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FROM PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 21, 2021
Gavin:
Mandates:
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“We don’t understand why every-
thing happens the way it does,” he
told his congregants. “I’m still in
shock myself. I still feel like I’m just
in a dream waiting to wake up.
Van Cleave recalled one of
Michael’s sermons, about being a
prodigal son 27 times over. The Prod-
igal Son of the Bible is a story about a
son who squanders his father’s inheri-
tance, only to be welcomed back with
open arms when he returns home in
destitution, a parable about the resil-
ience of God’s love. Michael told
Bethel congregants that he had been
the prodigal son 27 times in his life,
falling away from his faith before
reconnecting with it. But as he stood
before them that day, Michael vowed
he wouldn’t walk away from his faith
again.
Van Cleave met Michael through
his son 13 years ago, and despite
being in his “partying” days, he still
would regularly talk with the pastor
about God.
“He could talk it, but he wasn’t
walking it at that moment,” Van
Cleave said.
Over time, Michael became
more serious about committing
himself to his faith, making the shift
permanently about three years ago.
Michael became a youth pastor for
Bethel, using his natural ability to
connect with youths who otherwise
had no connection to church.
But Michael also harbored
larger ambitions. He talked with
Van Cleave about traveling to Los
Angeles regularly to evangelize,
maybe take a trip to Israel. When he
wanted a van for the youth program,
he prepared to sell his truck to pay
for it, only for another church in
Newport to step and send Bethel one
of its unused vans.
Before his death, Michael made it
known that he wanted to pastor full
time. Van Cleave had his misgiv-
ings about how it would fit into the
church budget. Although Van Cleave
worked full time for the church, his
salary fluctuated depending on Beth-
el’s finances. He occasionally took
extra work, such as driving a school
bus or selling cemetery headstones
to make ends meet, and he didn’t
know how Bethel would cover the
cost of employing Michael.
Michael’s prayers were seemingly
answered when a donor stepped
forward to sponsor Michael’s posi-
tion with the church. Van Cleave
wanted to work out the details before
telling Michael, but by then, he was
already in the hospital. Van Cleave
was working a job delivering pota-
ble water to wildfire sites when he
learned of Michael’s death, having
never told him about the job devel-
opment.
To Van Cleave, Michael’s
It is important to note,
however, that these deaths are
currently being investigated
and could come from any
number of reasons, and are not
confirmed to have been caused
by the vaccine. Regardless, this
number makes up 0.000018%
of administered doses —
roughly the same odds of dying
in a tornado.
“When you look at the
data of who’s ending up in the
hospital and who’s dying, the
numbers are overwhelmingly
the unvaccinated population,”
Hitzman said.
And, since no vaccine has
been approved for kids 12 and
under, they have no way to
protect themselves,
enough.
“Those of us in the educa-
tion field, those of us in the
healthcare field, we’re all
mandatory reporters and what
that basically means is that we
have an obligation to protect
your children when they are
under our care,” Hitzman said.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Family and funeral attendees console Greg Gavin at the Aug. 11, 2021,
funeral for his son Michael Gavin at the Mission Longhouse. Michael Gavin,
39, died Aug. 7 of COVID-19.
achievements with the church
weren’t just a product of his deter-
mination, but a testament to his spir-
itual conviction and his relationship
with Jesus. Van Cleave found joy in
Michael’s spiritual transformation.
“It was amazing to watch,” he
said.
Walking in both worlds
At the Longhouse, Michael’s
brothers painted him as both a jester
and a provider.
Derek told the assembly when he
saw Michael laying in the casket at
an earlier viewing, he still had “that
same stupid smile” on his face, a
smile that came from a well-cracked
joke or one of the many pranks he
played on Shawna, video evidence
of which would quickly make its way
to the siblings.
Derek declined to be inter-
viewed, but he did provide a state-
ment about the other side of Michael.
The Michael who taught Lee how to
hunt and fish, a source of guidance
and protection, from childhood to
adulthood.
“He was always my rock and
protected me from the nightly night-
mares I had when we were kids,” he
said. “I’d sleep in his room and they
never came to me in there.”
Lee said the snow at their child-
hood home in northern Idaho often
forced them inside, giving them no
choice but to learn how to make
each other laugh. But Michael also
was forced to mature early when
their father, Greg, became para-
lyzed. Jill-Marie, Michael’s younger
sister, said he had his first job at 14
and moved out to live independently
by 17, eventually moving to Canada
with his family’s support to attend
Pacific Life Bible College.
The other constant in Michael’s
life was his Christian faith. Whether
he was running in a street gang in
Portland or making a permanent
move to Pendleton, Michael was
Ryelynn:
Continued from Page A1
“I have always wanted to be a public figure
and make my voice heard,” the teen said. “I
want to be a social influencer. Or go into poli-
tics.”
Transgender Native Americans are referred
to as “Two-Spirit” people and were histori-
cally held in high esteem, said Katrina Melton,
the teen’s mom.
Definition and history of the term, includ-
ing the shortened “2S,” can vary among
groups. “Two-Spirit” was coined in the 1990s
to encompass Native people in their commu-
nities. Although the term can be included
within the umbrella of LGBTQ, it doesn’t
simply mean someone who is a Native Amer-
ican or Alaska Native and gay, according to
the federal Indian Health Service.
Traditionally, Native American two-spirit
people were male, female and sometimes
intersexed individuals who combined activi-
ties of both men and women with traits unique
to their status as two-spirit people, the agency
says on its webpage.
In a Native American community, people’s
roles are often fluid, said Randall Melton,
Ryelynn’s dad and exhibit curator for the
Tamástslikt Cultural Institute near Pendleton,
and the same can be applied to gender-variant
members.
When Ryelynn realized she was trans-
gender, she wasn’t worried about the outside
world’s perspective, but she did care about
what her tribal community thought, Katrina
Melton recalled.
“Pretty much everyone has been accepting
and loving … and you have all these older,
Two-Spirit people,” she said.
Causes that matter
Ryelynn, the youngest of the six children
raised in the household (including foster
kids), counts her family — rippling out from
her siblings to community elders — as her
primary support group.
Growing up, Ryelynn began building advo-
cacy muscles in fifth grade, when everyone
joined to drive 15 hours to the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe protest of the Dakota Access Pipe-
line.
The tribe’s position was that the location of
attracted to Christianity at an early
age and remained steadfast. Jill-Ma-
rie and the rest of siblings respected
his commitment, even if they didn’t
always share his beliefs. A product
of a Native mother and white father,
Jill-Marie said much of her mother’s
family tended to follow Washat, the
traditional religion of the Umatilla,
Walla Walla and Cayuse people,
rather than Christianity, a system of
faith that has had a fraught history
with the indigenous peoples of
America. But Michael didn’t see it
as a binary.
“It’s kind of a funny thing in
Native circles to say that, ‘Oh, he
walked in both worlds,’” Jill-Ma-
rie said. “We say it jokingly, but
Michael really did.”
Jill-Marie said Michael was proud
to be Cayuse, the walls of his room
adorned with the CTUIR flag and
pictures of tribal elders. He worked
several jobs in tribal government
over the years and when he hunted,
it was often to provide subsistence to
his family and community.
In addition to his duties at Bethel,
Michael had begun assisting with
services at the Mission Assembly of
God, motivated to share his love of
God with the people of the reserva-
tion.
At sunrise on Aug. 12, Michael
was buried at Homly, a small
cemeter y nestled against the
Umatilla River east of Mission.
The family felt Michael’s love of
the outdoors made the spot themat-
ically appropriate. They all may
not have shared his faith, but they
drew comfort that Michael knew
where he was going.
At the Longhouse ceremony, the
audience spontaneously rose as Greg
Gavin drew out a guitar to play a
couple of songs in tribute to his son.
Once he finished, his family quickly
surrounded him in an embrace,
taking a moment to hold each other
a little longer.
the proposed massive pipeline posed a serious
threat to their land and survival and would
destroy valuable cultural resources.
It was one of the first activist moments for
the Melton family, but it was not the last.
Upon returning home, Ryelynn was soon
making signs and marching with her family
in other protests, including supporting Black
Lives Matter.
Now the teen uses those experiences to
research issues before adding her voice to a
cause, she said.
“I want to make sure I agree and support
the cause,” Ryelynn said.
Like clean energy and preserving natural
resources, Katrina Melton said.
“Just yesterday she ordered cat litter that’s
better for the environment,” she said.
This past school year, Ryelynn persuaded
her social studies classmates to help support
a LGBTQ organization via a school-based,
youth philanthropy program called Commu-
niCare.
As students campaigned for different
causes to support with those philanthropy
funds, Ryelynn convinced her classmates
that LGBTQ-focused Basic Rights Oregon
nonprofit encompasses people of color, those
without housing and others who can face
discrimination due to sexual orientation, she
said.
But it has taken Ryelynn time and work
to reach this level of strength, her mom said.
Just when her youngest child had started
seventh grade, Katrina Melton noticed
Ryelynn was uncharacteristically resistant to
going to school.
Talking that over led to a revelation that
things were changing for the middle schooler.
Becoming herself
Ryelynn began to figure out she was differ-
ent than how she’d presented at birth but, as
is often the case with transgender people, she
first thought she must be bisexual.
“I went from bi to gay to trans, but I don’t
consider myself straight,” Ryelynn explained.
None of that matters to the Meltons.
“My kids all know people who identify
differently, and they were very accepting of
how Rye was feeling,” Katrina Melton said. “It
really wasn’t a conversation, Rye being trans.
It was just you, wearing your makeup.”
The makeup has been everything, the two
agreed in laughter.
Officials focus on
keeping children in
schools
Despite the frustrations and
anger over the vaccine mandate,
nearly everyone recognized the
importance of getting kids back
in school after a year of hybrid
and distance learning. This
sentiment was emphasized by
Superintendent Mooney, who
said that her main priority was
getting kids in school.
“We know, without a
doubt, that education was not
the same last year when our
students were in comprehen-
sive distance learning,” she
said, adding that they would do
whatever it took to safely get
kids learning in person.
She said she was proud
of how hard the district’s
employees had worked over
the last 18 months and how
they’ve stepped up, made plans,
adapted and made new plans.
But, she said that even though
she wasn’t a fan of Gov. Brown
taking away local control,
she said they would enforce
the new mask and vaccine
mandates.
“I want to be very clear
that I value our staff and all of
their hard work, however, I am
licensed in the state of Oregon;
I am legally bound to follow
the laws,” she said. “That is a
reality and my intent is to make
sure that we keep our students
in person, in school, every day.
“I didn’t start wearing makeup until
seventh grade, that summer. I wasn’t deeply
interested in makeup, then I started getting
into it. I went totally crazy with it, like wearing
400-pound eyelashes,” Ryelynn said.
Her older sisters, she pointed out, wear
neutral colors in cosmetics and leave the
drama to Ryelynn’s face.
There are a few older people in their circle
who struggle to understand those who identify
with a gender different from their birth sex,
Katrina Melton said.
For those folks, it seems easier to pin
Ryelynn’s newer gender identity on what she
went through at age 8.
It was 2015. Randall Melton was out
of town, and Katrina Melton was taking a
long-overdue night out with friends at the
Pendleton Round-Up. When she came home,
Ryelynn stuck to her like glue, refusing to
sleep alone.
The story that soon emerged was horrific.
A young man who had been very close to the
Melton family for years had sexually assaulted
the child in various ways.
The man was sentenced to federal prison
for three years, but it’s Ryelynn who has the
lifelong sentence to carry, her mother said.
Even as her youngest child went into coun-
seling the minute the abuse was revealed and
continued for “years and years,” the trauma
stays with Ryelynn, she added.
It boiled over in 2019 in an attempted
suicide, seemingly triggered by a disagree-
ment between Ryelynn and a good friend.
“Looking back, I feel like those were such
small problems,” the teen recalled.
Afterward, Ryelynn began having panic
attacks, missing more school days than not;
online schooling at home became the healthier
option, Katrina Melton said.
Ryelynn returned to Nixyaawii for eighth
grade and is again doing well, even as she
suffers from trust issues and worries about
being hurt again — which makes publicly
acknowledging being transgender just about
a superpower, her parents feel.
To add in wearing the flounciest dress
adorned with sparkles to prom and being
crowned princess?
“At that age, I would have never had the
guts to do that. She’s amazing,” Katrina
Melton said.
That win at school prom did something
nothing else has.
That is our goal. That is our
collective commitment as a
district.”
“While this isn’t starting
how we had hoped it would,”
Mooney said, “I’m looking
forward to having our kids face
to face.”
Count Pendleton Superin-
tendent Chris Fritsch as one of
the school officials unsurprised
by the governor’s announce-
ment.
Considering the recent
announcements from Califor-
nia Gov. Gavin Newsom and
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
that they were requiring their
teachers to get the shot, Fritsch
anticipated Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown soon would follow.
While he understood the
personal feelings people may
have about vaccine require-
ments, Fritsch said the most
effective tools at limiting the
spread of the virus have been
vaccinations and masking.
“We need to do everything
we can to keep schools open,”
he said.
While the district could
potentially lose staff who refuse
to get vaccinated, Fritsch said
the district will have to deal
with vacancies as they come.
When Umatilla County Public
Health did vaccination drives
for educators in January and
February, Fritsch estimated
that between 75%-80% of
Pendleton school staff were
given the shot, a number that
may have risen since then if
staff opted to get vaccinated
privately.
Fritsch said Pendleton also
plans to comply with the gover-
nor’s mask mandate. The state
had previously provided local
school districts with the abil-
ity to create their own mask-
ing guidelines, and although
Pendleton initially decided to
make masks optional in the
fall, Fritsch said he was recon-
sidering the decision as local
cases began to surge again in
the summer.
As cases and hospital-
izations began to rise as the
vaccination rate remained well
below state average, Fritsch
said he considered institut-
ing a mask requirement at the
local level, but the governor’s
announcement rendered those
discussions moot.
— Reporter Antonio Sierra
contributed to this story.
“I think it has empowered you,” Katrina
Melton said to her daughter. “I see big growth.
She’s always had confidence, but I feel like
there was more carelessness before ... now
there’s a maturity.”
At a recent family wedding, comments
were made about Ryelynn wearing a dress and
makeup. That would have normally caused her
girl to storm out, Katrina Melton said.
“But now she can stay respectful, and she
made her point,” she said.
Going forth
Still, her upcoming sophomore year will
test that, Ryelynn predicted.
“I want to go back to school to play basket-
ball and see my teacher, Michelle,” she said.
“I know there will be negativity, but it doesn’t
bother me. I’ll just go to the vending machine
and get my lunch and go to philanthropy.”
Ryelynn’s next frontier is making her body
match her spirit.
“I want to start taking hormones, and I
want to find a good surgeon and get certain
surgeries, ASAP,” she said. “I think it’s urgent
for my mental health.”
Here is where her parents want to apply the
brakes, a bit, to their daughter’s journey.
“Rye has never had a regular surgery for
anything,” Katrina Melton pointed out. “She
may not realize it, but those are major surger-
ies.”
The Meltons are doing their best to prepare
Ryelynn for a world that might not be well
prepared for her.
Before their daughter’s participation in
Pendleton’s ”Proud Together Pride Parade”
in mid-June, for example, there needed to be
a serious conversation, Katrina Melton said.
“We told her, ‘This can bring a lot of hate
and people who aren’t supportive of the cause.
And they will come out of the shadows,’” she
said.
Ryelynn’s ready now, it seems.
Just as Native American Two-Spirit people
served special roles in the past for their
community, Ryelynn has a similar task to
hers — one of education. In championing vari-
ous causes, she’s worked to spread awareness
about not only the struggles LGBTQ people
face, but those Native Americans face.
It’s a big moment in the history of indig-
enous people, Katrina Melton said, and she
could not be more proud that her daughter is
part of it.