COMMENTARY
by
M a r i y D av is
The IN publication for the OUT population
F ounded 1983 • J ay B rown
Vol. 2 0 N o . 14
and
R enee L a C hance
M ay 16, 2 0 0 3
FEATURE
PACK UP AND SET OUT!: Where to go and what to
do when you just need to gay-away from it all
p 26
NEWS
NORTHWEST • Campaign promotes Portland to
queer tourists; attorney reflects on 1996 lawsuit
against The Oregonian: YWCA counseling
center attempts to fill gap
pp 7 - 2 1
NATIONAL • Kentucky fried equality
pp 2 2 - 2 3
WORLD • Tokyo elects open transsexual
pp 2 4 - 2 5
ARTS AND CU LT U R E
MUSIC • Get to know Steven Nash...intimately
p 39
THEATER • Portland companies announce queer-
friendly seasons
p41
WHAT'S POPPIN'T • Praising Victor Vargas
P 42
FILM • Lawless Heart and Down with Love
p 45
CULTURE • Come as you are to the Masturbate-a-
Thon; partner swapping was never so much fun
as with the Lesbian Dance Club of Eugene
pp 4 6 - 4 7
DIVERSIONS • SM YRC fund-raiser at Crush;
LCP brings Kim Acuna to town
p 49
ROOKS • Peter McCusker goes From Dweeb to
Adonis: confessions of a fag hag
pp 5 0 - 5 1
COLUMNS
MS. BEHAVIOR • Ugly babies and single men
need love, too
P 37
EPIQUEEREAN • Go fish
P 44
•IT WITH IT! • The finer points of third wave
feminism
P 40
THE 60SPEL ACCBRIINC TO MARC • Queers at
Why was Kendra killed?
We need honest answers to some hard questions
ho killed Kendra
James is not the
question people
need to he asking.
We know who
killed Kendra James. Kendra James
was killed, at best, by fear, at best by
errors of judgment, at best by the yet-
to-be unskilled reactionary responses
of a very young police officer.
And at the worst.7 Well, that now
is the question to he asked instead.
“Why was Kendra killed?” And
beyond that...w hat’s going to he
done about it? Will there he
answers? Who deserves the blame? Is
it the fault of the officer, or do we go
right to the top and in reactionary
anger blame again Portland Police
C h ief Mark Kroeker? Will there he
honest answers, a thorough investi
gation? Will the police bureau pro
tect its own before protecting the
community?
“Why was Kendra killed?” should
he only the starting point. Next we
all should he asking ourselves, and
those around us, a lot of hard questions. Hard questions such as: “Why
should 1 care about Kendra James? This shooting, her death, this is not
a gay issue. Why should I care?”
Why, because we’re all people first and gay and lesbian second, and
this death is an issue about matters far greater than being gay or les
bian. The answers to these questions affect us all. Because we’re all
part of the community that looks to the police department for protec
tion. Straight, gay, black, white. This death should bring us together as
we join in the search for answers. "Why was Kendra killed?”
No, the death of Kendra James is not a gay issue. It is far bigger and
more important than that. It is an issue of our greater community and
of our values and integrity and the very ways in which we look at and
treat each other. Indeed, this death has nothing to do with issues of
sexuality. But it has everything to do with loaded shots of racism, class-
ism, elitism and everyday acts of judgment and condemnation.
I did not know Kendra James. I can’t imagine any circumstances
under which 1 might have ever known her. And to be honest, from
what I’ve read, 1 don’t think I would have liked her or ever even want
ed to know her. This very apathy in and of itself is an act of judgment
and condemnation. 1 take no pride in this statement...other than hav
ing the honesty to admit it.
And that is what is bothering me the most about the death of
Kendra James.
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Because the truth is that I don’t find myself caring about the person
at all. 1 trouble at the circumstance of her death. But I do not mourn
the person. I question the probability of disconcerting factors that
caused her death. I wonder why this happens, seemingly over and
over. But the worry is outward, not inward. Because I know it’s not
going to be me who is shot next. Because I’m not like Kendra James,
and it seems to be people like her who get shot. Not people like me.
I trouble about the death of Kendra James because it’s easy to dis
miss. Because our ability to feel for others is being numbed by televised
wars and deaths. We daily view murders and casualties that no longer
seem real. I trouble because there are too many deaths and they no
longer touch us, and as soon as that happens we are lost souls indeed.
Yes, I will have the shamed courage to admit that the person killed
means less to me than the circumstances of the killing itself. How
about you? Can you be honest with yourself? Do you care about
Kendra James? Do you know when she died, how she died? Do you feel
anger? Do you feel sadness? Do you rage, do you blame, do you care?
Do you demand truthful answers? Or do you, do we, wait a few days
and then forget all about it?
Until the next Kendra James? J H
PLEASE NOTE: M ay has five Fridays, so the next issue o f Ju st O u t w on’t hit
the streets until Jun e 6— an interval o f three weeks rather than two.
the wheel
p 53
Jm t m ut to published m the first and third Fri
day of each month. Q ip y n jih t C 2 0 0 ) hy Just O u t. N o pun
REFLECTIONS
o f Just O u t m ay h r reproduced w ith o u t w ritte n p erm iw to n from
th e publisher.
5 y e a rs ago in
• A handful of city officials and friends gathered M ay 1 to kick off
the Keeston Lowery Meditation Garden project by planting
several shrubs
i
bs and
flowers in the proposed sp o t The plot wÉ
encompass a 50-by-40-foot ares in the C ity H a l courtyard at
Southwest Fourth Avenue and Jefferson » re st. The garden w i
brim with perennials— Lowery s favorite—as wefl as pathways, a
bench and a watering system.
The submission of w ritten and graphic m ateri
als to welcomed. W r itte n m aterial sh ou ld he typed and dou-
hle-spuced Just Out reserves th e righ t to ed it for (¡nm m ar, p u n c
tu atio n , style, lia b ility c o n ce rn s an d length. W e w ill reject o r ed it
articles o r advertisem ents th a t are o ffensive, d em e an in g o r may
result in legal actio n .
Letters to the editor sh ou ld he lim ite d to 5 00 words. A n
n o u ncem en ts regarding life tra n sitio n s (b irths, deaths, unions,
• This month Portland lawyer Mark Johnson becom es the
president-designate of the Oregon State Bar. In September he
wfll assume the presidency, becoming the first openly gay
lawyer to hold the position.
etc.) sh ou ld he lim ite d to 2 00 words, pho to s are w elcom e. Dead
line far subsnissiona to th e e d ito ria l d ep artm en t and for th e
Calendar is th e Thursday 15 days before th e n e x t p u b lic a tio n
ilate. V ie w s expressed in letters to th e editor, c o lu m n s an d features
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• A few days before Mother's Day. May 10. Portland Pubic
Schools staff recewed messages in their work maiboxes
reminding them families come in many configuration«. The
missives were crafted by the Sexual M nority Parents Advisory
Group, which advises the dfctrict on issues related to making
schools safer and more equitable for sexual minorities.
HIM • Marty Davis
NHVS o r a • Jim Radosta
ARTS AM CMJMI EMM • Lisa Bradshaw
• Timothy Krause
• Marie Fleischmann
• Marc Acito, Kathy Beige, Jamie
Bolyard, Meryl Cohn, Gina Daggett, Jodi Darby,
• By a 4 3 vote, the Beaverton School Board rejected a proposal to
insert the words 'sexual orientation’ into its existing nondecriminetion
policy. The vote, which occurred M ay 4, was the second such rejection
in as many months.
• A Kvely crowd o f nearly 200 turned out for the M ay 9 grand
opening of the Sexual
ad M
I inority Youth Recreation Center. The Hedging
establishment, located at 424 E. Burnside St. in Portland, is designed
as a sodai and meeting space for queer kids 23 » id younger.
• Despite infighting among various national queer organizations, the
id Mitennium
proposed
Mtfennium Mar
March on Washington. D C., has realized a
firm date:-’
ft April -------------
30. 2000.
• Com e to the Prom You Never Had. Prom King and Queen titles
and free horse-drawn carriage rides M ay 21 at the Egyptian Oub.
• It's Queer Night at La Luna every Monday! D Ja are Aquaman and
Brad Vischel. AM ages welcome.
Susan Detroy, Tim Joyce, Karen Kudej, Patricia
L. MacAodha, Andy Mangels, Christopher
McQuain, Gary Morris, Catherine Sameh, Floyd
Sk laver, Rex Wockner, Pat Young
I • Larry Lewis
: • Markie Acevedo
• Erin Sexton
I • Kevin Moore
• Zanne dejanvier
I • Marie Fleischmann
I • Kevin Friends
I • Kristine Ashton, Dana Corbin,
Mary Hauer, Youme Inhofe, Crash Schwartz