6 |USt SUI • aprii 16.2004
Mother knows best
To the E ditor -.
hank you for your excellent article on Tom
Potter’s maverick campaign for mayor of
Portland [“Welcome Back, Potter," April 2J. 1
particularly appreciate Meg Daly’s not limiting
Tom to the single issue of his proven record of
civil rights support for our people.
1 have been horrified to note a few
GBLTQ/PFLAG names on Jim Francesconi’s
Web site as supporters. What kind of thanks is
that to give Potter, who by his works as our
police chief a decade ago helped set the stage for
the fabulous continuum of weddings we have
been celebrating for more than a month now—
which, as David Sarasohn recently pointed out
in The Oregonian, have been a great shot in the
arm for many Portland businesses?
Mother always taught us girls, “A gift is not a
gift until you say thank you.” The best way we
can thank Tom Potter for all he has already
done for us is to put up a lawn sign, slap on a
bumper sticker and VOTE for him for mayor.
And shame on anyone who doesn’t!
T
S usie S hepherd
Portland
Should I marry my mom?
To the E ditor :
M
R ichard (P aul ) W eller
Portland
Sinv lose or draw
To the E ditor :
’ve been watching the anti-gay marriage
protesters as they spit and scream and treat
gay people as “sinners.” They remind me of
the way the Nazis treated Jews, gypsies and
homosexuals as lesser than human. Other
than being live and in color, these protests
mirror the black and white newsreel footage
o f the taunting and physical abuses initiated
by the Nazis upon others.
How pure and righteous many religious
T
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really consider direct threats to your iastitution
of marriage.
Recently you stated in an interview about
gay marriage in Massachusetts that you would
not tolerate “aggressive judges” who want to
overturn the will of the people. With all due
respect to your office, that’s exactly the way you
got elected.
Yes, some people do want to redefine mar
riage. You might argue that gay marriages would
experience all the same negative issues on your
list, and you would likely be somewhat correct.
When it comes right down to it, the flaws on
your list are human flaws— not straight, not gay.
We as a nation must stop pointing fingers and
recognize that we are all human beings— good,
bad and ugly.
As gay men and women, we would like to
eliminate some of the bad and the ugly from
your list. Your institution of marriage, which has
more than a 60 percent failure rate, does not
structure a working model for the kind of mar
riage the gay community is interested in. For
that we will rely on our hearts, our love, our
conscience, our religious leaders, God and, final
ly, city hall.
Clearly, you are searching for a new project
for your remaining months in the White House.
You need look no further. Many consider the
following matters to be just a short list of some
real issues that threaten marriage and families:
homelessness, hunger, drug addiction, hate
crimes, child molestation, unemployment, jobs,
dropouts, racial profiling, police brutality, the
prison crisis, housing discrimination, racial dis
crimination, violence, poverty, health care,
unemployment, illegal immigration....
I do think a constitutional amendment at
this time is an excellent idea, but I suggest start
ing with an amendment that guarantees Amer-
tr a n s itio n
PHOTO BY MABTY DAVIS
y name is Richard Weller, and I’m 48 years
old. At 29, honesty set me free from the
gay lifestyle.
When I was 17, a hairdresser here in Port
land asked me to marry him, and 1 said yes. He
was an older homosexual man. The affair ended
violently after six months.
W hat 1 consider a nine-year man/boy
homosexual relationship went on while living
with my piano teacher in Vancouver, Wash.
W e talked of marriage also. (Love makes a
family!)
It was a difficult “divorce,” hut 1 went on to
- several other homosexual encounters. I thank
God that 1 am alive and now know the impor
tance of good role models for kids!
Next on the “agenda” is openly gay school
teachers (referring to “Gay Marriage: Who Did,
Didn’t and Why” in the March 28 Metro sec
tion of The Oregonian). I could go on and on
about why this is a bad idea.
Most gays are nice and lovable. (I give!) If
they are committed to a lifelong friendship tak
ing care of each other, they should have health
insurance and Social Security benefits.
I'll ask them what should I do? I’m “single”
and vow to take care of my mom “till death do
us part.” Should we get married? (Honor diver
sity! Don’t discriminate against us!)
Or, I may end up with a beloved niece or
nephew taking care of me in my old age. Can we
get the “special rights,” too?
I just thought of a great idea. Let’s leave the
definition of marriage alone. One man, one
woman. Thanks for listening, and God bless you.
believers are. They will pound their Bible but
will not initiate the practice of love, unless it fits
their need. They will spit upon love between
two people should that love not fit within their
perfect model.
The Bible may or may not be divine. But
regardless, because it is a human document, the
considerations in regards to the planet as a
whole, and the other species that live upon the
Earth, are not taken into the whole equation.
The whole equation is the Earth’s ability to
continue its life. T he Earth’s ability to evolve
through time allows life to continue. To only
follow the teachings of the Bible in regards to
marriage and populate more upon the Earth is
certainly a solution with grave consequences.
This ideology of continued population upon
the planet just adds to a population of more
than 7 billion.
Hpw many more times can this planet take
population growth? Does every human being
need to populate? Could it he that the old
thoughts contained in “marriage” are out of date
with the realizations of today?
As the planet evolves within the natural
order, which propagates continuation of life,
whether or not the Bible says it is right, this
order will continue as it has for 4 billion years.
Far greater than the Bible is the natural evo
lution of the planet, and that ideology is cer
tainly ’divine.
So, who is to say that gay marriages are a
“sin”? Overpopulation of the Earth has got to he
the “sin,” rather than a simple union between
two people of the same sex. A union of love
should never even he considered a sin, hut
killing off, in regards to overpopulation, our
ability to exist, certainly is a sin.
At least, as Americans, we must do every
thing within our power to keep the church and
the state separate, whether it he the removal of
the motto “In G<xl We Trust" from our money
or pushing marriage out of our government and
hack to the church.
Issuing bodies of government need to issue
documents for civil unions and not call those
documents marriage licenses. The government
has no right to he acting as agents for the
church, and the church has no right to he set
ting rules on how the government issues docu
ments for unions of love.
J oseph (J oe ) E. H oward
Portland
An open letter
to President Bush
To the E ditor : .
ecently you have emerged on the world
stage as the self-appointed spokesperson for
heterosexual marriage and all that it represents.
Your mission is to protect the “sanctity of
marriage” by denying gay couples the status of
marriage and its broad range of benefits in Social
Security, inheritance, power of attorney,
parental visitation, child custody, taxes and
many others too numerous to list. I suggest you
start your cnisade with solutions to the following
marital threats: domestic violence, adultery,
child abuse, polygamy, divorce, rape, wife swap
ping, unplanned parenthood, unwed mothers,
deadbeat fathers, incest, teen pregnancy,
pedophilia, pediatric A ID S, child custody
abductions, runaways, drug-related birth defects,
throwaway children, sexually uneducated chil
dren and abandoned orphans.
One wonders why you have taken issue with
Massachusetts and San Francisco for recogniz
ing and honoring marriage of gay couples, yet
you have never had any problem with Nevada,
which provides America with legalized prostitu
tion, nor have you taken to the stage in outrage
with Utah over polygamy— issues some may
R
William R eed ,
1963-2004
illiam Douglas Reed died April 7. He was
40.
He was bom June 27, 1963, in Elizabethtown,
Ky., and moved to Oregon at the age of 5.
He went on to graduate from Hillsboro High
School and Good Samaritan School of Nurs
ing. His professional work involved providing
in-home care to hospice clients.
Reed is survived by his spouse, Bill Hancock,
whom he met in December 1995 at Our House
of Portland, a residential care facility for people
with AIDS. In July 1996 they became the first
couple to “graduate” from the home.
A memorial service will be held 11 a.m.
April 17 at All Saints Church, 3847 N.E.
Glisan St.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in
Reed’s name to Our House.
W