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  I believe at this point you’re pretty well aware that this blog is gay, I’m gay, Portland loves a gay gay gay. But Happy National Coming Out Day nevertheless. I’ve had other posting priorities but now that the day is here I have some guilt about not mentioning it at all, so here are some links.
Just Out‘s Guide to local Coming Out Day events – Today may be the actual day, but there are celebrations of outness all week long, so if you just can’t handle being flaming enough on a Tuesday, and I have a feeling I might be one of those people, feel free to save the glitterbombing for the weekend.
Join the #CountMeOut campaign – We all know that the most important place to come out is Facebook, ok, maybe Twitter, so the Huffington Post has some very helpful hints on how to gayify your profile pictures, along with their usual heartfelt commentary. Instructions below! (And not their official Facebook page but another local FB-related resource).
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  Heather Perkins among her many instruments This week a celebration of women in Electronic Music and Art, Electrogals: Gals Gone Wired has already begun. This long running concert series focused on bringing more attention to the scarcity of women in electronic music was started by Heather Perkins over 15 years ago while she studied electronic music at Mills College and is now a staple in the Portland electro scene. We were able to nab her from her busy conference schedule to answer some questions about the festival below. You can visit their website for info on all the participating performers and check out the full schedule in the events calendar.
qPDX: How and why did you get started with Electrogals? Do you have a mission statement or publicly stated goal?
Heather Perkins: Electrogals started in 1995 at Mills College, where I was studying Electronic Music. Although Mills is a women’s college, the grad program is co-ed, and I was surprised at how few women there were. The faculty – also mostly male – would even remark on the imbalance, and ask me for ideas on how to rectify it. And although the guys in our program were all pretty great one on one, in class there was still the pervasive culture where the guys did most of the talking and got most of the critique time for their work. So I put on a concert featuring all female composers. The title “Electrogals” was kind of a light-hearted way to seriously address the imbalance. We were active and presented our work as a group, instead of passively sitting there by ourselves and not being heard. It was also a great show, and a lot of fun.
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  Thursdays march stretched nearly the entire circuitous route from the Waterfront to pioneer square. Photo by Allison Johnson qPDX contributor Nicole McDonald was part of last Thursday’s Occupy Portland beginnings. These are some of her thoughts and pictures experiencing one of the country’s largest “Wall Street protests.”
Thursday’s Occupy Portland protest and rally was one of the largest Occupy Wall Street protests in the nation with a count of around 5,000 people. I was one of the 5,000 people in attendance at the rally and march because I consider myself to be one of the 99%. I chose to protest because last year I applied for over 200 jobs and it took me seven months to get hired at a job that was more than 6 hours a week. I also chose to protest because although I want to go back to school and finish my college degree, I can’t really afford it and am not sure if getting a degree will pay off in today’s economy. The future looks scary for many people that I know. I have several friends and family members who have been laid off of their jobs or feel unable to leave their current positions because of the economic situation. In Portland especially I think people have been hit really hard with all of these things.
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 Ally Picard, local photographer (Bloodhound Photography), nail artist (Nailed by Ally), and previous qPDX contributor has probably caught you giving your best Zoolander stare at some club night you can’t remember but had the best time at. Her work is both fun and insightful. And now she’s been given the reigns to curate an art show for the Q Center this November.
November is Transgender Awareness Month so the community […]
  'Tomboy' Narratives about those crossing the gender spectrum, in whatever capacity, are just beginning to enter mainstream culture. I often find myself wanting to see more well-rounded, and dare I say happy portrayals of non-gender conforming people on screen. Tomboy, a French film by Director Céline Sciamma, does not paint a wholly a rosy picture, but it does portray the young child protagonist with compassion and sincerity.
Ten year old Laure is mistaken for a boy when she moves to a new town over summer break. She embraces it fully, going by the name Michael, taking her shirt off, and even fashioning a makeshift packy out of Play-Doh. The film delves into the parentless world of children on summer vacation very well. The kids are fully fleshed out characters that are quite adorable and smart, even as they are still juvenile and innocent.
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  One of Thursday night’s screenings for the PLGFF was Gun Hill Road by writer-director Rashaad Ernesto Green. The film opens with Enrique, a husband and father, returning home to the Bronx after three years in prison. During his absence he finds that the family he used to know has changed. Not only has his wife, Angela, had an affair with another man but his teenage son, Michael, has started to experiment with his gender identity. Michael dresses up as a woman and wants to have surgery to become fully transitioned.
Although Michael never confronts Enrique about the transformation he wants to make, Enrique has suspicions and discovers it anyway. This challenges Enrique’s ideals about what it means to be a man and what it means for him personally to have raised a son that wants to be a woman. He deals with these challenges from his family and with the challenge of getting out of prison by becoming involved in the same kinds of skirmishes that probably put him in jail. Meanwhile, Angela struggles with breaking off her affair. Though she is supportive and protective of Michael, she seems somewhat oblivious to the transition Michael wants to make.
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 Dirty Girl: Let Them Talk, is a movie opening today (Friday) with limited release. Set in 1987 Oklahoma, centers around Danielle, (Juno Temple) the dirty girl of Norman High. She becomes furious when her mother (Milla Jovovitch) announces she is marrying a Mormon, and begins to make friends with an adorable gay boy, Clarke (Jeremy Dozier). Clarke’s homophobic father is threatening to send him off to military school (to meet boys?), and Danielle decides they need to run away to find her biological father. Off they go to Fresno, California, in pursuit of a person Danielle has never met.
I’m always excited, for many reasons, to see Milla Jovovitch in anything, especially this whole Mormon-loving mom bit. Juno Temple as Danielle should be interesting. She had a role in Notes on a Scandal, and will be in the new upcoming Three Muskateers remake, as well as The Dark Knight Rises. We also get to see William H. Macy play a Mormon!
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  Hope Solo poses nude for the ESPN Magazine Body issue out today I may not be much of a sports buff, but when jock ladies are actually in the buff that’s a while different matter. And actually I’m riding the wave of women’s soccer enthusiasm too, just because we kick so much ass. So I may be a sports fan yet. It certainly helps when America’s favorite (lesbian, though not officially out I suppose, though I get so tired of the distinction when they’re really pretty much out) goalie, Hope Solo, poses naked for ESPN.
Solo is one of 22 athletes featured in ESPN The Magazine’s third-annual Body Issue, on stands today. She is currently in the spotlight on two fronts, starting goal keeper for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team and current competitor in this season’s Dancing with the Stars on ABC. Who do we root for? Chaz or Hope?! Oh, the important questions in life. Well, the shallow part in me definitely says Hope after seeing these shots…
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"Love, Commitment, Marriage"
Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s largest nonprofit gay and transgender advocacy group, is finishing up a two year campaign educating the public on why marriage matters for all couples. In the next few weeks, there will be television ads featuring both gay and straight couples addressing the importance of the issue. The ads share the idea that committed couples marry for similar reasons, no […]
In case you’re sitting at your desk workin’ for the man but wish you were out in the streets protesting, or just want to see what’s going down… (And yes, the irony is not lost on me that we all have to watch, like, Wal-Mart ads before accessing the video). For more real time updates check out the #OccupyPortland hashtag on Twitter.
Watch live streaming video from oppdx […]
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