Black Lesbians and Gays United

citations & references:

1981

Per Pat Young’s Sept 11, 2000, draft for GLAPNtimeline “When I came to Portland in 1981, it seemed to me that black men in this community were very disconnected from each other and that the weight of the racism had divided us so that we didn’t communicate with each other,” comments Cliff Jones to writer Thomas Lauderdale. “So, a friend and I decided to have a potluck of black gay men. We got about seven or eight men at my house and had a great time and so we decided to do it on 9 a regular basis. And then, I thought, ‘well, I want to meet some black lesbians too because I hadn’t met any black lesbians in Portland at that point. Someone introduced me to a black lesbian, and she knew a lot of people, so she said, “you bring your men and I’ll bring my women and we’ll have a potluck together.’ And we had a great time. We started a group called Black Lesbians and Gays United. We had huge potlucks for about two years. We were getting to where we had 50 to 60 people.” [text by Thomas Lauderdale for a Right To Privacy 10th Anniversary booklet.]

1983   Per Pat Young’s Sept 11, 2000 draft for GLAPNtimeline Black Lesbians and Gays United forms in Portland. The group holds social events and serves as a political catalyst in the Black lesbian and gay community.