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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2002)
They might be straight, but these allies always have been on our side o “My mom was an immi grant with very little formal education, and she never learned to speak English,” she says. “But she convinced her friends to ignore Anita Bryant and her minions because of her love for Jose.” Today, Alarcón-Gaddie manages the Metropolitan Human Rights Center, a pro gram of the city of Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement and Multnom ah County. She is involved in collaborations and public pol icy issues pertaining to under represented communities. She also is active in the Coalition Against Hate Crimes and the Oregon Council for Human and Civil Rights. She was involved in a number of public policy issues that are of special signifi cance to the queer communi ty, including the domestic partnership registry and the expansion of the city’s civil rights ordinance to include gender identity. Previously, she was a multicultural health educator with state programs involving early detection of A m a lia A l a r c O n - G a d d ie breast and cervical cancer as well as HIV. Before by T om Stev en so n coming to Portland she worked on HIV issues in New York, where she had gone to try her hand verybody needs a best friend, and when at acting after graduating from college. Alarcón-Gaddie believes her life has been Amalia Alarcdn-Gaddie was 12 years nurtured by the sexual minorities community. In old— having just arrived in Miami Beach, Fla., after living in Puerto Rico fact, she says she never felt like an “outsider.” “This community was often the place where I for years— she lucked out and found somebody who would stick by her as her found career the most comfort and acceptance,” she says. “Some of my closest colleagues, people who inspire took her to nearly every point in the country. me and people I profoundly respect also happen to His name is Jose. He is the one who become be members of the GLBTQ community.” her confidante for life, the one who was the Even though Alarcón-Gaddie is married and “man of honor” in her wedding and the one who the mother of a growing son, there is no ques her son refers to as his uncle. He is also the one who, during their junior year tioning her dedication to sexual minorities. She of high school, dared tell his friend he was gay. simply cannot understand how anyone could feel any differently. Mind you, that was during the time when Anita “How can one not carer’ she says. “I am the Bryant and the Moral Majority were causing havoc mom of an amazing little boy, and I want him to for the sexual minorities community in Florida. Just a few years later while attending Universi have a future where we as a society value, ty of Miami, Alarc6n-Gaddie’s cousin Isabel, who respect and cherish all our members. I’m fierce she refers to as “more of a sister than a cousin,” ly loyal to and protective of my family, so I feel it is my job to work with others toward creating arrived on a student visa to attend the same the kind of community that offers a safe and school. A short time later, Isabel also came out. The fact that two of the three people closest to welcoming space to all. “Besides, Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘Injus her were gay might explain why Alarcdn-Gaddie tice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ has spent the bulk of her professional career work ing with members of the sexual minorities com and I firmly believe that. These aren’t about munity. But digging deeper reveals another key G L B T Q rights— they’re human rights— and factor: her mother. When her mother discovered depriving anyone of their human rights dimin ishes us all. ” i n Jose was gay, she immediately went to work. E O bviously, you don’t need to be gay, lesbian, bi or trans in order to understand the concept of equality. But for a number of straight people in Oregon, empathy isn’t enough. They have taken on our cause as their own. Why are they so passionate about gay rights even though they are straight? Has it been difficult to come in from the outside, or have they found acceptance from the sexual minorities community? Just E g Out our numerous attorney straight allies to find the J im a n spoke with six of Conservative Jim Egan is working answers by H e ath e r to H y these barger questions. for change from within the Republican Party im Egan says he gets strange looks sometimes at queer events. It starts when he is introduced to someone as the conservative Republican, Mormon, Marine, straight guy. The Albany attorney stands by his political and religious beliefs but is „ always there to lend his support to the g campaigns against anti-gay measures that pop up on the ballot. He is an active volunteer and supporter of Basic Rights Oregon and makes an effort to combat the Oregon Citizens Alliance on its own turf—from within the Republican Party. Democrat'Herald He says the homophobic let “Anytime some anti-human rights initiative is ters he read in the paper incensed him. ‘T h ey weren’t just talking about gays and on the ballot I’m going to do something,” he says. lesbians,” he says. ‘T h ey were talking about my His reason is simple. “If I don’t work for somebody else’s civil rights, who is going to work for mine?” uncle Ed.” A s a lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, Egan was Egan grew up in Tangent, and as a high schooler in the 70s he began to asked to oust a woman in his com see the injustices that sexual mand because the Naval Inves n i l don't work for minorities were faced with daily. tigative Service produced a pic After reading an article in somebody else's civil ture “proving" she was a lesbian. When he confronted her, she Newsweek describing a new homo sexual recovery program, he pro- rights, who is going cried and denied the charge, posed to his sex education teacher fg fo f chiming her colleagues assumed a panel discussion featuring a gay she wasn’t straight because die played on a softball team. He took man, a doctor and a religious offi cial. The instructor was excited a stand and told his commanding about the idea, but the principal wouldn’t allow officer that die evidence was insufficient. even a report on the topic. A graduate of University of Oregon School of Egan later learned these prejudices affected Law, Egan entered die political realm through him more personally when he went to New York positions within the Republican Party in Linn City for a weeklong stay with his uncle Ed. He County and as president of the Linn County Bar was introduced to Ed’s roommate, Russell, who Association. He truly believes changes in an institution start from the inside and move out. It’s he remembers as “die most gentle, kindest, something he sees happening slowly but surely. sweetest guy.” Egan was proud of Ed when he came out in However, Ed was a seminary student and a Methodist minister with a small congregation in 1977. His uncle presented his doctoral thesis, Greenwich Village and was not out to anyone. which advocated for die church to start an “We would talk about the issue in only the most organization similar to Parents of Gays, an early passing way,” Egan says, adding that Ed found ways incarnation of Parents, Families and Friends of to approach the subject with his nephew, like stop Lesbians and Gays. The diesis cost Ed his career. ping by Stonewall on a tour of the city’s highlights. A relationship can be the force of change Egan remembers Anita Bryant and the polit in society, Egan says. “ People will stop hating ical and religious movements that attacked gay gays and lesbians when they realize gays and rights. Moreover, he spoke out against them, lesbians are their neighbors and the people writing letters to the editor of the Albany they love.” j n J MAM a I AA« «AA« AM M AK.M MA « A AM«« A B A —Jim Egan A W *AM % ll ♦ » AA A Ali% ^ Kl A rlfll ■ < ~ 1 A i A A
