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DIVERSIONS
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We’re not out
ot the woods yet
Love all
E
Untying the
comfortable knot
L
Buck/Mills/Stipe/Pansies
t’s been a long, strange journey for R.E.M. Col-
lege-rtKk pioneers turned major-label mega
stars, the DIY band that once called Athens,
Ga., home is now a global touring rix:k ensemble
whose members provoke CN N ticker headlines
(keywords: Pete Buck, British Airways).
From 1981 to 1997, fans could count on the
“Berry/Buck/MilLs/Stipe” tag touting co-equal
songwnting credits on every record. But when a
mid-Monster tcxir health scare (brain aneurysm)
and a midlife crisis (“I just wanna drive my tractor
and cook”) forced drummer Bill Berry (H it of the
band, the three remaining members found them
selves kerplunked into an ixld spot. Live or die?
Damn the beckoning grim reaper. The
result? 1998’s Up is a gentle and strange album
with overt heartsick odes to Brian Wilson. As
the earth shifted beneath the feet of the only
band Michael Stipe has ever known, the effer
vescent lead singer finally stepped out of the
closet and laid those persistent rumors to rest.
Yes, he’s queer. No, he doesn’t have AIDS.
The band continues to record as a three
some, with semiregular sidemen Scott
McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows)
and Ken Stringfellow (Posies) stepping in to
help fill the void.
R.E.M. play the Clark County Amphitheater,
17200 N .E Delftl Road, at 8 p.m. Sept. 3. Chica
go alt-country electronic wizards Wiko open.
i
Tickets are $37.50-$67.50 from Ticketmaster.
Meanwhile back in Portland, San Francis
co’s all-queer punk band Pansy Division, who
opened for Green Day (back in the day), play
The Blackbird at 10 p.m. Aug. 20. N o doubt,
the quartet’s new CD , Total Entertainment, will
be on hand.
Pansy Division says they sound like “a com
bination of Cheap Trick, The Ramones, Neil
Young, Galaxie 500, A C /D C, The Sonics, The
Beatles, Tom Petty, Blondie, The Muffs, The
Saints, Tones on Tail, Queen, X T C , The Go-
Betweens, Motown and more.” The band’s
song “Loose” has a refrain that goes: “1 stick it
deep inside/I stick it deep inside/’Cause I’m
loose.” Need to know anything else?
The Blackbird is at 3728 N.E. Sandy Blvd.
Take the Blame and The Divided open, and
just $6 gets you in the door.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRIAN BENNETT COLLECTION
ast spring The Associated Press sent along
a newsbrief headlined “Singer Etheridge to
Tie Knot with Partner." Her publicist com
mented, “This is the first wedding for both
of them."
Last month Jonah Goldberg o f The Wash
ington Times wrote that the media “have collec
tively decided to mainstream gays. The New
York Tones runs gay ‘marriage’ announcements
alongside straight ones.”
On the surface, this is all good news. Final
ly, queer relationships are taken seriously. But
it’s what we do with this newfound “accep
tance" that will either halt this civil rights
movement or segue it to the next level.
A few years ago one of the straight guys 1
worked with asked if my partner and 1 would
get married. 1 couldn’t believe my ears. “You
mean it isn’t legal?” he asked.
When you take something for granted, you
don’t consider that others can’t do the same.
When Vermont passed its domestic partner
registry, 1 was asked by several straight people if
my partner and I would “go to Vermont and
get married.”
It’s amazing what you don’t know when it
doesn’t affect you. N o doubt with recent news
headlines, heteros now get that gays can’t
legally marry in the United States. Yet with
verbiage like “tie the knot” and “wedding
notices,” it’s easy to just coast down the accep
tance trail— for gays and for straights.
That's why it’s really important— and 1 mean
reaiiy important here— to choose your words
wisely. Celebrities, of course, have an advantage
in being heard. For instance, if I were Melissa
Etheridge, I’d have released a statement: ‘W e’re
having a ceremony to celebrate our love and to
commit to each other. We’re not gening married,
though, because that’s illegal in this country.”
When victories happen in rapid succession,
as they have of late, it’s way too easy to rest on
our laurels. And it’s equally easy for straights to
feel proud enough of how progressive they are
in supporting all these new queer rights. Being
taken seriously can lead to being forgotten.
It’s imperative we don’t allow the assumption
that all people are created equal under the law.
It’s important to let people know we can’t file
our taxes together or receive Social Security
benefits at the death of our partners— losing
tens of thtxisands of dollars over a lifetime. It’s
important they know that if 1 have to make
decisions about my partner should she be lying
in the hospital, I might have to fly her mother
in from Belgium to do the talking. It’s important
they know I can’t sponsor her for a green card
because I’m not her wife, and she’s not mine.
Am I going to “get married"? Is Melissa
Etheridge? N o, we’re not, and we shouldn’t
say that we are. It’s not our job to make het
erosexual couples feel better about them
selves. It’s our job to make sure they know
that institutional second-class citizenry still
exists in the United States and that we won’t
rest until it doesn’t. JTJ
very August, always-queer-fnendly Breiten-
bush Hot Springs gets hotter and queerer than
ever when it plays host to separate closed-camp
weekends for gay faes and lezzie ladies.
Through Aug. 17, a couple of hundred
brothers gather to dance, sing, massage, trade
makeup tips, sunbathe and, above all, soak in
hot prxils of mineral water. The theme of this
year’s 33rd Gathering of Radical Faeries is
“Just Singin’, Dancin’ and Touchin’ in the
Summer Sun.”
However, most of the activities (especially
the clothing-optional ones) aren’t planned but
happen spontaneously. “Our gatherings are not
passive experiences,” say organizers from the
Northwest Radical Faeries. “(Wei create a caul
dron, but you are the potion and the fire.”
Then, as stxm as the faeries flit away, more
than 100 lesbians and gay-positive women fill
the grounds Aug. 21 to 24 for Women in the
Woods, an earth-centered, nurturing and heal
ing event.
Like the Faerie gathering, nearly all of the
goings-on are spontaneous and organized by
attendees themselves when they arrive. Tradi
tionally, however, women partake in drumming
circles, yoga, crafts, sing-alongs, a talent/no-
talent show and, yes, more soaking in the nat
ural hot springs.
“People come year after year because of the
magic that happens there,” says one of the
organizers, Pam Monette, who describes
Women in the Woods as a rare opportunity for
women to commune with nature and each
other. “It’s restful, it’s exciting, it’s interesting,
it’s quiet, it’s fun— it’s a combination of a lot of
things that.. .tantalize all of your senses.”
To leam more about next year’s Gathering
of Radical Faeries, call RiverSong at
360-481-4396 or visit www.radfae.org. Space is
still available for this year’s Women in the
Woods. The cost is $190 to $255; scholarships
are available. Call 503-284-0722 or visit
www.womeninthewtxxls.com.
Breitenbush Hot Springs is located in the
Willamette National Forest about 45 miles east
of Salem. Visit the retreat center at
www.breitenbush.com.
earn Port
land Tennis
Association
plays host to the
13th annual
Rose City
Open Aug. 29
to Sept. 1 at the
Portland Tennis
Center,
324 N.E. 12th
Ave.
About 150
players compete
in Open, A , B,
C and D levels
in men’s and
women’s sin
gles, doubles
and mixed dou
bles. About 35
Portland-area
queers enter the
tournament;
last year C h ar
lie Huffman of
Beaverton won the Open Singles title.
Fans are encouraged to attend games, particular
ly Sept. 1, when “some of the best gay tennis players
from around the country” play in the finals, notes
Team Portland Tennis member Kyle Anderson.
The Rose City Open is one of the Gay and
Lesbian Tennis Alliance’s sanctioned tourna
ments, and the events prove to be “more than
just a tennis tournament,” Anderson contin
ues. “It is a social meeting place of
players...who incorporate the tournament as a
vacation away.”
To leam more about Team Portland Tennis
and the Open, visit
www.teamportland-tennis.org.
Happy anniversary,
Mr. Mensel
B
oh Mensel, the artistic director who consis
tently leads the Portland Gay Men’s Cho
rus to new heights, celebrates 10 years with
the nonprofit organization this month.
Mensel points to how Portland, not to
mention the entire country, has changed a lot
during the past decade. “Ten years ago the gay
and lesbian community was still emerging," he
notes. “Tixlay things are much different. The
Supreme Court’s decision striking down
scxlomy laws was only verification of what we
knew was already happening in our city. If
Sam Adams decides to run, we may well have
a gay mayor.... Heavens, PGM C has four min
isters in the chorus!”
The changes in the chorus reflect the
changes in the larger community. “An appear
ance of the chorus rarely raises anyone’s eye
brows” anymore, he says. “The fact that the
chorus is shortly approaching its 25th year
speaks volumes to the stability of not only
PGM C itself but our ability as a gay communi
ty (to) create and sustain institutions.”
The chorus will begin its new season in
October, which will include classical, Broad
way, contemporary, popular and folk music.
“No other chorus in Portland ever attempts the
range that is commonplace with the Gay Men’s
Chorus,” states Mensel. “Many gay and lesbian
choruses program mindless, popular schlock to
win an audience. I’m not willing to do that.”
Here’s looking at another 10 years, Bob.
Family, politics and sexual identity collide in
the heart-wrenching Family Fundam entals
It’s fundamental
F
ilmmaker Arthur D ing sets out on a rather
personal quest when he visits religious funda
mentalist parents of queer offspring in Famdy
Fundamentals, which airs on OPB as part of the
FOV ckxrumentary senes at 11 p.m. Aug. 26.
Some parents interviewed specifically fight
against civil rights and spearhead anti-gay
agendas in this heart-wrenching look at dis
turbing rifts that often still don’t have the
power to completely separate family members
from one another. The film takes you into the
lives and homes of families while also docu
menting an explosive time in the history of
this ongoing cultural war. JT1
Compiled by L isa B radshaw ,
T im othy K rause and C ori T a r a to o t