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To the Editor:
In your closing comments of your Sept. 1
editorial, “The price of bigotry,” you take it upon
yourself to subtly insult Log Cabin Republicans,
and to vilify [Gov.] Pete Wilson of California as
“slime personified.” You do this with almost total
indifference to gay Republicans, affording them
no more respect than your parenthetical comment
“(at the risk of offending our Republican read­
ers)... .” Rest assured, you did precisely that, and
wrongly so.
At every political rally and forum for gay
rights, we almost always hear the admonition that
we must recognize and include diversity in our
ranks. You are a publisher of a newspaper—the
major gay publication in Oregon. You are also the
editor—a position of prominence and responsible
commentary. Comments as the one above do
nothing but send a very clear message that gay
Republicans are not truly accepted under this
umbrella of diversity— at least here in Oregon. At
best, they are begrudgingly tolerated.
Few, if any, gay Republicans have any love for
many parts of Bob Dole’s and Pete Wilson’s
political platforms— particularly their stand on
gay issues. Political criticism is certainly accept­
able—even encouraged—but when it has no more
maturity of thought than adolescent name-call­
ing, you do a grave disservice to gay journalism
and an even graver disservice to yourself person­
ally.
Despite the fantasy held by Oregon lesbians
and gays that we almost all fall within the ranks of
the Democratic Party, that simply is not so. There
are thousands of gay Republicans right here in
Oregon— many who are on the front lines fight­
ing the OCA, and who are bleeding and hurting as
much as anyone else. Their lack of visibility,
however, is invariably due to the all-prevalent
indifference, and often hostility, towards them by
the gay Democratic machinery, which in essence
pushes them politically back in the closet.
Does it need to be said that fostering such an
oppressive environment for gay Republicans is
pathetic, even ironic, coming from gays and les­
bians who for decades have themselves been
oppressed? Has anyone ever set aside their skewed,
and often ignorant, view of gay Republicans long
enough to realize that if it were not for them
working behind the scenes with the leadership
committees and the rank and file of the Republi­
can Party (certainly not a place where gay Demo­
crats would be welcome or listened to) that we
would not be anywhere as far along in our gay
rights battle as we are today?
As Greta Cammermeyer said, “We are every­
where.” That includes both gay Republicans and
gay Democrats. Let us all serve in an environment
that affords an equal measure of distinction and
respect.
Jim Shurtliff
Portland
Thanks and cnrrection
in nrder
To the Editor:
Thank you for providing coverage of trans­
sexuals’ criticism and protest of the history of
transphobia [in the] Unitarian-Universalist Asso­
ciation and its Beacon Press [“Mixed Signals?”
Just Out, Sept. 1,1995],
I would like to make one correction, however.
I did not state “ Feinberg is no friend o f
transgendered people.” What I stated was that
“Feinberg is no friend of transsexual people.” The
mistake made in quoting me is easy to understand,
given the tendency to confuse “transgender” with
“transsexual.”
Feinberg’s antipathy towards transsexuals is
nowhere more evident than her lobbying the Na­
tional Organization for Women National Con­
vention held July 21-23 in Columbus, Ohio, to
pass a resolution calling for the removal of “gen­
der identity disorder” from the American Psychi­
atric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual o f Mental Disorders. Without a recog­
nized diagnosis by an established medical asso­
ciation such as the APA, transsexuals will find
access to hormone therapy and sex-reassignment
surgery on the basis of medical necessity cur­
tailed, and it will be reduced to nothing more than
plastic surgery, affordable only to those economi­
cally privileged individuals who can afford to pay
for it out of pocket.
Leslie Feinberg has written and spoken a great
many things which have touched the hearts of
lesbians everywhere. As a butch lesbian who
explored the option of changing sex in the 1970s
and rejected it for herself, however, Feinberg is
simply in no position to address the needs and
issues of transsexuals.
I wish to commend Just Out for its continued
commitment to allowing transsexuals to speak for
themselves and in their own voices. Were that
commitment shared by Leslie Feinberg, the Uni­
tarian-Universalist Association and Beacon Press,
there would be no need to protest the comments
and actions of people who should be allies, and we
could all turn our attention to those forces which
threaten us all, such as the Oregon Citizens Alli­
ance.
Margaret Deirdre O ’Hartigan
Portland
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