When the bar reached capacity, a group of friends (queer, hetero, and even someโ€”God forbidโ€”men) were made to feel extremely unwelcome while standing in line. I am a queer woman and these are my friends and allies with me, however, I understand that on this particular weekend, lesbians should have a place to congregate and feel a sense of community. Therefore, I left out of discomfort and out of duty.
Later though, another friend of mine arrived with her girlfriend and was told that she was unwelcome because she appeared too straight and then was quickly humiliated by the comment that she and her girlfriend looked "like sisters," and were probably not truly gay but just simply narcissistic.
What the fuck is this? I would think the gay community out of all the communities in Portland would understand by now that GENDER AND SEXUALITY ARE CONSTRUCTS. There is no such thing as being "totally gay." There is no way to quantify that and if the only way to have a sense of someone's "gayness" is by looking at the way they dress, then we have a lot of work to do. No member of our community should EVER feel ostracized based on the way they or their partner look.
I am not proud of what happened on Saturday night. Thank God the crowd at CC Slaughter's was nicer to lesbians.