12
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Thinking outside the box
street roots
April 29, 2011
Gay and Grey, from page 1
by Leo Rhodes
Thinking outside the box is not easy
Change is what you want
But change is hard for you
Going back to the same way is easier
You don’t hear what I hear
You don’t see what I see
You don’t feel what I feel
You go through this with blinder, and only
See what’s in front of you
My suggestions are laugh at
Easily amusing
Don’t deny it
I see it in your eyes
I question others and myself
But I know change will come
Way, way, way in the future
I wish change would come sooner
Until yo'u see, hear, and feel what I do
We’ll have to wait and keep on talking
In too deep
by Jason
How deep does the rabbit hole go?
It is dark so how will I know
The deeper I go, the more I become scared
This journey alone is impossible to bear
Confusion surrounds me all too fast
Can I hold on to the wheel, or will I crash
Everywhere I go there’s more twists and turns
My fatigue an issue becoming more of a concern
I start to wonder if this is just a trap
Only if before I jumped in, I had a lighter and a map.
I can feel the soil start to stain my skin
“They offer a place for people who might
want to watch musicals, not football,” says
Meisner. Rupar and Meisner moved to
Portland from Oakland to live at Rainbow
Vista, “an active LGBT senior residence,” in
Gresham; however, even there, Rupar and
Meisner say they witnessed “psychological
abuse” that made them move out
Even the Department of Housing & Urban
Development (HUD) is making changes.
Earljer this month, HUD launched a new,
yearlong campaign called “Live Free,”
designed to draw national attention to
housing discrimination against minorities,
including the LGBTQ community.
Although there is no national assessment
of LGBT housing discrimination (HUD is
currently working on one based on the last
census), several state and local studies that
have indicated evidence of bias. A 2007
report by Michigan’s Fair Housing Centers
showed that nearly 30 percent of same-sex
couples were treated differently when
attempting to buy or rent a home, facing
burdens from higher rental rates and
application fees to borderline sexual
harassment
Oregon is one of seventeen states that ban
housing discrimination based on sexual
orientation. Nevertheless, the Portland
nonprofit Senior Housing and Retirement
Enterprises (SHARE) was established in
2001 to address the lack of local affordable
housing for gay seniors.
SHARE’S raison d’etre is to offer “safely
(from the) fear of mistreatment by care-givers
and other residents...socialization that is
inclusive...(education for) staff and other
residents regarding LGBT senior's’
sensibilities and fears” and to combat the
“reluctance of LGBT seniors to reveal their
sexual identity to health providers and care
providers.” Last year, SHARE was
. in cn rp n ra ted in tn G ay & Crny P D Y w h ich is
in the midst of forming a subcommittee on
The roots of madness is spreading within
I hunger for light and my eyes are weary
Oh sweet solace how I miss you dearly
Blood from my hand drips into the dirt
Seed of hatred grows, with the devil I flirt
I must move on but can’t help but cry
There must be a reason and I don’t know why
I can no longer run and I’m starting to crawl
In a hole so deep I feel insignificantly small
Breathing is difficult, there’s so little air
The air I do breath smells like despair.
I’m in too deep with no where to go
Now I am stuck, lost in this hole. ,
housing.
Covert discrimination
Yes, but isn’t Portland one of the gay-
friendliest cities?
“Especially in Portland, discrimination is a
challenge,” says Mya Chamberlain, director of
Services for Seniors and Homeless Families
at Friendly House. Chamberlain explains that
because of Portland’s gay-friendly reputation,
covert discrimination is often brushed under
the rug rather than addressed seriously.
Research supports Chamberlain’s theory.
For instance, a four-year-old Urban Institute
study found that even in states with no
official legal barriers to gays adopting
children, covert discrimination against gay
couples was occurring within adoption
agencies. Another study published twelve
years ago in The Journal of Social Psychology,
entitled “Covert Discrimination Against Gay
Men by U.S. College Students,” found that
even when study participants made “overtly
positive evaluations” of gay men, they
maintained “covert negative attitudes.”
After participating in a Gay & Grey PDX
educational workshop with Portland State
University’s School of Community Health,
one student wrote in an evaluation,
“Whenever someone tells me they’re gay, my
reaction is honestly, ‘So?’ Your talk made me
realize that it’s about culture and identity —
by shrugging off someone’s gay status, I have
been discrediting them, or a big part of who
they are.”
To combat covert discrimination, Gay &
Grey PDX volunteers teach workshops not
only for Portland State University’s
community health
students, but also for
nursing students at
Linfield College and
Upcoming Events
University of Portland,
and staff at Multnomah
County Aging and
‘Think Pink!” Prom will be 6-9
Disability Services and
p.m. on Friday, May 20 at Q
Immigrant and Refugee Center (4115 N Mississippi
Community
Street), $5-$25 donation
Organization..
suggested
Paving the way
There’s no denying
that the gay rights
movement has come a
long way. Gay & Grey
PDX members vividly
remember a time, only
forty years ago, when
being gay was defined
as a mental illness and
gay-friendly bars would
flash lights to warn
patrons that police
1 w e r e c o ming;
Gay & Grey PDX Expo on
Saturday, May 21st from 10
a.m .-4 p.m. at Friendly House,
1737 NW 26 Street. Admission
is free.
Gay & Grey PDX also offers
year-round programs. Call 228-
4391 or visit www.
gayandgreypdx.org for more
information.
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1 —................................................ -
“Youngsters today are
so fortunate that we’ve
come before them and paved the way,” says
Messerschmidt
Even so, gay youth coming out today
continue to face rough odds - LGBTQ teens
are bullied two to three times as much as
straight single teens and are more than four
times as likely to attempt suicide, according
to the It Gets Better Project, started by
media pundit Dan Savage.
“The thing is, it doesn’t get better at our
age,” says Gay & Grey PDX member John
Behrens. “As we get older, we get more
vulnerable...but we don’t want to go back into
the closet”
“Friendly House has changed our lives,”
says Hamilton. “It’s given us friends and
allies.”
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