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Holiday Gift Guide is out – This year give the gift of gay

All I want for Christmas is you

I’m super excited to announce that this year qPDX teamed up with Ally Picard and a host of local queer run businesses to present you with our First Annual Holigay Gift Guide. With gift ideas for the, Art Fag, Bibliophile, Fashionista, Foodie, Fun Lover, Music Nerd and the Well Groomed Health Nut you can’t go wrong.

I’m particularly excited about […]


Vote in the Transguys.com Community Awards 2010

'Original Plumbing' editors Amos Mac (L) and Rocco Kayiatos aka Katastrophe are nominated in several categories

Transguys.com a in internet magazine dedicated to FTM news and culture is in the process of deciding their 2010 Community Award winners and they want your input. You can register a vote in each category, once per day in the following categories:

  • Best Blog
  • Best YouTube Channel
  • Best Resource Website
  • Best Action Campaign
  • Best Business
  • Musician or Music Group of the Year
  • Sex Performer of the Year
  • Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement

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Trans Empowerment Week and the Transgender Day of Remembrance

Queer acrobatics from the Collective-of-Geniuses

Events, gatherings and celebrations are already underway for Trans Empowerment Week leading up to this Saturday’s Trangender Day of Remembrance. Today at 6pm on KBOO’s Outloud (90.7FM) Tobi Hill-Meyer and Smitty Buckler will be talking with Sasha about TDR, a day dedicated to day primarily memorializes those lost to hate crimes, it also serves as a forum for transgender communities and allies to raise awareness around the threat of violence faced by gender variant people and the persistence of prejudice felt by the transgender community, trans justice and intersecting oppressions and the connections between violence and the mainstream adult film industry.

Though the TDR may have somber overtones, there are also plenty fun and affirming activities and performances.

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The flip-flopping McCains and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and a new ACLU lawsuit

Cindy McCain poses for NoH8

This Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell two-step is starting to really get on my nerves.

Only one high ranking military officer seems opposed to the repeal, Marine Corps Gen. James Amos. Even Republican Arizona Senator John McCain formerly stated that he would leave the decision to top military officials. However, as more and more officers came out in support of the repeal he has asserted his own opinion that we needed to wait for the findings of a study currently in progress. Now, as the study draws to a close, showing that most service members are indifferent, he moves even further from the side of rationality by telling reporters that it “isn’t the right study.”

Perhaps less politically important but even more frustrating, is his wife’s betrayal. And I mean to her own beliefs, not to her husband.

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Happy Veteran’s day?

Lt Dan Choi

Lt Dan Choi

In an ironic bit of news today MTV reports that A Pentagon memo leaked today, appropriately Veterans Day supports the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Washington Post, quoting two people familiar with a draft of the report, said that it will say that the military’s lifting of the ban would result in “minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts.”

According to the Post, more than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops this summer said the effects of a repeal would be “positive, mixed or nonexistent.” Those results reportedly led the survey’s authors to conclude that objections to gay troops would drop once they were able to live and serve openly with their peers.

In some other gay and vet’s day news, a service was held for gay vets:

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New cases challenge Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

Joanne Pedersen, left, and Ann Meitzen are planning to sue because federal law does not recognize their Connecticut marriage. Photo by Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

State and Federal laws often come into conflict, and gay marriage is a prime example of how confusing that confluence can be. Couples that are married in states where it is/was legal (5 states plus DC) may get all the state benefits to which they are entitled, but many benefits are given at the Federal level…which is where things get sticky…but not in a good way.

One big example of this is health insurance, which is a tough subject to tackle in itself. The New York Times reports on two cases where plaintiffs are suing the government in an effort to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing marriages of same-sex couples.

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Ugandan LGBTQ Rights Advocate to Speak in Portland

Rev. Mark Kiyimba at the 2009 UUA General Assembly

Uganda has been in the LGBT news a lot lately for its upcoming bill that proposes executions for gays. Introduced in Uganda’s parliament last year, the bill would give the death penalty to any homosexual person who tests positive for HIV, and up to three years in jail for anyone who knows a gay person and does not report them. The proposal emerged after ex-Oregon Citizens Alliance communications director Scott Lively spoke to Uganda’s parliament.

It it likely to pass but there are still Ugandans working for justice in their country. One of them, Rev. Mark Kiyimba, will be in Portland this weekend.

Kiyimba, one of a small number of straight supporters of gay rights in Uganda, has risked his life by holding an LGBT conference last February in Kampala, attended by 200 people. His church runs a school for 150 orphans who lost their parents to HIV and AIDS, as well as an orphanage for 22 children infected with the virus.

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Siren Nation women’s music and art festival returns for a 4th year

Tara Jane O'Neil performs Friday at the Someday Lounge

Portland is no stranger to alternative and women-centric music. But for a while little sister Olympia seemed to have the best fests, Homo-a-gogo, Ladyfest, Yo-Yo. All of those have evolved beyond the PacNW but Portland has taken on its own women’s festival. Now in it’s 4th year Siren Nation, is no longer a fledgling fest but the real deal.

Music is a big part of Siren Nation, taking up Nov 5th and 6th Friday and Saturday nights at Someday Lounge (125 NW 5th) with folks like sultry folkstress Erin McKeown, experimental multi-instrumentalist Tara Jane O’Neil and bhangra bright spot DJ Angiali.

But it’s actually visual art that kicks off the festival, as well as representing a true northwest flavor, with Thursday Nov 4th’s “Sometimes a Great Notion” group art show.

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Wearing purple in support of LGBTQ youth

6 teen suicides have catalyzed a movement in support of queer youth

6 teen suicides have catalyzed a movement in support of queer youthWondering what all the royal and lavendar tones are on your Facebook today? It’s in support of LGBTQ youth in the wake of recent suicides.

It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and at their schools. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools. RIP Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase and Billy Lucas. You are loved.

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Q Center and SMYRC to Host Youth-Focused Forum: “We Are Here”

This past month, the LGBTQ Community has been shaken to its core with news that 5 young people have committed suicide, suicides that were direct results of sustained, unwarranted bullying and harassment because of their sexual orientation. The public outcry has been great–and admirable–and Q Center and SMYRC (Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center) will sustain this momentum, seizing the opportunity to take tangible action in the wake of these horrific, needless tragedies. As has been said, one suicide is a tragedy. Several is a crisis. The LGBTQ Community must work together–and quickly–to stem the tide.

Last spring, Q Center hosted a community forum that came on the heels of a spate of gay bashings in the Portland area. The community spoke, city officials and community activists listened, and Q Patrol emerged, an organization dedicated to not only patrolling our streets, making them safer, but to pooling the resources available to our community.

While Q Center proudly embraces the “It Gets Better” video series led by Dan Savage and we advocate for inspirational and supportive messages to young people by LGBTQ adults (and we applaud those in our community, like Mayor Sam Adams, among many others, who have already recorded their own videos), we fervently believe that as Oregon’s LGBTQ Community Center, we need to take this inspiration a step further. We want to come together as a community and listen to the stories and experiences of LGBTQ youth in our communities.

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