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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2007)
Hjustput alwü i?,¿w When only the best will do in diamonds, rubies, sapphires, etc. BLOW OUT ON GOLD CHAINS! Only *18 per gram Retail price *32 per gram ■r* Jewelry by r Ponce Gay Owned A Operated Since 1983 1211SE HAWTHORNE BLVD * CORNER 33R0 AVE PORTLAND OREGON 17214 • 503 213 MM • TUE3-IUN 11-7 WWWJEWELRYBYPONCEPORTLAND.COM Available Services Residential Property Commercial Property Business Card & l-ogo Business Name Feng Shui Graphic Design Workshop / Class Creating (Balance, Jfarmony and (Prosperity in Your (Environment 3 JL A I www.FengShuiCreation.com Call for information 360-281 -8908 or e mail at FcngSCreation@aol.com Compassionate Bigotry Kinder, gentler discrimination revealed at the Love Won Out conference by Jaymee R. Cuti Homosexuals can he nice people. They can form loving relationships and he good parents. Gays and lesbians should he treated with respect and dignity. message from Anne, announcing that she’d fallen in love with a woman named Ellen. Another surprising admission came from lecturer Bill Maier, a Focus on the Family radio pro gram host. He said the church had fallen short on condemning anti-gay violence and speaking out hese were “givens" 1 had not expected to often against hate crimes. hear when I registered for Focus on the But this method of kinder, gentler bigotry failed Family’s Love Won Out conference to convey acceptance of gay and lesbian people. Aug. 4 at City Bible Church in Northeast Never did the message stray far from the warning Portland. The Colorado-based organiza that homosexuals would experience pain and tion has a reputation for praying the gay away suffering and because they defied God. converting queers to a Christian and, most impor Perhaps you can’t spot a gay by his or her hair tantly, hetero life. style, but laps around the sanctuary and lingering I paid the $60 and registered under a slight vari at the coffee cart revealed that many of the 150 ation of my name. With all the attention 1 put into conference attendees were churchgoing married dressing inconspicuously, 1 thought I’d blow my cov couples ranging in age from 30s to 60s. It was my er as the press or, at the very least, a nonbeliever, highest hope that few gays were in the pews, hear when the bag search revealed my camera and Harry ing the message that self-denial could lead them to Potter novel. a fulfilling, hetero life. “I won’t tell you how it ends,” said the volun After a group session, the conference broke into teer to my relief. workshops. Topics included “Someone I Love Is But the warm smiles that delivered welcomes Gay,” “Hope for Those Who Struggle” and “The were soon countered by another slate of “givens” Pro-Gay Agenda in Schools.” with a judgmental tone. 1 high-tailed it to a popular workshop, “Straight Thinking on Gay Marriage," led by Maier. Filled God does not make people gay. with approximately 50 people in the church's The gay gene is a myth. chapel, this was the only workshop repeated in the Homosexuals are working to show morning and afternixin. every institution—education, the media, It also served as a reunion of sorts for those business, government—that they are normal. who had protested House Bill 2007, the domestic partnership law, in Salem three months ago. That last one might be true. Before the program began, old buddies updated The daylong conference was couched in each other on their signature-gathering efforts to messages of kindness. A woman, later revealed to refer the law to the 2008 ballot. be the mother of hasbian Anne Heche, shared In a pseudo-academic presentation, listeners a personal story about forgiving her deceitful learned how same-sex marriage threatened their husband who died of AIDS. He had been leading families. Maier enlightened the crowd about a double life as a gay man. I learned that she desired polyamory. He presented a Netherlandic study to be more like the forgiving father in The Prodigal where married gay men admitted to eight Son. Nancy Heche prayed that God would heal her extramarital sexual contacts in an 18-month heart that broke when she received the phone period- T JAYMEE R CUTI (503)643-7325 Feng Shui Creation northwest Want to stop worrylRg aboit hoiw to discuss yoir HIV stitis? Looktagtotakcthcstressoiit oftalklng wittifricMdsaadfamily abort living withllV? Want more intimacy and passion and less worry in yonr sei life? +alk. A Ove session small gronp scries for gnys Ihint with MV who have sei with goys. Sim OP with Jwlt M3223.S307w jfcrrcr (SJcascafcaMs.eri Cítete* 'Ios Projet >CAP More than 100 people attended the Love Won Out "ex-gay" conference at City Bible Church.
