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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2002)
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Full service Florist serving the entire Portland metro area for 20 years (5 0 3 ) 6 5 3 -8 4 4 4 w w w .m aryjeansflow ers.com 13822 S.E. O atfield Rd. • Milwaukee, OR 97222 M o v in g P a c k in g Locally Owned & Specializing in Oregon & Washington Full Time Professional Employees v ■<& ■ 142126 y«- ■ ■ : :'v 5 0 3 / 0 0 1 7 9 1 0 Write for Ju/t Out! Are you a writer who lives in the Willamette Valley? Just O ut is seeking journalists south of the Portland area. Call 5 0 3 -2 3 6 -1 2 5 2 . C R ose G ì Él/ VETERINARY HOSPITAL 232-3105 A M an of M any L abels Meet Michael Lowe, gay Native American veteran by Susan Detroy hen M ichael Lowe came out of the closet in 1972, he had a lot of labels. “1 was a gay Native American vet, and I was very proud of all of those.” Bom in Port Angeles, Wash., he spent his life on the Olympic Peninsula until he was drafted at 19. In the service he “stuck to the book and made sergeant.” After coming out Lowe ran away to Portland, where life changed considerably. “In those days things were pretty open. We could walk hand in hand down town. 1 got into a relationship and I got into the world of drag queens.” Walking into his first gay bar, the Rhonde, he secured a job and a place to stay during his first day in town. He immediately formed close connections with the patrons. “Everybody was welcome there,” Lowe remembers. “We had drag queens. We had the leather boys. We had the ‘after noon Tupperware party’...those who would come in and sit in a Michael Lowe (left) and Dale Carrington celebrate their big group and have their daily commitment ceremony July 8, 1999 meetings. I was very fortunate always being a happy-go-lucky guy,” Lowe says. because 1 developed an open relationship with Garcia comments: “Michael’s spiritual per both men and women.” spective and connection to his community of He explains he missed out on this comfort friends is a model for what is good about being level while growing up as the middle child in a gay. He is a man who inspires love.” large family of 12. “Half the time nobody knew Lowe met his partner, Dale Carrington, play if we were home or not. It was nice to come in ing pool at Neighbors Bar &. Bistro. “I thought [to the bar] and he acknowledged by a group of at 50, there was nobody left for someone my age. people and feel that 1 belonged.” I discovered with a good attitude there is always Lowe’s next job was at Queen’s Kitchen at Best Western Kingsway Inn, where he devel someone there.” Feeling comfortable spending time at Neigh oped his talent for making people laugh. “1 bors led to a job at the gay bar starting last year. guess that became what the story of my life “It was like full circle...and it was like working was— to make sure I never met a stranger. with friends.” Everybody I meet, there is something about Lowe is a member of the Jamestown S ’klal- them that sticks with me.” lam tribe, and his grandmother was S ’klallam, In 1984 he moved to Eugene. He soon was Skykomish and Bella-Colla. Three years ago he working at Perry’s on Pearl, a gay-owned bar and Carrington, whose mother is Lakota, had a and restaurant. “It was just like the family 1 had in Portland,” Native American ceremony. "You are two people going to the mountain Lowe says. "I wanted everybody to feel comfort able no matter where they came from.” and coming back as one and you are wrapped in a blanket and presented to your extended fami He viewed his work as a way for customers to ly,” he says. “Everyone in the circle, once the get to know a gay man. “1 dropped that ‘gay Native American veteran’ thing. You know, I’m circle is sealed, becomes your immediate family.” Lowe says if you have an argument you must Michael. And that’s who 1 am today.” go to each person from the circle. “If you had 80 Lowe’s unique talent for serving customers followed him to his job at the Mission, a Mexi in the circle, by the time you got to No. 40 you might feel it is all ridiculous.” can restaurant where he dressed up for holidays, From an early marriage he has two chil coming to work one year as an Easter bunny, another as an Easter basket. In 1996 the Register - dren: Heather, 33, and Sean, 30. An approaching highlight is the April arrival of Guard named him "best waiter of the year." his first grandchild. His exuberant, fun-loving nature has created a wide circle of acquaintances. “There is not a This month Lowe turns 55, becoming an place I go where I don’t nin into somebody that elder in his tribe. He will he doing the eagle I know and has touched me in some way." dance, taking him into another life stage. After turning 50, Lowe made a few life “1 am content and I am happy,” he says. “I changes, trying catering and losing 65 pounds. am not after the big things in life. I have already A friend in the process was Larry Garcia, a pub had them. Most of that is the friendships that 1 lic health nurse. “He Me taught me a lot about have made. ” j n learning to love myself, that I was really OK and that I didn’t need to hide behind the facade of S u sa n D etroy is a Eugene free-lance writer.
