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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1996)
20 ▼ July 5. 1000 ▼ just out 4 la Touch Tiowl >i 2342 NW T hurman S t P ortland , O regon 97210 221 -6211 FAX (503) 221- Printing TM6 v o u N E E D E D Vfc Air - Sea - Land jo b S odomy E merges V ictorious MINUTEN!AN PRESS 121 SW Morrison, Suite 270 Portland, OR 97204 ASK ABOUT OUR FREE COLOR DAYS. Clint Schrader Wade Moore ‘ C omplete B usiness S tationery * Members of PABA and IGTA ‘ C reative D esicn , L ayout , and T ypesetting * (503) 223-1062 • (800) 568-3246 Fax: (503) 224-4920 „ ‘ F lyers , F olders , B ooklets , and B inding * ^ « a . ‘ F olding , C uttinc , and C ollating * 1. % Home: (503) 452-8924 by «. A . ‘ B usiness F orms * N- * e J o b You**'* - PET LAUNDERETTE A D O -IT -Y O U R S E LF D O G & C A T W ASH 3832 NE SANDY ♦ 288-5280 W ED -FRI11-7 SAT-SUN 9-5 B ern a d ette B reu A ntiques & ornam ent 2 14 SW Stark Street Portland, O R 97204 An excerpt from Reviving the Tribe: Regenerating Gay Men’s Sexuality and Culture in the Ongoing Epidemic Mon - Sat 1 I am - 6pm (503) 294-1812 PARKING AVAILABLE E ric E ditor’s note: In his new book Reviving the Tribe, longtime gay activist Eric Rofes offers a provocative look at the impact o f AIDS on several generations ofurban gay men in the United States. Rofes unflinchingly confronts key controversies facing the gay men's community as we approach the third decade o f the epidemic, and as our collective understanding o f HIV disease shifts from that o f a short-term crisis to a lifelong challenge. The excerpt that follows, from the chapter titled “Sodomy Emerges Victorious, ’’ intro duces a provocative analysis o f the high rates o f continuing infection among generations o f gay men in epicenter cities and suggests new ways o f viewing the importance o f specific sex acts in gay cultural life and a new approach to working with m en’s sexuality. Ben Schatz, executive director o f the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, calls the book “a brilliant and courageous work that will challenge readers and provoke intense thought, emotion and discussion. ” Activist and author Urvashi Vaid has called R eviving the T ribe “the most important book yet written about the ongoing AIDS epidemic. ’’ And the Rev. Jim Mitulski o f Metropolitan Community Church San Francisco wrote, “As Tales o f the C ity was to the ’70s and And the Band Played O n was to the ’80s, so R eviving the Tribe will be to the ‘90s: a lens through which we fearlessly scrutinize our communal culture, come to an understanding o f our gen eration, reorder our priorities and redirect our activism. ” Eric Rofes ▼ C obb & "W oodworth Attorneys at Law 920 Crown Plaza, 1500 SW First Avenue Portland, OR 97201 503/226-0088 • 226-9005 (FAX) e may be w itnessing the cre ation o f a new urban gay male life cycle. H a n k H o m o ( p r im a r ily w hite, but not alw ays; prim arily m iddle class, though not alw ays) spends his child hood in the M idw est (or the South, o r New England, or C olorado) with a daw ning sense o f being “different,” which bloom s in adolescence into full-blow n alienation. He fools around with Serving the legal needs o f our com m unity in the follow ing areas: * * * * * Accident A Injury Claims Divorce ft Custody Unmarried Couples Criminal Law ft DUH Insurance Law * Litigation, State ft Federal * Wills, Estates, Trusts * Incorporation ft Business Transactions * * * * Conservatorships Real Estate AIDS Issues Employment Law for Employers * * * * Personnel Policies Workers Compensation Discrimination Wage and Hour M ontgomery W . C obb • B radley J . W oodworth I I E ric BOSSÉ, Associate Attorney • G ail REEVES, Legal Secretary I WE REPLACE WINDOWS _____ ____________ Now # you can re[ place your old windows with new vinyl custom fit insulated w indow s. Your new windows will keep your home w arm er in w inter cooler ce condensation and sound proof your home. We also have in summer, reduce çondens storm windows ai ind doors. 20 years or of experience in the same location m akes us ced window companies. one of Portland's most experience Visit our showroom or call today for a courteous in- home estimate. 283-9481 Garland H o m e r INSULATED WINDOW C O R P O R A T I O » *■ N O w ner Oregon SB * 19095 8 1 2 4 N . D e n v e r, ................ » H I M . 19 Rofes PHOTO BY Arrangements tailored to your needs guys in high school, sneaks out o f his college dorm on Saturday night to visit the nearest gay bar, and shortly after graduation, com es out o f the closet at age 21. Hank spends the next few years exorcising dem ons o f self-hatred and addiction, immersing him self in the queer culture o f the nearest small city, and trying on different kinds o f gay identities. At 25, seeking to fulfill a seem ingly unquenchable thirst for gay life and heightened queer identity, he packs his bags and gets on a Trailways bus (or a plane, or in his used ’78 Chevy Nova) and heads for San Francisco (or New York, or Los Angeles, or C hicago....) He finds a roomm ate situation in the Castro (or the East Village, or W est Hollywood, or New Tow n), a gig as a barback at a neighborhood bar, and a gym filled with hundreds o f other mid- 20s homo-migrants. He know s w hat’s safe and w hat’s not safe and wears a red ribbon on his jack et lapel. Hank throw s him self into “the life” with gusto, good hum or and the best intentions. He discovers the dance clubs and the sex clubs, is jerked o ff in the show ers at his gym (or the park at night, or the tearoom in the departm ent store), and picks up men on subways, street com ers and at the com er market. H e’s feeling good, h e 's feeling hot— finally attractive and at hom e in his body. At 28 years old, h e’s living the kind o f life h e’s alw ays ▼ V dream ed of: out and proud as a gay man, im m ersed in a gay-positive environm ent, sharing in a com m unal culture o f pleasure and freedom and affirm ation. O ne night (or day, or afternoon) he goes hom e w ith a m an h e ’s dated a few tim es (or a m an he met on the street, or his ex-lover, or his ex-lover’s new lover), and gets caught up in a m om ent o f passion (or too m uch to drink, or w anting it so bad...) and he engages in sex he know s h e ’s not supposed to engage in and never has before (or only has had a few tim es, o r has had quite a bit lately). He frets about it for days (or w eeks, o r years) and before he know s it, h e ’s at the HIV test site, scared shitless, w aiting to get the results. At 30 he hears the news he’s feared for years (or expected to hear for years): He finds out h e ’s infected with HIV. From age 30 to 33, he’s in denial and tells him self HIV is “chronic and m anageable” (or the test was wrong, or that there’ 11 be a cure soon). From 33 to 36, he’s mildly sym ptom atic and learns to m editate and eat right (or begins taking AZT, or becom es religious, or jo in s A CT UP). At 37 h e ’s diagnosed with KS (m ust have been those poppers, or the speed, or all the semen swallow ed, or bad genes) and gets on several experim ental treatm ents (or withdraw s into severe depression, or writes a colum n for the local gay paper, or moves back to the M idwest, the South, o r New England). He recovers his health for a while, joins a healing circle (or a 12-Step program , or a phone- sex line, or a new com pact disc club) and tells the world he’s “gonna beat it!” His energy begins slipping away, and he loses weight (or eyesight, or bowel control, or mental functioning), becom es increasingly debilitated and hom ebound. Tw o m onths before his 40th birthday, Hank Homo succum bs to HIV disease, another soul caught up in a truncated life cycle increasingly prevalent in gay male worlds. Eric Rofes will read from R eviving the Tribe at 7 pm on Thursday, July 18, at Looking Glass Bookstore, 318 SW Toy tor St., in Portland.