The Sixty Bucks Stop Here

[May 18th, 2005] It was 5:30 am when the phone rang, and early-morning calls can only mean one thing: Someone's died. I hate bad news for breakfast, which is why we keep the phone on Juan's side of the bed. But this call wasn't about death; well, not in any traditional sense.

"It's Roey," Juan said.

I had left a message on Roey Thorpe's cell phone the previous night, not knowing the executive director of Basic Rights Oregon was on a business trip to New York. And since it was 8:30 am there, I guess she thought it was perfectly fine to wake me up in the middle of the night here.

After I wiped the crust from my eyes and cleared my throat, I started to explain my idea. Juan and I didn't get married when we had the chance-currently, we're part of a group suing the state for that right-but a lot of our friends did. Now that an Oregon Supreme Court ruling invalidated last spring's queer marriages in Multnomah County, these couples have started to get their $60 license fees back. When one of my best friends got his, he told me he was at a loss about what to do with the money, his kicked-in-the-face check.

You see, he thought of it as blood money, as symbolic for the queer movement as the 40 acres and a mule offered by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman to freed slaves in the 1860s.

So here's my idea: Rather than spend the $60 on one more round of drinks at Slaughters or the E-Room, I think we should all donate that amount to Basic Rights Oregon.

Yes, I said "we."

That means all of us: married queers, unmarried queers, single queers and yes, even straight people who are queer-friendly. With money from just the 3,000-plus ex-married couples, we'd raise $180,000. Additionally, if eachmarried couple persuaded just one friend or family member to pitch in, we'd raise $360,000. I know this sounds like an annoying pledge-drive pitch for National Public Radio, but the fact of today's political economy is that money is a valuable shield when it comes to protecting everyone's rights.

Now, I'm cheaper than most of the queer people I know. I love bargains. I use coupons at WinCo, I buy most of my clothes at Marshalls, and I simply love getting free stuff in the mail. But, to turn one of George Bush's favorite phrases on its head, what friggin' price do you place on freedom?

It's not like Basic Rights is going to waste the cash. Not only does the organization need to fund its efforts to pass the civil-union bill-Senate Bill 1000-through our current sluggish Legislature, but there are plenty of other battles on the horizon, too.

Sadly, I've been around long enough to realize that we will never be able to raise enough money to defend ourselves against all the forces that would like nothing better than to wipe queer people off the face of the planet. But in this case, I can see that 60 bucks, one check at a time, could add up to a real investment in our collective future. A much better bargain than buying another pair of jeans-or even a decent watch.