The badass reaction of two transgender ladies to an attempted assault in downtown Portland last month is one of 10 hate or bias crimes reported in the city so far this year.

While 10 might seem like a lot, that's actually good news. Last year at this time, we'd had 16 reported. Of course, statistics aren't the whole story: What's up for debate is whether the city is legitimately getting safer or whether people are just reporting fewer crimes. When I called around about these recent numbers, though, leaders within LGBT communities are optimistic, saying the relationship between queer communities and the police has improved over the past couple years. Maybe it does get better.