Where laughter combats hate

Hannah Gadsby's Portland show is a world worth creating

Like most of the world, I was introduced to Hannah Gadsby after the release of her 2018 special, Nanette. Few performances covering LGBTQ+ rights, neurodivergence, feminism, and trauma receive such attention, or acclaim. In this case, both were warranted.

Calling Nanette “comedy” is to overlook the many dimensions of her work, though to be fair, Gadsby is extremely funny. Their follow-up, Douglas, proved they could have you on the floor laughing even while discussing challenging topics like autism and neurodivergence. Their subsequent projects—Body of Work, Something Special, their recurring role on Sex Education, and the comedy showcase, Gender Agenda—solidified their place in comedy and beyond.

So when I got an email last week informing me that there were a few tickets left for Gadsby’s performance at the Keller Theater, I jumped on it.

After a 15-minute opening set by Mx Dahlia Belle (who was featured on Gender Agenda), Gadsby emerged to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” rocking the 3,000-seat auditorium. (Before Belle, this Credence remix blew out the room.) Gadsby’s performance was scheduled for 70 minutes. We left after she had been on stage for two hours (nothing to do with her).

This isn’t a review of the show. Sure, the sections on Cabbage Patch Kids, late-term abortion, American Republicans and their god, feminism, dogs, contemplating the term “nonbinary” (“to say you’re nonbinary is to engage in binary thinking”), and her father’s death all deserve discussion. This line, decontextualized from a longer buildup, will not be forgotten:

Taylor Swift is a Coca-Cola masquerading as a sorority cult.

I look forward to seeing what makes the cut from this show, currently called Woof. While everything on stage was delightful, it’s the crowd that I’ll remember, and what it represents in America right now.

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A necessary lifeline

I started visiting Portland in 2012 after one of my best friends moved here. I had moved to Los Angeles the year prior, though upon my first two-hour flight north, I remember thinking, “I could live here.” The combination of California’s expenses and feeling trapped in an apartment building during Covid made more space—and more nature—a necessity in my life.

Portland has problems. In fact, Gadsby’s first joke was about the city’s infamous downtown. Yet the city remains a special place. While downtown struggles, the rest of Portland (which is most of the city) has pockets that are thriving.

Broader point: national news represents only a small fraction of our reality, which is usually the case.

On the plus side, Portland has a large LGBTQ+ population. Upon entering the Keller, it was apparent that many nonbinary, transgender, and queer people were there for Gadsby. I started thinking about the many communities I’ve traveled through in my career: the South Asian musical diaspora, which in New York City was centered in Queens; the Nuyorican poets and theater family in Newark and the Lower East Side; the yoga community scattered throughout Santa Monica and Venice. Geography isn’t always destiny, but it certainly reflects and holds communities within it.

For the last four years on Conspirituality, we’ve tracked much of the fear, loathing, and outright hatred aimed at transgender people by right-wing activists and the wellness acolytes parroting their talking points. With the overturning of Roe v Wade, it was apparent that the broader LGBTQ+ community (and women in general), were next up on the right’s authoritarian quasi-religious agenda—exemplified this week by a failed attempt to undermine birth control.

The right’s strategy is to chip away at access to birth control in federal and state policies, while working toward an even more extreme conservative Supreme Court majority that would find a way to overturn Griswold or otherwise eviscerate this crucial right.

Square it however you want: patriarchy, power, religion, the concerted effort to take away the rights of people who don’t conform to the narrow definition of a particular brand of Christian extremism is anti-democratic. The downstream damage of their hatred (which turns into legislation) drives depression and anxiety in communities that deserve better.

The irony, of course, is that this often comes from the same contingent hellbent on implementing laissez-faire economics. Initiatives like Project 2025 weaponize this hypocrisy: destroy the administrative state when it comes to regulations and taxation, yet use the same bureaucracy to implement draconian laws around gender and health.

The right is fine letting corporations “let do” what they want (provided they benefit financially), but when it actually comes to individual rights, they’re all for a police state. 

Which is why I laugh whenever another Fox News bit about Portland appears on my feed. On one level, good—stay away. (Even though Oregon is quite red outside of a few blue patches.) On another, this intensive focus on the city’s real but relatively skewed problems blinds outsiders to the much broader landscape.

There’s no utopia here (or anywhere) for the LGBTQ+ community (or anyone). But hearing the unblemished roar of laughter from the sold-out audience on Wednesday was a brief reminder of the power of community, how people can interact and connect when allowed to be themselves.

Hannah Gadsby’s keen insights, sharp intellect, and powerful humor provide a lifeline for these communities. And I’m glad to live in a city that offers at least some shelter. For those few hours, we’re all just people sharing a laugh—a necessary tonic for what lies beyond those theater walls.