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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2003)
4 J«ist o u t • January 3.2003 Saddam and Gomorrah To the E ditor : KAREN M. 5 WEIGERT, MD Obstetrics and Gynecology Phone 5 0 3 274-9936 Eâx 5 0 3 274-2660 1130 N.W. 22nd, Suite 320, Portland, OR 97210 CRAFTSMANSHIP, TRADITION, THE WARMTH OF SOLID CHERRY Now on sale! 5234 NE Sandy Blvd (503) 287-6331 n response to the decision by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to join a coali tion opposed to the prospective war against Sad dam Hussein: It is hard to take seriously a claim of patriotism hy people who habitually blame the United States for everything. Executive director Lorri Jean displays her partisan motivation when she makes President Rush sound like a greater threat to this country than a man who has used poison gas against his own citizens and who governs hy terror and har bors terrorists. W hile 1 share some of her con cerns about civil liberties, NGLTF’s history of anti-American double standards gives it no credibility as a messenger. A n organization that decries racism while excluding people from meetings based on race makes a mockery of the progressive label. There is nothing progressive about a dogmatic refusal to acknowledge that there are criminals and madmen in the world who will not he deterred hy appeasement and who must he fought if our freedoms are to he protected. Saddam has violated 16 U.N. resolutions and responded to the latest one with a blanket denial believed hy no one. In an effort to wrap his crimes in religion, he has built many mosques, including the M other of All Battles Mosque with minarets shaped like Scud missiles and a Koran written in ink made from his own blcxxJ. This is not a man who can he reasoned with. It is revealing that NGLTF cites the bound lessly naive Jimmy Carter, who has seldom met a hmtal dictator he didn’t like and who was much harder on our closest Middle East ally, Israel, than he was on her anti-demcKratic ene mies. I respect and admire his humanitarian efforts around the world, hut his judgment on foreign policy is about as sound as Neville Cham berlain’s. In case the folks at NGLTF haven’t noticed, the world has spent the past decade exhausting every peaceful recourse. As to what America is all about, I would remind the members of this foolish coalition that this country was founded hy people who had to fight for their liberty and, in the words of the last stanza of our national anthem , stood “between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.” There is a price for liberty that these folks refuse even to understand, much less pay. As was the case 12 years ago, most gay Amer icans appear to agree with the vast majority of their fellow citizens in supporting the president’s position against Iraq. If there is any gay angle to the war facing us, surely it is that tjie removal of Saddam, which is not about to happen hy peace ful means, would he the best thing that could happen to gay people in that part of the world. As the Stonewall rioters demonstrated 53 years ago, sometimes you have to fight hack—and, contrary to the perpetually alienated among us, gays are citizens, ttxx R ic h a r d J. R o s e n d a l l Washington, D .C. Private parts To E ditor : (x:s it concern anyone else the cost we are I , / paying for safety? Since Sept. 11, 2001, the reaction to terror ism has cost the American public not just our budget surplus and an increase in defense spend ing hut the loss of cherished personal privacy and civil rights that many find dear. W ith the Bush blueprint for national security, and the ter- the tr a n s itio n s posed actors Jon Voight and Ricky Schroeder and snapped a shot that was published in Newsweek. But it would be the raw sensuality and tender machismo captured in the photo graph of young Richard Gere— rising star of 1980’s American Gigolo— that launched his career. Ritts later moved from fashion shtxits for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Elle to album covers and music videos for M adonna, Elton John and Cher. Two of his creations—Janet Jackson’s "Live Will Never Do (W ithout You)” and Chris Isaak’s “Wicked G am e”— won MTV awards in 1991. Ritts is survived by his partner, entertain ment attorney Erik Hyman; brother, Rory; sister, Christy Thrasher; and mother, Shirley. PHOTO BY HERB RITTS Herb Hitts, 1952-2002 'UtUcjjUe. S ltO fifx itU f C xjieA *e*ice Shop, D ine and Play at O renco Station. First Stop August Gardens! Call 503-640-5833 DAFRIDGE.COM Mon-Fri 11-6pm • Sal I I-5pm • Sun in Dec 12-tpm 6175 NE Cornell Kd • HilMxwo, OK • 97124 Just 2 Macks from Orenco Station Max Slop /"'C elebrity photographer Herb Ritts died of complications from pneumonia Dec. 26 in Los Angeles. He was 50. He was bom in Los Angeles in 1952. In 1970, he left California to study economics at Bard (College. Ritts later returned to West Hollywood and worked for the family business selling rattan fur niture, often to movie sets. This job allowed him to travel and to pursue one of his interests, pho tographing his friends. R itts’ hobby soon became a self-taught career. His first success as a photographer came in 1978 on the set of The Champ. He quickly Madonna mugs in 1987
