march 5. 1999 * Just M it
PO LA RITY
E d it o r :
In the discussion of Phoenix Risings poten­
tial relationship with Network Behavioral
HealthCare Inc. (“Coming Clean," Just Out,
Feb. 5], our organization, the Office of C on­
sumer Technical Assistance, is mentioned as
supporting a speaker who teaches a counseling
method that “claims to cure homosexuality.”
This claim [made by activist Margaret
Deirdre O ’Hartigan at a public meeting] is
untrue.
The Office of Consumer Technical Assis­
tance is an affiliate of N B H C . We are a
rjO D S H
Q Q Q lO Q Q T )
M ir ia m G er sh o w
Resource and communication coordinator
Office of Consumer Technical Assistance
Portland
/unfe^a Just
Li
member went on an expedition to find out
if other water-soaked readers are also tired of this damn rain.
M ic h e l l e H a r r is
Portland
B r ia n M a r k i
Portland
Administrative services
assistant, Oregon
Human Society
Owner, Brian Marki
Framing
“Yes, definitely. I
can’t wait for summer
and Peacock in the
Park.”
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E ve L y o n s
statewide consumer-run outreach organiza­
tion— all employees of O C TA have received
mental health services for major mental illness­
es. Our mission is to increase mental health con­
sumer voice throughout the Oregon public
mental health system. To that end, we provide
monthly seed grant funding to consumers and
consumer-run groups for projects that increase
consumer empowerment and involvement
throughout the state.
One project that we partially funded was a
workshop by Janet Foner, called Take Charge of
Your Mind: Crisis Prevention and Listening Skills
for Community Leaders. This workshop focused
on common practices of peer counseling, such as
listening skills, creating a personal support net­
work, avoiding stress and overwork. There is
nothing in this workshop about sexual orienta­
tion or curing homosexuality. A staff person
from our office has attended Janet Foner’s train­
ing in the past and can attest to this fact.
The Office of Consumer Technical Assis­
tance has a mission of increased empowerment
and inclusion of all mental health consumers in
Oregon.
This includes lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transsexual mental health consumers. We would
not support or fund a project that was exclu­
sionary or homophobic in nature, as O ’Hartigan
attests in the article. That is antithetical to the
goals of our program.
A s far as the potential partnership between
N BH C and Phoenix Rising, I would encourage
Phoenix Rising to strongly consider this option
and not be swayed by false allegations about our
program. N BH C allows our program to operate
with full autonomy, while providing us with
needed fiscal and administrative support. It is a
beneficial partnership for both organizations
and I am confident Phoenix Rising could find
similar benefits in its own future partnership
with NBHC.
SPORTS M A SSAGE
rsu
else in high school, and certainly not anywhere
in the city, except in gay clubs, where we spent
all our time.
1 didn’t come out till college because 1 knew
1 liked boys and the concept of bisexuality was
continents away from my mind or the minds of
anyone I talked to about sexuality. When 1
returned to San Antonio a few years ago and
saw a “lesbian and gay community center,” I was
delighted. This is the city that up until a few
years ago never had a pride parade. They had a
quiet little please-don’t-beat-us-up picnic in a
park, but nothing else.
My perception of Portland is different. In
Portland, 1 have kissed women on the street;
there are rainbow flags everywhere. It feels safe
to he queer in this city. Not that it’s perfect—
there will always be assholes everywhere. But it
feels no less safe to he queer in this city than it
does to be a woman, or to be Jewish, and from
what I have been told, considerably more safe
than it is to be African American.
So I think a queer community center in Port­
land would be a waste of money— money that
perhaps would be better spent putting a queer
community center out in eastern Oregon, or in
Salem, where queers have less support, where it
appears to be less safe to be openly queer.
•
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