4 jM *t M t » teDfoary 15. 2002
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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