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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1996)
ju s t o u t ▼ m arch 1. 1 9 9 6 ▼ 19 M Geil, a lifelong Oregonian who graduated from ore than a dozen years ago, Mike Jesuit High School and later earned a college degree Buliavac, then 25, was struggling from Portland State University, had few options for to come out as a gay man. Ironi meeting other lesbian and gay folk. cally, Buliavac, a fuzzy guy— “ It w asn’t an easy process,” he says. “I fell into who says he’d like to get “even deep the depression, and even went to a psychiatrist— fuzzier”— was jittery about delving a into bar an old sage with hands crippled by arthritis— who scene. basically advised me to be a good person, to do my “ It made me kind of nervous. I was just coming jo b well, to let people get to know me for who I was out and it seemed too cruisy,” says Buliavac, now as a person, and to do good for others. Those were 38. “I was looking for something that was more very wise words.” suitable to my personality and interests.” Though Geil gradually became more comfort About the same time, Roni Lang, then in his able with being gay, there remained that nagging early 50s, was embarking upon his own coming out problem o f limited opportunities for socializing journey. Lang, a heterosexual man who cross- with other “members of the family.” dresses, was searching for a venue that would help ‘T w enty years ago, all there was were the bars him ease into the public life o f a transgendered person. (From here on in, at Lang’s request, we will use only the name “Roni” and the pronoun “she.”) In 1984 both found exactly what they needed: the Portland Community Bowl ing Association, a gay and lesbian bowl ing league established in 1979 by Tom Geil, a man who candidly cops to being “not such a good bowler” but neverthe less loves bringing people together. From the leathers to the transgenders to the dykes to the gay boys, Geil has managed to, during the past two de and the court. I had always liked to do a variety of cades, merge all the eclectic elements of the queer things, like camping and roller-skating,” says Geil, community to enjoy one o f this nation’s most her who lives in Southwest Portland. alded populist pastimes— bowling, a sport that is “For some reason, I stopped doing those things coincidentally plagued by as many stereotypes as when 1 came out. I basically hung around at the bars are queers. with the guys. I thought to myself: ‘Why should I The fortysomething Geil, who came out “on stop doing all those other activities that I enjoy so June 14, Flag Day, 1973,” remembers how tough it much now that I’m out?’ I also wanted to bring was being gay in those days. Like many sexual lesbians and gay men together. In those days, there minority young people in the 1970s and early 1980s, Whether you howl in the slow lane or the fast, there's a queer league for you ▼ In In”;! Sorensen • photos In Linda K lieuer was a real division in the community along gender lines,” he says. In the summer of 1976— despite his having no historical or emotional kinship to the sport of bowl ing— Geil decided to organize the “ 1st Annual Terrific Tournament,” which was held in conjunc tion with the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court’s title-holding contest. “Why bowling? I guess because it’s fun and cheap. It’s neutral in that it attracts both men and women,” explains Geil. “ I know that some people have the perception that only beer-guzzling, cigarette-sm oking bubbas bowl, but that simply isn’t true. It’s really family- and community-oriented fun. It’s wholesome. It seemed like a natural choice.” An estimated 30 people turned out for the Terrific Tournament, which took place at Portland’s Grand Central Bowl. The now-defunct gay and drag hangout Dahl & Penne took first place in the competition. Due to popular demand, the tournament was held the following two years. According to Geil, by 1979 there was enough interest in queer bowling to form the Portland Com munity Bowling Association, then a 10-team league with 50 bowlers. In 1983, PCBA joined the International Gay By 1985, more than 50 teams and nearly 285 people were bowling in the PCS A fs three leagues, two of which were held on Sunday and one on Thursday nights. According to Geil, that made PCBA one of Oregon’s largest — if not the largest — leagues. Bowling Association, which now encompasses more than 20,000 members throughout the world. IGBO touts itself as the largest gay and lesbian sporting organization in the world. By 1985, more than 50 teams and nearly 285 people were bowling in the PCBA’s three leagues, two of which were held on Sunday and one on Thursday nights. According to Geil, that made PCBA one of Oregon’s largest— if not the largest— leagues. Three years earlier, Geil helped launch the Rosebowl Classic Invitational Tournament, always held the weekend after Memorial Day, which also grew in popularity; in 1995 the tournament hosted nearly 300 bowlers from throughout the country, as well as Canada and New Zealand. With a prize fund in excess o f $8,000, Geil says the tournament con tinues to attract participants from around the world. “Gay men and lesbians were clearly hungry for social activities,” he says. Forty-two-year-old Renée Cherry, who joined PCBA in 1984, agrees: “ I bowled as a kid and enjoyed it. PCBA got me back into the sport as well as involved in the gay community, and it was a wonderful alternative to the bars.” Cherry, who currently bowls for a PCBA team Continued on page 21