Blog

When You Wanna be Out but Not Seen... It’s June. Or maybe July. In Portland, who even knows when Pride is or how long it lasts? Still, your group chats are a minefield of rooftop ragers, warehouse raves, and someone’s friend’s girlfriend’s cousin’s queer BBQ that you agreed to “maybe swing by” fully knowing you will not. You keep thinking Shouldn’t I be out there? Doing the body thing? The talking thing? Letting some soft-armed stranger with a birth chart and a Bluetooth speaker wreck me? Or… hear us out…what if you did Pride your way? What if you skipped...

How Trang Nguyen and Wei-En Tan are blending Vietnamese and Singaporean heritage, queer identity, and aviation acrobatics into Portland’s most heartfelt dining experience. photos by Nic Porter

Fire Carriers: Queer AANHPI Icons Who Light the Way They rise from histories both visible and buried, shaped by migration, memory, and the fire of becoming. Their work has shifted culture, challenged systems, and carved out space where there was none. This AANHPI Heritage Month, we honor ten queer Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander visionaries who have shaped culture with the precision of a knife and the tenderness of a prayer.Kitty Tsui. Kristin Kish. Hayley Kiyoko. Lilly Singh. Helen Zia. Jenny Shimizu. Sonya Passi. Kim Coco Iwamoto. Margaret Cho. These icons wielded the tools of diaspora— language, silence,...

At the heart of Portland’s queer community is a barbershop chair that feels more like a sanctuary. It’s where Jules Heron (they/them)—licensed hairdresser, founder of Hair For Humans, and all-around community healer—does their most impactful work. photos by Nic Porter