Stop hate and violence in and towards our community

Pride is over, our hangovers have subsided, the messes have mostly been cleaned up – but what remains is the foul aftertaste of violence, harassment and threats towards individuals in our community. This is new – what is going on, queer Portland?

The first act of violence during the extended Pride weekend was witnessed at the E Room – where a scuffle/fight broke out at the Gender Bender night. I have heard accounts of the scuffle starting in the Karaoke room, but more than one person mentioned they witnessed a fight in the parking lot. I’m hoping we’ll be able to get an eyewitness account of the happenings. The other acts of violence and harassment took place on Saturday and Sunday, most of them tied to the Blow Pony / Police / Neighbour fiasco that unfolded. I was present at the venue at the time, so for all those who are interested, here is what happened. For all of you who have never been to Blow Pony before, it is held in a ground level bar called Casey’s, with an extra bar/dance floor in a downstairs room called The Eagle Underground. Above Casey’s are apartments.

Most of the trouble seems to have been caused by upstairs neighbours, who allegedly punched one of the event organizers (Airick) in the face and called him a faggot last month. These neighbours had decided to aggravate the usual Blow Po crowds that congregate on the sidewalk to cool off, smoke and chat, by throwing beer and other drinks (I also heard someone say it might have been urine) one people’s heads from their windows.

Casey's Bar sign in Portland - people were pulled out of this door

As a result, partygoers told their friends to not go outside the venue – and then someone called the police (my guess it was likely the upstairs neighbours), who sent a very excitable and bullish officer to the scene, who promptly informed the venue they were over capacity (which Casey’s/Eagle Underground says they were not).
Partygoers who went outside (or even just stuck their head outside) were told they couldn’t re-enter the venue, even with stamps, regardless if they had friends or bags or wallets or drinks inside. The police officer seemed intent on making things worse by shouting at the mass of people through his trusty megaphone from five feet away, instead of addressing the beer-throwing-name-calling situation from above. Tempers started to flare, with people accusing the police and the Blo Po staff of exacerbating the situation. One patron even started shouting at Airick, accusing him of intentionally ripping off patrons, forcing them to pay cover and then not letting them in the venue.

It was clear that most people were hot, mad, and drunk – at one point, it felt a bit like Stonewall 1969, and I have no doubt that if more people were outside and there had been a heavier police presence it would have come to blows. (pun not intended). I also saw people from Blow Po ringing the bells of the apartment upstairs to try and deal with the neighbours – I heard of fights breaking out around the area, people being called names, harassed, insulted, and allegedly someone got their nose broken.  I have also heard that the police were unresponsive to these incidents and didn’t do anything to protect the victims from these attacks. I do not know how and where this happened, so hopefully we will get more information soon.

Police - treat us with respect!

The very excited police officer clearly was more intent on kicking people out of Blow Pony and showed little sensitivity to the fact that people were being harassed by the neighbours, but eventually, after enough people told him to DO SOMETHING, he marched upstairs with an excited grin on his face. (I am not making this up. He was very much enjoying himself, it seemed). At that very same moment, the World Naked Bike Ride passed by on Burnside a block or two away, which ostensibly drew patrons away from the venue, and helped defuse a chaotic and charged situation outside of Blow Pony, and at this point I was able to sneak in  the venue. I found it to be half empty – most of the partiers weren’t even aware of the trouble outside. Things calmed down both inside and out, and we kicked it Blo Po style until 2am.

The next incidents of harassment and violence happened at the waterfront and surrounding areas. QPDX.com and some homies were chillin like villians with some beers at the waterfront when a patron and her dog bumped into a group of friends that obviously had some prior beef – there was violent shoving, there were names called, and the group threatened to “wait outside the gates until she comes out” and apparently, beat up the patron with the dog.

On Sunday, a friend of mine was verbally assaulted and threatened in the Pearl by a drunk man, while standing with some friends and a young child. The man insisted on shaking the child’s hand, and when my friend and the child’s mother resisted, he got aggressive, demanding to know whether my friend is gay, threatening her and called her names.  When the police were called, they stated that a report did not need to be filed because “he was being taken into detox”.

Gays are targets enough - end queer on queer violence damnit!

And these are only abbreviated experiences of everyone involved and there are probably other acts of violence that I didn’t know about or hear about. But what becomes evident is that despite the fact that we live in a queer-friendly bubble here in Portland, queerphobia and transphobia surround us all, and can strike violently at any time. The police  do not have a history of being supportive of queer people – and what I witnessed this weekend was definitely not a passing grade in terms of police conduct. But what also saddens me is the amount of queer on queer violence and anger: Are we really “waiting for people outside the gates” to beat them up? Are we fighting in parking lots at fundraising events for an individual in our community? Really? Really?

Maybe it’s time to take off our party hats and go back to some grass roots organizing. Maybe it’s time for us to realize that queer people are under attack – and I don’t mean DOMA, I don’t mean Prop 8, I mean right here in our fair city. We can have a big parade – but we can’t get the police to treat us like equals when others assault us.

I have heard rumblings of these kinds of sentiments around our community and there is talk of workshops, a town hall meeting and some old-fashioned queer activism. I will post more as soon as I know it, but the tides are definitely turning, make no mistake.

Incoming search terms:

• stop h8te
• hate and violence

Similar news:

• Blow Pony goes off without a hitch but raises questions
• Update on the post BlowPony Violence (bloody imagery ahead)
• Breaking: LGBTQ Community Forum, June 2nd