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

I just received my very first installment of QueerKits Bzzz newsletter and it just reminds me how awesome I think they are. Theres a brand new section at the site dedicated to whats in print, i.e. novels, zines and other papered news. Im particularly excited about a new book called Beyond Shame, about reclaiming our wild 70s ways (I do lament that I missed that decade) and a new zine by Brontez of Gravy Train!!! (the dirtiest, funniest, rockin-est bisexual dace party musicians), called Fag School. Despite that I am hardly an impulse buyer I almost ordered it right on the spot but I just swallow the idea of paying twice the price of the mag in shipping…I’m also stoked for the new Lesbians on Ecstasy vinyl remixes, although I may lose record-player access soon…Ill probably nab it anyway…
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I do sometimes find it disturbing that this blog can so easily flit between serious politics and death to my movie star boy crushes and back again. But then again, I suppose its refreshing, life-like even, and I have always been prone to switching. So here I go again.

Beware of small-town Oregon because Cthulhu, a gay-themed horror flick about scary demon-worshipping rednecks, has begun filming. Beware of your 30s The Stranger article seems to say, and dont venture back into the Goondocks unless absolutely necessary…

See Photo

Will the protagonist ever return to the bright Seattle lights after being lured back into his frightening hometown? We may have to wait a couple years to find out. Luckily, we can obtain at least some of our gay horror flick fix with the just released Hellbent, which touts itself as the first ever gay slasher film.

Taking place at the famed West Hollywood Halloween Carnival, there is a serial killer on the loose. A group of four gay friends will have to fight for their lives to make it through a night where flamboyant costumes, beautiful people, drugs, music, dancing and sex are everywhere.

Sadly, a review hasn’t appeared on our very own site, so I must direct you outwards.
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Bad enough that Southridge High School principal Amy Gordon cancelled and upcoming student play, “The Laramie Project” about the inner-turmoil a town goes through following the brutal murder of a young gay student, now she has cancelled the meeting to discuss her rash decision as well. Instead she calls for a self-appointed review committee. That is, she is tyrannically silencing students, parents, and the community as a whole. Shame on you Gordon…
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You know, as if trans people didnt feel unsafe enough in this world, as if minorities or low-income folks unable to get out of New Orleans before the deluge also had any sense of personal safety, relief workers could, at least, treat evacuees with respect.
Transgendered evacuee, Arpollo Vicks, and her 16 year old cousin were arrested last week for using the women’s shower facility. Though Vicks has finally been released, jail was certainly not the safest of places for her to have been, nor a men’s bathroom in a cramped shelter. And these are just basic safety and well-being issues; there are numerous identity arguments against forcing trans people to use gendered facilities not of their choosing. Significant also, that Vicks has been the only evacuee arrested, even in light of shootings? I love priorities…
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I have been waiting for the US release of Brokeback Mountain since I started drooling over some cheesy entertainment magazine last winter at the prospect seeing my movie star crush Jake Gyllenhaal with another boy. And indeed as I was preparing for its summer arrival, it was pushed back to December. But at least I can take pleasure in the fact that it has just won Venice film festival’s top prize.

Now really I just wanted to sing the praises of this film and this boy. And I fully expect most Portlanders to readily admit to the posters of both Gyllenhaals taped above their beds with worn out picture perfect lips. But then I wondered if some of you might be confused at this apparent infatuation I have with a male. It seems an odd introduction to start a short discussion about the multi-gender outlook utopia that is Portland, but so be it.

An old friend, a gay man from Los Angeles, recently stayed with me here for nearly two weeks. Portland astounded him. He considered himself one of the most sexually open queers as he does not have strict body type or race requirements nor specific role rules. What amazed him about Portlanders was the queer communitys embrace of the no gender requirement. After all, isn’t love of the same gender what makes us queer? Well, not exactly…Yes, sexuality is most definitely a huge portion of my queerness. And yes, my partners are primarily female or female bodied. But queerness is also just a willingness to engage with, and question, both sexuality and gender, and perhaps other cultural phenomena such as politics etc. Nowhere is this more apparent than my beloved P-town. I do so like that I can go out to places like Booty, I may meet feminine looking bio boys that are not completely put off having a “lady” buy them a drink. (I mean free drinks, really, who turns that down?) And in fact I even teeter on the edge of claiming either female or maleness. Yes, I can come completely full circle and see my outfits and mannerisms as gay male oriented. Ah, no one is safe from my charms…

Id really like to hear reactions to this discussion, so I hope you all weigh in the on gender distraction questions Ive raised. But to leave this on a light and fun note I shall give you just a few more examples of my actor crushes:

Both boys from Y Tu Mama Tambien, Diego Luna and Gael Garca Bernal.
Michael Pitt
Randy Harrison
Ryan Phillippe
Leo, of course…
I’ll may add to this list of I think of any more…
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Yes, it has been in my thoughts every day as it has been in everyones. Its being talked about everywhere and I figured I could be a welcome respite. But I guess thats really just dreaming. There really isnt much to say about a tragedy of these proportions, and yet, politicos and both sides of every fence seem to have been spouting their own brands of hellfire and brimstone since the beginning. So lets just highlight one such inappropriate comment:

In Philadelphia, Michael Marcavage saw no coincidence, either, in the hurricane’s arrival just as gay men and lesbians from across the country were set to participate in a New Orleans street festival called “Southern Decadence.”

“We take no joy in the death of innocent people,” said Marcavage, who was an intern in the Clinton White House (how did that happen?) in 1999 and now runs Repent America, an evangelistic organization calling for “a nation in rebellion toward God” to reclaim its senses.

“But we believe that God is in control of the weather,” he said in a telephone interview. “The day Bourbon Street and the French Quarter was flooded was the day that 125,000 homosexuals were going to be celebrating sin in the streets. . . . We’re calling it an act of God.”

I got this from the excellent blog Gay Rights watch, which has a couple great posts on Katrinas impact on the queer community:
Divine Retribution
A Punishing God
Second Blow to Gay Families
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In light of the fact that I have just returned from the chilly promised land to the north I’ll just drop this little tidbit of information into your laps. Seems Montreal (oh my favorite of Canadian cities) will be hosting what is being called the largest gay sporting event. . .ever, the 1st World Outgames. Fun stuff.
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…but your column this week perplexes me somewhat. We all have doubts about the directions of our lives, for many reasons. So too, do we all define who we are in so many different ways. Sure, some do so by their lifes work or art (a musician is a musician 24/7 even when he/she isn’t playing) but so too do many define who they are by their lifestyles and communities, extremely devout religious individuals, for example. However, even did you not think the latter is a valid form of self-actualization, you, Byron, have indeed made queerness part of your career. And its not a bad gig either. Perhaps at times you think it unworthy, and you cant buy a sports car to fuel the mid-life longing, but hey, you can spew your struggling inner-child ramblings into a column read by a city. That seems a pretty fair trade-off. And ah, you condemn your internalized homophobia while reinforcing it all at once. So, I know you’re not supposed to give your mentors advice, especially not in public forum, but I feel I must in this in light intensely personal, yet also extremely public, outpouring. Love your queerness. Love your work. Love the measure of yourself as a human being and whatever coda or mantra you live by. Queers have come a long way since both our births and I embrace this forward motion. And queerness is certainly one of the ways I define myself, make and remake both my personal and outward image. And I think thats fabulous.

Oh, and Happy Birthday.
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Our favorite comedienne hag, Margaret Cho, is back on the big screen with Assassin, which opens this Friday. Better yet, sponsor gay television station, here!, is donating 100% of its first weeks box office revenues directly to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Since loud-mouthed Asian ladies who talk as much about sex, drugs, and queerness as much dont usually end up at the multiplex, however, Id recommend checking out your local artsy theaters for immediate weekend satisfaction (and for the good cause!).
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I almost didnt post this when I saw that BoiFromTroy wasnt joking about trying to drag gay friends to GOP meetings (and the rest of his blog reflects it, so you needn’t read beyond the guide…). And Im sure some will also find this Gay Viewers Guide to the 2005 College Football Season offensive in its attention more to washboard stomachs than successful touchdowns, yet I feel it is my duty, as lacking in sports knowledge as I am, to get some balls and tackling into this blog. So prepare for the fall, and the young lads tossing the pigskin about. It might improve Thanksgiving dinner with the fam, giving you some common ground in front of the TV with Dad.

More interesting gay sports news info as well as and college football tidbits can be found at www.outsports.com
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