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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 2002)
14 J * * t Mal • September 6.2002 ummrmnews A lo t can happen in O U iniflll/OC/ Rnd out w hat everyone's talking about! Gay Men Register Now: September 17th • H O B O 's Advance registration required f 8minuteDating.com! \ J Great Oates -1 fun Night1 www.8minuteDating.com Portland - The winds of change are blowing. Are you ready for it? Byron Beck realizes he can’t please everyone A C rack in the W indow Continued from Page 1 C ityG uys P D X Com ing Soon C eleb ra tin g t h e 3 o d y E ro tic N ovember 2&3 / P ortland Come alive to the power of your erotic energy. Open your body, mind and spirit to a world of pleasure. Discover i deeper levels of communication with • yourself and others. Honor yourself with the gift of touch. ( 5 0 3 ) V H _ Bodij Electric School - 4 - 9 3 - 9 - 4 - 2 1 • w w w .b o d y e l e c t r i c . O R G rect commentary on transsexual Damon Wood cock’s battle with the Portland Police Bureau Beck didn’t address his sexuality until after elicited a barrage of critical feedback. Many high school. W hile studying theater at a small took issue with his perception of the trans com town Washington college, he fell in love with munity, describing his remarks as bigoted. his best friend. O f the stance he takes with his public voice, The relationship splintered, however, when Beck contends: “You can’t help being brought Beck came out of the closet. O nce interest in up with the prejudices that you were brought up with. You can’t help having the beliefs that you love— and money for college— dwindled, he left schcxil behind to spend the summer with family have. Just because you’re gay [doesn’t mean] in the Gorge and friends in Portland. you’re not still yourself. 1 got past the point Beck’s curiosity pushed him toward the big where [the column) was like a big party, and it ger city of Seattle, where he briefly studied act became a conversation— one th at’s been a long time in coming.” ing at University of Washington. Gay bars, how ever, quickly took center stage for him, and he And Beck won’t shy away should the con returned to Portland, where he found it easier to versation be other than a pleasant parley. play the scene. He says: “If 1 worry about trying to please the He went out every night, thinking th a t’s community, I’m doing a disservice to myself. As what queers like him did. But he was still long as I stay true to myself and 1 believe what I’m underage and eventually was expelled from the saying, I haven’t much of a problem with it. I will bars altogether. So, Beck returned to school, ingly admit that I make mistakes. I’m wrong some this time graduating from Portland State U n i times about hew I feel, but at least that’s hew 1 really feel— I’m not trying to prefect versity in 1987 with a degree in speech communication. something I don’t believe” for the sake of solidarity. “1 never planned to become a "I never planned to writer— I always thought 1 After years of trying to fit would he involved in the arts,” in, Beck texlay accepts his become a writer — / Beck reflects. “1 thought writ individuality and inde- always thought I would ers had lonely lives and were pendence, even when lonely people.” they run counter to pre be involved in the arts. He says he was wrong vailing public opinion. about that, convinced by his “T h ere’s a freedom in I thought writers had having to think abenit first assignment as a society lonely lives and were and process your ideas columnist for the Down about yourself and your towner. After that publication lonely people." culture," Beck elaborates. folded, he free-lanced for the — Byron Beck And what of gay life in Oregonian arts and culture section Portland.' Beck finds it all a para before joining Willamette Week as spe dox. O pen, hut hidden, for example, cial sections editor in April 2000. lacking strong community leaders, role models Beck embraced the newspaper’s alternative and even gay activists. Community building is style and immediately proposed a queer column, no longer a priority, he warns, while at the same one with a personality that could address gay time resisting such a mantle for himself. topics not talked about in mainstream media. “It’s not just about being able to say the ‘f’ “Portland is a great city to live in, and it’s a word,” he explains. “It’s about being able to not great city to be gay in, but that makes it really easy think about it. To be able to write in your own not to do the work that we probably should be style and to write honestly about how you feel doing,” advises Beck, suggesting the community about things.” be more open to change and dissenting opinions. But when Beck threw open his “Queer W in Regardless of any influence his writing might dow" in June 2000, he not only faced a have, Beck is proud that the column spurs an straighter-than-expected audience, he also felt open dialogue. “All it is," he reckons, “is a win pressure to reflect the entire spectrum of Port dow into a culture from my perception. " i n land’s sexual minorities. He quickly learned he couldn’t he a voice for the whole community. ! TIMOTHY KRAUSE is a Portland free-lance writer. For example, his frank but politically incor E-mail him at timkra@milknicom.com.
