Special hibernatioh section:
reviews of wonderful queer
novels and videos
Pages 37 and 40
P o r tla n d , O r e g o n
„
F R E E
A gay man’s
journey from
Kenya to the
United States, from
prejudice and fear
to acceotance
and pride
Page 23
Kahunya Wario
strolls through
downtown Portland
near his apartment;
the church bells no
longer toll for him
130X 00 llX>X<* I IN> Jf4CI IK I1>ZVW 7VK I WAG I W Att l*V /
Lanny Revisited
Nearly two years after law enforcement raids
at his home and business, the irrepressible
Mr. Swerdlow gets most of his stuff back
by
I nga S orensen
ook what they did!” exhorts Lanny
Swerdlow, as he signals to the chipped
door of his humble turquoise houseboat.
I Outside, geese skim about on water’s
edge, petitioning for a snatch of bread. It’s the day
before Christmas, and all appears composed in
this little marina community near Jantzen Beach.
The same, however, cannot be said for the
morning of April 30, 1998, when a torrent of sol-
dieresque figures smashed into Swerdlow’s abode
behind the force of a bat
tering ram.
Swerdlow spun out of
bed, befuddled and buck
naked.
“It was about eight
o’clock in the morning. I
had been sound asleep,”
recalls the 53-year-old
gay-rights and marijuana-
legalization advocate and
atheism booster, who says
Lanny Swerdlow
he heard no knock before
the clamorous intrusion ensued.
What appeared before Swerdlow, his partner
Victor Michel and their loquacious feline, Tubby,
was a daunting entity known as the Interagency
Sexual Exploitation Pro-active Enforcement
Team, a coterie of agents from the FBI, Oregon
State Police, Portland Police Bureau, the U.S.
Postal Service and U.S. Customs Service.
For the next six-plus hours, the crew scoured
through Swerdlow’s domicile as well the Rage, his
queer-oriented, all-ages dance club huddled in
downtown Portland.
The team was purportedly sniffing about for
child pornography. (The affidavits supporting the
federal search warrants remain sealed, so
Swerdlow isn’t quite sure what— or who— is the
target.)
What is certain is that the splintering of the
door sparked a fresh chapter in the “law enforce
ment vs. Lanny Swerdlow” saga.
By dusk, agents would tow away a truckload of
computer and video equipment and hundreds of
videocassettes.
Continued on Page 8