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EVENTS
Give me your plaid, your bleary, your huddled sock monkeys yearning to
breathe free. Finally, Gen-X has a place to call its own when Dots
Cafe opens on the corner of Southeast 26th Avenue and Clinton Street.
Drunk, suicidal and running from police officers, burglary suspect Brian
French breaks into a Laurelhurst house and holds 12-year-old Nathan
Thomas hostage at knifepoint. After a tense standoff, police officers
panic and open fire on French, killing him. Thomas is also hit; he dies
later that night.
As the political season gets under way, Democrats do what they do best--beat
up on each other. Les AuCoin and high-tech entrepreneur Harry Lonsdale
trade insults as they vie for the Democratic nomination to face
Bob Packwood in the U.S. Senate race.
On the eve of the presidential election, Portland lawyer John Frohnmayer,
former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, blasts the Bush-Quayle
ticket as "anti-art, anti-intellectual and anti-democracy." Frohnmayer,
whose tenure was scarred by scalding right-wing criticism over NEA grants,
says he'll vote for Clinton, despite his strong Republican ties.
Desperate to save herself and her children from her husband's beatings,
Laotian immigrant Seng Chao Saechao poisons them with insecticide--then
drinks some herself. She survives, but two of her kids don't. Saechao
is sentenced to three years in prison. Her husband is convicted of assault.
Portland author Mary Ann Humphrey hits the talk-show circuit when President-elect
Bill Clinton says he'll lift the ban against gays in the military.
The former Army reserve officer had to resign after superiors learned
she was a lesbian, and later wrote an award-winning book about being pink
in green.
The 24-hour Church of Elvis shuts down after owner and sometime
lawyer Stephanie Pierce defaults on a student loan. To raise cash, Pierce
decides to imitate Biosphere II and lives in her own storefront fishbowl.
Quarterflash releases its fourth album, Girl in the Wind. Despite
heavy local airplay and enthusiastic response from Portland fans, Sony/Epic
won't release it in the United States.
Portland's first Smart Bar opens. Says owner Chris Iverson: "I
think this is a really evolutionary concept. It's going to replace the
coffeehouses."
Fiery evangelist Billy Graham brings his crusade to the Civic
Stadium for a five-day run. On his final night, 41,500 people pack the
stands to hear the 73-year-old preacher--a stadium record. The crusade's
five-day attendance total is an awe-inspiring 290,000 souls.
Portland loses another dining institution when Quality Pie, a
24-hour haven for hipsters, scenesters, scamsters, hamsters, rock stars
(pre- and post-nova), street people, alcoholics in various stages of recovery,
poets, gamers, insomniacs and other assorted creatures of the night, serves
its final cup of joe.
Sen. Bob Packwood beats back a
determined challenge from Demo Congressman Les AuCoin. Westsiders
replace AuCoin with peacenik Elizabeth Furse, whiting out religious-right
copier king Bill Witt.
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen are too much for Clyde the Glide and Buck
Williams as the Bulls beat the Blazers four games to two in the NBA
Finals. Amazingly, after the series, disgruntled Portland fans and scribes
call for the blood of coach Rick Adelman. |
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THE PERFECT VICTIM
BY CARYN B. BROOKS
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Tolerance was the buzzword of 1992,
when political correctness dominated college campuses and Measure
9 menaced Oregon's gays and lesbians. Enter a county corrections officer
named Azalea Cooley. As an African-American lesbian confined
to a wheelchair due to brain cancer, she earned a diversity hat trick.
On May 3, she reported a swastika and the word "nigger" spray-painted
on the Southeast Portland home she shared with girlfriend and fellow
officer Susan Soen. Soon came a string of nasty notes and burning
crosses. Portland peaceniks went ballistic: The attacks on |
Cooley represented the intolerance loose in the land, and the police seemed
powerless to prevent them. A drum-thumping Cooley (pictured above) led a
"Take a Stand Against Hate" rally in November, and the police vowed to catch
the unknown hatemongers. But authorities were stumped after close surveillance
failed to deter further attacks. On the eve of the rally, officers filmed
the house without telling Cooley and Soen. On video, the supposedly disabled
Cooley crept into the yard on her own two feet to set fire to a cross. In
November, she confessed to committing 21 of the acts herself and faking
brain cancer as well. She was sentenced to two years' probation, two months
of home confinement and psychiatric counseling. When we last tracked down
Cooley, she was living in California and working with the mentally ill.
HOMOPHOBIA HITS HOME
BY PATTY WENTZ
Lon Mabon and Loretta Neet
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MEASURE 9
"All governments in Oregon may not use their monies or properties
to promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism
or masochism. All levels of government, including public education
systems, must assist in setting a standard for Oregon's youth which
recognizes that these behaviors are abnormal, wrong, unnatural and
perverse and they are to be discouraged and avoided." |
In 1992, some 140,000 Oregonians signed that measure and brought to the
ballot the ugliest proposal this state has ever seen. Forget equal rights--this
measure would have nailed discrimination deep into the state constitution.
The bill was sponsored by the right-wing Oregon Citizens Alliance, which
preached fear and bigotry cloaked in the shroud of biblical rhetoric.
The OCA was originally formed to promote conservative preacher Joe Lutz's
1986 primary challenge to Sen. Bob Packwood. Then, under the leadership
of a born-again Christian Vietnam vet and ex-hippie named Lon Mabon, the
OCA got its first taste of victory: In 1988 it gathered enough signatures
to overturn an executive order by Gov. Neil Goldschmidt banning discrimination
against gays and lesbians. In 1990 Mabon struck again, pushing a forefather
of Measure 9 through the Springfield City Council as a city ordinance,
and by 1992, OCA hardliners threatened to wrest control of the state Republican
Party from the moderate Dorchester patricians who had dominated it for
decades.
With Measure 9, the OCA forced its agenda onto the TV screens and into
the living rooms of every home in Oregon, sparking what was probably the
most divisive campaign the state has ever seen. "Death threats were as
common as gumballs," says Marcie Westerling of the Rural Organizing Project,
a human-justice group in Scappoose. "We were all living under an incredible
sense of fear."
Measure 9 forced the personal into the political. Coming out is never
easy. Coming out under siege is extraordinary. People who never thought
their love life was anyone's business talked about their sexuality with
their families, co-workers and neighbors and formed groups such as Basic
Rights Oregon and Campaign for a Hate Free Oregon.
But perhaps the most remarkable part of the campaign was the way straight
liberals rallied around the besieged gay and lesbian community. City councils,
chambers of commerce, unions, church groups, newspapers, and politicians
of all stripes decried the measure. Money to defeat the measure poured
in from around the country.
Indeed, the OCA was so reviled that that Oregon Council of Architects
and the Oregon Cycling Association changed their names to avoid having
the same abbreviation.
In the end, the measure was defeated, but gays and lesbians in the state
were forced to deal with an ugly reality: 44 percent of Oregon voters
voted yes.
The scars have not healed. Long-time politico Kathleen Sadaat still chokes
up when she talks about Measure 9. "It was not an easy time," she says.
"You've been living in a community for years--you go to the grocery store
and wonder if the person behind the counter voted against you."
Mabon wasn't finished. In 1993, the OCA passed "Baby 9s" in 26 cities
and counties, which were later invalidated by the state Legislature. And
in 1994, Mabon hit the state again with Measure 13, a less inflammatory
version. It lost, 52 to 48 percent.
After that, the tide turned against Mabon and his measures, thanks to
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against a Colorado initiative similar to Measure
9.
Today Lon Mabon limps along. His former allies in the right-wing Christian
contingent of the Republican Party have deserted him, offended by his
megalomania and belief that he sits at the right hand of the Lord. He
failed to qualify an initiative for the ballot in 1998. He is out of money
and living in the OCA headquarters in Woodburn.
Still, he casts a long shadow. Last session, the state Legislature, which
now has key members who once pledged allegiance to the OCA, attempted
to pass a measure prohibiting homosexuals from ever having the right to
marry.
Mabon's legacy is not all negative. He galvanized the state's gays and
lesbians into a potent political force. "I can't tell you how many meetings
I've been to where people start with a tribute to Lon Mabon," says Westerling.
"They say thank God he liberated us. Thank God he forced our hand."
BATTLE OF THE BLEEDING HEARTS
BY JOHN SCHRAG
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For 20 years, voting for mayor in Portland
was easy. Either there was a clear choice (McCready vs. Ivancie, Ivancie
vs. Clark) or no real choice (Clark vs. a bunch of nobodies).
In 1992 that changed.
Both major candidates to replace Clark in '92 were liberal Portland
Democrats. Both were highly respected by their peers. Both started
their political careers in the state House of Representatives, as
part of the legendary "Class of '73." Both went on to win national
recognition for their work in Oregon.
It would be a campaign not about substance, but style.
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Earl Blumenauer, a lifelong Portlander, left Salem to serve on the county
board before jumping to the City Council in 1986, developing expertise
in everything from the city's sewers and 911 system to tax-increment financing
and regional rail.
Vera Katz, a New York native, hunkered down in the Legislature and in
1985 became the first woman to serve as Oregon's Speaker of the House.
She became the only legislator in history to hold that post for three
terms.
He was a brainy, but at times tactless, policy craftsman. She was a charming,
but often crafty, political tactician.
During the summer of '92, political strategist Julie Williamson tried
to reinvent Blumenauer as a sensitive New Age guy, organizing his campaign
around public deeds, such as pounding nails at House of Umoja. Katz aide
Sam Adams, meanwhile, pitched his candidate as a political outsider who
wanted to "open up" City Hall. Blumenauer proposed specific policies.
Katz talked about vision.
In the end, voters decided they wanted a leader, not a city manager,
and on Nov. 3, Katz was elected with 57 percent of the vote.
Neither the candidates nor voters could have known the political earthquake
that would soon hit Oregon. In 1995, Bob Packwood would be hounded out of
the U.S. Senate, and Portland Democrat Ron Wyden would vacate his House
seat to replace him, prompting Blumenauer to head east. As a result, the
man who probably knows the most about how Portland works is setting national
policies 3,000 miles away, while the woman who campaigned as an outsider
is positioning herself to become the first three-term mayor in more than
25 years. |
