NEWS

A New Arrival Reminds Us How Lucky We Are to Live in Portland

“I just fell in love with feeling more than tolerated,” says Tiffany Rodriguez.

Tiffany Rodriguez. (Tim Saputo)

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For WW’s annual Pride Issue, Andrew Jankowski penned a really impactful introduction to a really intense package that examines Pride through a really wide lens.

One passage in particular really got me together. “More people love us than don’t, even if they don’t always use the best words and actions to express it….The peace, love and sense of belonging we create for ourselves and one another travels beyond our social bubbles. All kinds of people can feel it.”

This is a shitty timeline, no argument, but there are also rays of hope in this package. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence exist, and they are superheroes. Portland is a LGBTQ+ haven attracting new families from intolerant states. Trans kids feel safer here. There is so much hope and love and joy and light up in here.

This week, I’m talking with one of the subjects of Anthony Effinger’s contribution to this week’s package, “They Arrived.” My guest is Tiffany Rodriguez, who moved to Portland with her wife and young daughter from Texas, when their once-progressive town began to feel too unsafe to be tenable. Tiffany will remind us how lucky we are to live in Portland.

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Brianna Wheeler

Brianna Wheeler is an essayist, illustrator, biological woman/psychological bruh holding it down in NE Portland. Equal parts black and proud and white and awkward.

Willamette Week reports the stories worth knowing, from City Hall to the people and places shaping Portland.

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