Marching against LGBT assaults in Portland

PORTLAND, Ore.--An estimated 400 people turned out July 23, for a late-night march through Portland's downtown club district to protest a string of anti-gay assaults that have hit the city over the past three months.

The march, titled "We Are Not Afraid," was a marked departure from typical demonstrations. It began at 11 p.m. and weaved through downtown to stop at popular nightclubs and bars, asking them to declare themselves "safe spaces" for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

In May, in full view of several witnesses, a gay male couple was assaulted while holding hands on Portland's Hawthorne Bridge by a group of five men yelling anti-gay slurs. In response that attack, thousands held a vigil on the Hawthorne Bridge on May 29, holding hands to show solidarity with the victims of the attack.

However, assaults against the LGBT community have continued throughout the summer, with at least three reported incidents in June and July. In the downtown neighborhood where the July 23 march was held, a straight man was assaulted in June after coming to the aid of a gay man who was being harassed by two men yelling anti-gay slurs. In July, a 21-year-old lesbian woman was assaulted by a group of men after leaving a downtown LGBT bar, and, at a suburban shopping mall in Clackamas, a gay man's car was vandalized by a group of men yelling anti-gay slurs while he hid inside of it to avoid assault.

Despite these attacks, however, the mood at the July 23 demonstration was upbeat and energetic. Demonstrators first met on the narrow sidewalk outside of a local gay nightclub, CC Slaughters, and heard from speakers, including victims of the assaults, who shared the message that LGBT people will not be intimidated by violence against us.

After a few speakers, the march set off, led by an iconic local drag performer, Bolivia Carmichaels. The crowd chanted loudly throughout the night: "We're here, we're queer, we won't live in fear," and "We are not afraid."

March participants were a diverse group; demonstrators were both LGBT and straight and largely young. Many of them frequent the neighborhood where two of the attacks occurred this summer.

The crowd was pointedly rowdy throughout the march, and people seemed excited to have the opportunity to have their voices heard in an area densely packed with weekend club goers. Although the march was permitted as sidewalk demonstration, narrow sidewalks made frequent forays into the street a necessity.

As the march passed predominately straight nightclubs with dozens of people queued outside, the response was mostly positive; many club goers slapped the hands of marchers as we walked by. There was no visible police presence at the march, nor was one necessary.

POLITICALLY, THE "We Are Not Afraid" demonstration was significant for many reasons. First and foremost, it gave hundreds of people the opportunity to participate in a grassroots mobilization to combat violence against the LGBT community--and it did so by taking a loud, proud stance against anti-gay violence directly in the places where its most likely to occur.

Secondly, hundreds of people came to the demonstration despite it being hastily called by a largely unknown, new LGBT non-profit, the Oregon State Gay Pride Organization. According to Sunny Clark, media coordinator for the group, the organization was founded in May 2011 with the goal of uniting various LGBT organizations in Portland around a common goal of "solidarity in action towards civil rights."

The march also occurred despite opposition from at least one prominent figure within Portland's LGBT community toward the idea of focusing on anti-gay hate crimes as a pressing political issue at all. In an editorial published before the march, Marty Davis, the editor of Portland's largest LGBT-oriented newspaper, Just Out, stated that: "Now is not the time to again demand that the police department, the police chief, the mayor, the attorney general, the governor and on up rush off to again state their combined dedicated interest in protecting our community."

Instead, she argued, the LGBT population should have a "a greater sense of personal responsibility and accountability" and realize that "other crimes" have been committed against "all members" of Portland's population.

Incredibly, for the editor of a newspaper meant to the be the voice of the LGBT community, Davis stated "I don't think our city is besieged by bigots out to batter and bruise the gays" because assaults are "likely to happen to someone."

Four assaults that occurred specifically because of the victims' sexual orientation were dismissed in her editorial as mere happenstance, and LGBT people were criticized for daring to focus on their own right to safety.

Luckily, Saturday's march proved that the people of Portland have a different opinion, and will continue to fight back against assaults based on hate. It proved that the LGBT community and supporters have the ability to organize ourselves at a grassroots level and respond when their rights are threatened.

As struggles for gay rights heat up on different levels--including a possible 2012 ballot measure to win marriage equality in Oregon--we need to ensure that the movement for equal rights maintains its movement on the streets.