Feature
Did You Bring It?
A look back on Portland Pride 2008
By Stephen Marc Beaudoin
Photos by Marty Davis
There’s at least one aspect of Portland Pride 2008
that’s earning unqualified raves for being brought
this year: the weather.
Sunny and mild in the mid to upper 70s, the weekend
weather June 14 and 15 provided a spectacular
setting for Portland’s annual Gay Pride festival and
parade, as an estimated 45,000 sexual minorities and
allies turned out in full plumage for what Portland
Area Business Association president Michael Long
characterized as “a really nice showing of community
across the board,” replete with informational booths
at Waterfront Park, a sedate parade by most Gay
Pride standards and a nebulous mass of queers
crowding downtown who Long said were “generally
well-behaved.”
“It was pretty chill,” said 28-year-old Jessie
Haungs, who toured the waterfront booths and sampled
the mainstage entertainment with her girlfriend. “It
was very mixed, which is cool,” she added,
commenting that it was “nice to see the range that
we have in the queer community.”
Many people interviewed noted the “range” of queers
and allies present for this year’s Pride
festivities, themed “Pride. Bring It.” Andy McQueery,
33, attending his first-ever Portland Pride, marched
with a group of 18 queer and allied members of his
Southwest Portland Episcopal church, St. John the
Baptist.
“There is a movement at work in all denominations to
work toward the full inclusion of everybody in the
religious community,” he noted. Does he feel it’s
important for the Portland-area sexual minorities
community to see faith-based groups at Pride?
“Absolutely,” he says. “It is so important for them
to see that there are mainline, mainstream religious
traditions who are saying that the James Dobsons of
the world do not speak for us.”
While enthusiasm ran high on the street, the
festival and its organizers—the nonprofit Pride
Northwest—did not escape criticism concerning this
year’s Pride. Some attendees, like PABA’s Long,
sounded long-familiar criticisms of the fest, like
wanting to move the parade back to Saturday after
several years of falling on Father’s Day. “Who wants
to choose between Father’s Day and Pride?” he asked,
noting he himself had elected, with regret, to skip
Dad’s Day activities this year for the eighth
straight year to attend Pride.
Still other Pride attendees were less flattering in
their assessment of the event.
“Lame” is how 27-year-old arts advocate Brian T.
Wilson dismissed the waterfront festival this year.
After hosting a pre-parade brunch at his Old Town
loft with partner Eric D. Olson (himself a former
Pride Northwest board member), he led a large group
of friends to the parade, which he derided for “a
lack of drag queens and entertainers and shirtless
men.” He also cast a critical eye on the Pride
Northwest board of directors.
“Portland is full of smart and interesting creative
people, and the board doesn’t reflect that,” Wilson
said. He went on to suggest Stumptown queers outside
Pride Northwest organize an ad hoc meeting “to
discuss the direction of where Pride should go” and
even offered a preliminary recommendation in advance
of such a meeting: “Portland should take a year off
Pride—and let’s see how people respond to that.”
000
Number Crunch
Time
The Facts of Pride
by Jaymee R. Cuti
With rainbow balloons popped and hangovers remedied,
Monday morning quarterbacking gives way.
Immediately following the Portland Pride parade and
waterfront festival, Just Out asked readers, via our
Web site, to share their experiences. We heard calls
for a dance floor, better enforcement on the smoking
ban, arguments against a smoking ban and complaints
against slobbery pooches and their unruly leashes.
The weather and entertainment, particularly Lady
Miss Kier, received the highest praise.
Pride Northwest released some preliminary numbers,
announcing that revenue from gate entry was down and
that beverage sales were up from last year: $53,498
in 2007 at the gate compared to $45,232 in 2008, and
$33,546 in 2007 beverage sales compared to $42,569
in 2008.
Pride Northwest’s preliminary revenue totaled
$176,000, compared to $189,198 in 2007.
Pride’s first food drive for Esther’s Pantry,
a program of Our House of Portland, collected 600
pounds of food.
Pride Northwest was strapped tightly, with two board
members taking on multiple personalities. The event
was put on by president Debra Porta; parade
coordinator and treasurer Pat Olson; volunteer
coordinator Angela Ogren; Pride Northwest staff
member Mark “Zebra” Thomas; and Hank Renfrow, who,
at 30 weeks pregnant, acted as vice president, media
relations coordinator, secretary and interim
entertainment coordinator; plus a core group of 12
volunteers.
Renfrow encourages those with opinions about how to
improve Portland Pride to volunteer or join the
board. Applications are available at
www.pridenw.org,
and elections are held in the fall.
