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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1996)
4 ▼ m arch 1, 1 9 « 6 ▼ ju s t o u t letters Latest betrayal no surprise North Portland NU.>NL ANIMALS • MIU) BATHS • TOIMARY • WIND VANES Veterina Hospital Like any family member our pets need good healthcare. At North Portland Veterinary Hospital, we provide the very best medical care along with big doses of tenderness and compassion. ■ I 285-0462 2009 N.Killingsworth = * K v , HHMIRIRRIHI rw m N o Reservations Required. To the Editor: Bravo to Bob Roehr for his condemnation of the Human Rights Campaign for its cowardly accep tance of prejudice against HIV-positive people. O f what use to the larger queer community will mili tary acceptance o f gays and lesbians be if it comes at the expense o f dividing us? Sadly, this latest betrayal by HRC comes as no surprise to trans people— this past summer saw this same organization lobby Congress to exclude us from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on the grounds that our inclusion would weaken the bill’s chances for passage. HRC’s willingness to write off the most vulner able in favor of the strongest will ultimately end in failure: as Benjamin Franklin said upon signing the Declaration of Independence, “We must hang to gether or, most assuredly, we shall all hang sepa rately.” The tactic o f offering up sacrificial lambs to prejudice and bigotry exemplified by the Human Rights Campaign is replicated here in Portland by those people objecting to inclusion o f trans people in the city human rights ordinance, from the mis guided belief that to demand equal rights for all is to demand too much. The cause o f freedom is not served by half measures— and human rights are not defended by restricting access to equal protection under law. People with AIDS and transsexuals, with their respective health issues, offer the larger queer com munity the means to link with and make common cause with the disability rights movement. It is through building coalitions, not further division, that we stand the best chance o f fending off the piecemeal decimation o f hard-won rights. When Moses went to Pharaoh to demand an end to his people’s servitude. Pharaoh sought to bargain freedom for some at the expense o f others. Moses would have none of it. The question facing all o f us is whether we will choose to bargain with Pharaoh. W hat price are we willing to accept for our self- respect and the trust of our brothers and sisters? Is there ever an end to extortion after the demands have begun? The greatest threat is not that we risk defeat but that we will choose defeat by settling for freedom for some rather than freedom for all. Shall we follow Pharaoh, or Moses? Margaret Deirdre O ’Hartigan Portland Hyperbolic ranting Includes room for 5 adults, cover, chemicals, free delivery * and more. Save *1,000. You’ve seen it at the Street of Dreams... You’ve read it was voted time best-selling HotSpring spa. With a Classic in your backyard, a “Best Buy” three times... you’ll never ^ave t0 P^an It’s the HotSpring Oregon ahead for family fun and Classic spa, the all- U q ^ Q q H |^ Q relaxation. A Spas ‘ Delivery in Washington extra. Not valid with any other offer. Offer expires 3 /3 1 /9 6 PORTLAND: 253-3551 • BEAVERTON: 643 5002 • SALEM: 363-4000 • BEND: 388 0905 To the Editor: Darcey Spears’ review o f my book Untold M il lions: Positioning Your Business fo r the Gay and Lesbian Consumer Revolution [Just Out, Dec. 15, 1995] reads more like a character indictment than a reasoned analysis o f a book. Her caustic and petty approach to the material also prevented her from getting the facts straight. For instance, her suggestion that I “blatantly display [my] inexperience” by not providing single, dual and household income data, broken down separately, shows either her inability to read thor oughly or her own level o f inexperience in under standing statistical data. Page 96, in fact, shows income broken down for singles, partners and house holds— for both heterosexual men and women and for gay men and lesbians separately. Not only that, I also cite mean personal, mean household and mean size— not to mention breakdowns by race, religion, geographic dispersion and parental status. Her assertion that I don’t provide any ideas, strategies or recommendations for companies tar geting gay and lesbian consumers is patently false: The index contains a specific entry entitled “market ing strategies,” under which three complete chap ters are dedicated to understanding and developing strategy. There are also over 25 photographic ex amples of gay and lesbian magazine advertise ments. Spears could have written a more accurate re view of what I actually wrote if she had been willing to do more comprehensive reading and less hyper bolic ranting about what kind of experience she imagines me not to have. Grant Lukenbill Washington, D.C. Darcey Spears responds: Market research and statistical analysis require rigorous adherence to absolute accuracy, or the marketer leaves him self open to charges o f manipu lation. I f Lukenbill believes that word errors, typos and phrasing mistakes are petty, I ’m afraid he has chosen the wrong career. On page 96 readers will indeed fin d a chart comparing certain income levels. What even the m ost determined reader will not find, however, is any meaningful acknowledgment o f the nature o f the data. Lukenbill claims throughout his press material and in several places in the book that he "contra dicts a popular myth about the relative affluence o f American lesbians and gays, ” a claim both annoy ing and offensive. There is no myth o f the wealthy lesbian— the image o f affluence centers around a stereotypical gay male household o f two white men and no children. A nd even Lukenbill admits that his stereotypical household does make more money. But, he says, i f you take all gays together, clearly gays are less affluent than everyone thinks. As / said in my review, it is statistically incoherent to make such claims without accounting fo r a segment o f data ( income fo r lesbians) that is so divergent as to skew the result. While his index may list chapters devoted to marketing suggestions, the chapters themselves do not contain any. I am sorry Lukenbill was personally affronted by my review. I did not mean to say that he was a bad person—only that he wrote a bad book. Ménage à troia To the Editor: Does Barbie secretly yearn for a date with G.I. Joe? Is that the subtext to Mattel ’ s recent offer to buy Hasbro? Is Wall Street messing around with the very core of American culture? Or is it just a liberal, femi-Nazi plot to subvert strong, adventurous, ma cho G.I. Joe so that he can be overshadowed and done away with by weak, effete Ken, who is in turn completely cowed by dominatrix Barbie? Or is it a plot by religious-right ultra-conservatives to unite all three— with Barbie finally marrying Ken, with G.I. Joe as best man— all under the banner of Traditional Family Values? Or has everyone missed the ultimate sub rosa subtext: Now Ken will finally get his one, true, secret wish— a date with G.I. Joe! Ron Rasmussen Jr. Vancouver, Wash. REPORT HOMOPHOBIC VIOLENCE