RAINBOW CONNECTION

[June 29th, 2005] I've covered this town's Pride celebration for so many years now that my piss has taken on a certain rainbow glow. That's why this year, I considered bypassing the whole event. After spending most of my weekend at a journalism conference in sunny San Diego (which included a harrowing trip to Tijuana), I jetted back to Portland in time for the last hours of "Taking Pride in Stark 2005," a daylong street party coinciding with the other Pride activities happening on the waterfront and elsewhere around town.

By all accounts, this year's Pride was a huge success. Folks told me they loved the mini-route of the parade. And the being able to wander through Waterfront Park with a cold brew in your hand-well, that improves any festival experience.

Of course we had to go and have the best Pride ever, right when I almost friggin' missed it, which is every party boy's fear.

But what I didn't miss was hearing the accounts about what it took to get to this point. The Pride Northwest board made the unpopular decision to change the parade route, bypassing a good portion of the businesses that make up the queer-friendly Burnside Triangle-officials claimed they couldn't get enough cops to work on Father's Day. All of this had the potential of costing the bar owners on Southwest Stark Street a day of good sales and a ton of goodwill.

But that threat didn't stop Andy Miller and Munroe Rost, bartenders at the old-school Scandals. They pitched their own idea: If Pride wasn't marching down Stark Street, why not take Pride in Stark? The Sunday event turned out to be a big hit, attracting an estimated 3,000 shirtless male and female queers.

It took a lot of work, according to Miller, with only five weeks to organize the entire shindig. When they didn't have enough time to qualify for a temporary city alcohol permit that allowed street drinking, they worried that the event wouldn't attract a crowd. That hitch actually helped make the thing a sucess, because more families and other non-barflies turned out for the street party. "There were gay men, lesbians, transsexuals, drag queens, blue and orange people," says the sunburnt Miller. "In fact, I was white yesterday and now I'm red."

For everyone who has questioned the vitality of Stark Street, the success of this alternative Pride event offered proof that the gay community hasn't abandoned the Burnside Triangle, Miller says: "Because it's a huge day for sales, the fact is that we [now] have to plan our own party." But the bartender doesn't think there has to be an ongoing rift between Stark Street businesses and the official Pride festival. The groups can kiss and make up if Pride will remember the reason for the event, a commemoration of the Stonewall riots, which started at a bar in Greenwich Village back in June 1969.

And if we needed some hokey sign that this year's event was on the right track, all you needed to do was look upward. Around 7 pm, just as the last Cape Cod was served, an intense, acid-colored double rainbow streaked across the sky. How much more gay could any party get?

Thanks for additional reporting help from Christian Gaston (cgaston@wweek.com), a really cool straight guy.