OREGON’S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE
4
northwestnews
JUNE 17, 2011
Pivot Brings Back Billboard
Campaign Following Haw
thorne Bridge Assault
the state’s largest newspaper.”
Bhatia posted a comment on the organiza
tion’s blog in an attempt to “set the record
straight.”
“It was a mistake on the part o f staffers in
charge o f weekend coverage that there was
not coverage o f the rally in The Oregonian ,”
Bhatia wrote. “It was human error, pure and
simple. We should have covered the event.”
But he contested the idea that the omission
reflected a conservative political or moral
perspective.
“Please be clear: There is no ideology involved
in our coverage decisions, from the left or the
right. Suggestions that The Oregonian has moved
rightward in its coverage is nonsense, just as are
the more common assertions from the right
that we have a left bias,” Bhatia wrote. “News
coverage decisions are made by the newsroom.
In this case, we made a bad one.”
Whatever the reason for ignoring the ral
ly—which was covered by nearly every major
media outlet, include Fox 12 News— the sto
ry’s absence was felt.
“This rally was a significant and newswor
thy event. It was covered by almost every ma
jor media organization in the region and even
national outlets,” said Debra Porta, president
o f Pride Northwest and chair o f the Multno
mah County Democratic G L B T Caucus. “To
be ignored as nonexistent by Oregon’s largest
newspaper and self-proclaimed voice for the
region is not only offensive, but demonstrates
poor journalistic standards.”
Progressive Oregon had called The Oregonian
out for failing to report on the rally, which had
an estimated attendance o f more than 4,000
people, while covering 15-person Tea Party
demonstrations. The organization delivered a
petition on June 7 signed by more than 1,400
people to the newspaper’s publisher.
— E r in R o o k
In successive June weekends, Cascade
A ID S Project has set up photo shoots— one
at the Rainbow Room, one at Scandals— for
male couples to be part of portraits, and pose
in affectionate embrace. Not surprisingly, the
project was conjured just a week or so follow
ing the assault o f Pivot coordinator Brad
Forkner and his boyfriend Christopher Rose-
vear, who were reportedly attacked for holding
hands while crossing the Hawthorne Bridge
May 22. Those who took part in the photo
shoots could do so only by agreeing that CAP
and Pivot could use the images for their out
reach campaigns— including on brochures,
the website and beyond.
That also includes billboards— a marketing
campaign you may recall put Pivot’s rebrand
ing efforts in the local spotlight last June. But
in defiance o f the kind o f violence that con
tinues to take place in Portland around Pride
season, CAP and Pivot are engaging in yet
another billboard campaign, with the first to
go up around the end of June.
“After the Hawthorne incident, where we
saw one o f our staff attacked for holding hands
with another guy, it made us realize we’ve still
got a long way to go in normalizing images of
gay affection,” explains CAP executive direc
tor Michael Kaplan.
Cascade A ID S Project’s Men’s Wellness
7
Center underwent a rebranding campaign last
June to become Pivot. Billboards promoting
the change featured the image o f two men
kissing, sending some commuters— and syn
dicated political radio DJ Lars Larson— into
hysterics about the exposure o f a gay kiss in
the public eye.
“When I saw the billboards, I thought they
were pretty innocuous,” Kaplan said at the
time. “They did some racier images and some
things that we ended up not using, but I
thought [those] were pretty tame.”
The new billboard campaign will feature 17
10-foot-by-22-foot boards and one extra large
one. Ih e images taken from the photo shoots
are to be finalized for the campaign by Friday,
June 17. Once the billboards are up, they will
remain for a month.
Fittingly, the end o f June marks the 30th
anniversary o f the first documented cases of
what would later become known as AIDS.
Today, 33 million people worldwide live with
the disease, o f which 1.2 million are in the
United States.
“There are dozens o f reasons to take notice
o f this important milestone,” Kaplan said in a
statement. “CAP has been fighting HIV and
A ID S for 25 o f the last 30 years, and the inci
dence o f new H IV infections has not gone
down in over a decade. The good news is we
haven’t seen an increase.”
Kaplan stressed the need to continue to teach
safer sex practices, and the important puzzle-
piece of reducing gay-related stigma, and HIV/
I-
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