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
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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
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Free HIV Testing
Gay/W/Trans Guys
Thursdays 5 to 6:30 PM
Drop in clinic
Two testing options:
Rapid (20 minute/same day results)
Oral sample (results in 2 weeks)
Saturday, Aug. 13, 10am-7pm
Fun festivities on Mississippi
Avenue from Fremont to Skidmore.
Mississippi Avenue
Neighborhood Talent Show
Friday, Aug. 12, 7-9pm
Mississippi Rising Ballroom (833 N. Shaver)
Mississippi Avenue
Music Walk
Thursday, Aug. 11, 6-10pm
Fremont to Skidmore
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