Politics
MALICE TOCARD 5OME
I
HAPPEN to be p ro -life ,* D an
Q^xivfo u m ! Junng a rrlattvch c m l
n to n w n i of hi» televised debate
last week w ith A l G o re and James
htm lulale A n d so he m , even it a remark
he made earlier in the campaign that
he would adviie hi» daughter against ter
m inating a (hypothetical) pregnancy hut
would support her in whatever decision
die m ight make suggests that he A ir»
not understand the im plxations either o f
his own position (which is that abortion
should he illegal excejd in c a m of rape,
uxest, or a threat to the mother's late) or
of his parts s (w h ich 1» that a bortion
should he illegal in all circumstance»)
Diere is one issue of human sexuality,
however. on w h u h the Vice-President
m ight he said to he unecjuivixallv pro-
choxe O n the Scpternfxr I ith broad
cast of A IR » 'D u » Week w ith David
B rin k le y , he was asked w hether he
thought that homosexuality was rooted
in nature or in society ’ M v viewpoint is
that its more of a choice than a Nologi
sal situation." lie answered, and svent on
to say, It ts a wrong choice. I do beliese
in most cases it certainly 1» a choice "
It is impossible to know w fx tfx r M r
Quayfo truly helxses this But the theory
that hom osexuality it a m atter o f
choice
life stele choice,* in the usual
fo rm u la tio n — is indispensable to the
ptejudxe against homosexuals. Dus year,
tlie Rcpuhhcan Parts has given voice to
this variety of bigotry in all its forms,
from the viru len t, through the m od u
lated, to tlx- vers mild. D x undent form
got unprecedented exposure at the Re
publican Convention this summer, irxxt
notably in the speeches o f Patrick
Buchanan and Pat Robertson 'D ie
m odulated fo rm was expressed in the
Party » platfonn, which opposed extend
mg cm l nghf» protec tions to gays and al
lowing tlx tn to serve m tlx- anned forces
l i e m ild form lias been the specialty of
the V ie t President and o f President Bush
himself, wlx> told an interviewer tlx- week
before the Convention that homosexual
ity is "a life style that in my view is not
normal" and "not n g h t*
If by ’ n ot n o rm a l* the President
meant that homosexuality is uncharac
tenstic of the mayonty— that it deviates
from the mean — he was surely cw rect,
Imt only in the sense that it is also "not
norm al" to have gone to Vale or to have
a vacation house in Maine But if "nor
rnal means "occurring naturally" one
o f its dic tio n a ry d e fin itio n s then he
was surely wrong Homosexuality occurs
naturally in every human society, and in
roughly the same numbers regardless of
the level of social tolerance Recent ici
entitle evidence suggests, moreover, that
sexual orientation correlate» closely w ith
genetic factors A study that was con
ducted by M ichael Bailey, a psychologist
at Northwestern University, and Richard
Pillard, a psychiatrist at Boston U niver
sity School of M edicine, and was |xib
lished last Dec ember in the J n A rtv i o f
General Plyebtatry showed that a m ail
has a fifty tw o jx r cent chance o f being
gay if f x has an identical tw in - that is, a
tw in folly d u rin g tlx same gerxtx make
up — w ho is gay. but only a twenty two
per-cent chance if he lias a fraternal twin
w ho is gay, and m erely an eleven-
|>er cent chance it he has an unrelated,
adopted brother w lx i is gay Bailey and
Pillard have since conducted a sim ilar
study of women, with stnkmgfy similar re
sults "In contrast," they wnte, "research
on social factors has been fnntle»».*
W hat does correlate w ith "social la»
tors" is not homosexuality itsell hut tlx
degree of suffering that is imposed upon
homosexuals fo r being homosexuals
f ven in our s tx x ty , a remarkably toler
ant one hv global and by historical stan
dard*, there is almost certainly no such
thing as a homosexual— male or female,
acknowledged or "closeted" w ho lias nut
at some point in his <x Ix r life felt, at the
very least, tfx anguish of self rtfin u c h or
of fear of rejection I f the c x jx rx n c e of
actual human Ixtngs is any guide, it is
both preposterous and callous to speak
of hcxnosexuality as just another choice
of life style Homosexuality is not an ill
ness, not a contagion, not a nuiral fail
mg It is simply a predisposition One
gay man, a forty one year old lawyer
who recently caine exit" 111 a newspaper
inte rvie w in w h ich fie disputed M r
Qpaylr's view, put it this was "You can
say in tome x n x I choose to write w ith
my right or left hand, but the p o in t is
that it is such an automatic decision
D i a f » how I »ee homosexuality *
Die Republican Party ts no c x irp tx in
to the rule that any large aggregation of
people ha* its share of homosexuals, a>
George arxl Barbara Bush, if nor Dan
Quavlc. know perfectly well Die lawyer
who dress rhe interesting paralk i between
»exual unentatkMi arxl harxlcdixv» is John
Schlafly, who says that lx- shares i t ct of
the [x ilitu a l n n tv of hi» mother, the set
eran conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly
Die D>g C abin Federation, a national
organi/arion of gay aixl lesbian Rejxihli
cans, has cix thousand members (It ha*
declined to endorse the Bush Q uavlc
tx k e t.) D x roster of prominent Rcjxih
beans known to he gay ha» included Roy
Cohn, tfx lawyer, Rcjncsentativc Sirwart
M cK inn ey, of C onnecticut, and Terry
D 'la n , t l x celebrated New Right fond
r a ix r all of whom d x d of M l» R.ibert
M> shac her, o rx of ( !<-■ >rgr Bush's . ildest
fneixl», t l x p n ix ip a l fond ra ix r for his
three P residential cam paigns, and a
form er member of his C abinet, has a
forty three year o ld daughter, Diane,
who IS a (Xihlnly proclaimed lesbian
President and M r» Bu»h w e l
com ed Dee M osbacher to the
W lute I loose in I W f , arxl tfx Pre»
ide nt was photographed w ith her
and t f x woman her ta tfx r calls her
sfxxise A rx l the record of M r Bush
as President d id show, in te rm it
te nth. some slight consideration tor
fuwixnrxuals, csjiecially with trsjxct to
tlx A lin ¡«iagix A cco riim g to Adm in
istration figures, w hich have Ixe n
t f x subject of much debate, federal
AIDS spending has increased uixier
Busli, and Bush has invited gay f o x i
er» to t fx W hite l l o u x tor two hill
signing», and, w ith his wife, visited
AIDS patients in the hospital T h a t
sort of thing was dropped as »won as
the W h ite llix is r entered what M r
Bush calls "campaign mode " A n d it
in t lx weeks before t fx election the
Bush Quavlc orgaiuzats«1 lu s d ro jy rd
N o O n H a te / P o rtla n d -M e tro PA(
"1
•» (c4a,«ia ihj{
< c I, J m <
oklwl rsxiugh . j I h I
r
Su js-c the.» t r i , g j ,
STOP
iw
» sCj, hu-’ca
X » ’ i n n .l» , „ u lu t» - #, >
ISXWW» x , 11.4, t f i ^ n i , , . ,
a n x sc U .. g i
vrg.n c
C u ixifX aH k c
JOCA
Cunirttxclioic
N o O n H a te PA<
Io get in volve d, < all
DELORES
STRICKLAND
222-9885
for C ounty
P O Box 2725
Portland, OK ‘»7208
Commissioner
it* attacks on hotnoxxuals, along w ith
most o f the rest of its "fa m ily vidues*
baggage. it was txit from pangs of con-
vcxixe It did »0 purely as a result of re
alizing that tfx strategy had heconx po
litx a lly counteqirixfoctive. driving away
n itxlcratc voters, w ho, whatever their
discomfort w ith gay culture, dislike con
spicuous display» o f intolerance D ie
earlier attacks have not been repudiated,
arxl they might not to fx forgotten
T h e conservative inoseinent had to
fin d another enem y" after the fall o f
Com m unism , M arvin l.x b m a n has »ug
gested M r L x h m a n , sixty nine years
old, is an elder of tfiat movement the
groups he has h e ljx d found include,
among many others. Vexing American»
for Freedom aixl t l x A n x n c a n Corner
vative U n io n M r l.iebm an, w ho two
year» ago anixxirxcd that l x was gay, in
a letter to N ational Rn>eu. has said that
homosexuals poisoning society" have
been drafted to fill the void "T h e r lx to
ru is almost word tor w ord what they
u x d about t f x C om m unists schools,
H o lly w o o d , m edia e lite ,’ he »aid
D xn c code words u x d to mean Jews,
hut now they also mean gays *
C om m unism , o f course, actually was
an enemy of the value» that Am erican
society is supposed to stand for The
mistake some conservatives made was,
instead of just opposing it, to conflate it
w ith liberalism. I lotno xxua lify and ho
mosexuals are the enemies of no one
W hen those who d xn ild wtx> must
know better indulge the reflex to de
‘h 'x 'a c r only tlic-m ^'..'
fB t
DON’T LET
THEM GET
AWAY WITH IT!
N tW tfX K fA
OCT
Measure No. 9
OREGON
ARGUMENT IN FAVOR
GRETCHEN
BUCKMASTER
for C ounty
Commissioner
The MorftiCOMI
Women I PolIBcel Csucus
STRONGLY
OPPOSES
MEASURE 9
Ais psj agarx' spar«k ngNs la
Mmowsuaf»’
So • • « •
flirt no on« ha« •««« a«k«d »0»
■»p«ri«l nght»'I Only lw nghts
•«•ryon« should Nav«
Io tw
from p a w iXsvi to hold 1
a hoow kv« n p«ar«
r«e<
Measure 9 N a
license for bigotry, end an
Invftatkxi 10 hate Crimea
NO on 9
Atxxxduia
0 w hm k uf I w v i lx ua in the RihU. oysstwwet
m g c ro a a b rs s e d ln g r a lt lw , « h a v i n g a h a a r d , w e a r i n g
< lo lh tn g m a iU o f nslaad fib a ra , t u ra in g otsa's (m ra n la and
a d u lW ry »rs> ju .t «« min. ra) «« h o m .w a u a ii l y If »ha O C A 1«
•No
Right«’ CoiTunittM want« to tak« on« oT I ha 3.000-
> » « old law« of ntu»J fsollne«« from la v llx u a and put It Into
the Bill of Right« in the «tala ouiwtltuthca, llw > «bucild ba am
.are «(tough to put «11 the ra X of la v ltv s ia into the m nM ltutlon
a« well It « ■ Iim pie nsaUar of re«pa<1 fur U h m « hxtorX law« to
treat them is>nalatently
H r at the Hpes-iaJ Bigfttaouanawa ( 'o m m ilta a are Juat a«
. (tended by oyster O i l ng. ahavtng and mixad ft he re a« the OCA
te ..(Tended by hot»»eeauably, and we have ;uat ae much right
a« the O 'A d«-e In change the state cnrutitullon to reejutra gov
em inent diw-runinaUxi agatiiet people whowe fetfsavkir we d oo \
like
Mv frsende. d> you want tha public ecdwxla ta a c h l,« your c h lf
dren that «having la a legitimate and n p ia l alternative style to
a normal and healthy heard'’ Would you want to he fnrvod to
hin- an o ya trre a te r to direst y. ur church choir? Adam and Eva
wore fig leaves 100 p a rre a il fig I «avow and th b 1* dlvtna
pn«.f that tfvwe dlagueUngly unnatural oCbin'pi.lyeater hlanda
are einftil And when the <K'A w o analysing the threat tn tra
ditional fam ily values, we don’t know how they managed tn
o w rkeik a.hiltery' Why, there'« a lot more adultery than fkimn-
sexuality going on -iut there, and i’Xtr«pol«tkr>na burn OCA eta
tletka show that BO pecrvwnl of the people who have engaged in
ankual |w>> veiasona are hwtersw asuaj ‘ etrelghl’ )
The state i.ridonea a d u lte ry by not punishing it w ith d e a th
a* rwpnred by LwvKleus It pnxndea oyster eating by Ix-analng
eeafi»«f reataurenta. and It allow * people tn take mixed fiber«
out of the cfeiaet and to flaunt them nght out In puhlx w ith o u t
being fired or evx-ted1 The atete is encvxiraging t i n !
K 1 ha ( K
A can have the apis »1 right tn make their personal
m oral agenda Into faihlX policy, then anyone elae also should ba
able to amend the etat« Bill of Rights tn elim inate tueax human
nght« for people who they A in 't like
le t a put A L L of Iwvltk-ua tnto tha m natitutionl A “yea" vote
I* the flret Step In facilitating o ur m ilitant moral agenda
♦
1 1 ,2
A G R K K W I T H ITH O R B U R N I N H K I J J
S p c ia l KightnnoenrM (om m ittew
P O Box |M 1
Btrtland, Oregon W72O7
I rtti
br M Oonre« Unta CW.
dyrt<Mousoe»i Cammnae I
C otton basics»
Unique
Rayon P rints
< E/ Mundo
( T N , > n * a i« x rZ w » « > » » < 1 0 0 « o n S a r e e w «n f X I S 2 Í ’ Z W )
< for Women >
M N.
v - O locx
C annon
--------v
ChriAhnmty mi^ht be 11 good thing,
it anyone tried it. G IVAbnw
• P o n ia rd
• Canrvv
St hewtN
.,
r
.....
Thf p rin lin t '1
rnrnt by 0 * Stnlf
anrurrscy or truth
v f u i i m l ,ir » ,
r. nntUuir an rm ^ ra a
( hs*«». n rr ,Uaa ihf abstr uvsrmnr {Ae
<snv etoteecen/ ousde m (Ae argum ent
3