march 19.2004
Where Are They Now? Continued from Page 2 7
“Katharine English was really involved with
lesbian custody,” Cumfer explains. “You have
to credit her with really changing the atmos
phere in the courthouse— judge by judge.”
In 1984 English was hired as a juvenile
court referee. Today she is chief judge for the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
During her time with the Community Law
Project and later with her own practice, Cum-
fer offered legal services to several trans
clients who had children by a previous mar
riage and were having problems about visita
tion or support. She was also one of the first
attorneys to handle domestic partner agree
ments. She conducted workshops and wrote a
number of articles for queer publications on
domestic partner issues such as estate plan
ning and power of attorney. She wrote a do-it-
yourself book for couples who didn’t want to
see an attorney but still needed domestic part
ner agreements.
During the 1980s, Cumfer saw an increase
in the number of lesbians who opted to have
children via artificial insemination. She was a
consultant for one of the first lesbian couples in
which one partner became pregnant through
artificial insemination and the other partner
became the adoptive parent of the child.
“After a couple of years of thinking it over
and going through the pros and cons, I finally
had a couple who wanted to go through with
the adoption,” she says.
It took a while for this couple to come for
ward because of financial and emotional costs.
And even though the process was confidential,
they worried the story might leak out because
they weren’t ready to have themselves or their
kids exposed to publicity. It took a bit of finesse
for Cumfer to educate judges on same-sex
adoption issues and to find one who would take
the risk to sign the adoption order.
“It was 1985, and as far as I know, that was
the first time in the United Stated that it had
been done. The next year, there was an adop
tion in Washington and then one in Califor
nia. It spread all over because we built on it,
and I would send my pleading {documents filed
with the court) to California or wherever. A lot
of states allow it now. It’s a no-brainer. In terms
of my legal career, that part is one of the things
I am probably proudest of,” Cumfer says.
Then and N ow
In the 1990s she limited her general law
practice to estate planning for unmarried cou
ples and legal issues for nonprofit organizations.
Then she narrowed it down to just nonprofits.
In 1996 she went back to school to get a Ph.D.
in history at UCLA.
“W hat I was most interested in was the
question of, ‘If the Declaration of Indepen
dence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution
have all of this language that suggests we treat
everybody equally or humanely or responsibly,
then how could it be that in the same mind
there are things like slavery, devastation of
Native Americans, gender inequality and all
kinds of racial inequality? How does the same
mind hold all of those concepts?’
“And so ultimately that was...what I did
my dissertation on,” she says. "I think it is that
same mind-set that we still deal with today,
and I wanted to understand how that got to he
part of the American psyche.”
Today Cumfer is almost finished with a
two-year position at Reed College, where she
teaches history. When the position ends, she’ll
return to her law practice and concentrate on
nonprofits.
“I believe that the voluntary sector is an
important arena in which social change can
occur,” she says. “By working with organiza
tions, I believe that I can more effectively assist
change."
Fred Neal
red Neal remembers talking to one of
his friends about gay rights in the 1980s
and saying: “Well, I have rights as an
Am erican.... Rights are universal and
should apply to everyone. And they should
apply to me equally as a gay person as they do
to a heterosexual person,” he recalls, laughing
at the memory.
But Neal caught on quickly as his friends
nudged him to get involved with the fight
against the anti-gay Ballot Measure 8 in 1988.
The initiative repealed Gov. Neil Gold
schmidt’s executive order banning discrimina
tion based on sexual orientation in state
employment.
“I said sure, and I signed over my life sav
ings at the time,” Neal says of his large dona-
F
tion to the
campaign to
defeat
Measure 8. “1
don’t think
anybody even
knew it, but I
thought, ‘OK,
I’m young, I
can save
anew.’ ”
And with
that, he found
himself
immersed in
the fight for
Fred Neal is a campaign
gay rights. He
finance manager at the
thought his
Oregon Elections Division
friends had the
right idea of working at the local level, getting
people to register to vote and urging gay men
and lesbians to participate in politics.
After Measure 8 passed and rained
depression and shock over the queer com
munity, Neal joined the Right to Privacy
board and served as fund-raising chairman.
He also worked for Multnomah County
C hair Gladys McCoy. In 1992 he took some
time off to serve on the No on 9 steering
committee.
“After Measure 9 , 1 went back to work, but
then Gladys died and it was time to do some
thing else,” he says. The early 1990s were diffi
cult years, as he lost his partner and friends to
AIDS and then came to terms with his own
HIV-positive status.
But he felt healthy and wanted to continue
his involvement with local government and
politics. He wanted to take a stand on issues
such as quality of life, equality of opportunity
for citizens and the structure of Portland’s gov
ernment. So, he decided to run for City Coun
cil in the 1994 primary.
W hen he signed on, he wasn’t expecting
Earl Blumenauer to run for re-election. Neal
lost, but not before he had a chance to speak
out on the issues. “I have always felt the
need to be somewhat of a catalyst for getting
people to see things from a different perspec
tive, and part of that was the council race,”
he says.
Neal was also open about being HIV-positive
during his run for office. “I would get thank-you
letters from gay men who were HIV-positive
[saying] it gave them great inspiration. They
were so proud,” he says. “And I was saying:
‘Well, I am not just going to lie down and die. I
am going to participate in the broader commu
nity, be a part of my world and be out there
speaking.’ ”
The campaign was exhausting, and Neal
discovered what it was like being a public fig
ure. “I was never comfortable having my name
on bus benches all over town and being mis
quoted in the press,” he laughs. Ultimately he
decided that working behind the scenes was
more his style.
Today Neal is a campaign finance manager
at the Oregon Elections Division. When voters
passed a campaign finance reform measure in
1994, the state needed additional resources to
implement the charges, which created the
opening for him. He spent months implement
ing the program, only to have the Oregon
Supreme Court overturn the ballot measure as
unconstitutional. Neal had to undo all the
changes. One of his latest challenges is making
campaign finance information available to the
public in a timely manner.
Reflecting on his career and some of the
changes in Portland, Neal says his underlying
passion is equal rights and human rights. But
he also stresses the need for gay men and les
bians to get involved with the broader commu
nity as well as their own.
“If you are gay or lesbian or bisexual or
transgender and you are not registered to vote,
you are doing yourself a disservice,” he says. “If
you are not reaching out to your neighbor and
participating in your broader community, you
are doing yourself a disfavor.
“Democracy is only as strong as the level of
participation. If you have more people partici
pating in it, then you are going to have a more
meaningful dialogue. I don’t think anyone has
a franchise on the truth, but if everyone is
more honest with each other and themselves,
then democracy will survive.” J D
P at Y o un g is a Portland free-lance writer and
president o f the G ay and Lesbian Archives o f the
Pacific Northwest.
A selected timeline of anti-gay ballot measures sponsored by the O C A
1988
1992
1994
2000
2004
Measure 8
Repealed an executive order and
overturned nondiscrimination
protection in public employment
Passed: 53 percent “yes” to 47
percent “no”
Measure 9
A constitutional amendment to
codify discrimination based on
sexual orientation
Failed: 56 percent “no” to 42
percent “yes”
Measure 13
A constitutional amendment to
codify discrimination based on
sexual orientation
Failed: 52 percent “no” to 48
percent “yes”
Measure 9
To prohibit public schools from
promoting/sanction ing
homosexuality/bisexuality
Failed: 53 percent “no” to 47
percent “yes”
Student Protection A ct III
To prohibit public schools from
promoting/sanctioning
homosexuality/bisexuality
Status: Approved for signature
gathering
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