co-founder of the region’s first official Latino Gay
Pride festival. His leadership might be trailblazing,
but he’s quick to shake off any air of grandiosity.
“There’s always been people of color involved
in the LGBTQ movement—like Stonewall,” he
says. “People forget that there were Puerto Rican
drag queens!”
Drag may be the one thing Martinez doesn’t
do. Instead, after long days as Commissioner Ma
ria Rojo de Steffey’s policy manager, he’s usually
hutching it up on the softball field with the Bella
Boys team or planning a new event in the ever
expanding Latino Pride fest.
Come December, with Rojo’s term as county
commissioner ending, Martinez will find himself
facing yet another first: what step to take next in
his career. “Now,” he says, “I’m at a crossroads.”
PAULA HIELSEN
Claim to Fame: Host of her own low-budget,
high-religion cable access show, Let’s Have
Church, for 13 years.
So They Say: “I believe that God loves all
people and that Jesus never mentioned homo
sexuality in his teaching. I know from my own
experience that God accepts me for exactly what
I am. I believe this is true of all gay people.”
(January 1988)
Gay activists can tend to have tenuous rela
tionships with rhe religious right. Evangelicals
generally shy from embracing the transgender
community.
Which makes the case of Sister Paula Nielsen
that much more notable. For the uninitiated, her
video and podcast shows present a curious challenge:
Is that really a
trans woman
preaching the
“good word of
the Lord” in a
rolling baritone
voice?
It is, and
from the late
'80s
until
2002,
Sister
Paula ruled the Portland cable access airwaves
with a preach-and-chat talk show so singular that
it attracted the likes of comedian Fred Willard
among her special guests. She wrote columns on
gays and religion for every queer publication in
town except Just Out and launched an entertain
ment career on the stage of Darcelle’s, emulating
one of her most beloved entertainers, Sophie
Tucker.
“Someone told me one time, ‘You can’t be a
preacher and entertainer both,’ ” she says. “And 1
said, ‘Oh yeah, watch me!’ ”
Paula was showered with national media atten
tion throughout the 1990s, landing in the pages of
People and on The Joan Rivers Show and the BBC.
A heart attack in 2005 laid her low for a few months,
but, never one content with sitting still, she’s
bounced back with a weekly podcast on her Web
site, SisterPaula.org, tying evangelical Christian
themes and Scripture passages to current events.
“I’ve had more people say to me, and it’s the
best compliment 1 get: I’m an atheist or I’m an
agnostic,” she says, “and you’re the only religious
show that I watch.”
DONNA REDWIHG
Claim to Fame: Lesbian hero and political junkie
So They Say: “We have to go beyond rhe
rhetoric
to
bring people of
color into our
organizations,
to address their
concerns in a
serious manner.”
(August 1991)
Who’s Next:
Kendall Claw
son. Aside from
Clawson, Redwing says, “I’m worried. 1 see a
movement run by lawyers—or lawyer types.”
Donna Redwing was given a button.
Not the type you sew on a shirt, or one you’d
pin to your lapel. Redwing’s “special button” came
Continued on Page 30
STRAIGHT BUT NOT NARROW
ivil rights leaders will tell you
that gains toward equality would
F /Q not have been possible without sup-
N—port from the community at large—
near her home. She asked people not to sign the
petition until the store owner asked her to leave.
She called Bigot Busters, and within 10 minutes,
a crowd of supporters of equal rights formed.
hetero folks who vote and talk to their
Sweet continues to support gay rights causes.
colleagues, faith leaders and neighbors about why
“1 learn about who folks are. I show up. 1 learn
they despise discrimination and judge people
what it means to be an ally. 1 vote. I talk to my
only by the content of their character.
neighbors. I interrupt when 1 need to because ho
Dan Gardner, former commissioner of the Or
mophobia is socially entwined within the black
egon Bureau of Labor and Industries, who is now
community. I look at my own biases and how I
a lobbyist for the Washington, D.C.-based Inter can change my own actions," said Sweet, who is
national Brotherhrxxl of Electrical Workers, views
African American.
himself as an adv<x:ate for working people. His gay
Tom Ranieri, operator of Cinema 21, was
brother helped him understand that people are
awakened to the gay rights movement as a college
born gay and deserve equal treatment.
student in the 1960s in Prairie City, 111. His movie
As labor commissioner, Gardner was charged
theater hosted a queer film series in the ’80s that
with enforcing Oregon’s nondiscrimination law.
evolved into the Portland Lesbian &. Gay Film
He has shown his support by joining in rallies
Festival. He also dispels myths about what it is to
and appearing in the Portland Pride parade with
be gay and the challenges gay people face.
Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. Gardner testi
Portland has enjoyed leadership from a slew of
fied in favor of gay rights ordinances and held a
pro-gay mayors. Before PFLAG dad Tom Potter
press conference in 2004 to speak in opposition
tixik office, Mayor Vera Katz took many leader
of Measure 36.
ship roles fighting for gay rights. In 1973, as a
Anne Sweet, a work force development
freshman state representative, she sponsored and
specialist, was moved to join the cause in 1992
worked for legislation to prohibit discrimination
when the Oregon Citizens Alliance collected
based on sexual orientation. She was responsible
signatures for Ballot Measure 9 in a parking lot
for the only vote ever to reach the House or Sen
ate floor at the time that would have
prohibited discrimination.
Much of supporting the move
ment is showing up, a policy proven
by former Oregon Gov. Barbara
Roberts. She focused on legal pro
tections for gays and lesbians and
became the first elected official
in office to join the Gay Rights
National Lobby in 1984- In 1993,
Roberts intnxJuced a bill to create
a Human Rights Commission. On
May 9, 2007, she stcxxl with Gov.
Ted Kulongoski and other allies
in the Legislature as he signed the
state’s nondiscrimination and do
mestic partnership bills into law.
Gay Oregonians have been fortunate to find allies in
—Jaymee R. Cuti
political leaders such as former Gov. Barbara Roberts.
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