Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1995)
ju s t o u t ▼ N o v e m b e r 3 , 1 9 9 5 ▼ 11 In 1 9 9 9 s h e 'll p arty , City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury a longtime ally, announces that this term is her last by Inga S oren sen G retchen Kafoury is retiring— in three years. “I think it took a lot of people by surprise when I announced that,” ad mits Kafoury, who is serving her sec ond term on the Portland City Council. The 53-year-old commissioner made the decla ration in mid-October during Right to Privacy PAC’s Lucille Hart Dinner, a major fund-raiser for the statewide gay, lesbian and bisexual rights orga nization. One of the annual dinner’s traditions calls upon all public office holders and political candidates in attendance to step on stage and introduce them selves. When it came her turn, Kafoury announced her name and title, and added that she was retir ing—a proclamation that prompted many quizzi cal looks among the audience. “I’ve had people who were at the dinner come up to me since then and ask me what’s going on. Yes, I’m retiring, but at the end of my term. Maybe I said it too soon,” she says, adding, “I’m retiring because I’m tired.” And it’s no wonder. Kafoury has been in volved in Oregon gov ernment and politics for two decades. She was first elected to the state House of Representa tives in 1977, where she Gretchen Kafoury served for six years be fore jo in in g the M ultnom ah C ounty Board of Commission ers in 1985. In 1990, Kafoury won a seat on the Portland City Council, and she was re-elected to the post four years later. “Gretchen was one of the first, if not the first political person in Oregon to be openly supportive of gay and lesbian rights,” says longtime gay and lesbian rights advocate John Baker, who co-founded Right to Privacy in 1982 and is currently the president of the Keeston Lowery chapter of the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club. Baker has traveled in Portland’s gay and lesbian political circles since the mid-1970s. “I can remember one of the first fund-raisers that the gay community ever had for political candidates,” recounts Baker. “We held it at Victoria’s Nephew [a Portland cafe operated by celebrated art gallery owner William Jamison, who passed away earlier this year from AIDS complications.] Gretchen and [then-state repre sentative] Vera Katz showed up. We charged a couple of dollars at the door. I think we raised about $30.” “I’ve always been involved in progressive poli tics,” says Kafoury, who is staunchly pro-choice, pro-gay rights and pro-gun control. “Supporting gay and lesbian rights was simply a logical out growth from my involvement in the women’s and black civil rights movement. It just made sense.” As a state lawmaker, Kafoury pushed hard for lesbian and gay rights legislation. She was awarded RTP’s first Lucille Hart Award for her work on behalf of sexual minority rights, and she has vigor ously denounced anti-gay-rights efforts. Kafoury has appeared on the gay cable television program NightScene and has been on hand for innumerable gay and leshian events. As a city commissioner, she has advocated for the hiring of more women and minorities. When Andrew Dice Clay, the notoriously sex ist, racist and homophobic comic, was set to appear at Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in February 1991, Kafoury and her council colleagues issued a letter to the “Citizens of Portland,” asking those who had purchased tickets to the event to return them. They wrote: “We must raise our voices in protest against ‘entertainment’ which [perpetuates] negative attitudes and stereotypes.... We do not support racism, sexism, and humor based on violence against people because of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age or national origin.” “Gretchen has consistently taken stands against discrimination and oppression in all areas, includ ing gay and lesbian issues,” says human rights advocate Kathleen Saadat, who headed up the state’s affirmative action program in the late 1980s before leaving to become Kafoury’s aide at the Portland City Council. (She has since moved on.) It was during this pe riod when the Portland City Council unani mously approved an or dinance barring d is crimination based on several classifications— CC | including sexual orien- i tation—in housing, em- | ployment and public ac- ^ commodations. Saadat o says Kafoury’s support § for the ordinance never wavered. This was also the time when Saadat decided to come out publicly as a lesbian. (A November 1991 Just Out cover story profiling Saadat was the primary vehicle.) “I went to Gretchen and told her that this Just Out article was going to be coming out. She said ‘That’s great. Wonderful.’ And that was that. No big deal,” says Saadat, adding, “Gretchen has always had tremen dous courage.” Kafoury, who grew up in the wheat lands of Walla Walla, Wash., says another important factor may have contributed to her early awareness and acceptance of gay men and lesbians. “I had a gay uncle. Of course back then the family didn’t talk about him being gay, but we all knew,” she says. He was an interior decorator who lived in Los Angeles. “We would travel together, and we were close. It was an important experience for me, given that I was growing up in a place where I had little exposure to different types of people.” She adds: “By 19691 already knew lots and lots of gay people.” Come 1999 [when her term expires], Kafoury would like to transition into teaching. She is cur rently taking classes at Portland State University, where she’s completing her master’s degree in public administration. As for other things she’d like to do: “I play the piano and I am an avid reader. I also love the beach. I don’t spend nearly as much time at my beach house [in Arch Cape] as I’d like. Maybe soon I’ll have more time. “I feel like there is a real core of young progressives out there who can take over, so that makes me feel better about my decision,” she says. “But I’m disappearing. Trust me. I’ll be around. I’ll just be doing other things.” Brian Marki Framing • Seniitiwe, Innovative Designs • Welded Steel Frames • £<ftnej\j1 GPatercdftis 2236 NE Broadway, Portland 503-249-5659 See Vue Lodging — where mountain meets the sea 95590 Highway I0I 6 .2 miles south of Yachats, Oregon 97498 (503) 547-3227 How is YOUR money being spent? It’s time YOU make a conscious decision where to spend YOUR money. 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