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It’s been ages since Portland has had a dedicated LGBTQ+ print publication in the tradition of folded outlets like PQ Monthly and Just Out, which reported on stories about the LGBTQ+ community from its own perspective. A new free newspaper, Sus magazine (susworld.org), has taken the reins, reporting news and sharing art and creative writing from within the community. But unlike its predecessors, Sus isn’t based in Portland—and it doesn’t write about just us, either.
Sus is a nonprofit organization devoted to amplifying the LGBTQ+ voices throughout Oregon. Its headquarters in Bend connects it to a wider range of the state’s LGBTQ+ community than the Portland metro area. Its distance from Portland opens its editorial priorities to the wider state. Sus circulates in Bend, Portland, Eugene, Springfield, Redmond and Sisters. The magazine launched in October 2023 with a semi-regular publishing schedule, with its most recent issues released in January and April of this year. Sus’ January issue was at the center of a homophobic incident in Sisters, when the owner of Sisters Coffee Company threatened to burn issues of the magazine dropped off by publisher Ruth Vernotico. Still, the magazine keeps us in the know on what queer Oregonians think and feel in a way few other publications deliver.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2024 here!