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The city's first openly gay elected
official gives back to his hometown
n u rsery.
HOGAN & SANDERSON
by Jo n a th a n K ipp
ou never quite know where seren-
dipity might strike.
For one Vancouver, Wash., na
tive, it happened in a most unex
pected place: a bar along Portlands
Stark Street. “It all started to gel for me,” Jim
Moeller says about that evening.
He was enjoying his comfortable suburban
lifestyle, periodically venturing across the C o
lumbia River to take part in Portland’s night life.
But it was the early ’90s, and he started taking
notice of an Oregon man in the news.
The man eventually would become a house
hold name. Years later, Moeller tracks the ser
endipitous moment back to him.
The man? Lon Mabon.
Moeller made a decision that night in the
smoke-filled drinking hole that would change
his life. “1 can’t just live my life in this enve
lope and not participate,” he recalls thinking
to himself.
Moeller then got involved fighting off clones
of Mahon’s Oregon Citizens Alliance, with sim
ilar anti-gay agendas, in his own state. A few
short years later, he was elected to the City
Council— Vancouver’s first openly gay elected
official. He not only won the 1995 race, he
defeated a key leader in the group Washington
for Traditional Values, a sister organization to
the O CA .
It is one thing to win, Moeller says. "But it
feels good to kick right-wing butt all at the same
time,” he chuckles.
Last November, he was re-elected to his sec
ond term. “I have Lon Mabon to thank for my
political career,” he says.
Initially, Moeller was in over his head. “I lis
tened more than I spoke,” he says.
But he didn’t let people see him sweat. The
complexity of his job quickly became apparent,
and he admits he didn’t begin to understand
those complexities for a year and a half. He says
he survived his first term by aligning himself
with people he trusted.
Despite being a novice public servant, he
made headlines: “Moeller seeks benefits for gay
domestic partners,” "Councilman takes stand
on gay rights,” "Vancouver councilman intro
duces his life partner on Capitol steps.” But he
says he is not a one-issue candidate, which
appeals to his constituents.
Now well into his second term, Moeller is
focused on his community and making life in
Vancouver better for its 137,000 residents. He
says he is not a gay politician but a politician
who happens to be gay.
Although he enjoys being a gay man who is
in politics and doesn’t avoid issues about equal
ity for sexual minorities, it is not the focus of his
political life. "I care more about all of the issues
that make Vancouver a great place to live,” says
Moeller, an alcohol and drug counselor.
These days, being a gay man is almost an
incidental fact, he explains. He says it used to
Hither him when the media insisted on includ
ing his sexual orientation in their stories. But
not anymore.
“W ho in the world doesn’t know I’m gay?”
Moeller, 42, asks with a smile. But he doesn’t
give the issue much thought any more.
He says being so public about his sexual ori
entation was frightening at times; some letters
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Jim Moeller
to the editor were pretty nasty. But he was more
concerned about his family members who still
live in Vancouver than for himself. He says they
suffered more than he did.
“My mom was beside herself— like any
mother,” Moeller says about the nastiness of
some comments directed at him. But he was
prepared.
“I’d grown up with those names my whole
life,” he explains. “Like a duck. Water off my
back.”
T h e councilman always has had a firm
belief that issues o f sexual orientation would
be less and less important if people got to
know him.
Moeller says he once got a call from a lady
whose back yard was flooding. She needed some
help from the city, so he went to her home to
check out the situation. He is fairly certain his
constituent didn’t know he is gay.
But if she were to find out, Moeller thinks
her reaction would be influenced by how he
dealt with her problem: Did the problem get
solved or not? “I personally believe that people’s
minds are changed about sexual orientation one
person at a time,” he says.
Moeller has the usual intelligence, sophisti
cation and savvy to get elected and fit in. He
plays the part of public servant well.
But he has a main-street, aw-shucks, let-me-
buy-you-a-cup-of-coffee way about him that
gives him great middle-class appeal. He’s like
able and seems to be sincerely committed to
Vancouver— a politician without obvious
ambition.
One only can wonder where this guy might
be headed; even if not by design, will Moeller
continue in politics? “I like this stuff,” he
concedes.
But he seems uncomfortable considering him
self a politician. “It’s hard to say...a politician in
training,” he finally offers up as an alternative.
Moeller says he enjoys politics on the local
level. Seeing things change, he says, is the fun
part of municipal government.
“Because of your involvement with (the
community), you see things built and organiza
tions formed,” he says. “It is really gratifying.”
T h e job wasn’t what M oeller expected,
though. “It’s completely different than what I
thought it would be. It’s a hell o f a lot of
work.”
But he likes it like that. “It’s surpassed what I
thought it would be,” he says.
Vancouver has a sense of community, and
Moeller always has been there. It’s where he
grew up, where his family and friends are, where
he works, where he shares a home with his part
ner— and where he works on his antique wood
en boat out in the yard.
And it is a place where he wants to keep giv
ing back. “My whole life is in this place,” he says.
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