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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1998)
1 2 ju st Mat * (une 19.1998 mwiiineivs M edia M oments From mysteriously disappearing Just Outs to national magazines and fabulous fashion sense, queer news abounds nationally, locally, and in the trash by Inga Sorensen ADVANCED IMPRESSIONS , ' *>< " < & ; ; v:-.-:. >.•: x ./ T * ' .......... . V ............... ».• A . AA... : ............................... Advertising and Marketing Specialists Custom: * T-shirts * Screen Printing Embroidery * Business Gifts * Trade Shows 7 K Employee Awards 7K Apparel Full Service Advertising Specialties & Premiums Serving our community for 10 years Call: ( 503 ) 239-7047 1 - 888 - 505-2028 O regon P ublic T rashing L upset by the mysterious disappearances of Just Out, as well as management’s response. During a June 16 conversation, Rotich told Just Out she was initially asked by concerned employees to keep the situation “low-key,” hence the nonspecific nature of the April 24 memo. (Gonzales denies Rotich was asked to go low-key.) “I think it’s time to be more specific,” says Rotich. “We tried outlining general rules, but now 1 think we have to mention Just Out specif ically.... We have to be more aggressive.” isa Gonzales used to enjoy grabbing a Just Out from the stack in the Oregon Public Broadcasting lunchroom. After all, it was how Gonzales— and several other lesbian and gay employees— kept up on queer happenings. “Som eone recently asked, ‘W hen’s gay pride?’ And we didn’t know and couldn’t even check Just Out,” explains the 36-year-old master control operator for OPB’s television section. It’s not that Just Out isn’t regularly delivered to OPB; it is, and has been for quite some time. But Gonzales, who has been with the station rom inancial dvice for three years, began noticing weird things hap to ashion dvice pening to copies of Just Out at OPB. Most notably, copies of the paper were becoming loreid Walker was just out enjoying a harder and harder to come by. Portland gallery walk with a couple of gay “I always used to lcx)k forward to seeing them male friends during a recent First Thursday. in our lunchroom,” she says. Walker, a longtime lesbian activist and a familiar face in Just Out ads (Waddell &. Reed During the past several months, she would check for new issues and often come up empty- Financial Services), was looking sharp: black handed. One day, she looked in a recycling bag pantsuit, cream silk blouse, gold pin at the neck, and found a stack of recently distributed Just black cufflinks. Outs. “ But it was the vest that really made the out “It was a brand new stack,” she says. “So 1 fit,” says Walker, who describes the vest design dug them out and put them back.” as a cream, black and gold brocade. “ It’s quite Not long after, she noticed the stack missing something.” again and looked in the recycling bag, only to So there she was, going about her business find them buried again. when a woman runs up to her and says, “You’re “So I dug them out again,” she says. “It was dressed like the type of person we’d like in our definitely deliberate.” article.” According to Gonzales, this happened fre It was an Oregonian fashion writer who was quently over many months, prompting her to pulling together profiles of selected people and approach O P B ’s human resources director, their respective styles. Debbie Rotich. “1 told her what was happening. She agreed it was wrong and said she’d look into it,” Gonzales reports. A month went by, Gonzales says, and she heard nothing back. She even tually sent a missive about the problem to the union and to management. “I said OPB was condoning [the trashing actions] by not doing anything about it,” she says. Gonzales says Rotich finally, after copious prodding, issued an April 24 memo to staff, which read: “The employee lunchroom is for everyone’s use. Let’s go over some common rules of courtesy that apply: If you make a mess, clean it up. This includes eating materi als, tables, microwave, etc. “If you post materials on the bulletin board, remove it when it is no longer timely. “ Books in the lenders’ library— remember to return them so others may enjoy. “Newspapers: Don’t take sections of the Oregonian out of the lunchrcxim— it’s for people’s use in the lounge. “Leave the Oregonian in some semblance of Next thing Walker knows, a photographer is order, makes it easier for the next reader. snapping shots, and she’s talking fashion sense. “Don’t toss other newspapers out— they’re “Dress for success, that’s my fashion philoso placed in the lounge for everyone’s use; while phy,” says Walker. “I told the writer I was a you may not want to read a particular newspa financial advisor and needed to look successful. per, others may.” She then asked me if I was successful and I said, "It was a totally inadequate response,” says ‘Well, yes.’ ” Gonzales. “It didn’t even mention Just Out or Walker landed in the June 14 Sunday anything about what was going on.” Oregonian. For a few weeks the problem seemed to dis “ It was totally spontaneous. The reporter appear, “but it now seems to be happening didn’t know me or know about my political again," Gonzales says. involvement," she says. “It was all about fash She adds that several other employees are ion.” F F F M ags T out Q ueer P ortland P ortland landed on the queer media map a couple of times in June via nationally- distributed magazines. Perhaps most notable was the Rose City’s selection by Out as one of its “ 10 choice cities to call home.” A A F it.» with 0 »r1 n t**r» The spotlight was not unexpected, however. In our April 3 issue, we told you an Out free lancer from New York City was in town to get a taste of queer Portland. Bruce Shenitz, who had not previously been to the Pacific Northwest, had dropped down from his perusal of Seattle, another top 10 gay spot. While in Portland, he was wined and dined by attorney Hala Gores, president of the Portland Area Business Association, and other PABA members, at Zefiro on Northwest 21st Avenue. He met with the Rev. Roy Cole, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Portland, and he visited the Portland Police Bureau, Mayor Vera Katz’s office, Powell’s Books and a handful of other locales. Shenitz’s report doesn’t offer much in the way of substantive info about queer Portland, rather it’s mostly tidbits— some of which have no queer-specific implications at all. For instance, he mentions that the “beautiful Mount Tabor Park contains the only extinct volcano within the limits of a U .S. city.” T hat’s interesting in an encyclopedic kind of way, but what does it have to do with queers’ supposed attraction to Portland? (Perhaps one could concede that lots of gay men, lesbians, bisexual and trans folk bike, hike and roam the sprawling park with their unleashed dogs.) Among the other benefits to being queer here? According to Out, “you can use your Seattle wardrobe." The other tapped cities are: the perennial favs Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco; the not-too-surprising A tlanta and Minne- apolis-St. Paul; and in the “who knew.7" catego ry, Durham, N .C., Columbus, Ohio, and Las Vegas. Portland also landed on the queer map— lit erally— in the June issue of Girlfriends, a slick monthly which focuses on lesbian culture, poli tics and entertainment. The publication features a two-page spread that includes a map of the United States and lit tle queer snippets about each state. Seattle and Olympia get the mentions for