In true Portland fashion, organisers of the local World Naked Bike Ride announced Wednesday that they are planning an “emergency” protest against President Donald Trump’s decision to send 200 National Guard troops into the Oregon city.
This move comes after days of escalating rhetoric from the president, who has repeatedly portrayed Portland as a city of chaos. Trump revived a five-year-old threat to federalise the Oregon National Guard and has vowed to use "dangerous" American cities such as Portland as “training grounds” for military personnel.
In speeches over the last two weeks, he referred to Portland as “a nightmare,” a place full of “people out of control and crazy.” On Sept. 27, he announced that “all necessary troops” would be sent to “war-ravaged Portland” to protect federal immigration facilities from “Antifa and other domestic terrorists.”
By this, the president is referring to the protests that are taking place outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Oregon leaders, including Governor Tina Kotek and Attorney General Dan Rayfield, have pushed back fiercely, filing a federal lawsuit to block the Troop deployment and calling the president’s move “unlawful” and “baseless.
Portland residents, for their part, have long embraced the city's reputation of eccentricity, and the plan for a bike ride to protest the “militarization of [the] city” and greet the National Guard in the nude fits squarely in that tradition.
The World Naked Bike Ride began in 2003 in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a protest against oil dependency. Participants ride unclothed to symbolise human vulnerability in a world dominated by traffic, fossil fuels and climate change. The movement has since spread to every continent, with each city adopting its own style and causes.
The annual Portland edition, which takes place in July, attracts thousands of riders who use nudity as a statement about body positivity, safety, and sustainability.
Details of the emergency ride have yet to be published, but if the event proceeds, it’ll be the third WNBR in Portland this year and certainly a very Portland response to the presidential order.
