OREGON S LESBIAN/GAY/BI/TRANS/QUEER NEWSMAGAZINE
JUNE 4 2010
2010 GAY PRIDE
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resting station run by the HIV Day Center,
as well as the presence of Kaiser Permanente,
conducting health assessments for seniors.
But it’s the things that are missing that
have raised some eyebrows— namely familiar
thoroughfares.
Changes in this year’s Portland Pride
Parade have yielded the most concern from
the community, after an already altered route
announced in March was shelved for a new
one that ditches Stark Street for Burnside,
and doesn’t provide any visibility in the heart
o f Downtown Portland, specifically Pioneer
Courthouse Square.
Debra Porta, Pride Northwest board
president, addressed those concerns June 1 in
an open letter to Portland’s LGBTQjcommu-
nity (reprinted, along with the parade route,
on p. 41), citing external policies around the
permitting process as the primary reason for
the revised route.
“Much to our surprise, these policies did
not favor the new route that, based upon a
preliminary approval by the city, we an­
nounced in March,” explained Porta. “We
were not made aware o f these policies at the
time, nor did the city inform us of them until
after the announcement had been made.”
Porta related that Pride Northwest did
not believe the change to be all that signifi­
cant, “especially as the parade will now travel
down the major east/west artery o f the city
and the businesses on Stark Street can con­
tinue to have their block party, which gener­
ates revenue for struggling businesses during
this [tough] economy.”
Internally, Pride Northwest viewed the
switch as a debunking o f a presupposed
visibility stigma—that to march by Pioneer
Square, and Pioneer Square alone, provided
an opportunity to “challenge the notions of
those outside our community about who we
are, as a community.”
“It is partly to educate our straight neigh­
bors, but it is first and foremost a community
celebration for us by us to which we invite
the rest o f the city,” said Porta. “Pride is not
about what ‘they’ think of us, it’s about what
we think of ourselves. In the opinion of the
current board, having the parade on one street
or another should not determine our opinion
o f who we are as a community.”
Also missing this year will be the on-site
HIV testing previously conducted by the
Multnomah County Health Department. This
is the result of both an increase in community
HIV testing capacity—through clinics like the
M C H D ST D Clinic and the Men’s Wellness
Center, as well as budget cuts to M C H D ’s
STD , HIV and Hepatitis C programs.
“We are focusing our outreach and test­
ing efforts on reaching people who are less
likely to test,” explained M C H D Health
Educator Molly Franks. “From data we’ve
collected the past few years, we know that
most people who have tested at our Pride
booth are people who test routinely and ac­
cess the existing testing resources.”
M C H D will be conducting a survey at
Pride to gather information that will inform
their decision-making about offering testing
services at future Pride events, and will have
a booth with sexual health promotion infor­
mation, games and activities.
But for all its metamorphoses, Portland
Pride 2010 remains rooted in a commu­
nity-wide celebration of individuality, self-
expression, fun, food, awareness and visibil­
ity for the LGBTQ_community in its many
fabulous incarnations. It’s these facets of our
community that paint the bigger picture. Up
close, you may see imperfections, but at a
distance, the image becomes clear. Pride is
everywhere. J K
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