Just Out runs articles about
AIDS from the Boston AIDS
Writers Group, providing
information now on Kaposi's
sarcoma, wasting syndrome, viral loads and a new turning point
in the fight against HIV: protease inhibitors.
Five years later, Gtscade AIDS Project executive director
Thomas Bruner tells Just Out: "There was nothing in the pipeline
that had the potential to he as important as protease inhibitors.
The sense was that if this new class of extremely powerful dnigs
didn’t produce dramatic results, we were fucked."
The results were dramatic indeed, as “living with HIV”
began to replace “dying from AIDS."
1996
A Multnomah County Circuit Quirt judge rules
in favor of Chris Tanner, who sued Oregon Health Sciences
University for domestic partner health benefits in 1992. The
judge says Tanner and her partner, Lisa Chickadonz, "enjoyed a
long-term relationship identical to marriage” and should not lx*
denied spousal health
benefits, Just Out
reports. The ruling is
appealed.
Intel extends
Country western dancing
Portland's §my mrn and lesbuin v find that it ’r fu n .
health benefits to its
Oi»J <*<** help mend a broken heart
same-sex domestic
partners. The compa
ny has about 45,000
employees worldwide,
with 9,000 in Port
land. Tektronix, one
of the largest high-
tech employers in
Oregon, continues to
refuse to offer health
benefits to domestic
partners.
Portland cop
Mike Garvey, a 20-
year veteran, comes
under investigation for the possibility
of hiring male prostitutes through an
escort service. Garvey, who is gay, turns
in his badge and gun while the investi
gation occurs. Metropolitan Com muni
ty Church of Portland’s the Rev. Roy
Cole writes a commentary in Just Out
criticizing the community for its "deaf
ening silence" and lack of support. The
grand jury mles he should not face
criminal charges, and Garvey is still
with the police force today.
The predominantly gay
Metropolitan Community
Church of Portland cele
brates its 20th anniversary.
Right to Privacy
renames itself Right to
Pride. The organization
also changes the name
of its annual fund-raiser,
the Lucille Hart Dinner,
after several meetings
with trans activists.
Alberta Lucille Hart was
horn a female in Oregon
in 1890 hut lived as a
man. Many RTP mem
bers thought Hart was a
lesbian who dressed as a
man to he a doctor and
avoid homophobia. Rut
members of the trans
community disagreed.
They worked for almost
two years to educate
people that Hart had
made a gender transition
and called himself Alan. In a 1994 letter to Just Out,
Candice Brown wrote: “He was a transsexual or, at
least, a transgenderist— a true pioneer. Alan Hart is
one of our heroes. Please don’t let him he taken away
from us by allowing his old name to he used as though
it were a badge of honor.” The fund-raiser becomes
the Right to Pride Dinner. When RTP changes the
name, Brown comments to Just Out: “Every year
when [RTP’s dinner] was held, it was a very personal
and painful experience for the transsexual community.
At least now, we won’t have to go through that,
which is extremely gratifying to me.”
After 10 years of being
HIV-positive, Eric Simpson of
Lincoln City finds out that the
virus is undetectable in his lat
est bkxK.1 work. “Needless to say, I was floored," he writes to Just
Out. “ If this could happen to me, it could happen to anybxly.
Why me, anyway.7” 1 le credits his success to the cocktail of pills
he’s been lucky to have. “ I realize that while I am incredibly for
tunate to he linked with programs that make the new drug
cixktails available to me, countless thousands are not.” He and
his partner are thinking of long-term goals for the first time.
1997
Musician Bonni Black wolf dies of AIDS at age 42. She was
well known in the Portland women’s music scene during the
1970s, when she played trumpet for the jazz band Baba Yaga. When Black-
wolf learned she was sick, she chose to help educate Native Americans about AIDS.
Diana Courvant writes a guest
commentary in Just Out asking
where all the activists have gone.
“When I joined the Lesbian
Avengers a few years ago, I seem
to have gotten in on the tail end
of a glorious streak. At one point
the Avengers were working on so
many actions simultaneously that
it was impossible for one woman
to be involved in them all," she
says. “These days it’s more Cas
cade AIDS Project, less A C T UP;
more Lesbian Community Proj
ect, less Lesbian Avengers. Is this
what we want? Is it time for direct
actions street death?”
Oregon state Sen. Marylin Shannon, a Republican
from Salem who had ties to the Oregon Citizens Alli
ance early in her career, introduces Senate Bill 577,
which would ban equal marriage rights for same-sex cou
ples. Since Republicans control the Legislature, there is
real concern that this hill might pass. A total of 17 other
states already have passed “defense of marriage acts.”
Fortunately, in Oregon, the hill fails. John Kitzhaher’s
spokesperson tells Just Out the governor “certainly
believes that marriage doesn’t need a defense.”
House Bill 2734, which bans discrimination in
the workplace based on sexual orientation, actually
makes it through the House with a historic 40-20
vote. Gay Republican state Rep. Chuck Carpenter
sponsors the hill and deserves much of the credit for
getting it through the House.
Unfortunately, it does not
The city of
pass in the Senate. Still, gay
Eugene extends
and lesbian activists cele
health benefits
brate the success it had.
to employees’
domestic partners.
Longtime activist Jean Harris becomes the new executive director of
Basic Rights Oregon when Julie Davis moves to California. Harris revisits
BRO’s original mission of a proactive initiative for gay rights, though some fear the initiative will
take away funds for organizations such as Cascade AIDS Project and Phoenix Rising. RRO gets the
title approved, hut the effort dies when a similar initiative on the Washington state ballot fails.
*■
icy
^
r
President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act, which exempts states from
having to recognize same-sex marriages and defines a legal marriage, for federal purpos
es of taxation and social services, as between one man and one woman. U.S. Reps.
Elizabeth Furse and Earl Blumenauer, who Oregon gays and lesbians helped elect,
voted tor the measure. “It would be easier to understand if any of them had the decen
cy to apologize and even to try to explain their actions,” writes John Balker in a letter
to Just Out. In a 2003 guest commentary, Blumenauer admits his vote was wrong.
Ellen DeG eneres’
television character,
Ellen Morgan, comes
out April 30, 1997,
and Ju st Out calls it
the queer version of
the Super Bowl
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