Our Dear Family,
No oppressed community rights the wrongs done to them without help. Not a single woman was able to vote in Congress to give women the vote; it depended upon convincing a body of men to do so. And, while marginalized communities in this country today do not face such a national battle without any representation, we still need the support of others to help make our respective cases. And we do the best when we help each other along the road. Even when one community’s needs don’t seem to impact our own, inevitably they do because every move towards equal, equitable rights lifts all compassionate peoples and opens thought to be still more inclusive.
The LGBTQ+ community organized in the 1950’s, almost two decades before the Stonewall Riots began on June 28, 1969. The riots were in part successful in starting a more visible movement because it was the first time that lesbians, gays, and transgender people united in a common cause, and allies began to emerge. Marsha Johnson, a Black trans woman, is credited with getting things rolling… and that is how PRIDE celebrations began.
In honor of Mx. Johnson, we offer you a quick history lesson about what she started and a shout out to those who have stood with us and made our progress, and our future progress, towards true equality in Oregon possible.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The March on Washington in August, 1963, had as its main organizer Bayard Rustin, a gay Black man who was outed and asked to resign from the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1953. Despite this, he became an advisor to Dr. King in 1956. Dr. King’s support was integral to Mr. Rustin’s ability to continue his work of justice through non-violence. All of us in this country and beyond our borders have been benefited by the work of both of these men in ways too many to count. Thank you, Dr. King, for seeing the value of the person rather than condemning him for who he loved.
Closer to home, the first woman Governor of Oregon, Barbara Roberts, furthered the cause of women’s rights and lobbied the Legislature and won the right for all Oregonian children to receive a free public education, regardless of disability–before she held public office. The Portland Gay Men’s Choir sang at her inauguration as Secretary of State in 1984, and she was an early and prominent champion for LGBTQ+ rights, more than a generation ahead of most of her political colleagues. Roberts worked for the right of all adults to marry, regardless of who they loved. Governor, we humbly thank you for your decades of support and compassion.
The Collective - in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, thousands of Oregonians came together to fight against oppressive and inflammatory anti-LGBTQ+ ballot measures. From Governor Roberts to the unheralded volunteers who knocked on strangers’ doors to talk about supporting us, we thank you.
And the fight continues today with Oregon State Senator Lew Frederick, whose collaboration with DPO LGBT Caucus Chair Joey Kerns in 2013 resulted in a bill to ban “conversion therapy” for minors that eventually became law in 2015. Oregon was only the third state to ban conversion therapy, and the senator’s stewardship helped set a benchmark for 20 other states to soon follow, saving thousands of LGBTQ+ children and teens from the mental/emotional trauma that such “therapy” causes. Today, Senator Frederick, along with many of his colleagues, continues his work for the rights of all marginalized communities. Thank you, Senator, for your past and continuing work to protect our children and our families.
The work of these straight allies and so many others is echoed in the everyday lives of Oregonians–true friends who know they don’t necessarily have to “get” marginalized communities to understand that we have a right to equity; these Oregonians help us lift our lives higher, and make living our best lives more attainable. We literally owe the freer lives that we have to you—the people who cared more about others than yourselves; who cared about DEIB–diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging– before it was fashionable.
There’s not room in this email to talk about intersectionality, the collaboration that has and does exist and the outsized benefits it brings to every corner of our great State and the Nation, about how each of us has benefitted from being true, loving, friends. It is because of the intrinsic interconnectedness of life and the challenges we face that all of us can look forward to the time when the Oregon Constitution and Oregon culture treat every single one of us with dignity, respect, fairness, equality, equity, inclusion, and belonging...a time when we all feel truly at home in our diverse Oregon home.
This Pride month, we are proud to salute all of you that have worked for and with all of us—every Oregonian who has struggled for equality under the law and justice in application of that law.
Welcome to Pride, our beloved Siblings, Friends, and Allies!
We love you all.
Stonewall Caucus Executive Committee:
Karen Rippberger, Chair
Thomas Hiura, Vice Chair
Thomas Wrisley, Recording Secretary
Dakota Boulette, Communications
Rebecca Bradvica, Treasurer
Bret Cecil, Fundraising Chair
Bill Herz, Sagebrush Chapter Representative
Dane Zahner, Douglas County Chapter Representative
