Just out., June 06, 2003, Page 96, Image 96

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P32
Mina fi. 2003
Picture the many faces of our community
L
esbian, gay, bi, trans, queer or questioning.. .our sexual
minorities community has many diverse faces. You
could say we’re all many relatives of one big extended
family. Like a family reunion, Portland’s annual cele^
bration of Pride gives us the opportunity to better
know our brothers and sisters. Here are a few folks we thought
you might like to meet.
he says. Leading the Queer Alliance was a way
for Bambino to “give hack.”
But even before then, he had been commit­
ted to community work. He spent his freshman
year volunteering at Outside In, a Portland
youth center.
“Youth voices often don’t get heard,” says
Bambino, who strives to bring different com­
munities together. “Youth need to be empow­
ered and encouraged to take an active role.”
Bambino encourages queers o f all ages to
bridge the generation gaps in their communi­
ty. Last year, the alliance played host to a
reception for Vintage Voices, a concert by the
Portland G ay M en’s Chorus that featured
videotaped interviews with elderly gay men
and lesbians.
“I remember one woman’s story very well,”
Bambino says. “Part of what made it so com­
pelling was that I had been working with her
on the concert, and then 1 saw her up on the
screen. She talked about coming out to her par­
ents and telling them that they just needed to
accept her and her partner. It was awesome!”
Next year Bambino will be heading Reed’s
Multicultural Resource Center. His message to
other queer youth: “Keep fighting— on all lev­
els— for social justice. Our time has come.”
— Meg Daly
Completing a master’s degree in divinity,
Youngman served a U C C parish in Kansas,
where she observed the harmful impact of a
closeted atmosphere on families with sexual
minority children. She knew of six such families.
“They never talked to each other,” she says.
“When a son died from AIDS, the parents never
turned to anyone for comfort, and the other
families never offered to give them support.”
Eventually, she was called to the com­
pletely accepting Gresham church. “I didn’t
Ju d ith Youngm an
Cody Bambino
C o d y B a m b in o
R
eed College student Cody Bambino
has the fresh-faced idealism and pas­
sion for justice that makes the pro­
gressive world go around. He spent last year as
president of the Queer Alliance, a campus
activist group that sponsors events and sup-
ports sexual minority students. Under Bambi­
no’s tenure, it sponsored a Queer Prom, an
event with comedian Margaret Cho and Com ­
ing Out Week, complete with a workshop
called “Trans 101.”
For the 19-year-old psychology major,
activism seems to fit like a second skin. It was
only two years ago when he was coming out
himself—“a fun, amazing and difficult time,”
T
he early 1980s was, the Rev. Judith
Youngman believes, the right place at
the right time to come out. Living in
Seattle, her birthplace, she delighted to the
right-on sister music of Holly Near, Meg Chris­
tian and Margie Adam. “The atmosphere
alone,” she says, “was very supportive.”
Later, as a United Church of Christ pastor,
Youngman s life would run the gamut from very
closeted in McPherson County, Kan., to her
current position, where “my orientation is a
nonissue for the parish.”
The Rev. Judith Youngman