P o r tla n d , O r e g o n
think people would prefer I just keep my mouth shut,” Byron Beck
admits, “but I’ve always been that way. 1 just can’t help having the
opinion that I have.”
The difference between Beck and any other outspoken homo in
Portland is that he gets to share his outlook every Wednesday
with readers of Willamette Week in a column he’s dubbed “Queer W in
dow.” Yet, this 40-year-old gay man never expected to be a journalist, nor
happily settled with a partner in Portland.
“I grew up in The Dalles, and it got worse from there," he says, only
half-joking about his childhood. “I thought I was alone. I didn’t even think
about being a gay person. I just thought I was different— so different that 1
would never fit in.”
Continued on Page 14
inside
FREE
Byron Beck
attends
Peacock in
the Park with
his partner,
Ju an Martinez
(right), and
Steve Lofton,
a Portland
foster parent
who is fighting
Florida’s gay
adoption ban