sumariotter

Portland is an awesome place to live, especially if you are eco and community minded, lesbian/gay, a book lover, a geek, into outdoor adventures like hiking/kayaking. It has incredible public transportation and this is a big reason that I lived in Portland for five years and am moving back this year. The other reason is the number of politically aware, cooperatively minded, and ecologically oriented people who live here. Portland is beautiful. I am perennially surprised by the breathtaking views around every corner. And there are so many magical gardens there. I do find the downtown area not very appealing—lots of square buildings/concrete, ongoing construction. For me the beauty of Portland is in the neighborhoods and southeast is my favorite. The other beautiful thing about living in Portland is that go an hour or two in any direction and you can be at the beach, the desert, the mountains, the Gorge…I love how many people live an active lifestyle here. And for booklovers there are more independent bookstores in Portland than I have seen anywhere else including Powells, the most amazing bookstore in the world.

Accept yourself and others will accept you…somebody told me that before I came out and it is so true. other people take their cue from you. When I first came out in Richmond Virginia I was so nervous about it that my friends were not sure how to respond…the more comfortable I got with my own sexuality, the more the people in my life became comfortable with it. Coming out was a really exhilarating and nerve wracking experience. I did not realize before coming out how much of a burden keeping that one part of myself secret was. I felt much lighter and freer afterwards. Moving to Portland Oregon was very helpful to me in learning to accept myself. There is a huge lesbian community there and people in Portland are completely accepting of gay/lesbian lifestyle—not just accepting but welcoming. All of the women in Portland look like dykes (short hair, REI clothes, glasses, not shaving) and that is such an awesome thing. Many of the restaurants/businesses have rainbow stickers on the windows indicating their politics. And there are lots of venues for meeting women.

I’m a 37 year old lesbian, and I’m wanting to find a place to put down roots. I lived in Richmond Virginia for ten years, then moved to Portland Oregon now I live in an ecovillage in Missouri. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an awesome place and I will always love it—still, I am missing cities big time. Portland is a really great city and I will probably move back there but I never felt quite at home on the west coast…I miss East Coast people. I don’t want to go back to Richmond (I loved Richmond with a passion as a college student but don’t think it would be as good for me at this stage in my life. I love DC but don’t think I can afford it. I like quirky places with lots of independent/local businesses, old buildings, film festivals, ethnic restaurants, good public transit, gay/lesbian friendly, good libraries, cooperative houses. I love thunderstorms, snow and summers that aren’t too hot. I love thrift store shopping, yarn/craft stores, natural food stores. I love going out dancing/clubbing. I like living near water.