Archives

Most heated queer issues on the national stage of 2010

"It Gets Better" project founder Dan Savage (R) with husband Terry

A roller coaster of emotions swept gay America this year. Here’s a snapshot.

5 – University of Michigan’s Student Body President Stalked and Harassed by State’s Assistant Attorney General

When MI Attorney General Andrew Shirvell began harassing UMich Student Body President Christ Armstrong people started to notice, mostly prominently among them CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who interviewed Shirvell on air.

4 – Constance McMillan is barred from her prom and embraced by the rest of the world

When Constance McMillan planned to take her girlfriend to prom, organizing parents canceled the event and held a gay-free dance elsewhere. But instead of cowering McMilan powered along with an ACLU lawsuit and won the support of celebrities, public figures and the world-at-large. Her Facebook fan page has over 400,00 members and she has a scholarship care of Ellen Degeneres.

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Keep up your ‘Homomentum’ this weekend through ‘Thick & Thin’ with Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers is in town Saturday and she is indeed a piece of work!

Most of us are likely tired (and perhaps a little wounded) by a night out ringing in the New Year but there’s no rest for the wicked. This weekend might be a tad slower than usual but there’s plenty of not to be missed gay weekend events.

Thursday

Dirtbag! – Just recently revealed as one of the best new club nights of the year catch DB while it’s at its peak.

Drop Shop with ExstasyHot, hip hop, dancing sweating boys and girls. The perfect party for the breadth of your pals.

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Best gay television of 2010

Lionel and Marshall in an embrace in United States of Tara

The gays struggled with the boob tube this year in part because there actually are a fair amount of decent characters and story lines to choose from. So we are on that cusp of counting down the best gay shows vs. the best gay moments.

It’s also a year where we start to shift judging from “a good portrayal of LGBT life” to simply the “best TV” that just happens to contain gay elements, or are even primarily gay themed. This list has a combination.

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Best gay movies of 2010

Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis lock lips in "Black Swan'

Film has always tended to push the boundaries of sexuality. We’re finally no longer living (completely) in the celluloid closet so there’s plenty to choose from without having to resort to claiming films like Claire of the Moon. The 90s were tough children…

5. Undertow (Contracorriente)

Heart-wrenching and real, this is the gay indie favorite around the world. Set in a Peruvian seaside town a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions.

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Best new club nights of 2010

ChiChi and Chonga at Cafeteria's Jocks and Nerds Edition

If there’s one thing we do well here at qPDX it’s partying. And 2010 has just blown us all away, and damaged our livers beyond repair, with its bursting-at-the-seams burgeoning club scene. Dancing isn’t just for downtown anymore. Nopo has emerged as a queer nightlife hotspot alongside the already club-friendly inner Eastside. There’s something for nearly everybody, and I did my best to make an appearance, at least once, and each of them.

5 – Do the Dark/JunKtion tie

Both laid back underground neighborhood parties both Do the Dark and JunKtion had welcome breathing room in contrast to the packed parties elsewhere. But the music was excellent and the venues, Tonic and Local Lounge, were friendly and comfortable with good dance floors and chat areas alike. Oh yeah, and they always had good cheap drink specials.

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Best gay albums of 2010

Bloc Party's Kele Okereke released his own album this year which landed at number 6 on the qPDX list

There was a lot of good music this year and better yet lots of it was local. I may be a little biased, then, in this list, but we’re the queer Northwest…That’s the point. So I don’t apologize for that the musicians in charge of 4 of the top 10 best queer albums call Portland home.

10 – Logan Lynn – I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday

Occasionally a little too retro gay dance party local Logan Lynn’s newest album still commands a danceable pop beat. He puts on a great show with perfectly placed live vocals for an electro show focused on audience excitement. I’m suprised he’s not more internationally known. Maybe he just needs to tour Europe. Oh, and I did I mention proceeds of the album go to charity? Yeah, I appreciate a feel good album for the music and the cause.

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Best public outings of 2010

Ricky Martin is gay?!

Celebrities, as powerful and rich as they are, still tend to remain in the closet. Here are the top 5 folks this year that had the courage to publicly declare their homo-love.

5 – Amber Heard

Actress from The Stepfather, The Joneses, Pineapple Express, spoke openly with AfterEllen.com about being a lesbian pioneer in Hollywood, during the GLAAD media awards.

4 – Chely Wright

There was a lot of hype leading up to this announcement which was largely met by a big “who?” when the information was finally released. We were all expecting someone really famous to come out, but Chely Wright is a country singer who has quite the following in the South. Oh yeah, and that Christian singer Jennifer Knapp came out too.

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Best gay sports stories of 2010

Johnny Weir at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

I begin this year’s best of roundups with an unlikely choice: sports. I’m not sure if I’m bucking the stereotype or playing along with it but qPDX has never been particularly strong in our sports coverage (that’s an understatement girl…) but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some really important stories that emerged in the world of gay sports. And even I was pretty glued to the screen for the Winter Olympics, being virtually blinded by Johnny Weir’s sequined outfits.

So begins the countdowns, mostly the top 5 news and arts stories, although I could only narrow the top 10 when it came to music. And you get 2 each day all week long!

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The year in Lindsay Lohan

Poor little Lilo

You still have a few more days to wait until I unveil my 2010 best ofs (I’m really trying to sell it can’t you tell?). But the Portland Mercury’s multi-author celebrity gossip and giggle fest One Day at a Time has used the year end opportunity to recount every headline that the bisexual Lindsay Lohan made.

It’s actually quite a bit. Below are some of my favorites:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 9 Lindsay Lohan is making good on her New Year’s resolution to turn over a new leaf! Last week LiLo twatted, “2010 is about moving forward, not backwards. Leaving the bad (people, habbits, and negative energy behind) time to make changes-right!?!? :).” MEANWHILE… This evening Lindsay Lohan hit a photographer with her car. “I want to press charges,” the angry paparazzo told TMZ.com. “She’s going to jail.” Insert frowny emoticon here.

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New Years for the PDX queer

Have a gay ol' New Years Eve!

Whew! That little snafu this weekend threw me off, but this little procrastinator always comes through in the end. I need enough time to peruse the New Years Eve celebration choices myself at least to prepare for next weekend. So let’s take this trip of queer New Years Eve in Portland:

Tag-a-Fag New Years Edition – For the traditionalists among you, Red Box (what my roommate adorably dubbed the Red Cap/Boxxess complex 1035 SW Stark) TAF will be two rooms full of boys waiting to have their bodies written on. And, in an oddly 2005 style, free trucker hats to the first 100 people in the door. I’d be more stoked about $2.50 wells but that’s just me.

Crave‘ presents a GagaDonna New Years – Quintessential where the girls are usually gets packed early on and stays that way until close. It can be tough fighting the crowds but how do you blame them when the space is night, the jams are pumping, and the drinks are stiff? Plus this is the only place I know of to get real lezzie lap dances from hot ladies. They may be popular, but don’t dare the Crave ladies mainstream…after all they advertise moi, and Lord knows I’m a mouthy queer.

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