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Pride continues with Vancouver’s Saturday in the Park

Our little neighbor to the north really isn’t so little anymore, and it’s a pretty decent place to be a gay person, even if they did recently lose their only gay bar (hey, we lost our only lesbian bar). This weekend Vancouver, Washington celebrates their Gay Pride with Saturday in the Park.

A decidedly different approach than the debaucherous Prides of most cities, VanWa’s celebration begins with Lyle’s Miles” 5k run and bills itself as the only family friendly Gay Pride celebration in existence. The annual charity walk/run goes through downtown Vancouver to raise money for Cascade AIDS Project, Martha’s Pantry and Global Partners for Development. The non-competitive walk/run event starts at 8:30am and is open to all.

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The weekend after Pride…

ElleMC is way better than Ke$ha and she'll be here Friday night at JunKtion

Seems to me if you’re not one of the many going to either San Francisco or Seattle Prides this weekend you might still be in recovery, but there are some decent options if you gotta keep the party going

Friday

JunKtion! – Rapper, singer, songwriter, skateboarder and dually named ElleMC aka Swagatha Christie will make the Local Lounge pop with her dope rhymes before the dance party begins. Maybe an all-female skateboard dance troupe ala the Sprockettes will bust it out?

Heavy Metal Ladies Night – Iron Man ain’t got nothin’ on us. Sloans is the most badass bar in Portland. You know, the one with the semi-truck pokin’ out the front? Perfect venue to celebrate the female headbangers.

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Bites for Rights this Thursday

Portlanders gay and straight alike are fond of their food. They’re also fond of their politics so what better way to combine those joys than to eat your way to a better world for gay, lesbian and transgender rights.

The 12th Annual Bites for Rights event is Thursday, June 23rd! For one day only, fair-minded restaurants, coffeehouses, bakeries, bars and food carts across the state will donate a portion of their proceeds to Basic Rights Oregon. Bites for Rights is a fundraising event that supports Basic Rights Oregon’s work to ensure equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Oregonians.

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Photos of swimsuit models from last night’s AIDSwalk fundraiser

Host Poison Waters poses with a swimsuit model

Poison Waters hosted and DJ Chris Cox spun tunes as hot models strutted their stuff down Barracuda’s catwalk as a fundraiser for the Portland AIDSwalk. And lucky for us who want to ogle the men and women in beachwear (as well as fighting AIDS, of course) Garbero Photography was there to catch all the action and have been gracious enough to let us post the photos here.

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Midweek fun includes ladies arm wrestling for a cause, ga(y)me night and queer country dancin’

Can you be this tough for In Other Words?

Hump day in PDX is happenin’! So yeah, the actual cause for this Wednesday’s Ladies Arm Wrestling tourney is to raise funds for one of the country’s only remaining feminist bookstores, In Other Words, but it’s really a benefit for all of us that like to show of and/or swoon over some nice guns. The event is open for anyone who is woman-identified. Everyone is invited to watch. But I can’t decide whether I’m more excited to watch or perform. Story of our queer lives right?

Competitors are encouraged to issue “personal challenges” to one another. It’s a great way to get that beef taken care of before it erupts on Facebook right? Adoring fans can also place “bets” on their faves.

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National online gay news publication Queerty shuts down operations and other queer media struggles

I've always loved their tagline

I just heard yesterday that one of my favorite sources for national/international LGBT news, Queerty, ceased to exist with only the vaguest of explanations. This is what they say on their site:

After more than five years of serving the LGBT community with news and entertainment, Queerty has come to a close. The decision to shutter the site was not an easy one to make, and it is with great pain that we say goodbye to our loyal readership. From all of Queerty’s writers and contributors, from our first unto our last day, thank you for spending some time with us.

Today I found some explanation from 365’s Jennifer Vanasco, who reblogs from Queerty (and Jossip) founder David Hauslaib:

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You can ‘Crave’ hip hop, a ‘Gaycation,’ Sinead O’Covers,’ candy, porn or a ‘Night of Noise’ and be satisfied this weekend

Purple Rhinestone Eagle

Thursday

Purple Rhinestone Eagle‘s Bad Dream Tour kickoff with Fucking Lesbian Bitches“I don’t compromise. I’m metal..” And with hot local ladies making it you don’t have to. Seriously fuzzy riffs and bold but not scratchy vocals combine the best of 70s hard rock with punk and blues undertones. PRE’s new album The Great Return is out now and they’re ready to take their act on the road. Joined by FLB for their hometown farewell helps prove hardcore punk’s not dead, nor are ironic band titles with the word “lesbian” in them.

Hustle: A trans top surgery benefit dance party – It’s time to dance your boobs off with DJs Kinetic (Blowpony), Trans Fat (Maricon, Blowpony, Cafeteria) and Roy G Biv (Bent, Blowpony). Good cause and there’s bound to be trannies and chasers so take your pick.

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Hamburger Mary’s announces the ‘Iron Mary’ Competition benefiting CAP

“Cooking for Charity and Fame”

Hamburger Mary’s Bar & Grille Portland is proud to introduce to you our premiere annual competition called “Iron Mary” where competitors get the opportunity to cook for charity and fame.  Hamburger Mary’s Portland has teamed up with the Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) to create this competition with various challenges meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic which affects us all.

This competition has several weekly challenges that are meant to test one’s capacity to turn ordinary food into something legendary while reaching out to the community.  “Iron Mary” is set to begin on Tuesday, May 3rd and its winner will be selected on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011.

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Learn about the ‘Birds & the Bees’ and ‘feel like you did when you were 16’ in the Cafeteria with Homomentum, Kaia Wilson, STLS, the Butt Plug Klub

Teenage dream Kaia wilson sings songs from her 90s rock roots Friday at Mississippi Pizza

Thursday

Neal Morgan, Hungry Ghost, STLS & New-Dadz DJ AssociationGet in the drum line for this booming early show at The Know (2026 NE Alberta). Percussion punk is alive and well in Northeast.

The Cafeteria with guest DJ Mr Charming – Lunch trays and crunk gays is the perfect neighborhood dance spot for the almost weekend. In case you’ve missed Mr Charming at any of her other super successful parties and appearances lately you get another chance. She and DJ Lunch Lady made it rain downstairs at Blow Pony last weekend and this will be the same, except smaller and more elite.

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Planned Parenthood’s ‘Equal Access Fund’ interview and trivia night fundraiser

DJ Freddie Fagula holds a feminist icon sculpture in support of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood has been in the news a lot lately, fighting for there very existence. But even when PP is “completely” funded, there scope is technically limited to the prevention of baby-making. Lots of women take advantage of their medical services, contraceptives and other resources. But not every woman needs the meds or paps because she has sex with men, and while plenty of us fudge the truth in order to get services local PP workers knew that this policy was unfair and wanted to do something about it. That’s why they created the Equal Access Fund.

The Equal Access Fund, established by PPCW, gives low-income lesbians, bisexual women and trans people the same access to affordable annual exams and Pap tests as low-income heterosexual women, and increases access to health care to an underserved population. The fund removes the requirement of seeking contraception to access no-cost annual exams.

I a recent survey in three Portland health centers, front-line staff members estimated that in a single month, six lesbians decided not to access services because they could not afford them and were not eligible for CCare. We estimate that annually 150-175 women in our service area decide not to access services because they cannot afford it.

We also  suspect that man more low-income lesbian, bisexual and trans patients at PPCW request and take home contraception they don’t require because they need help from FPEP to pay for their services This subterfuge puts up additional barriers between patients and their health care providers, making an honest discussion about relationships, sexual behavior and risk factors even more difficult for women who may be already hesitant to speak freely.

Consistently facing financial woes, the completely donor funded EAF is holding a trivia night benefit tomorrow night at Crush (1400 SE Morrison). We got a chance to sit down with some of the organizers on the eve of their big fundraiser to ask a little bit more about the program.

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