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J
I NEWSMAGAZINE
VOL 25 NO. 17
JULY 3, 2008
It was a weekend of overcrowded dogs, overpriced crab sandwiches
and underappreciated organizers
PAGE 22
My Personal
Pride Retrospective
FEATURE
22 DID YOU BRING IT?
A look back on Portland Pride 2008
NEWS
ortland Pride, June 2008, it’s all over now, save for the memories
and the photos. With this issue of Just Out we provide a hit of
ours. Your memories, of course, remain your own. What happens at
Pride stays at Pride, right?
P
“Pride. Bring It.” That was the theme of this year’s Portland
Pride activities. Bring what, we all asked? The theme, it was decided, was
meant to inspire us individually to bring that which—ah hell, let’s face it, no
one really knows what it meant. Bring it. Bring what? Dogs seem to have been
the most popular choice of those in attendance. They came, they brought
dogs. Big dogs, small dogs. Dog, dogs and more dogs. Pride, of course, is all
about diversity, so in addition to dogs, I also spotted two snakes, a couple of
cats and one ferret. One fella demanded payment to take a photo of his cat.
I declined. For two days a woman stood near our booth stroking a stuffed
toy snake wrapped around her shoulders. I never figured that one out.
Me personally, what did I bring? Well, funny you should ask. Unbeknownst
to me, it turned out that I brought to Pride a hefty dose of pent-up frustration
and anger created by a yearlong rift in an ebbing friendship. Saturday morn
ing started off like a very bad day on The View. Yeah, I brought it all right.
Bringing a simple sack lunch would have been a far better choice.
Now I anxiously wait to see what next year’s theme is. Perhaps something
with a healing message?
The sack lunch, the one I should have brought, would have served me
well on Sunday. A few hours after the parade, amid the mayhem of seem
ingly thousands of people hitting our booth at once, I realized I had gone
far past the reasonable time for eating breakfast and lunch. I was running
on empty and needed fuel. The food booths at the festival on Sunday are in
great demand; a few more choices would be an enhancement. A few more
quality choices, that is. Lines at the booths were long, longer and longest.
Pondering my options, I briefly considered simply grabbing food from a pass
erby and running for it, chewing and swallowing while on the lam. Then, be
hold, there it was. A food booth with no line. Could this be? Was my hunger
manifesting itself by way of delusions? What were these people serving that
no one wanted? Please, anything short of organic vegan root-a-bobs would
do. Sandwiches, it was crab sandwiches that they were attempting to sell, to
no avail. Yup, tiny little $8 crab sandwiches. When I weakly protested the
price, the counter person snarled hack, “It’s crab, fool!” (OK, the “fool” part
was implied, but clearly implied.) Great, I thought, overpriced seafood that’s
been sitting out in the sun all day because no one will pay for it. Would it be
lunch or an express ticket to the port-a-pots? What to do?
I bought one, of course. The minuscule sandwich, accompanied by
lemonade, set me back 12 bucks. To be fair, though, both bites were actually
quite tasty. Better yet, 1 lived to tell about it.
My other thoughts on Pride? Since you asked, a vendor gate needs to be
kept open at all times at the west fence, midsection. Vendors have to lug items
in and out throughout the weekend. Hiking through crowds, clear to either
end of the site, waiting in a long line for re-entry, being searched and hassled is
not a realistic expectation of vendors. I can see that a side gate would not work
for a main entry, as lines would quickly back up into the street. That said, there
still needs to be a clearly marked “vendors only” side entry.
What 1 had expected to see, and didn’t, was a mass of bicycles. Were they
not being allowed in the gate? Was there a bike coral set up under one of the
bridges? An earlier thought of mine was that this would be a great project
for a nonprofit to take on, providing a secure valet bike parking corral. Get
ting bikers to pay—now that would be a separate problem. Two bucks a bike
would be the goal. You’d need 1,000 paying hikers to make it worthwhile to
cover expenses and come out a bit ahead. Maybe the bike community itself
should take this on? Opportunity presents itself for a clever entrepreneur
also. Someone could make some bucks, bring in portable lockers and create
a biker comfort station, not just at Pride, but any and all events in the area.
Would you pay $2 to know your bike and gear were being watched over?
Of course, no one knows what any of us will be doing for transportation
this time next year. “Pride 2009: Bring It on a Bike. Bring It on a Bus.”
What else needs to be mentioned in a Pride overview? Here’s something
that is always missed: acknowledgment from the community that Pride
Northwest is a volunteer organization that annually pulls off a massive un
dertaking, for which it receives little or no credit from the community at
large. How about a thank you from everyone who attended? Did 1 have my
own annoyances with Pride Northwest this year? You bet. 1 felt that this
paper’s 25 years of work to this community could have, and should have,
been acknowledged at some point during the event. Do I have a right to
these feelings? Probably not. Just Out is a business, after all. It’s our job to
do what we do. Am I over it? Sure. After all, we’re now mere years away
from our 30th anniversary; maybe it will happen then.
Next up is Saturday in the Park on July 12 in beautiful—and I mean that
seriously—downtown Vancouver, Wash. Esther Short Park is a delight
ful setting for this calm and enjoyable event. Just Out will be there, with
papers, visiting and chatting as we hand out our purple 25th anniversary
bags. Please come by and say hello. Enjoy lunch at the adjacent Vancouver
Farmers Market, browse the booths of your community groups and business
organizations, and chill out in the grass, enjoying the entertainment. The
park is less than 30 minutes away from most parts of Portland and quite
accessible by bike paths.
As part of my personal Pride retrospective, I’d like to acknowledge
and thank the great vendors who, year after year, accommodate my fran
tic last-minute orders for Pride materials. Each and every year I know
exactly 52 weeks in advance when the next Pride Weekend will occur.
Each and every year I wait until the last minute to order supplies—the
types of items that say “four to six weeks for delivery” in their respective
catalogs. Year after year I make frantic phone calls, and year after year
Witham & Dickey, Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, The Lippman Company and
Signs by Tomorrow pull it off for me. 1 swear, guys, next year I will order
earlier. Really, I will.
hile the staff of Just Out worked diligently to produce two of our largest
issues of the year, we were plagued by destructive Web terrorists who
were determined to bring down the Just Out Web site. (“Blog Out” remained
safe.) We fought valiantly for several weeks but ultimately had no recourse
but to dismantle the main Just Out Web site. The hackers won. At our level
of sophistication we were incapable of warding off attack. There are very
technical ways to describe what happened. 1 understand none of them. What
1 do know is that somewhere, apparently in Europe, a group of [expletive
deleted) caused me a great deal of trouble and expense; along the way they
frustrated the hell out of a lot of you, too.
The good news is that now we do have a new site back up and running.
I think of it as my preemie. Delivery of this new site was not expected
until November. We had to work frantically to bring it up now. Watch us
8-17 NORTHWEST
Pride of the Rose Scholarship breaks record;
Equity Foundation lets you award the grants;
Oregonian awarded Point Scholarship;
insurance laws deciphered for domestic
partners; queer and allied students awarded
PFLAG scholarships; BRO reaches out
with new hire; Mahon misses; transgender
child caught between two worlds; OBT’s
banner year; PFLAG celebrates 25 years
18-19 NATIONAL
Study predicts California will profit
from marriages; Florida lesbian sues
hospital for mistreatment; New York
partnership improves services to queer
youth; Tennessee freight lines sued
for firing transgender trucker
20-21 WORLD
Budapest police chief bans, unbans Pride;
Anglican Church gay wedding causes
uproar; gay life in Albania is not good;
U.K. Foreign Office issues gay rights kit
to embassies; Lebanese lesbians form
new organization; same-sex marriage
bill to be introduced in Tasmania
ARTS & CULTURE
40 NIGHTLIFE
Drag entertainer portrays fictional pom star
from novelist Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff
42-45 FILM
Garden
Party traces
intersecting
stories of
annoying
douches in
Los Angeles;
Northwest
Film Center
screens Derek
Jarman
retrospective
47 MUSIC
Elder folk
legend
teams with folk-punk icon to
bring generations together
COLUMNS
37 OUTGOING
Beat the Heat
change and develop. We are bringing serious meaning to the phrase “work
in progress.”
The Just Out Web site staff consists of one very overworked and under
paid person. Ashley Austin wore herself to a frazzle trying to keep on top of
the mess that greeted us every morning for the past few weeks. All of you
would be lucky to have someone as dedicated to your business as Ashley is
39 CORNER VIEW
The Darkest Night Will End
to Just Out.
Now we move on to election 2008. The race for Gordon Smith’s Senate
41 SASSY GARDENER
Raising Roses in the City of Roses
seat is significant to all of us—perhaps as much as, if not more so, than the
presidential race, a contest that appears to have already been won. We’ll
talk to the candidates, to the supporters, to the opposition. We may even
talk to you.
Stick around—there’s more than summer weather heating up in
these parts. ©
38 EPIQUEEREAN
Hip Hop Houses
48 JIM'S CLOSET
Losing His Religion
58 MS. BEHAVIOR
Am I Dating a Vampire?
LU
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