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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2009)
OREGON S GAY/LESBIAN/BI/TRANS NEWSMAGAZINE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR An Oregon AIDS Memorial? — Submit /o u r letters to the editor, commitment announcéments. transitions or list /o u r events online at www.justout.com. CLICK ON THE READER SUBMISSIONS BUTTON not able to continue the mission for which it was created, to remember those we have lost. In the year 2000, the Persons Living With A ID S Committee of the Ryan White Part B Oregon H IV Care Coalition created a memo rial board in memory of those we had lost to the epidemic. It was displayed at all Coalition meetings, as well as meetings o f the Portland HIV Services Planning Council, and local World A ID S Day Observances. This was all in the days prior to HIPPA regulations which made all Health information private for all patients. And since the names displayed on the Board were submitted by members o f the com munity, there are no releases from next of kin. I have been the caretaker (as well as the creator) o f the board since its creation. I am no longer serving on these planning bodies, and with the advent o f HIPPA, no govern ment agencies or organizations subject to these regulations is able to be the caretaker o f this memorial without keeping it under lock and key, with no access but by authorization, and cannot display it publicly. I have contact ed Q_Center three times and [their] lack o f response indicates lack o f interest. Therefore, the Memorial languishes in a closet in my home, and is never seen.... What is the future o f this piece o f Pordand G L B T and A ID S history? There is no formal A ID S Memorial for Oregon. Are we interested in one? I am troubled by the fact that it ... is 5 M OCTOBER I é p 2009 T om M c C o n n e l l Portland A “Breathe" of Fresh Air What is it about the writer Nick Mattos? (Sept. 4, Vol. 26, No. 21, p. 31, “Remember to Breathe”) The man speaks o f the real world. I’ve been on a bridge or two myself in life, and am lucky enough to find balloons everywhere I am. In Gay life, as in straight life we are all at so many different places with so much pas sion to find and share. Life doesn’t hand you a brass ring. You’ve got to go out, focus, and get the life you really want to live. Sometimes it’s in the friendship, or the silence o f the woods. It can be in a great concert, or one sweet kiss. In the end, work-a-holics, it won’t be what you kill yourself for, the money. It will be the love, sweet love. I think Nick is working this out just right, let’s hope many more o f us can do the same. H a n k I vey Portland Preaching to the Choir My thanks to [writer Jenny Furniss] and Just Out for the fine article on policy changes being undertaken by the E L C A with respect to partnered gay and lesbian pastors (Sept. 18, Vol. 26, No. 22, p. 15, “Acceptance in the Pews and Pulpits”). Pastor Robyn [Hartwig] is a wonderful, caring pastor who represents the church well. Our hope in the E L C A is that we will continue to grow in love for, and understanding of, various communities o f diversity as we all seek the wholeness and health o f the world God entrusts to us. Ever hopeful, B ish o p D ave B ra uer -R ie k e Oregon Synod - ELCA, Portland More Smoke Since I started this debate (July 3, Vol. 26, No. 17, p. 5, “Letters”) I will now step in and attempt to re-clarify some points for a few people in this “Community...” 1) Pride is about inclusion. That means ev erybody gets to participate. Segregation is W R O N G !... 2) Discrimination is when you treat one person or group differently. E.G . When you believe that your rights begin where mine end and you sequester me away from another group you discriminate.... Our community is fractured enough. It is not hard to find enemies out there. Pride should be about solidarity, not about [ostracization]!. J a im e L a F leur In "Pursuit” of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? An Oct. 11 Associated Press story in the Sunday Oregonian omitted a quote from President Obama’s Human Rights Cam paign speech thanking “my great friend and supporter,Terry Bean, co-founder o f H R C .” Bean is a longtime Oregon citizen who financially supported Republican Gordon Smith’s election to the U.S. Senate. Smith commendably co-sponsored one pro-gay bill with Sen. Ted Kennedy. In 1980, Oregon’s current U.S. Senator Ron Wyden solicited Bean’s help to defeat incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Bob Duncan by pledging to do more than just co-sponsor a gay nondiscrimination bill. Wyden dishon orably reneged on his promise until 1991. I hope Obama is not following Wyden’s methods by promising to end “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” while doing nothing because he is “too busy fighting two wars.” This excuse lacks substance because as Com- mander-in-Chief he could immediately sign a “stop-loss” order until Congress can repeal the law. America’s gay military men are not being unreasonably impatient with President Obama. Even Obama conceded in his speech, “It’s not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans peti tioning for equal rights half a century ago.” T hom as K r a em er Vancouver, WA Corvallis D avi d W. O wens ■■■■ P. 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Killingsworth MORTGAGE o lii« - 5 0 > 2 9 7 » 9 9 0 0 w c P o r t t f lm A , LIC»MLI05S 5 0 > 7 8 0 * 15t> 1 Start the holiday season with good music, good friends and good deeds. Bring a donation of canned goods or non-perishable food for Esther’s Pantry . . . and we’ll enter your name in a drawing for a free Motherlode CD! Let’s help Just Out with their Holiday Food Drive and make a difference in our community.
