Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013, March 02, 2001, Image 1

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    OR.COLL.
HO
75
. J96
v. 18
no. 9
March 2,
2001
V olume 18 ♦ N umber 9 ♦ M arch 2, 2001
Portland, Oregon
FREE
CREATING
ON EARTH
Gardens as places of healing,
magic and spiritual inspiration
by
O riana G reen
Page 22
Ceramic fertility goddess by Anna Carpentieri graces her garden
Higher learning
Portland woman struggles
to rid campus of shame
by J onathan
R
K ipp
ebecca Kenney wants people to know that
Mount Hood Community College, where she
serves as director of continuing education and
Rebecca Kenney
adviser of the Pride Students’ Alliance, is
becoming a better place for sexual minorities to teach, work and, most
importantly, learn. “It really is a time of change here,” she says.
The metamorphosis from a staunchly conservative college to one
A quiet comer of the Keeston Lowery Memorial Garden at City Hall
that just is starting to recognize and deal with its own institutional
homophobia has been slow. But Kenney’s tenacity, patience and
political astuteness—and even her sense of humor—are begin­
ning to pay off.
No one appointed her to help spearhead the effort, but as the
college’s only out sexual minority faculty or staff member, she didn’t
have much choice. “Someone needed to come forward,” she says.
The struggle to help co-workers and administrators understand
that the college wasn’t doing all it could do to make everyone wel­
come on campus was a tiring one for Kenney. For two years she
found herself surrounded by homophobic statements at meetings,
policies that didn’t include gay families and institutional denial that
ran deep. And while she stepped forward and did what she thought
she could do to help make things better, she grew increasingly frus­
trated by only cursory change.
Continued on Page 12
Moving On
J.urne B.ilho.i
steps dow ii
.is Basic
Rights
Oregon
exeeutiv e
director