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Man accused of attacking gay couple says he was the one attacked

Paul Martinson, the man arrested for the hate crime against two gay men in downtown Portland last week, has responded to the allegations against him.

Paul Martinson

Martinson, 39, was charged with assaulting and intimidating Kiah Lawson, 22, and his boyfriend Sam Smith, 21, near Silverado the night of March 14. Martinson was also charged with vandalizing Smith’s car. But Martinson said he did not attack the […]


Anti-gay hate crime reported in downtown Portland

Two men were assaulted in downtown Portland last week in what the Portland Police Bureau is treating as a hate crime. […]


Queer youth attacked last weekend in gay bashing

Kayla Stone

In breaking news from Just Out, it is being reported that 21-year-old Kayla Stone, a musician and activist, was assaulted in downtown Portland in an apparent gay bashing last Sunday July 3rd, according to police.

The previous night a group of men had harassed her outside of Embers on NW Broadway and Burnside, calling her “dyke” and following her for several blocks as she left. She fended them off with strong words but when she returned Saturday night the same group recognized her and began beating her without provocation. The only person she remembers very clearly is the one who threw the first punch, a Latino man with a teardrop tattoo by his eye.

Stone also says that witnesses did nothing to assist her. Even when she made her way to The Escape, the all ages gay nightclub and a stop on the Q Patrol route, Stone says she was mostly ignored. Stone said two police cars circled the block, but neither stopped to help. Eventually she,

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Man assaulted on Saturday while trying to stop homophobic assault on gay portlander

Despite events such as Hands across Hawthorne, gay bashings keep happening
Despite events such as Hands across Hawthorne, gay bashings keep happening

Despite events such as Hands across Hawthorne, gay bashings keep happening. Photo courtesy of Byron Beck.

Sigh. After hearing the amazing news that so far, we have heard of no violence during Pride Northwest 2011, a gay man and another man who came to his aid were assaulted in Northwest Portland this past Saturday, the Portland Tribune reports in an article on their website.

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Holding Hands in Solidarity this Sunday

Lesbians holding hands in PDX

For LGBT people, holding hands in public can be a safety issue

If you’re in town this Sunday, consider heading to the Hawthorne bridge at 7:30 pm. In response to the attack that took place against two men who were walking across the bridge holding hands last Sunday, community members are organizing a chain handholding walk across the bridge in order to “show solidarity with those who were attacked last sunday for holding hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge”.

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Biggest local news of 2010

E Room/Weird Bar owner Kim Davis. Photo by Jamie Francis / The Oregonian

Portland is a very homo-aware town but we are still small, and news travels fast. Here’s some of the things that caused the most uproar.

5 – Duende censorship, and the Pride parade route change

It was much more upsetting to witness the Rose Festival quash a chaste kiss in the Circus Project’s Duende, nearly forcing the performance to be canceled. There was nearly as much kerfuffle internally in the community when the Pride parade route was taken off the traditionally Stark Street triangle (aka Vaseline Alley). Sometimes the struggle comes from without, but the struggle within is just as powerful.

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New Years for the PDX queer

Have a gay ol' New Years Eve!

Whew! That little snafu this weekend threw me off, but this little procrastinator always comes through in the end. I need enough time to peruse the New Years Eve celebration choices myself at least to prepare for next weekend. So let’s take this trip of queer New Years Eve in Portland:

Tag-a-Fag New Years Edition – For the traditionalists among you, Red Box (what my roommate adorably dubbed the Red Cap/Boxxess complex 1035 SW Stark) TAF will be two rooms full of boys waiting to have their bodies written on. And, in an oddly 2005 style, free trucker hats to the first 100 people in the door. I’d be more stoked about $2.50 wells but that’s just me.

Crave‘ presents a GagaDonna New Years – Quintessential where the girls are usually gets packed early on and stays that way until close. It can be tough fighting the crowds but how do you blame them when the space is night, the jams are pumping, and the drinks are stiff? Plus this is the only place I know of to get real lezzie lap dances from hot ladies. They may be popular, but don’t dare the Crave ladies mainstream…after all they advertise moi, and Lord knows I’m a mouthy queer.

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Benefit to be held for hate crime victim Tim McCubbin

Sketch of the suspect

Last week we told you about the man who was brutally beaten Halloween night and asked for your help in locating the perpetrator. Now we not only know the name of the victim, Tim McCubbin, but there is also a benefit concert scheduled for this Saturday to help fund his extensive medical expenses.

McCubbin reports that on top of a broken nose, and a surgery to repair his left eye socket, he has undergone several surgeries for his developed diverticulitis – an additional injury sustained while his groin was stomped while unconscious, and which has resulted in the loss of a third of his colon and two lacerations on his intestines.

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Presumed gay SE Portland man beaten in hate-crime

Sketch of the suspect in the anti-gay beating

Although the assault happened over a month ago on November 1st the Mercury has just broken the story of a SE Portland man who was gay-bashed while walking home after police issued an alert today.

According to the Portland police alert that went out today, a man was walking home alone from a friend’s house just after midnight on November 1st and had to cross over the scary, barbed wire-encircled pedestrian walkway that goes over the train tracks at SE 16th and Brooklyn. This is an unsettling area—there is not much light at all and neighbors built an unpermitted skatepark at the base of the walkway, in part because the land was derelict and a magnet for crime.

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Q Patrol offers first training on Monday, July 12th

Q Patrol Portland

Q Patrol Portland

Q Patrol, a local initiative started in the wake of recent attacks on LGBTQ Portlanders has announced that they will be holding their first training session at the Q Center. According to the founders, the first training session will focus on” responsibilities, duties, and organization–and there will be a brief question and answer session following the training presentation”.

The organization is queer-run and affiliated […]