A VERY MERRY MAS W O DE
ALTERNATIVE PROM WELCOMES YOUNG ADULTS OF ALL ORIENTATIONS FOR A NIGHT OF FUN
BY ALLIE PERKINS ,
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Teens and young adults showed pride
at Alternative Prom: M asQUEERade, an
event hosted on Oregon City Clackam as
Community College Campus on Saturday,
M ay 4. Alternative Prom is a free event
hosted for teens 14-20 whose sexuality or
gender may make it difficult go to prom in
their own schools. Ain Prom started as a
small gathering of only 20 teens grew into
a massive celebration involving roughly 300
guests. The event included a DJ, and hosted
abunchof organizations to help support the
LGBTQ+youth.
“ T h e reason I decided to create this
[Alt. Prom] event, was because when m y
daughter came out in Clackamas County,
there were no resources out here at all,” said
Carolyn Russel, who helped found Alt. Prom
and The Living Room, a space designed to be
a safe haven for LGBTQ+ youth in Clackamas
County. “ R.E Szego, the other co-founder
and I, went to a Clackamas County meeting
for services for youth, and they were talking
about allthe great stuff that they were doing,
but there was absolutely no mention of any
services whatsoever for queer youth, and
so we raised our hand andR.E. said, ‘What
about resources for gay, bi and trans, kids?’
and they responded, ‘O h, we don’t really
think there are that many out here. ’ ” They
were in shock at the community members
response.
“ T h at w as actu ally how The L iving
Room came to be, the prom came out of
Clackam as County PFLAG, w hich I had
already started w ith another person, we
threw the little prom at a church in Oregon
City, and a bunch of kids cam e. W e were
like, we were onto som ething, there was
a need for som ethin g to. happen in the
Clackamas County. The A lt. Prom is what
initially started The Living Room. There
was like 20-25 kids that showed up the
first year, and then there was like 100 kids,
and then we started The Living Room, and
then we started it here because we ran out
of space,” Russel said.
Aryn Zanca, program coordinator for
The L ivin g R oom expressed th e ir love
for A lt. Prom. “ I th in k that A lt. Prom is
awesome, I love prom .” Zanca explained.
“ It’ s one o f our biggest events o f the year
Clackamas Print -----------------------
GSA member Izzy Hartshorn, left.
Deanna at GLSEN table.
and it ’ s always great to see everybody
and h e lp in g each oth er have a great
tim e ,” they said. “ I do feel like we are
growing. I feel like we m ight have to start
thinking about space and stu ff like that.
I feel like we are always working through
little hiccups around things like that, like
figuring out the photography and stuff. We
try our best but there is always stuff that’s
like, ‘oh n o, it’ s not working because you
can’t see th e bracelets in th e dark!’ And
things like that. I think there are always
little things we can do to improve upon. ”
C C C ’ s Gay S tra ig h t A lliance M em ber
Izzy/Andreas expresses their gratitude
towards A lt. Prom. “ I am part o f the CCC
Gender Sexuality A llian ce, w hich helps
promote the event and I also heard about
it th rou gh The Living Room as w ell. I
don ’ t rem em ber w hich one cam e first
though. ” said Izzy/Andreas. “ I absolutely
love A lt. P rom . The o n ly issu e I have
is so fa r, every song I have requested
played w hile I was out here on the sh ift
instead o f being on the dance floor. But
it ’ s w hatever, I am having a good tim e
otherwise?”
A lte rn a tiv e P rom is a y e a rly ev en t
a n d fo r m o re e v e n t s , c h e c k o u t
t h e liv in g r o o m y o u t h .o r g fo r m o re
in form ation and fo r m ore w ays to get
involved.
The Clackamas Literary Review
Presents
“I njoy the
variety o f
works in this
volume; let
them sink in
and become
p a rt o f who
you are—
Available a t area bookstores and the CCC bookstore , o r at
clackaniasliteraryreview.wordpress.com and other online retailers.
th e c la c k a m a s p rin t.c o m
______ _______________________
May 8, 2019