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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1999)
1 When an ordinary Realtor simply won \t do... ÏTTÎÜïïîTm n e w s W ord W ar A gay aide to Washington, D.C/s mayor gets the ax for using an offensive-sounding word the right way by Bob Roehr www.climbatree.com 933 SE 31st Ave. Portland, OR 97214 fT I office: 503-238-7617 L Ü BeALTOP* With an Eagle Eye for the Best Home Loans, We can find the right one for You! Let Logie Oiome Mortgage ta(g you under their lOing... First Time Buyers ♦ FHA/VA Loans ♦ Self-Employed Bankruptcies & Foreclosures ♦ Complicated Borrowers Investment Properties ♦ Credit Problems 3 % Down Programs ♦ Pre-approvols for Purchase W e handle a ll conforming and GAGE nonconforming loans. Call today for a free qualification over the phone Guine* tW«*. r £ kfrvc*. nOViaft0V. 4001 may°r’s office from . .w.Sah»r*n ÜÉ 503/698-5429 P ‘ ager 503/870-1666 r Christine C. Hall iMortgage Broker : President's Ciub he highest-ranking openly gay per rumors, ignorance, and slander, then any talk son in the administration of Wash about racial healing becomes a sham and a mockery. We are gravely disappointed by your ington, D.C., Mayor Anthony failure to exercise better leadership and judg Williams has resigned and the city ment in this matter.” is buzzing. The incident has wheeled through the press David Howard, 44, was the city’s public with multiple articles on successive days. advocate, or ombudsman— a post he held for Julian Bond, chairman of the National Asso only a matter of days. Howard, who is Caucasian, sparked a con ciation for the Advancement of Colored People, told The Associated Press: “This whole episode troversy by using the word “niggardly”— which means stingy or miserly— during a Jan. 15 staff speaks loudly to where we are on issues of race...imagined slights are catapulted to the meeting at which he was discussing budgetary front burner. You hate to think that you have to matters. He could see from the looks on the faces of his staff that some did not know the censor your language to meet other people’s lack meaning of the word. At least one staffer mis of understanding.” According to Reuters, media inquiries have took it for another “n” word— the unrelated poured in to the racist slur. Howard quickly apologized and tried to explain the definition of nig- . . flo«** î*60!®* 35 far away as Aus' '¡ £ * & J 5 ¡S£ ä ;r " ; r' * ____ tM im m rÆ -:: ru«'»1' — ten** » (JLa'gt* Q p r in n c C riW oenous Oieei Can't always make it to the gym ? Bring the dub home. Your Portland Delta Park 286-1292 Beaverton Town Square 644-0615 Clackamas Ross Center 659-4055 N O R TH W EST 1-800-659-0421 gardly, but the employee would have none of it and rushed from the room. Word soon spread that Howard had used a racist epithet. Howard offered his resignation on Jan. 25, saying the rumors had halted his ability to he effective. The mayor immediately accepted the resignation, calling it appropriate. Williams took office in early January. He was the technocrat reform candidate who, after liv ing in the city for only three years, swept past four sitting members of the City Council in the Democratic primary last September. He gar nered more than half the total votes cast. In November, he rolled over popular Republican council member Carol Schwartz by a 2-l mar gin. Both candidates had strong support from lesbians and gay men. Howard played a crucial role, coordinating efforts of the l ,600 volunteers in Williams’ cam paign. The lesbian and gay community was stunned by the resignation and Williams’ rapid accep tance. The situation was described as “appalling and deeply discouraging” in a Jan. 27 letter to the mayor drafted by Rick Rosendall, former president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance. The 22 community leaders signing the letter crossed all racial and political lines. “The facts have to count,” they wrote. “If we fail to distinguish between decent people and bigoted people, if we acquiesce in treating the former like the latter, then we send a poisonous message to the people of this city, not to men tion an illiterate message to our schoolchildren.” They continued: “If the facts don’t count, if a person can be driven out based solely on false ¿ofe neah' to Ge*M----- tralia, and calls from D.C. residents have been decidedly pro-Howard. “We mostly get calls from people who dis agree with the decision," mayoral spokeswoman Peggy Armstrong told the news service. “It does seem like there’s a lot of discussion around the issue. E. Ethelbert Miller is gay, a poet, and direc tor of Howard University’s African American Resources Center. He told The Washington Post: “I think that as a society we have to he a little more mature about our use of language. If a per son uses a word and apologizes for it, I don’t think that person should be chased out of office.” “The city has other problems besides how you spell a word or how you pronounce it,” he said. Keith Boykin, former executive director of the Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, echoes that view, saying, “The black communi ty and the gay community both need to become less sensitive to minor slights and focus on what is really important." Williams has initiated an investigation of the incident. He has also said that he has not ruled out appointing Howard to another position in his administration. The Washington Post suggested in an editorial that “if, in fact Mr. Howard did nothing wrong, the right thing to do is put him back in the job, with a little staff housecleaning to follow.” Howard, meanwhile, has issued a statement declining comment, other than to say, "The mayor has indicated that he is conducting an investigation. I have every reason to believe that the mayor will he fair in this matter.”