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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2005)
august 5.2005 • just out 45 Red scare Bible Belt is a cinch s a child, I always loved visiting states for the first time. I would keep track of how many I’d traveled to—even if just for a brief layover—by shading in each one on a small map. So when 1 received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to attend the American Dance Festival last month at Duke University, I should’ve been more excit ed. I’d never been to North Carolina, but I hadn’t set f<x>t in a backward red state since Coup d’Dubya, so I had no clue what to expect. I pictured packs of punk teens sporting GOP tattoos and streets lined with vandalized stop signs like those found in Portland, only instead of hippie messages like “STOP Driv ing” and “STOP Bush,” the Tar Heel State would advertise neocon talking points like “STOP Frivolous Lawsuits” and “STOP Activist Judges.” The day before I left town, 1 read an amus- ing/disturbing news item about a spumed wife who filed a lawsuit in Durham Superior Court against a gay man because he began to “willful ly and intentionally seduce, entice and alienate the affections” of her husband in January 2002. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages of at least $10,000 each. Apparently, only a handful of states allow spouses to collect mone tary compensation from “the other woman,” and North Carolina is one of them. The state also has a dusty 1805 statute on its books outlawing “lewd and lascivious” cohabitation. The ban is being challenged by an unmarried woman who lost her job with the Pender County Sheriff’s Department because she and her boyfriend live together. Now that sodomy is legal, perhaps the state needed another sin to eradicate. Besides, we all know sodomy s days are numbered thanks to the fine folks at Exodus International, which believes homosexuality can be “cured” through the power of prayer. During my weeklong stay, I learned, the “ex gay” ministry would he celebrating its 30th anniversary with a Freedom Conference in Asheville. As if Anne “Call Me Crazy” Heche hasn’t already done enough damage to our cause, her mother, Nancy, was among the scheduled speakers. “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” I wondered as I packed my bags. “Is this going to be like visiting a Third World country?” 5 A Let Me he.Lp you acuftyat Potîaad'i fatt & (wûouk ’ueaL estate wanket. L isa G rissom B roker C oldwell B anker B arbara S ue S eal P roperties Jim's Closet by Jim Radosta THE TOP SHELF Further evidence that Portland rocks: Mayor Tom Potter and Multnomah County Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey are taking time out of their busy schedules to hang out with a bunch of queer jocks. Four teams from the Rose City Softball Association open division will represent Port land in the 2005 Gay Softball World Series this month in San Diego, and they need your financial support to offset travel expenses. The fund-raiser will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 9 at swanky gay-owned lounge Aura, 1022 W. Bumside St. Let’s take a moment to praise PDX. In what other major U.S. city would you be able to—in the same venue—order a fancy cocktail, flirt with a hunky ballplayer and lobby elected officials? Cook County couldn’t even muster una nimity for ? standard ceremonial proclamation welcoming the 2006 Gay Games to Chicago, even though the quadrennial festival will pump up to $80 million into the local economy. The five Republicans on the 17-member Board of Commissioners withdrew their names after Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois Family Institute complained, “There’s a big difference between tolerating and celebrating homosexuality.” Gay Games spokesman Kevin Boyer put it best when Jerry Falwell raised a similar stink in June: “How bad must the right-wing extremists hate gay people to not want us to play softball?” G It quickly became apparent that all of my hankfully, Duke is located in Durham, anticipated animosity was nowhere to be which forms a progressive Triangle with found; in fact, most of the locals greeted me nearby Raleigh and Chapel Hill, so I was like we were old friends. It’s fanny how South lucky to be in a blue zone of this red state. The erners can treat city is even hosting the 1 Oth annual strangers with North Carolina Gay and equal degrees of Lesbian Film Festival this hospitality (in month. their charm) The campus was and hostility swarming with energetic (in their young dancers taking votes). classes at the festival— Still, where, FYI, Madonna was a I came home student in 1978—and the with a new program included renowned found admi ration for gay choreographers Paul North Carolina, or what little I saw of Taylor and Bill T. Jones. Tay lor’s Company B juxtaposed it. As I stepped off MAX near Lloyd Center the blissful music of the Andrews Sisters with upon returning from the airport, my first taste of the harsh reality of World War II: “I Can “true blue” Oregon was, ironically, a rally for the Dream, Can’t I?” depicted a woman longing for “family” organization Kids Need Both Parents. the return of her G.I. boyfriend, who was This just confirmed what I should’ve known secretly having a foreign affair with a male sol all along: You really can’t judge a state by its dier overseas. Jones’ Continuous Replay featured color. in more full-frontal nudity than an entire season Arts and Culture Editor J1M R aixdsta needs your at Triangle Productions. All this during a government-sponsored fellowship! feedback. Write to jim@justinit.com. DIRECT: 503-699-3844 FAX: 503-626-5137 12725 SW MILLIKAN WAY SUITE BEAVERTON, OR 97005 We test because^ve^matter. Do you know your status? 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