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Walking up to the Attack From Mars machine, Kayla Black puts on her headphones and queues an album she listens to exclusively while playing pinball.
As two house, the second album by hyperpop, glitchy-electronic duo food house, fuels her dancing stim, Black hops to the music, tuning out the world to focus on scoring for her team. Hands poised over the flipper buttons, she waits for the rhythm to peak before smashing the launch button. The ritual gets her out of her head and into the game.
Black competes in the Portland Pinball League, and she plays for tilt4tilt, or t4t for short, the first all-trans team in the 26-team league.
The name is a tongue-in-cheek nod to “trans for trans,” or T4T, shorthand for relationships and connections between trans people. The team adds its own spin on the acronym, swapping in “tilt,” a reference to the pinball skill of nudging a machine to influence the ball’s movement.
Before Black played on t4t, she and seven other players were on the team Tilt Titans, which dispersed after last season. Tilt Titan Neve Lane approached fellow teammate Becx Shipper about starting their own team—one where all players identify as trans.
Teams have their own home venue and take turns hosting opponents for Sunday night tournaments. Some play at neighborhood bars, including C-Bar and Ship Ahoy Tavern, while others are based at restaurants and music venues like The Fixin’ To or dedicated arcades such as Ground Kontrol or QuarterWorld.
The Tilt Titans called Level Beer 3 in Buckman-Kerns home, a relationship t4t continues. But separate from the weekly league matches, co-captains Lane and Shipper now host their own beginner-friendly public tournaments at Level Beer 3, which are specifically designed to bring trans players together.
Through pinball, the goal is to create an environment where trans players can relax without having to navigate everyday uncertainties, like feeling unsafe using gendered bathrooms or having other players repeatedly use the wrong pronouns.
Level Beer has proven a safe venue, and the new team returned because of their long-standing positive relationship with the staff and the gender-neutral bathrooms. Level even removed the often-ignored shuffleboard to bring in four additional pinball machines.
Lane and Shipper are also concerned with the cost of play, minding the systemic discrimination that limits trans people’s access to stable employment, equitable wages and financial security. Many machines now charge up to a dollar for a three-ball game. Lane and Shipper accept cash and Venmo donations for a community quarter fund so no player is turned away for lack of coins. They’re also applying for grants and plan to begin registering as a 501(c) nonprofit next year.
“Pinball is much more affordable than most hobbies, but it still costs money,” Shipper says. “Whether or not they’re trans, participating in community and hobbies for mental health is a human need.”
On Oct. 19, Sal Petruzelli-Sample arrived at t4t’s fourth tournament ready to play, despite not knowing anyone there. His roommates brought him to the previous t4t tournament, but he sat out that time and got a feel for the community. Though he says he expected pinball to be “super male-centric and very, very masculine,” at t4t, he found kind people of varying skill levels cheering each other on and sharing the fun, without any of the macho ego he associated with competitive spaces.
“Everybody is really open to meeting new people and being really supportive,” he says. “Knowing you’re in a community of people who are a lot like you adds a different level of intimacy.”
Memory O, an independent scholar, trans historian and longtime casual pinball player, never competed in a tournament before joining t4t as a fill-in early in the season.
“Pinball is incredibly intimidating,” O says. Social dynamics, the technical learning curve, unfamiliar machines and a competitive atmosphere can turn away potential pinball converts. But what made O feel welcome was “how dedicated the players on the team were to fellowshipping and welcoming everyone in ways that made them feel valued, seen and important.”
The captains keep tournaments lighthearted with snacks, a guest book, playful themes like “evil pinball” and “The Briefcase,” a collection of prizes that include comic books and art supplies. At the start of every tournament, Mica Prado, who holds the “very unserious title” of unpaid intern, adds to the bit of ice-breaking pageantry by crowning Shipper prom king and Lane prom queen, complete with sashes.
Shipper tells WW that pinball can offer a lesson in resilience: “You will lose every single game—the ball always drains. That gives an opportunity to be OK with failing, trying again and learning something new.”
“Everyone was a beginner at one point,” they say. “We want you here, whether or not you’ve played pinball before.”
Building belonging and normalcy takes on added significance amid concerns about trans safety. Lane mentions the May 2026 murder of Juniper Blessing, a 19-year-old trans woman who was stabbed near the University of Washington’s campus in Seattle. Blessing’s murder reverberated through the trans community, underscoring how, while the Pacific Northwest is perceived as LGBTQ+ friendly, it isn’t free from violence. The murder prompted Lane to think more seriously about her role as a team captain and tournament director.
“It’s not that Portland is [or isn’t] a safe place. It’s that it has safe places, and those places are made by us,” Lane says.
“People think of Portland and Seattle as both very liberal, safe, inclusive cities, and that’s not always the case,” Shipper adds. “It’s nice to think that, but we are keeping each other safe and healthy by creating spaces to be together.”
Lane hopes to expand t4t’s model up the West Coast, including to Eugene, Seattle and Spokane, by encouraging other trans pinballers to take on tournament-director and leadership roles.
Twice a month, t4t hosts tournaments at Level Beer 3. The most recent tournament, t4t’s fifth, drew 36 participants, a significant jump from the 22 players at the fourth. Every first Friday is open to everyone, especially allies; the third Monday event is exclusively for the gender-expansive division, which encompasses all gender expressions other than cis-male. Beginning in January 2027, the group plans to add a third monthly tournament at Ground Kontrol, with free-play cards available to participants.
“Looking around during these tournaments, it feels like we’re building a community that might be important,” Lane says. And if recent player turnouts are anything to go by, t4t may need a whole lot more quarters.
GO: tilt4tilt tournaments at Level Beer 3, 1447 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-714-1222, instagram.com/tilt4tiltpinball. 7 pm first Friday (open to all) and third Saturday (gender-expansive division) of each month. All ages.
