I think I have avoided this (knock on wood) by regarding any congregation of straight men as dangerous and walking blocks out of my way and zig zagging to avoid them. Plus, one should never engage or even acknowledge taunting. I have ignoring people down to a science. If you get a look at these people, it's not as though any of them are worth engaging with to begin with.

I'm not playing "blame the victim," merely sharing tactics from somebody who's lived in both Idaho and rural South Carolina and stuck out a wee bit.

Thank you for covering this.

"Five guys in baggy pants and baseball caps"? Hmmmm.....

Wow that's fucked up! Portland supports all! Portland is a free and weird city! You have my back with a couple other dozen straight guys that I know of. This is bullshit.

Here's the official link to Q Center's event: http://www.pdxqcenter.org/gay-bashing-disc…

Rose Festival is bringing all the small-minded, alcohol-fueled bigots into town, and it's pretty awful!

I don't get Stephen Cassell's argument. Self-defense is not vigilantism.

I truly hope Make Portland Normal is just trying to get a rise out of fellow commenters. Lets not indulge the ignorance. If he's serious how sad. Let's keep Portland Portland, which means all are welcome to be themselves without fear of ridicule or violence.

and he put an apostrophe in AIDS...which makes it even sadder.

Cassell is mentioned because he and someone else called for and have put together the town hall happening tonight. I don't know much about him but his comments are not out of place. Emotions run high during Pride season (as does the partying), which I would bet, the bashers bank on. The fear of violence is a real concern.

I think this entire situation has been blown out of proportion. We all know those involved in the "attack" and we in the community know that these people are the once who would have traded insult with insult, and more than likely helped sustain the hostile environment they were attacked in. I'm by no means defending the thugs who started with insults, I'm just saying we need to apply a sense of perspective and chalk this incident up as a drunken brawl outside of a club where mouthy people clashed with mouthy people.

This stuff used to happen almost daily back in the day and the police looked the other way. Gay men would congregate in public restrooms (how romantic) and guys would do a little bit of gay bashing. Big whoop. The freaks shouldn't have opened their traps and just kept on going. Don't start something that you can't finish. And now here comes Sam Adams to the rescue.......

The thing about these incidents is that they're so triggering to all and any who encounter them...either first hand or beyond. Sure, we can criticize and then criticize the critics. What it comes down to is how we as individuals and as a community want to relate with FEAR, fear of being attacked, fear of misrepresentation and fear of our ability to deal.
As individuals...Do we choose to instigate? Blame? Be passive? What about as a community? I think having a public meeting about it regardless of our feelings about WHO called it is great! Not only do we get to exercise our right to congregate and communicate...we also get to confront our feelings regarding this fear, and hopefully strategize about how to keep each other safe.

Certain straight Dukes of Hazzard drunk guys seem to think their opinions of things are so important they need to enforce them upon others. Its very sad!

One Halloween, one of them came up behind a friend of mine in a "Sponge Bob" costume and thought it was OK to jump him like he was playing football! I am sure the next day they laughed and thought it was really funny. But, in reality it scared the hell out of me and my friend. They just don't think!

I agree that during Rose Festival we all need to be more alert downtown.