Eyes Wide Open: From the letter "C" to the letter "Q" and everything in between

(originally posted 4/09 at wordpress.com)


by Talia Jae Potter

As an active student leader on my campus at PCC I have noticed quite a few interesting responses to our activities and use of words. Our director told us this job wasn't going to be easy. In fact, she straight out said it would be hard and there would be name-calling, stereotypes, and general repercussions for working at a Women's Center.

People like to take what they think they know and fill in the blanks. A center full of girls that promotes women and has clubs such as Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) and United Sexualities? They must be a bunch of crazy lesbians who burn bras and hate men. The Vagina Monologues?? Or more likely they would say, "The uh... the .... those monologues?? What is it called??" Is the play just talking vaginas? Is it women dressed as vaginas? Are men allowed? I have actually been asked all these questions.

ACTION ALERT! Fred Phelps' group to protest PSU's QRC and gender neutral bathrooms

(originally posted 11/08 at wordpress)

The Rev. Fred Phelps' people from the Westboro Bapstist Church (the "God Hate's Fags" people) are planning a protest on Monday morning, November 24, at the corner of 13th and SW Market. They will be protesting PSU's Queer Resource Center and, specifically, the concept of gender neutral bathrooms.

They refer to PSU on their web site:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html

If you scroll down to 11/24, you'll see it on there.

The Queer Resource Center is mobilizing folks to get together for a counter-protest. There will be an organizational/poster making meeting at the QRC at 1pm on Friday. We will meet at the QRC on Monday morning at 7 am to pickup the posters and walk down to the site together. If you need any further information please call the Queer Resource Center at 503-725-9742.

Trans Awareness Month at Portland State University

(originally posted 10/08 at wordpress)

Portland, or, OCTOBER 17, 2008: The Queer Resource Center at Portland State University will be observing Trans Awareness Month during the month of November with a variety of informative and educational events. Activities will culminate November 20^th for Transgender Day of Remembrance with a performance by critically acclaimed artist Scott Turner Schofield and a candlelight vigil to recognize and remember individuals who have been victims of anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. All events are free and open to the public.

 

Scott Turner Schofield is a man who was a woman, a lesbian turned straight guy (who is mostly read as a gay man) creating theater about gender and sexuality in the Deep South. Not surprisingly, his work centers on contradictions and comedy. His FREE performance will take place Thursday, November 20^th from 8:00 to 9:00pm in the Portland State University Smith Center Ballroom (Smith Room 355). The performance follows a candlelight vigil in the PSU Park Blocks (SW Park & Montgomery) from 6:30 to 7:30pm, featuring speeches by trans therapist and author Reid Vanderberg, "Spirit of Pride" award winner Laura Calvo, and Jenn Burleton, Executive Director at TransActive.

 

A Trans 101 workshop will be offered Wednesday, November 5^th from 12:30 to 1:30pm in room 298 of the Smith Memorial Student Union (1825 SW Broadway). The following week, on Wednesday, November 12^th from 12:30 to 1:30pm, a Beyond the Binary Panel Discussion (also in room 298 of the Smith) will highlight the wide variety of gender identities and sexual orientations that make up the GLBTQ community. Every Friday in November the QRC will be showing films with trans themes as part of their Friday Film Series from 4 to 6pm in the Queer Resource Center (Smith room 401).

 

Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder in 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project (http://www.rememberingourdead.org) and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Since then, the event has grown to encompass memorials in dozens of cities across the world, and on many college campuses is observed as part of Trans Awareness Month.

 

The Portland State University Queer Resource Center strives to provide a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning students, staff, faculty and their allies to be, to learn, and to work together. For more information, visit them on the web at http://www.qrc.pdx.edu.

Herstory: Gladys Bentley

(originally posted 03/08 at wordpress)



by mae stephenson

Gladys Bentley (1907 - 1960)

Audio Clip from www.queerculturalcenter.org

Gladys Bentley was an out lesbian blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance. She moved to Harlem from Pennsylvania at age 16 and began performing at rent parties (thrown by artists for a cover charge to raise rent), soon graduating to speakeasies and nightclubs. She gained immense notoriety for her raunchy renditions of popular songs, always performed in her signature tux and top hat. She began recording her music in the 1930's, and while politics of the era forced her to forego including her songs with lesbian lyrics, she still performed them at clubs and attracted a predominately gay audience. Once the "lavender scare" and McCarthyism hit in the 1950's, Bentley became a prime target an as out lesbian bulldagger in the entertainment industry. Despite her previous marriage to a white woman in New Jersey, she quickly married a man and began wearing dresses, touting salvation via the consumption of female hormones. Her efforts to survive in a dangerous era are seen as a piece of her important herstory.

For more information, visit http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Bentley/BentleyBio.html or http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/lesbiansinhistory/p/GladysBentley.htm