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Day of Silence organizers Leanne Neifert and Adam Okoye share strategy with other young
queers Jan. 31
Youth also shared ideas with each other in
preparation for the ninth annual Day of Silence,
when students across the nation don’t speak for
an entire school day to draw attention to the
discrimination and harassment faced by queers.
This year’s protest will be held April 21.
Day of Silence organizer Leanne Neifert of
Kent, Wash., suggested that Gay Straight
Alliances join forces with other progressive
clubs in order to boost participation. “Don’t
assume that a club is going to be an ally or an
enemy...until you talk to them,” she said.
The conference was planned by Basic Rights
Oregon’s Youth Advisory Committee, which will
hold its next meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 15 in
Suite 610 at 310 S.W. Fourth Ave. It is seeking
speakers and performers for the Night of Noise, a
rally that will follow the Day of Silence.
The next big event for queer kids is the Taint
ed Love Winter Formal, which will be held from
8 to 11 p.m. Feb. 13 at Mount FUxxl Masonic
Lixlge, 527 S.E. 43rd Ave. The soiree, sponsored
by the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center,
will feature a rock band, a disc jockey, a giant
game of Twister and free HIV testing.
don’t exist or no longer exist because of in
adequate planning.”
The fund began its efforts last summer with a
community wide survey of queers in the Portland
area. Baldwin says the results revealed that “the
community was very clear about its priorities
and how important a community center could
be to meeting our needs.”
The fund also received status from the Inter
nal Revenue Service as a nonprofit organization
and collected pledges and commitments of
about $17,000 from individuals, corporations
and the city of Portland.
“We are engaged in a thoughtful and strate
gic process,” Martinez said. “It’s likely that peo
ple would like something visible to appear faster,
but our goal is to have a sustainable, productive
and effective center that will be supported by
community. For us to get there, these are the
steps we need to take.”
Baldwin added: “We believe that Portland
deserves the very best center possible for our com
munity. That means it has to be geared specifically
to our community and all the volunteers and sup
porters that make a community center possible.”
For mare information about the Day of Silence,
e-mail Adam Okoye at adam@day of silence .org.
For more information about the Youth Advisory
Committee, call Melissa Shepherd at
503-222-6151. For more informatum about
Tainted Love, call Jessamyn Thompson-Jacobs or
R E. Szego at 503-872-9664.
For more information visit
wwu. outwithit2003 .com.
P o r tla n d C o m m u n ity
C enter F und L aunches
N ext P hase
he LG BTQ Community Center Fund will
hold a public forum at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in
the Multnomah Building boardroom, 501 S.E.
Hawthorne Blvd., to discuss how a facility could
help queer organizations in Portland.
“We are restarting the community forums we
did last year,” fund board co-chairman David
Martinez told Just Out. “We want to get as much
involvement as we can and keep people engaged
in the feasibility process.”
A preliminary questionnaire has been draft
ed asking organizations how they think a com
munity center can help their missions and con
stituencies. Other topics covered include co
locating and offering services at a center. The
board intends to solicit input from the nearly
200 organizations in the region that address
queer issues.
“Each phase o f the feasibility study is cru
cial,” hoard co-chairwoman Gwenn Baldwin
said. “There are many examples of wonderful
queer community centers around country.
There are also many examples o f centers that
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Continued on Page 1 1
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C o m m u n ity C en ter
regon’s only queer community center
might close April 30 if it can’t raise enough
money to keep its doors open for another fiscal
year. The Ashland-based Lambda Community
Center Association board made the difficult
decision at a daylong planning retreat Jan. 24-
At its zenith, the Abdill-EUis Lambda Com
munity Center had more than 1,000 members
and an annual budget that exceeded $100,000.
Today, total paid membership has fallen below
60, and financial woes forced the facility to
move into a church basement. The center is
named in honor of lesbian activists Michelle
Abdill and Roxanne Ellis, a Medford couple
who were shot to death in 1995.
Board members formulated a plan of action
to make the center self-supporting:
• By the end of April, the center must raise
$10,500— the amount that is needed to main
tain services at its most basic level for one fiscal
year. All money will be returned to donors if this
goal is not met.
• Volunteers must come forward to fill
vacancies on the board and to help in commit
tee work, mailings, projects and events.
• The sexual minorities community mast make
permanent commitments to sustain the center.
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