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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 2, 2004)
aprii 2. 2004 - Which came first? / / | was at PSU and I was looking for a »p la ce to be,” says Carm en Schwisow, a • field organizer with Planned ParenthtxxJ of the Columbia/Willamerte. She joined a group that was organizing the National Young Women’s Day of Action. It was Schwisow’s introduction to reprcxJuctive rights education and activism. Schwisow, who is 28 years old and graduated with a degree in womens studies and sociology in 1999, says that for her, “It was feminism first, coming out as a lesbian second." A commitment to feminism is one reason many lesbians and hi women work in repnxluc- tive rights organizations. Though difficult to quantify in numbers, the women I spoke with agree that, as Schwisow notes, “It’s quite evi dent whenever you walk into a pro-choice organization, you always find queer women working there.” Maura Roche, a lobbyist for BRO, grew up in a family of progressive activists. Her mother was a member of the Oregon Women’s Caucus, while her father was a "The opposition has a deeper willingness to take anti-environment, anti-choke, anti-gay, anti-death-with-dignity issues and weave them together" — Maura Roche it's ME! gift certificates available leader in the peace movement. “My entire life this whole concept of fighting for the right to privacy...has been a huge ftx:us in my family,” says the 37-year-old, who has been instrumental in fighting both anti-gay and anti-choice ballot measures throughout the 1990s and up to the present day. If ever there were an expert on Lon Mabon and his tactics, it is Roche. She feels “lucky to have figured out a way to combine making a living and doing activism." Teaming up with Roche and Thorpe to advance progressive bills in the Legislature and battle discriminatory ones is state Sen. Kate Brown. “My first job out of law school was at Portland Feminist W omen’s Health Circle,” says the 44-year-old Brown. “A number of the women there were lesbians. 1 think it’s been really critical to the under pinnings of the women’s movement to have [lesbian and straight women] working together.” As an out hi woman, Brown is the only queer in the stare Legislature. “I was pro-choice before I was a lesbian,” says Sue Bums, manager of In Other Words Women’s Books and Resources. In Other Words has signed on as a supporter of the March for Women’s Lives, and Bums hopes to co-sponsor a bus to Washington, D.C., with another feminist organization. Bums, 33, says she got her start being an animal rights activist and then moved on to pro-choice activism and queer liberation. “My politics depend on the belief that I’m not a lesbian first, I’m not a human first, I’m a female human and I’ll go down fighting for my right to do what I want with my female body.” Burns, who lived in New Haven, Conn., and Austin, Texas, before moving to Port land to helm the women’s bookstore, says many Portlanders are hip to the intercon nectedness of forms of bias. “1 think one of the great things about Portland is that the lefty progressive scene is integrated," she says. “ It seems like almost all the political dykes 1 know and meet are multi-issue activists, and pro-choice is included in th a t...it’s very hopeful.” Keep your laws off our bodies ortland has decades of history behind the collaboration between queer rights and pro-choice groups. In a recent inter view with Just Out, former Oregon National Abortion Rights Action League executive director and current Multnomah County drive with Pride Visit us online at: www.reyreece.com or schedule your appointment 5 0 3 2 5 6 -3 7 0 0 1 8 0 0 2 8 3 -0 5 9 2 - - breast forms, bras & more! - trans friendly susan john son o w n e r/fitte r 2 0 4 1 ne bu rn sid e, gresham 5 0 3 /4 9 1 -5 1 1 0 ~ w w w .s h o p its m e .c o m 122nd & East Burnside www.reyreece.com O U t 29 Chair Diane Linn said recently, in 2000, Mabon queers offered “dramatic” drafted the Student Protec support to the choice com tion Act, which would have munity in the early 1990s. severely limited sexual edu She says she’ll “never forget” cation, including crucial the financial and political HIV education in public support Right to Privacy schools, had it not been (B R O ’s predecessor) gave at defeated. that time. “The opposition has a “Sometim es BRO sup deeper willingness to take porters don’t understand why anti-environment, we work with reproductive anti-choice, anti-gay, rights organizations," says anti-death-with-dignity Thorpe, noting BR O ’s meip- issues and weave them bership in the Pro-Choice together,” says Roche. “Pro Coalition of Oregon. “ I gressives [tend to] segregate explain to them that we our politics. We’re very share a belief in the funda choice oriented.” mental right to privacy. And The irony that progres we share a common oppo sives’ commitment to egali nent. The religious right tar tarian ideals can be an gets [queer and pro-choice Achilles’ heel is not lost on groups] in the same ways Rcx:he. To combat this, she with the same tactics.” puts forward a view of “con Roche has fought this com stitutional connectedness” mon opponent firsthand for underpinning reprcxductive, years at the state Capitol. gay and death-with-dignity “Many people don’t know that rights. “[It’s about] privacy — Sue Burns Lon Mabon started out on of the body and...self- anti-abortion measures,” she says. determination in terms of who you build your Mabon was the driving force behind life with and the quality of your life,” she says. 1990’s unsuccessful Measure 8 to ban abor tion, and he and the Oregon Citizens Continued on Page 30 Alliance continued to put forth anti-gay and anti-choice measures throughout the ’90s, including the CHOICE • JUSTICE • ACCESS • HEALTH infamous Measure 9 in 1992. More " I'll go down fighting for my right to do what I want with my female body" March for Women's Lives P MARCH ro-choice activists say the time is right for a public demonstration of historic size in support of reproductive free dom and justice for all women. W a sh in g to n D C A p r il 2 5 , 2 0 0 4 Threats to these rights have never been so systematic and ABORTION * GLOBAL* FAMILY PLANNING coordinated, and the lives and health of women have never faced such peril. A t 10 a.m. April 25 on the National M all in Washington, D.C., people will march to uphold choice, justice, access, health, abortion, global and family planning. The principal organizers are the Am erican C ivil Liberties U nion, Black W omen’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, N A R A L Pro-Choice Am erica, N ational Latina Institute for Repnxluctive Health, N ational Organization for Women and Planned Par- enthixxl Federation ot America. i n For more information or to register, call 202-349-3838 or visit tente . marchf /no»men. org. A u to m o tiv e M a in te n a n c e & R e p a ir A T ITS B E S T ! Riverview Building Service c o m m e r c ia l c le a n in g s ervices W e C lean • Restaurants • Offices • Carpet ALL FOREIGN & DOMESTIC AUTOMOBILES QUALIFIED. HONEST. QUICK & FAIRLY PRICED SATISFIED CUSTOMERS TELL THEIR FRIENDS - THEY ALL COME BACK! (references on file) R E Y R E E C E D E A L E R S H IP S VOLKSWAGEN-MITSUBISHMJSED • C inchers • Gaffs • Padded Panties Just AUTO-MARINE 4230 NE SUMNER ST. 503 282-0159 - P ressure W ashing -Driveways -Patios -Sidewalks environment-friendly products used
