda Kliewer
Gay and lesbian
entrepreneurs utilize business
networks to promote both
commerce and
community visibility
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Meg Grace
ADVERTISING REPS
E. Ann Hinds
C. Jay Wilson Jr.
(PP- 17-19)
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
E. Ann Hinds
DEPARTMENTS
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Rupert Kinnard
World news
Bulgarian television forbids
depictions o f homosexuality;
the Catholic Church
steps in on the drafting o f the
Polish Constitution
CO PY EDITOR
Kelly M. Bryan
TYPESETTER
Jann Gilbert
DISTRIBUTION
Ambling Bear
OFFICE M ANAGER
Teri Ventura
CONTRIBUTORS
Kristine Chatwood
Bob Rochr
Richard Shumate
Steve Warren
C. Jay Wilson Jr.
Rex Wockner
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Early in the morning on Monday, Aug. 7 , the windows at Laughing Horse Books, 3652 SE Division St., were
shot at and broken out. According to collective member Grace Grantham, no motivation fo r the attack is
known. A woman living above the store, hearing gunshots, looked out her window and saw a 16- to 26-year-old
male wearing a hooded shirt riding from the area on a bicycle. Shortly thereafter, the woman heard breaking
glass and phoned police. Donations to repair the windows came in from customers and other neighborhood
businesses and, on Aug. 17, the windows were replaced.
g u e st editorial
Front-line conflicts
Amid the crisis o f family and community that people in this country are living
through, gay men, lesbians and bisexuals become easy targets
v
by Jo h n D ’E m ilio
and the removal of the stigma of mental illness took prece
he Republican Party’s Contract with America—
dence. But now, the gay and lesbian community across the
and its younger sibling, the Contract with the
American Family— have dominated political re
country is reclaiming family. Lesbians are choosing to have
children, gay men are seeking to become foster parents, both
porting for most of the year. Because both have
men and women are insisting that their intimate partnerships be
chosen to sidestep a head-on discussion o f homo
sexuality, lesbian and gay issues have slipped from the recognized
national by law. Lesbian, gay and bisexual parents want
their children— and their children’s peers— to be taught toler
media’s radar screen. For many gay men, lesbians and bisexu
ance in school, while the parents and advocates of gay youth are
als this must come as a welcome relief, a moment of respite in
insisting that the schools respond to the needs of their sexual
a hard political season. Who could enjoy being the target of the
kind of rhetoric generated in the last few years—at the Repub
minority students. In almost every area of public policy that
lican convention in Houston, in the Senate hearings on the
impinges on family and youth, gay voices are being heard.
military’s exclusion policies, or in the fight over the National
These voices are new, and not yet well organized. And so
the radical right has rushed into the void, playing upon the
Endowment for the Arts?
emotional flash points that run through U.S. culture and fo
The lull, however, is more apparent than real. Congress is
menting fear. It is not hard to do. With the crisis of family and
not the only body that legislates. At the state level there is no
community that people in the U.S. are living through, gay men,
Contract with America to discipline local right-wing political
lesbians and bisexuals are easier, simpler targets than a chang
leaders, while in many states there is an infrastructure of gay
ing labor market with wage structures that compromise family
organizations eager to move forward for respect and equality.
The result is that state capitols rather than Congress have
stability, or school systems without the resources to educate.
become the battleground upon which the issue of equal rights
This year’s legislative record at the state level suggests that
for sexual minorities is being fought.
battles over family are likely to remain front-line conflicts. It
also suggests that the sexual minority community needs to
This strategy speaks both to the history of gay oppression
apply to the arena of family the lessons it has learned in its fight
and to the contemporary state of lesbian and gay concerns. In
for health care and against hate-motivated violence: patient,
the past, medical, legal and religious discourse defined homo
deliberate and sustained organization; broad-based education
sexuals in opposition to the heterosexual nuclear family. In
of sympathetic allies; and the careful articulation of an agenda
flammatory stereotypes defined queers, whether male or fe
rooted in the real needs of its members.
male, as predators seeking to invade the sanctum of the home
and to steal the young.
Author and historian John D'Emilio is director o f the
For previous generations, the price of adopting a gay,
Policy Institute at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in
lesbian or bisexual identity has often been to live outside the
Washington, D.C.
family When a gay political agenda took shape after Stonewall,
basic goals such as sodomy law repeal, civil rights protections.
T
(p- 5)
National news
Controversy breaks out anew
between queers and the
Atlanta Committee fo r the
Olympic Games; Clinton
signs an executive order
eliminating sexual orientation
as a block to security
clearance; Washington Sen.
Cal Anderson leaves
a legacy o f hope
(PP 6-12)
Local news
Voters don’t want
a proactive initiative on
sexual minority rights, says
Basic Rights Oregon
( P P - 13-14)
ARTS
Books
A Detroit columnist and
her partner bring
lesbian family values into
the homes o f millions
(p- 27)
Cinema
Love and Human Remains
gives every sexual orientation
a bum rap, comically
(P- 29)
Entertainment
Carol Channing is as
sparkling and elusive
as the gem she immortalizes
in song
(P- 30)