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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
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RE/MAX
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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
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