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A tiny enclave in eastern Oregon has a new—and openly gay—member of its city council
ichland, Ore., lies 39 miles east of
Baker City on Highway 86, at the
“Gateway to Hells Canyon.”
R
A few folks are peppered across
the open expanse of high desert,
among them David Silva and his partner of 12
years, Zach Hill.
“We love it out here. People know you in a
small town,” says Silva, who in the mid-1970s
dumped a desk job in San Diego, opting instead
to milk cows in Oregon.
“I had always wanted to do that," recounts
Silva, who was married at the time and raising
three kids.
The years would roll by, and with them,
changes. Silva would eventually come out as
gay, get divorced, meet Hill, and swap milking
cows for cooking ’em up on the grill.
“We own a neat little dinner house out here,
the Longbranch Grille & Din
ner House,” Silva, 57, explains.
Patrons from Richland,
population 161, and passers-
through pop in to chow on
steak and lobster. A rainbow
sticker adorns the door.
In Queerville, USA, rural
enclaves such as Richland are
often the focus of disdain and
ridicule. After all, such places
are supposedly loaded with
intolerance and small-minded
ness, right?
Silva unlatches a big “no.”
“This town knows we’re gay
and we are treated very well.
We are an integral part of the
community,” Silva says.
Indeed. On April 12, Silva
was appointed to fill a vacancy
on the Richland City Council,
sans brouhaha or hoopla.
In fact, the Hells Canyon
• ■••vr-.v
Richland City Councilman David Silva;
below: scenic Richland in the high desert
H appy E nding
Lawsuit involving an anti-gay demonstrator
and gay moviegoer is dropped by Inga Sorensen
elief.
That’s what the Rev. James
Dancing Trout is feeling these days.
Dancing Trout was the target of
a $180,000 lawsuit recently filed by
Daniel John Lee of Portland [“Lawsuits for
Jesus,” April 7].
In late September, Dancing Trout had gone
to Cinema 21 to catch Edge of Seventeen, a gay
coming-of-age flick. Outside the theater, he
encountered Lee among a group of demonstra
tors protesting the movie.
Lee and Dancing Trout, who is gay, engaged
in a dialogue that ended in Lee’s arrest.
In March, Lee—who has described himself
as a “preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ...
preaching against the sexual sins of adultery, for
nication and homosexuality"—filed a suit in
Multnomah County Circuit Court against
Dancing Trout, claiming false arrest, battery and
malicious prosecution.
In the suit Lee said he was forced to take
The Rev. Jim
Dancing Trout
time from work to go his scheduled arraignment.
(The Multnomah County district attorney dis
missed the charges.)
He also said he “suffered loss of opportunity”
to engage in free speech and exercise his free
dom of religion, and claimed Dancing Trout,
without probable cause, initiated criminal pro
ceedings against Lee.
The Portland law firm Bennett Hartman &
Reynolds agreed to represent Dancing Trout pro
bono and shot off a letter to Lee, in turn prompt
ing Lee to abandon his suit.
In an e-mail message to the firm, Lee wrote,
by Inga Sorensen
Journal reported Silva’s appointment as just
another nugget among other meeting goings-on
(e.g., one local business owner had informed the
council she “planned to add 16 flavors of ice
cream cones and canned pop” at her second
hand store).
Says Silva: “It’s too much work hiding who
you are.”
So he doesn’t.
“And it’s OK,” says Silva, adding that Port
land’s Darcelle XV, that most out of queers,
along with her troupe of female impersonators,
will be in Richland to perform May 7.
“She likes it out here, too,” he laughs.
Silva says he’s looking forward to his stint on
the City Council and is already pondering a
future bid for mayor.
Another aspiration? “I’d like to own an RV
park one day,” he says. “That would be great.”
in part: “Because my work has carried me to the
Midwest and 1 may be relocating to Ohio, I have
decided I do not have the time necessary to
devote myself to this case. It seems that Dancing
Trout won’t try to unjustly arrest me again and
so 1 think it is best if I just dismiss the case. I
apologize for any time or inconvenience 1 may
have caused you.”
Dancing Trout’s attorney, Greg Hartman,
says: “If you hang around the courts a lot, you
see ‘agenda’ cases, and this one happened to be
one of them.”
In April, Hartman told Just Out: “[Lee) seems
to be promoting a heavy agenda in court,”
which the lawyer considers inappropriate.
“We’re certainly pleased," Hartman says of
the apparent resolution.
Dancing Trout, meanwhile, says he harbors
no ill will toward Lee.
“1 feel pity for him...and I feel that his call
ing himself a Christian is a stretch,” Dancing
Trout says, adding that the next time he runs
into anti-gay demonstrators he’ll “probably just
ignore them.”
“But that doesn’t mean I’m sorry for what I
did. I’m not,” he says.
As for the support from witnesses and from
Bennett Hartman & Reynolds, Dancing Trout
says: “1 want to thank them all for what they
did.”
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