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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2004)
M M É Ü JM L www.ncnm.edu 503.552.1551 J êi/e/tytfiing to jea/i u i v i à f ô extraordinary flora One queer’s a n a ly sis of the 2 0 0 4 election by ^Qev ^IVoohm Imagine... S ame-sex marriage may have lost John Kerry the presidency. As you know, it «11 came down to Ohio. There were 5,481,756 votes cast in Ohio, with a gap between President Bush and Kerry of only 136,483 votes. Ohio also voted to amend its constitution to ban same-sex marriage by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent. O f the approximately 3.4 million Ohioans who voted to ban same-sex marriage, at least 136,483 no doubt dragged their asses to the polls primarily to express their anti-gay fervor. This was, after all, Bush architect Karl Rove’s strate gy— to fire up the 4 million evangelical Chris tians who didn’t vote in 2000. Meanwhile.... • Ten other states also amended their con stitutions to shit on gays— Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah. The results ranged from 86 percent dumping on gays in Mississippi to only 57 percent crapping on us in Oregon. • Queer U.S. Reps. Bamey Frank of Massa chusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jim Kolbe of Arizona were re-elected. • At least 40 of the 64 queer candidates sup ported by the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund won. For full results, head to www.victoryfund.org. • Dallas County in Texas elected an openly lesbian sheriff, 57-year-old Lupe Valdez. What’s up with that? When you look at all the hundreds of openly queer elected officials around the country, it’s clear that Americans are, in general, perfectly fine with specific gay and lesbian people— even if he or she wants to he a sheriff in Texas or a mayor in North Car olina or is the daughter of the vice president of the United States. But Americans still have some kind of prob lem with gays in the abstract. In Mississippi, 86 percent of voters have some kind of generic problem with gays. The only way to move peo ple from the abstract to the personal is to come out to them— to let them know they know gay people. Gay candidates, of course, can have this effect on people also. T h at’s how you change the minds of conser vative people like, oh, Dick Cheney. Speaking of openly lesbian Mary Cheney and her life part ner, Heather Poe, there they Lupe Valdez, an openly les were on stage bian candidate for sheriff, together again won in Dallas County, during Bush’s Texas, of all places victory speech in Washington, D.C. GrxxJ for them. As long as Mary and Heather are around, nothing too awful is going to happen to gays and lesbians on a national level. Just by existing, even if they never speak, they function as a major wet blanket on the political aspirations of the anti-gay movement. • The move to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage remains dead. I also think Bush will let the issue drop now that he’s re-elected. He was just playing to Rove’s 4 mil lion fundies. Also, just a few days before the election, Bush came out in favor of civil unions that grant gay couples the rights of marriage. “1 don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chtxises to do so,” he said. “ I view the definition of marriage different from legal arrangements that enable people to have rights. And I strongly believe that marriage ought to be defined as between a union between a man and a woman. Now, having said that, states ought to he able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others.” Bush specifically and clearly said he disagrees with the civil unions-bashing 2004 Republican Party platfonn on that point. • One final factoid: Exit polling shows that 23 percent of gays and lesbians voted for Bush this year, down only 2 percent from 2000. On one level, of course, that’s simply impossible to believe. But, actually, it’s not surprising in the slightest. I’m guessing it was mustly gay men, includ ing sizable numbers of the authentic gay bubbas Doctors that treat your whole person •The cHojcs of' 1019 nw 11th a ve National College of Naturopathic Medicine p 5 0 3 .2 2 8 .2 5 5 8 - Honoring the Healing Power of Nature Call today for a free qualification over the phone Firsf Time Buyers ♦ FHA/VA Loans Self-Employed • Complicated Borrowers Bankruptcies & Foreclosures ♦ Credit Problems Investment Properties ♦ Pre-approvals 100% Financing Programs When we learned the landlord was selling our house, We called Christine in a panic. Being self employed, we thought it might be impossible to buy, but Christine came to the rescue. She made the extra effort to get all our paperwork in order and the loan approved. ” P . j - Patti & Joy, Rita ’s Flowers “ Christine Hall Senior Loan Consultant President’s Club 503-698-5429 800 ) 43-9941 503 - 301-1941 thger hallc@eaglehomemortgage.com Lovejoy Car Company A boutique Car Dealership Located in the Pearl District of Portland 1015 NW 17th at Lovejoy 503.222.5544 We Sell Fine Pre-Owned Vehicles We know excellence: All vehicles have been selected to achieve highest quality and affordability. Stay Dry While you Shop: All cars are kept indoors in our newly remodeled 10,000 sq. ft. showroom, which features an art gallery giving tribute to Portland artists every month. Karl Rove’s divide-and-conquer strategy succeeded one finds in Internet chat rooms across large swaths of the mountains, plains and South. They voted for Bush for the same reasons that 51 percent of other Americans did. As the old gay-lib slogan said, “We are every where." Including in America’s vast bubbalandia. How do I feel about four more years of George W. Bush? I suppose I feel some combi nation of angst, fear, trembling, depression, sad ness, embarrassment, horror, distress— and all the words that the thesaurus lists beside each one of those words. For kicks, let’s see what’s beside "fear”— “alarm, apprehension, abhorrence, agitation, anxiety, apprehensiveness, aversion, concern, consternation, creeps, despair, discomposure, dismay, disquietude, doubt, dread, forefxxJing, funk, jitters, misgiving, nightmare, panic, revul sion, suspicion, terror, trepidation, uneasiness, worry.” Man, that txx)k read my mind. 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