Attending Portland Pride, in a big way!

[Ceera]

On the weekend of June 16th and 17th, I will be attending the Pride Festival in Portland, Oregon. Portland is the biggest town in the state, and their Pride Festival is held right on the river front in Downtown, and attracts thousands of participants. The Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade is the largest LGBTQ cultural celebration between San Francisco and Seattle. I had avoided attending Pride or other LGBTQ events in Portland in past years, because I wasn't out yet to my family members there. But I am out to those family members now, and accepted by virtually all of them, so here I go!

I will be marching in two of their parades. On Saturday, I will be in the Trans Pride March, with other transgender and non binary folk and our supporters and allies. And on Sunday, I will be in a very visible position in the main pride parade, marching with a group of LGBTQ veterans and service members, right behind the color guard at the start of the parade! I'll also be attending a dance for lesbians and trans women, on Saturday night.

If any of you will also be at Portland Pride, let me know! Maybe we can get together at some point. Happy Pride Month!

[bridget thronton]

Thank you for your service - hope you have great weather

[Lillyasia]

Should be nice. Forecast is for 79 and sunny.
I may go just to get out in some nice weather.

[t-girlxsophie]

Have a wonderful time,I'm sure it will be a memorable day

Sophie

[Jaylyn]

Cheers I to would like to thank you for your service and hope you have a great time representing s also. Thanks

[docrobbysherry]

I did MY part in supporting our LGBT parade and events. I stayed away from them!:brolleyes:

[Ceera]

Follow up report. Portland Oregon’s Pride Festival was amazing. I spent the two days before my trip en-femme, and then, from the moment I hit the road to drive for two hours to get to Portland, untill well after I returned home, I remained female 100% of the time I was in public view. Incidentally, Portland is the city I was born in, and this was my first time attending an LGBTQ event in that city.

I was already fully dolled up and ‘dressed for Pride’ for the drive up, because as soon as I got to Portland, and possibly even before I could be checking into my room, I was going to be participating in a Transgender Rights march. So I was wearing a black t-shirt with a pride flag on the chest, short black skirt, rainbow leg warmers, rainbow sneakers, and a purse with a big rainbow on it. I also had a rainbow colored furry tail clipped to the back of my belt. Stopped for lunch at a truck stop that had a Subway sandwich stop. Everyone treated me like any other female customer - even an older woman ahead of me in the ordering line, who I chatted with. And as I left, one other lady smiled at me and said to me, ‘happy Pride’!

The employees at the hotel were wonderful, from the parking valet to the hotel bartenders. No one misgendered me - not even when I showed my male driver’s license when checking into the hotel. And they let me check into my room two hours early. My hotel was perfectly located, halfway between the Festival site and the park where the parades formed up to start.

Walked just six blocks to the starting point for the Trans march, in a small park in downtown. Met up with several other friends who had also come to the event from my home town. They had several people talk about transgender issues, then we did a parade march about 3/4 of a mile to the Pride Festival site in another park by the river. That went well, with quite a few friendly people lining the streets to watch our parade. We had a brief rain shower during the parade, but the sun came back out soon after.

Next I checked out the festival itself. It covered a section of the park that was almost half a mile long. Pretty much the usual selection of booths selling LGBTQ related merchandise, booths representing various support groups, or businesses and churches that support LGBTQ rights. A nice stage with live entertainment. Food booths, and a few spots selling alcohol. Free photo booths. I also noted that the Festival was just a few blocks away from Portland’s Saturday Market craft fair, which runs all weekend. I did a quick run-through at the Festival site to see what was there, then walked back to my hotel.

On the walk back I had one bad experience. About four blocks from the Festival site, I saw three guys jump another guy and start roughing him up. At least five other people, including me, dove in to break it up - some physically separated the agressors from their victim, while others called 911 or shouted at the agressors to stand down and leave the other guy alone. Cops arrived almost at once. No one got injured, that I could tell. Not even quite sure it was a ‘gay bashing’. The guy that got jumped wasn’t wearing any obvious LGBTQ stuff, and one if the agressors was shouting something about being insulted. But that was the only openly agressive incident I saw.

At my hotel, I grabbed an umbrella and a few tote bags, then returned to the Festival. The rain stayed away though, and I met my friends again. After checking everything out, we walked to a Chinese restaurant together to get dinner.

After dinner, and a change of outfit at my hotel, I went to a nearby LGBTQ bar that had dancing going on. Wore a nicer blouse, and carried a much smaller purse. Danced for several hours, had a few drinks, and had fun. Then went back to my hotel for the night, and got one last drink at the hotel bar before bed. My phone’s fitness tracker said I had logged almost 20,000 steps and 8.3 miles of walking or running that day!

The next day, after breakfast at the hotel restaurant, I went to the start of the main Pride Parade. Weather was hot and sunny, though there were some dark clouds nearby. It was to be a huge parade, with over 145 entries and thousands of participants. I had arranged to march in the third entry in the parade, with a group of LGBTQ veterans, and there were about eight of us there, including an elderly Korean War vet, who rode as a passenger on a motorcycle. I was wearing a navy blue t-shirt that said, “US Navy Veteran - I Served” on the chest, and a dark blue denim skirt, with a rainbow belt and the same rainbow tail, leg warmers and sneakers as the day before. We were supposed to be right behind a military color guard, also consisting of LGBTQ veterans. But the color guard needed two more people to carry flags, and they asked our group if any of us would like to join them! I have been in parade color guards before, so I volunteered, and got to carry the Portland city flag in the parade! Over 60,000 people were in town for the festival, according to local news reports. Lots of happy people lined the streets to watch the parade, which lasted over three hours! Only one hate group was there, about ten people with signs, encamped on the sidewalk at the start of the parade route and shouting nasty things with a bullhorn at the parade marchers. But they limited their bad behavior to hurling insults. We all just ignored them.

While the parade was still going on, I walked over to the Saturday Market area to get some ice cream to cool off, and to get lunch and shop. Found some nice things, and went back to my hotel to drop them off. I also grabbed my umbrella, since those clouds were getting darker, rather rapidly. Was glad I did, because shortly after I got back to the Festival, it started to rain again. Despite the rain, I enjoyed the festival, and bought some more things, both there and at Saturday Market.

That night I treated myself to dinner at a fancy restaurant on the 30th floor of a skyscraper two blocks from my hotel. Had a window seat with a stunning view of the city, and the food was amazing. A thunderstorm rolled through while I was having dinner, and after the storm we could see a double rainbow right over the Festival site. What a great way to end the weekend!

I drove home the next day, after a leisurely breakfast at my hotel. All in all, a fantastic outing!