JUNE 13, 2008
juStpUt!5
letters
Consider It Brought
To the E ditor :
I was disheartened after reading Stephen Marc
Beaudoin’s editorial “Buyer Beware” [May 30].
After Mr. Beaudoin conducted a lengthy in
terview with me, I can only conclude one of two
things: Either I failed at representing the hard work
this board has done over the past several years to
make Pride less corporate, or Mr. Beaudoin was
simply paying us lip service by interviewing us
and had a clear agenda, which he was unwilling to
stray from. Knowing the content of the interview,
I would err on the side of the latter. I think this is
a highly unethical practice.
To clarify some information I shared with Mr.
Beaudoin, which did not make it into his edito
rial, I am referring to the notes I used during our
interview.
1. Despite Mr. Beaudoin’s claims, securing
funding for Pride is a struggle every year. We do
not have “companies [corporations] dying to shell
out big cash to Pride.” I was very clear that our
best guess on why we had a reserve at the end of
the year is the dramatic overhaul of our entry pro
cess. In years past, people with aprons stood in a
wide berth as people poured into the festival. Last
year we had cash boxes, turnstiles, security guards
and orderly lines. This is much more conducive to
collecting donations. Gate revenue exceeded pro
jections by 38 percent, whereas sponsorship fund
ing was just under our projections. Approximately
18.31 percent of our revenue from last year came
from sponsorships, and only four of those were
national corporations. Only three of our monetary
sponsors this year are national corporations.
2. In regard to our reserve, Beaudoin quips,
“Great—now where’s the community payback?”
This year Pride Northwest sponsored and pro
vided monetary or other services for Black Pride,
Portland Gay Latino Pride, the Northwest Film
Festival, Basic Rights Oregon, Q Center, Gay and
Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest and
Our House. We also provide a youth tent (run
by the Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center)
and a family tent (run by Pregnant/Planning
Lesbians of Portland). Additionally, 1 informed
Mr. Beaudoin that with some Pride celebrations
going under, our goal is to have a rainy day fund
so if we had a bad year, there could still be a Pride
the following year. Sustainability and giving back
are our goals.
3. Many of the corporate sponsors Mr.
Beaudoin notes in the parade are not our sponsors;
they are queer employee groups who paid nothing
more than an entry fee. This year, about 90 percent
of parade and festival participants are local nonprofits,
local businesses and community groups.
Finally, 1 would have been happy to share the
meaning of this year’s theme, “Pride. Bring It.”
With all of the hard work this community has been
doing to secure the rights of queers in this state, it
is up to each of us to become activists by coming
together in solidarity to sign up to give back to the
community at the Pride festival. Boycotting Pride
is not the answer, bringing “it” is.
H ank R enfrow
Pride Northwest Board Member
You're Gonna Miss Me
To the E ditor :
I’m guessing you might get a handful of angry
e-mails regarding the “Comer View” article titled
“Buyer Beware.”
Pride festivals across the country are a symbolic
event. As a young queer kid, Pride was something
I looked forward to all year. It was the one event
where I could find “my people” and feel like a part
of something bigger. It is an institution, a place
for the young kids to find a touchstone away from
their suburban hellholes and an opportunity for
all of the older gay and lesbian folks to reap the
benefits of all of the hard work they’ve done to get
us to a place where we can gather in public and
celebrate our community.
It’s not always perfect, and the realities of plan
ning any volunteer-led event include the need for
corporate sponsorship. Ask anyone on the plan
ning committees where the money is coming from
and going to, and you may find the realities are
not that corporations have “bought Pride” but
that they are very helpful in helping defray the
costs of this very expensive institution. (For ex
ample, last year corporate sponsors contributed
about 25 percent of the total cost of Pride.)
And I’m not sure what Mr. Beaudoin’s prob
lem is with the gay employee groups of corpo
rate entities, but I just have to say this: Isn’t it
nice to live in a time where people can be out
and proud in the workplace? I, for one, applaud
the organizers of Pride Northwest for keeping
it going during a time of inexplicable “Pride
fatigue.”
Your writers can piss and moan about “how
bf/kej in
Portland
Right on the Money
To the E ditor :
A friend sent me Stephen Marc Beaudoin’s
column about Pride and corporations with the
recommendation that 1 write you an angry letter.
Well, I just read the column and am deciding
to write in support of his position. Why I’m do
ing so is this: because Portland Pride has become
a sanitized, boring noncelebration of LGBTQ
“pride” with no real meaning or purpose. And I
think, like Beaudoin, that corporations taking
over the festival have something to do with it.
I haven’t been to other Gay Prides around the
country or the world to know what they look like
or feel like, but I know I am sick and tired of hav
ing so many businesses and corporations pushed
on me during the Pride festival and having my
pride being sold out to top-dollar sponsors.
Now, wait. I understand that Pride festivals
need to do fund raising to sustain their opera
tions; I’m not naive. But why should they also ask
for donations from private citizens to underwrite
the festival if their corporate sponsorships are so
flush? It just doesn’t make sense.
I didn’t agree with 100 percent of what
Beaudoin wrote in Just Out, but I thought his
points about Pride festivals needing to be more
about community and activism and engagement
as opposed to hawking your goods and “attaching
a price tag to each of our queer bodies” was impor
tant and interesting.
I bet he got some hate mail for having the guts
to write that. I, for one, think he’s right on the
money (no pun intended).
A nthony “T ony ” G ramble
Portland
Backbone of the Community
To the E ditor :
I fully understand the desire to give your writ
ers the freedom to express their views, but I must
say I was shocked to see this come from Just Out.
To characterize the entire Pride festival as
nothing more than a corporate money-grubbing
festival is nothing short of completely cynical. For
G ary B oyer
Portland
History Lesson
To the E ditor :
I am a Wells Fargo team member who has
participated in Portland’s Pride festival, and I’m
offended by Stephen Marc Beaudoin’s “Buyer
Beware” column in the May 30 edition of Just Out.
I think what Beaudoin fails to see is that for
many of us, walking in the Pride parade under
our employer’s banner isn’t so much about sell
ing a product, but showing our individual pride in
working for a company that supports who we are
in the workplace.
As a Wells Fargo team member, I take a lot of
pride in the fact that I don’t have to worry about
“being out” at work. I want Portland to know that
Wells Fargo isn’t afraid of associating its name
with the gay community.
Beaudoin should also do some homework and
look into how much money these large corporations
he is quick to shun donate to GLBTQ organizations.
In return, for one weekend out of the year, we cel
ebrate our pride and commitment to the community.
Beaudoin says he doesn’t need to remind
anyone of the activist, radical spirit of Pride fes
tivals of the ’60s and ’70s where queers gathered
for community, action and purpose. First of all,
I wonder what a 28-year-old really knows about
Continued on Page 7
In Your Life, In Your Investments
a novel by Eowyn Wood
LOW. SEX. POWER.
Initial consultation with no charge or obligation
River and Brian run away with drcams of escaping their abusive
homes and exploring the world. Bur reality hits as they wander the
streets of Los Angeles: no money, no ftxid, nowhere to go. Until
they’ meet a stranger who will change their lives forever...
Lured into a world of drugs, sex and power; a world of seductive
beauty and ter ride secrets. Can they escape? Do they want to?
“The entire book consumed me wholly. I already miss the boys.
I don’t recall reacting so strongly to a Ixiok before."
Local entertainer Poison Waters
A imee G enter
Diversity Matters -
^./in
“I am certainly recommending this book.” Just Out
years I have hosted my booth at Pride and had
the opportunity to talk with every facet of our
community, from young people just coming out to
old people just coming out. People come from far
and wide to get to be a part of a special occasion
where one day a year they get to be the majority.
I have talked with men in dresses and women in
not much of anything who get to be proud, open
and free.
And I am one of the people your reporter
doesn’t like. I have been there for my business.
Without the many dedicated members of the
GLBT community who support everything from
our local gay and lesbian choirs to Our House to
the Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and, oh
yeah, Basic Rights Oregon, most of those groups
would not exist. Those businesses that your re
porter finds so offensive are the ones that are the
backbone of the groups fighting for our rights.
bad Pride has gotten” all you want, but 1 bet
they’d sure miss it if it were gone.
SAVE $5 with discount code
PR2008 at crookedhils.com
Adult content
• Comprehensive Financial Planning (Fee Based)
• Life & Disability & LTC Insurance *
• Inheritance & Estate Planning
t) 011 LI -
• IRAs, Roth IRAs, Rollovers
• Tax & Retirement Planning
Æ
wio a pian*
Member SIK
• Investing with o Conscience
0HwUike»fherroRfeme«hw4i
t»mpo«m
A®