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lust rm
in M arty D ams
The reflex
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Ill'Conceived reactionary behavior gets us nowhere
uch ado about nothing, or yet another sign that the right
wing conservative backlash is picking up steam and headed
directly toward our camp?
Prevention in Vulnerable Populations.” The local presenters stepped up
and brought an end to the electronic hostilities by acknowledging that
there had been misunderstandings and miscommunications. They issued
a statement that read: “At this time we are pleased to go ahead with the
workshop. SAMHSA still has a policy of using the tenn sexual orienta
tion to refer to all GLBT community members, and it is our goal to edu
cate SAMHSA and to work toward changing that policy. We hope to
educate SAMHSA to understand the difference between sexual orien
tation and gender identity. We are saddened that there were messages of
personal attack sent to SAMHSA in response to our statement of con
cern. We appreciate all the positive, constructive messages that were
sent on our behalf to Sen. [Gordon! Smith and to SAMHSA. We regret
that they were based partially on some miscommunication but hope
that some increased understanding of GLBT issues will still result.”
M
The most recent “controversy,” one so far-reaching
as to receive coverage in The Washington Post, started with a conference
being held later this month in Portland that’s sponsored by the federal
government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis
tration. A panel of local leaders and experts in suicide prevention were
scheduled to conduct a workshop titled “Suicide Prevention Among
Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals.”
The communication breakdown began when the panel was advised
that the name of the workshop must be changed to remove specific ref
erences to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks. And this is the
where the proverbial shit hit the fan.
Feeling rebuffed and sensing discrimination by the conference organ
izers, the local workshop presenters aired their grievance to media and
the community at large. Their initial statement, widely distributed via
the Internet, stated, “The discriminatory and intimidating actions of
SAMHSA and the Bush administration should not go unchallenged
and should be of concern to all Americans.”
Presenters Ron Bloodworth, Joyce Liljeholm and Reid Vanderburgh
are extremely dedicated to their task and to the community they serve.
It simply did not sit right with them that the workshop title was being
changed, and in these sensitive post-election times, they rose to do battle.
Even the usually staid and aloof Human Rights Campaign entered the
fray by issuing a statement calling for an investigation of recent allega
tions of censorship at a federally funded suicide prevention conference.
Conference organizers explained that they simply wanted the work
shops to be more inclusive and that the name suggestion was initially
proposed as only one of many suggestions. It’s not difficult to see how
easily misunderstandings and hurt feelings arose.
It’s how these misunderstandings were addressed that has become
troublesome. Portlanders opened their e-mailboxes and reacted swiftly
to what appeared to be yet another attack against the gay, lesbian, bi
and trans community. And the counterattacks began.
The story then shifted to, unfortunately, nationwide reports that
organizers of the conference received rude, scathing and possibly threat
ening e-mails denouncing their actions regarding the retitling of the
workshop. As reported in the Post, SAMHSA administrator Charles
Curie “is getting e-mails calling him a Nazi. It is disgraceful the hate
that these people have sent to him.”
“These people,” folks, are us. And I’m sorry to say I don’t think we
handled this very well.
Lashing out in anger, especially when hidden in anonymity, is sel
dom effective. People were reacting to information that was either miss
ing or incorrect. Yes, it’s important to care, it’s important to take action,
but it’s even more vital to be educated and to be informed—to know
your facts and not be caught in a wave of ill-conceived and inappropri
ate reactionary behavior.
The story ended with the workshop title being changed to “Suicide
was happy to receive the winter Lesbian Community Project news
letter, OnTrack. LCP has maintained a low profile of late, and I’m
pleased to see that the organization is alive and kicking and working on
plans and activities for 2005.
Board members Alyson Bolles, Debbie Caselton, Maureen Duncan,
Lyra Hall, Donna Luckett and Dory Rowe are to be commended for
putting time and energy into keeping this organization viable. As much
of our collective time and resources seem to be focused, perhaps too nar
rowly, on the struggle for marriage equality, it’s important that we pay
attention to the organizations that have long sustained and constitute
the very essence and infrastmcture of our community.
Yes, marriage and its associated legal rights are crucial, but there’s
much more than that to our everyday lives. People still come out daily
and struggle with acceptance and life changes. People still have social
and emotional needs, and people still need LCP and similar organiza
tions. While looking to the future, let’s not lose sight of the past.
I
inally, lesbians were everywhere on television the past few days.
Some moments painful, some puzzling and one stunningly proud.
Painful and puzzling was a bizarre episode of the ABC reality show
Wife Swap in which a lesbian mom traded households with a conserva
tive Republican wealthy mixed-race Texas household. Damn, that
woman was mean. And the point of this was—?
The next night on ER, lesbian Kerry Weaver was finally reunited
with her long-lost birth mother, only to be soundly rejected and east
aside because of her sexuality. Good lessons, I’m sure. I’m just wonder
ing for whom they’re intended.
The proud and powerful moment of victory goes to Melissa
Etheridge and her stunning performance of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My
Heart” at the Grammys. In the words of Just Out News Editor Sarah
Dougher, herself a breast cancer survivor, “Her shiny, beautiful bald
head let women with cancer everywhere know they are not alone in
their struggle and that life continues powerfully after diagnosis and
treatment."
Amen, sister. jm
F
Vol. 22 No. 8
February 18, 2005
FEATURE
22 INTERRACIAL LOVE
The fight for equal protection is nothing new to
mixed-race families
NEWS
7-15 NORTHWEST
Christians continue to grapple with homosexu
ality; Q-LAND celebrates one year; play about
growing up deaf and queer debuts; CAP hires
Saadat to head Communities of Color Initia
tive; Basic Rights Oregon hosts lobby day, opens
field offices and hires development director;
national femme conference comes to Seattle;
syphilis numbers up in Multnomah County
16-19 NATIONAL
AIDS in the developing world; New York City
judge orders gay marriage; Bush on gay adop
tion; extreme right-wing judges renominated
20-21 WORLD
Police band plays in Gay Pride march; Belarus
reportedly blocks gay Web sites; gay British MP
reveals HIV status
ARTS AND CULTURE
32-33 FILM
Campy comedy cackles at closeted screen idol;
Finnish film floats the feeling that female sexu
ality is mutable
35 TELEVISION
Showtime rolls out another season of the only
lesbian drama on the boob tube
37 MUSIC
Britney vs. Kylie: Who’s the greatest of them all?
39 BOOKS
Gay men write about the deaths of their
mothers and erotic encounters with others
40 CULTURE
The politics of queer fiber art
41 DIVERSIONS
Queer night changes; University of Oregon
Queer Film Festival; Tony Kushner and
Christopher Durang back on campus
COLUMNS
31 MS. BEHAVIOR
Diamond in the muff
34 EPIQUEEREAN
French revolution
REFLECTIONS
42 JIM’S CLOSET
Marge Simpson’s sis comes out
• Portland attorney Cynthia Cumfer recently published a handy guide for living
together. Living Our Lives: Living Together Agreements for Lesbian. Gay and Unmarried
Couples in Oregon is a 58-page manual with sample agreements covering subjects such as
owning property completely separately, owning property completely jointly and
owning property separately with exceptions.
• The Weyerhauser Company's in house health publication HealthWise claims that ‘gun
shot wounds, stabbings, drug overdoses and AIDS patients” are taxing the resources of
today's public and pnvate hospital emergency rooms nationwide.
• Assaults against gay men cruising Laurelhurst Park and Lents Park rep
resent an ongoing problem. and an overworked police depart-
I ment does not have the resources to serve and protect every
F body The advice from the police department for gay men is, slm-
, ply, discretion
• Bedxigs and mosquitoes don't spread HIV from one person to another, con
clude scientists at the Centers for Disease Control. After eating blood that was
loaded with HIV, these bugs did not become infected with HIV The scientists
also injected HIV directly into the bugs, but HIV did not multiply or Itve for more
than a few hours within the bugs.
• Jan Corwin and Kip M. Hard of Circle Chiropractic, Valerie M. Lyon and
Kathy Peters of Neighborhood Massage Clinic; naturopathic physician ; \ ■
Suzanne Scopes, and acupunctunst Brooke Winter are pleased to announce
that they are joined together to create Circle Healthcare Clinic.
newsmagazine
the in publication for the out population
Founded 1983 • Jay Brown and Renée LaChance
I
’
from Portland Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Prophet
Whiie not making any commitments to specific ideas such as holding
sensitivity trainings for staff or adding sexual orientation to the
school's nondiscrimination code, he did encourage the task force to
continue its work.
i
• Despite what you mey personally think of the City Nightclub and its con
troversial owner, lanny Swerdow, we should aS be outraged that the city
is considering shotting down the teen age gay nightspot under Portland's so-called
Drug House Ordinance.
»A task force that aims to boost resources and support fo< gay.
lesbian and bisexual teen-agers Iras earned a tentative go-ahead
I
• First Tuesday Coffeehouse with Carol Stemel presents ‘Know Water"
with Cathryn Heron. Efesa Goldberq and Meg Rowe. Also performing
are Susan Aarew. Ali Adleman and Denise Howard
Just Out is published on ths first and third Friday of each month. Copyright O 2005 by Just Out No part of Just Out may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher Editorial
guidelines: Letters to the editor should be limited to 500 words Announcements regarding life transitions (births, deaths, unions, etc ) should be limited to 200 words, photos are welcome Deadline for
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PUBLISHER & MANAGING EDITOR
Marty Davis
NEWS EDITOR
Sarah Dougher
ARTS AND CULTURE EDITOR
Jim Radosta
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Jaymee R. Cuti
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Bonnie Barrett
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Larry Lewis
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