qPDX.com – Queer news, views and events for Portland

Because, just like straight people, our relationships don’t always end as amicably as they should, it’s good to know parents can still believe in the court system to be fair about parental rights moving forward…even from state to state. […]

Whether you love or loathe the Christmas season the reality is that most of us will have to buy for someone, no matter how un-Christian we may be, our society usually demands that a lover, a mother, or some other loved one will be waiting for their Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, or Soltice gift. So if one must give up the contents of one’s wallet, we might as well do so responsibly. Of course this goes year ’round, but if we remind ourselves once a year, perhaps we have a chance fo remembering throughout the year. An though I seldom trust the Human Rights Campaign with terribly much their annual Buying Guide is a good place to start. I believe that it probably is a fairly comrehensive overview of the largest companies treatment of gays and lesbians. And I am all for shopping with gay-friendly companies. I do think it is important, however, to keep in mind that companies with good labor practices in general, both here and overseas, might be even more important. It may suck for gay Americans do be denied domestic partner benefits but it probably sucks worse to be a 5 year old working 16 hour days in a factory. This balancing act can be difficult. The whole American Apparel scandals sent me into a tizzy, wondering if it was better to supprt a worker owned anti-sweatshop company even if the CEO treated his female employees like objects. I’ve also heard the whole schtick is a publicity stunt. I never know quite what to believe, but whatever small part of the stories are true the whole thing does indeed end up degrading to women. That being said, I bet we’d hear less outrage if these things were, again, committed against third world women. So, I begrudgingly accept AA merchandice while acknowledgeing its less than savory persona.

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It might not directly benefit most Oregonians but there may be a precious few among us born in the big apple. And for anyone that was born in NYC you may soon have some amount of control over the sex listed on your birth certificate. As any return readers will know, I believe gender to be a rather fluid and largely superfluous construct to begin with, however many people, including those who are straight, queer, trans and anything in between are quite attached to the concept. Certainly the country as a whole is. So I think this idea is monumental. In actuality, to someone like me, it makes little difference. But to those who feel trapped in an assigned gender this gives an additional freedom and acknowledgment, as well as very real set of legal rights. This, of course, is where many may find a problem. The article brings up the idea of then being able to marry your (newly) opposite gender without surgery. Then again, if the whole idea of legal marriage was reformed in this country this wouldn’t be a problem. And likewise, the idea that surgery changes who you are and how you’re allowed to be documented is scary as well. The article brings up the very important points that not everyone can afford surgery, wants surgery and many surgeries that trans individuals would want simply to do not exist. For example, there really isn’t a wholly effective bottom surgery for FTMs. Unfortunately, I don’t know this these innovations are on the top of the medical science field’s list. I wish it were higher… […]