june 15. 2001 •
Findlay clenches his fist and adds passionate
ly: “Many closeted gay men come to our con
certs, and we help give them the power to say
they do not have to hide who they are. That is
what’s at the heart of the chorus.”
If Findlay isn’t singing, he is probably wear
ing his cowboy boots and is surrounded by
dancers. He joins the Rosetown Ramblers for
country western and square dancing and works
as their activities director.
Findlay organizes the Halloween weekend
Scares and Squares, an out-of-state hoedown
that attracts about 150 gay and lesbian square
dancers from throughout the country. He also
dances with a more elite square dance group,
Heads to the Center.
Although Findlay’s social life is hopping, his
personal life recently has undergone a revolu
tion. The good news: He’s got a new honey in
California. The bad news: He’s been downsized
from his position as a marketing manager at
Tektronix.
Whatever his new job might be, Findlay
proudly will express his rainbow colors. “When
we hide who we are from a friend, from our co
workers and even from the man on the street,
we are living in shame. Pride is about singing
out proud who we are.”
—Peter Zuckerman
RAJU GADHER
ome of us have had to travel farther than
others even to have the chance to cele
brate Pride Weekend in Portland.
Raju Gadher came to the United States from
Kenya in desperation last August. He is a sec
ond-generation Indian but was bom and raised
in Kenya. Well-educated, he speaks six lan
guages and several dialects, graduated from
Cambridge University in England and is in a
one-year master’s program at Lewis and Clark
College.
Gadher’s story of being gay in Kenya is fright
ening. The president has called for the eradica
tion of homosexuals, and being convicted of
“homosexuality” is a criminal offense punishable
by seven years in prison. To go to prison there “is
like visiting hell," Gadher says.
Prior to leaving Kenya he was under con
stant family pressure to marry. Socially and cul
turally, this is something firmly expected.
Several times his parents tried to arrange
marriages for him. Now 36, he says, “For an
Indian man to still be single at that late age is
very unusual.”
About a year before Gadher left Kenya, he
became the victim of a con artist. He fell for this
man and assumed the same to be true in reverse.
S
Catholic school, when she read about civil
rights pioneer Harriet Tubman. “She freed peo
ple against great odds, and that was really attrac
tive to me.”
Hall went on to fight 1994’s Measure 13
while studying to become an American Sign
Language interpreter at Western Oregon Uni
versity. As a student senator, she encountered
one of her first frightening foes: a College
Republican.
“He called me a pinko liberal—1 didn’t even
know what a pinko liberal was back then—and
a coward for not using my real name,” she says.
“He didn’t even know me.”
(For the record, Hall’s real name is Cheryl
Meredith; she goes by CM not for anonymity
but because of finger fatigue when signing for
the Deaf.)
Blackmail resulted—then things got worse.
Newspaper reporters started following him,
also demanding money and threatening to
print stories.
The Kenyan police began investigating and
questioning him, and it became obvious it was
time to leave. “I had reached the end of my
tether.”
Overcome by personal pressure and political
oppression, Gadher knew he had no choice but
to come to the United States, where besides get
ting a degree, he hoped to experience the open
ness and freedoms we enjoy as gay people. After
he graduates from Lewis and Clark, he plans to
move to England, where he also holds a pass
port, and specialize in environmental activism.
He says this will be his first Gay Pride cele
bration anywhere. He’ll be marching in the
parade with new friends he has made while here
and celebrating a certain kind of freedom and
relief—things we all might take for granted.
—Richard Bray
Hall, an alum of the Human Rights Cam
paign Youth College for Campaign Training,
tasted the agony of defeat as campaign manager
during Salem Democrat Rick Stucky’s highly
or CM Hall, April 30 is a date with per contentious House race in 1998. “I learned that
sonal historical significance. Not only it takes money to run a campaign and that fund
does it mark the day she came out to her raising is a key element of any campaign work
conservative parents in 1995, it turned out to you
be want to do.”
Obviously, the lesson stuck with her. Last
the day Ellen DeGeneres came out on national
year,
Hall raised an impressive $280,000 as
television in 1997.
Three years later, Hail found herself listening house party coordinator during the No on 9
to DeGeneres address thousands gathered for Campaign.
the Millennium March in Washington, D.C.
Afterward she immediately transitioned to
Basic Rights Oregon, where as development
The date? You guessed it.
Fortunate coincidences are nothing new for director she also plans events, secures major
this energetic activist, though. In 1999, during a donor gifts and writes grants. Some people
stint as a bus driver for a political sideshow in might not be able to handle the constant bar
Iowa, none other than Bonnie Raitt approached rage of anti-gay attacks from enemies such as the
her to offer support—and free concert tickets.
Oregon Citizens Alliance, but not Hall.
Hall says her activist spirit came alive during
“I’m idealistic and optimistic about our
potential as a community,” the 28-year-old says.
“1 think the majority of Oregonians are fair-
minded, and that affirms my commitment to
this civil rights movement.”
—Jim Radosta
i STEPHAN HERRERA
tephan Herrera, 25, projects pride in just
about every aspect of his life. An ener
getic guy, he puts his heart, spirit and
action where his mouth is.
Herrera coordinates HIV outreach for the
African American Health Coalition in Port
land. In this capacity, he is also project ctxirdi-
nator for Brother to Brother, which reaches out
to gay black men, providing both technical and
capacity-building assistance. Working through
the organization’s board, he additionally handles
outreach for men who have sex with men in the
Portland area.
S
CM HALL
F
I
Herrera says much work needs to be done
with young gay black men in our community.
Recent statistics verify his concern: New HIV
infection rates are higher for young black men
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