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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 2004)
no¥embflLlS._2004 ? Ju st out, 5 Thankfully, 1 don’t expect much when it comes to Just Out’s political analysis, and I am rarely disappointed. J ack D anger Portland The truth To the E ditor : Some conservatives might say that this state ment is not true and that they are only trying to protect the sanctity of marriage. If that is so, then let’s allow civil unions to be recognized with the same rights as marriages. If they truly aren’t doing this out of hate and only to protect the definition of marriage, then afford us the same rights of those who can he married under some sort of legal status. By not allowing us those same rights, they are telling us and the world that we don’t deserve those rights. Until the day comes that gay people are afforded the same rights, segregation legally exists in the state of Oregon. and state, to set a higher standard for all Ameri cans whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, agnostic or even the atheist? 1 have to say it is neither the government’s nor the politi cians place to chixise whose Gtxi rules America. We Americans need to be wary of any one group claiming its beliefs as the law of the land and setting its agenda as what is right for Amer ica. We are a country of many religions, faiths, social and political beliefs, ethnic backgrounds, traditional and nontraditional families. We all make up the great American melting pot. Just because the Christian right has won the presidential election d i«s not mean that they can go unchecked and determine what is right for America. They won this time, but what hap pens next time if we elect a conservative Mus lim to office? Would they like conservative Mus lim beliefs being taught as law without tolerance in our daily lives or our public schools? How about the forcing of women back to second-class citizens only allowed in public with the permis sion of their male family members and their heads covered? Would it then be OK to rewrite the Constitution forcing their Muslim beliefs on all of America, making America a Muslim state under Muslim law? I think not! Religious extremism is the very thing we are fighting in this war on terror— the Islamic funda mentalists who are trying to force their religious views on the world. Two wrongs do not make it right even if you claim to have God on your side. n many ways 1 know how 1 felt about Mea sure 36, and 1 know my reasons as to why 1 voted against it. The biggest impact that 1 felt Measure 36 would have to me was that it would assert the hatred of my existence. Although 1 had this thought running Tivo S alazar through my head, 1 can’t express the actual sad Portland ness 1 felt on the morning of Nov. 3 when thought became reality. 1 woke up with an odd An o p en le tte r to feeling, like the world outside had somehow M e a s u re 3 6 s u p p o rte rs changed, and the city and state that 1 had grown to love had somehow become a little more sur To the E ditor : real as 1 stepped out my front dtxir that morning. o the Yes on 36 voters: You may have won It didn’t become clear to me as to why I felt the WAR, but not the BATTLE. this way until I called my mother in eastern Washington to talk about the election. It wasn’t D avid W. H artsook the loss of John Kerry that was difficult to dis P(/rtland cuss, but rather Measure 36. I don’t talk much politics with my mother, but I had mentioned The m o ra lity m an d ate? the measure to her during the past few months. That morning, when she asked me what the i To the E ditor : measure was going to actually do, I broke down. hose morality, whose God is right for It was at that point that I realized I had legally America? become a second-class citizen. How awful to The Christian right assumes that the re- R ick R aymen realize that your home and your country endorse election of Bush sets a mandate for their moral Portland the tact that you are not afforded the same rights ity. They assume this puts their version of truth as any other American. Tears started welling as about God, guns, gays and country, prayer in j D on't fo rg e t th e I explained to my mother how this law didn’t public schools, abortion, social welfare and stem p ro g re s s w e h a ve m ade just affect straight and gay partners, hut it also cell research as their exclusive conservative affected me as a single gay man. mandate for Christian change in the taking To the E ditor : This was the start of an epidemic of hate hack of America. he passage of Measure 36 was devastating championed by legal conformation. I didn’t real for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it Didn’t our founding fathers start a revolution ize how I would really feel about this until it was to break away from the Church of England’s con lets us all know that— despite the show of over. I never thought the day would come that 1 trol over the colonies and the daily lives of its national solidarity after 9/11, our sense of unity would feel isolated from my sense of freedom, people? As Americans, is not our duty to stand up country and the right to exist like anyone else. and fight injustice and the separation of church Continued on Page 7 W N O M E N W D irectory The only local directory ot woman-owned or managed businesses W om en m a ke 80% o f the p u rch a sin g d e c is io n s Make it easy for them to choose you. GET LISTED 360.750.1622 nwwomensdirectory.com f ' ndusin OVER 65 locations > BB2 >. À. • “ $ u n Qift& fox fun p e o p le ” 5 0 3 . 228.9166 2047 East Burnside PDX. 97214 T “Eugene's Feminist Bookstore For 30 years. ” • • • R eviewing the 2004 election results almost forms the outline for a doctoral disserta tion, but I’ll offer a short review. It’s now clear the issues of gay marriage and abortion rights motivates the Bible-thumping evangelicals living in the exurbs (Wilsonville, Vancouver, etc.) to turn out and vote. Never mind the fact that these evangelicals are hyp ocrites— they don’t care about 45 million Amer icans without health insurance, they don’t care about the hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children being killed by U .S. troops in a foreign land. This block of voters delivered Dubya those 3.5 million votes that won the 2004 election on the national level. (By the way, let’s make it a rallying cry right now: 51 per cent of the vote is N O T a mandate, and don’t let anyone get away with saying that— 51 per cent is BARELY a majority! A ’mandate’ requires 60 percent or more of the vote to be considered as such!) Ginsidering the big issues on the national and international stage right now, I would much rather have won on the national level than locally. I mean, do you realize that the U.S. econo my is teetering toward collapse in the next few years? Consumer debt is at record-breaking lev els. The Republican-controlled Congresses since 1995 have borrowed a staggering $7.4 TRILLION from China, South Korea and Japan to keep federal spending at record-breaking lev els. (The vast majority of this federal spending goes toward corporate welfare. For example, the Republicans have our defense budget at $432 BILLION— twice what it was during the height of the Cold War!) The U.S. trade deficit is at a record-breaking level, and the U.S. dollar is at record lows throughout the world! And the U.S. gold supply in Fort Knox hasn’t been audited/counted since 1958! The ONLY thing keep our economy afloat right now is more spending with borrowed money, both by consumers and the federal gov ernment. (This leads into explanations/scenar- ios as to why Bush wants to privatize Social Security: to shore up deht-ridden Wall Street for a few more years.) Personally, I believe the Democratic Party ought to adopt these positions on gay marriage and abortion rights: Leave it up to the states. The Republicans have always advocated states’ rights (albeit to condone racial and female gen der oppression), but there are quite a few states that are progressive and willing to advance the causes of gay marriage, abortion on demand, liv able wages, etc.: New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts and California. Want an abortion or a government-sanctioned gay union? G o to one of these forward-thinking, progressive states. Want livable wages? Relocate to a progressive state. One more word, if 1 may. I was an adult dur ing the 1970s, so 1 remember how the Republi can Party suffered HEAVY losses in the 1974 and 1976 elections after the Nixon/Watergate deba cle. Don’t panic, because soon enough the Republicans will abuse their positions of power or go so far right that they’ll alienate the vast majority, and then they’ll be voted out or indict ed, imprisoned and forced to resign from office. D avid M indrup Portland 9 9 • I feel sad and disappointed, but I don’t consider the election results a national “setback”— more a wake-up call about where we really are and where most of the country is. Our local com munity worked hard and made a difference. Now we need a new national strategy and a new way of talking about ourselves and to.continue the work of shaping a culture that more fully embraces us. D akota I nyo S wan Portland next a s ixai and national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations regroup an d reorganize for the struggles ah ead, w hat do you see as priorities for community organizing in the coming m onths? How would you go about implementing your ideas? Respond a t w uw .justout.com . [D on’t forget to include your nam e, city and daytim e telephone num ber.) ’ S MOTHER KALI'S MOKSTORf Celebrates the COURAGE, COMPASSION, & COMMITMENT OF OUR COMMUNITY IN THESE CHALLENGING TIMES. Keep Hope Alive! Feminist. LGBTQ, Pagan & Multicultural Books, Music. 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