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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1997)
2 ▼ augu st 1, 1997 T ju s t out just out s in c e 1 983 steppin’ out PUBLISHER A N D EDITOR Renée LaChance VO L 14 NO. 19 AUGUST 1, 1997 N E W S EDITOR Inga Sorensen FEATURE CO PY EDITOR Kelly M. Bryan s Diving for dollars REPORTERS Bob Roehr Rex Wockner Queers looking to get ahead are dipping into the multilevel marketing pool (p. 19) CALENDAR EDITOR Kristine Chatwood PHOTOGRAPHER Linda Kliewer i contents DEPARTMENTS OFFICE M A N A G E R Will O’Bryan World news A DVERTISIN G DIRECTOR Meg Grace Out lesbian Patria Jiménez is elected to the Mexican Congress (P- 4) ADVERTISING REP Marty Davis National news State o f AIDS Forum reports good news and bad news; increased funding for ADAPs passes first congressional hurdle (PP- 5-11) CREATIVE DIRECTOR E. Ann Hinds GRAPH IC D ESIG N Rupert Kinnard FORMATTER/TYPESETTER Christopher D. Cuttone DISTRIBUTION Trina Altman Kathy Bethel Lynette Boatman Jim Galluzzo Graphics Oasis CONTRIBUTORS The Boston AIDS Writers Group Christopher D. Cuttone Lee Lynch Will O ’Bryan Dale Reynolds Flora Sussely Ju s t s a t is published on the first and th ird F riday of each m onth. Copyright O 1997 by J n t M t No part of J n t M it may he reproduced without writien permission from the publisher The submission of w ritten and graphic m aterials is w elcom ed. Written material should be typed and double-spaced ja s t •M t reserves the right to edit for grammar, punctuation, style, liability concerns and length We will reject or edit articles or advertisements that are offensive, demeaning or may result in legal action. le tte rs to the editor should be limited to 500 words Deadline for submissions to the editorial department and for the Calendar is the Thursday before the first and third Friday for the next issue. Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns and features are not necessarily those of the publisher The display advertising deadline is the Monday after the first and third Friday for the next issue. 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Our e-m ail address is JustOut2#aol com Local news Frame within a frame: Sierra Lonepine Briano, artist and co-founder of Art Springs, is captured at Portland’s 1997 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride guest editorial The unhyped angle An unsung byproduct o f the Cunanan hoopla is the way, if even briefly, gay and straight communities were of one purpose A CO LU M N S Reasons for hope Risks for failure o f combination therapies can be minimized (P- 13) Stonewall baby Thoughts on being a model queer citizen (p. 33) Theater b y J im M a n g ia s with every tragic situation of such magnitude, the Andrew Cunanan murder spree, and his subse quent suicide under pressure from the “better late than never” manhunt, raises many more questions than it answers. The bizarre transformation of one human being (who went from a popular, well-liked Figure in San Diego’s gay community to a murderer of gay people) coupled with the violent deaths of five other human beings, leaves many of us wondering how this could have happened. Why would Cunanan do such a thing? The gay community was traumatized and fearful in the midst of the manhunt. Many of us in West Hollywood were looking over our shoulders before we opened our front doors. The gay communities of Miami and San Diego were even more edgily on alert. There was a great deal of anger about the insufficient attention paid to the Cunanan case by law enforce ment authorities before the Versace murder. The country got to see firsthand how the priorities of law enforcement can be impaired by homophobia. While the media continue to sensationalize the story in order to sell papers, one unreported byproduct of the tragedy was that for a brief moment gay and straight communities had come together. Unified public pressure was brought to bear to catch Cunanan. and the (unfortunate) normal rift between gay and straight was briefly overcome. Of course this commonalty of purpose coexisted with the standard anti-gay fare, like the notion that this murder spree was merely an extension of the "bizarre gay lifestyle,” or that Cunanan’s motive was revenge for being HIV-infected (promoting the assertion that HIV positive individuals are a threat to society in more ways than one). Nicole Ramirez-Murray, a longtime San Diego lesbian leader who emerged as an important commentator on the The Cunanan case points out the need for crisis protocols; Coors sponsorship of Pride stirs up an old controversy (PP- 14-17) situation, skillfully and factually disputed these assertions, heading off a “spin” that could have damaged our long-term efforts toward equality and understanding. The unsensational question raised by this tragic situation is whether it opens up an opportunity to build more understanding between gay and straight America. As a gay political leader who works every day to build bridges between gay and straight communities, I constantly ask myself and others what needs to happen in this country to close the gap. How can we come together in times other than those of great threat? Is there opportunity for greater growth and understanding? What would that entail? Differences and conflicts between rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight have come to permeate U.S. political and social life. The differences in our everyday lives are no longer a stimulant for curiosity and exploration, but are rather the cause of anger and hatred. Every issue has become so highly politi cized and so thoroughly partisan that the country is seriously divided and polarized. It now takes a tragedy to bring us together, to bring the decency which is so fundamental to being human to the fore. The rest of the time we are busy being manipulated to distrust each other and to oppose each other. How do we overcome that distrust and resist that manipula tion? Ironically, the Cunanan tragedy may have shown us a little bit of the way. The queer community— which has shaped its politics by emphasizing its differences with straight people (and ended up isolated as a result)— found itself emphasizing its commonalty with the rest of the country, and we became closer for it. Perhaps there is a lesson here that all of us would do well to learn. Jim Mangia is a gay activist in California and the national secretary for the Reform Party. Some house hunters need to be shielded from the whole truth (p. 34)