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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2003)
4 jMSt out • juiy 18. 2003 IS Horizontal violence PENIS ILLIN? Hagle ELye Optical PRESCRIPTION EYEWEAR GLASSES & CONTACTS LICENSED & CERTIFIED OPTICIAN COMEW 2808 NE MLK Jr Blvd. Suite C Portland, OR 97212 Located next to Billy Reed's Restaurant 503.335.7173 LOO i Southminster Presbyterian Church Member of the Community of Welcoming Congregations PENICILLIN! syphilis is on the rise in Portland. Early signs are a painless sore, then a rash. If you may have been exposed through oral, anal, or vaginal sex, call for free testing and treatment. 503.988.3700 Sunday Service: 10am brought to you by 12250 SW Denney Road (at Hall Blvd.) Beaverton, OR 97008 503-644 2073» www.southmin.com MULTNOMAH COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT Benefit the Community with your Mortgage Cascade AIDS Project Our House of Portland Basic Rights Oregon or any charity of your choosing LAURELHURST DENTISTRY C larice J ohnston dm d & ASSOCIATES • Treatment explained and discussed • Teeth whitening • New patients welcome 503-481-6581 Mark Humphrey Home Capital Funding 2915 S.E. Division St. Portland, OR 97202 D eni S tarr Portland 503/233-3622 2520 East Burnside 3 awasne S ergio U rzua H ugo F lores R ufino G onzalez J ose N unez M ario M artinez Poder Latino de Oregon Board of Directors Oh, the humanity! To the E ditor : ’m writing regarding the July 4 letter “Docs Anybody Care?” and newsbrief "Latina Claims Bias Among Portland Poder.” Both Poder to the people struck to the heart of what 1 have observed and To the E ditor : experienced as a lesbian and a person with brown skin. oder Latino de Oregon focuses on devel oping leadership in the lesbian, gay, bi I grew up in Los Angeles and had a multi and trans community by organizing social, cultural upbringing. Some members of my fami educational and HIV prevention events. Our ly pride themselves in speaking Spanish fluent objectives: ly; others do not. 1. To promote health and well-being in the Back in those days, my father identified as Latino communities. Mexican American and spoke Spanish because 2. To create a place that we can he proud of my grandparents knew it hut also spoke English and feel safe. because that is what is spoken in the United 3. To focus and promote our group among States and by my mother. Living this heritage, 1 the Latino communities. learned that speaking Spanish in this country is This letter is to clarify allegations made fraught with emotional, political and societal about our group in Just Out regarding the implications. “exclusion” of Ms. Gay Latina Oregon Mizz I agree with Mizz Monique Mcxire and David Monique Mcxire and Mr. David Zambrano’s Zambrano that the kind of discrimination she involvement in the matter [“Latina Claims Bias encountered from a predominantly immigrant Among Portland Poder,” July 4|. Mexican community, glossily labeled as Litino, First of all, Poder Latino de Oregon is a comes from ignorance. But 1 also believe that nonprofit group and has no affiliation with such circumstances result when labels are adopt the Mr. and Ms. Gay Latino Oregon pageant ed without a specific “ethnic membership list.” or its organizer, Zambrano. He was first con Moore, growing up brown in this country, has tacted May 4 by one of our members, Mario shown me that the demographics in these eth Martinez, regarding his interest in participat nic categories are continually shifting and that there was no way for me to keep track of all the ing on our float and was asked to attend one of our meetings, at which time he was given boxes to check to meet the requirements for membership. all the information needed: time, date, place and people to contact with questions regard As for food-poisoned Dy Gulotta: Hey, I hear ing the event. He made no attempt in any way you! I’ve been in Portland for more than a year to contact our group. and have been completely ignored hy my sister Two of our members, Rufino Gonzalez and lesbians and brother gays at event after event Martinez, approached Moore the night she was even without the extra agony you experienced crowned May 25 to invite her to he on our float at the last Gay Pride. If you are alone at these for Pride. Her only response was she could not events, g<xxl luck trying to penetrate a well- comment, and she referred us to Zambrano, established clique! I therefore making herself unreachable. Both of these items helped me see that I am One of our merhbers spoke June 9 with Zam not the only one who has these experiences. I believe that as much as labels such as "gay” or brano regarding the participation of Mixire in “Litino" may create an instant community for our float, at which time he said that she would he entering the Ms. Pride Pageant, that it all some, the opposite edge can cut to the core, as what has happened to you and me. depended on the outcome of the contest and Labels can be divisive if, with your lesbian that he would let us know either way. Three I Great Loan Rates + a Donation: 25% of my origination fee donated to your charity To the E ditor : K. That’s it. I have HAD IT with every one in Queendom who wants to collect their politically correct brownie points at Marty Davis’ expense. I don’t agree with her editorials 90 percent of the time, but 1 am deeply grateful that she has opted to forego a lucrative career in corporate America in order to provide the queer community with a quality newspaper. It is one thing to respectively disagree with the perspective of an editorial; it is another thing altogether to personally attack someone who is making a major contribution to our com munity for the sake of feeling smugly superior. People who want to offer a different, broader, perhaps more educated perspective on an important issue are doing the community a favor, but this can be done without resorting to character assassination. A personal attack on a fellow member of the community just for the sake of being politically correcter-than-thou is bullshit. People who don’t like Marty’s editorials should consider writing a guest editorial. Peo ple who don’t think there are enough articles in Just Out that are all about them should sub mit their own articles. People who don’t like Just Out should start their own newspaper. People who want to attack a valuable queer institution in our community and a contribut ing member of it just for the sake of indulging in their own histrionic need to be victims should FUCK OFF. days later June 12, our group decided we no longer could wait to hear from Zambrano and elected to have instead Marida on our float as Ms. Poder Latino de Oregon, not as Ms. Gay Latina Oregon. A Poder Latino member and Zambrano ran into each other June 14, at which time he was informed as to the group’s decision to have Marida representing Poder Latino de Oregon. A committee of about six people came to our float June 15 as we were getting ready to take our place in the parade, demanding that Mcxire should be on our float. We explained again of our decision and that she was more than wel come to walk with the float. The committee declined on her behalf. Since the beginning, our group has never canceled any of our meetings. They have always been every other Thursday. In closing, our mission as a group is to build community, not separate. In the past two years we have successfully reached the Latin com munity through events. All of this with a team of volunteers. There was never an issue of miscommunication, as stated bv the editor of Just Out.
