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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2004)
_Ufi! v ember 5. by 2004 » | - « t « » 3 M artv D avis The IN publication for the OUT population Empty nest syndrome Vol. 22 N o. 1 N o on 36 campaign closes up shop after a valiant effort FEATURE t’s starting to lixik and feel very empty around the Just ('ha offices. For the last many weeks we have shared building space with the No on 36 campaign. Their hustling energy, their crowds of volun teers, the constant stream of visitors and a continual flow of familiar faces became warm and comfortable. The day after the election, the elixir was closed, the rooms dark. Emptiness seeped from beneath the dtxir- way. Now volunteers are dismantling and cleaning out, throwing away the remnants of hundreds and thousands of hours of hard work. We all have our own memories, thoughts, worries and recollections of this election. Some are big and painful, tixi big to wrap thoughts around. Here’s a few smaller pieces of mine that I’d like to pass on. I look forward to hearing from you in return with your shared thoughts and memories. 1 was touched by sincere words from Basic Rights Oregon executive director Roey Thorpe as she addressed a crowd of enthusiastic supporters the night after the election. She admitted to concern about how she’d be greeted and thanked the crowd for not throwing blame and disdain on herself and the campaign. There is validity to her concerns. There is his tory here. Talk to some of the Portlanders who worked in leadership roles on the early campaigns against Ballot Measures 8, 9 and 13. Talk to them if you can find them, that is. It is nor uncommon for us to turn on our own. But we’re not going to do that this time. Right? This is not to suggest that the campaign is not to be fodder for debate. Clearly this will be happening. Strategies are to be questioned, concerns are to be voiced. This will happen with BRO and the campaign staff internally, and it should also occur externally. There Is a need for a forum for our community to come together, ask questions, hear answers and use this info to gather resources and energy for what comes next. T he fact of the matter is, every now and then, ya just gotta sit down and process. It’s a requirement of forward movement. Questioning is not akin to attacking. Questioning, done respectfully, does not imply blame. W hile there might he questions as to the hows and whys, there can he no doubt of the campaign’s integrity, the dedica tion of the staff and volunteers and their deep desire to have defeated Measure 36. Anyone who might have had doubt needed only to have looked at the faces of the staff Nov. 2. A nd already there Y brightness in the gloom of defeat. As I’m writing this column, an e-mail comes in from Eugene announcing that students at Spencer Butte Middle School are planing a rally to protest the passage of Measure 36. Middle school? Isn’t that 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds? As stated in the e-mail, ‘T h e younger generation will he our salvation.” Middle school students are rallying to our side. Don’t for one minute think that hope is lost. F ounded 1983 • J ay B rown t wasn’t all bad news on election night. In Portland, openly gay Sam Adams won a fiercely contested seat on the City Council. Now I don’t want to he pushy or premature, but here’s my plan for Adams. I see two terms on the council and then it’s Sam Adams, Port land’s first openly gay mayor. By then we’ll dispense with the label; office seekers will no longer be straight or gay, they’ll simply be candi dates. But wait, there’s more— after two terms as mayor, the now distin guished, hard-bodied, silver-haired Adams heads for W ashington, D.C. To the House? N ah, I think not. It’s Sam Adams, two-term U.S. sena tor from Oregon. A nd after a long, successful career in public life, he and his partner and their seven cats retire to their beachfront home, where they while away the hours with entertaining and organic gar dening. T he only uncertainty in this prediction: W hen exactly will Adams find time to seek out a partner? Hey, Sam, don’t forget the Just Friends Voice Personal Ads. They work— really, they do. I he night that Tom Potter was elected mayor, he had the city at his beck and call. He could have gone anywhere, he could have met with anyone. W hat did he do? He came to the No on 36 cam paign gathering and took a place among sadness when he could well have been celebrating his own achievement. The next night, where’s the mayor-elect? Back with us, at our gathering, again tempering his celebration with our pain. O ur mayor, as was his predecessor, is on our side. It’s good to be blue. T and R enée L a C hance N ovem ber 5, 2004 WHIM OF A MAJORITY; A major blow to marriage equality in Oregon p 18 NEWS NORTHWEST . Queer teen empowerment workshop offered; police roundtable will discuss queer youth suicide; Cascade AIDS Project elects new board officers and members; Human Rights Cam paign scorecard downgrades U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley, D-Ore.; grants aim to further voter participation; restaurateur raises awareness about abuse; Lawrence attorney speaks in Portland; City Club hosts “Now W hat?” forum pp 7 - 1 1 NATIONAL • New report estimates 65,000 gays and lesbians are serving in the military; Log Cabin Republicans sue U.S. governm ent to overturn “don’t ask, d o n ’t tell” pp 1 3 - 1 5 WORLD • Sierra Leone activist raped, murdered pp 1 6 - 1 7 ARTS AND C U L T U R E MUSIC • The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt chooses his words carefully o, looking ahead, what n ex t?T h e Legislature, the Oregon Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court— all this and more lies in our future. We elect a new president in 2008, and it’s time to get started now. I’m thinking Hillary Rodham C linton. And here at home, we must plan now to select and groom a viable candidate to replace U.S. Sen. G ordon Smith. It’s time to get the red out. THEATER • Portland O pera’s 40th season begins on a high note F P 37 S inally, Oregonians and Americans blinded to the simple truth of civil rights should look to Massachusetts for vision and guidance. Has gay marriage there brought society to an end? Nope, quite the opposite. Gay marriage in Massachusetts should rightfully he credited with breaking the 87-year-old curse of the Bambino and finally allow ing the Boston Red Sox to w'in the World Series. So, Oregonians, if you want to see that lousy basketball team of yours in the playoffs any time soon, you’d better start digging us all out from under the enor mous pile of crap th at got dumped on this state Nov. 2. |(7J p 33 p 35 DIVERSIONS • Cornered in the Dark ; the Dresden Dolls; Everybody Says Don't FILM • Enduring Love ; Tarnation ; Broadway: The Golden Age\ My Mother Likes Women pp 3 8 - 3 9 WHAT'S POPPIN'T • Sideways director just keeps getting better with age p 41 COLUMNS REFLECTIONS ' "• * V 10 years ago in • “While a slim majority of Americans actually support gays m the military, polls consistently show that the vast majority of Americans, even those who normally support cjay nghts, vehemently oppose gay mamage." gay columnist Gabriel Rotello wrote in New York Newsday “No senator or govemot from any state openly favors it President Clinton openly opposes it.... Groups like the Human Rights Gimoaign Fund and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force have never taken official positions on marriage or even bothered to poll the community about i t " MS. BEHAVIOR • Straight woman seeks advice for üül it has been nearly a year since the state Court of Appeals upheld a $31,000 jury award against the Oregon Citizens Alliance and its spokesman Scott Lively, and the plaintiff in that case, free-lance photographer Cather ine Stauffer, has yet to see a penny. Accord ing to her lawyer she probably never will • Former Portland Police Chief Tom Potter withdrew from being considered to head a federal community policing program after a Justice Department official called his advocacy for gay and lesbian rights a "problem" for the Clinton administration. • The battle ¡s heating up among iong-distance telephone carriers to attract gay arid lesbian customers. Working Assets Long Distance company recently handed Oregon’s No on 13 Committee a check for $24,000 to help defeat Bailot Mea sure T3. a proposed disenminatory initiative to be decided on by voters Nov. 8. • Cmdr. Mike Garvey of the Portland Police Bureau's central precinct says cops have increased their presence in the Stark Street area during the past four months, in the fixm of more foot and biking patrols. “We want the gay community to feel comfortable and are doing wfiat we can to ensure that. P0BLISNER AND MANAGING EDITOR • Marty Davis ; * Mexican/Mexican American gathering: lesbians, dykes, queere, hutches, femmes, diesel dykes! You are invited to a gathering Nov. ) 9 to meet each other, to know each other and to support each other as Chicana, Tejana, Chola and Mexican American lesbians. • A gay bashing hot tine has been set up by the Department of Justice. Call 800-347-HATE if you have witnessed or been the victim of homophobic violence • The Multnomah County Health Department ic conducting paid, confidential interviews of African American gay and bisexual men. The surveys are informal and address frequency of condom use, level of communication with sexual partners and methods of obtaining information. Participants will receive a $15 gift certificate to Fred Meyer Ashley Austin, Cshea Walker ART DIRECTOR • Bonnie Barrett S W T WRITER • Meg Daly Christopher McQuain, Kevin Mix ire, Gary Morris, Boh Roehr, Aaron Scott, Hoyd Sklaver, Cori Taratoot, Rex Wockner CONmiRUTORS • Marc Acito, Michael E Barrett, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR • Larry Lewis DISTRIBUTION • Kristine Ashton, Allison Benn, Stephen Blair, Meryl Cohn, Bryan Grimes, ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES • Kari Tire, Lisa Benson, Brian Boucher, Boh Terry ARTSANO CULTURE EDITOR «Jim Radosta PROONCTIRN ASSISIANT • Zanne dejanvier her jaded cousin p 31 EPIQUEEREAN • Feeling saucy? p 36 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARC . Waist management P 42 ju st out i t p u b l i s h e d o n t h e f i r s t a n d t h i r d F r i d a y Of e a c h m o n t h . Copyright © 2004 by Just (Sut. Nu part itf Just ( )ut may tv reproduced without written permission from the pub lisher. 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