Welcome to Know Your History.


I am taking a little opportunity to re-post a delightful time capsule that was originally posted in North End Noise (incarnation 2 or 3). This wee time capsule that feels very relevant today. 

Enjoy your reading. 
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Arise, Little Beirut:

"If we're out in the streets, and we have that right in a democracy, we're there to make a point. We're there to be counted, literally." – Tom Hastings -professor of nonviolence and conflict resolution at Portland State University to The Oregonian – 2003

 --

Staring at the people around me in the North End you could see the tension that was building to a point of agitated unrest. I walked down the aisle into the fading sunlight beamed out across pasty faces and untanned arms. Here in the countenance of many that surrounded me on all sides was the rising tide of apprehension that comes with the fear of stepping over the line. No one truly knew what would happen over the next 33 minutes, but we were boldly looking off into the realm of the unknown.

The concession stand boycott eliminated beer for many fans, and yet people were still drunk. Stern expressions abound alongside tight smiles showing the duality of steel purpose and recognized faces. There is no relaxation to be had here. A churning bit of stomach, the gripping of nails, an exorcist burst of noise from behind as the dam must burst and frustrated fans attempt to make this about the team, about them, about anything but fucking silence. The noise comes in waves like a smoldering fire sending up embers that threaten to burn everything down.

Thirty-three minutes of silence.

If you believe in a god, it’s time to pray because it’s 10 minutes in and the absence of what traditionally happens in the stands every home game is more gripping on the nerves than coming down from any kind of stimulant, legal or illegal. There’s plenty of stimulants and depressants in this group, right now. Beer, whiskey, marijuana, caffeine, cocaine, adrenaline… anything to get tuned up, tuned in and fucked off. You could bottle and sell the pure intensity flowing through the collected stands right now to hawkers on Canal Street. In my section there’s probably more prescriptions for Lipitor than lithium. Stone faces, biting lips, crossed arms, loud conversations and nervous laughter, ye gods make this end. The last time the atmosphere at home felt this tense there were security guards trolling for fans to eject, and raving lunatics on the front edge of a cutting atmosphere so doomed that it felt like the sky would fall.

Solidarity in Cascadia. Madness in Little Beirut.

--

When then Vice-President Dan Quayle visited Portland back in 1990 for a $2,500 a plate fundraiser, Portland wasn’t universally known as a twee city where the youth of the United States would retire to enjoy their handlebar mustaches, doughnuts, beer and coffee bars. People gathered from across the west to Portland like the lost children of old. In his book Fugitives and Refugees, Chuck Palahniuk describes a sea of indigent artists, hippies, half-mad writers, dopers and freak people hell bent on scraping by with whatever weirdness pooled out of them in an inexpensive city. People gathered, roughly 300 in number, to protest the Vice President. This wasn’t the first time that Quayle or other politicians were targeted. There was unrest. There was direct action. Someone shit on a picture of the Vice President. Flags were desecrated.

People of that generation were growing up with the specter of more failed wars and policies. The bastards were up to their same tricks. The Fear was strong with their group and they used it to mess with nearly everyone they could find. Failed coups in Latin and South American countries, illegally selling arms to Iran in order to fund a guerilla war in Nicaragua in order to destabilize the country, using the CIA and roughly 40 billion dollars with Saudi Arabia to fund the Mujahideen in Afghanistan which directly lead to the madness that was Osama Bin Laden.

The US government was working overtime on actively ignoring the Aids crisis, overthrowing the government in Panama and devoting an unending amount of tax dollars to the catastrophically failed War on Drugs (still ongoing). Meanwhile, the first Gulf War was protested in Portland in 1991 by a diverse collection of freaks, peaceniks, Reedies, capable youth, old heads, hippies, anarchists, and agitators who found themselves fighting the same generational battles that their Berkley forbearers did before being crushed under the wheel of modern life. But I’m going off on a tangent here.

During this era of protest and unrest over 28 years ago, a member of the Bush administration dubbed Portland the moniker of Little Beirut.  Perhaps it was the presentation of aforementioned suit clad Reedies who, while protesting the Vice President, used ipecac to force out Red, White, and Green vomit after no one told them that the contents of their stomach would turn blue food coloring into green projectile.

Certainly this wasn’t anything new, as when Ronald Reagan came to deliver a speech at the University of Portland in 1984, political activists lined up with coffins and photos of the victims of death squads in El Salvador. This was direct action with angry men and women, commitment on a heavy scale for a heavy world.

--

Two years ago you could very easily imagine the imminent threat of fascist white supremacists in Portland. In the shoes of Ricky John Best, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Micah David-Cole Fletcher we all walked.  Riding on a max train and seeing the doors close, in the weeks after the attack, there was an eerie sense that it could have been any of them, any of us, at any time. The paranoia that terrorism and racism brings infects the very mundane things you do every day with a new feeling of discomfort. There was a tension to the Rose City, bad psychic energy all around.

These men were everyday people with a diverse background who confronted hate, racism, fascism and white nationalism directly. Ricky John Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche paid for this stand with their lives. This was two years ago.

These are the times of tiki torch wielding fascist white supremacists. The times of American people screaming, “blood and soil,” and men who openly speak the politics of hate and repression. Make no mistake, these people have always been here. This hate is nothing new, they are just emboldened into showing themselves and attempting to mainstream this culture of hate like it once was.

This is the long festering underbelly of American life that many like to pretend doesn’t exist. Out of the web and onto the streets they come, time and again. In Charlottesville they run down protestors in the streets while being praised by the sitting President as, “Very Fine People.” In Portland they conspire to attack people in the streets and bars. Sometimes they arrive in town the day before their protest, eat Korean fusion food, go to the park the next day to yell racial slurs, paint themselves as victims, and then receive a police escort out of town. In Seattle they seek violent attacks, show up armed to soccer bars and assault people in the street. These are the times of fascist white nationalists and bigots that target places like the Hispanic community of El Paso, the synagogues of Pittsburgh, or the churches of Charleston.

We cannot call ourselves better than this when this is currently our present and our past. There is no guarantee that the future will be better. However, doing absolutely nothing will guarantee that it won’t be better.

All Americans now attend mass events as a matter of protest whether you like that or not. The simple attempt at back to school shopping is now a political statement against people who want to terrorize and inflict psychic pain. 

The history of Oregon isn’t easy and it isn’t pretty. However there’s a direct connection to direct action. This is our tradition and we must carry it on. Those in the stadium and those on the streets feel the connection to Little Beirut.

When you do something, anything at all, it will inevitably make someone upset. You eat the wrong doughnut in this town and 5 people will inform you of your wrongness. There isn’t a package that will make your stand acceptable to everyone in the world, much less your random friends on Facebook that you keep around. For some people, there’s never going to be a right way to indicate that you are standing up for your friends and neighbors. 

The goal of direct action and confrontation is to make things difficult and to finally have THAT conversation, even if that conversation is uncomfortable. Protest is not about making everyone on all sides feel better, and it is not about patterning yourself and your life in a palatable way for people who refuse to understand why you simply won’t just follow the rules and behave appropriately. The fact that silence itself could be considered so egregious shows the ability of the voiceless to be counted.

To be counted is, in itself, something that soccer supporters know all too well. We show up to games bedecked in team clothes with flags, banners and songs and the knowledge that we literally can do nothing on the field to change what will happen.

We don’t show up because we think that somehow we will be pulled from the stands to play. We show up because we love the game. We show up to be counted among the faithful and to bear witness to the events in front of us. We show up to be there in person and to sing, to chant, to boo and cheer. We show up to be with our friends and family even though they were strangers some time ago. Sometimes, even, we show up to be silent. In silence we are still counted and we show our faith to our team, friends, loved ones and the strangers that form our neighborhoods.

Speaking to people within the community you begin to understand that this action isn’t just about a ban on a symbol. It’s more about an idea. Within this idea lives the thought that soccer supporters don’t just exist to consume, attend, cheer, leave on schedule and play by the rules; but rather that we exist to fight for each other, to live for each other, to support both the team and the town. 

The league and team cracking down on this symbol is them cracking down on the very identity of standing for the players on the field and the community in which we live. We show that we are against racism and white supremacists not just when it affects us but when it affects the players on our team or the people we do not know. When the Flores family is directly impacted by racism on the streets of Portland we know that sports and life and the communities we support are all connected. We know that soccer is a mirror that shows the life we live in our communities every day.

When you understand that idea, you will understand that it isn’t just about the Iron Front, but about the idea of fighting back against an attempt by the league and the Timbers own front office to censor fans and sanitize the support that they sold to advertisers and other fans.

Flying the Iron Front is a rejection of racism, fascism and white supremacy. Flying the Iron Front is the sign of the rejection of the policies of hate. It is a sign of inclusion and acceptance of the other in our midst. This is welcoming not only your neighbor but the 18 year old player from Argentina who is coming to a new place and a new life. This is telling the 28 year old soccer player from El Salvador and the 12 year old refugee from Somalia that we reject the ideology currently sputtering in this region and country that says they do not belong.

Standing silent, together, in the cooling evening we can show our strength by not giving the performance that the league so desperately wants. We stop so the league and front office can’t package our singing and dancing into clips that border on trained performances. It is a reminder of strength, of unity, of solidarity.

 --

Now there is a minute left until we hit the rocket ship, blast off and head to the edge of the Milky Way.

Now there is a minute left until we all step over that line into the unknown.

It’s finally time to prepare after what seemed like an inexorable wait.

Suddenly, we are nearly there. 

The time on the clock, moving ever slower towards 33 minutes, ticks onward with only 20 seconds to go. 

Counting internally, it is impossible to not acknowledge the time. 

10….. 9….. 8…..

Hundreds of green clad people in the stands are counting out loud.  People are looking around at their loved ones, strangers, enemies and friends; and honestly there isn’t one person that knows what is going to happen after this ticking bomb of stress, angst, anger and aggression is finally let loose. Nerves, already exposed due to past weeks of rancor, persistent games and events, are now completely shredded. Fans ready themselves by clutching flags and displays as the white noise of nervous chatter starts to grow in intensity.

Now is the time when we hold fast. When the moment arrives with a clock strike and one era is going to end while another will begin.

Drummers pick up mallets and sticks, fans ready their voices, people stand up on chairs and look around wide eyed in The Moment with absolute pure anticipation pulsating through their veins. Just before the chaos it seems like a collective inhale happens.

And then, together, we step across the line into the unknown.

Arise, Little Beirut

This post brought to you by the TA Capos / DnT:

Note -
This blog was originally posted by our capos back in May before being taken down for more discussion and consideration of our traditions and history.

The Timbers Army capos and drums/trumpets have put a lot of thought into how to best satisfy an ever-evolving supporters section while still honoring the tradition of a song that means so much to so many.  We believe now is the time for change and hope everyone will join us and profess their love of the club at the beginning of the match, freeing up the end of the match for more upbeat and energetic chants to power our boys to victory.

Original post: 
“Fools Rush In”,  Trying Something a Little Different

Trying something new can be hard, especially when there's years of history built up around a tradition. How can we best move forward while still honoring our past? "Fools Rush In" (Wise Men) has been a staple of the Timbers Army for years, it's been sung by generations of Timbers fans, through multiple leagues, to hundreds of players that have worn the green and gold. It’s a song that's been covered by many local bands, its lyrics tattooed on Timbers Army members, and even been used as the first dance at TA weddings.  The biggest criticism of "Wise Men" as a chant has always been its timing, late in the match, and in close proximity to another historic club ballad in "You Are My Sunshine".

Moving forward, we'd like to cement "Wise Men" as a club anthem among the likes of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Liverpool/St Pauli/Celtic, "Mull of Kintyre" at Nottingham Forest, "Marching On Together" at Leeds, "Roma Roma" at AS Roma, "Always Forward" at Bayern Munich, and well... you get the point. Most football clubs worldwide have a club anthem sung during the walkout, just prior to kickoff, or right at the opening whistle.

The stadium-wide "PTFC" chant will still echo throughout the players tunnel as teams prepare to enter our historic Multnomah Civic Stadium. The famous Timbers samba will still get the party started immediately following the National Anthem. "Wise Men" will now be sung as the first chant of the match.

Please join in, FULL VOICE and with SCARVES UP to let the visiting supporters, our beloved city of Portland, and most of all the boys in green and gold, know exactly who's got your heart (and your whole life, too).

The votes are in and it’s not even close. With 50.70% of the votes, your 2024 Timbers Army Supporters’ Player of the Year is Evander! Your move, MLS.

Finishing second in this year’s voting was James Pantemis, with 7.96% of the votes. Also receiving significant votes were Felipe Mora, David Ayala, Jona Rodriguez, Diego Chara, Dario Zuparic, Zac McGraw, and Dairon Asprilla.

About the Timbers Army Supporters’ Player of the Year Award

Awarded annually since 2011, the Timbers Army Supporters' Player of the Year award is a one-of-a-kind wrestling-style championship belt given to the Timbers player receiving the most votes in a poll during the last weeks of the regular season. To be eligible, players must be on the roster during the regular season. The belt is presented to the winner after the last home match of the season.

Previous Winners

2023: Cristhian Paredes

2022: Aljaz Ivacic

2021: Dairon Asprilla

2020: Jeremy Ebobisse

2019: Steve Clark

2018: Sebastián Blanco

2017: Diego Valeri

2016: Diego Valeri

2015: Diego Chara

2014: Diego Valeri

2013: Will Johnson

2012: Diego Chara

2011: Troy Perkins 

by Bruce Eaton and Shawn Levy

The U.S. Open Cup is a vital piece of soccer’s history in this country. It’s been around since 1913, when it debuted as the National Challenge Cup, and it is the oldest ongoing national title in American soccer — the nearest thing we have to the FA Cup, the Copa del Rey, the Coppa Italia, and other such venerated championships. 

The Open Cup is a true open cup — every team, from a Sunday league 11 to the highest professional squad, is eligible to play in it. Because of that small-d democratic nature, it has long been a way for small soccer communities to make their presence known on a national stage. When there was no nationwide soccer league in this country, the Cup kept the game alive. When immigrants from places with long soccer histories came to America, the Cup was their doorway into meaningful competition in the world’s game. The ragtag history of American soccer and the American story is deeply ingrained in the Cup. How can you not love a championship that’s been won by the likes of Macabee Los Angeles, Brooklyn Hispano, Philadelphia Ukrainians, San Francisco Italian Athletic Club, and Shawsheen Indians, not to mention Bethlehem Steel?

Since the mid-’90s, the Cup has been won almost always by an MLS side (the old NASL never took part in the tournament — and look what happened to it!). And since 2001, a summertime cup run has been a part of being a Portland Timbers fan — and often provided the most memorable highlights of some dismal seasons.

Until now, that is.

The poobahs of MLS have decided to put only eight of the league’s teams in the tournament. The Portland Timbers are not included. 

That sucks. 

And here’s why.

WE were once one of those little teams for which an Open Cup run was a (potential) ticket to the big time. WE were the minnows. And, quite often, a Cup run was our only chance to win anything in the long hot summer of a minor league season.

During the Timbers’ USL/A-League era, the U.S Open Cup matches were a highlight of the year’s escapades at PGE Park. 

In 2004, a growing, boisterous, and artistic Timbers Army mocked Landon Donovan as his San Jose Earthquakes dominated the Timbers 3-0 in front of a crowd of 10,000-plus. Timbers centerback Gavin Wilkinson, in familiar form, received a red card in the seventeenth minute. (GW Out indeed! Rumor has it that he stole a pint from a table in the old beer garden on his way to the dressing room: Typical.) Nevertheless, the match was a very early indication to the soccer world that Portland fans were wildly dedicated to the boys in green. Despite the beating, the north end noise never dwindled, even impressing Donovan, who said afterward, “I don’t know many teams that, when you go down two or three nothing, the fans are still cheering like that.” From that point on, people knew that something special was going on in Portland.

A few years later, Portland fans had a taste of infamy, when a semipro USASA team, Hollywood United, upset the Timbers 3-2. It was kind of sickening to see a pretty good USL team lose at home to such a low-level opponent, regardless of the number of ex-pros on their roster and Hollywood B-list stars in their ownership ranks. But such embarrassment is part of the appeal of Cup: You can never take a minnow for granted.

That lesson was etched permanently into Timbers history in 2012 with the infamous 1-0 loss in extra time to Eric Wynalda’s Cal FC, another amateur roster of former MLS and USL players put together solely to make a run at the Cup. They did, at our expense. A missed Kris Boyd penalty kick that knocked over beers in section 108. A bloodied captain Jack Jewsbury. Curses from the capo stand (Ah, Pong!). And, after the fact, added drama with Wynalda accusing Merritt Paulson of failing to fulfill a promised revenue share with his team, the first spark of a social media feud that still burns today. (Ah, Olde Twitter!)

These stories illustrate the wonderful concept of the underdog in the Open Cup. It’s what elimination tournaments thrive on: The opportunity. The chance to show what you’ve got, who you are, and who’s with you for the ride.

We had some glorious moments in the Cup, too. An Open Cup match against Seattle in 2009 inspired our first big tifo — Timber Jim cutting town the Space Needle. And there was the unforgettable Red Card Wedding in 2015: The epic meltdown when Seattle ended the match defeated 3-1, with seven men on the pitch, no head coach on the bench, a humiliated and disgraced Clint Dempsey, and a bill for the referee’s shredded notebook.

These stories illustrate why the tournament resonates. It’s all right there, in front of you, as it happens. There’s only another game if you get through this one. It creates moments. It creates memories. It is filled with traps for big teams and David-vs.-Goliath chances for little ones. The regular season of MLS doesn’t have that. The league is built to favor brand-name stars in big cities, not to grow the game at the grassroots. And MLS prefers its own jury-rigged tournaments to the one that can truly show the rest of the world that American soccer is and always has been for real.

Here’s the thing: MLS doesn’t run the the Open Cup; U. S. Soccer does. If MLS ran the cup, they’d turn it into another aspect of their quest for dollars and easy fame. (Remember when they tried to grab the Cascadia Cup and slap a brand on it?) They’d only be interested in the Cup if they could monetize it, without regard for its history of keeping soccer alive and spreading it around the USA. What they’re building is top-heavy: a reality show starring old faces from bigger leagues with no personal connection to the communities they play in or interest in growing the game at the lower levels. The unpredictable Open Cup looks like a nuisance to folks with that mentality.

Given MLS’s convoluted salary machinations, Ponzi-scheme expansion, and partnership with Apple in a broadcast monopoly, it’s no wonder the league wants out of a tournament that they can’t control. It’s just not in their DNA to be a good, cooperative partner, even though it’s obvious that U. S. soccer would benefit greatly from a mature, enlightened top league and a Cup that gives underdogs a puncher’s chance against the big boys. 

This year is pretty much over as far as seeing the Timbers in the Cup. So what can we people who recognize the value and history of the Cup do? 

We can continue to support our boys, if not our first team: T2 is in the Cup this year, and you should watch its matches when and where you can. You can contact the Timbers’ front office and MLS and demand that they expand their participation in the Cup. And you can send a tweet to Eric Wynalda, to let him know that you understand what a broken promise feels like.

With contributions from Shawn Levy.

You may not know Benson Drapiza’s name, and you may not know his face (though if you saw it, it’s likely you’d remember). But if you’ve attended Timbers matches in the past 15 or so years, going back to the minor league days, then you’ve danced and sung and celebrated and commiserated to Benson’s beat.

Benson was a senior member of the TA’s Drums-N-Trumpets corp, the pilot of El Diablo, one of the two big drums that rock the stadium from the top of section 106. And we lost him, suddenly and surprisingly, in January. On Saturday night, after the match, we will mark his passing – and, even more, his longtime presence among us – with a ceremony in the North End.

The North End is family, a family of choice, a family we count ourselves among for many and varied reasons. These connections transcend merely being sports fans — at weddings, births, baptisms, and in times of trouble, we show up for one another and truly embody the Trinity of Team, Town, and Timbers Army.

So when we lose a member of our family, there is an unfillable hole in the tapestry of The North End. Nowhere is that void more dark and raw today than in the heartbeat of the Timbers Army, the DnT, the family-within-a-family that Benson chose and loved and loved him back hugely in return.

It wasn’t only at Timbers matches that Benson kept the heartbeat pounding. You knew his beats as he spun tracks at the Holiday Party and other TA events. He was a huge personality who seemingly knew everyone forever, even those he’d just met.  

At matches, he was the life of the party, which is saying something – wearing sunglasses and a trucker hat, making goofy faces, punctuating chant verses with a hearty “WOOOOOO!”, driving the tempo faster and faster, and no doubt talking shit without missing a beat. For Benson, sleeves were always optional, and when the Timbers came from behind in some sort of incredible comeback, so was his shirt. Maybe his shorts, too. You never knew what would come next with that guy. 

And his merrymaking went on outside the park. He was a DJ and a festival follower. He was a snowboarder and river rat. He was famed for a massive wardrobe of sneakers and astounding outfits – onesies, capes, track suits, sports jerseys. He was an LED artist. He sported a billboard of tattoos. He got around town on a onewheel. He was as big a Blazers fan as he was a Timbers fan (if there were a Blazers DnT, he would’ve been right in the middle of it). He was born on July 4, which he celebrated every year as Bendependence Day with a massive party. He came from Tennessee, called Oregon his home, had a day job involving (and this may be the most remarkable thing about him) financial analysis, and leaves behind many, many, many broken hearts: A celebration of his life earlier this month was literally standing room only.

Benson’s contributions to Our Thing were massive and can’t be replicated, merely honored, and his legacy serves as a reminder of how special The North End and the Timbers Army are.

Saturday, after the final whistle and the log ceremony, please stay and join the DnT, Benson’s family, and the Timbers in honoring his memory. Below you can find the video that played on February 24 after the match.

You can watch the memorial video here.

Many have inquired as to how they might contribute to defray the costs associated with Benson's passing. If you are willing and able, you can donate to the GoFundMe here.

On Thursday, November 9, the Front Office hosted members of the Timbers Army Steering Committee, Game Day Operations and the 107IST board in a neutral setting to meet with Heather Davis, CEO of the Portland Timbers and Thorns, Ned Grabavoy, GM of the Portland Timbers, and Phil Neville, the newly named Timbers head coach. This meeting was an opportunity to meet Phil, and ask questions to Heather and Ned. The format was Q&A, and after Phil departed early (to catch a flight), there was time to have more-personal conversations in smaller groups.

The Q&A was respectful but pointed: We made plain that the hire was tone-deaf, pressed on changes within the Front Office and asked about plans to re-engage supporters who’ve walked away from the clubs. We wanted Heather, Ned and Phil to hear from us that we want the club to show up for supporters, the city, and the broader community. We questioned Phil on his intentions to work with T2 and the Academy, what “engaging with supporters” looks like, and how he and Ned plan to build up a scouting team to recruit quality players as more clubs and high-profile players join the league. 

We’ve been down this road before with the Front Office, and we know there will be continued challenges before things get better. We are approaching our conversations with them with transparency, respect and direct communication because, at the end of the day, we are RCTID, and we will be here long after they have moved on.

The votes are in! With 20.10% of the votes, your 2023 Timbers Army Supporters’ Player of the Year is Cristhian Paredes!

Finishing second in this year’s voting was Zac McGraw, with 15.05% of the votes. Also receiving votes were Diego Chara, Dario Zuparic, Felipe Mora, Evander, Dairon Asprilla, Santiago Moreno, Claudio Bravo, David Bingham, and Sebastián Blanco.

About the Timbers Army Supporters’ Player of the Year Award

Awarded annually since 2011, the Timbers Army Supporters' Player of the Year award is a one-of-a-kind wrestling-style championship belt given to the Timbers player receiving the most votes in a poll during the last weeks of the regular season. To be eligible, players must be on the roster during the regular season. The belt is presented to the winner after the last home match of the season.

Previous Winners

2022: Aljaz Ivacic
2021: Dairon Asprilla
2020: Jeremy Ebobisse
2019: Steve Clark
2018: Sebastián Blanco
2017: Diego Valeri
2016: Diego Valeri
2015: Diego Chara
2014: Diego Valeri
2013: Will Johnson
2012: Diego Chara
2011: Troy Perkins 

The following is a post by Nash Drake.

I was floored by the tifo on Pride night. I looked at the display and the rail banner and thought to myself, “Perfect. No notes. 12/10.”

The trans community is in crisis. We’re there for a number of reasons, and none of them have to do with anything we have done. We aren’t groomers, pedos, or rapists. We aren’t imps, devils, or monsters. We are actually a community of people who just want to live their lives with some dignity, respect, and access to all of the same things as everyone else, such as medical care and public restrooms.

In 2023 alone (that’s only six months, folks), more than 300 pieces of legislation that specifically target the trans community have been introduced. We are the number one wedge issue, and our lives have been relentlessly picked apart and scrutinized by mainstream media, legislators, and the general public. The rhetoric surrounding us is increasingly suggesting that we are a menace to society and must be eradicated. (Yes, the word "eradicate" has been used.)

This is happening right now — today — while you are reading this, and one of the biggest issues is that we aren’t getting coverage of it in mainstream media. If this tifo spurs the conversation about what is happening: excellent. We need folks to wake up and listen to what we’ve been trying to tell everyone for years: They are trying to eliminate us. It’s real. It’s happening.

Major companies and organizations are abandoning us, as was predictable, when they get pushback from the far right. Over and over again we have been let down by people we thought were our allies or had hoped would show up when the time came. That time is now and the majority have simply walked away.

Enter the TA with this tifo. Lord have mercy, there are an awful lot of cisgendered people with some OPINIONS. I’ve also seen some trans folks’ opinions, and while I disagree on some points, I have nothing to say to y’all about your feelings other than I am deeply sorry you are hurting. I wish this could be perfect for everyone. I really do.

That tifo was, in my trans opinion, a multi-faceted work of resistance and allyship. It took a direct quote from one of the most high-profile and prolific transphobes on the planet and threw it right back in her face. The crest included both the trans flag and the non-binary flag. That’s an important distinction because non-binary folks are so often lost in the discourse by cis and trans people alike and need to be focused on. Then there was the addition of Tetris and the sunflower. Both of those symbols carry their own connotations, but Tetris is for closers, yes? And the sunflower for Jim and his call for spreading the love. That crest represents the TA and their trans members in unity to me. I feel it is clearly supportive of trans and NB people and will translate well to a world-wide stage. It is recognizable to the masses while also speaking directly to the trans and NB TA population. Perfect.

When taken with the rail banner — which is even more clear in saying that transphobes are not welcome in the stadium — it takes on another dimension. That banner was in every panned shot on the broadcast. Very large letters with a simple message that also let terfs know that they are known and not welcome. The exposure is priceless and the message is very clear. Front and center.

The head boss transphobe is very much online and so are her followers. She is supported endlessly by the UK media, and her messages of hate have emboldened transphobia in the US to a shocking degree. The TA, in my opinion, didn’t do this to just have a fun dunk on her. They were saying, “We don’t care who you are. We don’t tolerate that kind of crap here and fuck you. If you come here, you will get the fight of your life. And we don’t care who knows it.” They painted a gigantic target on their backs. That a group of mainly cisgender folks decided to put themselves in the way of what is surely going to be a constant stream of harassment to stand up for trans people is not something I am upset about — it’s something that I am grateful for.

I would offer up this observation on the rush of criticism coming from cisgendered people who don’t have a stake in this:

It seems to me that a lot of people are “uncomfortable.” What is causing that discomfort? Do you honestly think that the TA was platforming her? Or have you not yet dealt with your feelings about having a beloved childhood author turn out to be a terrible human being? Because what I’m seeing is quite a few people who have a lot of feelings about something that has nothing to do with the trans people that it was made for. And folks who really think that they are allies to the trans community are saying not a thing about what is happening to trans people, not asking how trans people feel about the display, and ending their thoughts with things like, “not saying it’s a bad message, but it doesn’t hit the mark for me.”

It wasn’t made for you. Trans people don’t need to care about your feelings about it. In fact, we would all like it if you would please care about what is happening to trans people as much as you care about complaining about this tifo, because for a not small amount of you, it’s the first and only thing you’ve publicly said about it … ever.

To the TA — and particularly the trans woman who designed the entire thing: Thank you. You did a fantastic job of welcoming the trans community, standing up to a famous bigot, and hopefully making a ton of cisgendered people stop and think about what they are actually doing in this fight. I fight with you and for you.

On behalf of the Timbers Army Steering Committee, thank you to everyone who entered the raffle of Aljaz Ivačič’s kit and gloves. $1405 was raised in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the match between Atticus and the Green Machine! A generous anonymous donation brings the grand total to $1500, all of which will be donated to Make-A-Wish Oregon. Congratulations to our winners!

Miss out on the raffle but still want to contribute? You can donate to Make-A-Wish Oregon here.