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  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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  Seth Stambaugh. Photo by Leo Qin / Pioneer Log In many places in the United States it is all to common to be fired for being gay. But here in Oregon we are used to non-discrimination policies and laws on the books. So it’s particularly shocking and disappointing to see student teacher fired from his position at Sexton Mountain Elementary in nearby Beaverton.
Lewis and Clark college graduate student in teaching Seth Stambaugh was placed in Beaverton as a student teacher for a 4th and 5th grade class. Soon after his appointment he was called aside for dressing inappropriately when a parent complained, even though the outfit consisted of pressed slacks, a button-up oxford shirt, and a cardigan, according to Lake Perriguey, a lawyer who is now working pro-bono of Stambaugh. Later in the week that same parent threatened to remove his child following a conversation about marriage.
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  The E Room in better times. Pride 2010 No matter what our varied and occasionally uncomfortable feelings about Portland’s only dyke bar the E Room may have been, we were all saddened when they announced their impending closure this October. But the owner(s) appeared to want to move on and did not want to accept help in the form of a “Save the E Room” fundraiser. Everything for the past couple months has been a dedicated “last” as we all continued to slow funeral procession towards its final days.
Turns out, the bar itself is not dying, only its commitment to lesbians and gays. ERoomBoss announced this today on Facebook:
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  Basic Rights Oregon just released a free handbook, Know Your Rights: Gender Identity, Gender Expression & Trans Oregonians’ Rights that can help gender non-conforming folks know what we are entitled to. Authored by Oregon attorneys, this guide provides in-depth information on laws and policies that deeply impact transgender Oregonians. Topics include identification, housing, family law, employment, health care and more.
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  Portland State University‘s Queer Resource Center presents the ninth annual Trans Day of Remembrance and is looking for transgender, transexual and genderqueer/gendernaut performers, artists, speakers, workshop facilitators and volunteers. To Submit please email a short description of your proposal and a detail budget to ape2@pdx.edu. There will also be a public meeting in the upcoming weeks where PSU students and non-students can get involved and give feedback on what they would like to see for this years TDOR. For more information contact Smitty at ape2@pdx.edu or call 503-804-3716
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  Trans folks need healthcare too! Basic Rights Oregon has launched a survey of trans, genderqueer and gender non-conforming Oregonians who have experienced health care discrimination.
According to BRO, “All too frequently, trans Oregonians are denied insurance coverage of health care solely because of their gender identity. Working together, we can bring an end to discrimination and dramatically improve the experience of trans Oregonians accessing care. ”
More info and link to the survey under the cut.
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  The Egyptian Club - Portland's only remaining dyke bar, will be closing October 9th We all heard it was coming, we all know why it’s happening, and yet, the news is still a bit of a shock. The storied Portland dyke bar has officially announced closure (except in case of a miracle) via it’s website citing the large overhead associated with running such a cavernous club, the decline in attendance, and the economic situation overall as it’s main reasons for closing it’s doors after many years in business.
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  Brownstein and Armison as part of Thunderant The world’s love affair with quaint little Portland continues as the Independent Film Channel swoops up SNL’s Fred Armison and local guitar goddess Carrie Brownstein for a new show taking place in and shot locally called Portlandia.
Brownstein and Armison have been working together in a comedy project called Thunderant for awhile now parodying some very Portland-esque characters. Initially I was underwhelmed with mediocre skits lackadaisically making fun of feminist bookstores or bicycle protests, but I’m hopeful a new infusion from collaborators and writers has inspired them to grow beyond the obvious. And IFC execs wanted a cohesive setting to pull these divergent sketches together.
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  Ernesto Dominguez qPDX would like to congratulate Portland Community College (PCC) student Ernesto Dominguez, who recently received the HRC Awards Scholarships to Student Activists Committed to Achieving LGBT Equality. Only 3 were awarded out of 400 applications from all 50 states in the categories of first year student, returning student 2-year institution, and returning student 4-year insitution. Dominguez won in the first year category.
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  Sam DJing at Bearracuda I did not personally know Sam Storicks, the popular Bearracuda DJ was a much loved member of our community. And certainly my heart goes out, especially, to his partner Gregg Kerr in these difficult times following his passing. A close friend, Bennie Tan, posted a heartfelt piece over at Fabulous PDX and I have included some of it here.
Numb. That is what I’m feeling right now. I’m sitting here on my bed at 2:21 am on July 24th thinking, “What the FUCK just happened?!” I was going to try and get some sleep but I can’t. Sam Storicks, one of the most fantabulous people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know, passed away at 10:00pm last night, July 23, 2010.
I’ve been trying to process what just happened this past week. From him being found unconscious on Monday, July 19th to the recent, sudden turn for the worse…
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