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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2000)
march 1 7 .2 0 0 0 » G U EST C O M M E N TA R Y The by IN publication for the OUT population F o unded 1983 • J ay B row n a n d R en ee L a C hance V o l . 17 N o . 10 M a r c h 1 7 , 2 0 0 0 This time, it's personal FEATURE Well-known former Portlander explains why an upcoming march speaks to her SETTING DOWN AND DIRTY: Whatever your gardening challenge, professional help abounds in the queer community pp 23-27 NEWS NORTHWEST* Betty DeGeneres to speak at Linfield College in McMinnville; BRO to assemble activist network; Oregon queers lobbying for immigration bill; new substance abuse treatment program up and running in Portland; LCP is listening and learning; monthly column the Queer Profit pp 6-15 NATIONAL • Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund hosts queer political elite; California voters approve anti-gay-marriage Knight initiative pp 17-19 WORLD • Only gay bar in Belarus shut down after dispute with government; Israel grants residency to foreign partners of two gay citizens pp 20-21 E N T E R T A IN M E N T & CULTURE TREATER* Jeff Cone costumes the cast p 35 DOORS* Judith Barrington bares her soul; Portland author profiles gay screenwriter pp D onna R ep W ing 37-38 GROUPS* Forest Group: dykes who hike P 39 ing for the paperwork to be delivered to the hospital, Annie died. Alone. n many ways, marches are nothing new to those who have spent The funeral home would not allow Carol to arrange the funeral. Carol time organizing for social justice and civil rights. In my younger was forced to call Annie’s ex-husband, who graciously arranged the funer years, I marched for peace. A s an adult, I organized a march across the entire state of Oregon as part of the efforts to stop anti-gay big al that Carol dictated. In 1995, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was dangerous and otry and discrimination. And I have marched on our nation’s capi incredibly frightening. The night before I was to be admitted to the hos tal with hundreds of thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans people and pital could have been my last. I wanted to tell Sumitra all the things I our allies. needed to tell her. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to spend time with my I have spent my life fighting for what I believe is right. As part of that dogs. And I wanted to savor the things and the people fight, I have marched. And while my commitment to I loved. None of us knew how I would, or even if I social justice for our entire community has never would, emerge from surgery. wavered, never before has my marching been so focused Instead, we spent that last night with our lawyer. I on my life and the love of my life, Sumitra. This march had to make decisions about property. Sumitra had no is different. This time, it’s profoundly personal. rights as my family or spouse. I had to decide, that I began to work seriously on the issue of marriage in night, when and if to stop lifesaving endeavors. I had to 1994, as the national field director of the Gay and make decisions about my care. And the last thing I had Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. I attended some to decide was how to dispose of “the body”— my body— of the first national marriage roundtables, working with if I died. extraordinary people like Evan Wolfson, Donald Suggs, That night, in a most profound and visceral manner, Jim Key, Billy Kahn and Sky Johnson. It was an issue that I understood that I was, at best, a second-class citizen. had, for me, moved from the political to the personal. And until Sumitra and I had all the rights and respon A few years before, my partner Sumitra and I met a sibilities of marriage, we would continue to be treated as lesbian couple in Oregon. I’ll call them Annie and Carol. somehow less than. Together for 15 years, they adored each other. They were Donna Red Wing Because I cannot marry the woman I love. Because older, smart and had the means to develop— with their lawyers— powers of attorney, living wills and all the things we need to pro Annie died alone. Because our relationships are just as sacred and just as magical as anyone else’s, I am marching in Washington on April 30, 2000. tect our rights because we cannot legally marry. And I’ll be marching with Sumitra. One Memorial Day weekend, they had driven their new camper to the mountains. The day after they were to return home, Carol called to say ■ DONNA R ed W in g is the director of the Gill Foundation's OutGivmg that Annie had died. Project and co-chair of the Millennium March on Washington's board of direc They had returned home, flush with the excitement of their camping tors. trip. Annie was in the shower. Carol was reading in bed. She heard a For many years, Red Wing and her partner lived in Portland, where she crashing sound and ran into the bathroom to see that Annie had fallen. served as director of the Lesbian Community Project, in 1992, she was named She was unconscious. The Advocate’s Woman of the Year, due largely to her work against Ballot The hospital refused to allow Carol to be with Annie. She was not family, they said. While Carol was on the phone with her lawyers, arrang Measure 9, an anti-gay initiative that was ultimately rejected by Oregon voters. I A R T * Mar Goman has strange angels p 40 FILMS • Reviews of Erin Brvckovich and new video release The Brandon Teena Story p 41 DIVERSIONS • Funny girl Suzanne Westenhoefer comes to Oregon; get decked out for the Oscars and a good cause P 43 CO LU M N S ROMANCE MflTI EMPRESS M IS IA • Queen of hearts hands out loving advice p 33 00TW0RD • Gunning for safety P 45 Ju st out ii pubUahed on the fir*« and third Friday of each month. Gipynght © 2000 hy Ju st o a t N o part i >t Ju st out may he reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The aubmiaaion of w ritten and graphic m aterial* ia welcomed. Written matenal should he typed and double-spaced. 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