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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2005)
june 3.2005 » JllSt OUt<5 SU Pride, after all, is not about caving to organi zational and governmental wishes, wants or pressures. It’s about celebration and supporting the gay community, including our business own ers. Put Pride back where it belongs—on South west Stark and Northwest Davis. R ory G erard Portland Love Makes a Family is still effective To the E ditor : irst, to answer the question in your headline, “Is Love Makes a Family Still Effective?” To me ancfrto the hundreds of GLBTQ families in Oregon who have received guidance and sup port from Bonnie Tinker’s organization, the answer is clearly yes. It is more important than ever that we have organizations like Love Makes a Family to address the specific needs and rights of sexual minorities. Love Makes a Family is an important player among the organizations that support the GLBTQ community. That is because while more prominent organizations like Basic Rights Oregon focus on political rights, there continues to be a need for family support, counseling and public education. Ms. Tinker has provided these important services for 15 years. Her intelligence, experi ence and integrity are truly extraordinary. Con sidering what she has accomplished with rela tively little funding, we should be singing her praises, not criticizing her because she missed a reporting deadline. Ballot measures come and go, but the struggle to strengthen and dignify gay relationships never ends. Ms. Tinker is a part of that struggle, and I salute her. being such a bully at time when this communi ty is trying to heal. keting their wares towards us, even putting rain bow flags on the shirts they give to the bars to hand out. But have you seen any national com M ickey L ee mercials that have the rainbow flag represented? Portland I surely haven’t. I myself am going to continue supporting the companies that have supported us, not only Aiming at Bonnie Tinker with logos, but with dollars, and the companies is a cheap shot that provide domestic partner benefits to their To the E ditor : employees. If you didn’t go to the annual Ore gonians Against Discrimination Luncheon, call arely do I write to Just Out to criticize, but Basic Rights Oregon and find out who spon your feature article on Love Makes a Fami sored tables. Check which companies support ly is flawed in its focus. You’ve put the wrong the Fair Workplace Project, and do business thing in the center of your investigative bull’s- with them. eye ami in so doing have used your big guns on Everyone in our community needs to be a small problem. proactive in boycotting the businesses that talk The real issue is that the lesbian community about diversity, yet they don’t offer their (and probably the GLBT community) has been changing during the past 15 years, and some of employees domestic partnership benefits, like Fred Meyer. Then you have the businesses like the older ways are no longer applicable/appro- Olive Garden and Red Lobster that downright priate. 1 could cite endless examples: Our world, discriminate against the GLBT community, as our economy, our society is changing, and some well as the U.S. military. If we hit these busi of us are less effective or needed. nesses’ bottom line, where they will actually feel To single out one small organization to scru it, then we might get closer to equal rights. tinize and reveal your findings is short-sighted. With the billions of dollars that we have in Why not an article on what’s wrong with me the GLBT community, we can certainly make a and It’s My Pleasure? Why not search out criti dent in the right wing’s efforts to take away our cism on Tara Wilkins or Jack Danger? I venture rights that our forefathers, and ourselves, have to say that none of us would fare as well as Bon fought so hard to get and keep. Far too many nie Tinker and that the article would reveal people just take these rights for granted and fig more unsavory discoveries. Who among us ure someone else will fight the battle, so they do could withstand a cover story like this one? nothing. All in all, I think it was a cheap shot. We all can make a difference, so please do? R Portland Love Makes a Family article plays into religious right's hands To the E ditor : t was easy to see by the end of the article about Bonnie Tinker and Love Makes a Fam ily that we have done exactly what the religious right wanted: We’re imploding from the inside out. First off, 1 want to say that Bonnie has done more for this community in the decades that she has been active than other queer organizations will ever be able to in the Portland area. She and her partner fought for our rights before we believed it was possible to even dream about having rights. She has fought tirelessly nation wide for the rights of families when others chose sexier causes. She has worked with and support ed other groups to help bind this community together in our toughest moments of history. She has made it possible for many queer couples to be parents. So it came as a complete surprise that her organization was attacked in such a manner in your recent article. Without going into depth about the article, 1 simply want to say that Bonnie and her family deserve more respect than what was portrayed in that article. If you believe Love Makes a Fam ily could do a better job, then join in with Bon nie and help make a difference instead of slan dering her to the community at large. I admit that I don’t know all the facts of this situation. However, I think any organization that has been around as long as Live Makes a Family and has done so much for our communi ty deserves more respect than this. They deserve our support, and any changes that need to be kxiked at can be shared in a more effective man ner than this. Shame on you, Basic Rights Oregon, for Quwt KtufiiMq Cüude Ewuj OthfK £tutdouf! URNITURE CONSIGNMENT ■L»-. F urniture A rt A ccessories H olly M ulcahey It’s My Pleasure R oger S teffani Beaverton Libertarian view on gay marriage To the G eorge E ighmey PORTLAND'S ORIGINAL PULL SERVICE COI'I’EE HOUSE AND YARN SHOR_ _ _ _ _ _ E ditor : hen it comes to gay marriage, the Repub licans want to demonize me, the Democ rats want to marginalize me into a class less wor thy than heterosexuals, and the Greens are no longer relevant as a national political party. So who does that leave as the only principled polit ical party gays and lesbians can rally behind on this issue? The Libertarian Party has a simple and per fectly reasoned position on the matter. The Lib ertarian Party says that the government should get out of the business of deciding who can get married and should eliminate all laws that pro hibit same-sex marriages. Marriage should be a private contract between two consenting adults, and the government has no business whatsoever interfering in what should be a purely religious or civil ceremony. If two adults want to legally say “I do,” the government shouldn’t have the right to say, “No, you don’t.” Libertarians believe the government should stay out of personal romantic, religious and legal decisions of adults. Gays and lesbians should stop begging for table scraps from the Democrats and join the Libertarian Party. R obert H ansen Beaverton Support the businesses that have supported us To the E ditor : have been commenting for years on how businesses started advertising toward the GLBT population once the surveys showed we supposedly have more disposable income. The fact is we probably do have more disposable income to spend on vacations and other luxuries than the heterosexual population, and we need to use this income wisely and to our advantage. Lx)k at the alcohol distilleries, cruise lines and many other companies that are now mar I Looking for an LTR To the E ditor : hy does it seem that everyone is only seeking sex? It’s like courtship and love are about as important as a penny. My only wish is that people who do seek lov ing relationships at a young age (18 to 25) should be more active so those also seeking long-tenn relationships at a young age can find one. Or am I completely wrong and am just not looking hard enough? K en S chram Eugene coant to ¿east 'l/toit «4 & ¿¿one epwn, afeittCOtt attiene. tettoia to die Sditosi di caetn^.-feiàtocii.ceni. 503-620-8686 7800 SW D urham R oaq /T igard www . cachet - consignment . com
