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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2004)
nary 9.2004 4 S o u th m in s te r P re s b y te ria n C h u rc h Military Meat Member of the Community of Welcoming Congregations Anger management To t h e Stories by Tanner WWW.Booksurge.com Sunday Service: 10am 1 2 2 5 0 SW Denney Road (at Hall Blvd.) B eaverton, OR 9 7 0 0 8 5 0 3 -6 4 4 -2 0 7 3 » www.southm in.com We cover both sides of the fence. W ell find you a home and get you the loan. ,oan remax.net Signature Properties dawnie@rosecitymtg.com 5 0 3 - 7 6 8 -4 2 4 8 Ext 106 B Horlrum* S rm lallsls Call now and we'll give you £100 off of your closing costs, and we will also donate $100 to one of ten charities sponsored by “ From stru d e ls to n oo d les, w o rk in g's a dream in my new ly remodeled kitchen... I needed more room First Time Buyers ♦ FHA/VA Loans to ad d cooking classes Self-Employed ♦ Complicated Borrowers to my catering business Bankruptcies & Foreclosures ♦ Credit Problems hut I dreaded the thought Investment Properties ♦ Pre-approvals o f refinancing to do it. 100% Financing Programs Luckily, I was referred Christine Hail to Christine. She came Senior Loan Consultant to our house with all the /Resident's Club paperwork, smoothed out - the bumps with 800-343-9943 solutions and made the whole refinancing ■ 5 03-301-1941 process genuinely friendly. Bon Appetite! ” * ‘ Hyfcr - S a s h a , "A n d Sh e C ooks ( j E l ) hollc@eaglehomemortgage.com Call today for a free qualification over the phone E d it o r : ! our story “Yoga Teacher Invites Gay-Basher to Oregon” is incorrect [Dec. 5J. I never invited Brian Joseph, the person who assaulted me, to Oregon. Mr. Joseph brutally attacked me without provocation, yet 1 do have compassion for him. IXiring a court-supervised meeting with him, he expressed to me that he had a problem with anger. 1 simply invited him to my class in South Africa since 1 believe yoga is a safe and appro priate way to deal with anger. 1 never approved of the media labeling him a “gay-hasher.” 1 am concerned that if Mr. Joseph continues to he called a gay-hasher, he will he less able to turn his life around. The term diminishes his efforts to reconcile for his p<x>r behavior. Mr. Joseph apologized to me, and 1 accepted his apology on the condition that he plead guilty to assault. He is now serving a six-month suspended sentence for three years. Even though 1 did not specifically ask him to, he also apologized to Cape Town’s gay community. He was remorseful and showed courage in facing consequences. Why must the media indulge in sensation al language and label him a gay-hasher after he has been brought to justice and made amends? Am I defending my attacker’s violent behav ior? Certainly not. 1 am simply defending him, as I would anyone else, against language that diminishes rather than heals. People can make whatever assumptions they want, hut assumptions should never lead to hate speech or violence. Assumptions should not even lead to misunderstandings, hut obviously they do. For example, Just Out assumes that I am “straight” and labels me “heterosexual.” This is inappropriate. My sexual orientation is not relevant to my being assaulted. Mr. Joseph ’s perceptions about my sexual orientation were completely relevant when he asked, “You’re one o f those, ' aren’t you?” as he flapped his wrist effeminate ly. My fellow yoga teacher, Birgit, and 1 both found this offensive. 1 tried to diffuse the situ ation by telling him that 1 was with my girl friend and that we wanted some privacy. Shortly thereafter he became violent, hitting me five times. I remained calm while Mr. Joseph assaulted me— never hitting hack or insulting him. I made every effort to bring him to justice. I was able to see past his behavior and see the inherent gcxxl in him. 1 forgive him without hesitation. 1 am proud of the contribution that yoga has made in my own life and that 1 am willing to share yoga with others, including Mr. Joseph. Through all of this, I am adamant that Mr. Joseph and Just Out can’t have what’s not theirs. My private life is my private life. Please respect that. The injuries 1 sustained during the attack have healed exceptionally well, and I am thor- oughly.enjoying my holiday abroad. Please express my best regards to my fami ly and friends. I trust this letter will address any confusion Just O ut’s story may have caused. J ames G irod Portland Mothers deserve compassion To t h e E d it o r : s lesbians, as grandmothers, as advocates of the right of lesbians and gays to marry, hut most especially as human beings and former sin gle mothers, we are horrified by and ashamed of Marty Davis’ callous and insensitive insult of the single mothers of two murdered girls (“Hail Marry!” Nov. 21). Children don’t die because of the sexual orientation or marital status of their parents. These mothers loved their children. They are not responsible for their deaths. The girls died because one perverted man murdered them. Lesbians and gays have not been allowed to marry. We suffer legal and stxrial injustice. But n o t a b le s 503 698-5429 C rum m y weather got you feeling blue? Got a hankering to try dinner at Equinox and take in a mediocre movie? c _o ro on CL <u O 602 SE 38th Ave. Portland, OR 97H 4 503.231.3912 Wed - Sat äaCTfflnaESan Cheek eat the veiee pereeeal eds m page SO. There'! waeeeae welting te ge atth fee. Submit year mm ad et Mw.jetteet.eeai. Marlene Daah (left) and Carol Jennings of Portland were married Nov. 28 at the Coast Harbourside Hotel and Marina in Victoria, British Columbia. The couple (pictured here on the deck of the ferry as they left Victoria Harbor on Nov. 30) had a civil ceremony with friends Victoria and Anthony Hawley as their witnesses. They then spent the long holiday weekend in Victoria sightseeing, shopping and finding good restaurants. Jennings works in the accounting department of a D SL company in Vancouver, Wash. Daab is unemployed. “ We have been together over 10 years and felt that we wanted to make a public decla ation of our commitment,” the couple told Ju st Out. “ The good people of Canada have granted us legal status, and because everyone deserves recognition and validation of their relationships, we decided to take the plunge. Everyone there seemed sincerely happy for us and could not have been more supportive. Too bad we had to go to a country other than our own for that acknowledgment!”
