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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2007)
14jU$t|OUt JULY 20. 2007 northwest Immigrant Rights, Not Special Rights Basic Rights Oregon draws a connection to queer rights with a workshop by West Duncan gender minorities, it continues to bond the two or years the queer community has heard, “Equal rights are not special rights.” The communities in the same struggle. expression, sometimes in the form of a ral “Each group can be attacked to gain a certain ly cry, has been thrown around at Gay platform, and now we can see how the far right is Pride parades, national rallies for legalized pitting us against each other. We’re vulnerable same-sex marriage and adoption agencies. because we’re kept in the margins,” Lee notes. But haven’t you heard it somewhere else before? “These attacks are nothing new politically.” Basic Rights Oregon and Jessica Lee, the agency’s BRO will use the interactive workshop to talk youth field organizer, are bringing the old adage back about the historical markers, current events and with a new meaning. BRO hasn’t let the familiar argument of equal rights pass it by, especially as crucial election deadlines approach. BRO is hosting an interactive workshop to educate attendees about the symbiotic relationship that exists between the sexual and gender minorities community and immi grants. The groups are united by the discrimination they both face. “Immigrant rights are at a high point in the media lately, both locally and nationally,” says Lee. “This is a controversial issue that creates conversation...we have a lot of the same things in our community.” Gay rights supporters and Latino activists gathered April 10, As seen in the Del Monte 2006, in Terry Schrunk Plaza for a rally protesting a strict Fresh Produce food processing immigration proposal passed by the U.S. House. plant raid July 12 in North Portland by U.S. Immigration and Customs personal experiences that compose this complex Enforcement, racial equality is raising some famil issue. In an effort to spark a far-reaching discussion iar questions about a threatened community’s place about the fusion of black/white and gay/straight in the city. The raid resulted in a roundup of 160 mentalities and their similar origins, BRO plans to undocumented immigrant workers. take this workshop statewide. Volunteers for the These questions don’t come as much of a sur organization hope to continue pushing for change prise. Up until the late 1940s, Stumptown earned among the already progressive trends. its reputation as “the most prejudiced [cityj in the BRO acknowledges that this course doesn’t country,” according to documents obtained by the happen alone or overnight. Community members Oregon Historical Society. In the 1920s, black and groups such as Oregon’s Immigrants Rights Oregonians were not allowed within the city lim- ; Coalition and Northwest Treeplanters and its of Portland as one official form of segregation, Farmworkers United have worked to take on despite the fact that the population of African immigration reform, bringing the issue of equal Americans hovered at 20,000. The Ku Klux Klan rights to the forefront. Gay rights groups such as also called the Pittock Building in downtown the Human Rights Campaign and Parents, Portland home and operated rampantly within the Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays echo state. The group had little problems finding this argument, making the inequities these two members, as 90 percent of the state was white. groups face hard to ignore. The city has made progress. BRO aims to continue championing for equal Out of the 1.7 million folks in Multnomah rights in Oregon by being proactive in calls to County, whites top the scales at 75.5 percent, the action and education workshops that will recall black population exceeds the state average at 6.6 per earlier struggles for equality, whether they be slav cent, Hispanics are at 6.8 percent, American Indians ery or Stonewall. Lee says, “This is core in sharing at 2.3 percent, Vietnamese at 2.0 percent, Chinese at basic values." Maybe equal rights really are special rights. © 1.4 percent, Filipinos at 0.5 percent and Japanese at F 0.5 percent. Out of these statistics, same-sex house- 1 holds are 0.8 percent lesbian and 0.6 percent gay. I The I mmigrant R ights W orkshop starts According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these numbers 7 p.m. July 26 at Augustana Lutheran Church, show an 8.9 percent population change since 2000. 2710 N.E. 14th Ave. To attend, contact Once spread throughout Portland, minorities julieatbasicrights@gmail. com. have been largely relegated to the Albina neigh borhood since the '60s. With this area also being Portland freelance writer WEST D uncan can be the most densely populated area of sexual and reached at westofaminorQyahoo.com.
