Comments on: Town in Oregon Elects Genderqueer Mayor

By: cheddars

cheddars — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:15:23 +0000

Stu’s theater is where I saw the Dark Knight. Its not so much a case that our town is more open minded its that stu has been involved in it since before I was born…

By: Jerem Morrow

Jerem Morrow — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:13:24 +0000

@Peter S.

A solid point.

By: Peter S.

Peter S. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:18:01 +0000

The thing here, I think, is the personal. This is a town of about 7000, and I’d bet that many folks have actually spoken to the Mayor. They know the person against whom they’d be asked to turn, and without provocation it’s tough to hate someone you know.

I was raised in a conservative household by two homophobes. Pleasant homophobes, sure, but that was the message I got at home. But at school those scary gays were my friends, part of a crowd that accepted me for me (tough to find in High School, more so when you are as massive a dork as I was . . . okay, am). Add to that being an ethnic minority and you could pretty easily have guessed at my future political leanings.

I don’t doubt many of the folks who voted for 8 have no experience with the LGBT community beyond either what they hear on FOX News or see in clips of the Castro at Halloween, at least that they know. It’ll happen, but it’ll happen only when more people realize that they’re screwing over their neighbors, friends and family members.

By: David Forbes

David Forbes — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:25:34 +0000

Elected by a large margin too. Great news — and a handy reminder that breaking with bigotry isn’t just the domain of large urban areas.

By: k paul blume

k paul blume — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:01:52 +0000

yeh, yeh, congrats but…would a little mascara kill you, lady?
(I speak as a former ‘gender-bender’ myself there, by the way.)

By: Steve C.

Steve C. — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:43:10 +0000

This is made of awesome. Way to go, Silverton. Today I was feeling pretty down about the state of things – given the various marriage shit that passed, and the rest of the world. This turned me around today. Change.gov turned me around yesterday. Something’s probably going to have to turn me around tomorrow when I get down again. Keep up the good work – we need places like Coilhouse and Genderfork and all the great blogs to keep the world from getting us down. If we keep telling the good stories, the positive stories, the hopeful stories, I believe, eventually we won’t have any other kind of stories to tell. Eventually we’ll figure out how to do this human experience right.

By: Jerem Morrow

Jerem Morrow — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:09:37 +0000

See, hope isn’t on the horizon, but here!

By: Skerror

Skerror — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:03:06 +0000

Genesis P. in 2016!

By: Peter S.

Peter S. — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:28:30 +0000

I’m with Skerror on this one: Apologies to Silverton. You folks rock and I underestimated you.

I’m also glad Portland’s mayor being gay was a complete non-issue in the election. Still, for all this the state had their own Prop 8, Measure 36. We are moving forward, but the entire nation has a way to go yet.

By: BlueAnchorNatasha

BlueAnchorNatasha — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:13:47 +0000

Thats pretty cool, at least not all hope is lost!