2 ▼ n o ve m b « r 1, 1 9 9 0 ▼ Ju st out
just out
s in c e
steppin’ out
1 983
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR
contents
VOL 14 NO. 1 NOVEMBER 1,1996
Renée LaChance
ASSISTANT PUBUSHER
FEATURE
Ten Ventura
COPY EDITOR
Kelly M. Bryan
Vote on it
REPORTERS
Just Out’s endorsements
fo r Nov. 5 reprised
Inga Sorensen
Bob Roehr
Rex Wockner
(p. 19)
CALENDAR EDITOR
DEPARTMENTS
Kristine Chatwood
PHOTOGRAPHER
World news
Linda Kliewer
Portugal’s Socialist
government won ’t offer gays
discrimination protections,
but Lisbon’s City Hall
cosponsors a queer film fest
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
Meg Grace
ADVERTISING REPS
C. Jay Wilson Jr.
Marty Davis
(P- 4)
National news
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
FORMATTER
Nine years later the AIDS
Memorial Quilt returns to the
National Mall; Ralph Nader
refuses to be pinned down on
“social-relation" issues
Christopher D. Cuttone
(pp. 5-11)
E. Ann Hinds
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Rupert Kinnard
TYPESETTER
Christopher D. Cuttone
DISTRIBUTION
Kathy Bethel
Rachel Ebora
Darla Moyer-Sims
Donald Rogers
Megan Weber
CONTRIBUTORS
Kelly M. Bryan
Christopher D. Cuttone
Rachel Ebora
Lee Lynch
Andy Mangels
Will O ’Bryan
C. Jay Wilson Jr.
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Local news
guest editorial
Rising violence on Stark
Street brings increased police
patrols and public concern;
Donna Red Wing says
goodbye to GLAAD
(pp. 12-15)
The elep han t's secret
The increasing number of out gay Republicans raises questions
of hypocrisy within the party
by Marvin Liebman
generate enormous quantities of direct mail that year helped
ntent on declaring the immorality of homosexuality, and
Republicans begin to recover from the Watergate debacle. In
on casting the GOP as a bulwark against the ever-
1980, he helped staunch anti-communists sweep the fall elec
encroaching “gay agenda,” religious conservatives and
tions,
putting conservatives in control of the U.S. Senate and
others in the party of Lincoln may well be confused and
Ronald Reagan in the White House.
frustrated by what has become a steady stream of Repub
lican comings out. The past few months alone have brought But with the waning of the Cold War, Republicans saw their
party’s glue dissolving and had to find another sticky mixture
disclosures from Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe and GOP
to fill the fissures in their ranks. Their choice, as America and
super-strategist Arthur Finkelstein. Who’s next? And when?
the AIDS crisis that so many of its citizens still dreaded entered
Even as the pool deepens, the revelations raise questions far
the 1990s, soon became apparent in a cascade of anti-gay
beyond the lives of both men. The main one involves integrity.
campaigns.
For while Republicans hit Bill Clinton over alleged ethical
My quarrel is not with individual gay people active in right-
lapses, the rising tide of open homosexuality in GOP circles
wing politics. Living in the closet, turning a deaf ear to anti-gay
begs the question of whether many Republican leaders are
jokes and diatribes, even consorting with and advising anti-gay
plagued by hypocrisy.
politicians are a Faustian bargain anyone is free to make. I
I have known both Kolbe and Finkelstein for many years
cannot respect it, but I can accept that it’s all around us.
and can vouch for their conservative credentials and their
My quarrel lies with those who exploit gay people’s talents,
homosexuality. I first met Jim Kolbe in the early ’60s when he
aware of the gay people working in their midst while inveighing
was a crew-cut young conservative serving on the national
board of Young Americans for Freedom, an organization I against their “sin,” “immorality,” and the bogeyman of “special
rights.”
helped start after the 1960 GOP convention. I met Arthur in
This includes Bob Dole. During the Oct. 16 presidential
1976, when he worked alongside me on Jim Buckley’s ill-fated
debate, his invocation of “special rights” and “lifestyle” in
campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate in New York.
response to queries from the travel agent and the lesbian
In their recent disclosures, both men acceded to their clos
minister was an insult. If the threat of discrimination were not
ets’ being breached more than throwing open the doors them
a reality, warranting policies to outlaw it, why did Dole himself
selves. Jim Kolbe came out in August under some pressure
give it credence elsewhere in his answer?
from gay publications. After an illuminating profile in October’s
In relying on the professional and volunteer help of gay
Boston magazine. Arthur, a strategist for Sen. Jesse Helms,
people, either in the war room or the family room, Bob Dole is
among other leading gay-rights foes, has not denied his homo
not alone. Many other Republicans, including Newt Gingrich
sexuality.
and Phyllis Schlafly, have close gay relatives— and the cross of
Some in the GOP may ask, “So what if there are gay
anti-gay politics to bear. Like the elephants, whose likenesses
conservatives?” J in and Arthur’s sexual orientations have
festoon their lapels, they may not actually forget this fact. They
nothing whatsoever to do with their talents as a legislator and
may
simply keep it in its own compartment, ignoring its
political strategist, respectively. On the surface, I would agree.
implications on their claims to family values and out of the light
Anybody seeing Arthur at work on Buckley’s 1976 bid would
of
day.
have been impressed. His talent in using computers to poll and
I
COLUMNS
Amazon trail
The parallels between
the elections and Halloween
are spooky!
(P- 28)
Stonewall baby
Waiting for HIV test results
awakens old paranoia
(p. 29)
ARTS
Theater
Edward Albee’s Three
Tall Women portrays a
woman who has lost her way
(p. 24)
Cinema
The Northwest Film and
Video Festival is a banquet
fo r the eye and mind
(P- 25)
Music
Singer Geoff Thompson
strikes out on his own
(p. 27)
Tongue in groove
Bigotry is clouding Portland’s
queer dance club scene
(p. 30)