Basic Rights Ignites The Night At Portland Art Museum

Sunday, 09 October 2011 16:28 | Written by Byron

From top, left: Kate Brown, Terry Bean, Bolivia Carmichael, John Halseth, Robin Castro, Mark Wiener, Jeana Frazzini, Nick Fish, Eileen Brady, Polly Hampton, Kenny Macdonald, Ted Wheeler, Peter Shanky, Dwight Adkins, Kendall Clawson, Robert Goman, Bob Speltz, Johnna Wells and Juan Martinez

ALL FIRED UP: Basic Rights Oregon lit up the night on Friday at the Portland Art Museum for their annual fundraising gala due in large part to the theme of this year's event—IGNITE—which seemed to fire up everyone up in support of LGBT rights.

It was a very different dinner and auction than in previous years. For the first time ever BRO (full disclosure: my partner, Juan Martinez, is their Development Director, but most of you already know that by now) chose the Portland Art Museum's Mark Building for not just one, but two, events that evening.

First up was a dinner and live auction in the Sunken Ballroom that featured wine, champagne, a delightful dinner and desserts from the good folks at Vibrant Table. And the auction? Well, it featured several chances to rub shoulders with celebs—including an event with Glee's Jane Lynch, and a chance to "workout" with anti-bullying champ Ben Cohen.

Upstairs in the Grand Ballroom awards were given out to such champs as the Portland City Council (in their support of Trans rights).

And there was a dance party. Oh my, was there a dance party.

The vibe was hot. The evening was on fire. And it looks like everyone was going to be nursing some kind of something due to the hosted cocktails. Oh yeah, it was a good night. A good night to support Basic Rights.

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