September 1. 2000 »
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or the first time in its 94-year history,
the Multnomah Bar Association
posthumously reinstated a member
who was expelled after being implicat­
ed in a 1912 same-sex vice scandal.
The efforts of George Painter, who
searched the incident during his spare time for
the past four years, led to the vindication of
Edward S.J. McAllister.
It all started in the early 1900s when the
mayor of Portland was pressured to clean up the
town. Oregon’s governor wanted to rid the state
of gambling and prostitution and set a high stan­
dard for morality.
The mayor was a rival of his and had different
views about what people did in their private lives.
Nonetheless, he bowed to political pressure.
Gambling and prostitution were high on the
list of things to clean up, hut a vice commission
unexpectedly stumbled across a same-sex scan­
dal at the YMCA. By the time those who were
questioned finished naming names, 68 men
were implicated.
When the scandal broke in the fall of 1912,
every state had a sodomy law. Most described it
as a crime against nature, allowing the courts to
determine exactly what that meant.
The Portland Nevus didn’t have any trouble
with the definition. “Charged with the most
debased degeneracy that human or brute nature
can he guilty of; charged with degeneracy of the
sort that made Sodom ashes and Gomorraha a
sand pit, 25 men, male persons is better, in this
town are tonight telling the noisome and nasty
details to a gasping officialdom,” the paper
declared Nov. 15, 1912.
According to Painter, a lot of men fled when
the trials started. Some were caught and brought
hack, others were allowed to leave, and a few
F
Ju st out g
C ase C losed
has re­
The Multnomah Bar Association rights
an 88-year-old wrong by Pat Young
never were heard from again.
During the trials, Painter says the court had
an interesting way of labeling the participants in
same-sex relationships. Even if both men were
30 or 40, “the older was considered the perpe­
trator, and the other was the hoy victim.”
In February 1913, it was McAllister’s turn in
court. He was one of the more prominent men
to stand trial.
Painter says the well-known attorney was
active in political affairs. He helped write the
Portland City Charter, was caught up in the tax
issues of the day and was associated profession­
ally with William U ’Ren, who established the
initiative and referendum process in Oregon.
Because of his reputation, McAllister had no
trouble finding four attorneys to defend him.
But despite their efforts and their eloquent argu­
ments, he was found guilty of sodomy and sen­
tenced to one to five years in prison.
McAllister remained free on bail while his
case was appealed to the state Supreme Court.
His conviction eventually was overturned Nov.
20, 1913, because of tainted evidence.
This is where it gets suspicious for Painter. He
says the Multnomah Bar Association probably
anticipated the state Supreme Court’s reversal.
So, it was prepared to get even with McAl­
lister in its own way. Five days after the reversal,
the association made a motion to expel him.
“There is absolutely nothing in the minutes
of any kind of debate or
what the vote was,”
Painter contends. “But
two months later, in
January 1914, the min­
utes read that McAllis­
ter was, in fact, expelled
c5 the Multnomah Bar Associa-
from membership."
tion to find out about a possi-
And with that, his
3
hie
reinstatement. He hacked
O
law career ended. Mc­
| up the request with as much
Allister held a job as a
documentation as possible.
clerk for a while before
“I think the heaviest evi­
buying a farm in Myrtle
d e n c e is the motion to expel
Creek, near Rosehurg.
McAllister five days after the
He lived there with­
state Supreme Court reversed
out any further scandal
the conviction,” Painter notes.
and died in 1926. In
“They really didn’t have a legal
addition to changing
ground to expel him.”
McAllister’s life, the
In June 2000, the Multnom­
scandal affected Ore­
ah Bar Association board
gon’s sodomy law.
agreed and unanimously voted
“The prison term Edward S.J. McAllister
to reinstate McAllister as a
was increased to 15 years,” Painter says. “Also,
member. In a letter to Painter, the equality com­
the term ‘crime against nature’ was replaced
mittee chairman wrote, “The information avail­
with very broad language that covered virtually able is consistent with the conclusion that Mr.
any erotic activity between two people. That
McAllister was expelled due only to the fact
law remained unchanged until the 1971 Crimi­ that he was gay.”
nal Code repealed it.”
The fact that McAllister’s law career was ■ P at YOUNG, a Portland-based free-lance writer
ruined and that he endured such a scandal and gay and lesbian historian, is writing a book
didn’t sit right with Painter, so he wrote to about Ballot Measure 9.
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