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  Several corporations signed on to support Washington's recent passage of gay marriage Attitudes toward gay marriage have rapidly progressed in the last two decades, especially on the U.S. West Coast. Since the majority of large-scale American technology companies are headquartered in California and Washington, CEOs and other corporate leaders in that industry have acclimated to the trends. Today, software giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are loudly voicing their support for equal marriage rights.
Same-sex marriage has been a newsworthy issue since 1996, when the Republican-led U.S. Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), legally defining “marriage” as a union between a man and woman. The following decade witnessed a shift in public perception of gay marriage, particularly on the relatively liberal Pacific Coast—though, the movement yielded few legislative changes. Instead, courts continued to reinforce the theory that same-sex marriage was unnatural and unconstitutional, in such federal cases as Citizens for Equal Protection vs. Bruning (2005). Those interested in learning more about this case should consider exploring this site for online universities where they can learn more about human and civil rights cases in our nation’s history.
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  Big business has been getting some press for their support of Washington’s newly introduced gay marriage bills, which are now expected to pass both the Senate and the House. Last Thursday six prominent companies, including Microsoft and Nike signed a letter of support for SB 6239 and HB 2516. Today Starbucks joined the growing list of corporations in support of Washington state marriage equality saying,
Starbucks is proud to join other leading Northwest employers in support of Washington State legislation recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples…
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 Oregon’s Equity Foundation awarded two individuals and three businesses with various awards on January 20, 2012.
The awards were handed out during a sold-out luncheon at Portland’s Governor Hotel. The program included remarks from Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown and a rousing sing-a-long to Three Dog Night’s Joy To The World with the PHAME Academy choir. PHAME is a chorus of developmentally disabled adults that recently won funding from Equity Foundation.
Individual awards were bestowed on a couple of past Equity board members.
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 www.asyoulikeitpdx.com
The “Green” Approach
Who says sex toys can’t be environmentally friendly? Portland’s local website, As You Like It: The Pleasure Shop just launched! As You Like It provides a safe and green friendly environment for its customers. Locally owned and operated, the LGBTQ business supports a body positive and sex positive image.
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  John Cameron Mitchell holds a copy of Just Out featuring him. Just one of many memorable JO covers over the years In a sudden move today Just Out, Portland’s first LGBT publication, announced it will cease publication with the already released 12/9 issue. Despite that issue talking about new delivery methods in 2012 and not indicating an imminent shut down, JO has posted on their website as well as posting this more thorough statement on their Facebook page:
It is with great sadness that I have to announce today that Just Out newspaper, having put up a helluva fight against this dammed “Great Recession”, will be unable to continue publishing. Our 12/9 issue was/is our last publication. Thank you for being our “Friends” and for reading Just Out, these past 29 years.
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  Update: The CC Chamber of Commerce has officially stated that this was spam email. There have been discussions about this statement (make of that what you will) and you can read the entire announcement at the bottom of this post.
For all the ups and downs of my hometown Vancouver, Washington and its Clark County, from being named one of the most gayest cities to being made fun of in a Portlandia spoof called Vancouvria, I never would have expected emails as homophobic as these that circulated last night at the Clark County Chamber of Commerce. (Guess they won’t be promoting our Holiday Gift Guide, local as it may be).
Apparently, they were not meant for the general public, but that doesn’t negate their inherent discrimination. Change.org has additional information and a petition you can sign demanding an apology.
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  This is what you've got to work with folks In this season of family, food and shopping I thought it might be fun to take a break with some art, design, and sexiness to balance it all out. So here’s a contest Lifestyles Condoms is conducting with an iPad Grand Prize. You know, just in case Mom and Dad don’t come through with the tech toy gifts in this economy. Put those under-employed design skills to use, even if you do have to deal with the indignity of hipster spelling (because skyn is much cooler than skin).
And if you’re not the designer type but do love trolling the internet and giving your opinion you can vote on others submitted designs starting December 7th. You can find official rules, specifics and how to submit in their Facebook app.
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 Don't mess with journalist Alice Pieszecki...I mean actress and musician Leisha Hailey I may get disappointed, but I’m never terribly shocked, when discrimination happens. What is a little more surprising is when it happens, very publicly, to the famous, influential, beautiful. But it did happen when actress and musician Leisha Hailey was kicked off a Southwest airlines flight for kissing her girlfriend then raising a fuss when asked to stop. Hailey took to Twitter to voice her outrage:
I have been discriminated against by Southwest Air. Flt. attendant said that it was a ‘family’ airline and kissing was not ok…This is an outrage. I demand a public apology by @SouthwestAir and a refund. Hate is not a family value. I will never fly this airline….We were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue. @SouthwestAir endorses homophobic employees. No one made her accountable. Since when is showing affection towards someone you love illegal? I want to know what Southwest Airlines considers as ‘family’.
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  E Room/Weird Bar owner Kim Davis. Photo by Jamie Francis / The Oregonian When lesbian bar the Egyptian Room threatened to close its doors and instead re-emerged as the “normal-friendly” Weird Bar the community roared. Some supported the efforts of owner Kim Davis, some decried the changes as a lie and a betrayal.
Less than a year later it may be a moot point. The weird, lesbian, normal, whatever bar that has existed in SE 37th and Division for 15 years is set to close August 20th with Kim Davis saying, “…we originally were looking to sell when we announced the closing of E-room, but we couldn’t get the value we needed, so we tried something new. We now have an offer we must take.”
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  Since the closing of The Egyptian Room last year Portland has been without an official lesbian bar. We’ve muddled along pretty good attending numerous queer nights and sort of claiming some dyke-friendly spaces such as the Florida Room for our own but many among us can’t but hope that another permenant location will spring up eventually. Now performer, community member and, with any luck, entrepreneur Mel Heywood has created a survey to better assess the needs and wants in our community for a new bar. Will it happen? Who knows but taking this survey is the first step in helping make it so. So do it.
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