The picture was taken by someone taller than myself, as you can see. (Which could be just about anyone.) This rainbow bedizened door was artistically installed in the upper level of the student center today in honor of National Coming Out Day (which is actually tomorrow but since our campus has few classes on Friday, events that want to attract students happen between Monday and Thursday).
COCC had a link on its front page to the Multicultural Center's National Coming Out Day events page. (I don't know how long this particular link will be good.) For the past few years, ever since Karen Roth became the leader of this department, COCC has sponsored a variety of wonderful events for all variety of populations.
I didn't make it to the "Gay History" jeopardy game though I did steal a cookie and cup of cocoa from the Center before going down to the cafeteria for a lunch date. Before today's event the center had asked that folks sign the "Ally Pledge," so my name was among what looked like over a hundred others. Some student life folks were collecting still more.
It all reminded me that even though I now experience "straight privilege," because I am married to a man (a man who loves Broadway musicals, opera, Joan Crawford, and nice clothing), when I arrived at COCC most people thought I was a lesbian. Why? Well, there was my appearance. I had short hair with both a coxcomb and a rat tail. I dressed in tailored suits. Then there was the fact that I never used personal pronouns for my relational partner. And the folks on the hiring committee, who'd read my vita, would know that I'd written a regular column for the Salt Lake City gay paper, The Triangle, when I was a graduate student.
Almost as soon as I landed in Bend in 1988, I also started working with the "No on 8" campaign. Measure 8 was the anti-gay rights measure before the more famous "Measure 9." Both, of course, were the creations of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, a a conservative Christian group lead by Lon Mabon. Here is a note from my Bendnotes 3, from October 1988:
"With one exception I have lived a stainless life since entering this sleepy mountain community. But wait till my name turns up in the next couple weeks on an endorsement against Proposition 8. I got up the courage to sign because Gene Carsey (local leader in the Gay Community) told me the "old Orde Pinkney" had. So, I figure I can explain my signature, if worst comes to worst (ie, pinkie slip time) by saying that I was taking a cue from my predecessor. So, there my name will be, before god, the school board and everybody. There's a saying about hanging, sheep and lambs, which I believe might be apt at this juncture."
Tomorrow I'll share more about my experience with the gay community in Bend in 1988. And I'll explain how it came to pass that in 1992 an ex-cop explained to me that I was a bisexual.
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