4 jM t M t
! tabruary U 2002
out
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Supreme indignity
To t h e
E d it o r :
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assassinated, he would have stood by us.
G ina D aggett
Portland
Jesse’s boy
To t h e
E d it o r :
A
n award for the Most Blatant Act of
Denial should he awarded to the Human
Rights Campaign for endorsing U .S. Sen. G or
don Smith.
Just a few months ago he voted* for the
Helms Amendment to the Bush education
reform act, which stated that no school that
denies public access to the Boy Scouts of Amer
ica for recruiting or other events because of
anti-discrimination policies shall receive feder
al money. Smith has shown repeatedly he is part
of the religious right wing and has more in com
mon with Jesse Helms than he would like the
gay community to perceive.
R ick C rittenden
Portland
In defense of HRC
To t h e
E d it o r :
Î
|espite my position as a fierce liberal, 1
* wanted to take a moment to write a few
words in support of the Human Rights Cam
paign’s much-contested endorsement of U.S.
Sen. Gordon Smith.
It is important to remember H R C is not
aligned with any particular party. Its mission
is to operate above and beyond party lines in
order to defeat anti-gay legislation and to
help protect our rights in general. For all of
his objectionable views, Sm ith repeatedly
has voted in favor o f gay rights and has done
everything H R C has asked of him.
For better or worse, the way the political
machine works is that if someone does what you
ask, in return you give your support. Failing to
endorse Smith seriously would have under
mined H RC’s credibility Kith at a state and
national level.
Let's stop had-mouthing a difficult political
n o t a b le s
PHOTO BY MAHTY DAVIS
UNUSUAL GARDEN ART
j? rrst Monday is a new television show about a
cadre of imaginary U.S. Supreme Court jus
tices whose major talent seems to he ideological
infighting and overt bigotry. The pilot episode
dealt, ostensibly, with sanctuary for trans people
from regimes even more culturally draconian
than our own.
The segment was a poorly padded heating
by a blunt intellectual instrument. One was
left to wonder in which universe an individ
ual would he placed for interrogation before
an opening public session of the high court,
hut that was the fate o f the trans person who
was appealing an apparent Immigration and
Naturalization Service ruling against granting
sanctuary.
She was humiliated repeatedly by the phony
justices, who suggested she easily could go “hack
home” if she just would “put your pants back
on.” Not that they actually gave this person the
benefit of pronoun choice.
Other lines that drew purported laughter
from those in chambers were: “So do you
intend to he castrated like a bull?” and the
always-funny “So what bathroom do you use?”
We never did find out the disposition of her
appeal but were left to infer from the echoing
guffaws and camivalesque background music
what it might be.
But wait, were you thinking this was all? The
gorgeous babe who was Angel’s attorney was—
what else?—a transsexual woman herself. Not
until the “busy litigator” tore herself away to
romp in a salsa club with a conservative clerk of
the court, and not until the camera dwelt long
ingly on her well-rounded bottom in rampant
frottage on the unsuspecting man’s groin did she
turn and announce her real incentive in repre
senting this client had come from her being “a
transsexual, too!”
I understand the debate on whether gender
identity is a compelling internal characteristic
or a social construct; that’s not the point. C B S
and the producers of First Monday created the
trans segment of this episode solely to amplify
existing pejorative stereotypes and to use the tit-
illation for ratings.
When my partner and I walk down the
street, borderline bigots encouraged by this show
and others might feel it’s OK to abuse, threaten
or attack us. They might do the same to our
friends and fellows, knowing there is to he no
sanctuary, no rights for us here, even if we take
it to the Supreme Court.
We are, after all, objects of ridicule or
perverted temptresses. And this for the serv
ice o f bad television, had values and the
abysmal general ignorance of our aspirations
and problems.
Where are the voices of trans people who
should he outraged by the ease with which we
are shamed and dismissed? Our silence is the
sound of the death of our dignity.
them about a dream that would mark the
beginning to the end of an era of blasphe
mous discrimination, handing minorities the
opportunity for liberty. He wasn’t just speak
ing about the oppression of African Am eri
cans, he was talking about all people who
ever had felt the singe of segregation. He was
talking about me.
This was the genesis of a fundamental shift
in the way society treated people who were
unlike themselves— a collective movement
toward equality. We undoubtedly still have a
long way to go, hut we are moving closer. I
gradually have felt the difference between tol
erance and acceptance.
1 also had a dream. 1 had a dream when 1 was
7 that I would feel like everybody else one day
and that people would stop chastising me for
being a tomboy. I had a dream when 1 was 20
that I would stop falling in love with my best
friend. I had a dream when I was 25 while lying
in my parents’ arms that they still would love me
after I told them 1 was gay.
I have a dream today— that one day we will
reclaim those lives that would he lost to suicide
for fear of living a gay lifestyle. I have a dream of
hope for the next generation.
King gave me the courage to stand in the
truth of who 1 am. He afforded me the luxury of
living in safety with my partner—apathetic to
the dwindling occasions of discrimination.
He has affected my happiness; he has helped
rejuvenate many relationships that had been
choked by the weeds of shame before 1 came out
of the closet. If he hadn’t been horn, I would
have stayed in the “chains of discrimination”
that kept me in my usual, stale place.
1 am not a poster child, and most people
wouldn’t guess I am gay, hut 1 am familiar with
the feeling of isolation associated with being
perceived as a pariah. 1 am fortunate, though;
1 was bom in a time that is on the cusp of
change.
1 wish 1 had been able to stand up with my
brothers and sisters in the repulsive face of
ignorance that day in 1963, fighting for civil
rights— something that was ours to begin
with. I wish I could have stood with Dr. King,
because I am quite certain if he had not been
L ori B uckwalter
It’s Time, Oregon! Executive Director
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How has MLK Jr.
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E d it o r :
This essay was written for a contest at Pacific
University m Forest Grove.
f you know me, you might he asking your
self, “How could this lily-white privileged
girl possible he affected by the life and work of
Martin Luther King Jr.?”
A s he gave his speech in front of the mar
ble forefather o f freedom that hot August day,
he stood before 200,000 supporters and told
elissa Arnold (left) and Anne Seelye be
came the 10th couple to register as
domestic partners in Multnomah County this
year. The Jan. 26 certification was witnessed by
close friends Mary Schutten, Catherine Cush-
M
ing and Marty Davis. Fun and frivolity followed.
For a $60 registration fee couples may doc
ument their partnership with Multnomah
County at 501 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. For
more information call 503-988-3027.