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To the Editor:
Thank you for your support of Phoenix Rising
Foundation, Lesbian Community Project and many
other community endeavors. It is rare that a news
paper steps forward to acknowledge the hard work
and dedication of those working in the nonprofit
sector as well as to remind us of our civic duty to
support these efforts. I applaud your leadership.
If everyone reading Just Out sent $5—less
than the cost of a movie— to Phoenix Rising or
LCP, our community organizations would not be
facing cuts in services and under-market wages to
dedicated employees.
Phoenix Rising will continue to do the best it
can with the resources at hand. But those out there
who open their hand in the spirit of giving ana for
the sake of us all will make the job easier.
Don’t let fear rule
7 1 Founders
^
Funding Group
1 ' Die ■- kinson
The spirit of giving
Allanya Guenther, executive director
Phoenix Rising
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To the Editor:
As members of the same rural community as
Lee Lynch, we want to respond to her column
“Caution is OK,” [Just Out, Dec. 6, 1996]. She
says that “queers come in all stripes, including
brave and meek,” as if these are personality traits
which some of us have and some don’t.
Meekness (fear) comes as a result of acts of
oppression that have happened to gays and lesbi
ans; we challenge Lee to consider that being afraid
is something to overcome, whatever our age. It is
important to remember that everyone who is brave
is also frightened—they just do the brave thing
anyway. Fear is a learned response, not who we are
in the core of our being. If we can occasionally
refuse to give in to our fear, we will be able to
respond to intolerance when it occurs to us or to
other people. It is very important to interrupt preju
diced comments and actions; when we hear
homophobic or racist or anti-Semitic remarks we
can respond in ways that don’t antagonize, shame
or blame the person. W e can respond even if we are
not ready to come out of the closet.
What about coming out? Keeping a job, stay
ing safe from violence, having friends and bridge
partners—there are as many reasons to stay in the
closet as there are gay men and lesbians, and in a
small town like Grants Pass we may think that no
one knows, that the perm can hide us. (When in
reality friends and neighbors may have already
guessed!) Caution about coming out is OK, but to
let fear rule our lives and keep us from acting is
not OK. Our own best wisdom and judgment will
tell us when to come out and to whom, so that we
can help to change the world—starting with our
own small town.
This is the ’90s, and some things have changed.
Right here in Josephine County there are many
gay men and lesbians of all ages who have de
cided they won’t be meek, hoping to avoid preju
dice. They work to educate, do election cam
paigns, participate in cultural events and stand up
against all forms of bigotry. Our community is a
safer place because these people, probably feel
ing pretty meek, took a chance to come out in
some way. Maybe the bravery of these gay and
lesbian people will encourage others to keep the
bumper stickers on their car, to go to the gay-
supportive Josephine County Human Rights Al
liance meetings, to tell our bridge partners, friends
and co-workers who we are.
Billie Miracle
Amy Sobiech
Grants Pass
Well done
To the Editor:
1 got caught without a book and I picked up
Just Out to give me something to read while I
waited for a friend who was late. I read several
articles and felt a need to write to say well done.
“The Ultimate Perk” [Just Out, Jan. 17,1997]
was well written, and I needed to say—as a hetero
female— YES! Get a clue, you stupid hetero law
makers. Every time I hear about laws, bills, etc.,
being presented to prevent gay and lesbian mar
riage I am infuriated at their egotistical, self-
righteous mucking about in other people’s lives.
Know that you do have some hetero support—
at least this hetero. Keep up the fight.
Linda McKinnon
Portland
Not surprised
To the Editor:
After reading your editorial “Say it isn’t so”
[Just Out, Feb. 7, 1997] I am, indeed, not sur
prised. You have been subtle, to this point, about
displaying your preferences within our commu
nity, and how they are reflected in “our paper.”
Overall, Just Out was of value to our commu
nity. However, you have for a long time shown a
bias, with a diffuse, very circumspect eye—ex
cept for the last two pages. Being relegated to the
back of the paper is enough [of an] editorial
regarding the habits of a goodly part of your
readership— males—and a segment of the sexu
ally active.
You didn’t need to expand the wide-angle
judgment to [that of] your editorial. Yet another
blow to the advocacy for individual options came
in your comments regarding JoAnn Loulan. Are
you, indeed, so naive as to say that a guru of
lesbian sex should never have tried or enjoyed the
intimate, ongoing company of a man?
You are deluded if you think the title “guru”
implies total exclusion of all other points of view or
actions by the title holder. (Your attitude is more
that of bigot.) The third-from-last paragraph ex
presses Loulan’s dilemma. It displays the ponder
ing of someone who, by giving voice to her quan
dary (albeit to a "friend” in a private letter), is all the
more worthy of the title guru. It is you who has the
problem. The final indignity: “I can’t help but hope
her new relationship won’t last forever and that
she’ll again fall in love with a woman.” Does this
equate with “see the light”?
You are perfectly free to think what you will
privately. Your position makes you apublic figure.
You are continually asking/pleading/ranting about
the need to “honor diversity, be community, take
care of each other, value relationship.” Is this
public flame the true indication of your tolerance
for diversity and individual choice?
As the major voice to and for Oregon’s lesbian
and gay community, say it isn’t so.
RavOn Sistrwomn
Portland
The queerest thing
To the Editor:
What happens when a respected, nationally
recognized figure comes out of the closet, risking
the rejection of her fans and her culture, and
admits her involvement with a person of the
‘wrong’ gender? Well, in the case of JoAnn
Loulan, about what she expected—she receives
“shock, sadness and disbelief’ from people like
Renée LaChance.
Say it isn’t so, Renée. Say that you aren’t
horrified at the possibility of sexual attraction
which sees beyond gender. Say that the queer
community isn’t about exclusion and building
walls to keep the ‘wrong’ kind of people out. Say
that JoAnn Loulan hasn't thrown out her history
by breaking your rules. Say she has the right to
love whomever she wants to love.
I ’ ve been a bisexual as long as I can remember,
and since the early years of high school I’ve
struggled to find acceptance from other women-
loving women. For years I thought that meant