Other organizations that popped up around this time were Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, Esther’s Pantry (providing food and care to HIV patients), Portland Lesbian Choir, and the grant-making, non-profit Equity Foundation. New organizations began to formĪfter Portland saw its first death from AIDS in 1982, the PALS (Personal Active Listeners) and Cascade AIDS Project were established. The events were sponsored by The Second Foundation, a gay rights organization. In 1975, Portland celebrated its first Gay Pride with indoor events like dances, and an outdoor public festival. Subsequently, in 1974, a law was passed by Portland City Council to bar employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Two years after the formation of the PGLF, Oregon repealed its laws on sodomy, being the fourth state to do so.
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Henceforth, Portland has been active in pursuing LGBTQ rights for the last five decades. In his reply, which was entitled “Dear Gay, Young, and Lonely”, Wilkinson described the secret lives that gay men and women were forced to lead and called for them to come forward to organize what became the PGLF – the Portland Gay Liberation Front. Shortly after the Stonewall riots, John Wilkinson, an openly gay staff writer of the underground newspaper Willamette Bridge, responded to an anonymous classified ad that had been posted to the paper but not included in its publication. The gay communities in Portland started to become visible through local media. Portland even has a Two-Spirit Society that is gaining in popularity. Although this specific term is relatively new, the concept of having two spirits (a person embodying two genders) in indigenous populations has been around for generations that predate LGBTQ. In fact, Native Americans/First Nations have celebrated Two Spirit people for millennia.
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Portland has been active in pushing for inclusiveness for the LGBTQ community for over 50 years. The history of Portland’s LGBTQ community
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In 2008, Portland became the first large city to have an openly-gay mayor after Sam Adams was elected. There are also lots of gay sports leagues and dance clubs, a large amount of LGBTQ owned businesses, and many community organizations. The city is home to drag queen Walter “Darcelle XV” Cole who has held the Guinness World Record for being the oldest drag queen performer in the world since August 15, 2016. The LGBTQ community in Portland is quite extensive. From Queer Film Festivals, Drag Performances, Pride Parades, Dance parties, relaxed bars and more, members of the LGBTQ community who live, work or visit Portland will find the Rose City to be a fantastic gay-friendly city, here is a LGBTQ Guide to Portland, Oregon… The LGBTQ community in Portland