January 7.2QÛ5 jllSt OUt21
• Reciprocation was important, and some­
thing that Stevie Remington, former American
Civil Liberties Union of Oregon executive
director, also instilled in these early activists. In
return, they eagerly gave back and helped elect
and re-elect those who supported gay rights.
“We were Vera’s foot soldiers when foot sol­
diers were a really great thing to have,” says
Shepherd. “It was easy to volunteer for her
because you loved her so much. It was never
work. It didn’t matter how cold it was or how
rainy it was. It was never work.”
And then there was the first fund-raiser for
Katz and Kafoury: a $5-a-plate spaghetti feed
sponsored by the Portland Town Council in
February 1976.
“We debated for hours as to whether or not
$5 would be too much to charge,” laughs Shep­
herd. Perhaps they should charge only $3.50.
But no, this was supposed to be a fund-raiser.
People would just have to cough it up.
Shepherd doesn’t remember how many
people attended, perhaps as many as 25. But
she does remember Katz and Kafoury were
there.
“She was just the belle of the ball when she
showed up,” says Shepherd. “And we just loved
her so very, very much.
“We would have been at least a year behind
where we were in terms of beginning to build
momentum if Vera hadn’t given us the guid­
ance and support that she did,” adds Shepherd.
“I can say that flat out for sure because she was
so consistently there.”
Vera Katz realizes how much her sup­
port meant to these early Portland activists, but
at the same time she saw being supportive as
an intrinsic part of her job.
“1 always felt that my job as an elected offi­
cial as well as a citizen of this community was
to give back—to educate others to be success­
ful, to talk to individuals or groups that wanted
to know how to get their work done and to use
the position of power to make things happen,”
she says. “There was a core group in the Legis­
lature that really worked together on a lot of
issues, including gay rights issues, but without
the Portland Town Council and without the
visibility of an organized effort, it would have
been very difficult.”
Katz and Kafoury made other appearances
at various charitable fund-raisers in rhe gay
community. Wherever they went, they
received huge standing ovations, recalls Shep­
herd, but they also paid a price for showing
such support to homosexuals.
The Anti’s—that’s the term Shepherd and
other Portland Town Council members called
the early anti-gay folks—went around town
attaching negative posters of Katz to phone
poles and the sides of buildings. The posters
often showed pictures of Katz with gay support­
ers and claimed she was pro-sodomy.
“There were these awful, ugly, nasty black-
and-white posters,” says Shepherd. “They were
hand-printed, usually with a black felt-tip pen
with ugly printing and p<xir grammar. They
were just hate material.”
feel very strongly about this issue of gay rights.
It was a critical time for the state.”
As mayor, Katz continued to strive for equal
rights for everyone. Under her watch, domestic
partnership benefits for city employees were
instituted. City contractors could no longer dis­
criminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
Support was garnered for the domestic partner­
ship registry at Multnomah County. The city
participated in the case of the United States vs.
the Boy Scouts, supporting the gay Scout who
had been discriminated against because of his
sexual orientation. Katz presided over the
inclusion of gender identity in the Portland
The community keens thanking me and showing their gratitude
and their love, and I say to them, You know, this is easy —Vera Katz
sions when she was dealing with queer issues.
He recalls once when a transgender man, who
had been a victim of discrimination, came to
talk to her.
“I remember how visibly angry she was
hearing him describe incidents of mistreat­
ment, and how personally she took that as the
mayor of the city,” he says. “It was important
to her to follow up and to make sure that it
didn’t happen again, that the city admitted its
mistakes and that we pushed forward protec­
tions for transgender folks as part of amending
the city’s Civil Rights Ordinance.
“She was always very interested and had a
special sensitivity for any sort of hate crimes or
alleged hate crimes that came across her desk,”
says Adams. “She really wanted to confront
that. She was always on the lookout for it and
always wanted to hear about those crimes.”
Supporting gay rights wasn’t always
Katz marches with Tom and Katie Potter during Portland Pride 1999
Katz remembers those posters as well. She
had negative posters because she supported gay
rights as well as other unpopular causes such as
gun control. She and Gretchen Kafoury also
had their faces on shrxiting targets.
“It was shocking to me because I loved the
city and the state and to know that there were
very angry and hurtful people out there who
were willing to send bullets to you in an enve­
lope,” says Katz.
As a member of the Legislature, she points
out that she was visible throughout the state at
a time before gay rights organizations were
doing much outreach to rural communities.
“Still, to get bullets in the mail,” she says, shak­
ing her head.
When Katz first ran for mayor in 1992, the
anti-gay Measure 9 was also on the ballot. She
remembers that it gave her and other politi­
cians a chance to stand up to “speak out and
let folks know that their potential next leaders
Civil Rights Ordinance, which provides equal
protections in housing, public accommodations
and employment.
Katz also surrounded herself with numerous
gay and lesbian staff appointments, including
Sam Adams, who was her campaign manager
and later became her chief of staff. (Adams
continues this trend—see Page 13.)
When Katz asked Adams to be her cam­
paign manager, he thought he’d better tell her
he’s gay. After all, Measure 9 was in the news,
and anti-gay sentiments were prevalent.
“We were having lunch and going over
what 1 would do as her campaign manager, and
I said, ‘Vera, 1 need to tell you, so there are no
surprises, that I am gay,’ ” he recalls. “And she
reached across the table, grabbed my hand and
said: ‘Sweetie, that doesn’t make any difference
to me whatsoever. You handle that the way you
want to handle that.’ ”
Adams was with the mayor on various occa­
serious. Katz enjoyed entertaining elements of
Portland’s gay scene as well. Before becoming
mayor, she and Gretchen Kafoury performed at
a fund-raiser with Darcelle XV, belting out
Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.”
“We sang together—badly,” laughs Darcelle.
“None of us knew the words. The only part we
knew was ‘1 am woman.’ ”
Katz loves Darcelle and even celebrated her
70th birthday at the club. The feeling is mutu­
al: “She has been a gcxxl friend to the commu­
nity—not just the gay community, but the
Portland community,” says Darcelle. “She
embraced everylxxly. Nohxly is left out. She
has always been a gtxxl friend.”
And she always has a hug for Darcelle.
“I don’t care if the president of the United
States was standing there—if she saw me, she
would come up and get a hug, especially if I
was in drag,” says Darcelle. “The only drag
queen in the world who can hug a mayor no
matter where they are.”
Katz also marched in Pride parades.
“Vera comes totally alive in Gay Pride
parades,” says Adams. “This is a woman who
has lots of energy anyway and always has a
sparkle in her eye, but that sparkle and that
smile just crackle with enthusiasm at Pride
parades.”
The crowds loved her. Adams recalls that
people would scream and holler as she marched
Continued on Page 23
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