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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1997)
10 ▼ d a c c m b tr 5 , 1 0 0 7 T ju st ou t J U Homestead Stove Co. national news Beautiful heat, without electricity ...since 1977. Gas, Wood & Pellet Advice and Full Service from Hearth Experts Stoves & Fireplaces • o NGLTF’s annual conference is a time for queer politicos to meet, strategize—and sometimes wrangle Free In-Home Estimates • Full Installation Custom Fireplace Surrounds 503-282-3615 360-256-2465 Time for change by Rex Wockner 2729 NE BROADWAY, PORTLAND WWW.HOMESTEADSTOVE.COM • EMAIL: INFO@HOMESTEADSTOVE.COM TABOR PLORI57 Serving Portland and its suburban areas with unsurpassed quality and service 4848 SE Division St. Portland, OR 97206 7819 SE Stark St. Portland, OR 97215 236-4119 256-2920 o ore than 2,000 gay, lesbian, bi Wolfson adds, “We’ll have a range of chal sexual and trans activists de lenges but also unbelievable opportunities to en scended on an uncharacteristically gage non-gay people in support of our families chilly and wet San Diego for the and our equality, and to really have people under stand what this discrimination has meant and why National Gay and Lesbian Task it should held end.” Force’s 10th Creating Change conference, Nov. 12-16. Even if, as threatened, Hawaii’s voters and They attended 150 workshops and training Legislature amend the state Constitution to pro sessions as the ongoing battle between gay-male hibit same-sex marriage, logistics will prevent sex activists and so-called neo-cons bubbled them from doing so until after same-sex marriage around them. has been legal for several months. “It’s a conference for activists or people who “Our job is to make that [amendment] not happen by getting in there and fighting,” Wolfson want to know what’s happening in the gay com munity,” says NGLTF spokesman Mark Johnson. says. “If, however, this constitutional amendment proposal is ratified by the voters, one question is, “They come here, they meet each other, they learn what will the Legislature do? The actual amend from each other, they share, and they go back I ment proposal says that hopefully a lot more em powered, a lot stronger, the Legislature shall a lot more knowledge have the power—though not the obligation— to re able.” I strict marriage. So it’s In the cyberized ’90s, not automatically clear the conference is also a what would happen.” time to match faces with He says even if re e-mail addresses, says strictive legislation is ul Don Romesburg, publi timately approved, “it’s cations manager for the T ': T . T • m very clear that our legal Gay and Lesbian Alli position would be that ance Against Defama people who are married tion. are married, and what “Especially since the ever the subsequent Internet, we all work so change in law that may closely together and yet occur as to who can then we don’t really know get married, it would not each other, and I think £ take away the validity of it’s a way to bring our % those lawful marriages.” community closer to \ s The co n feren ce’s gether as persons instead ir other spicy topic was the of names,” he says. “ ongoing fight between NGLTF Executive o New York’s Sex Panic! Director Kerry Lobel 4 group and its supporters adds, “This is the most incredible political gath- Kerry Lobel on the one hand, and gay authors Michelangelo Signorile, Gabriel Rotello ering and party every year. It is just such a tapestry and Larry Kramer and their supporters on the of every idea and issue that is facing our commu other. nity.” Sex Panic! says gay men are under renewed With an impending court ruling, it’s no sur attack from some outside and within the gay prise that same-sex marriage was a hot topic. community seeking to curtail gay men’s sexual “The participants in the marriage workshops expression. (See related story on next page.) were really high-caliber,” says Evan Wolfson, A daylong Sex Panic! Summit explored the director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education issue in detail from the sex-activists’ point of Fund’s Marriage Project. “People were very mo view, while an NGLTF town meetingon the topic tivated, very into it. (There was a] good exchange at times degenerated into a shouting match about of views from state and national perspectives, so I actually am in a really good mood, really en “barebacking,” the deliberate decision to have anal sex without condoms. joyed it, it was very productive.” Keynote speakers at this year’s Creating Wolfson is in a good mood for another reason, Change conference included lesbian California too. He and other court watchers speculate that state legislator Sheila Kuehl, National Latino/a same-sex marriage will soon be legal in Hawaii. Lesbian and Gay Organization Executive Direc “We’re going to sec a decision from the Ha waii Supreme Court—possibly as early as De tor Martin Ornelas-Quintero, youth activist Roland Sintos Coloma, and dyke author Dorothy Allison, cember, almost certainly sometime this winter— who wrote Bastard Out of Carolina. and at that point same-sex couples will be able to Next year’s conference is scheduled to be held get married and we will enter into the next phase in Pittsburgh. of this struggle,” he says. M r; ■ ‘T H oH ttw cila, “7fte<zrt& <7ttouCdc*ty& PLUS Redwood Cedar Fencing Decking • Windows • Doors • Custom Milling • Custom Cutting Montavilla Lumber Company ‘T H sH t& U û U tl ' 7 H & X 4 UI Just Out on 102nd & NE Glisan 254-5571 10301 NE Glisan • Portland OR • 97220 I s i l i : just out welcomes Letters to the Editor (Letters should be limited to 500 words, typed and double-spaced.) PO Box 14400, Portland, OR 97293-0400 Fax: (503) 236-1257 ▼ E-mail: JustOut2@aol.com