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Pride weekend violence – what’s going on, queer Portland?

Stop hate and violence in and towards our community

Stop hate and violence in and towards our community

Pride is over, our hangovers have subsided, the messes have mostly been cleaned up – but what remains is the foul aftertaste of violence, harassment and threats towards individuals in our community. This is new – what is going on, queer Portland?

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Best of pride? You tell us. Let a homo know with our post-pride-poll!

Pride NW Sunday Parade qPDX.com banner
Pride NW Sunday Parade qPDX.com banner

qPDX.com for Pride Portland!

Happy Pride NW 2011 everbody! Phew, what a weekend. A ton of dance nights. A slew of costume changes. Lots and lots of teal. 25+ miles on the bike on Saturday. Fliptography at Queerlandia. Waterfront. Beer, banners, bruises. Leslie and the Lys. Trying to find Alley Hector on Sunday morning. Trying to find a place to pee at Blow Pony (thanks Leila!). Trying to find the car! Trying, well, just trying! I barely have time to take a breath before its Alley’s and my birthdays (Al: Wed. Me: Thurs). It’s been EPIC. And now on to the processing reviewing that is, as it should be, part of our Pride coverage. We need your input!

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Portland Pride 2011 in review

Me and the Compere sisters, just a small part of the qPDX parade contingent

It was a weekend of rainbows and debauchery as usual this Portland Pride 2011. qPDX had fun at events at Mississippi Studios, Holocene, Crush, Rotture, Saratoga and outdoors in weather that jumped from sunny to misty rain in true Portland fashion. Photos from Sunday’s parade and waterfront celebration are forthcoming from special professional photography guest Anna Campbell and a video from yet another special contributor, filmmaker Cathleen Arnerich, but in the meantime here’s a recap of my time at Pride and some links to photo galleries already uploaded. Feel free to post your Pride 2011 memories in the comment section below!

Blow Pony featuring Leslie Hall, CJ and the Dolls, Feyonce and others was fun. It was really fun, just as we all knew it would be. But the surprise hit of the weekend was Thursday’s Queerlandia that played to our vanity with both a photoboth and Fliptography, had an amazing lineup of performances and a huge lovely patio with cute undies for sale and plenty of room to chill. Plus DJ Lunch Lady pounded the jams on the Bar Bar side all night long. What a trooper!

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The ghost of Portland Pride’s past

Everyone but me, Mr. Blue, in our 2007 rainbow TeamAwesome parade contingent with teenager girl roller skating banner bearers

I was looking for some pictures of Portland Pride of yesteryear and realized that I haven’t been doing this for 4 years but 6! And I’m talking about covering Pride, not just attending it. That’s been an even longer road…shoot…17 years. Sweet Jesus. It must be the nostalgic Cancer in me but in the spirit of more psyching up for this weekend I thought it might be fun to revisit some qPDX recaps while you’re still stuck at your weekday desk. (Or I could just be indulging my own vanity…whatever).

So follow me back in time….

2005

Re-Pride – This was the first year of qPDX as well as my first year at OregonLive. I was fresh-faced and unsullied by cynicism. I’d only started qPDX a month or so before and I was just excited to have a venue. I also remember by boss trying to be fatherly but really just being condescending by making sure I felt safe enough to start a blog about queer topics and use my real name. Weird.

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Portland Pride – A How-To-Guide (sorta)

SuperGay and Diana at Pride 2010
2010 Pride NW qPDX.com Pride Crew

Best Pride 2010 backup crew! Photo by Diana Edwards

So many (tiny) dogs. FryBrickLineFight v.s So-So-Burger line. What will you wear? Why do dykes on bikes always wear black? When is the Dyke March (Hint: either at 5pm or 6pm, depending on who you ask.) Official Weather. UnderU for Men sale. Why it’s not OK to be sexist, racist, or aggressive during Pride. Lovetribe snuggle tent skepticism. Splendora Gabor’s candyfloss hair.  It’s not over until the drag queen sings. And: If you find a bar that does dollar mimosas (like the fabulous Invasion did a few years ago!) you tell us by tweeting something @qpdx.

Some random musings on the nature of Portland Pride. All you need to know will be revealed, but don’t quote me. I said don’t.

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The weekend benefits Not Enough, Candy Shop and Other Voices, Scandals’ Twinks show, trans slam, and a play/start album release

play/start celebrates the release of their new album 'The Alibi' Saturday at Saratoga
play/start celebrates the release of their new album 'The Alibi' Saturday at Saratoga

play/start celebrates the release of their new album 'The Alibi' Saturday at Saratoga

Thursday

Don’t forget about PSU Pride. You can also prepare yourself for the weekend by making sure everyone’s safe at the Q Patrol training. And of course don’t forget the weekly Portland Idol and Drop Shop afterword (which I think is still happening?)

Friday

Q Center’s “Senior” Prom -Think pink and shake off the gray at this gay and lesbian community center re-imagining of that special adolescent night. Kickoff to the GG expo features dancing, entertainment and lite snacks for the 50+ set. 

Feminist Film Society presents Temple Grandin – Claire Danes in sensible shoes in this early exploration of autism.

Twinks show premier party – RapidFire Productions premiers the show they’ve been filming at Scandals for the past month, but because it has the worst website implementation I’ve really ever seen, so I can’t tell you much about it.

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Violence Update: Queer/Trans Self Defence Workshop to be held

Learn basic principles of self defence with your queer and trans peers.

Learn basic principles of self defence with your queer and trans peers.

In the wake of the incidents of violence that happened over Pride weekend that we’ve referred to a couple of times, one of the victims, Audrey, decided to take steps towards organizing a series of self defence workshops geared towards queer and trans people. The classes are taught partly by Jaddua Ross, who has been studying martial arts for a long time and are geared towards any experience level.

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Update on the post BlowPony Violence (bloody imagery ahead)

Heather after the attack

Heather after the attack

It’s been pretty quiet around this issue in the last few days until we know what exactly will happen next and who is doing what. As far as I know, some people very involved in the community are considering a town hall style meeting, and BlowPony folks such as Airick, Jose and Heather (who got her nose broken after Blow Po) are going to the Portland Police SMRT (sexual minorities round table) with the police next month. I will most more info on the time, date etc as it becomes available. Audrey, who was the victim of transphobic and sexist harassment and told by the police that she didn’t need to file a report, has successfully filed a report against her attacker and the issue is being dealt with (we hope) by the police/courts/authorities.

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Perrywinkle’s Plethoric Pride Pantheon – a review

SuperGay stampedes for Rainbow Truth

SuperGay stampedes for Rainbow Truth

Wow, thats all I can say. Wow 1: I can still come up with a meaningful alliteration after this weekend, and wow 2: Portland Queer Pride 2009 was AMAZING.

A year of firsts: The first time QPDX.com has had their own parade “float”, the first year there has been 110+ groups in the parade, the first time SuperGay had a proper outfit, the first time I decided to go for FIVE straight days of Pride partying.

Five days.  Five outfits. A kajillion drinks, a million miles on my bicycle, a shit ton of parties, SuperGay jumps, fake beards, hair dying extravaganzas, automation-style condom gluing, flyering, banner making, gender bendering, raindbow deco-ing stampede of gayness. But sadly, on the edge of all the celebrations: tinges of violences, aggression, and disrespect by the police. I’m still waiting for the dust to settle.

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Blow Pony goes off without a hitch but raises questions

Blow Pony has become one of the most popular queer nights in town

Blow Pony has become one of the most popular queer nights in town

Last night saw the first Blow Pony since the Pride weekend violence (of which Blow Pony was, sadly, the epicentre) and the muddle of police-ness that followed, so of course QPDX.com went down to Casey’s/The Eagle to check out what was going down. This Blow Pony went down without a hitch – but questions are being raised as to what can and will happen next, and despite the fact that on the surface, all is well, a lot of questions are being raised and right now, everything feels iffy.

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