CALL IT A TALE of two Prides.
For queer Latinos ready to pack the Jupiter Hotel this Saturday, it
seems like the best of times. For their African American gay, lesbian,
bi, and transgender compatriots waiting for a repeat of last year’s
popular Black Pride block party, it’s anything but.
The gulf in terms of buzz between these queer events begs the
question: What’s going on with Portland Black Pride, and for that
matter, Unity Project Oregon, the African American LGBTQ service
organization in charge of pulling it off?
It’s been a tough year for Unity Project, formerly known as Brother
to Brother. Last September, Executive Director Alisa Simmons resigned
under a cloud of suspicion, with board members accusing her of
improperly using a Unity Project-issued debit card, as well as
allegedly forging Board Chair Craig Tyson’s signature on a check to her
landlord.
Simmons could not be reached for comment on the accusations. The
police suspended their investigation and no charges will be filed,
according to a spokesman at the Multnomah County district attorney’s
office.
“Alisa has moved on. We have moved on,” Tyson says. “We are working
to ensure that we have the proper processes in place so that Unity
Project continues on.”
Simmons’ abrupt exit after only a year on the job, along with the
board’s failure to find a replacement, raises questions about the
viability of an organization devoted to a subset of Oregon’s queer
community—one already served by mainstream groups like the
Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) and the Sexual
Minorities Youth
Resource Center.
“As a white man, it isn’t my place to say what African Americans
need,” says Michael Kaplan, CAP’s executive director. “What I can say
is that there is still a place for the outreach Unity provides.”
The need for an advocacy group catered specifically to queer African
Americans—especially in a state where only two percent of the
population is black—is a subject of contentious debate.
“I just don’t see the need for a separate group for black people,
white people, Latinos,” says Eddie Lewis, a gay African American
college student, hanging out with a racially mixed group of friends at
the Rainbow Room in Old Town. “We’re already marginalized enough as gay
people, period.”
Other African Americans insist groups like Unity Project still serve
an essential function in the gay community, especially when it comes to
combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. Among black males aged 13 to 29, the
incidence of HIV infection was 1.6 times higher than that of whites and
2.3 times higher than Latinos, according to the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
“There are some gays who will only deal with their own race,” says
Van Johnson, an African American attending Red Cap Garage’s Friday
night hiphop party last month. “There are black men I know who won’t
even show their face on [gay social networking website] Adam4Adam, much
less walk into a clinic to talk to a white man they don’t know.”
Tyson seems eager for an opportunity for Unity Project to start
fresh among the tents at Tom McCall Waterfront Park at this year’s
Pride. That’s where the group plans to unveil a book club devoted to
queer black authors, an Oregon chapter of the national multicultural
support group Men of All Colors Together, and a reinvigorated push for
healthy living and HIV prevention.
However, with no physical location of its own since vacating office
space at Union Station last January, it’s unclear where Unity Project
plans to hold its new programs. The most logical choice, the Q Center’s
spacious new digs in North Portland, is apparently off the table for
now. “I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” said Cory Murphy, Unity
Project’s director of organizational development. Q Center Executive
Director Kendall Clawson did not return several requests for
comment.
For now, the focus of the group’s efforts seems to be on Portland
Pride 2009 as a way to reach out and connect.
“If there is even one LGBTQ kid who does not have someone to talk
to, to commiserate with about their issues, we have a reason to exist,”
Murphy says. “We have a purpose and a role to play out there.”
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