Skip to main contentFilled out your survey yet?
"What survey?" you ask.
Well, for those who don't know, a nonprofit group called the Queer Community Center Fund is asking homos to fill out a confidential questionnaire. It asks what services they might want (child care, legal aid, medical services, etc.) if Portland were to create its own LBGTQ community center, just like the ones in Los Angeles, San Francisco and a slew of other cities.
It came as sort of a shock when Mayor Katz's very own chief of staff, Sam Adams, asked me to meet him to discuss the research being done by the QCCF. Over iced peppermint tea, the openly gay political powerhouse made it clear that the survey has become a personal passion. When I told him it sounded a lot like how lesbians build consensus through process, Adams shot back, "Then I'm a lesbian. [This survey] will help us find out who we are, where we are and where we want to go, regardless of what happens to the community center. This is a start."
Sure, it may be a start, but I wonder where it is going.
You see, I have yet to fill out the queer query, even though the Aug. 1 deadline is fast approaching. And I have stalled writing about it in my column until now, even though it could be one of the most important opinion-gathering projects ever to cross paths with our community.
It's not that I'm lazy.
It's worse than that.
I just don't think we need a queer community center. I've dreaded sharing thoughts about the subject ever since I first saw a handout for it at this year's Pride Festival. I've always thought going to a queer community center meant going to a bar, bookstore or bathhouse--not someplace that looks like a sassed-up Boys & Girls Club or a queer bingo hall.
Besides, why separate ourselves now, after we've strived for so long to make ourselves heard in the community at large? We've been fighting for the right to be ourselves everywhere--why create another gay ghetto?
Am I in the minority?
I guess so. Everyone from Basic Rights Oregon to the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center seems to be in support in of the mission. "They're asking what people need and want," says BRO executive director Roey Thorpe. "They are making a conscious effort to do outreach beyond the usual suspects."
Political hotshot Gwenn Baldwin (she's worked for Ron Wyden, Barbara Roberts and Gary Hart and was the executive director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center) sees the center as a way to make connections. "There's no magic wand," says Baldwin about the center's chances in Portland. "There's no one model that works for everyone. This survey helps us understand what the community wants and needs in general, and how a center could specifically address those wants, needs and desires. The survey is a powerful tool."
But do we need it? I don't think so. I think we have plenty of places--from cafes to basketball courts--that we could easily call our homo homes away from home. But maybe I don't need the last word. I will leave that up to Baldwin.
"As an out lesbian, I deserve it," says Baldwin. "Just to know I've got someplace to go empowers me to be a fully functioning member of both the mainstream and gay community."
WWeek 2015