Archives

Last of the best of 2010

Best Pride backup crew! Photo by Diana Edwards

So it’s been quite a week of reliving 2010. Truthfully I’m a little burned out. But before you shed all your summer skin and head into the depths of 2011 fresh and new here are a few last looks back at some of the “best” random sh** of the year…

Most asked question

What time is the dyke march? (A wink and a nod to the amusing insights of Katey Pants).

Best LGBT quote of the year

“You know if I could go back in time, I would lez it up 24 hours. Believe me, one thing I would not miss? Balls. Terrible little things.”

Continue reading »


Most read posts of 2010

Clockwise from left: Saturn, Sally Ingus Wilder, Bulimianne Rhapsody and Kaj-Anne Pepper at Blow Pony

This what what caught your eye or sparked heated debate on these very pages in 2010.

5 – Hot gay boys do Katy Perry’s “California Girls.”

Gay version of the biggest pop hit of the summer went viral. So hot it melted your popsicle.

4 – Aden Jaric jailed after Miss Thing […]


Biggest local news of 2010

E Room/Weird Bar owner Kim Davis. Photo by Jamie Francis / The Oregonian

Portland is a very homo-aware town but we are still small, and news travels fast. Here’s some of the things that caused the most uproar.

5 – Duende censorship, and the Pride parade route change

It was much more upsetting to witness the Rose Festival quash a chaste kiss in the Circus Project’s Duende, nearly forcing the performance to be canceled. There was nearly as much kerfuffle internally in the community when the Pride parade route was taken off the traditionally Stark Street triangle (aka Vaseline Alley). Sometimes the struggle comes from without, but the struggle within is just as powerful.

Continue reading »


Review (and photos) of Monday night’s Queer Quistmas with Fannie Mae Darling

Fannie Mae Darling hosts. Photo by Marty Davis / Just Out

In Portland’s world of on-the-fly and occasionally inebriated performance world, Fannie Mae Darling managed to keep the local theme alive while providing a quality holiday drag, theater and music extravaganza. In constantly rotating dresses Darling kept the crowd engaged and giggling through over two and a half hours of stage antics. Yes, while drunken.

Just Out’s Marty Davis has all the photos to prove it was a spectacularly successful Quitsmas blend of talent on her Facebook page.

Continue reading »


What would you like to see on a queer youth resource list?

Q Center employee Mary Christmas is putting together a resource list for queer youth and wants community advice. The program, called We Are Here, is starting with a resource page for those under 24 and seeks input, referrals, and suggestions for fun and helpful things targeted toward young people.

Any local groups, programs, meetings, or fun things are needed but those listed below are especially sought out:

Continue reading »


What are the best of 2010? qPDX wants your opinion

DirtBag at The Know, Portland
DirtBag at The Know, Portland

Year end “best of” posts are already well underway, but I keep discovering more and more gems and I want to make sure I don’t forget anything. So I’m enlisting you, my queer brethren to lend me your opinions on the most interesting, appalling and appealing of 2010 in the categories of:

  • Most heated issues
  • Biggest local news
  • Best television moments
  • Best movies
  • Best albums

Continue reading »


An update on Tuff Luck and the Deli

I knew that the unfortunate dissolution of the Tuff Luck Deli would cause quite a rift in a tight need community. I hesitated to publish Tuff Luck’s detailed letter to the community but in the end decided that they deserved to be heard even if it did come with a cost.

Indeed it did, and many discussions on Facebook showed clearly how upset people were. Some comments were thoughtful, others merely angry, but they were almost all passionate. I had hoped some of that discussion could happen here on this blog, as it is a more public forum but instead it was mostly confined to the semi-public gossip realm of FB.

So I would like to say, once again, that not only do I welcome discussion, but would happily publish and opposing editorial. I had hoped this would be a discussion starter and not a proclamation.

Continue reading »


Presumed gay SE Portland man beaten in hate-crime

Sketch of the suspect in the anti-gay beating

Although the assault happened over a month ago on November 1st the Mercury has just broken the story of a SE Portland man who was gay-bashed while walking home after police issued an alert today.

According to the Portland police alert that went out today, a man was walking home alone from a friend’s house just after midnight on November 1st and had to cross over the scary, barbed wire-encircled pedestrian walkway that goes over the train tracks at SE 16th and Brooklyn. This is an unsettling area—there is not much light at all and neighbors built an unpermitted skatepark at the base of the walkway, in part because the land was derelict and a magnet for crime.

Continue reading »


Tuff Luck coffee and the Deli part ways…and not amicably

Business dealings are always a sticky wicket, especially in this economy. And when the boys who ran Tuff Luck coffee moved into the queer collectively-run Deli it seemed like a perfect synthesis. I frequented the place myself, both before and after the merge and was glad to have a queer-friendly neighborhood space.

I was never aware of the business practices or inner conflicts that were happening so I can’t add my own opinion, but I received a very detailed explanation of events from Tuff Luck owners Choriko Bogues and Ryder Richardson, who wrote a very explicit and transparent explanation of what happened to cause the rift. I feel it is important to share it with the community so I have reproduced it in its entirety below.

Both they and I encourage comments and I hope the community can have a real discussion about this.

Continue reading »


World AIDS Day events in the Northwest

Today is the 22nd Annual World AIDS Day, a time for communities to come together to ensure we not only that we recognize the 25 million individuals lost to HIV and AIDS, but the 33 million global citizens living with the HIV virus today.

In the US, there are over 1.1 Million Americans living with HIV and more than 20% of those infected do not even know they carry the virus. It is estimated by the CDC that 56,000 new infections are occurring annually, that’s one new infection every nine and a half minutes in the US due to a disease that is completely preventable.

Continue reading »