I love Greek food so I was looking forward to going to the Greek Fest in Portland today when Sophia suggested it. However, an hour before we were going to go, she called me, saying she was unsure about this Greek Orthodox Church's stance on homosexuality. As a larger institution, they don't like us but I thought that maybe the Portland version would be different. St. James Church on SE 12 and Stark is very progressive for a Catholic Church so I thought that maybe there was hope for this Greek Orthodox Church. However, I wasn't going to just assume that so I directly asked.
Upon getting to the festival which took place on the grounds just outside the church, I approached a lady with a name-tag on who was handing out literature for the church. I flat out asked her, "What is the church's stance on gays?" She stuttered for a bit but then told me, "It's not a bigot thing but..." I can't remember the exact wording but it went something like this. 'It's all adultery in the eyes of the lord [even tho it's not possible for me to get married in the eyes of the church] and that's a sin. Any sex outside of marriage is a sin. Worshiping sex is like worshiping a false idol, like the technology we use. I-pods, cell phones, etc.'
I've been called many things as an out[spoken] queer but an I-pod is not one of them. Sophia thought it was a diplomatic answer although agreed that it was cop-out. I wasn't feeling any hate though there and I did want to try some food while I was there so I stuck around for a bit. Really, it wasn't worth it, even aside from the unspoken homophobia. The food was borderline carnival food. I've had much much better bakalava and it was really crowded. I'm glad I went to just say I went and to be able to put it out there that this festival is linked to unconfronted hate. Most people would say just relax, it's not like they're burning crosses. However, over the past few weeks, there's been a number of queer youth suicides in the news. Part of that is due to guilt brought on by religious institutions. It's hard to overlook that.
What else?
I called Martin and Tim from the Fest and wanted to hang with some of my community so we went to Hall of Records which used to be half of It's a Beautiful Pizza. It was my first time there and I was impressed. Their niche is that they sell records and you can sign up for 30 minutes of DJ'ing at the bar. I will probably be posting that as a new thing soon.
Speaking of pizza, I went to a place tonight where many Portlanders think you can get the best pizza in town, Apizza Scholls. Known for it's long waits and awesome food, I don't know how I've not gone there until today. Sophia and I met Jesse, Jake and Gail there. They were all sweet enough to do the waiting for us. We had a pizza with truffle oil base and another pizza with jalapeno's on it. The truffle oil pizza could be a contender for the best pizza I've had here in town. I think I'll give it another try before I make my decision though.
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