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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2016)
JUNE 9, 2016 // 11 PHOTO BY DANNY MILLER SUBMITTED PHOTO Two blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at the Armory from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. Started in 1987, the quilt is a visual memorial to people who have died from AIDS. The Astoria Pride lags hanging in down- town Astoria were sewed by Sen Incavo and stenciled and handpainted by Donna Galich. Citizens Alliance initiated Oregon Ballot Measure 9, which lumped homosexual- ity together with pedophilia, sadism and masochism and would have required the government and schools to recognize homo- Saturday at the Armory. sexuality as “abnormal, wrong, unnatural PHOTO BY DANNY MILLER A one-act play being performed during Astoria Pride also pays tribute to LGBT his- and perverse.” The measure was defeated, Lower Columbia Q Center Chairman Marco Davis, top, and other Astoria Pride volunteers hang tory. Directed by Sen Incavo, “The Madness but OCA sponsored many similar anti-gay lags to promote the event throughout downtown Astoria. of Lady Bright” by Lanford Wilson was irst ballot measures on the city, county and state level for years. performed in 1964 and is considered to be Looking to the future The LGBT community on the North Coast the start of gay theater in New York City. Even with the victory of marriage equal- responded by forming The play, open to ity, the ight for LGBT rights continues. the North Coast Pride ages 18 and older, will Restroom access for transgender people is Network, a place to meet, one example. Anti-trans legislation in several be performed in a read- ‘SOMETIMES I share news and organize er’s theater format at 8 states seeks to regulate access to bathrooms, DON’T THINK WE p.m. Thursday at KALA. CELEBRATE ENOUGH; politically. There were banning people from using public restrooms National Coming Out The cast includes Davis; that do not correspond to the biological sex on WE SPEND SO MUCH Day parties, monthly Nancy Montgomery, their birth certiicates. North Carolina passed TIME FIGHTING mixers, potlucks, movie founder of the defunct an anti-trans bathroom bill into law in March. AND RALLYING FOR nights and a newslet- River Theater; and As- Other states that have attempted such bills ter. The functions were toria musician and actor include South Dakota, Tennessee and more. THINGS. THIS IS generally limited to the Daric Moore. “A lot of times people will choose not to THAT ONE TIME A LGBT community at the On a stiling after- think these things because it doesn’t YEAR WHEN WE CAN time, rather than some- affect about noon in Manhattan, them,” said Davis. ACTUALLY, REALLY thing community-wide, aging drag queen Leslie However, across the river in Washing- CELEBRATE.’ like Astoria Pride. Bright relects on his life ton, anti-trans ballot Initiative 1515 seeks to “Back then, it was and past loves. Figments repeal Washington’s non-discrimination law more dificult to be out of his imagination, — which currently guarantees transgender in this community. It was more something Boy and Girl, give voice to old friends and bathroom access — and, according to the ini- that you kept hidden,” Davis said. “Maybe it lovers. tiative’s summary, “restrict access to ‘private SUBMITTED PHOTO Ultimately, the play focuses on the theme just needed to stay low-key, or maybe there facilities’ to ‘biologically’ male or female in- weren’t as many of us who were willing to “Transleur,” by artist Marne Lucas, is a ce- of loneliness. dividuals regardless of their gender identity.” step out there. I know I had dificulty.” “It’s a little more on the serious side,” I-1515 needs about 246,000 signatures by July ramic installation of vitreous china, made up Over the years, activism against anti-gay 8 to get on Washington’s November ballot. of hermaphrodite lowers and lesh-colored Incavo said. “It shows that not everything is laws picked up speed. In 2004, Oregon glaze. Inspired by the transgendered artist happy — not everything is gay.” For Davis, Astoria Pride serves as a way amended its constitution to deine mar- Pippa Garner, the work will be featured in the for the local LGBT community to show the LGBT history in Clatsop County riage as a union between one man and one art show “The Coast is Queer,” opening at 6 wider community that such legislation is p.m. Saturday at KALA. Curated by Portland For LGBT activist and lesbian Dinah woman. In response, the Clatsop County discriminatory and to connect on a human galleriest Mark Woolley, the show features Urell, Astoria Pride is the result of years of Marriage Equality Project formed and level as friends and neighbors. work by queer artists from the Portland area, civil rights work in Clatsop County, includ- worked with Basic Rights Oregon to collect “It seemed like an important time for us including Wesley Younie, Chuck E. Bloom, ing the right to marry. signatures for pro-gay ballot measures. to let our faces be out there so that people Tabor Porter, Greg Carrigan and others. “The “In the ’90s, who would have thought Today, public opinion, state and federal in our community know that it does effect artists selected are not necessarily exploring that marriage equality would be legal? That law have all changed: Oregon legalized more locally,” Davis said. “As a people, wasn’t even on our minds,” she said. “We same-sex marriage in 2014; the federal I think that we have to step forward with queerness in their art — they are just pro- were just trying to be treated like people, government recognized same-sex marriages kindness more than aggression and recog- ducing interesting, well-crafted and highly like human beings.” in 2013 and declared any state bans uncon- nize that our country was founded on equal- original works that relect their inner vision,” In 1992, conservative group Oregon stitutional in 2015. ity. We all should be treated equally.” Woolley said.
