Diversity News

Information on Eugene Pride Festival parking, ADA access, free bus service, bike valet service and more is at Pride's website: https://www.eugenepride.org/festival-24/transportation

IMPORTANT: Only vehicles with ADA placards and carpools (4+ people) will be able to park in Alton Baker Park. Other vehicle parking is south of the river (use footbridge to festival)

TRANSPORTATION | Eugene Pride Find the best way for you and your crew to get to Pride! Onsite parking reserved for ADA and 4+ carpools only.

UPDATE: Tonight's Eugene City Council is at the new city hall, City Hall
500 East 4th Avenue -- at 7:30 pm. Please come show your support!

Greetings Pride Community, **We are postponing our final planning meeting on Monday. This is an urgent request for the LGBTQ+ community to attend Monday night’s (7/22) Eugene City Council meeting and read a prepared statement (or create you own - talking points below). Continue reading for details. **

Planning this year’s festival has been extra challenging, especially around transportation. Kesey Enterprises booked a sold-out show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater over our festival, and they, with support from the City of Eugene, have taken away all control of traffic and parking in Alton Baker Park away from the festival and our community for the entire day. In addition, they are taking away 2/3 of the grass parking in the park and the entire paved lot behind the Cuthbert. This, despite the fact that the concert does not start until one hour after our festival ends.

Efforts are being made to mitigate this impact, including arranging shuttles and alternate parking areas, and you can visit our transportation page for more information. However, as you might imagine, this is creating severe challenges for our attendees, organizers, sponsors, vendors, exhibitors, volunteers, and community. At this time, we have entertainers pulling out of the festival as a result of these complications.

Additionally, the Eugene Police Department has given us zero details about how they will approach this year’s festival or the protesters that disrupt the event. Without this information, we cannot proceed with our final planning meeting on Monday night and are postponing

Finally, we received a Proclamation that will be read at Monday’s City Council meeting naming August 10th as ““Eugene/Springfield LGBTQ Pride Day.” The version that was sent to us contained typos, including an entirely repeated clause, with a statement that this was copied from previous years. As you all know, this is not the time for our leaders to phone in their support for our community with performative, poorly written language while those who would rather we not exist are literally organizing for our elimination.

As a result, we are organizing to have as many folks as possible attend Monday night’s City Council Meeting at 7:30pm to express our dissatisfaction with how we are being treated by our City. If you are able, we would encourage you to testify, and we are preparing a statement that we will read during public comment. Attendance is encouraged even if you do not feel comfortable testifying.

Please reply to this email or reach out to Brooks McLain, board president ([email protected]), if you are able to attend and would like to help coordinate a response. Not able to attend? Contact your City Councilor at [email protected] and let them know this is unacceptable.

Yours in Pride,
The Board of Directors and Planning Committee of Eugene Pride

Below are some talking points you can use if you would like to write your own statement. Please note, this is an evolving situation and we will update you if circumstances change prior to Monday night's meeting.

Public parks belong to the PUBLIC, not to private companies that are making a profit off our public commons.
Eugene's largest cultural festival should have unfettered access to the park where it will be held. It's unsafe for organizers, attendees, and the citizens of Eugene for Eugene Pride to be conducted without any control over access to the event. We have held this event for 30 years, 15 of which have been on the same Saturday every year in Alton Baker Park.

Eugene Pride has been working with the City for 10 months to address traffic, access, and safety for people using the streets around Alton Baker Park during this event. To proclaim your support for our community while at the same time implementing barriers to access to our most significant event is performative and not actual support - it's the height of hypocrisy.

100's of volunteer hours have been spent organizing alternate places to park, grants to pay for shuttles and advertising, arranging alternate transportation, and navigating City processes so that our community can attend their Pride event. Those are hours not spent organizing our festival and money that could be used for additional scholarships for LGBTQ+ youth. Where is the City's investment and what is your responsibility in educating the public about transportation in the City? What is Kesey Enterprises obligation to Eugene's public other than ensuring VIP access to the park for its concertgoers?

This is not happening in isolation. Eugene already this year has lost its two largest Black cultural events, Eugene Juneteenth Celebration and the Black Cultural Festival, proving that racism in Oregon is still more potent than homo/trans/q***r-phobia, and the strain on Eugene Pride is incredible. Simultaneously, members of our community are having Pride flags ripped from their homes and their houses egged, and our own cutting of the original Pride flag was stolen. We will lose our baseball team, which organizes the second largest Pride event in Eugene; not to mention the loss of our hospital. Our leaders are allowing Eugene to be hollowed out of its cultural institutions and integral public services. Do better Eugene - you're failing us.

3 weeks out from our Festival, and we have no information from the EPD on how they will approach our event or handle the protesters that attempt to disrupt this gathering. This, after ten months of conversations. Will bigots from out of town using the guise of religion be allowed to roam rampant through festival grounds, step on people's picnics, and shout slurs at us over amplified sound that they don't have a permit to use? Will Pride staff be required to keep public safety while officers stand ready to arrest Pride-goers should the slightest movement go awry? This was our experience last year, which is unfortunately an improvement from EPD showing up in riot shields, helmets, and batons; however, what is Eugene's responsibility to keep its actual tax-paying citizens safe?

Join our team! The Independent Police Auditor is hiring for a Senior Program Coordinator! Applications are due this Wednesday, July 24th by 5pm. Please see job description below for more details. https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/eugene/jobs/4564966/senior-program-coordinator?pagetype=promotionalJobs

Message from Eugene Pride committee: Greetings Pride Community,
**We are postponing our final planning meeting on Monday. This is an urgent request for the LGBTQ+ community to attend Monday night’s (7/22) Eugene City Council meeting and read a prepared statement (or create you own - talking points below). Continue reading for details. **

Planning this year’s festival has been extra challenging, especially around transportation. Kesey Enterprises booked a sold-out show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater over our festival, and they, with support from the City of Eugene, have taken away all control of traffic and parking in Alton Baker Park away from the festival and our community for the entire day. In addition, they are taking away 2/3 of the grass parking in the park and the entire paved lot behind the Cuthbert. This, despite the fact that the concert does not start until one hour after our festival ends.

Efforts are being made to mitigate this impact, including arranging shuttles and alternate parking areas, and you can visit our transportation page for more information. However, as you might imagine, this is creating severe challenges for our attendees, organizers, sponsors, vendors, exhibitors, volunteers, and community. At this time, we have entertainers pulling out of the festival as a result of these complications.

Additionally, the Eugene Police Department has given us zero details about how they will approach this year’s festival or the protesters that disrupt the event. Without this information, we cannot proceed with our final planning meeting on Monday night and are postponing

Finally, we received a Proclamation that will be read at Monday’s City Council meeting naming August 10th as ““Eugene/Springfield LGBTQ Pride Day.” The version that was sent to us contained typos, including an entirely repeated clause, with a statement that this was copied from previous years. As you all know, this is not the time for our leaders to phone in their support for our community with performative, poorly written language while those who would rather we not exist are literally organizing for our elimination.
As a result, we are organizing to have as many folks as possible attend Monday night’s City Council Meeting at 7:30pm to express our dissatisfaction with how we are being treated by our City. If you are able, we would encourage you to testify, and we are preparing a statement that we will read during public comment. Attendance is encouraged even if you do not feel comfortable testifying.

Please reply to this email or reach out to Brooks McLain, board president ([email protected]), if you are able to attend and would like to help coordinate a response. Not able to attend? Contact your City Councilor at
[email protected] and let them know this is unacceptable.

Yours in Pride,
The Board of Directors and Planning Committee of Eugene Pride
Below are some talking points you can use if you would like to write your own statement. Please note, this is an evolving situation and we will update you if circumstances change prior to Monday night's meeting.

Public parks belong to the PUBLIC, not to private companies that are making a profit off our public commons.
Eugene's largest cultural festival should have unfettered access to the park where it will be held. It's unsafe for organizers, attendees, and the citizens of Eugene for Eugene Pride to be conducted without any control over access to the event. We have held this event for 30 years, 15 of which have been on the same Saturday every year in Alton Baker Park.

Eugene Pride has been working with the City for 10 months to address traffic, access, and safety for people using the streets around Alton Baker Park during this event. To proclaim your support for our community while at the same time implementing barriers to access to our most significant event is performative and not actual support - it's the height of hypocrisy.

100's of volunteer hours have been spent organizing alternate places to park, grants to pay for shuttles and advertising, arranging alternate transportation, and navigating City processes so that our community can attend their Pride event. Those are hours not spent organizing our festival and money that could be used for additional scholarships for LGBTQ+ youth. Where is the City's investment and what is your responsibility in educating the public about transportation in the City? What is Kesey Enterprises obligation to Eugene's public other than ensuring VIP access to the park for its concertgoers?

This is not happening in isolation. Eugene already this year has lost its two largest Black cultural events, Eugene Juneteenth Celebration and the Black Cultural Festival, proving that racism in Oregon is still more potent than homo/trans/q***r-phobia, and the strain on Eugene Pride is incredible. Simultaneously, members of our community are having Pride flags ripped from their homes and their houses egged, and our own cutting of the original Pride flag was stolen. We will lose our baseball team, which organizes the second largest Pride event in Eugene; not to mention the loss of our hospital. Our leaders are allowing Eugene to be hollowed out of its cultural institutions and integral public services. Do better Eugene - you're failing us.

3 weeks out from our Festival, and we have no information from the EPD on how they will approach our event or handle the protesters that attempt to disrupt this gathering. This, after ten months of conversations. Will bigots from out of town using the guise of religion be allowed to roam rampant through festival grounds, step on people's picnics, and shout slurs at us over amplified sound that they don't have a permit to use? Will Pride staff be required to keep public safety while officers stand ready to arrest Pride-goers should the slightest movement go awry? This was our experience last year, which is unfortunately an improvement from EPD showing up in riot shields, helmets, and batons; however, what is Eugene's responsibility to keep its actual tax-paying citizens safe?

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Pride is under attack here in Pierce County. Join us in person Tuesday July 9th at 3PM to show love and support for the LGBTQ community and celebrate the 2024 Pride Proclamation!

💯

Harvey Guillén joins ABC Live to celebrate ‘Pride Across America’ this weekend (exclusive)

Poll: Should Eugene Pride continue to be held in August? Or should Eugene Pride be held during Pride Month (June)? What do you think? Vote by commenting on this post.

Pride in August -- Pros & Cons:
Pros: It's easier to rent tents and booths in August
Less possibility of rain on the festival date
Cons: Extreme heat, potential for very unhealthy wildfire smoke
UO q***r/trans student are less likely to be in town to attend Pride

Pride in June -- Pros & Cons:
Pros: Holding Eugene Pride in Pride Month would honor the Stonewall riot participants; the pioneers in our fight for rights and equality
Pride Month sees community celebrations all over the planet. Holding Eugene Pride in Pride Month would make our local celebration a part of a worldwide network of events and give us a greater sense of solidarity with millions of celebrating community members.
Cooler weather and much less likely to inflict lasting health problems on attendees (from wildfire smoke)
UO students could join in the local celebration
Cons: More events in June use Lane County's limited stock of event structures like booths. (This could be removed as a problem if Eugene Pride reserved its rental equipment well in advance)
Greater possibility of rain on the festival date

What do YOU think?

After commenting on this post, be sure to share your opinion with the Eugene Pride board of directors by emailing them at [email protected]

❗We're hiring!

📄We're still accepting applications for Development Director, and we have re-posted our Administrative Associate opening, this time as a full-time position.

🏳️‍🌈We need YOU to help us further our mission of LGBTQ2SIA+ equality in Oregon!

🔗 Head to basicrights.org/job-openings to learn more and apply!

Trans athlete heading to Paris Olympics after record win Trans non-binary athlete Nikki Hiltz is heading to the Paris Olympics 2024 after winning a 1500m qualifier with a record US trials time.

Colorado Republican who called LGBTQ+ people 'godless groomers' loses his primary​

Join us for the Oregon City Indigenous Marketplace events!!
Thank you Redland Grange 796 for sharing space with us!!❤️💛🧡🎯💯
Join 20 plus Indigenous and Black Vendors for the first summer series of Oregon City Indigenous Marketplace events!!❤️❤️❤️❤️
Enjoy Indigenous Dining with Javelina PDX
Dates: July 27 and 28
August 31 and September 1
Time: 10am-3pm
Location: 18131 South Fischers Mill Rd Oregon City 97024
Saturdays Turquoise Pride Drum Group will play 12-2pm🎊🎉
Sorry to say Trimet does not go all the way out here but we hope to connect with some rideshare resources soon!🎯💯📣
Thank you to Kace Hudson for the graphic!🧡💛❤️
Thank you for the support through the Community Placemaking Grant!!

Eugene PRIDE Finalizing Details for 2024 Pride in the Park
The 2024 festival is presented by OnPoint Community Credit Union and sponsored by the City of Eugene.

June 28th marked the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, where, 55 years ago, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Stormé DeLarverie, and other transgender women of color and drag queens birthed the modern LGBTQ+ rights movements. Pride would not be possible without their heroic efforts to resist harassment, discrimination, and erasure.

In their honor, Pride Day Equality Project, the non-profit organization that produces Eugene’s annual Pride in the Park Festival, is preparing for the 2024 Pride activities in Eugene. This year’s events are a chance to both celebrate and advocate for Eugene and Springfield’s LGBTQ+ community, as well as be highly visible during what continues to be a tumultuous time for the community.

Pride Day Equality Project is currently planning to host a rally, march, and festival on Saturday, August 10, 2024. The rally will begin at 8:30am in Kesey Square in downtown Eugene, where attendees will hear from local activists and performers. Rally attendees will then march through downtown to the Pride in the Park Festival at Alton Baker Park.

This year, the festival will take place from 10am-7pm and will feature two stages with a diverse array of entertainment, 200+ vendors and exhibitors, a food court, clothing swap, beer garden, youth and pet zones, a sober circle, and much more. New to the
event this year will be a sensory zone for people who may need a break from the crowds and noise of the festival.
Sponsors can register on Eugene PRIDE’s website,
and those wishing to be a vendor or exhibitor can apply on the website, as well:
www.eugenepride.org.

“We expect this year’s event to be one of the largest Pride festivals in Oregon, and we are excited for an incredible day of celebrating our local LGBTQ+ community,” said Brooks McLain, board president and marketing coordinator for Eugene PRIDE. “It is essential for the community and our allies to have a strong showing during this time
when efforts are being made to intimidate, erase, and harass our community and events. These efforts are especially vital for transgender and gender diverse youth.”

Attendees are encouraged to find alternate forms of transportation to Alton Baker Park. Parking lots in the park will be reserved for ADA parking and carpools of 4+people. Eugene Pride will post options for transportation to the festival on social media
and on their website in coming weeks, including a map of parking lots that will be available in close proximity to the event.

The Eugene PRIDE Planning Team is made up of dedicated volunteers who make Pride in the Park happen, and they need the support of others in the community. Volunteers are needed on the days leading up to the festival, during the festival, and on the day
after the event, as well as on the planning team. To volunteer, lease complete the volunteer form on the Pride website.

Additionally, allies of the LGBTQ+ community are needed during the festival to help support us with the ongoing attempts to disrupt Pride events nationally and around the state.

Planning meetings are open to the public and are currently held at Eugene Mindworks and on Zoom on the 4th Friday of each month at 7:00pm. Pride Day Equality Project invites anyone interested in participating to join the meetings.

In addition to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, the Festival raises money for youth scholarships for students who are attending college that are members of the q***r community, as well as for other organizations supporting Eugene and Springfield’s
LGBTQ+ community.

For more information, please contact: Brooks McLain, Board President & Marketing Coordinator - [email protected] or 541-515-5804.

EugPRIDE | Pride in the Park | Eugene, OR, USA Welcome to the home of EugPRIDE! Our nonprofit is committed to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. We are the Planning Team for the Pride Festival in Eugene, Oregon, as well as many other events and gatherings for the q***r and trans/gender-diverse community.

To our friends, loved ones, and greater Spectrum community:

(TL;DR: Spectrum will be closed as of August 12. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We truly believe we chipped away at making the world a better place, We look forward to what’s coming next for Eugene!)

The time has come for us to announce we will be closing Spectrum. Our last projected day of operation is August 11, the day after the Eugene Pride Festival. We are incredibly proud and grateful for the last six and a half years of operation but the time has come to move on.

Six and a half years ago, I was performing in monthly burlesque shows in the venue that came before us, when an announcement came on a Monday night that the bar would be closing six days later. Like so many others, I was devastated. That bar had given me the opportunity for self-exploration that cemented my identity as Q***r, instead of just a closeted nonbinary pansexual, clinging to my illusion of being cis or straight because I was too afraid to be myself.

I didn’t have any restaurant experience. I was working as a clinical sexologist and writer, but I had taken some business management classes at LCC and nonprofit management at UO and I had produced events sporadically in the last ten years. I was completely unprepared to open a bar in so many different ways, but I trusted my friendships and my community and I took a leap.

I opened Spectrum by myself, as a single-owner LLC, because it was the fastest way I could figure out to just get a space operating. I had always hoped that within a few years, I would be able to transfer ownership, or partner with the community, to create a nonprofit that would manage the space. I just saw an opportunity for me to open a venue and get some forward movement. It was my puzzle piece, my contribution to a community that needed so many other puzzle pieces to be held together.

I am very happy to be able to tell you that for the last several months, an inter-agency leadership council of multiple nonprofits, along with an advisory committee made up of diverse individuals from the community, empowered with a grant from Trillium, has been working to open a Q***r Resource Center (QRC) in Eugene by the end of 2024! The community center would provide services like mental health counseling, access to gender affirming care, opportunities for performing arts, youth classes, clothing exchanges, an events space and more. There are a lot of hopes for the QRC and although we are not yet sure *exactly* how or where it will operate, there have been months of work on developing this project already, and it is going to be a total gamechanger for the community.

So it is with enormous pride in what we have achieved that I have made the decision to close Spectrum. I know that even a QRC won’t entirely replace the niche that we filled for the community but it has been a very difficult six and a half years, filled with endless challenges and frustrations. To open a social space for a community that is almost universally traumatized just by existing within this spacetime is inherently fraught. For years we have been proud to hold this space for q***r joy, even when it meant being patient with a backlash of pain and anger.

Opening and managing Spectrum will always be one of the greatest achievements of my life. We even won Best Bar (2022/2023) in the Eugene Weekly readers’ poll! I am endlessly proud of the thousands of productions we had, the performers who found their footing here, the all-ages events, the clothing swaps, and the free meals C.O.R.E. served from our building. People met new lovers at Spectrum and kissed for the first time on the dance floor. People got engaged at Spectrum. We hosted baby showers, birthday parties and engagement parties. Nonprofit boards held meetings to work to legalize psilocybin and at least one PhD thesis was written from the comfort of our low-stimulus salon. We had life drawing sessions with gender q***r models, crafting nights and gayming nights. We had gatherings like pansexual speed dating, asexual social hour, bear nights and le***an dance parties.

As the youngest of six kids; an intersex, nonbinary, pansexual person in an often mislabeled-as-hetero relationship; one of my driving forces behind creating Spectrum was to try to build a space where no LGBTQIA2S+ person felt excluded. My goal was that everybody who *wanted* to be a part of Spectrum would find a way to fit there, and that along the way, we would empower nice people and limit petty, mean-girl behavior. We were never perfect but we did try.

Thousands of you saw what we were offering and lent your support along the way.

To anybody who ever stopped by for an afternoon drink, even if it was just a glass of water, thank you. To people who attended events and tipped your performers, thank you. To the producers who worked so hard to make so many wonderful parties for all of the greater Eugene community, all of the employees who woke up early and stayed up late, the bartenders who listened to your frustrations about the day, thank you endlessly.

I may be known for hyperbole but I truly, honestly believe that we made the world a better place together.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and we will see you around for the next six weeks. Make sure to come back in July; our photo booth is getting taken away before August!

With love and respect,

Captain Heldog

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2024 Equality Rally & March To Eugene Pride festival

Saturday, August 10th -- Assemble at 8:30 am, Kesey Square (Willamette & Broadway)

The privilege to celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride came by way of a fight to live our lives openly as individuals in our community. The challenges that we have faced throughout the centuries may not be as prevalent as they once were but still very much exist. Even here in Eugene area that so many want to believe is a bastion of progress. Because we still face those challenges, it’s our responsibility to remind the other members of our community that we are here, that they will not push us back into darkness, that we will continue to stand up and fight for ourselves and every other member of our community. It’s also our responsibility (and privilege!) to make ourselves seen by those members of community that still live in the shadows that they do not have to live that way, we are here for them when they are ready to join us, and even willing to help them in that journey of coming out and Living True!
You are invited to join us at Kesey Square/Broadway Plaza at the intersection of Willamette Street & Broadway to lend your energy and action that will always push for full equality for all!

All members of the LGBTQIA+ BIPoC community are welcome, as well as anyone else who call themselves a supporter.

Bring your BLING and Marching gear! That means all Equality/Pride signs, flags, banners, ribbons, drag, gear, etc. We will show Eugene that we are proud, loud, and stand out in a crowd!
COME AS YOU ARE AND BE WHO YOU ARE!

We will once again march to the beat of the drums of Samba Ja!

The March steps off at 9:15am!

NOTE: Bicyclists and EBs are also welcome to attend if willing to remain at the rear of the March for safety reasons

EugPRIDE | Pride in the Park | Eugene, OR, USA Welcome to the home of EugPRIDE! Our nonprofit is committed to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. We are the Planning Team for the Pride Festival in Eugene, Oregon, as well as many other events and gatherings for the q***r and trans/gender-diverse community.

See people honoring LGBTQ+ Pride Month June 2024: Celebrations, ceremonies, resistance Pride Month celebrations – including parades, festivals, parties and picnics – are held throughout June. See how communities honor LGBTQ+ pride.

Photos: NDN Collective hosts rally for Leonard Peltier NDN Collective hosts caravan and rally to show support in South Dakota for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians citizen