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Lanny Swerdlow (left) and Victor Michel cuddle their cat, Tubby
assistance of the Metropolitan Human Rights
Commission. He claimed Portland police, as well
as city and county officials, had “systematically
harassed, deceived and perpetuated falsehoods
about the City Nightclub in their attempts to
close the club because of the sexual orientation
of the majority of the club’s clientele.”
Swerdlow not only charged Portland police
with harassment, he also alleged that police offi
cials violated a partnership agreement signed in
1992 by then-Pol ice Chief Tom Potter and
Swerdlow.
The agreement called upon the parties to
work cooperatively to keep the club clean and
safe, and to identify problems involving poten
tial criminal activities at the club and to arrest
the offenders.
Swerdlow said he was never informed about
any problem until he received written notice
that the city of Portland was taking legal action.
Police officials said the agreement was not a
contract and therefore not binding.
Swerdlow also told MHRC that when prob
lems involving gang violence had arisen at
Quest, an all-ages Portland club with a primari
ly heterosexual clientele, police worked with the
venue’s management to control the situation.
“The police are willing to help the manage
ment of a straight club,” he said, “but will not
work with the management of a gay club. It is
pure and simple discrimination based on the
sexual orientation of the club’s owner and clien
tele.”
Recognizing that police would never leave
his club alone, in 1997 Swerdlow agreed to shut
down the City Nightclub, which was ensconced
in the cement jungle of the Pearl District near
Powell’s City of Books.
However, with saucy resilience, Swerdlow
skipped across West Burnside Street, down a few
blocks, and opened what was originally called
Evolution, later renamed the Rage, which also
attracted queer kids. Besides dancing, the Rage
was home to four cable access television shows,
whose content focused on atheism, cannabis
legalization and gay issues.
Law enforcement soon went after the Rage,
and several months later Swerdlow sold the
establishment, now called Misfits.
As for another gay club’s more recent prob
lems with the Oregon Liquor Control Commis
sion and police, Swerdlow says: “The only thing
I can say about that is I’m not surprised, and
what always bothered me was, even though I
called up a lot of the other club owners, nobody
publicly came to my support—they were all
afraid.
“And the thing is, if you don’t come to the
support of somebody else who is being attacked,
you’re next in line, and they don’t realize that,
and that’s what I think has happened with the
Embers—and it could happen to any of the
other clubs if the police want to go after them,”
he continues. “If you don’t kiss their ass, they
can come after you. You think they can’t walk
into any club in the city of Portland and find
drugs? Of course they can.”
Swerdlow says gay organizations such as
Phoenix Rising Foundation also failed to come
to his defense.
Why? “Jealousy. I attracted more gay and les
bian youth in one weekend than they attracted
in an entire year, with all their seminars and
youth groups and everything like that, and they
hated that,” he says. “They would throw these
events and they would have 10 people show up
and thought it was a major success. I’d throw an
event and if I didn’t have 150 it would be a
flop.”
Swerdlow says the rumors and allegations
about child pornography are baseless, and that
he has never engaged in the production of kid
die pom.
“Those rumors have always been there
because it’s that [myth] that if you deal with gay
and lesbian youth you must be a pedophile.
That’s why a lot of gay people are afraid to deal
with kids. But I’ve heard it so much I just grew
used it. But the police bureau believed it back in
1980 and they believe it today, and that’s why
they went to the FBI."
He adds: “I don’t know what the Portland
Police Bureau thinks. When it comes to me they
don’t deal rationally anymore. I think the FBI
was duped by the Portland police.”
When Swerdlow sold the Rage, the contract
included a noncompete clause, which prohibits
him from opening a competing business any
time soon, anywhere close.
Swerdlow estimates it’s another three-plus
years before he could open a new Rage-like
venue.
“Would I do it again? 1 don't know. I’m not
as young as I used to be, and it takes a lot of
energy. I’m not sure I want to put that much
energy into anything but retirement,” explains
Swerdlow, who nonetheless adds: “You got to
remember that running these clubs has been an
absolute blast.... And then there were the kids
who confided in me that they had once consid
ered suicide but didn’t have those feelings any
more because they had a place to go—well,
that’s pretty heady stuff.”
■ For questions or comments about Just Out’s
Northwest, national or world news coverage, please
send an e-mail to News Editor I n g a SORENSEN at
inga@justout.com.
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