Portland State Vanguard Volume 76 Issue 11

VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 11 • JUNE 22, 2021

MIKE NEARMAN LET A MOB INTO THE STATE CAPITOL. ON JUNE 10, HIS COLLEAGUES VOTED TO

KICK HIM OUT.

NEWS Rep. Nearman gets expelled from House P. 4

ARTS & CULTURE A disappointing summer romance film P. 8

OPINION Don’t fall for corporate rainbow-washing P. 9

CONTENTS

COVER BY SHANNON STEED

NEWS HILL TO HALL JUNE 14–18 IN HISTORIC MOVE, OREGON HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EXPELS FAR-RIGHT LAWMAKER

P. 3

ARTS & CULTURE PRIDE PICS 2021 PRESENTS: MY FIRST SUMMER

P. 8

P. 4

OPINION DON’T FALL FOR CORPORATE RAINBOW-WASHING THIS JUNE

P. 9

INTERNATIONAL THE FIGHT FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN JAPAN

P. 5

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SUPPLY CHAIN MAYHEM

P. 6

SPORTS THE VIKINGS’ YEAR IN PANDEMIC SPORTS

P. 7

STAFF

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nick Gatlin MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Troper NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Danny O’Brien INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser OPINION EDITOR Rachel Owen ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth CONTRIBUTORS Nova Johnson Catherine Kane Allison Kirkpatrick Analisa Landeros Kat Leon

PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed

STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher

DESIGNERS Kelsey Stewart T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson

TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com

MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

JUNE 14–18 CONOR CARROLL

JUNE 14: O REGON LAWMAKERS PROPOSE EVICTION ‘PAUSE’ FOR RENTERS IN NEED

Oregon State legislators proposed amendments to Senate Bill 278, which would temporarily halt evictions of renters who can’t pay rent for July or August and have applied for state assistance. The Oregon House of Representatives Committee on Rules held testimony on the amendments, which would give a 60-day relief period to those who can prove they applied for assistance through the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department. The measures are intended to protect against a potential wave of evictions set to occur on July 1, when the state’s eviction moratorium expires. On June 17, the bill passed the House unanimously and could be voted on in the Senate as early as June 21.

JUNE 16: O REGON BECOMES THIRD STATE TO LEGALIZE ‘HUMAN COMPOSTING’

Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law House Bill 2574, which legalizes natural organic reduction—also known as human composting—and clarifies the rules and regulations regarding alkaline hydrolysis, or aqua cremation. In keeping with an eco-friendly and compost-positive ethos, lawmakers and supporters of “green” burial practices contend that aqua cremation and natural organic reduction help to reduce waste and chemical leaching into groundwater and soil while simultaneously creating jobs and a market for new products and services. Three lawmakers in the Oregon House of Representatives and one in the Senate voted against the bill.

JUNE 16: O REGON WILDFIRE RESPONSE LEGISLATION STILL UP FOR DEBATE

Almost a year after wildfires burned across Oregon, state lawmakers are close to passing the most comprehensive wildfire legislation in the state’s history. Senate Bill 762 has been in limbo for several months and many details remain uncertain, especially considering the potential $75 million annual price tag for taxpayers. An amended version of the bill is soon expected to have a public hearing. The wildfires in 2020 were the worst on record for Oregon. The bill would direct resources to develop wildfire alleviation plans and give state or county regulators the ability to approve and institute the plans.

JUNE 17: PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU OFFICERS RESIGN EN MASSE FROM RAPID RESPONSE TEAM

Officers of Portland Police Bureau voted on June 16 to resign from the bureau’s crowd control unit, known as the Rapid Response Team (RRT). According to a brief statement released by the PPB on the morning of June 17, “PPB employees serving as members of the RRT left their voluntary positions and no longer comprise a team.” All 57 members of the RRT appear to have resigned in light of the recent indictment of Officer Corey Budworth, a former member of the RRT. Budworth faces one count of fourth-degree assault for allegedly striking a woman with a baton in Aug. 2020. The resignations also follow reports that the Oregon Department of Justice is considering criminal prosecution of Detective Erik Kammerer, a former squad leader for the RRT. Public scrutiny of officer conduct across the country has increased since reports on excessive force have been widely reported. In Nov. 2021, a city report found that a large majority of PPB officers do not have proper training in “skills for preventing or minimizing the use of force.”

JUNE 18: H IGHER EDUCATION REFORM BILL DIES PRIOR TO VOTE

Senate Bill 854, which died in the Oregon State Senate Committee on Rules on June 18, would have changed the way public universities in Oregon are governed by implementing transparency of process and increasing faculty and student power. Alternatively, the administrative leaders of public universities have agreed to apply some of the bill’s proposed changes by themselves without any state mandate. Had the bill passed in its entirety, it would have, among other things, increased the number of employee and student representatives on school boards and allowed campus community members to appeal any decisions by boards of trustees to the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. It is unclear if any of the changes independently adopted by the universities will be codified into law.

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

3

IN HISTORIC MOVE, OREGON HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES EXPELS FAR-RIGHT LAWMAKER

REP. MIKE NEARMAN WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA LETTING VIOLENT PROTESTERS INTO THE CAPITOL IN DECEMBER CONOR CARROLL For the first time in history, Oregon state lawmakers voted 59-1 on Thursday to eject a fellow colleague, former Rep. Mike Nearman (R), for assisting a far-right crowd in breaching the State Capitol last Dec. Calls for Nearman’s expulsion increased after a video from Dec. 2020 was recently released, showing him coaching constituents on how to break into the Capitol in what he dubbed “Operation Hall Pass.”

“There might be some person’s number which might be [Nearman’s cell phone number], but that is just random numbers… that’s not anybody’s actual cell phone,” said Nearman in the new video. “And if you say ‘I’m at the West entrance’ during the session and text to that number there, that somebody might exit that door while you are standing there.”

The release of the video indicates alleged premeditation on Nearman’s part, and, in April of this year, he was criminally charged with two misdemeanors: first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass, according to court records. This facilitated his removal from all committee assignments.

“The Oregon House of Representatives has taken the unprecedented step of expelling one of its members,” stated Speaker of the House Tina Kotek (D –N/NE Portland) in a recent press release. “The facts are clear that Mr. Nearman unapologetically coordinated and planned a breach of the Oregon State Capitol.”

4

NEWS

MEMBERS OF THE OREGON HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONVENE ON THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021, TO CONSIDER EXPELLING REP. MIKE NEARMAN FOR ASSISTING RIGHT-WING PROTESTERS WITH BREACHING THE OREGON CAPITOL IN DECEMBER. ANDREW SELSKY/AP IMAGES Hours before the June 10 vote on the resolution, a six-person special committee convened to determine whether Nearman’s expulsion should be considered. The committee, comprised of three Republicans and three Democrats, voted 6-0 in favor of bringing the resolution before the House.

Days before, Nearman received a letter from his Republican colleagues in the House calling on him to resign.

“It is our belief as friends and colleagues that it is in the best interests of your caucus, your family, yourself, and the state of Oregon for you to step down from office,” stated an excerpt of the letter.

Republicans had been silent on the matter of Nearman’s conduct as of late but came together in solidarity against Nearman when it came time to vote on his removal.

The sole “No” vote to expel the Polk County Republican was Nearman himself, who was allowed to vote on his own removal from the House. He was permitted to speak on the floor the night of the vote for as long as he wanted, though according to reports, he kept it brief.

“You’re considering expelling a member, for the first time in history, because he thinks that people should have access to their Capitol, especially during session,” Nearman said.

This was not the first time there were calls for Nearman’s removal from office, nor the first time he has faced public scrutiny for a belief or support of a given organization.

In early Jan. of this year, Nearman had to confront calls for his resignation, after OPB reported he had assisted far-right

protesters in breaching the closed-off Capitol building. Video of the Capitol’s interior, clearly showing Nearman opening the door for the crowd, surfaced soon thereafter.

Nearman was also formerly a board member for the Oregonians for Immigration Reform, an institution chided by progressives and which the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a “hate group.” He also was among 11 sitting legislators in Salem to sign a petition in support of a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election.

More recently, fellow Republicans contributed to the public conversation regarding Nearman’s behavior, and House Republican leadership parted ways with Nearman altogether after the new video came to light on June 4. Nearman has, on advice of counsel, not answered any questions regarding his upcoming legal proceedings.

Oregon is not the only state of late that has dealt with indicted elected officials. Ohio state lawmakers removed former Ohio House Speaker Rep. Larry Householder, who is under federal indictment after being arrested in July in connection to nuclear bailout funds and bribery schemes.

These actions come after the U.S. Senate’s vote not to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and right-wing extremists.

The Biden administration has made a point to emphasize and create policy around investigating and prosecuting domestic terrorism, which is at record levels across the nation.

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

THE FIGHT FOR LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN JAPAN YUKIO EDANO, LEADER OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF JAPAN, SPEAKS DURING A MEETING OF “LGBT EQUALITY ACT JAPAN” IN TOKYO, TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2021. KOJI SASAHARA/AP IMAGES

KAT LEON In Japan, the argument as to whether or not to legalize gay marriage has been ignited over the last several months in the wake recent court cases. According to NPR, six individuals—two male couples and one female couple—sued the government of Japan earlier this year due to “the pain of not being able to legally marry.”

While they did not win the case, the District Court of Sapporo recognized that the ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, according to Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution in their ruling on March 17. The Article states in part, “All of the people are equal under the law, and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.”

This ruling by the District Court of Sapporo encouraged supporters of gay marriage that Japan might be moving toward equality for the LGBTQ+ population.

“It’s like a dream. Now the government only needs to act,” said a plaintiff in the case, according to Kyodo News.

According to a poll conducted in 2018, 78.4% of the 60,000 Japanese people surveyed supported gay marriage.

“One advantage Japan has is there is not a religious tradition that lends itself to an interpretation that leads to hatred of [gay people], as there is here in the United States,” said Dr.

Kenneth Ruoff, history professor and director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University.

However, Japan still has a long way to go when enacting change on a national level.

“There is a significant struggle going on regarding formal, legal recognition of LGBT rights, with many victories at the level of localities, but not yet at the national level,” said Ruoff.

“However, there are many previous examples in Japan (and elsewhere) of movements, once successful at the local level, of achieving success at the national level.”

While the victory in Sapporo was indicative of a country that was starting to recognize the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, things are not progressing the same way on the national level.

Kyodo News reported that three-term law maker in Japan’s House of Representatives Kazuo Yana reportedly said that being LGBTQ+ goes against biology and the preservation of the species during a meeting on May 20.

According to The Mainichi, Koji Shigeuchi, advisor to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s committee to study sexual orientation and gender identity, reportedly presented a study session titled “LBGT out of control,” where transgender women were portrayed as a threat to cisgender women, on March 26.

“Japanese officials insulting LGBT people

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

is not new, but it is increasingly out of touch with Japanese public opinion and the government’s place on the world stage,” wrote Human Rights Watch in a statement.. “LDP legislators are out of line. Other LDP leaders should override their ugly rhetoric and pass the Equality Act immediately.”

The LGBT Equality Act, a bill that the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan had stated that they wanted to pass before the end of the National Diet session in June, does not include protection against discrimination for the LGBT community.

The only governmental responsibility that would come about because of the law is to “promote understanding of LGBT people.”

Furthermore, this bill did not reach fruition as conservative members within the Liberal Democratic Party could not reach a consensus, and, on May 28, it was announced that the Liberal Democratic Party was abandoning plans to submit the bill before the end of the Diet session.

“It’s major progress that Japan’s political parties are discussing LGBT-related legislation, but many LGBT people in Japan still remain in the closet, unable to discuss with others out of fear and stigma,” said Yuri Igarashi, director of the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation.

The failure to pass any anti-discrimination

also drew backlash with the Summer Olympic Games—which will be held in Tokyo—less than two months away.

“With the Olympic Games approaching, a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is urgently needed to protect LGBT people, not only athletes and spectators, but everyone in Japan,” said Igarashi.

“In order to protect the lives and livelihood of sexual minorities, enacting a LGBT law that states discrimination is not tolerated is an indispensable first step,” said Kane Doi, Japan director of Human Rights Watch. “An enactment of such a law in Japan ahead of the Olympics is also necessary for the international community.”

As discussions on LGBTQ+ rights continue, not just in Japan but throughout the world, the spirit of the Olympic Games brings hope to supporters of LGBTQ+ rights.

“This year, all eyes will be on Japan,” said Matt Beard, executive director of All Out, an international organization that focuses on promoting LGBTQ+ rights. “In these trying times, the Olympic Games will be a welcome and much-needed celebration of humanity in all its beautiful diversity. By granting LGBT people protection from discrimination, Japan can prove that it truly supports the Olympic spirit of promoting tolerance and respect.”

INTERNATIONAL

5

SUPPLY CHAIN MAYHEM:

WHY GPUS AND CONSOLES ARE SO HARD TO COME BY RYAN MCCONNELL The Entertainment Software Association recently concluded its online convention, E3 2021, and next-generation exclusive video games are being released. It’s a unique year for the video game market, as the industry is experiencing major shortages. Finding a PS5 or Xbox One X is extremely difficult, and graphics processing units have had instantaneous sellouts since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This supply shortage is the result of severe backups in nearly every stage of the supply chains the tech industry relies on.

The supply shortage began with the shipping industry. Waterways have become so congested, cargo ships struggle to find areas to dock and drop their goods. This is particularly noticeable in the Pacific Northwest, where the United States Coast Guard has been redirecting boats away from docks like Whidbey Island in Washington State, to those not typically reserved for overseas shipments. San Francisco Bay has been so jammed with shipping vessels that the Coast Guard isn’t letting ships in at all.

Back when the pandemic began, shipping containers were stranded in U.S. seaports. China didn’t have enough containers to handle the goods accumulating in their warehouses, and the U.S. couldn’t send over more containers because of shipping restrictions put in place at the beginning of the pandemic. This applied to all products made in China, not just technology.

Meanwhile, the demand for products requiring semiconductors skyrocketed, causing a severe supply shortage in an industry dependent on overseas high-tech manufacturing. The mass transition to remote work and school caused a demand for home computers and PC parts that logistics couldn’t handle; with no ability to match the demand, prices soared and supply decreased.

Demand only continued to increase in 2020.

As products like GPUs were slowly being restocked, scalpers quickly caught wind of the releases and subsequently bought them in large quantities to sell for extremely inflated prices on eBay. The extent of scalping led U.S. technology company Nvidia to begin selling some GPUs exclusively at select Best Buy locations. Scalpers continued to buy available stock at the expense of consumers, who in some cases resorted to camping out at their local stores, with little success.

GPU stock remained low, and crypto-miners began to buy GPUs in bulk for building computers to mine cryptocurrency. The value of major cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, enticed investors to purchase as many GPUs as they could get their hands on.

6

These supply chain issues, combined with the release of next generation consoles, left the tech industry in limbo. Consoles still required the chipsets and wafers that remained in short supply, and getting them from manufacturers in China to the U.S. was difficult.

Consequently, consoles were purchased and resold at inflated prices.

The U.S. has tried to adapt, with President Biden signing an executive order calling on the White House to review vulnerabilities in the supply chain and invest in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The effects remain to be seen however, and little will likely change in the tech markets until at least the end of the year. “We expect demand to continue to exceed supply for much of this year,” said Colette Kress, CFO of the tech company Nvidia.

Companies have tried to focus on curtailing the bots scalpers use to purchase products and placing special crypto-mining limiters on their GPUs. Even still, stock flies off the shelves almost immediately, and resell prices have soared to more than double the original price. With backed up waterways, few chips in sight, scalpers buying up all the stock and crypto-investors looking to cash in on the craze, the state of the computer hardware industries looks grim for the average consumer.

Some argue, however, that GPU manufacturers shouldn’t overreact to the demand. In 2018, as crypto-mining gained popularity, GPU makers attempted to meet demands for the market, until the value of Bitcoin plummeted.

“All of a sudden the demand disappeared and Nvidia was hit the worst by this,” said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, a company that tracks GPU shipments from factories. “So they ended up with a whole bunch of inventory that took almost two or three quarters to bleed off.”

Ethereum has also stated it plans to phase to mass-mining for its cryptocurrency-using GPUs to alleviate some of the burden on GPU manufacturers. As some game studios phase out current-generation support and development is prioritized for the new generation of hardware, the demand for products that play these newly-announced titles continues to be greater than the supply.

The story may quickly flip on its head once strains on supply chains begin to ease, but don’t expect it to happen before 2022. Until then, enjoy the new trailers E3 has to offer, optimize your graphics settings and hope that GPU manufacturers overstock in the coming quarters so that parts can become affordable once again.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

SHANNON STEED

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

THE VIKINGS’ YEAR IN PANDEMIC SPORTS

PORTLAND STATE ATHLETICS OVERCAME PANDEMIC STRUGGLES THE PAST YEAR A VIKINGS SOFTBALL HELMET ON THE FIELD. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD ERIC SHELBY With a year of fake crowd noise, cancelled games, short seasons and a reigning conference champ, Portland State Athletics has officially crossed the hurdle of pandemic sports and is ready to play amongst fans again. Before we’re in person once again this fall, let’s have a recap of the 2020/21 pandemic year.

The 2020-21 women’s basketball season started off with six of the first seven games cancelled and ended with 12 wins and 13 losses. Even though it was a rough and unusual start, the Viks still managed to beat our conference rival, #9 Eastern Washington, 71-51 in the Big Sky conference tournament but ultimately lost 50-66 to #1 Idaho who later went on to win the championship.

Junior Desirae Hansen led the team averaging 12.6 points per game this season with a total of 314 points, joining the 1,000 point club as a Viking. Senior Tatina Streun led the team in rebounds with 162. Senior Kylie Jimenez led the team in assists with 98 this season and joined the All Big Sky (ABS) third team selection this season, along with Hansen. Upcoming new Vikings next year are Mia ‘Uhila, Megan Nieto, Rhema Ogele and Alaya Fitzgerald.

After arranging games with multiple non-conference teams as a response to the seven cancelled games this pandemic season, the men’s basketball team finished the season with a 9-13 record. Senior forward Khalid Thomas and freshman Paris Dawson both led the team with the most 3-pointers made, with a total of 32. The team had a first-round exit in the Big Sky tournament, losing to Northern Arizona 66-77. Good things are coming for the team as Jase Coburn becomes the new head coach and six new Vikings join the team:

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

Ezekiel Alley, Michael Carter III, Hayden Curtiss, James JeanMarie, Marlon Ruffin and Damion Squire.

Even though the softball season ended with 15 wins and 26 losses, PSU shut out #4 Northern Colorado 4-0, outlasted #1 Weber State 2-1, proved their dominance against #2 Southern Utah 6-5 in 9 innings and proved it again against the same team 8-1 to be crowned as 2021 Big Sky conference champions. This win punched their ticket in the NCAA tournament regionals in Seattle.

The softball team was sadly knocked out of the tournament but still celebrated a milestone of winning their first Big Sky championship since 2013. Their season ends with senior Marissa Bruno holding a .396 batting average and being named first team All Big Sky (ABS) with junior Tayler Gunesch, along with senior Rachel Menlove being named second team ABS. The men’s tennis team ends their COVID season with a record of 7-10 remaining undefeated at home with a 6-0 record. All the way from Serbia, senior Nikola Dimitrijevic made the first team ABS. Tommy Edwards and Fortini made second team doubles with juniors Sam Roberts and Tommy Hsu making honorable mentions.

The women’s tennis team finished their season with a record of 9-11, with a 3-1 record at home. Capu Sanoner, a freshman from Marcq-en-Baroeul, France, was awarded ABS first team singles. Sanoner and freshman Makoto Ohara were awarded second team doubles, while Junior Emily Rees was awarded second team singles.

Our soccer Vikings ended their season 0-9-1, with senior Kasey Isobe named NSCA All-American strength and conditioning athlete of the year. Sophomore goalkeeper Enya

Hernandez ended the season with 49 saves and junior Paige Donathan led the team with 2 goals this season. Their tie was with a home game, on campus, against Humboldt State.

In Track and Field, Junior Josh Snyder broke a 39-year school record running the fastest men’s steeplechase ever at 8:56.64.

Kaila Gibson ended her six year career as a Viking by breaking a record, running the fastest 10k since 1987 at 33:55.99. Junior Keynan Abdi ran the fastest men’s 5k since 2001 with a time of 14:14.00. PSU golf had a head-to-head record of 13-5 vs. Big Sky schools. Valerie Hernandez led the team in birdies this season with 34 and Jasmine Cabajar with 32.

The Viks football team cancelled their season this year due to COVID, along with a few other teams in the Big Sky. The gridiron Viks agreed to play Montana who also had their season cancelled. This one game season ended with a loss of 48-7.

Quarterback Davis Alexander threw 15 for 25 and 33 yards and wide receiver Mataio Talalemotu made the touchdown for the Viks early in the first quarter. They end their “season” 0-1.

They start the new season away on Sept. 4 against Hawaii, then travel to Washington state to face the Cougs on Sept. 11.

After our Volleyball Viks had a rough start of 1 win in the first 12 games, the Viks finished strong with winning 5 of their last 6 with a hopeful outlook to next year. They end the 2020-21 season with a 6-12 record. Ellie Snook won Big Sky libero of the year and ABS second team for the second time in her Viking career. Parker Webb led the team this season with the most kills at 161 and 2.4 kills per set.

Portland State has a bright future ahead of us even with a pandemic cloud over our head, and things are looking up for 2021/2022. GO VIKS!

SPORTS

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PRIDE PICS 2021 PRESENTS: MY FIRST SUMMER

THIS YOUTHFUL LESBIAN ROMANCE LACKS ELECTRICITY AND PURPOSE

GRACE AND CLAUDIA PICKING FRUIT. MY FIRST SUMMER/BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

BÉLA KURZENHAUSER Portland’s annual queer documentary film festival QDoc was postponed for the second year in a row, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of cancelling the festival altogether, the directors of QDoc teamed up with Pride Northwest for a two-day showing of LGBTQ-themed shorts and features as part of the first ever Pride Pics festival in Portland. The festival was held at the outdoor venue The Lot at Zidell Yards across June 16 and 17, with three fiction features and three documentaries projected outside amidst the baking sun and gravel backdrop of Zidell Yards.

One of the first showings of the festival was the Australian coming-of-age romance film My First Summer, directed by Katie Found, who introduced the film beforehand. My First Summer first debuted in Adelaide, Australia last Oct., but this showing was the first in the Pacific Northwest. The film tells the tale of two girls: Grace, a rebellious but free-spirited idealist, and Claudia, a stoic and socially-isolated girl beset with grief after her mother, a famous author, commits suicide by drowning herself in a local reservoir. Claudia is left parentless and hides in her house in the woods to avoid being taken away by the police.

Grace, having been present at the reservoir at the night of the incident, finds Claudia in the woods, bringing the two together, with Grace helping rehabilitate Claudia by introducing her gradually to the outside world.

Found’s direction focuses solely on the relationship between

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ARTS & CULTURE

Grace and Claudia, isolating them from a world of adulthood and exterior perceptions. Ideally, this focus would allow the story to flourish in a depiction of youthful energy and blooming romance, but the stereotypical characterization of the film’s two leads results in this magnification feeling all too myopic.

Arguably, the linchpin problem of My First Summer is that Grace and Claudia’s personalities only exist to bounce off of each other. Claudia’s depressive stock personality makes Grace feel like a lesbian manic pixie dream girl, whose sole purpose throughout the course of the film is to awaken Claudia to the supposed wonders of life. Despite being only 78 minutes long, the film blithely flounders and dances around any notions or depictions of love and romance, taking over an hour before any form of concrete affection becomes visible. By that point, the movie is practically over, leaving behind a destitute shell of incomplete—but not unrequited—feelings.

Structurally, the story falls too often into overplayed tropes.

You’ve seen this movie before, even if not by name you’ve seen the manic whiplash and reactionary beats, the hamfisted themes of ailing grief, and the tried-and-failed character conflict that is interjected into the story only at the most potentially melodramatic moments. The lack of any palpable sense of sensuality or romance conjures a tepid, disconnected and barely palatable coming-of-age story that feels more like Life is Strange than it does like Heavenly Creatures.

Additionally, the focus on grief and suicide marks My First Summer as yet another lesbian romance film with a borderline obsessive fetishism of grief and pain. There’s no thesis to these notions, and the film struggles to find a place for them amidst the residual scraps of a supposedly blossoming romance. Every time the story attempts to consult or consider heavy themes, the execution always feels heady, shattering the moment and washing away whatever consistency was previously present.

Found attempts to use narration to explore themes of grief and sadness outside of the discrete aspects of the story, with moments of Claudia and Grace waxing poetic through restrained whispers over the beautifully-photographed Australian landscape. These phantasmagoric musings would be perfectly in place in a Malick film, but the inconsistent usage of narration paired with the childlike and naive nature of the film results in a creative dissonance. Combine that with excessively hokey needle drops, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a film that feels almost creatively opposed to itself.

Indeed, My First Summer feels like a film split into halves and parts, torn and tugged into different directions, stuck at a crossroads with no clear path to follow. By the time the credits roll, you’re left with an undercooked and underwhelming coming-of-age romance, stranded by the road in the middle of the Australian desert.

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

RACHEL OWEN We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen companies take advantage of events and cultural progressions as a means to make money—your money. During Pride Month, which spans the entire month of June, businesses act no different. It seems as if every single building, every single company and every single store has some sort of rainbow memorabilia thrown on their window right now.

It’s as if on June 1, companies know that they must have something bright and colorful up or else they’re doomed. But what does that really mean? Why just June? Why don’t companies support the LGBTQ+ community all year round?

In this day and age, Pride has become a marketing scheme.

It’s become a series of rainbow-washing tactics to get the very people that are oppressed to spend money on things that they are supposed to celebrate.

From throwing a rainbow on a hat to recoloring the logo of an

app, companies try many different marketing methods to show that they support the LGBTQ+ community.

Truthfully, the act of stamping a rainbow on something and calling it “pride” is not only incredibly lazy, but performative as well. Companies now utilize the entire month of June as a way to get people to spend money on colorful things to make being queer appear trendy.

But being queer isn’t trendy, it’s terrifying. The amount of oppression that queer people face on an everyday basis is astronomical, and yet companies are just going to put a little rainbow on a sticker and call it a day? The ones with the power to make actual change are just going to be performative? That’s not enough.

This superficial Pride marketing is not okay. It devalues all the oppression that the queer community has faced all throughout history and turns it into a profitable margin. It turns June into a showcase of performative activism by companies that actually have the power, influence and money to make changes.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 5.6% of adults in the U.S. identify themselves as LGBT. This makes for a pretty large audience for companies to target—those that are directly oppressed by conservative measures that these said companies fight for. The streets look fun and colorful, but what about the legislation? What about the places where it actually matters?

As of May, a total of 17 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been enacted in the U.S., making 2021 the worst legislative year in history for the community, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Just last week, the Supreme Court gave a ruling in Fulton v.

Philadelphia that allows Catholic foster care organizations to exclude LGBTQ+ parents. The problem with queerbaiting, a marketing technique to hint same-sex love without actually showing it, and Pride marketing is that it makes being queer look trendy and fun, and ignores the realities of the tragedies that the LGBTQ+ community faces.

In order for companies to actually be true allies and negate the laziness and performativity of rainbowwashing, they must create opportunities for mutual aid and push for legislation that promotes safety in the LGBTQ+ community. Without doing so, their actions to support Pride are not only false, but inappropriate.

Companies are taking advantage of the very people that they are hurting. They are asking queer people and allies alike to celebrate with their products, while behind closed doors, they’re supporting legislation that does exactly the opposite.

As we reach the end of this month, it is important to remember that modern Pride started off as a riot.

There weren’t companies supporting them with rainbow flags or fun-colored socks or—god forbid—whatever Target put in their Pride section. That’s right, a Pride section. It’s become a whole part of the store now.

For those that do identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, the entire month of June is not necessarily a month of celebration, but a month of reflection. There are so many things to celebrate, and it is fantastic that we have come so far, but we also have a long way to go.

Pride is not a marketing ploy. Being queer doesn’t make a person trendy; it’s a part of someone’s identity, the same way that everything else is.

Companies are out there taking advantage of that, without actually backing up any of the products that they are selling. This Pride month, instead of buying whatever cheap product you can find, donate money to organizations that directly help the queer community. Pay attention to where you shop and, if you can, choose to support places that are honest about their mission statements.

For more information, you can visit the National Center for Transgender Equality for a list of mutual aid projects and organizations catered to helping the LGBTQ+ community.

Don’t fall for

CORPORATE RAINBOW-WASHING this June

SHANNON STEED

PSU Vanguard • JUNE 22, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

OPINION

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