Queer Heroes Northwest 2018:
Don Powell

Don Powell began his LGBTQ activism in Eugene in the mid-1970s. He was heavily involved in the successful effort to get the Eugene City Council to pass a sexual orientation nondiscrimination ordinance by personally persuading a councilor to vote YES and she turned out to be the swing vote. Unfortunately, anti-gay activists had the law referred to the voters. That anti-gay ballot measure passed 3-2 in 1978 despite all the work the gay community and our straight allies did to counter it. But in the process, Don became one of the pillars of the Oregon LGBTQ movement.

Don moved to Portland in 1988 where he continued his involvement in LGBTQ politics through the Right to Privacy (RTP) PAC, which was later called Right to Pride. He served a term as Chair of RTP and was on the Board of Directors for 10 years. Don was honored with RTP’s Lucille Hart Award in 1996. He was Co-Chair of the Board of Directors in the 1994 narrow defeat of Ballot Measure 13, an anti-gay statewide Ballot Measure.

In the early 1990s, Don and a fellow gay activist asked Attorney General Ted Kulongoski to submit an amicus brief in support of challenging Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2. The brief which Ted submitted became a basis for overturning Amendment 2, and helped to lead to subsequent LGBTQ victories in the U.S. Supreme Court.

We begin announcing a hero per day on June 1, and the heroes' posters are unveiled in a reception at Q Center on June 7, 2018, 5-8PM. The public is invited. Queer Heroes' posters are displayed all year at Q Center.

Queer Heroes Northwest 2018: Don Powell

Queer Heroes Northwest 2018:
Don Powell