aprii 1.2005 ’ jUSt «Hit1
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he amount of stuff we’ve
gotten has been incredible,”
reports Matthew Lashua,
community relations liaison
JL.
for Multnomah County
Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey. “It really
shows the diversity of the people who got mar
ried last year."
We stand over a table piled high with
albums, each full of documents from the wed
dings of March and April 2004-
Where one year ago hundreds of same-sex
couples gathered to sign their papers, now the
lobby is quiet and houses a display of memora
bilia from that time: handwritten cards, e-mails
to the commissioners, wedding announcements,
name-change cards and photographs, each
plumbing a deep well of emotional resilience
that characterizes the couples who were mar
ried. The Wedding Album Project was the
brainchild of the commissioners who Worked
together to gain the. right for same-sex couples
to marry—Rojo, Lisa Naito and Serena Cruz.
“This was a historical and momentous event,
because the marriages were halted, and we don’t
know what is going to happen,” Rojo says. “This
is worth archiving and noting in a particular
way. 1 can’t think of another thing I've done in
my career that has been historical. But this is.
I think it is important for it to be noted in an
important way. When we got the first submis
sions I started crying all over again. All those
incredible people, I was back in that space.
I can’t describe how I felt last year when it hap
pened. To see all these fantastic people doing
what they should be able to do. It is really mov
ing to see it all again.”
Multnomah County is the only government
T he W edding A lbum
P roject
Multnomah County gathers memories and images
by Sarah Dougher
agency that is taking rhe time
and effort to collect the arti
facts of its citizens regarding
same-sex marriage. Although
The San Francisco Chronicle
newspaper is also collecting
historical artifacts, Multno
mah County is alone in mak
ing a civic project of it.
The cost for the project
has been minimal—only
postage for invitations to the
3,022 couples who were mar
ried—especially considering
the rich responses it garnered. Matthew Lashua shows guests the Wedding Album Project in the
foyer of the Multnomah Building.
Staffers willingly volunteered
the time it took to mount the pieces into Arizona. Interestingly, of the 260 couples who
archival plastic holders and to stick them in sent memorabilia, there were three times as
binders.
many female couples as male.
Some objects were actually too large to fit in
After its public display, the project will be
a traditional album: Collages, large framed moved April 1 into Room 610 of the Multno
photo montages, signs from the days of the wed mah Building, where press and other invited
dings and even two wedding dresses were donat guests will be invited to examine it more closely.
ed to the collection.
The collection then will move to its perma
Contributions came pouring in from all over nent home as part of the Gay and Lesbian
the United States when the call went out, and Archive of the Pacific Northwest at the Oregon
so the collection contains entries from Alaska to Historical Society.
GLAPN is a historical society and archive
focusing on Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It
works with existing repositories to acquire and
preserve records, papers, photographs and other
materials related to regional queer culture and
conduct oral history interviews with members of
the pre-Stonewall generation. Its Web site
describes the collections it has amassed and pro
vides several articles on regional queer history.
- -About 10 years ago, GLAPN began giving its
collections to the Oregon Historical Society to
become part of the overall research library.
Materials from the collection are accessible to
the general public for a small library fee. If you
are interested in finding information, you need
only visit the library and speak with a librarian
about your interests and research needs. The
collection has oral histories, film, video, pho
tographs, journals and all other manner of
ephemera from the Stonewall/gay liberation era
and before.
GLAPN is used extensively by visitors to the
society, particularly an award-winning piece by
Peter Boag called “Does Portland Need a
Homophile Society? Gay Culture and Activism
in the Rose City between World War II and
Stonewall,” published in Vol. 105, Issue I of Ore
gon Historical Quarterly.
The society’s Ken Dubois told Just Out that
the idea to donate the collection came from the
commissioners themselves.
“We are grateful that they though of it; we
wish more people would,” he says. “Even though
some people thought that women’s suffrage was
controversial when it happened, we are glad to
have the materials here in our collections. So
many of these struggles make up the fabric of
culture that we now take for granted.” JH
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