This paper serves as a short history of the gay movement in Portland, as well as the reasons why Portland’s movement was inherently dissimilar to the movements of other major cities. It begins by providing historical context on the movements of some of Americas biggest cities, focusing primarily on the 1969 events of the Stonewall Riots in New York, the election and assassination of Harvey Milk in San Francisco, and Seattle’s movement for the purpose of comparison. A brief history on homosexuality in Portland’s recent past follows, going on then to the influence of “Darcelle’s” for the growing gay movement in the late 1970s and 1980s. The election of Portland’s first gay mayor, Sam Adams, in 2008 concludes the paper
