July 2, 1999 I— — 5
Q H out
T anya P luth
Portland
Where the boys aren’t
To
the
E d ito r :
As 1 looked through the schedule of events
for Portland pride this year, I noticed how this
year, as in all years, we have such a wonderfully
thorough lesbian pride festival.
I have a novel idea for Pride Northwest—
why not also include some events for gay men in
next year’s pride m onth— this might make
things better yet!
T om S oppe
Portland
Whose peace?
To
E ditor :
Carole Scholl’s letter in the June 4 issue of
Just Out urging support during gay pride for the
Gays and Lesbians for Peace is morally and
intellectually inadequate and even offensive.
Her concern for “the rights of people to live
in a peaceful society” would be more convincing
if it were not so outrageously selective. In her
litany of complaints about “children in Belgrade
sleeping in bomb shelters” and other costs of the
U.S.-NATO bombing campaign, there is not
one single word about the Kosovars and their
suffering, not one single word about the mass
expulsions, murders and rapes, the destruction
of houses and villages, that Slobodan Milosevic
and the Serbian authorities were carrying out
months before the NATO bombing began, not
one word about Milosevic’s 10-year record of
“ethnic cleansing” and ethnic war.
Effective work for peace requires more than
pious hand-wringing directed only at those like
NATO who are trying, however clumsily, to pre
vent the international crimes for which Milose
vic and his associates have now been formally
indicted. It requires moral and intellectual
courage to come to grips with the proper and
inevitable role of force in international rela
tions. It requires clear-eyed rather than one-eyed
judgment about the source of international
the
unrest and oppression—as opposed to the ideo
logical insistence of many in the peace move
ment on blaming all international ills on the
United States and the West. And it requires a
sober recognition that “peace” and “justice" in
the real international world may well be incom
patible, because working for justice may in fact
entail a sacrifice of peace, and working uncriti
cally for peace may mean a real sacrifice of jus
tice. Just ask any Bosnian or Kosovar who has
been victimized by Serbian nationalism in the
past 10 years.
Marvin Salles
Associate Broker
tel. 320-1271
SohnC.Scott
E d S egel
E-mail marvm@spiritone.com \
www.johnlscoUTcom/home/marvins/index2.htm
Portland
n o t a b le s
20 years marketing
negotiating experience • Multi-milium dollar producer
The Spirit off Pride
The Spirit of Pride Awards were handed out
during Portland’s annual pride festival on June
20. The honors, which have been distributed
annually by Pride Northwest Inc. since 1993,
recognize individuals and organizations for their
contributions within the queer community.
The 1999 recipients are: the Imperial Sover
eign Rose Court of Portland, a nonprofit organi
zation that raises money for various charitable
causes and scholarship funds, including the
Audria M. Edwards Scholarship Fund and
Esther’s Pantry; Babalou (Louanne Floding), a
past president of the ISRC board and the cur
rent board president of Esther’s Pantry, who has
worked on behalf of the sexual minorities and
HIV communities for two decades; Cliff Jones,
who has been active in the community since the
early 1980s, recently served as a consultant on
Pride Northwest’s Conversations Project, and is
a founding member of Brother to Brother in
Portland; and Holly Mulcahey, owner of It’s My
Pleasure, a Portland-based gift store that doubles
as a resource center for the queer community
and provides free meeting space for lesbian and
bi women’s social events.
Audria M. Edwards
Scholarship recipients
The recipients of the Audria M. Edwards
Scholarship were announced during the annual
Peacock in the Park, held June 27 in Portland’s
Washington Park.
The scholarships benefit sexual minority
adults and/or their children who are seeking to
further their education.
This year’s awardees are: Chelsea Bendele,
Orchid Cavett, Justin H. “Jay” Clark, Chris
Eglinton, Bobbi Jo Epperson, Justin Hovey,
Donna Johns, Chris Reynolds and Nancy
Slocum.
More school money
Nicole Hooper, a student pursuing an associ
ates of arts transfer degree at Portland Commu
nity College, is the recipient of the David Evans
Memorial Scholarship.
Boardroom news
Basic Rights Oregon has added new mem
bers to its board. They are: Paige Richardson, a
longtime political strategist, and queer youth
activists T. Dunn, 17, Lauryn Steele, 17, and
Zarah Walker, 18.
c o r r e c t io n
Just Out 's June 18 world news incorrectly
identifies Australia’s largest city. Sydney, which
is in New South Wales, is larger than Mel
bourne, which is in the state of Victoria. Just
Out regrets the error.
mmm
queer community, Davis invokes the self hate
and shame experienced by those of us who do
not fit into the racist, classist rhetoric of “good
taste, good manners, and good common sense.”
Assimilation is not the answer. W hile some
of us may be able to pass and benefit from con
forming, the rest of us will still be beaten,
harassed, thrown out of jobs and homes and
made to feel that the harassment we experience
is our own fault— i.e., if only we had employed
our sense of good taste, everything would be
OK.
The myth that we have control over how
others think about and perceive us has resulted
in the fracturing of our community, as commu
nity leaders decide that the best way to win in
politics is to sell out our most marginalized
groups. Why further the sense of alienation felt
by those who do not fit into the white, Christ
ian, middle-class model of the Queer American
dream?
I am disappointed with Davis’ rhetoric. I can
only hope that those who agree with Davis will
realize that they are simply perpetuating oppres
sion. Perhaps Davis should have followed her
own advice and exhibited better behavior before
writing an editorial advocating for the normalcy
of queerdom, as though our rights will grow
exponentially in proportion to the percentage of
us who keep our pants on during a pride parade.
Ellen DeGeneres, perhaps the most visible and
“normal” queer in this nation, kept her pants on
and still felt the wrath of homophobia. W hat
does that suggest to you?
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