Portland Queer: Stories of Lgbtq+ Life in Portland, Oregon

by Ariel Gore (Editor)

Portland, Oregon, is a queer city in the queerest state in the US. It's also a place where, like anywhere in this country, you can experience bigotry, violence, and discrimination. Out of these contradictions bursts this sparkling collection of first-person stories—a heady mix of fiction and fact—written by contributors from across the queer spectrum and beyond, serving vulnerability, humor, and realness.   Immerse yourself in familiar scenes and landmarks like Washington Park, Caffe Mingo, the Silverado, Powell's City of Books, Umbra Penumbra, St. Mary's Academy, the Lloyd Center Mall, Hawthorne Boulevard, Food Front Co-op, Darcelle XV, a ghost bike installation, a backyard barbecue, a call center during third shift, and the many bridges over the Willamette River. Read Gabby Rivera's original story that became the hit novel Juliet Takes a Breath. Revel in David Ciminello's tale of a waiter who falls in love with a straight guy from the café next door. Learn Marc Acito's answer to the question "Where do you find hot men in Portland?" Elevate your vocabulary with Stevie Anntonym's "Lesbian Lexicon." Whatever your orientation, these accounts of queer and trans life in the Rose City will make you see the world and your place in it from a different angle. This new edition of the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology includes a poem by Nastashia Minto and stories by Christa Orth and Kalimah Abioto.

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

ARIEL GORE is the author of We Were Witches (The Feminist Press, 2017), The End of Eve (Hawthorne Books, 2014), and numerous other books on parenting, the novel The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show, the memoir Atlas of the Human Heart, and the writer’s guide How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness in January 2010.

Reviews

[Isaac Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well curated anthology of stories from and about the LGBTQIA+ community.

Not every story is a hit, but there are far more hits than misses.