Happy Pride from East Fork Cultivars
Below, four members of our llama family share what Pride means to them:
🏳️🌈 Te, Director of Sales — "To me, Pride means showing and experiencing love without fear. Pride means glitz, technicolor and glam. Pride means family, community and fortitude to stand up for what is right!"
🏳️🌈 Leana Bradfield, Cultivation Lead — "Pride to me is the power to be myself and not have to think twice about it."
🏳️🌈 Amber Blessing, Account Manager — "For me, pride is about being able to be myself. Growing up in a rural and fairly conservative part of the country, there were times when I thought I’d never be able to be out, but it was other people’s pride, and them leading the way for me, that gave me the courage to do that myself. It’s important for Sophie and I to live our lives out and proud, to normalize it for other people all over the world that don’t have the ability the be themselves in this way."
🏳️🌈 Anna Symonds, Director of Education — "Pride to me is about freedom! Both celebrating and standing up for the freedoms to be my full cosmic self and to love naturally without limits. These are human rights that need to be recognized for all people."
rainbow llamas to Support the Q Center:
East Fork is pleased to announce the launch of our Pride Llama enamel pins for sale on EastForkandFriends.com to raise funds for Portland’s Q Center! We will donate $14.50 for each Pride Llama Pin sold. We believe in the Q Center’s mission, and we’re committed to supporting.
Q Center’s Mission:
To provide safe spaces, community building and empowerment for the positive transformation of LGBTQ2SIA+ communities and allies in the Pacific Northwest.
As the largest LGBTQ+ community center in the Pacific Northwest, Q Center proudly serves the LGBTQ2SIA+ communities of Portland Metro and Southwest Washington.
Our drop-in and event space on North Mississippi Avenue is a frequent first stop for new arrivals in Portland, and for longtime residents who are newly out or questioning their sexual or gender identity. Q Center also serves as an information hub for friends, partners, community, and family members of LGBTQ2SIA+ individuals.
We pride ourselves on our collaborative approach and seek out ways to share resources with other nonprofits and public institutions locally and statewide.
a pride note From east fork:
June, Pride Month, is about celebrating our freedom of expression and the inherent beauty in our natural ways of being that have been unfairly stigmatized for so long.
But for the cannabis community, it is also a much needed opportunity to recognize and honor the role of HIV activists and the queer community in pioneering medical marijuana programs in response to the AIDS crisis. Every person whose life has been improved by legal cannabis — and who works in cannabis — owes a deep debt of gratitude to these selfless pioneers.
If you don't know the names of Dennis Peron and “Brownie Mary” Rathbun, take the chance to learn about them now — these legendary activists were figures of immense courage and compassion. And their world-changing work and individual sacrifices made legal cannabis possible again.
In the past decade, we've made much legal and social progress for both the LGBTQ2SIA+ and cannabis communities — but we still have a significant way to go. In both arenas, we still have considerable work to do: to fully secure our legal human rights, and to wipe away the social stigmas that still punish people unjustly. There are still forces in the world that seek to constrain and conform our behaviors, personal expression, and even our identities and thoughts.
But we refuse to be stigmatized and to bow down to these archaic ideas and pressures. In positive defiance, we — the “queers”, the “stoners”, the once outcast — proudly claim the inalienable freedoms of our bodies, our identities, and our self-expression.
It's about freedom — and we love that cannabis frees our minds. It heals. It allows our thoughts to explore creative directions that we couldn’t otherwise access. It's the bit of extra sun that encourages the flower to blossom, opening things up to let us experience new perspectives.
You're all invited to celebrate our freedoms with us — this Pride Month and every month!
