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About The North Coast times-eagle. (Wheeler, Oregon) 1971-2007 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1995)
PAGE 2 ANOTHER COMING OUT ANTHONY RUSSO BY MARVIN LIEBMAN About 14 months ago, I began writing a monthly column for lesbian and gay publications around the country I called the column "Conservatively Speaking " Why this title? I believed that my major credential in the gay community was my auto biography Coming Out Conservative, and the fact that I was a mover and shaker in the U S. anticommunist and conservative communities for many years before I came out at the age of 67 There were many gay men vtfio could write a column, but there were not many gay conservative men around, over 70, who wanted to share their thoughts in the gay and lesbian press. I certainly had that spot covered -- with no competition. Most of the publications printed my columns, either regularly or sporadically However, most of the publications never used "Conservatively Speaking" as the column header, but simply published what I had to say under my own name. I realized that the word "conservative" repels most lesbians and gay men, as do such words as "Christian" and "Republican " ETERNAL VIGILANCE About two months ago, one of the TV news magazines aired a 15-minute segment on eight murders in Texas - all of them homosexual men. As one embittered and bereaved relative put it: "Gay bashing is considered a sport like I might go bowling!" I couldn't help thinking, 'This happens because the culture in which they live permits it." Now Oregon is not Texas, nor is Clatsop County But those who thinK it "can't happen here" are wrong Within the last year a handful of incidences of the following types turned up in some research I and others did: telephone harassment, break in, vandalism, persistent verbally ballistic harassment, threats, taunts and insults in businesses, residences and in school settings In some instances the police were notified and were instrumental in monitoring and preventing further violence, which is reassuring: it seems we are not drifting toward the Texas pattern. But eternal vigilance still is necessary. And it is still the case that all that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing -BU N N Y DOAR Bunny Doar wrote the above for OUT! On The Coast, which is published by the Clatsop County AIDS Coalition. — — f^ B I F îr e HRH M o u n t a in IT I School P.O. BOX 96, ARCH CAPE, OREGON 97102 Rightly or wrongly, these terms had become code words symbol izing bigotry, fear and loathing of gay men and lesbians. But I am conservative, Republican and Christian. God knows, I'm gay, too. Isn't it possible to be all four, or have I become a living oxymoron? The answer eluded me for some time, but is now obvious: No, it is not possible, at least for me, in today's world. In my coming out letter to my friend Wiliam F. Buckley Jr., which was published in his National Review in July 1990, I aired a premonition that had been haunting me for a long time "I feel that our cause might sink back into the ooze in which so much of it rested in pre-National Review days," I wrote to Buck- ley. "In that dark age, the American Right was heavily, perhaps dominantly, made up of bigots, anti-Semites, anti-Catholics, the KKK, rednecks, Know Nothings, a sorry lot of public hucksters and religious medicine men. Now, times are changing. There is no longer the anticommunist cement to hold the edifice together. The great enterprise is in danger of sinking back into an aggre gate of bigotries.” Alas, my prediction has been realized. The words ."conservative," "Christian" and "Republican" are being held hostage by the same forces that controlled the American Right before Buckley and his band of true believers (of which I was proud to be part) made conservative more mainstream and respectable Of course, even now, there are still those among the Republican ranks, like Sen. Arlen Specter, who attempt to hold the fort against the barbarians. But they are vastly out numbered by the descendants of those from a half-century ago who would drag the country back into the swamps of intolerance and division. Can the valiant defenders prevail? I don't believe they can, not in the foreseeable future. Where does this leave me? I cannot associate myself vwth Rush Limbaugh and other new "conservative" leaders, nor with Pat Robertson and his "Christian” brigades, nor with Jesse Helms and his new "Republican" majority. The only identity of which I am absolutely certain is that I am a homosexual in a country which has little patience with us gay folk. THE MILITIA In Grant's Pass, Oregon, young men in uniforms gather in a parking lot surrounded by boarded store windows, the closed mouths nailed and silent. The guns lift all in a row, a tiny black face at the end of each barrel pointing into the night, fire now now and now across the great width. There will be one group and one group only. They are simply preparing. Boys on roller blades whizz whizz and weave in and out and away and back watching. One will return home and hold the razor close against his scalp. Another might steal paint or Tire. -P O L L Y B U CK IN G H AM Polly Buckingham lives in Astoria. The Militia is the 3rd part of a longer poem, Oregon War Zone Millions of gay men and lesbians - perhaps a great majority of our would-be community -- are in the closet, terrified of coming out and standing openly with their sisters and brothers against the forces that would see us obliterated Make no mistake: The ultimate goal of our enemy is to make us disap pear, back to a closet that will make today's seem wide open by comparison, or dead. Hysterical? I don't think so. Where does that leave me? Us? I can no longer accept such labels as conservative, Christian or Republican, which draw much of their coherence from hostility towards people like me. No gay man or lesbian in the United States should no longer accept any of these labels, which have become mere code words for attacks on our collective dignity. We can accept no labels any longer. We must give our allegiance and support only to those individuals and groups who publicly stand with us against bigotry and fear of lesbians and gay men. Forget the hand wringing over Congress and the federal government We must focus on our own neighborhoods, our cities, and our states This is where we will find allies, men and women who have seen our faces, who know who we are. Here we develop the coalitions and power bases that make elected officials -- local, state and national -- sit up and take notice. Here, too, we must find and nurture new leaders to replace the figureheads of our national lesbian and gay groups who have accomplished little and at great cost. No longer can we give our votes, our contributions, and our efforts for the pursuit of vague promises. We mustn't sell the soul of our community for "tolerance." Although we desperately need allies from the U S. mainstream, we must be satisfied with only their full and open support for our cause against our enemies. Indeed, as we have done so often in the past, we will give them our unbridled aid for their steadfast support. In the past -- and sometimes to the consternation of my African American friends - I have compared the gay rights movement to the black civil rights movement of the 60s. I still believe that they are comparable, and we have much to learn from the history of this great quest, both its setbacks and its victories. Now, however, I believe it even more urgent to draw a comparison between our community and the Jews and homo sexuals of Europe in the 30s and 40s. Then, as now, the majority cried out that those who predicted death and misery were crazy, that such things as mass extermination could not happen, that hysteria was dangerous. Until the very last, until they choked on the lethal gas in the extermination "showers," they did not accept the fact that the Nazi state despised them to the point of eradicating them from the face of the earth. The Jews and homosexuals of Europe were victims. We are not. We must never be grateful for mere crumbs off the table at which we have no place. Neither must we let ourselves be shamed from claiming our identity as gay or lesbian, content instead to seek shelter under tents whose stakes are planted in the backs of our brothers and sisters I can no longer call myself a conservative, nor a Christ ian, nor a Republican. I am a gay American, and I will retain my independence from any other label. You may, from time to time, still come upon my thoughts in the gay press. Henceforth, how ever, my column will be called "Independently Speaking." Marvin Liebman is a contributor to Just Out, a gay and lesbian newspaper published in Portland from which his article is reprinted. FAMOUS LESBIAN )l Cathie Hardee, a student at Olympia High School in Olympia, Washington, responding to a complaint that Col. Maragarethe Cammermeyer* was invited to speak at a student assembly only because she is a famous lesbian: "Susan B. Anthony was famous because she was a woman, Anne Frank was famous because she was a Jew, and Martin Luther King Jr. was famous because he was black. It's not why they were discriminated against that makes them famous. It's what they did about it that makes them famous." -MPMc ‘ Cammermeyer, a decorated Vietnam W a r veteran, won rein statement to the Washington National Guard when she sued over her discharge for acknowledging she is a lesbian. A TV movie was made of her case.
