Oregon City Pride Night was held for the first time on Saturday at 4 p.m. despite some revisions made by organizers before the event in response to criticism from a variety of groups. Mayor Denyse McGriff and other city leaders demonstrated their support.
McGriff said –
“It feels really great. It’s about the same feeling I had four years ago when we had the first Juneteenth event here in Oregon City.”
“So I’m just glad to see the community coming out and celebrating each other and having a really positive environment today.”
Once the event began at the Good Burger Shack and Archbridge Taphouse, it featured vendors, music, drag story time, and other events, which were primarily sponsored by Cascade Counseling and Consulting.
A portion of the proceeds and donations went to The Living Room, a Clackamas County-based organization that supports queer and transgender adolescents.
Bee Degraw said –
“It’s so important to have events like this and to highlight organizations that do things like what we do with LGBTQ+ young folks in particular.”
“There’s a lot of things happening in Oregon, and across the country, and across the world that cause a lot of anxiety, and I think it’s really important now more than ever to celebrate queer joy as much as we can.”
Additional funds will be donated to the Oregon City Children’s Theatre, where approximately one-third of participants identify as LGBTQ+. Wesley Hanson, the event’s organizer, appeared in drag as Mizz Ecstacy Inferno.
The organizer told –
“I was beaten, I was thrown in lockers, I had my head shoved in toilets all because of who I was. And I wanted no kid in this city to ever go through what I had to go through.”
“In the end, we always prevail because love will always win.”
Do you know that one of the six women whose strange deaths were discovered in Portland, Oregon, was buried in her mother’s wedding gown, according to her mother? Charity Perry, age 24, was laid to rest in a ceremonial robe on Wednesday (21 June) in remembrance of her hope that her parents would reconcile one day:
Not all attendees were enthusiastic about the event. In addition to the backlash on social media, a group of self-identified Proud Boys staged a demonstration a few blocks away from the primary event.
They clashed with counter-protesters, leading to the arrest of two individuals for disorderly conduct. However, Pride attendees stated that their presence did not dampen their celebration.
Attendee Nicole Ausmus said –
“I feel like there are some voices that are very loud but they’re very few.”
“And I want to remind everybody who feels like maybe they can’t come out, maybe they can’t be who they are — there are many, many more people out here to support you than there are people who hate you.”
Despite the fact that the Pride Vendor Market and drag show had to be postponed and relocated due to parking and security concerns, organizers stated that the event’s overwhelming support and attendance also contributed to the need for a larger venue.
Mizz Ecstacy Inferno said –
“Everyone said Oregon City was not ready and didn’t want a Pride. And I’m here to prove that is absolutely wrong.”
“Because if you look in there right now, you can see all the love, the support and everything. And for all the hate that was thrown at us. I would say the love, as you can tell, is about 400% more than anything that was given to us from the hate side.”
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