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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2004)
Tmwmnetvs N orman (G enderqueer ) R ockwell Silverton's cross-dressing city official december 3.2004 ■ N O M E N ’S W D “ INDOOR HEATED POOL 'The (Dub[in (House ir ec to r y ‘A touch o f class on the Oregon Coast’ The only local directory of woman-owned Ocean Views * Big Clean Rooms Room Phones • King/Queen Beds Color TV • Fly Shop • Trips or managed businesses 1 /2 PRICE OFFER 2 N ig h ts o r M oke O cto ber 1 - M arch 15 W om en m ake 80% of the purchasing decisions (hviY/U IWli/uVs) M ake it easy for them to choose you. M arch 15 - Ji nh 30 (h v iv /'i Ntinmlin* by Meg Daly c* IL'/uluvs) Call tor details K availability GET LISTED (5 4 1 ) 5 4 7 -3 2 0 0 tu Rasmussen is the kind of woman who “1 think it says a lot about this town that I’d could stop traffic— and he knows it. come in second for City Council," he says. The leggy, 56-year-old redhead is sit W hat Rasmussen loves about his town is its ting across from me at a cafe table over- Norman Rockwell feel. He says people live in Itxtking Silver Falls in Silverton. Dressed in a Silverton for it small-town values of community miniskirt, tall black txxus and cleavage-revealing involvem ent, neighborly caretaking and black top, Rasmussen’s appearance invites involvement in public schtxiling. As a city head-turning. And that is just how he likes it. councilor, he has pledged to maintain a “home “1 like to have fun, and it just happens to town lifestyle.” involve being me,” says the Silverton native. He Part of that lifestyle for Rasmussen has waves to a group of jeans-clad women sitting meant nearly 30 years with his life partner, Vic nearby. They return his neighborly hello. toria Sage. They met when she was working at Most everybtxiy in Silverton knows Stu Ras the snack bar of a Portland cinema and he did mussen. T he co-owner of the Palace Theater maintenance on the projector. Though they has been a city official numerous times in the have never married, Rasmussen calls Sage “the past two decades— four years as mayor, eight love of my life.” years on the City Council— and he was just W hile Sage had always been comfortable elected to one of the City C ouncil’s three open with Rasmussen’s cross-dressing, the decidedly seats for 2005-2008. heterosexual Rasmussen was happy to discover The former software engineer calls himself a that other women find him attractive as well. fiscal conservative and social liberal. O nce a pro “They arc really attracted to my feminine ponent of growth in economically flailing 1980s side,” he says. “They know when we get together Silverton, now he’s a voice for “turning off the we’re not just going to watch football. W e’re spigot” on growth. At the same time Ras mussen was trading in his plaid work shirts for heels and ruby-colored jewelry, his hometown was transitioning from timber to art galleries and antiques for its sense of self. So many people have moved to Silverton in recent years, it is reaching capacity for its sewer and water systems. Rasmussen says he has been a cross dresser all his life, though he has only been out for the past 10 years. For many years he was ashamed; he thought he was the only man in the world with a pro clivity for women’s clothing and there fore must he “sick and bad.” T hen an Internet search revealed a much wide, world to him and, he says, “the flcxxl- gates opened.” He found his way to Northwest G en der Alliance, which he credits with help ing him get to a place of being comfort able with himself. In the mid-1990s he started getting his nails done and was stxm going out in public dressed entirely in women’s attire. Though he was terri Silverton City Council member Stu Rasmussen fied at first, he six>n «realized “90 percent outside the Palace Theater of the problems [he faced] were right between my own ears.” going to go shopping and talk about some Rather than being ostracized from his com thing real.” munity, he instead found acceptance. There Comfortable with the terms genderqueer and were the occasional snickers behind his hack, transgender, he says he has nonetheless never hut for the most part Silverton embraced him as considered having a sex change. they always had— as one of their own and as a “I can he perfectly happy in a m an’s htxly,” trusted leader. he says. “People get over the package really fast when He did, however, save up his money and get they discover the person is com petent,” he says. breast implants four years ago. In fact, he sees an advantage to being a cross “Cleavage is a cross-dresser’s nirvana," he dressing politician in a small town because says. He had worn prosthetic breasts for a few years to "try out being a guy with breasts." Now “everybtxly knows everybtxly” and because that he has the real thing, he says he has regret longtime residents do not, ironically, judge peers ted it “for all of about 15 seconds” when he first by their appearance. opened his eyes after the surgery. W hen I press him for what is unique about O ne of his favorite adornments for his bust is Silverton that makes it so open-minded, he a T-shirt he had made that answers any silent shnigs it off. “This is something that could be done any passershy who may be wondering, “Why does Stu do that?" 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