4 ▼ m a rc h 2 1 , 1 9 9 7 ▼ ju s t ou t
. A .!
i simply do
it better!
Hy experience benefits you
whether buying or selling a
home: from preparing
02662354
sale, to
compiling and
showing you
housing
options, then
successfully
negotiating
your
transaction.
Your satisfaction
is the ultimate
goal!
P r o L a b N .W . I n c .
133 SE Madison
Portland, OR 97214
ondld Falk, GRI
503 2 3 1-15 9 9
-
F U L L S E R V IC E
C U S T O M P H O T O LA B
Office: (503) 287-9370
Voice Mail: (503) 241-8945
Bridgetown
Realty I « ]
A New D ental Research Study at Russell Street Clinic
Are You
HIV POSITIVE?
Do You Have Tooth Pain?
Do You Have These Sym p to m s?
Do you have a persistent tooth ache, intermittent tooth pain, or swelling in
your mouth or face? Have you been told your tooth needs a root canal?
P articip ate In A New Free Research Study
You may qualify to participate in the Oral Health Enhancem ent Study being
conducted by the Russell Street Dental Clinic, a part of OHSU. Volunteers must
be HIV positive, 18 to 65 years of age and have at least 20 teeth.
Benefits
Participants will receive free root canal treatment, free CD4 counts and viral
load blood tests, free check-ups, and $125 for participation. Participants will
also be helping to improve the quality of life for people with HIV.
For m ore in form ation , call:
( 503 )
494-6300
letters
Give it a big kiss
To the Editor:
JoAnn Loulan fell in love with the wrong sort
of person, and that rattled you. Then you publicly
chided her [“Say it isn’t so,” Just Out, Feb. 7,
1997], and that rattled me.
At a time when you and your readers are
asking for tolerance from Oregonians who would
prefer that we all just shut up and go away, it’s
especially sad to hear how shocked you are—and
think others should be—by the life choices of a
woman you call friend and sister. I’m a volunteer
at Bradley-Angle House and a member of the
Bisexual Women’s Caucus of the Tri-County
Domestic and Sexual Violence Intervention Net
work, where we spend a lot of time talking about
how all sorts of women can find healthy, happy,
nurturing relationships. It strikes me that when a
woman (or a man) finds such a relationship, that’s
something for her friends to celebrate— and it’s
no one else’s business whom she finds it with.
It’s heartening that recent letters to Just Out
show others, too, were taken aback by the double
standard you seem to apply to Loulan. By writing
to you privately and then getting flattened in print,
she shows how much courage is still required to
stand out from a crowd—even the crowd we call
our own.
The real point of Loulan’s story is this: When
love sneaks up on you, grab it and give it a big kiss
and make it feel welcome.
Nancy Skinner
Portland
Hey, don’t tamper
with icons
To the Editor:
Boy, is Renée LaChance taking a lot of heat
for her JoAnn Loulan editorial ! Let me be so bold
as to add my two cents’ worth.
Loulan can love whomever she chooses. That
should be the ultimate goal of the gay and lesbian
rights movement. My discomfort comes only
from the fact that Loulan is a “celebrity,” and as
such her being in the public arena changes the
stakes a bit. If Loulan was, say, a longtime lesbian
from Lake Oswego who led a very private life, I
would not take issue with her choosing to be with
a man. This is not the case, however. Loulan was
a high-profile, highly paid lesbian therapist, who
earned lots of money from the queer community
by promoting herself as a lesbian. Further, she
earned additional money and notoriety by pre
senting herself as an out lesbian on talk shows
such as Donahue. The trouble with her being with
a man is not that she’s gone straight or bi, it’s that
she previously ran a highly successful business
out of being a lesbian.
Imagine if Cris Williamson, k.d. lang,
Romanofsky and Phillips or Greg Louganis re
canted their queemess. The sense of bewilderment
and confusion would be just as troubling as that of
Loulan’s coming out as bi or straight. In an ideal
world it really shouldn’t matter, but in these
homophobic times such well-known celebrities
validate the lives of a lot of people in the gay and
lesbian community. Face it, queers love their icons
and they don’t like having them tampered with.
It will be interesting to see where Loulan’s
career heads now that she’s come out again. I wish
her only the best. In the meantime, we still have
Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out to look forward to.
Win one, lose one...
Howie Baggadonutz
Portland
OREGON
HEALTH
SCIENCES
Where Healing. Teaching a n d D iscovery Come Together
UNIVERSITY
An equal opportunity affirmative acitoti institution.
Slap in the face
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to Just Out's special
Black History Month edition [Feb. 7, 1997]. The
beautiful brown cover with the face of Alberta
Hunter was nothing more than a proverbial slap in
the face by ignorant staff members, and poor
editorial judgment. My disappointment was en
gaged as, page after page, I viewed no imagery or
read no content to accompany that beautiful cover.
The first image in the issue was of a white man,
the first image of a black person was a female
athlete, and a huge cannabis leaf dwarfed a
shrunken cutout image of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. The first noticeable image of a black
person was a portrayal of an overweight slave
looking woman seeming to nurse an infant, the
editor’s choice [to illustrate] an article on AZT
and cancer. Nine articles and 19 pages pass before
the reader arrives at the page set aside for this
celebration of black queers. I’m sorry, Just Out,
but two poorly Xeroxed photographs and obituar
ies of three queers who lived their entire lives in
the closet does not a black queer history make.
Your issue undermines the progress, contribu
tion and determination of the many entities that
exist to exonerate our past. It served as a reminder
that to some we did not exist in numbers then, and
we should continue to be a part of the silent and
unseen minority. It also points to the reminder
that black queers are not so different from straights
as it pertains to the ignorance of an America
which continues to tumble aimlessly in white,
generic and rhetorical depictions of black people.
In my sanity I carefully and skillfully recycled
as many issues as I could. I surely would not want
my son, daughter, niece, mother, grandmother or
neighborto view your special Black History Month
edition as a reflection of my heritage: closet
queers, basketball players, AZT, cancer, enter
tainers and obituaries.
A. Omari
Eugene
Thanks, Lee
To the Editor:
Back in 1992 Ballot Measure 9 changed our
lives in so many ways. Some of us found our
selves stepping out and blazing with courage for
a short moment in time. Then when all passion
seemed spent, we retreated to our precious sanc
tuaries of home and family to regain ourselves.
Some of us, however, continue doing what we
have always done. That is, quietly and doggedly
keeping up the struggle through our work. Lee
Lynch is one of those folks. For 11 years Lee has
been putting her name on the line for “the cause.”
Each month Lee writes a nationally distributed
column in which she expresses her take on her
lesbian life. Think about it—in between taking out
the garbage and walking the dog and holding down
a full-time job, she manages to scratch out some
thing about what’s happening around her queer
world. Then she has the courage to sign her name to
it and send it all over the country. Lee’s come out,
by my figures, 132 times to date—next month, 133
times. I have to ask myself, could I do that? And
could I write a “perfect” column every time?
There are others who come to mind who have
chosen to keep on working, with or without public
attention. They are there quietly keeping a part of
our community’s house in order while we regain
our strength for the next time we are needed.
Today I single out and honor Lee for her bravery.
Thanks, Lee, you make a difference.
Sky
Southern Oregon
The big picture
needs an overhaul
To the Editor:
I have enjoyed your publication since I moved
to Portland two years ago. After reading your
editorial titled “Wed alert” [Just Out, Feb. 21,
1997], I felt more light could be shed on this