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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2000)
• a p fM 7.2 Û Û Q 6 f7 ïïT ïT 7 !îW 5 T ïn e u > s KA'CHING! Continued from the cover F DIonrhwesT or those fairly new to Oregon or too young to remember, 1991 and 1992 were emo tionally and politically charged years when it came to lesbian and gay rights. There had yet to be any serious discussion of same-sex marriage; the explosion of companies and governments offering domestic partner ben efits hadn’t yet occurred; Melissa Etheridge and Ellen DeGeneres were still tucked away in their closets. The anti-gay O C A , headed by Lon Mabon, snagged a scorching issue when it latched onto gay rights and began promoting Measure 9—a statewide initiative that sparked worldwide media attention, prompted a rally of 10,000 opponents in Pioneer Courthouse Square, spawned a bizillion “No on 9” buttons and “He was very angry and grabbed my arm and told me to leave.... He pushed me several times, until he had pushed me out of the room where the video was playing. Once we were in the next room, he grabbed me from the back, picked me up off the ground and slammed me into the side of a partition. He then threw me to the floor and wrenched my right arm over my head, Stauffer recounted in the pages of Just Out. He then dragged me in that position...out the door and into the street. He then left me and returned inside. He and Bill Casey quickly shut and locked the door. 1 left with a ripped skirt and an injured shoulder. 1 called the police. Not only that, she sued. A few weeks after the incident, Stauffer filed a civil suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Lively and the Oregon Citizens Alliance. (A Multnomah Coun ty deputy district attorney had declined to press criminal charges in the incident.) Stauffer sought damages of at least $350,000 from Lively and manhandled her, Stauffer remembers the inci- dent clearly, as well as the subsequent trial. “The O C A ’s attorney made me stand up in the courtroom and have everyone assess whether I looked gay,” she recalls. “It was humil iating. I was so upset.” Over the years, Stauffer and her attorney, Bradley Woodworth, have monitored the OCA and Lively, both o f whom, says Woodworth, maintained they didn’t have the money to pay the judgment. Nearly five years ago, Lively wrote a book titled The Pink Swastika, which argued that “homosexuality was a central element of the fas cist system.” A n August 1995 flier touting the book informed folks they could “make a tax- deductible donation to support the Lively fami ly while Scott goes through law school. Scott "H e was very angry and grabbed m y arm and told me to l e a v e . . . . He pushed me several times, until he had pushed me out o f the room where the video was playing. Once we were in the next , room he grabbed me from the back, picked me up o ff the ground a n d slamm ed me into the side o f a partition. He then threw me to the floor and wrenched m y right arm over m y head." .WHH.300CLUB.COM _ — Catherine Stauffer c.S« ^ 055 3272 ECK * 055 RE/MAX C O . . - - V S ignature P avtow * W aoODWOR’. ■ ................................................... ................. o ° c T S I t P r o p e r t ie s ! t\ the O C A for physical injuries and psychological trauma. bumper stickers, rocket ed reports of hate crimes, and flushed oodles of queers out of the closet and into activism. Even by objective standards, it was pretty intense. One year later, the case went Catherine Stauffer on a recent, more peaceful afternoon to trial and a Portland jury ulti mately ruled that Lively used unreasonable force has been accepted at Simon Greenleaf College in ejecting Stauffer. of Law in California to begin classes this fall- The court held him and the O C A liable for The Lively home church, Sheridan Assembly of damages totaling more than $31,000. The Ore God, has established a special fund for our sup atherine Stauffer was 22 in October 1991. gon Court of Appeals upheld the award in late port while we go through this program. We will She was also a free-lance photographer December 1993. send a copy of The Pink Swastika to our support who sometimes handled assignments for Just Despite that, Stauffer hasn’t seen a dime— ers for a suggested $25.” Out. until now, that is. Woodworth calculated when he thought She first became interested in photographing Lively was set to graduate from law school, then the O C A while she was shooting a “pro-war” L I i Inga, this Catherine Stauffer, the pho- posted a letter to the California Bar Association rally in downtown Portland. * i ,_. c cc , | ^ * tngrapher who won the lawsuit against informing it of Lively’s outstanding judgment in At the demonstration, Stauffer encountered Scott Lively and the O CA. I’m calling to let you Oregon. one of die OCAs adherents the two. says Stauf- know that I just received my first payment from Soon after, Stauffer received her first large fer. spoke of the conflict in the Persian Gulf, and Scott Lively-for $10.000-which he is suppos - installment of the $21,000 owed to her by Live then the woman spoke of a wat going on right edly paying because he just graduated from law ly— a big, fat $9,900 check. (Lively sent $100 in here in Oregon-one that pitted tuor normal school and can’t practice with this judgment folks against nmhtam homosexuals.” She hand- hanging over his head." judgment December.) “It’s certainly gratifying," says Woodworth, ed Stauffer an O C A flier. The message was left on my voice mail on ‘i t shows that persistence pays.” Stauffer described her relationship with the March 28, 2000. According to Stauffer, Lively has agreed to O C A in Just Out's November 1991 issue: “By I haven’t spoken with Stauffer in years. The pay off the judgment within two years, in two telephone, by mail and by making an occasion O C A in its current form is a comparatively more installments. al appearance at its events, I tned to learn as withered organization; Lively has gone to the “1 always knew this day would come, she much about its members as I could. My intent o n State with golden plans of becoming an says. “ I always knew that they knew I was out was to produce a series of photographs to be *ttoniey, a Christian “legal missionary.” Gay here." published.” nghts issues at least in O regon-^lon’t seem to Stauffer even received one of the special tngger the same hysterical response of days past. ■ For questions or comments about Just OufS invites to the Gay Pride ! premiere. She wan- Stauffer is now 31. She was 23 when she won Northwest, national or world news coverage, please dered into the Foursquare Church and ran into the civil award. send an e-mail to News Editor I nga S orensen at a roadblock known as Scott Lively. While it’s been nearly a decade since Lively mgd&justout.ccm. C can Y O U ... paint, tile, refinish hardwoods, do minor handy w ork? You can profit up to $10,000 by buying a fixer and reselling it on the m arket within a few months. Call me to discuss “flipping properties" as an investment. 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