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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1999)
<m 0 * + 0 ’ \* m ' P JW L lo u t P w x N ccthu / b t mestNn G ay . U miak . B i . T havs June 19th a 2011 Waterfront Park 1969 1999 Revolutlon/Evolutlon PRIDE NORTHWEST THANKS OUR COMMUNITY FOR A WONDERFUL CELEBRATION OF PRIDE ’99 Everyone's involvement is important and we appreciate all you have done. Special thanks are due to the following randomly ordered volunteers/contributors: Brig / Boxxes / Panorama / Fish Grotto— Dan Zilka, Ron Mitchell, Hobie Pearson Rose Empress XXXVIII Misha Rockafeller Scandals—special thanks to Munro Rainbows— Rex Cahey Balloons on Broadway—for the balloon arch BD Consulting—Bill Dickey Portland Creative Design & Marketing—Michael Mickow Access Ability Willamette Week Puneh Adabkhah Paula Elliott Darcelle XV & Co. Krystal Lynn, The Embers Extasis Rose City Softball Association Rainbow Flava Potter's House Ministries— Drak Druella Oregon Public Employees’ Union—Lavender Caucus Lesbian Community Project Pink Flamingo Bingo—Mary Schutten Gay and Lesbian Archive of the Pacific Northwest Portland ADAPT—Ellen Green* law and Rick Berger Powell's Books Take One Productions— Scott Cummins DLux Printing—Carl Hayes Independent Living Resource Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom International Women's Day Portland Parks and Recreation—Bob Gandolfi John Brodie Borders Books and Music Portland Leather Alliance— Ruth, Morgan, Deb, Alex, Michael, Jenn, Pupp Robin and Roger Wiggin Dot Hearn Queers and Allies (PSU) Disabled Students Union (PSU) Ron Rasmussen—for the Color Guard Roxanne Nimer Greg and Michael Wendy Timmons Linda Kliewer LC and Ari Jack Roz and Bev Snickers LaBarr Emily Simon Poison Waters City of Portland— Cynthia Warren Portland Police Bureau, Chiefs Office and Traffic Division Portland Police Bureau, Reserve Division Multnomah County Sheriffs Office, Reserve Division Northwest Native—Dennis Climaldi Kevin Weiche West Hollywood Cheerleaders CHEER San Francisco Alice DiMicele Lesbian Avengers Heather Flanagan Tamara Swan Just Out All the bucketeers who helped collect donations Pub crawl bars: JOQ's, Egypt* ian Room, Starky’s, Koke* pelis Choice, Extasis, Dirty Duck, Fox 'n' Hounds, Hobo's, CC Slaughters, Scandals.Boxxes /Brig/ Panorama, The Eagle. And all the writers, poets, per formers, speakers, inter preters, and volunteers who participated during PRIDE *99. We sincerely regret any omis sion of names. Please know that you are appreciated even if you are not listed here. Pride Northwest also thanks every organization which participat ed with a booth or a parade contingent. And finally, we thank the following corporate and business spon sors for their generous support: Financial Advisors üfäläF ^¡¡Jf ju s trn ro Debate rages on To the E ditor : The Lesbian Avengers would like to thank Marty Davis for her editorial suggesting that we make pride more respectable (“Your Grandm a Is Watching. Keep Your Pants O n," Just Out, June 4). We at the Avengers couldn t agree more that what is important about pride is not celebrating our own unique culture; it is making us pre sentable” to straights. In fact, gays can learn a lot from straight people. Our goal should be to emu late them as much as possible if we want that all- important corporate job or marriage license. A s a group, isn’t the goal of gays to gain a seat at the table, because really, the only difference between us and straights is who we love? We should abandon drag queens, queers in leather, those embarrassing dykes on bikes. These would just confuse grandma and grandpa, and our goal is not to live our lives as we choose, it is to con form to their traditional notions of “family val ues.” Instead, why not parade our stock portfo lios, Log Cabin Republicans and lesbians with BMWs? Our straight grandmas would surely be impressed by that. The Lesbian Avengers have seen the error of our ways. N o more eating fire, no more street theater around queer bashing, no more getting in the face of those who want to take away our rights. Instead, we will take out our piercings, put on our shirts, and head to the state Capitol in our business suits (blue of course) and politely ask our legislators to give us our rights, because after all, we’re just like them. We won’t hold the hands of our girlfriends, because we know Aunt Mary doesn’t understand and that would just be flaunting it. We’ll laugh at those racist, sexist, misogynist jokes of our co-workers, because we don’t want to be seen as radical dykes who just can’t take a joke. Assimilation all the way. Bush in 2000! T he L esbian A vengers Portland To the E ditor : Thanks to Marty Davis for her editorial regarding our behavior at pride events. Although some may throw slams about free speech and acceptance, there are many impor tant points to keep in mind, including the fact that most people want to be able to invite their families and children to pride. One issue, however, has not been m en tioned. It deals with the legality of public nudi ty. If it is illegal to take one’s clothes off in a pub lic forum, why would we support that action in a pride event? I enjoy going to festivals where nudity is an expected and acceptable behavior. I believe the human body is beautiful, but nudity for its shock value is not beautiful to me. Displays of inap propriate behavior to gain attention are not appreciated by many individuals who wanted to visit with friends, listen to music, explore the many booths and celebrate the acceptance we have worked so hard to gain. There are individuals in our community who are a bit more conservative, but that does not mean we advocate violating free speech or free dom of expression. D onna L uckett Glaxo-Wellcome Agouron Hawthorne Auto Clinic Widmer Brewing Company Bristol-Meyers Squibb Portland To the E ditor : I was appalled by your editorial imploring the community to have “good taste and manners” at this year’s gay pride festival. There are so many flaws in this diatribe that I scarcely know where to begin. Your call to change should be directed at the media, which covers the parade in what you purport to be an unbalanced way. T h is is a systemic problem with the media and not one specific to gay commu nity coverage (the “ if it bleeds, it leads" mental ity). To suggest to the comm unity we should put on our Sunday best because of the unbalanced media coverage has sadly missed the mark of the real problem. Let us com plain to the media out lets and dem and balanced coverage, and not sti fle ourselves instead. T h e fact is, our communi ty is made up o f a virtual rainbow of people, and that is what gives us strength. You miss the point on another score. While some queer people may “bare their breasts, wear a G-string and show their bountiful buttocks," so do thousands o f straight people at celebra tions such as Mardi G ras and spring break fes tivities. Many people in our comm unity make plenty of accom m odations to the straight world— which you so desperately think we need to impress— in their daily lives. Let’s have one day a year in which we can live fully as ourselves, in whatever beautiful, funky, sexy, bare-breasted or, yes, even suit-wearing m anifestation that may take. In addition, while you are imploring others to put on their "best behavior,” you publish in your very newspaper ads for sex lines, bathhous es, escort services, com plete with sexually sug gestive photographs. I believe these ads should be in Just O ut, and I am in no way advocating their removal, but your hypocrisy is amusing. B ob B asque Portland To the E ditor : Kudos to Marty Davis for her June 4 editori al. I have lived in Portland now for 11 years, and have attended alm ost every pride parade and festival since m oving here. Although I am all for freedom of speech, I agree that we are m aking a statem ent to the rest o f the country during our pridefest, and it is important to make it a positive one. Here we are, alm ost the year 2000, and we as a community are still fighting for our basic rights. If the world sees us acting crazy and show ing off, it just makes it that much harder to move forward. W hen we finally have an outlet like gay pride, and the world is watching, we should be a little more discreet. T h at way, when we are out there fighting to get the rights we deserve, maybe we will be seen as human beings rather than those dam n fags and dykes running around downtown. We can, after all, act crazy and silly every other day o f the year. Maybe this one day a year should be som ething that we can all be proud to be a part of. A n d then, we can show the rest of the world just how incredible our gay communi ty really is. Talk about pride. N ow that would really give us som ething to celebrate. D avid M. C ochell Portland To the E ditor : Marty Davis’ call to put pride back into pride day by employing “good taste, good manners and good com m on sense” frightens and sickens me. W hat qualifies as good taste? G ood manners? G ood comm on sense? W ho gets to define what is implied by the use o f these seemingly agree able terms? G ood manners, good taste and g<**l common sense strike me as being code words for white, Christian and middle class. By asking queers to tone ourselves down and by saying that this toning down is what is best for the