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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2002)
4 jM *t M t » teDfoary 15. 2002 out Gender offender To • • • • • Hardware Pet Food & Supplies Gardening Tools & Supplies Down-to-Earth Products U-Haul Trailers & Trucks Mention this ad for 10% discount 10920 NW St. H elens Road (503) 286-1291/Fax: (503) 286-9592 The Fantasy Creature Store G ifts Jrom m^th and legend Dragons - Gargoyles - Fairies Jewelry - Incense - Celtic 3106-B NE 64th Near the corner of 64th & Sandy Blvd next to It’s My Pleasure 503-241-8888 Thurs 12-6 • Frl 12-6 • Sat 12-7 • Sun 12-5 tVtHTMUr tn u o m * « " * ■ ■ ■ ■RAIN iCIINCB // Computer Repair and Consulting Onsite Repair Custom B uilt Systems Home / Office Consulting 503.730.5185 Ask@BrainSci.net www.BrainSci.net Vacation Travel Planners (Formerly Downtown Travel Services) GAY GAM ES VII 9nt Package—$2,275* ° rt air from LA, 9 nts M erchant Court 14nt Package—$3,489* 9nt pckg + Great Barrier Reef, A boriginal Cultural Center & more! •All prion an air from LA and baaed upon double occupancy Call Rip For All Your Travel Needs: (503) 223-1100 • (800) 357-3194 email: gavtravel^iplanvacationtravel.com ivww.iPlanVacationTravel.com R oey T horpe BRO Executive Director Professional coverage D onna L uckett Portland Exhuming McCarthy To the E ditor : S eems the Oregon Citizens Alliance has now become the Gay Taliban. O f course, there are similarities. Both groups are militant right- wing fundamentalists. Both want women to he gagged and homebound. And both are being used as an excuse to silence opposition to the leaders of the populations they terrorize: “Let’s skip the fighting among ourselves and get on with the business at hand” [“T he Sidewalks of I Portland,” Feb. 1). J ud ith K. A pplegate Former LCP Board C hair Conflict of in terest To the E ditor : should think if Just Out is going to use such a highly charged, pejorative term as “attempted coup” in a headline about an organization with as much name recognition as the Lesbian Com munity Project that the accompanying story would warrant more than 5 column inches plus a couple of paragraphs in an editorial primarily concerned with the homeless. I mean, by what tortured logic do you conclude that a duly elect ed board member— publicly expressing concern about “leadership” possibly violating bylaws— is thereby guilty of “attempting" a “coup”? This is clearly an instance in which Just Out has failed the most rudimentary of journalistic responsibilities. You should provide the neces sary information— including interviews with individuals on all sides of the issue as well as a look at the bylaws under contention— to allow readers to reach their own conclusions; instead, you come off as patently biased and utterly unprofessional. This lamentable situation is exacerbated by the obvious conflict of interest and appearance of collusion on the part of Just Out with respect I t r a n s it io n s To the E ditor : ust wanted to thank you for the professional manner with which you reported the current shian Community Project issue (“LCP Sur vives A ttem pted Coup,” Feb. 1]. I have been a member for more than 16 years, since it began. I am proud to continue being a member and honored to now he a hoard member. LCP, like any group, has positive and nega tive issues. O ne of the reasons 1 have remained a member is the fact that it is dedicated to the community in which we live, and the “heart” of this organization are the women who are its members. For many years Just Out has provided a valu able service in keeping us apprised of differing issues. I also want to thank you for your ongoing support of artists, performers and other groups in our vastly diverse community. understanding for struggling women” hut to “assist the lesbian community as it organizes to meet today’s challenges and as it plans for tomorrow’s possibilities.” O ne of its original bylaws stared that the board of directors shall “direct the activities of the organization and ensure that all activities are consistent with the purposes of the organization as well as all local, state and federal laws.” N ot something blithely revised to suit the momentary needs of a few. T he bylaws of LCP were written to ensure its longevity in an ever- changing world and to ensure fairness and equality. Lee Swantek, 1 9 2 3 -2 0 0 2 M cMinnville resident H. Lee Swantek died i ¥ I of lung cancer Feb. 6. He was 79. He was bom Jan. 19, 1923, in Yonkers, N.Y., where he attended school and worked as a bus driver. He moved to Portland in September 1958. T h e next year he m et his life partner, Donald J. H utchinson, at a th eater in the Portland area th at no longer exists. T h e cou ple moved to Newherg in 1962 and M cM inn ville in 1990. A bout 40 years ago they opened th e Hobby H ut Ceram ic Studio together, teach ing classes and offering products at both a wholesale and retail level. T h e two retired in the early 1990s, having turned the $250 oper ation into a successful half-m illion-dollar enterprise. Swantek was a master in his w(xxJ shop. His handiwork was displayed in the couple’s garden, which was named “Yard of the M onth" in June 2001 by the News-Register. He and H utchinson joined First Baptist C hurch in M cM innville and helped create Together Works, a Christ-centered support group open to all gay men and lesbians in Yamhill County. Its semimonthly meetings attract up to 40 people ranging in age from 19 to 78. The couple would’ve celebrated their 43rd anniversary in March. PHOTO BY MARTY DAVIS PC o r Mac / New or Old E ditor : Te here at Basic Rights Oregon are still reeling from Byron Beck’s “Queer W in dow” column in the Feb. 6 issue of Willamette Week. This isn’t the first time we’ve been shocked by him. Last year we were taken aback by his objection to the memorial service for Loni Kai Okaruru. Now we get it. If Loni had been a white hutch gay guy like Byron, she’d have been worth a memorial. If Damon Woodcock was “strong, hutch and bom with a dick," then he’d he worth fighting for. Well, Byron, he is strong and hutch, and lots of great cops never have dicks. Let’s he clear: Mr. Beck doesn’t represent the views of the sexual minorities community, and his insensitivity is a total disgrace. N ot only have trans people always been part of our move ment, hut people’s bigotry about gender is at the root of much of the bias that queer people face. It’s Byron who’s “gender-fucked.” He sees gender not as identity and expression hut as “plumbing,” and he brags about his own bigotry and narrow-mindedness as though we’d all slap him on the hack and hand him a beer. Way to go after the most vulnerable group of people in our community, buddy. High-five! W hile Byron’s been at the gym, some of us have been building bridges within the sexual minorities community, trying to understand and show respect for each other. Apparently, he hasn’t availed himself of any of (his, which is his choice. W h at’s hard to understand is why Willamette Week chooses him to write a column called “Queer Window." G et a real journalist— or change the name to “Pane in the Ass.” the If we cannot call our people to account for what they are doing wrong, how can we expect to call to account our oppressors? D i we give ourselves free reign to break laws, ignore bylaws and forward personal agendas w ithout accountability? As citizens and activists, we cannot allow Homeland or Gayland Security to pressure us into silence when we object to what our leaders are doing. T he McCarthyesque atmosphere per meating this country has just been brought very close to home. It is no longer OK to oppose an illegal presi dent’s policies, he they foreign or domestic. Nor is it OK to oppose the director of a lesbian or ganization that has 20 years of history in Portland. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the presi dent’s policies are ethical, moral or constitution al. In the Lesbian Community Project’s case, it doesn’t seem to matter that the director has usurped the hoard’s authority and ignored the bylaws of the organization. W hat has been characterized by the editor of this newspaper as an attack that came and went was neither an attack nor a short-lived episode. Instead, it was the culmination of eight months of trying to return LCP to the hoard-driven organization it originally was intended to he. Every effort w as. made to work with the director and her supporters on the Community Education Project board. Bylaws were exam ined, laws were learned and relayed, and com pliance was asked for again and again. The subject was put off hoard meeting after hoard meeting. T he last excuse for delay was the New Year’s Eve dance. In good faith the faction of the LCP hoard in opposition to a director-nm organization complied with these wishes. T he first order of business in the new year was to remove one LCP hoard member insisting on compliance with the bylaws and state laws, Roma Virginia Hanvey. The other hoard mem ber insisting on compliance was scheduled to he removed Feb. 11. LCP was not created “to provide support and \ “We work well together,” Swantek told Just Out in a July 20, 2001, profile. “It has never occurred to us that we wouldn’t he together. We are together...w e help each other...w e love each other.” A memorial will he held 3 p.m. Feh. 23 at the church, 125 S.E. Cowls St. Young’s Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. R em em brances may he m ade to th e A m erican C a n c e r Society, H a b ita t for H um anity, M cM in n v ille H ospice or th e
