Hey Queer Issue readers, are you ready to rumble?
Well, dust off those boxing gloves, because if the events of the
last year are any indication, Portland’s LGBT community is fucking
angry, it’s pumped, and it’s raring to fight. On the fight card, we
have Sam supporters vs. Sam detractors; rural queers vs. city-dwelling
gays; marriage equality friends vs. foes; old queer media vs. new queer
media; Latino pride vs. black pride vs. dyke pride vs. “Pride” pride.
And that’s only in Round One!
It’s unquestionable that Portland’s LGBT community is fabulous and
diverse. What queers here do for business, education, the performing
and fine arts, activism, and more is pretty damn amazing, and you’ll
see that on display everywhere in town over the next two weeks. There’s
a huge range of events celebrating queer pride from the Waterfront to
the city’s gay watering holes (check out our Top 10 Pride picks to see
our best bets).
But let’s talk about the serious challenges within the community
here. Portland currently has no functioning nonprofits dedicated solely
to support for minorities within the LGBT community and queers are
lining up on both sides of “Beaugate” as a campaign to recall openly
gay Mayor Sam Adams approaches. And the passage of California’s Prop 8
opened up an ugly can of worms, exposing divisions of support for queer
equality along the lines of age, religion, and race.
Portland’s “official” Pride organization, Pride Northwest, has
declared the theme of their 2009 festival as “United We Stand.” I call
bullshit. That seems like a cute gloss on the huge challenges and
divisions facing queer communities everywhere, in Stumptown
especially.
We’ve got another theme in mind for Pride this year: “Divided We
Stand.” Let’s own up to the warring factions within and without the gay
scene here; let’s voice our own strong opinions and scream at each
other a bit. Then let’s roll out the rainbow flags and dance our
divided asses off.
WITH PRIDE!
STEPHEN MARC BEAUDOIN
Pretty soon SMB your fat bloated ass is going to be as big as your fat bloated ego
The gay community here is very divided and I’m glad the mercury is calling pride out on this.
great to see the Mercury telling it as it is… Seriously how can the theme United We Stand be real when we can’t even celebrate it as one community all colors mixed… sad.
All the Gays from Cali and Orey are making the pilgrimage to Seattle!
If your not in Seattle your just not gay or your some kind of stupid!
Queer is Sue?
this is an example of the Portland Mercury being bold with it’s coverage, sticking your necks out. i bet the pride committee is furious about what’s been written here, but voices of dissent and argument only make a community stronger and better and brighter.
You can’t tell the difference between the gay guys and the straight guys in the city of Portland any longer because the straight guys in PDX have become such “metrosexual” whimps and twinks. The only time we have masculine men in Portland is during Fleet Week.
Hahahaha, Marty Davis totally wrote the first comment. It smells like her.
what a great community celebrations.. the theme is good enough