One of the many problems of trophy projects is that they take away money needed for basic maintenance. When Bob and I bike from Mt Tabot to the Hollywood Farmers Market we must navigate through several streets with potholes. Jonathan Maus has the ear of the mayor and gets the funding for dedicated bicycle lanes that are part of a trophy project in part of the city where there are few cyclists. The result being the rest of us can’t get our streets repaved.
The problem with Pride is that it has become Mardi Gras without Lent, and Halloween without the Day of the Dead. It is all celebration, display and license, with no counterweight of seriousness, memory or restraint.
Pride once had such a counterweight. It arose from a period when gay men and lesbians faced real legal and social disabilities and were fighting for equal treatment under the law. The celebration had a point because it stood against shame, secrecy and second-class citizenship.
That history has largely disappeared from the event. Pride is now treated as an end in itself and as an annual celebration of identity, sexuality and transgression. It is no longer a protest against the establishment. Government agencies, corporations, schools, hospitals and politicians have made it part of the establishment.
That is bad for the culture because every festival of excess needs limits and context. It is also bad for gay men and lesbians because it obscures what the gay-rights movement actually achieved: the right to live ordinary, invisible lives as equal citizens. In its present form, Pride makes it easier for critics such to reduce the entire movement to a public celebration of sexual behavior, which it was not.
I thought June was pride month. Why in the hell is it still going on at the end of July? I only get one day out of the year and I still have to pay the bill for the other ten or so family members at brunch that day.
How Mr. Cheverton continues to maintain his sanity and journalistic exceptionalism is beyond me. Living in, and writing about, the chaos Portland has become requires a special thanks. Please keep on with your reporting!
At Portland Pride (July 2026), queer-led activist groups like 'Rainbow Bloc' explicitly claimed to honor 'Palestinian resistance in all its forms,' framing October 7th as a prison break rather than a terrorist attack. This rhetoric directly alienates Jewish LGBTQ+ community members and is frankly anti-Semitic.
From the earliest days of the gay-rights movement, ideologues have been telling gay men and lesbians what our larger mission should be. The commie beatnik Harry Hay cast gay men as mad poets and mystics. Later activists assigned us the tasks of dismantling the patriarchy, overthrowing capitalism, abolishing the police and subverting the family. Now we are expected to support every movement described as resistance to settler colonialism.
This is not merely exhausting. It is presumptuous, high-handed and exploitative. It treats gay people as political property and borrows the moral authority of the gay-rights struggle for causes that have nothing to do with us.
In the real world, gay men and lesbians do not see themselves as a revolutionary class. They want to build ordinary lives, hold their own political views and be left alone. Gay people are citizens, not an ideological regiment. The real liberation would be for activists to stop telling us what our existence means and what duties supposedly follow from it.
The "Rainbow Bloc" heroes should deliver their "honor" to the Palestinians in person. The gracious response would be to execute them all by 'de-roofing.' What in the world are the Alphabet People thinking!
Sometimes, as Sigmund Freud said “a cigar is just a cigar.”
Frank Gable was unanimously convicted of the murder of Michael Francke, and subsequently lost all of his direct appeals.
Only when an unelected federal magistrate, with no criminal experience, bought the conspiracy theory and a federal appeals court blocked the prosecution attempt to re-prosecute Gable.
One of the many problems of trophy projects is that they take away money needed for basic maintenance. When Bob and I bike from Mt Tabot to the Hollywood Farmers Market we must navigate through several streets with potholes. Jonathan Maus has the ear of the mayor and gets the funding for dedicated bicycle lanes that are part of a trophy project in part of the city where there are few cyclists. The result being the rest of us can’t get our streets repaved.
The problem with Pride is that it has become Mardi Gras without Lent, and Halloween without the Day of the Dead. It is all celebration, display and license, with no counterweight of seriousness, memory or restraint.
Pride once had such a counterweight. It arose from a period when gay men and lesbians faced real legal and social disabilities and were fighting for equal treatment under the law. The celebration had a point because it stood against shame, secrecy and second-class citizenship.
That history has largely disappeared from the event. Pride is now treated as an end in itself and as an annual celebration of identity, sexuality and transgression. It is no longer a protest against the establishment. Government agencies, corporations, schools, hospitals and politicians have made it part of the establishment.
That is bad for the culture because every festival of excess needs limits and context. It is also bad for gay men and lesbians because it obscures what the gay-rights movement actually achieved: the right to live ordinary, invisible lives as equal citizens. In its present form, Pride makes it easier for critics such to reduce the entire movement to a public celebration of sexual behavior, which it was not.
Hmm. Ms. Gunderson, has now had two very unflattering articles in the last week showing a pattern. I wrote the other one. Thank you for sharing.
I thought June was pride month. Why in the hell is it still going on at the end of July? I only get one day out of the year and I still have to pay the bill for the other ten or so family members at brunch that day.
How Mr. Cheverton continues to maintain his sanity and journalistic exceptionalism is beyond me. Living in, and writing about, the chaos Portland has become requires a special thanks. Please keep on with your reporting!
Did you see this?
At Portland Pride (July 2026), queer-led activist groups like 'Rainbow Bloc' explicitly claimed to honor 'Palestinian resistance in all its forms,' framing October 7th as a prison break rather than a terrorist attack. This rhetoric directly alienates Jewish LGBTQ+ community members and is frankly anti-Semitic.
From the earliest days of the gay-rights movement, ideologues have been telling gay men and lesbians what our larger mission should be. The commie beatnik Harry Hay cast gay men as mad poets and mystics. Later activists assigned us the tasks of dismantling the patriarchy, overthrowing capitalism, abolishing the police and subverting the family. Now we are expected to support every movement described as resistance to settler colonialism.
This is not merely exhausting. It is presumptuous, high-handed and exploitative. It treats gay people as political property and borrows the moral authority of the gay-rights struggle for causes that have nothing to do with us.
In the real world, gay men and lesbians do not see themselves as a revolutionary class. They want to build ordinary lives, hold their own political views and be left alone. Gay people are citizens, not an ideological regiment. The real liberation would be for activists to stop telling us what our existence means and what duties supposedly follow from it.
The "Rainbow Bloc" heroes should deliver their "honor" to the Palestinians in person. The gracious response would be to execute them all by 'de-roofing.' What in the world are the Alphabet People thinking!
I have always respected Dahlgren for his willingness to show the worst of Portland. This video took more courage than most.
Sometimes, as Sigmund Freud said “a cigar is just a cigar.”
Frank Gable was unanimously convicted of the murder of Michael Francke, and subsequently lost all of his direct appeals.
Only when an unelected federal magistrate, with no criminal experience, bought the conspiracy theory and a federal appeals court blocked the prosecution attempt to re-prosecute Gable.