Sounds to me like this is a positive development. Who knows, maybe Mars Hill will come out in support of at least getting the government out of the marriage business altogether, so gays, straights and polygamists can marry without Big Daddy's approval. Many of the posters here seem to be playing right into the hands of the anti-gay-rights movement -- what could convince right-wing Christians that they are, in fact, being persecuted by Satan than a bunch of LGBT activists wanting to stomp on the First Amendment and drive them out of town? I applaud Logan Lynn's courage and guts and wish the Q Center well. Don't forget, George Wallace eventually came around to abandoning segregation precisely because he was touched by how blacks DIDN'T hate him, not because they did.

What happened to MY Portland? A few corporate churches move in and we forget that these "churches" are nothing but store fronts for hate, judgement, and ignorance. This "church" will only last as long as there are sheepsters to follow. Break that cycle with information and you break the cycle for these "organizations" who are far from what religion really is supposed to express and who use "god" to justify and mask hate.

Thanks for the encouragement "Smarterthanmostactivist" (cheeky name, btw, but it got a smile from me). It seems our general leftist Portland majority is terrified of Portland being anything but a [white] liberal's idea of utopian bubble. I really can relate to that because I love Portland and I am constantly counting my blessings every time I leave town to visit less accepting people and places, namely my very conservative family. The work that Lynn and queer friends are doing here though is about much more than just our little beloved Portland. 10-yrs ago, I would say that most any evangelical pastor would have been completely apposed to even trying to talk to members or the gay community for a number of reasons but mostly to do to their clinging to pride founded in prejudice. A willingness for members of evangelical church (which I understand as being at the heart of the most conservative movement in the US) is pretty radical.
More importantly though, where else are members of the queer community backed by the majority mindset/culture of a city enough so that they would have leverage enough to be heard?
The evangelical movement is very real. We have church all around Portland as it is, though they have not drawn media attention. Revolutions starts with small groups of people meeting and sharing their minds openly. There is great potential here and no, no harm might come of this. Queer communities have been in the defensive position long enough to understand what it feels like to have your freedom of speech and expression threatened or to be exiled from a community. This church clearly does not really fit Portland culture well but they are willing to work with the queer community at some level by engaging in conversation, that is something.
If any amount of a more sound understanding of the queer community comes of this, in their church, this attempt to communicate will be a success and worth while. There is no-way at this point that the church is going to think any worse of the queer community for having reached out to them when people wanted to kick them out. No body cares what happens in our bubble in politics. We have a minor influence politically. Evangelicals have the upper hand, so it would help if they met real people with real stories of how their political decisions affect queer people's lives. As was mentioned in the article, one common ground is that christians (except the crazy ones) don't want queer kids to be killing themselves. There is leverage even there and reason for christians to act differently toward the queer community as they start to see the harm of their words, judgements and actions. The starting [and main] issue is prejudice founded in ignorance. This is step one, and it is radical because nothing will change until it's taken.

My knee-jerk reaction to reading that both sides agree: "we don't want kids to be killing themselves" is to vomit. Any church or group that calls homosexuality "sinful" is directly responsible for creating a culture in which kids commit suicide and I can't help feeling sickened when I imagine talking face-to-face with a person with those beliefs. But how would this make me different from this man or his congregates? It's open hatred and rejection of another human being. I applaud Lynn for his bravery and thank him for doing something so difficult that I can't honestly say if I'd be willing to take his place in that discussion. Great job.

No matter what you feel about this interaction, your heart and your mind have to resonate with Lynn's words of "Instead of another group talking about gay people in theory, to actually get to know each other as people, rather than caricatures, is valuable."
I, for one, applaud his bravery and humanity in these actions.

In response to Kollantai -- I understand what you're saying, but the civil rights movement was built on the shoulders of thousands of folks who took small steps toward its blossoming, from the Quaker abolitionists to the black soldiers who fought in the Civil War, to the NAACP which brought whites and blacks together in common cause against lynching to every closet intergrationist, like Huey Long in La. and businessmen in the South who quietly pressured for the end of segregation to every outspoken activist like Dr. King and Rosa Park. The Q Center has made a calculated risk to sacrifice a little ideological purity for the sake of possibly changing the hearts of its opponents (and you have to wonder if there aren't some closet pro-gay-rights folks in that church as well). Social progress does consist primarily in dramatic open confrontations, important as they may be, it actually happens in day-to-day interactions that reduce fear and tension between all sides. I understand why you don't agree, but I would ask you to consider if your stance is actually serving to help your opponents, so to speak. What could make them think your less than human and deserving of rights than your refusal to interact with them? After the Holocaust, it was found the Germans who DIDN'T participate in that atrocity were generally ones who actually knew Jews, not the ones who only "encountered" them through the abstract, hate-filled screeds of the Nazis. Something to think about.

One correction: I meant to write "Social progress DOESN'T consist primarily in dramatic open confrontations, important as they may be, it actually happens in day-to-day interactions that reduce fear and tension between all sides." Examples -- the courage of African Americans on the battlefield won them the (possibly begrudging) respect of racists like Harry Truman, who ordered an end to segregation in the military and also pushed for the fed govt. to diversify its contracting practices. Every wave consists of tiny droplets, not the other way around.

GaddafiA, 30 years ago, the MAJORITY of Americans thought no differently! You must be young, because you have no idea what it was like for gays prior to the 1970s -- now we have a GOP candidate whose sister is openly gay and no one blinks an eye. Decades ago she'd be lucky not to get beat up by all kinds of respectable types! Is there a time and place for militancy? Yes. Stonewall. the killing of Matthew Shepard. But every self-serving snide remark directed at Christians on this issue only delays the day when gays are granted full equal rights. Who do you think is the majority in this country? It's people still uncomfortable with same-sex attraction! It's people who still equate pedophilia with homosexuality. It's people who still equate the HIV pandemic with gays. These fears aren't going away without intelligent dialogue, such as that the Q Center promotes. People like you, who apparently never actually talk to people who think differently, only ensure that people like them will go -- "see, if we let the gays have rights, people like GaddafiA will be in charge -- who wants that?" Learn something about real politics, not the phony stupid defeatist liberal crap Portland coffee shop revolutionaries think is politics. Full rights are won when people respect your position without agreeing with it, not when you berate them to the point they think you're Satan incarnate.

One more comment -- Nik, it's not just the evil wicked churches that created the problem, it was folks like the creeps in NAMBLA that the gay rights movement failed to marginalize until the late 1980s. (And kudos to our lesbian sisters for being the first to recognize the threat it presented) You have no idea what kind of damage the association with pedophilia and pederasty did to the gay rights movement -- thousands of men were molested as boys in this country, what do you think when they hear someone like you call them "hateful" because they might, just might, be a little nervous around gay men given their experiences as boys? it's no different than how many women feel about men, when they were molested as girls. Believe me, it's not easy to defend gay rights, as I have, when a douchebag like Allen Ginsberg, with all his hipster credibility, was defending these fuckin' idiots in NAMBLA. What's advanced gay rights is not ACT-UP attacking church services, it's the thousands of non-creepy, just-like-you-and-me gays who don't make people have a fuckin' heart attack coming out of the closet showing they love this country — and have fought for it — that they're not out to molest anyone and that they fully understand irresponsible sexual practices threaten everyone, gays and straights. it's true, maybe they wouldn't have without Stonewall and other dramatic moments, but those moments also were the result of thousands of quiet conversations before and after. Most of us, gay, straight or bi, still don't have a full understanding of human sexuality, and it's easy to get caught up in mud-slinging your opponents, whether its Christians labeling gays demonic or gays labeling Christians hateful (who the hell isn't hateful about something, for dildo's sake?! what a childish way to debate!) Stop falling for stupid traps laid by your opponents and start thinking smart. GLAAD has, which is why it has changed so many minds on marriage rights. when do you plan to do the same?

Whoa, GaddafiA, slow your roll -- first off, MLK took a lot of heat from more militant blacks for doing precisely what you're knocking the Q Center for doing. Yet, can anyone, looking back really argue against his strategy, which gradually broke down fear among whites of integration, a fear that came back strong when the Panthers and other violent groups brought violence into the equation? Being militant works when you can back it up, ala George Washington and the Continental Army, but being nonviolent is a much sounder strategy when you're a marginalized group. I'm not arguing that the Q Center abandon its equal rights stance, I'm saying gay rights will get a lot farther if you don't demonize your opponents. Like I wrote before, homophobia and fear of gay marriage may be grounded in a person's past experience of same sex molestation or the HIV pandemic -- a few conversations can change a person's mind on such issues -- i know, i've done it myself with more conservative friends over the years. And I suspect I've known a lot more actual black civil rights activists than you, so it's not like I'm talking from theory. Will there be bitter arguments, sometimes angry confrontations? yes, of course. But if you adopt the Q Center's approach, you may be surprised by how far it can get you. If Christians actually believe in a God of love, then that God loves gays and straights, and there's a common ground from which to start the dialogue, which clearly both Mars Hill and the Q Center seem to acknowledge, at least implicitly.