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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 1997)
ju s t o u t ▼ January 3 . 1 0 9 7 ▼ 3 just out since 1 983 PUBLISHER AND EDITOR Renée LaChanee steppin' out contents VOL 14 NO. 5 JANUARY 3,1997 COPY EDITOR Kelly M. Bryan FEATURES REPORTERS That’s what we said! Inga Sorensen Bob Roehr Rex Wockner Savor the queer and the quotable: the remarks and ripostes uttered during the past year by friends, foes, wannabes and wafflers CALENDAR EDITOR Kristine Chatwood PHOTOGRAPHER Linda Kliewer (p. 17) OFFICE MANAGER Cory Murphy Lavender predictions ’97 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Another squint into that old magic crystal ball... Meg Grace (p . 1 5 ) ADVERTISING REPS C. Jay Wilson Jr. Marty Davis DEPARTMENTS CREATIVE DIRECTOR World news Rupert Kinnard Queer activists meet in Hong Kong and pledge to seek rights without “doing anything radical" FORMATTER (p- 5) E. Ann Hinds GRAPHIC DESIGN Christopher D. Cuttone National news TYPESETTER Christopher D. Cuttone DISTRIBUTION Kathy Bethel Rachel Ebora Darla Moyer-Sims Donald Rogers Megan Weber est editorial CONTRIBUTORS It was a good one Christopher D. Cuttone Lee Lynch Jeffrey L. Newman Will O’Bryan Daniel Vaillancourt Just out is published on the first and th ird F rid a y o f each m o n th . C opyright © 1997 by Just out No part of Just out may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. T he subm ission of w ritten and g rap h ic m a te ria ls is w elcom ed. W ritten m aterial should be typed and double-spaced Just out reserves the right to edit for gram m ar, punctuation, style, liability concerns and length. We will reject or edit articles or advertisements that are offensive, demeaning or may result in legal action. Just out consults the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual on editorial decisions. L etters to the ed ito r should be limited to 500 words Deadline for submissions to the editorial department and for the C alendar is the Thursday before the first and third Friday for the next issue. Views expressed in letters to the editor, colum ns and features are not necessarily those of the publisher The display a d v e rtisin g deadline is the Monday after the first and third Friday for the next issue. Classified ads must be received at the Just out office by 3 pm the Monday after the first and third Friday for the next issue, along with paym ent. Ads will not be taken over the telephone. Ad policy. No sexually exploitative advertising will be accepted. Compensation for errors in, or cancellation of, advertising will be made with credit toward future advertising. Subscriptions to Just out are available for $17.50 for 12 issues. First Class (in an envelope) is $30 for 12 issues. A copy o f Just out is available for $2. Advertising rales are available on request. The m ailing ad dress and telephone numbers for Just out are PO Box 14400, Portland, OR 97293-0400; (503) 236-1252. The phone num ber for the advertising department is 236-1253. O ur fax number is 236-1257. O ur e-m ail address is JustOut2@aol.coni. Through the lens o f history, 1996 will be seen as a year of great hope and progress ▼ by Elizabeth Birch I n a few short years when we all have some true perspec admit there are none. tive, gay men and lesbians in the United States will look The other result of this anti-gay-marriage campaign has back on 1996 as a turning point for our movements for been to evoke new empathy from reasonable people who have two very critical reasons. First, 1996 was the year that suddenly thought about and now understand how unfair it is to same-sex marriage hit the national consciousness— for deny committed same-sex couples the same privileges and better or worse. The other watershed was the U.S. Supreme responsibilities enjoyed and endured by married couples. Court’s ruling in the Colorado Amendment 2 case, an opinion The other seminal event of 1996 was the Supreme Court’s that tantalizingly hints at the way this court will deal with other ruling in May in the case of Romer vs. Evans. This eloquent gay and lesbian civil rights questions. decision embodied a quantum leap injudicial thinking. Religious political extremist organizations shoved same- Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, opened the sex marriage into our collective face in their quest for a new Romer opinion with a quote from the dissent to the infamously fund-raising tool that they hoped would have the added bonus wrong-headed Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, which legalized of torpedoing Bill Clinton’s re-election. Their scheme was the “separate but equal” system for African Americans. He clever and dexterous, as their shills methodically introduced could not have been clearer when he wrote that there is nothing anti-gay-marriage bills in statehouses across the country in a “special” about laws protecting gay men and lesbians from buildup to the mother of them all, the Orwellian and unconsti discrimination—thereby tearing down the hateful claims that tutional Defense of Marriage Act. what we seek is not basic equality. And he proclaimed almost In the short run, their strategy was both a success and a poetically that no state has the authority to make one class of failure. A total of 16 states and the U.S. Congress passed anti people “a stranger to its laws.” This is a strong signal that a gay-marriage laws. (The governors of Alabama and Missis majority of this court is ready to listen to cases relating to the sippi pettishly issued executive orders after their state legisla treatment of gay men and lesbians in society and judge them on tures refused to pass such spiteful bills.) But 19 states that their legal merits alone. considered such bills did not enact them. Meanwhile, President Finally, those who know how invested I am in passing the Clinton disarmed the same-sex marriage missile targeting him Employment Non-Discrimination Act might be wondering by announcing that he would sign the federal legislation. why I didn’t mention the Senate’s near-passage of ENDA. By plucking the question of same-sex marriage out of That’s because I fully expect ENDA to pass before the turn of Hawaii and depositing it into the country’s living rooms, the century. And once that has happened, the fact that 1996 saw teligious political extremists have helped advance our cause in the first vote on the bill in one congressional chamber will be the long run. Rather than pouring into the streets to stop the only a footnote to the larger victory of enacting the first civil terrifying same-sex-marriage juggernaut, people are pausing to rights law covering gay men and lesbians in the United States. think about the question—most for the first time. And as more and more people grasp for valid, logical reasons to deny legal Elizabeth Birch is executive director o f the marriage to gay men and lesbians, more and more are having to Human Rights Campaign. The U.S. Navy settles out o f court rather than defend against “witch hunt" charge; bodies o f missing gay men are found on Indiana businessman's estate (PP 6-9) Local news The Oregon Legislature will consider an employment nondiscrimination bill this term; a Portland cannabis buyers club evaporates in a cloud o f controversy (PP- 10-13) CO LU M N S Stonewall baby As we approach millennial turnover, musings on past and future loom large (p 29) Amazon trail A reverie o f Christmases past recalls the thrill o f six-shooters, dump trucks and ties (p. 30) ARTS Books Donald Spoto explodes myths surrounding James Dean in his book Rebel (p. 25) Music Marla Glen is a reluctant chanteuse—she'd rather be working construction (P- 27) Entertainment Legendary lesbian feminist band Baba Yaga reunites fo r 20th birthday blowout (P- 28)
