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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2008)
1?. CTW JUStjOUt^ filQW-OKi Matthew Corwin (left), 29, and Brennan Randel, 31 Waiting was out of the question. The morning of Feb. 4, Matthew Corwin and Brennan Randel had just got off working their usual overnight shift for a Portland technology company. Exhausted and anxious about what sort of panicked scene might ensue at the county offices—would there be protesters, pushy journalists, a pipe bomb?—the two nevertheless made the hike to inner Southeast to legally register their 10-year partnership. “OK, we’ll do this,” Randel remembered thinking, “and then we’ll go home and go to bed.” Since mov ing to Portland in 2003, they’ve reveled in the rain (“You can’t beat the rain!” Corwin exclaimed in all seriousness, with a trace of Texas accent), in the region’s choice food and drink (Randel is a Western Culinary Institute alum and budding dietary manager) and what Corwin calls the “Portland pragmatism”—people here, they find, are unabashedly themselves. “We’re just everyday people,” Corwin said. “We enjoy a nice dinner and a bottle of wine, and then we come home to pet the cats.” THE BARBER BABES 914 ME 28th (SANDY/28TH) 503-235-8199 Judith Barrington (left), 63, and Ruth Gundle, 60 There were certain words that Judith Barrington was just not allowed to use. Lesbian was one of them. Writing opinion pieces and reviews for The Oregonian, she remembers specifically that word, which defined at least part of her life, as being verboten in the pages of Portland’s hallowed major daily until at least the late ’80s, when another critic, in the span of a sen tence breathlessly praising Barrington’s own prose, noted the writer in this manner: “Judith Barrington, comma, a lesbian, comma.” Words are impor tant to Barrington and Ruth Gundle, her partner of 29 years. So is social -justice. The two “met over a big fight” at Portland State University in 1979, according to Gundle, who was an out lesbian and up for a major post at the university. The PSU president at the time blocked her hiring; Barrington, a part-time faculty member, was outraged and helped organize campus protests. Love blossomed soon after. After deciding to get partnered, the couple sent out an e-mail to friends and family, and they recounted a color ful response: “It’s about time you two stopped shacking up!” 2” Analog (16 and 24 Track) EMT 140 Plate Reverb Super Outboard Gear and Mies Big Live Room - Tall Ceilings - Oak Floor Great Location in SE Portland Mobile Pro Tools Rig For Rent (503) 239-5389 2420 SE 50th • Portland, OR www.jackpotrecording.com John "Jack" Ulmer (left), 85, and Charles "Jerry" Liming, 74 At the fabulous party of a mutual friend 52 years ago in Cincinnati—the living room turned into a dance floor, trays of hors d’ouevres and wine at the ready—Jack Ulmer and Jerry Liming first shared a dance. It was, as Liming notes, a very different time. “That was when if you danced with someone, you danced with them,” he says. “You didn’t vibrate on the other side of the room.” Ulmer, for his part, immediately liked what he saw: “His personality and his body intrigued me, frankly.” Smoking a Parliament in his red reclining chair, Liming hears this, wags his fingers and rolls his eyes. The pair moved to Portland in the early '60s. (Liming is a Vancouver, Wash., native.) They remember some of the city’s first gay bars, with names like Half Moon and The Harbor. Ulmer is a former lawyer, and Liming opened an antique shop at Southwest First Avenue and Yamhill Street: Charlie’s Antiques. “We never hid our relationship, but we never flaunted it,” said Liming, who added that the men, both veterans of the U.S. armed services, had never in their lifetime attended a Gay Pride parade. “We never danced down the middle of the street with feather boas like some of these fools.” Continued on Page 22 Dec. 3, 2007: Out-of-state anti-gay group the Alliance Defense Fund files Lemons v. Bradbury lawsuit in federal court—an attempt to revive its failed referendum effort. ________ X— Oct. 8, 2007: After following well- established standard procedures for determining how many of the signatures submitted were actually valid, the Oregon secretary of state announces that opponents of domestic partnerships have failed to gather the necessary signatures to qualify for the ballot. Jan. 2. 2000: At candlelight vigils in seven cities, Oregonians describe the harms caused by the delay in the law. Basic Rights Oregon files a motion to intervene in the suit; the motion is granted the next day. Feb. 4, 2008: Domestic partnerships begin. Committed, caring couples throughout Oregon have access to the rights and legal protections they deserve. X Dec. 28. 2007: Judge Michael Mosman holds a hearing on the request for a temporary injunction of the lew and chooses to grant it. Domestic partnerships will not go into effect, at least until the next hearing. " \ftcr talking with other lenders, we were ven/ frustrated with the rec eption we received on our bankrupts/. We d met Christine at the Pride I estival and decided to give her a mil. Unlike the others, she worked with ns to improve our credit file mid then came through with financing where others told u> it couldn't he done. Today we hoc in a 124o sp. ft. ranch with a hu^c back i/iird and 3 corpm We're ven/ thankful to Christine mid know that she is out lender lor life." 503.698.5429 503.301.1941 Pager hallc@eaglehomemortgage.com Jac. 30, 2008: More than 2,000 Oregonians gather in Portland to rally in support of domestic partnerships. Feb. 1, 2008: After a six-hour hearing, Mosman rules against the Alliance Defense Fund—confirming that it had failed to gather the necessary signatures to put domestic partnerships on the ballot for referendum. He lifts the temporary injunction, allowing the law to go into effect.
