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  Ask the meat man I was inspired to write about Berlin Reed aka the Ethical Butcher because of his BCN/PDX Spring Slabs deals, but Berlin is a busy guy and I just had to take this opportunity to ask him a whole host of queries. Luckily, he was amenable to answering all my questions ranging from butchery to blogging.
Scroll down to the bottom and hit up page 2 for full information on how to order your spring slabs and descriptions of their mouthwatering flavors. Act soon because ordering ends Thursday!
qPDX: What made you decide to bring Slabs and Slices back to Portland? Where else have you brought it?
Berlin: Well, I do these bacon cures and bacon events as part of one of my projects, The Bacon Gospel. I have been doing installments of the project for over 2 years now, this is just the latest one. I did the Winter Slabs & Slices back in December and now it’s time for Spring Slabs! I am really liking the seasonal aspect of it, it sort of gives it a little more structure to BCN/PDX, the Portland leg of the project, and lets me time events through the year a little more predictably. I did Bacon Gospel events in Brooklyn, Seattle, Portland, Cincinnati in the first year, and returned to Brooklyn in February.
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  DJ Freddie Fagula holds a feminist icon sculpture in support of Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood has been in the news a lot lately, fighting for there very existence. But even when PP is “completely” funded, there scope is technically limited to the prevention of baby-making. Lots of women take advantage of their medical services, contraceptives and other resources. But not every woman needs the meds or paps because she has sex with men, and while plenty of us fudge the truth in order to get services local PP workers knew that this policy was unfair and wanted to do something about it. That’s why they created the Equal Access Fund.
The Equal Access Fund, established by PPCW, gives low-income lesbians, bisexual women and trans people the same access to affordable annual exams and Pap tests as low-income heterosexual women, and increases access to health care to an underserved population. The fund removes the requirement of seeking contraception to access no-cost annual exams.
I a recent survey in three Portland health centers, front-line staff members estimated that in a single month, six lesbians decided not to access services because they could not afford them and were not eligible for CCare. We estimate that annually 150-175 women in our service area decide not to access services because they cannot afford it.
We also suspect that man more low-income lesbian, bisexual and trans patients at PPCW request and take home contraception they don’t require because they need help from FPEP to pay for their services This subterfuge puts up additional barriers between patients and their health care providers, making an honest discussion about relationships, sexual behavior and risk factors even more difficult for women who may be already hesitant to speak freely.
Consistently facing financial woes, the completely donor funded EAF is holding a trivia night benefit tomorrow night at Crush (1400 SE Morrison). We got a chance to sit down with some of the organizers on the eve of their big fundraiser to ask a little bit more about the program.
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  Everyone knows that Apple is pretty picky when it comes to allowing apps in their tightly controlled marketplace. But though you won’t be able to see any racy gay sightseeing recommendations you can be cured of “the gay.” This has some folks hopping mad, including Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, who recently wrote a piece for the Huffington Post condemning the app.
Exodus International, the notorious “ex-gay” organization, recently released an iPhone app that, according to its website, is “designed to be a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders.” The Exodus website further boasts that its app received a 4+ rating from Apple, meaning that it contains “no objectionable content.”
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  The original Bash Back protest November 2008 in front of Mt Hope Church in in Delta Township, Mich. (Photo courtesy of Bash back! Lansing) I don’t know too much about this story but will expound as more details are revealed. In the meantime, this press release, which I accessed through Facebook, does a pretty good job of explaining the basics:
Portland, OR– On Wednesday, March 16th, Google will be forced to hand over the email accounts of two queer activists from Portland, Oliver Hayes and Kat Enyeart, to the evangelical Mt. Hope Church in Lansing, MI. This subpoena is a part of a civil suit against the queer organization Bash Back stemming from a non-violent protest and political theater action that disrupted a church service at Mt. Hope Church several years ago. Both Portlanders are subpoenaed because of their alleged ties to the organization. However no factual evidence has been produced to support such a relationship [emphasis mine] existing and both deny membership in the organization.
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 Channel 4 signs agreement to portray trans people "positively and realistically" from now on According to Pinknews.co.uk, Britain’s Channel 4, responsible for bringing such landmark shows as Queer As Folk and Skins (via it’s subsidiary E4) but also Too Fat To Walk (WTF? Oh, it’s been renamed “Too Big To Walk”, well, that changes everything) to the British public and henceforth the world, has now signed a sensitivity agreement, weightily titled “Trans Media Watch’s Memorandum of Understanding“.
In this progressive new step, Channel 4 is the first of any UK TV channel to publicly pledge it’s commitment to portraying trans people and their lives “positively and realistically”, while supporting trans employees and their families by treating them equally to cis-gendered people and their families.
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  This is a re-posting of a Facebook message from trans advocate Tash Shatz.
When I was sixteen I woke up one night in a cold sweat in the worst pain I had ever experienced. I felt like I was being repeatedly stabbed in my abdomen. My only guess was that I was experiencing super heinous period cramps. I was nauseous and the pain washed over me in violent waves. My mom and I were soon on our way to the emergency room, and we found out I was passing the first of what would be many kidney stones.
That night at the ER my experience was typical of what would happen as I visited the hospital several times over the next few years. Staff members stumbled over pronouns, sporadically use my preferred name, and asked me what medications I was on. When I answered “testosterone,” the hospital staff launched into a line of questioning about my gender identity – what surgeries had I had? What did I plan to have? What did transgender mean? On more than one of my visits I heard nurses whispering behind the patterned curtain across the space which held my bed. They were talking about my gender.
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  Would you like to buy my wares? Trade? Date? Get a ride? Just in time for the weekend qPDX has introduced some new and exciting functionality…Classifieds and Personals! Sure, Craigslist is great and all but, aside from being plain and boring there’s plenty of disrespectful folks trolling around. Here, you know you’re talking directly to your community (troubling as that term may be) and that the platform is made “by us for us.”
For example, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve really wondered where to post my particular personal ad. Is it W4W? Well, what if I like transmen too…or even bio men? Posting an ad in the straight dominated W4M just doesn’t get the desired results.
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  Last weekend local trans-identified community member Nik Rapier attended one of our most popular queer nights, Gaycation. While there he had an unfortunate incident of transphobia which he initially recounted on the global web project to combat street harrassment Hollaback. He has also agreed to share his story with qPDX readers below.
We were standing outside Holocene, cooling down from that overheated dance floor, when you reeled out the door, steps unsteady and eyes full of malice. After looking our little group over, you apparently decided that we didn’t pass your definition of acceptable gender presentations, because you stopped right in front of us and let fly some of the more transphobic comments I’ve heard in a drunken slur.
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  Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein in 'Portlandia' Well that didn’t take long. The Independent Film Channel used Valentines Day to express its love for newly running original Portlandia by announcing it would pick up the show for a second season. IFC must really be in love as this is the first time that they’ve ever agreed to a second season while the first was still running, according to senior VP of original programming Debbie DeMontreux.
Airing at 10:30 p.m. Fridays, Portlandia is averaging 235,000 viewers among adults 18-49, nearly quadruple IFC’s primetime average in a demo it has aggressively begun courting, and has built upon its lead-in, fellow original series Onion News Network.
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  Seth Stambaugh It was one of the biggest local LGBT stories of the year when student teacher Seth Stambaugh was let go from a position at a Beaverton elementary school for admitting to being gay. He was eventually reinstated to his position but it was unclear whether Stambaugh would pursue a lawsuit.
This week we got the answer when he reached a resolution with the Beaverton School District for $75,ooo. Stambaugh has said a significant portion of this award will go to Portland nonprofits p:ear, and Outside In.
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Transphobia happens in queer spaces too, unfortunately
We were standing outside Holocene, cooling down from that overheated dance floor, when you reeled out the door, steps unsteady and eyes full of malice. After looking our little group over, you apparently decided that we didn’t pass your definition of acceptable gender presentations, because you stopped right in front of us and let fly some of the more transphobic comments I’ve heard in a drunken slur.
Continue reading »