The Stranger 2025 Queer Issue

I Saw U

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Wearing Lavender Socks on the Bus, Breaking a Chair at the Art Book Fair, and Taking Pictures at the Arboretum

Last Month This Month

All the Finger Amputations, Heartless NIMBY Bullshit, and Moms Suing Porn You May Have Missed Last Month

It’s All About Dick

But Even Dick Is About More Than Dick Is RFK Gonna Take the Poppers Away?

Probably Not (Drug Crackdowns Don’t Work)

Invading “Antifa-Land”

How the Christian Right Used Prayer as a Weapon Against Seattle—and the United States

Fill Me Up with Knowledge

One Leather Daddy and One Leatherdyke Tell as Much as We Can Fit About Fisting Crisis Line in Crisis

Queer Youth Are Reaching Out to the National Suicide and Crisis Line More than Ever. What Happens If Trump Cuts the Line?

Poolin’ Around

Meet the People Who Are Finding Queer Community in Washington’s Mystical Coastlines Quake Rugby Isn’t a Drag

Cracking Skulls and Beers with the Boys One Gay Thing to Do Every Day

(No Matter Where You Land on the Kinsey Scale)

Personal Finance for End-Stage Capitalism

We Live in an Anti-Social Death Pit. Here’s How to Survive It. Pride Parties

9

Editorial

11

13

EverOut

Advertising

Administrative

Every Party, Drag Show, Concert, Tarot Reading, and Sapphic Movie Screening Happening This Month! Almost Levine

Stacey Levine’s Third Novel Came Very Close to Winning the 2025 Pulitzer for Fiction Unseen in America

Daniel Tam-Claiborne Shows Us a New Way to Be Here in His Debut Novel, Transplants Unstoppably Real

Still Mighty Real Offers the Strength of Community Rendered in Art Hex Education

Post-Punk Weirdos Casual Hex Hold a Black Mirror to Society with Zig Zag Lady Illusion II Sapphic Sweetness

Shikorina’s Fruity Pop-Tarts and Caramel Cookies Are Fueled by Community Seattle Is a Bánh Mì City

How Seattle Quietly Mastered a Humble Street-Food Staple Things to Do

Art! Literature! Performance! All the Things!

Slut Biome

Show: A Queer Eye

Welcome to the QUEER ISSUE 2025!

Remember June 2024? Me neither. That was at least a decade ago. But sliding into Pride Month, it’s palpably different this year.

In the final week that we were making this issue, we covered two far-right, anti-LGBTQ rallies in our own backyard. A group called Mayday USA intentionally came into our historically queer neighborhood, set up a Bumbershoot-sized stage, and preached the sanctity of “biological gender” and “family values.”

Hundreds of Seattleites showed up to protest the rally, and the photo on our cover was taken at that protest. The person in pink watched the police advance on hundreds of protesters with clubs out and visors pulled down. In response, they waited for the police to be directly behind them, threw their backpack down, planted themself in the grass, and pulled out their phone in selfie position. The protesters roared; the cops stumbled. Bring that energy into Pride this year. Show up. Fuck shit up. Be a little vain. Be safe. Run faster than the cops.

Don’t know where to start? Use this issue as your guide. We have three solid pages just of Pride parties and events—93 of them (pg. 51). (Plus our “One Gay Thing to Do Every Day” June calendar, on pg. 44, if you like being told what to do.)

If you’re feeling a little shy, take Stranger Staff Writer Nathalie Graham as your inspiration. For the Queer Issue edition of her Playdate column, she joined the Quake, Seattle’s gay rugby team, in full drag king makeup, and found out what it’s like to be thrown into the air shorts first.

If this Pride is your time to learn a new skill, we’re full of them: We asked a leatherdyke and a leather daddy for a 101 on fisting any hole you’d like (pg. 25). (And we found out what’s up with RFK Jr.’s war on poppers, in case you’re looking for a little help.) And if you’re looking to get out of a hole instead of in one, Stranger contributor Milo Kusold taught us how to manage our personal finances in end-stage capitalism (pg. 48).

Like anything, it’s not all fun. Stranger Staff Writer Vivian McCall and I also dug into why 500 bigots showed up on our doorstep while we were making the rest of this issue—and we walk you through the rising radical Christian movement that is rushing to wage spiritual warfare in the four-year window Trump is giving them (pg. 16).

It’s part of what makes June 2025 so markedly different. And it’s why we chose this cover. Claim your joy, choose your fighter. We’ll see you out there.

Hannah Murphy Winter Editor-In-Chief

Issue Brought to You By….

I Saw U…

Wearing

Lavender

Socks on the Bus, Breaking a Chair at the Art Book Fair, and Taking Pictures at the Arboretum

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRIAN SCAGNELLI

Did you recently share a ~*moment*~ with someone while riding the bus, dancing at the club, or standing in line at the supermarket? Do you want to try to reconnect? Submit your own I Saw U at thestranger.com/isawu, and maybe we’ll include it in the next roundup! Look for a new batch of I Saw Umessages every Thursday on thestranger.com.

Bumble bumble

Jose, I unmatched you by accident and you may be the love of my life! A 5’9 Gemini with that face is the perfect match for my 5’5 Aquarius. Find me.

Southbound 5 Bus Crush 5/16

Black boots Lavender socks Blew my kiss back Your smile sure rocks!

Chair-Breaker at the Art Book Fair

I actually DIDN’T see you, but my friend watched you break my chair at the art book fair. You fled the scene, I picked up the pieces. Duel?

Circus coach man I barely sorta know on the 124/132 buses

We keep taking the same bus to SANCA on Tuesdays and I never know if I should say hi or leave you alone; please lmk as the awkwardness is killing me

capitol hill bookstore cutie you: dressed all in black, so much style, walking fast, coffee in hand, like the world is yours. me: a nervous wreck that wants to give you the world.

5/2 Arboretum

You kinda laughed and said yes but then you walked away so I’m writing you here because my friend found a 4 leaf clover and I’d like to believe in it.

Septum pierced guy 5 bus N May 21

You got on around 330pm Thomas and Aurora. You were sitting up front then came and sat across from me. Cute smile Hang out?

Very French names in the SLU You: all black clothes. Me: running in a dorky visor, complimenting your tattoo sleeve of musculature. Let’s run into each other again & be friends!

Colleen Yellow enchantress @ Björk Cornucopia 5/10

Yellow dress/Bjork shirt. Me: Orange sweater/red coat long brown hair. We talked pets & art. You’re cute & charming. Would love to see you again -Tom

Tall + art bag tote @ Greenways Volunteer Symposium

You (Neal) asked me (woman in your row) if we had met before. I said I was new, wish I had suggested we talk tactical urbanism over drinks instead. ■

Is it a match? Follow The Stranger on Instagram and leave a comment on our weekly I Saw U posts to connect!

LAST MONTH THIS MONTH

All the Finger Amputations, Heartless NIMBY Bullshit, and Moms Suing Porn You May Have Missed Last Month

The sun returned. And also, Elon and Trump broke up, Trump and Putin are having relationship woes, Harvard is fighting for its life, Biden is also fighting for his life, and Seattle’s College Inn announced it is in (another) long, protracted death rattle. Here’s what else happened in May:

A coalition of unions, immigrant rights groups, and other anti-Trump protestors took over the streets on Capitol Hill on May Day. The rally brought together more than 1,000 protesters at Cal Anderson Park, and then, with the assistance of car escorts and bike blockades, they marched to the federal building, stretching across blocks at a time. And it wasn’t the only protest in the region. At the same time, 200 lawyers were ceremonially retaking their oath at the King County Superior Court, and immigrant advocates were marching on the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. This is the kind of progressive coalition-building we need.

*

Because science is fucking magic sometimes, and RFK hates magic (and thinks poppers cause AIDS), the Trump Administration has slashed more than $800 million worth of grants directed toward LGBTQ health, which, of course, includes HIV research. So, of course, Fred Hutch laid off staff related to their HIV research. What could we lose? Well, Fred Hutch has been pushing HIV prevention research forward in real, concrete ways, like human trials of an HIV vaccine. So, uh, maybe the ’80s are back in a big way. Yikes.

* * *

Well, lookie there, Governor Bob Ferguson can do something remotely progressive. He signed a law capping rent hikes at 10 percent per year for most tenants, making Washington the third state to put rent stabilization on the books after Oregon and California. So now, landlords can only jack up rents by 7 percent plus inflation or 10 percent, whichever is lower. Next step: Uh, the rest of the housing crisis. Chop chop.

*

* *

New SPD Chief Shon Barnes released a statement in response to public outcry after his officers told three legally-nude people to put clothes on at Seattle’s queer nude beach, Denny Blaine “Simply being nude is not a crime,” Barnes wrote. Yes! True! But, then he says that SPD still needs to police the area because “we do not have tolerance for illegal indecent or lewd behavior at the park.” However, SPD is going to reevaluate their approach to policing Denny Blaine. Keep yelling at the cops! They are sometimes capable of hearing feedback.

* * *

Igloo recalled 130,000 coolers because they were taking off people’s fingertips. Appar-

It’s been seven hours and 15 days…

ently, the tow handle can pinch your hand against the cooler, and it’s literally resulted in several amputations If you bought an Igloo cooler between January 2019 and January 2025, you can ask for a free replacement handle. They, sadly, are not yet offering replacement fingers.

* * *

A convoy of red Cybertrucks greeted Trump in the Middle East. It must be nice to feel so popular and evil. At the same time, Microsoft announced it will lay off thousands in July. Nothing gold can stay.

* * *

Scientists discovered that an ancient threeeyed ‘sea moth’ used its butt to breathe Maybe that’s why it’s dead.

* * *

The new pope is a White Sox fan. This has not helped the White Sox’s abysmal record.

* * *

More than 80 residents and business owners—including Molly Moon’s owner Molly Moon Neitzel, Stoup Brewing co-owners Brad Benson, Robyn Schumacher, and Lara Zahaba, and Poquitos and Cafe Vita owner Deming Maclise—signed a letter to District 3 Council Member Joy Hollingsworth complaining about the county’s plan to open a 30,000-square-foot, 24/7 fully-staffed crisis center on Capitol Hill. Their reasoning? Too much crisis here, put the thing to fix it somewhere else. Obviously.

* * *

In a crossover episode from hell, Department of Homeland Security’s Kristi Noem

is teaming up with the producer of Duck Dynasty to pitch a reality TV show called The American , where contestants would ride around the country, competing in regionally-specific contests like log rolling or rocket building. The winner would win US citizenship. The Department of Homeland Security is still vetting the proposal. Some real Hunger Games shit.

* * *

The Point Defiance Zoo welcomed a new Malayan tapir calf . The Woodland Park Zoo euthanized its snow leopard matriarch, Helen, who was riddled with cancer. Rest easy, Helen.

* * *

Get my son’s hands off my son! A mother in Kansas is suing four porn sites because her 14-year-old son found an old laptop in

“What are family dinners like after your Mom itemizes your spank bank into a court case?”

her closet and went to town. The woman (Jane Doe) alleges that her son (the masturbator) had “unfettered access” to these sites only because they didn’t adequately verify his age. The woman had been vigilant in monitoring her son’s exposure to “harmful material.” What are family

dinners like after your Mom itemizes your spank bank into a court case?

* * *

The House passed Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” This Actually Very Ugly Bill extends $4.5 trillion in Trump 1.0-era tax breaks, and makes good on his campaign commitment to get rid of taxes on tips. It also would cost 8.6 million people their healthcare coverage, cut all gender transition care from Medicaid, and push 3 million people off of SNAP benefits. And of course, it adds $200 million in spending on deportation and border security.

* * *

After Russia killed 13 more people in Ukraine, Trump said on Truth Social that Putin “has gone absolutely crazy.” The Kremlin responded by accusing Trump of being “emotional.” So sad when best friends have falling outs, and when they each have nuclear codes.

* * *

The number of white nationalist groups is down in the US! Hooray? Nah. It’s because they think their views have gone mainstream and been normalized by the government.

* * *

Scientists discovered a new dwarf planet hanging out on the far reaches of our solar system. They’ve dubbed it Planet Nine, an insult to Pluto , the real Planet Nine. This is especially hurtful to Pluto because Planet Nine is three times smaller than Pluto. So, no one here is a real, actual Planet Nine. Size does matter, according to astrophysicists. n

ANTHONY KEO

Let’s start with a few straightforward feminist statements: Women amount to more than the sex they were born into. Sexualization dehumanizes. Genitalia should not decide how we move through the world. Bodies do not have inherent meaning, but are assigned cultural roles that limit who and what a person can be. They’re simple, uncontroversial concepts that don’t even apply exclusively to women. But our understanding of these ideas crumbles when a person happens to be trans. A five- to six-inch barrier is in the way.

Dick. On the crudest level, it comes down to dick. Often in the comment sections. Where dick should be. Who has dick. What having dick means.

We have a lot of notions about dick. It’s an obvious symbol of male power. The world spins on the tip of it, its size corresponding to the level of authority one should have. It’s funny big and funnier small. It’s a blade glinting in the shadows. A loaded gun behind a zipper. An object of rape.

We have our notions about trans women too. Mental instability. Creepiness. In Silence of the Lambs , Buffalo Bill is not scary or unique because he abducts women and cuts them up. It’s because he turns them into clothes, a simultaneous act of body snatching and necrophiliac rape. He slips into this flesh cocoon and attempts to transform. It’s all the more grotesque because he fails. He’s not “beautiful” Bill: He’s mannish, old, and wearing a suit made of young women.

Buffalo Bill is not trans, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) carefully notes. But as a representation of every ugly feeling the culture holds for transgender women, he’s dead on.

And in Silence of the Lambs, what scene is scariest? Probably when Bill dances to “Goodbye Horses” in the mirror wearing a human scalp, with hair. That should be the horrifying detail. But in my experience, people remember the dick tucked behind his thighs. (Out of curiosity, I Googled “Buffalo Bill mirror.” The third result was a post on r/moviedetails: “It only took me 28 years to notice it … Buffalo Bill IS WEARING A WOMAN’S SCALP”).

Buffalo Bill is also a psychopath. All “cross-dressing” killers are, from Norman Bates (Psycho) to Angela (Sleepaway Camp ) and Bobbi (Dressed to Kill ). The “why” is obvious. They’re wearing the wrong clothes. What’s under them?

This is our image of trans women. In the dark corners of the American mind, it’s Buffalo Bill demanding to use a bathroom or locker room with its daughters. Conservatives say they want “biological” boys out of girls’ spaces because it’s “common sense.” Religion plays a role, as does disgust, and a paranoia that everything is pedophilic. But the subtextual penis casts a long shadow. The danger of that penis and its attachment to someone they see as sick and delusional, even if that person is a child.

If trans women are mentally ill, and dicks are dangerous rape objects, a trans woman in the bathroom is a lunatic with a gun. No evidence to the contrary can cast away faith that that threat is real. But even dick is just a symbol for an even

deeper belief that sex is immutable and that our bodies seal our fates and futures. Penis is just the crass, physical shorthand for gender essentialism. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, and in this universe, interplanetary travel is impossible.

Judith Butler wrote in Who’s Afraid of Gender? that “a specter-infused hypothetical” has been used to stoke

IT’S ALL ABOUT DICK

But Even Dick Is About More Than Dick

BY VIVIAN Mc CALL

panic about trans women: Someone who has a penis, or once had a penis, will rape, because either the penis, or the socialization of people with penises, is the cause of rape. This is the argument for putting trans women in men’s prisons. A dick will inevitably rape. Or a man’s dick could drive him to become trans so it can rape. These hypothetical men and hypothetical crimes are enough to justify a trans woman’s suffering, and her possible rape, in a men’s prison, because she is violent by virtue of her birth.

Body parts are not conscious. But at least by men, the penis is thought to have a “mind of its own.” Like “boys will be boys,” the sentiment shifts responsibility from men to dicks. This is inherited by trans women. Even if trans women let go of their dicks, the assumption is that their dick never lets go of them. Because they are “really” men, they have an inherently abusive psychology or simply can’t help themselves. But like cis women, trans women are routinely sexualized as women by men. They’re victims of male violence and killed by their male domestic partners. This is disregarded: Dick weighs more than lived experience. Masculinity is too powerful, too insurmountable, too inborn an essence for “self-identification” to conquer.

This is basic sexism in masquerade. In our culture, masculinity is valued as a natural state of being, while femininity is an affectation. In Legally Blonde , Reese Witherspoon can’t be a good lawyer. She wears pink. Trans women experience this twofold. They’re “fake” women, applying a femininity that is in itself artificial.

The day-to-day experiences of trans and cis women are more similar than they are different. Certainly, they’re not one-toone. Abortion rights? Trans women do not claim that struggle as their own. Chauvinism? Medical neglect? Male violence? Rape? All women share these problems, and it is better to unite to stop these things from happening.

We lose ourselves in the difference. Every marginalized group reckons with its own unique set of challenges and double standards. Acknowledging this can make us angry, as if it makes our own hardships less significant. We can either accept that these experiences differ, and then work toward understanding, or get all sanctimonious and fight over the human rights wishbone while the powerful boof gravy under the table. That’s what’s perverse. Nobody wants genitals to define their life. If our rights are not a limited quantity, is it really worth letting a little dick get in the way?

I suspect many cis people see trans rights as a sideshow. All counts are estimates, but they concern 1 percent of the population. The right openly sees trans people as the downfall of their Western Civilization. Some on the left, especially Democrats, see them as a liability or a burden to the cause. As Republicans salivate over keeping a few kids from playing volleyball, Democrats wonder openly if conceding on trans rights is their return ticket to power.

This is a terrible mistake. To borrow from Butler again, once you sacrifice one vulnerable minority, no matter how small, you’re operating in a fascist logic. ■

BE PROUD.

Science is for everyone.

Is RFK Gonna Take the Poppers Away? Probably Not

(Drug Crackdowns Don’t Work)

BY VIVIAN Mc CALL

The best way to get silly or loosen a hole in under 10 seconds is under federal attack.

As heartbroken, perhaps panicky, poppers-users know, the US Food and Drug Administration and their buddies from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) raided the much-loved Austin-based poppers-maker Double Scorpio in February. Pac-West Distributing, which manufactures Rush (caution-yellow bottle, red lightning bolt, loved by Troye Sivan), wiped its site, leaving only a lonely GIF of its logo. Seller Nitro-Solv completely ceased operations. Asked about possible raids and its position on poppers, the FDA told The Stranger that “as a matter of policy, the FDA does not comment on possible criminal investigations.”

Is this DEFCON 1? In 20 years, will we regale baby gays with stories of Earth-shattering orgasms (and headaches) of a bygone era? Make like a butthole and relax. This legally gray “high” has been on the government shit list for decades. And while it may seem like President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. instigated this bust on bustin’, that’s not quite right. Nor is this the first time the feds have come for poppers. Whatever the government does, history tells us drug prohibitions don’t work. The phrase, “Be gay, do crime?” It’s actionable.

For the truly lost, poppers are alkyl nitrites in a bottle. Unscrew the cap, raise the bottle to your nostril, and sniff.

You’re up, off, away, and down again before you can count to 10. Assuming you can count. Poppers turn people into (temporarily) horny, gibbering idiots. When you inhale poppers, your blood vessels dilate. There’s a light-headed, woozy rush and a warm trickling all over, like slipping into a bath. Your cheeks glow like coals. Chemical fingers tug the corners of your mouth into an enormous, stupid grin. The world liquefies, and there’s a need to melt into someone, which is easier now that the body’s smooth muscles have gone slack.

It’s a sexy sex drug, great for anal and cramming of all kinds (see pg. 25). The first real crackdown came in the 1980s, when some, including people in the gay community, believed poppers caused AIDS. This sounds wacky to modern ears. But in the epidemic’s early years, nobody knew why young, seemingly healthy gay and bisexual men were dying sudden, awful deaths. HIV wasn’t discovered until 1983. That the culprit could be a drug popular with these men did not seem ridiculous.

Poppers are not addictive and do not cause AIDS, but can hurt you like most excellent substances. Joshua Lumsden, a PA-C who works at LGBTQ health clinic Capitol Hill

Medical and is President of the Washington Academy of Physician Associates, says the risk is generally very, very low. But they’re not risk-free. They can be dangerous when combined with Viagra or Cialis. The oh-solovely-smelling drug widens blood vessels, increasing blood flow and dropping blood pressure. Boner pills make boners because they also increase blood flow. Add the two together? People can pass out. Lumsden puts the “fear of God” in his patients about combining the drugs.

It’s a sexy sex drug, great for anal and cramming of all kinds.

But on a scale of coffee to crack cocaine, poppers are way closer to coffee. Still, in 1988, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act outlawed butyl nitrites in the US. The Crime Control Act of 1990 banned isopropyl nitrite and other nitrites (forms of alkyl nitrites used in poppers). Poppers didn’t disappear. Manufacturers escaped their doom through a loophole.

Those who’ve bought poppers are familiar with the song and dance.

You don’t ask your local sex shop for “poppers.” You ask for “head cleaner,” or “leather

cleaner,” or “fabric cleaner.” (If you ask for poppers, they may sell you poppers anyway, but blank stares are not uncommon.) It seems stupid (and is), but there’s logic to it. Both the 1988 and 1990 laws allowed nitrites to be sold for non-recreational commercial purposes. Nitrite inhalants? No way, says Uncle Sam. Nitrite for whatever-the-hell, even though its real purpose is obvious? A-okay… sometimes. Maybe?

The federal government would never admit to looking the other way on this—it’s illegal as a drug—but pop into a gas station. See for yourself if it’s a priority. As British writer Adam Zmith wrote in his book Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures, they “may be the only product that the state allows to be sold on a lie.”

“But what about the raid?” you scream. “What about my Texas-made, bespoke isobutyl nitrite?” About Double Scorpio, I am sorry, but it’s unlikely Trump or RFK Jr. have launched a tactical strike on bottoms. David Mack, a journalist who has written about poppers for Buzzfeed and Rolling Stone (and is probably more tapped into that closed-off world than any other writer in the US), said these busts come in cycles. RFK Jr. had only been on the job two weeks when the FDA and CPSC cut the tail off Double Scorpion. Mary Toro, the former director of regulatory enforcement at CPSC, told Mack it doesn’t happen that fast.

Everett Farr, whom Mack profiled for Buzzfeed in 2021 and whose Pennsylvania company AFAB Industrial bottles Rush as “nail-polish remover,” confirmed the federal government launched its probe into his business during the Biden administration. Agents visited him a few days before Trump’s inauguration, Farr told Mack for Rolling Stone earlier this year. Biden was also in office when the federal government issued its first real warning about poppers in some time, after people allegedly confused the small bottles for energy shots, drank them, and died.

“History may tell us that in any drug crackdown, the market finds a way,” Mack says. “That there will be new distributors that will pop up. That there will be new manufacturers, new people. Things will get imported from overseas. This is the madness of the entire war on drugs, right?”

Walking into one Seattle-area sex shop, I noticed that the tiny bottles of poppe—I mean, head cleaner—glittered like jewels under a glass countertop. Were they, in a sense, jewels? Soon to be scarce and coveted like Altoid Sours? An employee handed me the business card of the owner, who didn’t get back to me.

Recognizing that more drop-ins would be an exercise in futility, I called eight Seattle-area sex shops instead.

All sold head cleaner. ■

Invading “Antifa-Land”

How the Christian Right Used Prayer as a Weapon Against Seattle—and the United States

BY VIVIAN Mc CALL AND HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

On Memorial Day weekend, the Holy Spirit came down on Cal Anderson Park and performed a miracle. One of the least religious cities in America became a house of God. And their God was under attack.

In Cal Anderson, the worship rally claimed the whole center of the park. Mayday USA, a far-right Christian group, constructed a towering stage with stadium speakers and a massive TV screen. They spread across the lawn, setting up tents for children’s haircuts and bicycle giveaways and raffles and baptisms in metal troughs. No matter where a Godless, queer Seattleite stood in the park, they could see, hear, and feel their worship.

Hundreds of protesters brought signs that read “Republican Lies Kill Trans People” and “the LGBTQ Agenda is a peaceful exis-

tence.” Punk bands tried to drown out the stadium speakers. Protesters booed while ministers spoke in tongues and testified about their salvation.

These speeches and pig-trough baptisms happened at the heart of Seattle’s gay neighborhood in a park named for the state’s first openly gay State Senator. Capitol Hill has one of the most visible transgender populations in the United States. It’s uncommonly friendly and safe. Organizing a rally with the hashtag #DontMessWithOurKids will get a rise out of people. That should have been completely obvious to city leaders. Inevitable.

The Seattle Police Department showed up in force. Dozens of officers with batons and pepper spray stood between the far-right Christian rally and the protest.

Officers’ bodies—and their weapons—faced protesters while the people on stage repeated anti-gay myths and taunted the protesters

There’s no question the groups aligned with Mayday USA are extremist. But who are they, and what do they believe?

for being tricked into attending an all-day church service. Mayday USA’s private security stood watch from behind the police line.

The city did not force the event out of the park. Around 6:30 p.m., Mayday USA was asked to leave by the Seattle Police Department, who, by that time, had lost control of the crowd and defaulted to violence. By then, they’d arrested 23 protesters. All of them thrown to the ground and cuffed in a carousel of bicycle cops. And when Mayday USA finally finished its last, meandering worship song, the Christians filed out casually like they were leaving a concert at Climate Pledge Arena behind a wall of police bodies. Mike Solan, the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, blamed mismanagement on SPD staffing issues. This was also just what happens when you put a “peaceful group” in “Antifa land, Cal Anderson Park,” he told KTTH’s Jason Rantz, echoing a SPOG statement on X.

Mayday USA came into our historically queer neighborhood, set up a Bumbershoot-sized stage, and preached the sanctity of “biological gender” and “family values.”

RYDER COLLINS

On that Saturday evening, Mayor Bruce Harrell issued a statement about the “extreme right-wing national effort to attack our trans and LGBTQ+ communities.” Mayday USA took this as their cue, calling for a “Rattle in Seattle” on the steps of City Hall. They were being oppressed. Their freedom was being violated. Exactly the way they wanted.

The Christian right has its own version of events: Innocent Christian worshippers were mobbed at a city park by anti-Christians and the city endorsed their persecution. But this was not the story they were telling on social media before the protest. In their words, the rally was intended to be a battle in a spiritual war. Against the child “butchers,” the demonic forces, the unholy.

Standing by them in that fight was the Seattle Police Department (and private security). Above them, the federal government.

There’s a strong feeling on the Christian right that the Trump administration is on their side and in God’s pocket. They’re somewhat right. Trump’s “favorite” book? The Bible, which he sells for the low price of $59.99. There’s the ostentatious prayer breakfasts. An executive order establishing the White House Faith Office led by Minister Paula White-Cain. A National Faith Advisory Board and anti-Christian bias task force. His promotion of a myth that surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania ordained his presidency. He may believe this, or has only realized the story’s power. His sincerity is irrelevant.

The Christian right read this umbrella of federal support as a sign of God’s favor, says Matthew D. Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Maryland, and author of The Violent Take It By Force, a book about how White-Cain engineered an interface between independent networks of charismatic faith leaders and Trump’s orbit.

In the days since the Mayday USA event, Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted on X that the FBI will “fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert. Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.” The Alliance Defending Freedom, the far-right legal powerhouse responsible for Dobbs v. Jackson, 303 Creative, and Masterpiece Cake Shop, says it is “evaluating legal action.”

When Jenny Donnelly and Ross Johnston launched Mayday USA, they said they had a “window” for a “four-year mission.” Events like Mayday are the first step in turning the US into the dominion of God.

There’s no question the groups aligned with Mayday USA are extremist, anti-trans, or anti-LGBTQ. But who are they, and what do they actually believe?

Imagine a terrible Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle: There are basically three ascendant Christian supremacy movements in the United States. Anti-traditionalist Catholics, a hyper-reformed or “reconstructionist” Calvinist protestantism, and a supernaturalist, apostolic, and prophetic style focused on catalytic experiences of worship that revolve around charismatic worship leaders. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of Christianity, just that all these ideologies have influence in the White

Seattle gave Mayday USA what they wanted—a claim that they were oppressed, their freedoms violated.

House and they are fixated on the idea that Christians must dominate society.

JD Vance is an avatar for the Catholics. Pete Hegseth stands in for the reconstructionist Calvinist preachers, young bearded “TheoBros,” some of whom don’t think women should vote. Minister White-Cain is a conduit for the apostolic movement that was out in force in Cal Anderson. And Trump is Ash Ketchum. He caught them all.

Both Mayday USA and#DontMessWithOurKids are associated with the organization Her Voice MVMT (or HVM), which experts say is leading the charge. HVM was founded by Jenny Donnelly, who runs Tetelestai Ministries with her husband, Bob. Her stature has risen since the January 6 insurrection and Her Voice has been instrumental in religious school board takeovers on the West Coast, Taylor says.

Freddy Cruz, program manager for monitoring and training at the pro-democracy civil rights organization Western States Center, says that “don’t mess with our kids” is presented on social media as emphasizing traditional family values. But videos on the Her Voice MVMT website include extreme testimonies, including a man declaring victory over witchcraft in the name of Jesus.

“When people are considering what this group actually stands for and the kinds of things they are pushing—they’re talking about witchcraft, they’re talking about demonic attacks on children, when they’re pushing anti-trans views under the guise of religious liberty.”

The purpose of the Her Voice MVMT, says Taylor, is to publicly confront and attack this mystical cabal by staging spiritual battles to beat back these demons. Demon is not a euphemism here, but meant literally. In New Apostolic Reformation circles, a highly politi-

cized evangelical Christian supremacist leadership network Donnelly belongs to, there is a notion that demons control “territory” and that Christians need to take back that territory by waging spiritual warfare. They’ll even call high-ranking demons in their advanced demonology “territorial spirits.”

Before the event, Mayday USA asked people to join them “to STAND for our kids, their rights, and their futures. We’re declaring the SANCTITY of human life, the SACRALITY of biological gender.”

On May 24, Cal Anderson was that battlefield, the neighborhood’s residents the “demonic forces” they intended to provoke.

One of its warriors was Ross Johnston, the other co-host of the event, is the son of lesbian moms, “born of artificial insemination,” who says he’s “living proof” that antiLGBTQ Christians can pray hard enough to force God in a heathen, queer household. Since 2024, he’s regularly gone into public high schools to “save” students in front of their peers, and carries out faith healings on social media and onstage.

Russell Johnson, pastor of Pursuit NW, also preached during the worship rally. He preaches that our society suffers from a “sexual sickness,” offers “Christ-centered” education through his PNW

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elementary schools, and calls to “Make Prayer Great Again.”

Folake Kellogg, one of the guests at Mayday USA, is a minister at The Collective Church, which preaches a calling to “preserve the sanctity of life,” “restore the integrity of family,” and “lay down our lives for the sake of all future generations.”

Donnelly, Kellogg, and Johnston have another thing in common, a connection to Ché Ahn, one of the most important apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation, that highly politicized Christian supremacist leadership network.

Within Ahn’s network, “apostles” are the primary governing layer of the church and are advised by “prophets” who say they hear directly from God. Donnelly was commissioned as an apostle in Ahn’s church in 2023. Kellogg was at the global summit for Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry in late April. Johnston is an evangelist in Ahn’s network, which is enormous.

Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry claims more than 25,000 churches, non-government organizations, and nonprofits in 65 countries. Whether the figure is accurate, Ahn’s influence is undeniable. What’s concerning to experts like Taylor is that since January 6, there’s been a cross-pollination between Ahn’s network and far-right militia circles. And as militias become more enmeshed in this broader theological landscape, militias are showing up at religious events, while the Christian far right adopts the tactics of the accelerationist right, which seeks to “accelerate” the collapse of an irredeemable society.

“Those worlds are becoming harder to distinguish,” Taylor says.

Matt Shea is an example. Shea, who spoke at Cal Anderson for his Spokanebased On Fire Ministries, spent six terms in the Washington state House of Representatives before he was expelled from the GOP Caucus. Shea had distributed a four-page manifesto called “Biblical Basis for War,” his outline for how Christians should behave in an inevitable civil war between Christian and secular society. It advocated for replacing the government

with a theocracy and “the killing of all males who do not agree.”

Independent investigators commissioned by the Legislature identified Shea, a public supporter of rancher Cliven Bundy, as a leader of the Patriot Movement extremist group, which does not believe the government should own public lands. The report alleged he “planned, engaged, and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence” against the US government. Legislators were so disturbed that they forwarded the report to the FBI.

In 2022, Shea was participating in an anti-LGBTQ march through downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, when police arrested 31 members of the far-right militia Patriot Front after a tipster had spotted the masked, armored men loading gear into a U-Haul. Shea claimed the truck was filled with Antifa, but one of the men arrested, Mishael J. Buster (then 22), had attended Shea’s church. The Spokesman-Review reported that Buster and his father had appeared on stage in a livestream of an On Fire church service.

This is not secret. These figures are open about what they believe and whom they associate with. They love posting. In an Instagram reel filmed at the Mayday USA event, Kellogg told Shea that they “are holding the ground,” as she gestures back to the protesters. “This ground belongs to Jesus, so we are holding it.” But they present themselves as lambs, not lions, a story the right-wing media is eager to spread. Their intended audience showed up: former Fox 13 show host and correspondent Brandi Kruse, the Discovery Institute’s Jonathan Choe, and radio host Jason Rantz. And the national news followed—from the New York Post to Fox News.

In the guise of prayer, these events lay claim on progressive cities with a known activist base and protest culture, where a staged confrontation is more likely to get out of hand. When arrests are made or there’s violence, the story is elevated to a national prominence and amplified as an “example” of anti-Christian bias. This is then used rhetorically for a government crackdown on

Dozens of officers with batons and pepper spray stood between the far-right Christian rally and the protest.

MELODY SUMMERFIELD

their enemies, which include activists and queer people. Punch you in the face, when you punch me back—I’m persecuted.

These tactics are familiar to Joan Braune, a lecturer of philosophy at Gonzaga University who studies and publishes on fascism and the far right. During the first Trump administration, there was a phenomenon on the far-right where white nationalists were trying to get teenagers to put up posters in their high schools that said it was “okay to be white.” White nationalists would use any negative reaction to prove to the teens they’d been punished for who they were, rather than because they’ve said something offensive or harmful.

“The reason why people are reacting to the sign is because they know it’s a white supremacist message,” Braune said. “You

There’s a strong feeling on the Christian right that the Trump administration is on their side and in God’s pocket.

get this predictable response of outrage, which they’ve primed you to interpret as persecution… Typically, what happens is people tend to tunnel in deeper right, where they start posting more and more edgy, offensive things.”

In 2020, evangelical musician Sean Feucht brought his “Let Us Worship” movement to Cal Anderson Park, Feucht’s response to COVID restrictions in California. Like many Christians who hold all-absorbing, communal worship as a key spiritual practice, the prominent figure in the “Charismatic Christian” movement interpreted health restrictions as infringing

on religious liberty. After defying statewide COVID-19 restrictions to sing and pray with hundreds on the Golden Gate Bridge, he took this show on the road in 50 states and bragged he’d become the number one COVID violator in 28 of them.

That disease-riddled August, Feucht performed songs and baptisms down the street from the former Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP. “It was absolutely bonkers in so many ways!!!” Feucht (pronounced Foyt) wrote on Instagram afterwards. White Antifa had screamed at Black pastors and cursed his wife and children all night long, he said. There was an entire Satanic cult march, he said. But the church refused to be intimidated, he said, as he appeared to violate the state ban on gatherings and outdoor live music. Local Christian pastors who spoke to The Seattle Times said Feucht’s event was insensitive and showed a “lack of caring” for the community.

The following summer, Feucht gave an unpermitted worship concert at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland for the second year in a row. Violence ensued with pepper balls and mace, but they wouldn’t back down. They wouldn’t stop worshipping. They wouldn’t stop fighting for “religious freedom.” In 2022, Feucht marched for Jesus in West Hollywood, the gayest part of LA.

Ostensibly, this is all about “religious freedom.” But it’s really an attempt to take back the public square for God to Christian nationalist and Christian supremacist ends.

After the Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage, many Christian rights organizations pivoted to a rhetoric of religious freedom. They wanted the right not to hire queer people, not to marry them in their churches. Pluralism needed to include religious conservatives. Those messages have evolved into religious freedom from the “LGBTQ agenda,” and “cultural Marxism,” and “Critical Race Theory.” In this frame, public affirmation of LGBTQ people is

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Ross Johnston stands onstage with Folake Kellogg.

MELODY SUMMERFIELD

encroaching on Christian expression and dominance. If the city of Seattle is celebrating LGBTQ people, the city is opposed to the fundamental Christian identity that they believe is essential to Americanness.

“These folks, they don’t want pluralism,” says Taylor. “They want a single vision of society united around their radical, reactionary vision of Christianity … They see this as a true, out-and-out battle where there’s no room for compromise, because their enemies are demonically inspired.”

It’s one thing for a Christian group with a provocative message to come to a liberal city. It’s another for this crew to come to this park in this neighborhood. These are extreme beliefs, gilded in Christianity. Mayday USA says it came to Seattle to pray. But in their words, prayer is “a weapon.” Worship is “a weapon.” The meaning was in plain sight for weeks. The city did not prepare.

The city has offered “free speech” as an explanation for why it allowed this to happen, like the First Amendment bounded their hands and mouths.

Certainly, it was not the city’s job to

regulate speech. But it was the city’s job to manage crowds and to ensure people could safely arrive, safely gather, express their beliefs, and safely leave.

That’s not what happened. At both protests, the City sent dozens of cops to manage the event. And at every turn, those cops showed Mayday USA that they trusted them, but not the protesters who came out against them.

They maintained a consistent, physical barrier between the two groups, with their backs to Mayday and their weapons trained on the protesters. But when the event ended and Mayday filed out, cops stood in a 20-minute standoff with protesters, to avoid showing them their backs.

When Mayday organized a protest against the Mayor after he condemned the rally, they

set up a full Christian revival concert on the steps of City Hall, with 10-foot-tall stacks of speakers, a soundboard, and a diesel generator. Any amplification outside of City Hall requires a permit that they didn’t have. “Our building staff are on site and have given the organizers a copy of the rules and informed them that public speech activities must not be disruptive,” a spokesperson from the City

Above: Police violently arrested protesters at Cal Anderson. When arrests are made, the story is elevated to a national prominence and amplified as an “example” of anti-Christian bias.

Right: These speeches and pig-trough baptisms happened at the heart of Seattle’s gay neighborhood in a park named for the state’s first openly gay State Senator.

told The Stranger at the time. The rules were never enforced, and they were allowed to carry on for three more hours. But at the end of the event, when three protesters wanted to hold a sign over the railing of City Hall, that the same set of rules declared to be too large, a city employee physically stood on the sign to stop them.

By Tuesday night, police had arrested 31 protesters between the two protests.

This was a unique opportunity for the City to show queer Seattleites that they had their back, even if they have to respect hate speech. Instead of doing that, they threw one more log on the fire.

City Councilmember Bob Kettle thought that was avoidable. The following Tuesday, he told KOMO News: “I believe in the group’s ability to protest and to come and protest. To be blunt, it was a mistake to grant it at Cal Anderson Park. It was a mistake. There’s many parks, there’s many locations that could have accommodated the group. Cal Anderson should not have been on that list.”

On Labor Day weekend, Feucht plans to come to Cal Anderson for “Revive in ’25,” a traveling worship event targeting “America’s darkest, most broken cities.”

There’s already a petition to move the event out of Capitol Hill. The Change.org petition points to the chaos of Memorial Day as a warning. “We are asking … Seattle Parks and the Office of Economic Development [to] relocate this event to Magnuson Park,” the petition states. “We have serious concerns about a copycat event at Cal Anderson again.”

The city has a chance to handle this differently this time. ■

Far-right Christians and police stood off against protestors at Cal Anderson. Ostensibly, this is all about “religious freedom.” But it’s really an attempt to take back the public square for God.

MELODY SUMMERFIELD

MELODY SUMMERFIELD

Fill Me Up with Knowledge

One Leather Daddy and One Leatherdyke Tell as Much as We Can Fit About Fisting

BY VIVIAN Mc CALL

You shouldn’t simply plunge your arm into a lover’s hot, tight, wet hole without a little knowhow. Preparation goes a long way to avoiding sore bottoms and fronts, disappointments, and broken hearts. I went deep with a leatherdyke and a leather daddy who have a whole lot (40 years) of experience between them.

A rectal tear is the paper cut of anal sex. Not devastating, but honestly far more painful than you’d think, so we turned to Jim Drew, who started fisting 25 years ago. He’s a versleather daddy, board member at Seattle Men in Leather, and founder of the Seattle-area fisting group Menagerie.

How do you prepare a partner (and yourself) for fisting?

For the bottom, they typically need to douche their rectum and the lower colon. Generally, you put water in and expel it until it comes out clean. The main thing tops need to do is inspect their hands and make sure their fingernails are clipped really short—all the way down where you can’t pick up a dime. Then they need to inspect the rest of the hand for cuts and scrapes. Wear ing latex or nitrile gloves is the best way to prevent anything from [passing] between the bottom and the top. But these days, a lot of guys never use gloves. It depends on the partner and the situation, but I think gloves are valuable. PrEP pro tects against HIV. But it doesn’t do a damn thing against gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, or hepatitis C.

Let’s talk hand position. Make a duck. Take your hand and col lapse the fingers and thumb like a duck’s bill. That’s going to be about the small est cross-section for the hand to enable it to go in. Once you have the hand in, then you can make other positions and stimulate sensations in differ ent ways. There’s the standard fisting joke of, “Why are gay men lousy in a fight?” You make a duck with your hand and say, “Because this is what we think is a fist.” Once you have the hand in, then you can make these other positions and stimulate sen sations in different ways. Though I recommend against jazz hands and finger spelling.

How much discomfort is too much discomfort?

In general, pressure is the sensation you’re going to feel. If you do feel something sharp and stabby, that’s an indication of “too much,” at least too much for the moment. Tops don’t want to abruptly pull out because that freaks out the bottom. We want to ease off and determine if there’s a need to pull out, to stop and look for injury, or change body positions. When you’re trying to go deep, you want to pay attention to the bottom’s muscle tension and body language, what they are saying or making noises about, to make sure you’re not pushing their boundaries.

ASS

What’s the top mistake?

In any aspect of BDSM, we spend a lot of time talking about “what if” things go wrong. If the people playing know what they’re doing, the odds of things going wrong are significantly lower.

Other than not knowing what to do if there’s an injury, the thing that causes the most problems is having goals that are set too hard and pushing toward them when you’re not ready. You always have to be prepared for the person’s hand to be too large for where you are. Avoid setting things up where, if it fails, you blame yourself. Tops can do the same thing. The biggest sin is trying to push a bottom harder and faster than they are willing and able to take. Each fisting session is its own special, unique thing, that will be different from any other. Laying out expectations is a recipe

Why should more people try this?

I’m not necessarily sure that more people should try it. I think people should give some good thought to what they want out of their sex life before trying everything on the buffet. Before I got into fisting, I found that I liked bigger cocks and I liked it when somebody would finger my butt during, before, and after we were done fucking, and maybe get a finger or two or three in there. For me, it was a progression. I like this, and I think I would like more, bigger, thicker, deeper.

Pussy is slicker and stretchier by default (see: childbirth), but less cavernous than ass. A hand could venture for miles up an ass, but here, all sane and sensible roads end at the cervix. Jae Marie is a kink educator, Ms. San Diego Leather 2016, and an experienced practi tioner of BDSM. In the leather community, Marie is known as “cold hands,” as in “I’ve got cold hands, do you have somewhere warm to put them?” a pickup line that actually worked for her at a dyke event in 2016. “In four days, I fisted 14 people,” she says. How do you prepare your partner (and yourself) for fisting?

I think it’s really important to understand the intent. Is it something intimate, or is it like, “I need to check it off the list”? When me and my hus-bitch first got together, and I would talk about fisting, I would say, “Have you ever wanted to crawl in someone like they’re a Tauntaun?” That’s what fisting is like. You want to be inside the person you’re in love with. As a top, I have to be very careful. I’ve had conversations with people who wanted me to fist them, and after I sussed it out, I was like “Oh, you’re going to fall in love with me.”

As a top, I’m also worried about having the right kind of lube and doing my due diligence in making sure that person feels safe and secure. All the dykes that I know, we all joke about like, don’t show up with those Costco gloves. They’ve got a weird seam in them. People can feel the seam. I wear artificial nails. If I have a longer nail with a square tip where there can be a corner, I’ll go for thicker nitrile gloves. If I have shorter, rounder nails, I’ll just use a regular nitrile. I like the purple ones. I think those are cute.

So nails aren’t disqualifying?

You can have nails. Especially being a femme, I always have my nails done and I will find a way [laughs]. You just have to have the right equipment—and the right technique.

Let’s talk hand position. Typically, I would start with two fingers. You go in and you spread them, stretching out the muscles and relaxing them. And when you get a little bit of give, you put in that third one, and fourth one. Once you get to that fifth one,

PUSSY FISTING

you should have your hand completely closed. Then it’s all about moving it around in a circle until you find that sweet spot, like a key in a lock. At that point, I usually have someone bear down. As they let up, I advance all the way and then do “the tuck,” where you pull your thumb into your palm and then wrap your fingers around it. Then just stay there and wait for the cue. Typically, if your hand is in someone and they’re really into it, they start moving. The biggest barrier between getting a fist all the way in somebody or not isn’t always anatomy. It’s obviously a very stretchy part of your body. It’s typically all focus. And I’ve found that a lot of the hesitancy is from people who have been conditioned to this idea that you have to be tight, because if you’re loose, there’s something wrong with you. Your value isn’t how tight your vagina is. That’s patriarchal, misogynistic garbage.

How much discomfort is too much

It’s important to communicate when something feels off. Not that something feels different, or new, but something that feels off. There’s a risk of tearing—microscopic tears and not microscopic tears—in the vaginal wall. As a top, when you are looking at your wrist, if they’re producing enough blood that it’s coming out as you’re doing it (and they’re not on a men-

They go too fast. I would say the first time, you could take an hour or more. You have to be ready to hold space. Even people who’ve been fisted a lot, this is not a quickie. Nobody is going that shit they show you in porn where the girl lays down and all of a sudden the hand’s in. That’s for straight people. That

Why should more people try this?

I think there’s something incredibly freeing about getting rid of the stereotypes about what our vagina should and shouldn’t be able to do. And there’s something so beautiful about finding a space where you can be that way, and be safe and know that you are in control of this happening to you. And that is a mind-boggling space that so many people

BILLIE WINTER

Crisis Line in Crisis

Queer Youth Are Reaching Out to the National Suicide and Crisis Line More than Ever. What Happens If Trump Cuts the Line?

BY ABE ASHER

In the three years it has existed, the specialized services line for LGBTQ youth on the nationwide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has been heralded as a major step forward in aiding young queer people in crisis.

Now, however, the future of the specialized services line is under threat. According to a leaked document reviewed by multiple national news organizations in late April, the Trump administration is proposing defunding the specialized services option for LGBTQ youth in the upcoming federal budget.

It would be a seismic change to the program. Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis can call 988 to be connected to a trained counselor for help, but LGBTQ youth currently have an additional option: After calling 988, they can select to be connected to a counselor specially trained to provide them with support.

According to Chris Bouneff, executive director at National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Oregon, that option makes a significant difference.

“People who identify as LGBTQ need to feel comfortable with the people they’re reaching out to,” Bouneff said. “Otherwise, they won’t reach out. So the impacts are huge… if they do away with this option, we will see a severe impact.”

Like veterans, who also have an option to be connected to specially trained counselors, LGBTQ youth experience elevated rates of depression and suicidal thought. A 2024 study found that four in 10 LGBTQ youth said they had considered attempting suicide in the past year. One in five did attempt suicide.

The data suggest queer youth are utilizing the 988 lifeline in high numbers. Since it was launched in 2022, the crisis number has fielded some 14.5 million calls—1.3 million of which have been directed to the specialized services line for LGBTQ youth. Data show 100,000 people accessed the specialty services line for LGBTQ youth in January and February alone.

It is still unclear whether the funding will be cut. The White House has not yet released a full budget proposal, and what-

ever budget it does propose will have to be passed by Congress—where the specialized services option continues to enjoy strong Democratic support

“The day after election day, the Trevor Project saw a 700 percent increase in young people reaching out to crisis services.”

Still, the possibility of losing the specialized service line for LGBTQ youth has alarmed care providers and activists across the country.

“It is vital that these young people have the resources they need in a moment of crisis and these resources be national— that they be available whether you live in

a rural area or a city, that it not depend on what state you’re in or who controls your statehouse,” Casey Pick, director of law and policy at the Trevor Project, said. “That is part of the great benefit of the national 988 system.”

The proposed defunding of the specialized services for LGBTQ youth has come as part of a much broader assault on queer Americans, with many of the Trump administration’s attacks targeting transgender people in particular.

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has launched a broad attack on transgender people—issuing executive orders announcing that the government will only recognize two unchangeable sexes, blocking gender marker changes on passports, and defunding gender-affirming care for trans youth.

In the wake of Trump’s victory in last November’s presidential election—which followed months of intensely transphobic advertisements and language from Trump and his campaign—LGBTQ youth have turned to crisis support lines in increased numbers.

ANTHONY KEO

“I can tell you that the day after election day last year, the Trevor Project saw a 700 percent increase in young people reaching out to crisis services,” Pick said. “That is the highest spike in our measurements. We similarly saw a spike after Inauguration Day.”

Bouneff said that NAMI Oregon is similarly seeing higher levels of anxiety and depression driven by the current political environment—with the anxiety produced by the administration’s anti-LGBTQ policies compounded by other policies targeting other marginalized groups.

“People feel under threat,” Bouneff said. “It’s not just gender identity, it’s also immigration status, race, and ethnicity—people feel under assault. And it’s constant.”

The potential elimination of specialized services on the 988 line, which comes amid a broader effort to cut budgets and slash the workforce at the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-led Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), would likely have different impacts in different parts of the country.

In Oregon and Washington, the impact of any cut to the 988 program’s federal funding would likely be lessened by the existence of state-level funding sources.

Last year, the Oregon State Legislature passed a law that partially funds the program’s operation within the state by levying a $0.40 tax on phone lines each month. Washington has a similar funding structure for its 988 line, though both states still use some federal money to finance the program and are vulnerable to cuts

But it’s not clear that Trump’s budget proposal would actually cut funding for 988 or simply prohibit funding from being used on the specialized services line for LGBTQ youth.

If the program’s funding is not cut, Oregon should be able to continue to offer LGBTQ youth a similar level of support as it does now. Calls to 988 in Oregon are answered by clinicians with the nonprofits Lines for Life or Northwest Human Services, all of whom are trained to work with young people and queer people. The state is hoping to further raise the visibility of 988 through an advertising campaign this summer.

Oregon also has other outlets that provide support to LGBTQ youth in crisis such as YouthLine at 877-968-8491—a peerto-peer support line for queer youth up to the age of 24. Greg Borders, chief clinical officer at Lines for Life, said YouthLine is aiming to expand to Hawaii later this year and is also looking at opening on the East Coast as well.

But the elimination of the national

LGBTQ services line, Borders added, could still have a sizable impact on who ends up reaching out for help to begin with.

“Specialty lines exist in part to make people unfamiliar with the system… feel more comfortable and more confident knowing that they’re going to reach someone who empathizes with their struggles and challenges and is trained to work with them,” Borders said.

People who don’t have any assurance that the clinician they speak to, when they dial 988, is equipped to support them may be less likely to call. Other people, if they think 988 is no longer an option, may not know where to turn.

Part of the impetus behind launching 988 was that the number is intentionally easy to remember—just three digits, available nationwide. That has made a significant difference. The Trevor Project has offered a specialized services line for LGBTQ youth for decades, but Pick said that when the organization became part of the 988 network, the volume of calls it was able to take doubled.

“That ease of access saves lives,” Pick said.

There is little data to track how effective the 988 specialized services line has been or how many lives it has saved, but the extent to which the service is being utilized suggests that people who need it are accessing help.

That, ostensibly, is the goal.

But while there is no guarantee that the Trump administration will get its wish around specialized services funding, the fact that the funding is in jeopardy—after the first Trump administration supported the creation of 988—speaks to a chilling shift in thinking about the value of LGBTQ lives.

“While we can disagree on a wide range of issues affecting LGBTQ people—sports, healthcare, education policy—where there is a striking bipartisan support and unanimity is on suicide prevention, on mental health,” Pick said. “We can disagree on a lot of things, but we have always agreed on the importance of saving young lives.”

Given the administration’s position, Pick said, states like Oregon and Washington must step up to protect their residents’ mental health—both through funding 988 and also through other avenues like funding and training school counselors and community groups. Meanwhile, the battle over specialized services funding is set to continue into the summer with increasingly high stakes.

“The fact is that more people are calling and using the youth specialized services line every month,” Pick said. “What we should be doing here is strengthening this vital resource, not threatening it.” ■

Poolin’

Around

STORY AND

BY MADISON KIRKMAN

When I go out to low tides around Seattle, my gaydar pings incessantly. Am I imagining it? Is it wishful thinking? Or are there actually a lot of queer folks at low tides?

I asked fellow queer low-tide enthusiasts, like Wendy Elisheva Somerson, who goes by Wes, if they also noticed this queer phenomenon.

“Oh, yeah, I do,” they confirmed. “You’re not making it up. There is 100 percent a connection, and there are always gaggles of queers down there.”

Nearshore worker and low-tide diehard, Orian Grant, has seen the growing trend in their 12 years of tide pooling. “At low tide, I’m seeing more queers showing up in groups than I’ve ever seen before.” Orian also mentions, “I think the sciences in general demand a certain kind of attention to yourself, and I think that might invite more people who are open-minded or who have a queer identity, just naturally.” They also point out the lack of physical accessibility in the intertidal zone “really excludes a lot of our comrades.” It’s the only thing Orian doesn’t like about tide pooling.

Hill Ossip has also clocked this queer presence. “It’s an unspoken thing,” says Hill. “Seeing all the different sea life and the millions of different ways that life exists beyond our human structures is really affirming. Because there is no one way to be.”

Left: Friends Tem and Malia investigate an uprooted sea pen. These animals are actually a colony of polyps working together as a single unit. A bunch of besties all living and collaborating to build something flamboyant and larger than themselves? Sounds pretty gay to me.

PHOTOS

Clockwise from top: Perhaps the most desired low-tide find in the PNW is an octopus. The Puget Sound is home to several species of octopus, including the Giant Pacific Octopus (GPO), which can grow up to 14 feet long on average. The juvenile GPO seen here is small enough to fit in your hand.

Hill studies a leather sea star in the sand. They feel like the shared excitement at low tide “creates a really safe space to just show up without the pressure of needing to be something or fit into something.” Does this count as cruising for leather daddies?

A group gathers around to look at two moon snail egg collars, which provide shelter for smaller animals like baby sea stars, nudibranchs and their eggs, flatworms, and more. There is no shortage of life on the beach—the closer you look, the more you’ll discover.

Left: Tem delicately searches a small pool by a dock post, a lively spot for nudibranchs. Tem points out that intertidal life reminds them of queer “code-switching,” and what it’s like to navigate two very different worlds. “It’s also interesting how their physical forms and presentations have to change so much to endure and survive,” says Tem. OMG, the intertidal zone is trans!

Wes wades into the receding water to carefully check the moon snail egg collars for any nudibranchs and sea stars. Wes celebrates the diversity of nudibranchs, “especially as a non-binary person” they say. “You know, there’s just lots of different ways to be! You can have sex in all kinds of different ways.”

Below: Moon snail egg collars may look like industrial garbage, but they are actually an incredibly smooth, round, uniform structure made up of tens of thousands of tiny eggs, finely sifted grains of sand, and sticky snail mucus. The diameter and size of the egg collar can tell you how large the moon snail was that left it. Be gentle with them!

Quake Rugby Isn’t a Drag Cracking Skulls and Beers with the Boys

BY NATHALIE GRAHAM

PHOTOS BY WEST SMITH

Iwrapped my arms around two giant men—the loosehead and tight head (positions, not names)—and twisted my hands into their jerseys. They gripped the waistband of my shorts, locking us together. Thank god I had worn spandex underneath, I thought, as my shorts hitched into a giant wedgie. Sweat dampened their backs. We leaned down, our weight one, our bodies together.

The egg-shaped ball lay at my feet. In a scramble of limbs, I hooked it—inelegantly—out the back of the scrum.

The loosehead, tighthead, and I stood up. I gulped non-sweaty air. I smiled at my teammates. They smiled back. Only then did I remember what my face looked like. I was in drag.

For my latest exploration into Seattle subcultures, I joined Seattle Quake, the LGBTQ men’s rugby team, for practice on the pitch. To play with the men’s team in a hypermasculine sport, I tried to get in touch with my

own masculinity. But I soon realized how unnecessary this was with a team that is inclusive to everyone.

While it’s advertised as the men’s team, the Quake welcomes anyone who wants to play; they have members who are gay, non-binary, transmasculine, transfeminine, and also straight guys with wives—all the letters of the LGBTQ acronym. The welcoming spirit of Quake allows people who never felt like they could play team sports or contact sports an opportunity to have an experience they missed out on—and excel at it. Through rugby and through Quake, players have found a community worth protecting.

Twenty-four years ago, Quake became the Pacific Northwest’s first inclusive rugby

team when a group of gay rugby players didn’t feel like a team existed that would take them in and take them seriously, so they made one of their own.

“We actively try to recruit people that are underrepresented in rugby,” Julius Schorzman, Quake’s current president, says. In fact, many on the team never played rugby before they joined. The team recruited Schorzman when they saw all 6 feet 4 inches of him drinking at a bar. He didn’t know anything about rugby, but the Quake were in need of locks, the position where being tall is an asset. Usually, a lock will jump for the ball in a lineout, where other players hoist them into the air to make a catch. Schorzman went to that recruitment event 10 years ago—and met his husband on the team in the process— then never stopped playing. (Although, right now he is technically not playing since he ruptured his bicep tendon in a rugby game.)

Part of the appeal of Quake stems from the welcoming spirit of rugby. Schorzman

attributes that to rugby’s hidden-gem nature in the United States, where the NFL is king. Since football gobbles up most eligible athletes, the players who choose rugby are self-selecting for eclecticism, Schorzman explains. Maybe that’s why gay and inclusive rugby in the US is as popular as it is, with around 40 inclusive men’s and women’s teams nationally. In the Quake’s division, the Portland Lumberjacks are the only fellow LGBTQ team.

“People of all different stripes just come and get together,” Schorzman says. “When you tackle each other and do scrums together, it just builds this team cohesion that I haven’t seen in other places.”

The ruggers really are all up in each other’s business. They’re gripping each other by the thighs and the cheeks during lineouts. Their heads butt up against bums in scrums. You get to know people intimately on the pitch, so why not get to know them for real off the pitch?

Inside the scrum: a hands-on experience.

“There’s what’s called a ‘third half’ where you can have a really hard-hitting game, you’re really beaten up, and then you go to a sponsor bar and you get drinks with [both teams], and you select a person of the match and celebrate them,” Schorzman says.

It’s like the ultimate team sport experience—something many Quake players never experienced before joining.

Going Out for the Team

Allen Vu found Quake when he was 28 and a fresh Seattle transplant. While walking past Cal Anderson Park one day, Vu saw one of Quake’s two annual rugby 101 practices.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I just moved here, I kind of want to give it a try,’” Vu says. He was 10 minutes late and had no experience. It wasn’t a problem.

Vu never played rugby or team sports. Growing up Asian and gay in a straight, white town, he instead swam and played ping-pong. He says he missed out on a foundational experience that every other kid got to do because he didn’t belong.

“I didn’t really feel comfortable around my classmates, or around other people

enough to want to participate in a contact sport or a big team sport,” Vu says. “It just felt like it wasn’t for me.”

Sports also weren’t for Adam Sackman, a third-year rugger on Quake. As a transgender kid on the swim team, “locker rooms never felt right to me,” Sackman says. “For some reason ,” he adds with a smirk. So he didn’t experience the increased self-confidence, the communication skills, or trust-building and bonding that can come with playing sports. Being left out of these adolescent milestones is a big deal, which is part of why the trans sports bans snapping into place around the country are so diabolical.

Now, well into adulthood, Sackman is playing not just any sport, but the most epic one. He’s on the pitch grunting and sweating and tackling alongside other men who are bleeding or covered in mud or both.

“It’s very gender affirming in a corny way, but also in a pretty healing way for me,” Sackler says.

The brutality of the sport makes it even more unusual for an LGBTQ team, given long-held stereotypes.

One of the Boys

Padless grappling, tackling, and rucking is like the definition of rough and tumble. The game even has a phrase for when a player needs to be swapped out because they’re bleeding too much—it’s called a “blood bin.” Which is fucking metal. (“I love getting up from an 80-minute game and I’m covered in mud and blood, some of it’s mine, some of it’s other people’s, and just feeling so powerful,” Sackman says.)

“There’s usually the stereotype of gays being soft or not being incredibly physical,” Lucas Copperman, a forward who’s played with Quake for five years, says. “This challenges that directly.”

That rub-dirt-in-your-open-wound kind of masculinity is why I showed up to practice the way that I did. Thanks to an editorial brainstorm and the LGBTQ women’s rugby team, the Mudhens, not being in season, I decided to She’s the Man my date with the Quake. That meant for almost two hours on a Wednesday afternoon before rugby practice, Seattle drag queen Miss Texas 1988 painted my face.

Layers of makeup etched harsh cuts into my cheeks, a cleft into my chin, and a furrow into my now-very bold brow. A handdrawn handlebar mustache enveloped my mouth. The hairspray Miss Texas spritzed over my face ensured everything would stay in place, smudgless. My manhood was not only overt, it was over the top. Miss Texas had done too good a job.

I looked more like a brunette Joe Exotic (the Tiger King) than the Twelfth Night twink I envisioned. This was my fault. Miss Texas asked what I wanted, and I said, “Full king.” I did not know what full king meant. She showed me.

So, I showed up to Pat Ryan Memorial Field, the scrubby ground shaking every five minutes as airplanes roared overhead, in Danny Trejo cosplay. My self-consciousness reached an all-time high. I was hyperaware of myself and afraid of how I looked. This

was a first for me. As a lifelong team sports athlete, I never once considered whether I fit in, how I was acting, if I belonged.

On the pitch that day, even though I was invited to join, I worried. I’d forget temporarily while warming up with the team, or catching a pass, or getting pulled up into the sky in a line-out, but then I’d catch a glimpse of the face plastered over my actual face. Who was that? I couldn’t shake the feeling

“It’s very gender affirming in a corny way, but also in a pretty healing way.”

of wearing a mask. This felt especially jarring in a space where people who often had to wear different faces in their regular lives could actually lower their masks.

Take Saint Akudihor, for instance. Akudihor is non-binary and played high school football in New Orleans before they came out of the closet. They were mocked for being different, for being “weird.”

“It was a toxic experience,” Akudihor says. “I was low-key depressed in high school because the coaches were verbally abusive. I used to get made fun of.”

Akudihor moved out to Seattle in 2017. Around the same time, they came out and found Quake. Akudihor doesn’t dread coming to practices or playing games like they did in high school.

“This team is different because I can be myself,” they say.

They now live in Port Orchard and make the hour-long commute to practice twice a week because they want to play with Quake.

“I still make the drive here, because I don’t want to play on a non-queer team,” Akudihor says. “I want to be able to feel

Instead of shouting “Cheese,” everyone shouted “Penis!” Make sure

Scrumdiddlyumptious.

comfortable in my body and who I am while also playing rugby.”

For the most part, that’s possible.

“I’m glad that I get to be on a men’s sports team now,” Sackman says. “Minus all the homophobia and the bullshit, it’s pretty rare and special.”

The Homophobia and Bullshit

The Quake play in the Pacific Northwest Rugby league, competing against other teams in the region as a division three team. They regularly square up against typical men’s rugby teams—or, in other words, straight teams. This is when, despite the inclusive and welcoming environment from their own team, players may need to don their proverbial masks yet again.

According to Schorzman, the president, the homophobia has lessened over the last 20 years. However, according to some players, it’s still prevalent. PNW Rugby did not respond to a request for comment.

Ramsey Warren, who identifies as queer, came out last year around when he first joined Quake. The accepting community made it easier for Warren to be himself. Unfortunately, inclusive rugby is not all rugby.

“When we play other straight teams, they’ll say slurs and stuff,” Warren says. “Sometimes they’ll be extra aggressive and do dangerous plays to people just because they’re gay, to try to hurt them.”

When this happens mid-game, the Quake try not to let it rattle them. Warren says they have to make sure to protect their own, but also keep cool heads so they don’t get “carted off” with red cards that could keep players out for multiple games.

The political dynamics take an existing aspect of rugby and deepen it. Copperman, at his position at forward, takes a lot of the heavy contact. Phase after phase, he throws his shoulder against the other team. He’s looking to get the ball, but he’s also looking to defend his teammates.

“It sounds cliché to say, but it’s like you’re going into battle. You’re literally fighting for that ball every time, and we have to protect it, and you’re protecting your team at the same time,” Copperman says. “There is a primitive kind of war-like vibe sometimes, when you’re on the pitch.”

Protecting your teammates from tackles becomes a bit more serious when the other team hates your entire existence.

“We are ‘other’ in a lot of people’s minds,” Vu says, “but on our team, we stand up for

each other. If one of us gets hurt, or somebody’s trying to pick a fight, we’re all ready to run up. Their next tournament, however, will be the International Gay Rugby tournament held in Boston. There, Quake will play against fellow gay teams. That experience is a lot more comfortable, Warren says.

“There’s a kindness, especially when you’re in the scrum,” Warren says.

Last year at the IGR tournament in Rome, Sackman says he played in a game where all players were trans. He says it was like nothing he’s ever experienced before.

“It’s almost like a breath of fresh air,” Vu says. They don’t have to pretend or be afraid, because they’re playing similar people who

Miss Texas asked what I wanted, and I said, “Full king.” I did not know what full king meant. She showed me.

know what a challenge it is to be an LGBTQ rugby team in this country. “It’s just a time to celebrate, but also a time to kick ass.”

The Third Half

After the smelliest team huddle I’ve ever been in, Schorzman tossed me a Redhook beer. I cracked it and took a sip alongside the rest of the team. Finally, a cold one with the hes and theys.

Sweaty and covered in grass, the Quake relaxed underneath a cloud of bubbles— someone, of course, had brought a bubble machine—and I chatted with more players. One had joined the team after being invited to practice on Grindr. He showed up, and his date’s ex-boyfriend was also playing. Rugby stuck, so did the Grindr relationship. They’re married now.

People palled around, satisfied with practice, excited for the Boston tournament on the horizon.

I again caught a glimpse of my painted face and shuddered. Next time I play rugby, I’ll be sure to show up as myself. Though I must admit, on my drive home, I couldn’t stop admiring the way the makeup sharpened my cheekbones, or how the accentuated hollows of my face glowed in the red of brake lights. ■

JUNE 2025

Illustrations by

Stevie Shao

5 SUPPORT Donate to the Okra Project Send some love to the Okra Project, an org that “believe[s] that mutual aid is essential to supporting Black Trans people across the United States. Without social safety nets, mutual aid becomes critical for many in our community, and we are proud to be a part of this vital work.”

4 SPORTS Mariners Pride Night Buy a ticket to tonight’s game against the Orioles and get a free Pride-themed belt bag (is that what we’re calling fanny packs now?). Also, wieners will likely fall from the sky. Hallelujah!

3 FILM Desert Hearts Grand Illusion presents this screening of Donna Deitch’s 1985 sapphic masterpiece at the Northwest Film Forum.

10

SCARECROW AND CHILL Rent ‘The Watermelon Woman’ …or any gay movie of your choice from Scarecrow Video. (Other ideas: Paris Is Burning, Bound Beau Travail D.E.B.S. , But I’m a Cheerleader , The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love Portrait of a Lady on Fire , Saving Face Top Gun ?)

15

shy!

2 SUPPORT Help Out Your Local Crisis Center RFK Jr. wants to cut funding to crisis call centers. Ugh. Read more on page 29, and then donate—time, money, encouragement, whatever you can offer—to your local call center.

9

Collide-O-Scope: Pride Edition The Stranger ’s brilliant video team hosts a special Pride edition of their monthly found-footage extravaganza at Here-After.

8 COMMUNITY Tiny Tea Dance Every Sunday 4 p.m.–9 p.m., Pony hosts the Tiny Tea Dance, inviting you to: “sun those buns on the patio with the divas, deviants, and daddies.”

7 FESTIVAL Pride in the Park See your fave drag queens perform at Volunteer Park along with live music from electronic hardcore rock star TeZATalks, alt-country singer Star Anna, and pop-punkers Lemon Boy.

14

13

VISUAL ART queer joy: A Sensory Indulgence Stop by the opening night at Slip Gallery for an art installation that explores “the big bold brashness of queerness and the subtleness that is being a queer person day in and day out.”

12

(No Matter Where You Land on the Kinsey Scale)

One Gay Thing to Do Every Day

20 Finally, It’s Summer It’s the first day of precious Seattle summer! Celebrate the solstice with Drag Bingo (every Friday with Sativa at Rough & Tumble) or the BONGAA Pride Disco & Art Night at the Filipino Community Center.

19 PORN 2025 HUMP!: Part One Pop-Up Did you miss HUMP!: Part One earlier this year? Or wanna see it again? Pupusa hosts this pop-up screening of everyone’s favorite amateur porn festival at Lumber Yard.

18 SHOP GSBA Pride Luncheon and Pop-up Market Support LGBTQ and BIPOC-owned businesses by shopping handmade goods, art, beauty products, clothing, and more, followed by a two-course lunch. Ooh la-la.

25 “BOOKS” ;) Biceps and Blooms Floral designer and bodybuilder (!!) Jimmi Cook teaches a workshop at Charlie’s Queer Books. “Bring your favorite romance book and Jimmi will show you how to create a gorgeous flower arrangement inspired by the book… while he’s shirtless.”

17 FOOD Get a Little Treat Tons of restaurants and bakeries have Pride specials this month. And babe? You deserve it. Start with Flora Bakehouse, Dough Joy, and Shikorina. Read more about Shikorina on pg. 69. )

24

COMEDY The Comedy Nest

This open mic (held every Tuesday at the Rendezvous) is women, trans, NB, queer, and POC-focused <3

23

ART The Ric Weiland Collection Ric Weiland, the second-ever employee at Microsoft, retired early and dedicated his life to philanthropy and LGBTQ advocacy. Stop by MOHAI for an exhibit of photographs, letters, ephemera, and artifacts from Weiland’s estate.

22 SEA CREATURES Queer Community Day at the Seattle Aquarium This “aqueerium” event will include educational talks, activities, drag performances, and drag storytimes for the whole family.

21 RAVE CELESTIAL BODIES: A Sapphic Alien-Theme Pride Rave Serve extraterrestrial realness at this space-inspired rave exclusively for sapphics, femmes, butches, and nonbinary voyagers. Enjoy “alien elixirs,” a “low-gravity lounge,” plus tarot and cosmic readings at Asylum Collective.

29 YOU GUESSED IT, PRIDE!!! Pridefest Seattle Center After the big ol’ parade at Seattle Center, hit Pier 62 for the Indigiqueer Festival to celebrate Indigenous “food, drag, music, dance, and more.” After that? Rebecca Black, Heidi Montag, and Countess Luann are performing at Queer/Pride Festival at Queer/Bar.

28 PRIDE Wildrose Pride 2025 Watch the Dyke March, and then support the longest-running lesbian bar in the country by hitting the iconic Wildrose Pride. Live it up with bands, DJs, drag, and dancing, and honor the spirit of late Wildrose co-owner Shelley Brothers <3

27 PRIDE Y2K Pride Get your Juicy velour over to Nectar, bb—it’s time for the Y2K-themed Sapphic Dance Party! That’s hot. (Trans Pride is also happening today at the Volunteer Park Amphitheater, featuring 100+ trans-led orgs and artists.)

26 WRESTLING Meet Us in the Parking Lot Three words: LIVE! DRAG! WRESTLING! Astrud Aurelia, Pi, and some of your favorite local queens battle in the ring at Massive. (It’s also Queer Country Dance Night at Conor Byrne, if that’s more ur speed.)

30 SELF-CARE Sleep What a month. Take the gayest nap you’ve ever taken. 16 FILM Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers Don’t miss this long-lost camp masterpiece—starring Warhol superstar and trans icon Holly Woodlawn—showing at the Beacon.

But wait, there’s so much more—see page 51 for our full Pride events listings, and page 73 for our monthly Things To Do arts calendar!

Personal Finance for End-Stage Capitalism

We Live in an Anti-Social

Death Pit. Here’s How to Survive It.

BY MILO KUSOLD

Y’all, money is scary. Given the state of the world, I find myself oscillating between caring about financial stability as a potential way to feel safe, and pondering if the US will continue to exist long enough for the dollar to be of little more use than wallpaper.

Even though this is a super weird time to think about your wallet, if you happen to be on the side of stability craving vs country escape plans, I’d love to share some clear, shame-free, and actionable financial basics.

You’re not the only one who doesn’t understand money stuff. I sure as hell didn’t, and most don’t. That’s why we have crypto bros buying NFTs, grandparents mailing checks to TV salesmen, and high-powered financiers robbing us all. However, the more stability you build, the more power you’ll have to support your community and stand up for what matters.

Disclaimer: Everything here is purely informational. Please do your own digging before making big decisions, and don’t come for me. I’m just some person who did a bunch of research and wanted to share what I learned for free so that folks don’t get p0wned by corporations.

There’s also the sad fact that some people

are just screwed by the system. I hope this advice helps, but none of it would be necessary if the government had woven social safety nets instead of an anti-social death pit.

What makes you happy?

You have to work to make money. But when it’s in your pocket, its sole purpose should be to make you happy and align with your values If it’s not doing that, some corporate scumbag has tricked you into running the rat race. Ask yourself two questions.

What are 3 to 5 things that bring you joy on a regular basis? Doing the crossword with your partner? Giving belly rubs to the kitty-cat? Toasting your buns at Denny Blaine?

What are 3 to 5 values, causes, or commitments that matter to you? Immigrant rights? Environmental justice? Personal freedom? Shoo-ing Stuart Sloan away from Denny Blaine?

Seriously, make a list. Think of it as your compass. Each financial decision should point directly back to these.

Now For The Plan:

First, figure out how much you make and how much you spend. If you don’t know,

you’re not alone, but the first step of financial planning is getting those numbers down.

For income, gather your pay stubs and bank statements. For expenses, card users can utilize aggregators like Yodlee. Cash people, commit to manually tracking your receipts. Either way, you’ll want at least three months of data to review.

Once you’ve crunched those numbers, ask yourself a deeper question: Does my spending align with my values?

Compare your values with each one of last month’s expenses. Then do it again. Look for patterns.

Springing for a newspaper subscription is a good choice if your daily joy is the crossword. If the perfect morning starts with black coffee, and supporting immigrant rights is a core value, going to the Vietnamese-owned café down the block is money well spent.

But if you’re dropping $300 a month on Uber rides while “environmental justice” is literally on your values list … reconsider. (Also: Buses exist. They vibrate. It’s kinda like a massage.)

Reflecting isn’t about guilt. It’s about alignment. Don’t punish yourself for past decisions. Evaluate with open eyes and move forward.

Compound Interest: It’s Boring Until It Works

Compound interest is the single most important concept in personal finance. For real, don’t glaze over this section because it has numbers. Everything clicks into place once you get it. But beware: It can be your friend or a bitter foe.

When compound interest plays nice, your money earns money—and then that money earns more money. Pretty cool.

Imagine you have $1000. If you invest that and it returns 10% per year, you’ll have $1,100 after a year. But next year, you don’t just earn another $100—you earn $110, because now you’re earning interest on the accumulated $1,100. After year 2, you’ve made $1,210.

Now for the magic: Wait 10 years and the original $1000 has compounded to $2,593.74. You’ve done nothing but played the same game the 1% has played for generations. Time and percentages are the secret ingredients. The sooner you start, the more powerful it becomes.

Now for a walk on the evil side. Free money. That was exciting. But let’s say you have $5,000 in credit card debt at 24% APR (which is extremely typical). Let’s not pay any of it for ten years.

ANTHONY KEO

Holy shit. We’ve accumulated over $50k in interest—on top of the original $5,000. Y’all, that’s literally insane! Big financial institutions are crushing ordinary people with interest. How steeply debt climbs is directly associated with the “APR” that credit cards hide by offering the first year at 0%.

Every month you carry a balance, the debt compounds. It’s like an investment … but into a financial pit. Personal rant: 24% interest rates should literally be illegal. Someone please work on that.

Debt: When You Actually Should Budget

After that horrifying graph, you may be panic-reflecting on your situation. Breathe. If you have high-interest debts like credit card balances, it’s budget time.

Take your fixed expenses (food, rent, utilities, transit) and evaluate where you can trim costs (can we sell the car and bike instead?). After you’ve done your best, consider what else can be cut. Can you sub things for lowcost or free alternatives that still support your values and happiness? Try swapping expensive habits for low-budget or free alternatives. Buy more books than you have time to read? Snag a library card. Do this enough and you’ll save without feeling like you’re missing out. Budgeting isn’t about suffering. It’s about prioritizing what matters. We’re aiming for a sustainable, steady path toward debt elimination that preserves your dignity and happiness. Go too hard and you’ll end up in an unstable self-denial/indulgence cycle.

Emergency Fund = Your Personal Insurance Policy Against Debt

It’s a simple formula: Emergency Fund Amount = 3–6 x Monthly Expenses

If you spend $2K a month, aim to save $6K–$12K, after you’ve taken care of your debt.

This is not your vacation fund. It’s your “sleep good” starter pack for job loss, unexpected bills, and life’s “holy shit” moments. It is also a “fuck you fund” if your job conflicts with your values. Put it in a boring, easily accessible savings account.

Investing: Why’d You Have To Make Things So Complicated?

If you want to beat inflation—invest. But only if you have sent any high-interest debts back to hell and have money you won’t need for five to 10 years.

I recommend low-cost index funds like VTSAX , or other similar ones. An index fund is a simple way to invest in the entire market—your money gets split across tons of companies, based on their value, like a big capitalist smoothie. So instead of buying a single Tesla stock and praying Elon doesn’t tweet something unhinged at 3 am, you’re investing in all the companies and hoping if one company falls, the rest will balance it out. The “expense ratios” on these should be well below 0.2% . If not, run!

If you want to keep your money out of evildoers like BP, look into “ ESG ”s, which are managed funds that attempt to weed out companies that go against certain core principles.

You’re not trying to beat the market like your crypto-crazed Uncle Geoff. You’re trying to get in on its long-term growth. Big disclaimer: The market swings wildly, but has historically gone up given enough time. Just leave your investments alone!

Retirement Accounts: It’s Just Investing With Extra Steps

They’re like government-labeled, tax-advantaged jars for your investments. Each one has different rules. Your employer might offer a matched 401(k). Freelancers can consider IRAs (not that IRA, unless…). You can open one of these on your own and even roll over 401(k) funds from old jobs, but regardless, remember to have them all invested in lowcost index funds!

Giving Back: Build It In

Finances can feel a bit like Monopoly. But it ain’t. So please remember to give back. Pick a percentage of your yearly income (even 1% is a start) and, if you can, give consistently.

Support causes, people, movements, mutual aid. You don’t have to be rich to give. ■

PRIDE PARTIES

Wednesday 6/4

Drag Queens in Limousines: Celebrating 25 Years of Mary Gauthier With Special Guest Jaimee Harris

See influential lesbian singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier—known for her landmark 1998 album Drag Queens in Limousines—perform, supported by her partner, Americana folk artist Jaimee Harris. (Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages)

Mariners Pride Night

The Mariners play the Baltimore Orioles in the first of two Pride nights in June. Every ticket comes with a free pride-themed “belt bag.” Is that what we’re calling fanny packs these days? Also, weiners will likely fall from the sky. (T-Mobile Park, 6:40 pm, all ages)

Friday 6/6

PRIDE!: Zookraught, Sux, Mikey Moo

Bounce around to the musical stylings of punk/dance trio Zookraught, the city’s self-proclaimed “tightest band” Sux, and queer psych-pop group Mikey Moo, plus a set from “Seattle’s Only Bisexual DJ.” (Darrell’s Tavern, 8 pm, 21+)

Ms. Pak-Man: On Another Level

Ms. Pak Man brings everything we love about the iconic girly yellow circle to life: the clickity-clack of her high heels, giant pink bow, obsession with fruit, and absolutely xanned out personality. (Did you know that the power pellets she’s always munching on are actually pills?) The local drag diva will take her theatrical cabaret show to the “next level” with an evening of singing, dancing, and comedy. Anyone by the name of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, or Sue will not be allowed on the premises. (Triple Door, various times, 21+) Rainbow City Performing Arts Presents Action

Rainbow City Performing Arts, a concert and marching band made up of LGBTQ musicians and allies, presents this “soul-stirring program that journeys through struggle, solidarity, and resolve.” Guests include the Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble (STANCE) and queer singer-songwriter Ryan Cassata. (Benaroya Hall, 6 pm, all ages)

Seattle Pride Classic Hockey Tournament

The annual Seattle Pride Classic Hockey Tournament is the largest LGBTQ ice hockey tournament IN THE WORLD. Three hundred players across 20 teams face off in a three-day tournament with the championships scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Each day concludes with a “4th Period” after-party at Union. Games are also available for streaming via Livebarn. (Kraken Community Iceplex, June 6–8, all ages)

Saturday 6/7

Brunch & Read

Just bring a book and grab a seat by 10 a.m. to join Rough & Tumble’s Brunch & Read event. At 10:15 a.m., everyone will go around the room to introduce themselves and share what they’re reading, then from 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. is the silent reading (and eating) hour. Admission is free, but RSVP reservations are recommended. (And their fried cheese curds are super good.) (Rough & Tumble, 10 am, all ages)

Seattle Pride in the Park 2025

Congregate at Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park for a packed Pride celebration featuring live music, drag performances, and shopping, with over 80 booths of queer and BIPOC artists, businesses, nonprofits, and food trucks. This year’s musical guests include alt-country

singer-songwriter Star Anna, riot-grrrl-loving Lemon Boy, and the Rainbow City Marching Band. There will also be performances by Betty Wetter, Miss Texas 1988, Moscato Sky, and more. (Volunteer Park, noon, all ages)

The Queer Not-Creepy Gathering for People who Want to Fall in Love

This structured dating event for the queer community is designed to help you find your new boo based on genuine connections. (Fremont Abbey, 2 pm, 21+)

Taking Pride in Capitol Hill: Community Cleanup

Gussy up the streets and sidewalks of Capitol Hill for the upcoming Pride events at this all-volunteer affair. Breakfast, lunch, and cleaning supplies will be provided. (Plaza at Connection on Broadway, Broadway and Denny, 9 pm, all ages)

White Center Pride Street Festival

This 100-percent community-funded festival will fill downtown White Center with street vendors, live entertainment, beer gardens, a pet parade, and a kids’ play area. Several local businesses will also get in on the fun by hosting their own special events. Defy Wrestling will crown their 2025 Pride champion at Lariat Bar (from 1 p.m.–6 p.m.) and Tim’s Tavern hosts a free show at 7 p.m. with Prismia and Jaws of Brooklyn. (Downtown White Center, noon, all ages)

Sapphic Soiree: Pride Edition

The “evening of spooky delights” features dancing, film portraits, tarot, tooth gems, and flash tattoos. Recommended dress code is “pink, red, black, frills, and lace.” (Asylum Collective, 9 pm, $10 suggested donation, 18+)

PhinneyWood Rainbow Hop

The Phinney Neighborhood Association’s 13th annual Rainbow Hop is a kid-friendly day of theater performances, crafts, drag queen storytime readings, and other activities. Kids can put up a map and activity list

Seattle Pride in the Park 2025 June 7, Volunteer Park

at the Phinney Center Blue Building beginning May 27 and collect stamps throughout the day on June 7. Kids who collect at least six stamps can trade their map in for a free ticket to Woodland Park Zoo. Go see the baby tapir! (Phinney Center Blue Building, 9:30 am–1:30 pm, free, all ages)

Bear-Garten

Rhein Haus is “bringing the poolside energy of Palm Springs” all month long with sand, photo ops, and frozen drinks. Saturday’s kick-off party features music by DJ Alfonso Tan and rainbow Jell-O shots. (Rhein Haus, 3 pm–7 pm, free, 21+)

Sunday 6/8

C.C. Presents: Pride Show!

Lady Dahlia Rouge will host a special Pride edition of the recurring pole and burlesque show. (Tractor Tavern, 7 pm, 21+)

Monday 6/9

Collide-O-Scope: Pride Edition

Shane Wahlund and Michael Anderson will host a special Pride edition of their monthly cinema series featuring “vintage video, freaky film, and found footage fun.” (Here-After, 8 pm, 21+)

Wednesday 6/11

Scot Zeller’s H@PPY F@GGXT: A Queer Love Letter from a Member of Generation-X

Writer and actor Scot Zeller’s critically acclaimed one-man show chronicles his journey through finding himself and coming out. (Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Island, 7:30 pm, all ages but contains mature content)

Thursday 6/12

Adam Nathaniel Furman | Productive Deviance presented by Charlie’s at SPL

London-based author, artist, architect, and professor Adam Nathaniel Furman, whose work “brings queer history to life through innovative design and bold aesthetics,” will give a lecture on his “personal experiences, education, research, activism, and professional achievements,” followed by a happy hour and book signing. (Seattle Central Library, 5:30–9 pm) Tacoma Pride Block Party with Trixie Mattel

Drag superstar, musician, YouTuber, and real-life Barbie, Trixie Mattel, will DJ this outdoor Pride bash hosted by fellow queens Anita Spritzer and Macy Marcs. (The Mix, 2 pm, 21+)

Friday 6/13

Kenyon Hall Cabaret: Pride in Oz

Round up all your good Judies for this larger-than-life cabaret trip somewhere over the rainbow, featuring performers Jizzuhbell Johnson, Claude Ville, Sid Seedy, SirLoin, Kitty Vixen, Jolene Granby, Kiran Chaotic, and D’Angelo Danger. (Kenyon Hall, 6 pm, all ages)

queer joy: A Sensory Indulgence Curated by the Ensemble

Washington Ensemble Theatre invites you to indulge your senses with an art gallery and installation that explores “the big bold brashness of queerness and the subtleness that is being a queer person day in and day out.” (June 13–July 5, Slip Gallery, free, all ages)

NATE GOWDY

SATURDAY JUNE 21st

Star Brassworks Lounge Seattle Tavern & Pool Hall

Live Music on the patio starts at 5pm! • Claire Eliot • Creature Hole • Blackie 5813 Airport Wy S

Hot Dog Prom 2.0! 8pm until late. • DJ Wax Witch • Photobooth • Hot Dog Frivolities 5811 Airport Wy S

9 LB Hammer Maude’s Hot Corner

Drink Specials & Live music, 9:30-12:30a • Roemen & the Whereabouts 6009 Airport Wy S

Drink Specials! Beer • Cocktails • Food 6015 Airport Wy S

Our Existence is Resistance:

Queerness as Intersectional Disruption & Healing

Jen Self, Fernell Miller, and Mollie Monahan of the Racial Healing Project will host a talk followed by a “transformative racial and gender healing circle.” (Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm, all ages)

Pride Public Skate

Glide gracefully on the ice (or cling to the wall) to a playlist of Pride anthems under a glow of rainbow lights. (Kraken Community Iceplex, 6:15 pm, all ages)

STANCE (Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble): Forever Here, Forever Queer!

This year’s Spring 2025 Pride concert will feature songs by LGBTQ and BIPOC composers. (Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Island, 7:30 pm, all ages)

Saturday 6/14

Black Trans Comedy Showcase with TS Madison

Actress, performer, reality TV star, and RuPaul’s Drag Race judge TS Madison will host the evening of comedy sets from Mx. Dahlia Belle, Pink Foxx, and Ariyah Jané. There will also be a performance from neo-soul artist JusMoni. (Location provided with ticket purchase, 5:30 pm)

Gay Beach Party: Beautiful Freaks, Nonbinary Girlfriend, Pink Steam, and Feather Fatale

Drag performer Feather Fatale will host an evening of “horror and carnage” featuring live music from glam-pop band Beautiful Freaks, indie-rock project

Nonbinary Girlfriend, and punk quartet Pink Steam. (Conor Byrne, 8 pm, 21+)

The Pink Party: A Queer-Powered Dance Party

Think pink and dress in your favorite shade of fuchsia, magenta, or rose for this waterfront bash, featuring Jasmin, Jen Getz & Alfie, Alfonso Tan, Big Sir, Baby Van Beezly, and more. (Pier 62, 3 pm–10 pm, 21+) Prism Pride Show

Jet City Improv’s Prism Pride Show features an all LGBTQ+ cast who will perform skits based on the audience’s suggestions. (Jet City Improv, 7:30 pm, 18+) HUMP! on the Hill

Dan Savage’s DIY adult film festival returns to Capitol Hill with a screening at Quality Flea Center (home of the Punk Rock Flea Market and CHASM), hosted by Pupusa. There will also be themed games with prizes! (Quality Flea Center, 7 pm & 9:30 pm, 18+) Turbo with DJ Girlfriends: Pride Edition at Timbre Room

They’re DJs, AND they’re girlfriends! Catch some “nonstop jungle, juke, footwork, and high-tempo bass music selections” from queer power couple Mirin Doja and Korra the Kid, who are set to make their international debut at Bass Coast Festival next month. (Timbre Room, 10 pm–2 am, 21+)

The Pack Party at Wash: Transmasc Pride Edition

This party celebrating transmasc joy boasts hunky go-go dancers, beats by DJ Big Ugly, cold drinks, vendor pop-ups, and a midnight armwrestling competition with a cash grand prize. (The Wash, 10 pm–2 am, 21+)

The Pack is Queer: Rainier Roller Riot vs Bellingham Roller Betties

The Rainier Roller Riot, a non-profit adult roller derby league, hosts a special pride celebration with a pre-bout performance from Rain Country Dance Association and a raffle with prizes including gift cards to Electric Kitten Tattoo and Bakery Nouveau. (Southgate Roller Rink, 5–8 pm, all ages)

Capitol Hill Pride No Kings March & Rally

This event aims to counter Trump’s ostentatious birthday celebration (which includes a large military parade), as well as protest detainments by ICE and

Pupusa

2025 HUMP!: Part One

June 19, Lumber Yard Bar

harmful budget cuts. The gathering will honor famed Seattle immigrant Bruce Lee and present a series of speakers discussing civil rights and student rights. (University of Washington, noon–3 pm, all ages)

Sunday 6/15

Swung Out: A Queer Swing Social Dance & Pride Party

Show off your swing dancing skills at this party featuring live music from Christian Pincock and his Bassless Accusation. If you have two left feet, there’s an intro dance lesson included beforehand. (Clock-Out Lounge, 7 pm, 21+)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Special Musical Guests

Enjoy a free screening of the queer cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch, featuring intro musical performances by Riley Jakubowski of Glitt and Ghost Fetish and Tony James of L80 and Last Eye. The event will be followed by Moonlight Karaoke with a special tracklist inspired by the movie and Pride month. (HereAfter, 8 pm, free, 21+)

Tuesday 6/17

Mike Curato with Aleksa Manila at Queer/Bar

Author and illustrator Mike Curato will talk about his new graphic novel GAYSIANS with community leader, activist, and drag performer Aleksa Manila. (Queer/Bar, 7 pm, free, all ages)

Wednesday 6/18

GSBA Pride Luncheon and Pop-up Market 2025

Over 20 LGBTQ and BIPOC-owned businesses will sling handmade goods, art, beauty products, clothing, food items, and more. The pop-up market will be followed by a two-course lunch and program featuring Washington changemakers. (Sheraton Grand Seattle, 10:30 am, all ages)

Werk Wednesday: Black Carousel

The Black Carousel, the all-POC variety show at the Unicorn, presents a special Black History Month Showcase with performances from Londyn Bradshaw, Hoochie Papa, Midori Monet, Glenn Coco, and Issa Man. (The Unicorn, 8 pm, 21+)

Halo-Halo Cabaret REMIX: An All Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Cabaret Variety Show

Pinay Grigio produced the “only all-Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander cabaret variety show in the Pacific Northwest.” With DJ Quick Hire. (Michael Florentino Cellars, 6:30 pm, 21+)

Party Girl: Pride Edition

Channel your inner brat with a mix of girly pop bangers, remixes, and club hits. (Chop Suey, 9 pm, 21+)

Pride Bar Crawl

Stumble across several bars as you enjoy an evening of generously priced drink specials, tasty themed cocktails, live music, and DJs. (Multiple Locations, 4 pm, 21+)

Pride: Past, Present, and Future

Try your hand at juggling and other circus disciplines with professional coaches at an open house, then stick around for mocktails and a special Pride edition of Emerald City Trapeze Arts’ Circus Etc. Cabaret show. (Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 6 pm–10 pm, 18+)

Pride in the Penthouse at Columbia Tower

This swanky party atop the Seattle skyline features drag performances from Diamond St. James, Amora Namor, King Sherwood Ryder, and Bruno Baewatch, plus music from DJ Tek Savvy and a vocal performance from Ariyah Jané. (Columbia Tower Club, 7 pm–10 pm)

CELESTIAL BODIES: A Sapphic

Alien-Theme Pride Rave

Thursday 6/19

2025 HUMP! Film Festival: Part One White Center Screening, Hosted by Pupusa

“Seattle’s favorite snack,” the Salvadorian drag performer and synth-pop princess Pupusa, will oversee the festivities at this screening of 2025 HUMP!: Part One, aka the world’s best indie erotic film fest. There will also be themed games and giveaways. (Lumber Yard Bar, 7 pm, 21+)

TUSH!

Betty Wetter has gone all out for the Pride! Not only is she hosting a three-night stand later in the month (jump down to June 26 for those details), but she’s warming up for the big event with an extra dose of TUSH, starring Pupusa, Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill, Amora Namor, Pussy Willow, and Clara Voyance. Shows often sell out so buy tickets early. (Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+)

Friday 6/20

BONGGA DISCO: FCS Pride Disco & Art Night

Time to break out your best approximation of a Studio 54 look: Inspired by the diversity of the disco era, this gathering aims to bring together Filipinx, BIPOC, and LGBTQ community members and features music, art, disco dancing, and a costume contest. (Filipino Community Center, 7 pm–10 pm, all ages)

Saturday 6/21

Dogwood Pride Meet Up

LGBTQ guests are invited to come together at the dog-friendly tavern for a morning meet-up promising dogs, laughs, mimosas, and community. (Dogwood Play Park, 10:30 am, all ages)

Georgetown Pride

The 2nd annual festival will be “bigger, hairier, and gayer” than ever, with a no-rules parade, bageleating competition, carnival games, live music, free Vegas-style wedding ceremonies, and plenty more shenanigans (including “Hot Dog Prom 2.0”). (Multiple Locations, 1 pm, all ages)

We’re leaving the planet, and you can’t come! Serve extraterrestrial realness at this space-inspired rave exclusively for sapphics, femmes, butches, and nonbinary voyagers, with dress code suggestions like “neon cyber sirens,” “retro-futurist fantasy,” and “supernova seduction.” Enjoy “alien elixirs,” a “low-gravity lounge,” tarot and cosmic readings, and otherworldly visuals. (Asylum Collective, 10 pm–1:30 am, 18+)

Sunday 6/22

Sativa the Queen Pride Show

A performance by Sativa the Queen followed by an all-day rosé party with prizes and guest DJs. (Princess & Bear Wines, noon, 21+)

Prismatic

Featuring Jack Mozie, Mozaia, Creature Hole, and Kiara T’kyrah. (Sunset Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+)

Queer Community Day at the Seattle Aquarium

What’s gayer than a day spent ogling sea creatures? Learn about the mysteries of the ocean at this “aqueerium” event, which will include educational talks, activities, drag performances, and drag storytimes for the whole family. (Seattle Aquarium, 9:30 am–5 pm, all ages)

Roz Hernandez

Comedian Roz Hernandez—of Hulu’s Living for the Dead and the Ghosted! podcast—will take over Queer/ Bar for an evening of “sassy stand up.” (Queer/Bar, 7:30 pm, 21+)

Sunday Songwriters Session: Pride Edition

Get to know three queer singer-songwriters, including touring violinist and composer Alex Guy, dreamy shoegaze guitarist Miche Mora, and multiinstrumentalist Carly Ann Calbero. (Royal Room, 7:30 pm, all ages until 10 pm)

Diversity Collective’s Pride Celebration 2025

The nerdiest (complimentary) Pride celebration in Seattle! Come play more than 300 board games from Mox’s library, or set up your own game demos to show what you’re working on (both physical and video games are allowed). There will be free food and drink from Mox Kitchen, too. (Mox Boarding House, 6 pm–10 pm, free, all ages)

Tuesday 6/24

Massive Pride Week 2025

From vendor markets and drag shows to dance parties and wrestling, the Capitol Hill gay club has a whole week of curated Pride programming. (June 24–30, Massive, 21+)

Matt Baume: What’s So Gay About Frasier?

Matt Baume, author of Hi Honey, I’m Homo! celebrates Pride at Elliott Bay Book Company with “a guided tour of Frasier’s gayest fiascos, flim-flams, and folderol.” (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free, all ages)

Wednesday 6/25

Seattle Pride Drag Cruise

The two-hour cruise on Lake Union includes live drag performances from TPAT Productions, complimentary champagne (or sparkling cider), a charcuterie spread, and drinks/bites available for purchase. (Waterways Cruises and Events, 4:30 pm, 18+)

Music and Fashion with Thorgy Thor and the Seattle Symphony

Explore the connection between style and symphonic music at this event starring New York City-based drag performance artist Thorgy Thor, who’s appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race and Dragnificent and also happens to be a violin virtuoso. (Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm)

Thursday 6/26

Fiesta de Putxs

Featuring DJs Justice Manslayer, La Mar, Desmadrina Soundsystem, Reverend Dollars, Exesive, and more playing salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and merengue. All proceeds will be donated to migrant families. (Chop Suey, 8 pm, 21+)

Mama Tits “Scandalous”

The vivacious and unapologetic drag diva Mama Tits will perform her ’80s rom-com-style comedy cabaret featuring jaw-dropping live vocals. (Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages)

The Totally GAY! Sing Along

Belt your heart out to all your favorite gay anthems, from camp-drenched showtune standards to divalicious bops. (Central Cinema, 8 pm)

Queer Country Dance Night at Conor Byrne

Slay the house down (cowboy) boots at this queer cuntry night with live music and dance performances from Count Dykeula, Anne Tifa, Parker Marlow, Karen Miller, Archer, Sara Camille, Wiseacre, Aimee Lefkowicz, Jade Teather, Serafima, and more. Come early for free dance lessons. (Conor Byrne Co-op, 7 pm, free, 21)

TUSH!

Betty Wetter has gone all out for the Pride! Beloved drag show TUSH holds a reign at Clock-Out Lounge with a long list of extra special guests filing through. On Friday and Saturday, see Purple Lemonade and Genesis along with all your TUSH favorites, including Miss Texas 1988, Beau Degas, and Moscato Sky. Sunday show is for the “boys,” with a lineup that includes Woody Shticks, Drama Tops (fresh off their impressive DADS performances), Peach, Luminous Pariah, and Android Allure. Stick around after each show for a dance party with DJ Dark Wiley. (Clock-Out Lounge, June 26–28, 8:30 pm, 21+)

Friday 6/27

Seattle Storm Pride Night

At this home game against the Connecticut Sun, the Seattle Storm will celebrate Pride Month by honoring a LGBTQ+ community leader with a donation to the nonprofit of their choice. Pride merch will also be available at the Storm Team Shop. (Climate Pledge Arena, 7 pm, all ages)

A Drag & Burlesque Cabaret: A Very Pride Edition

You’re invited to be both entertained and titillated by this show made up of local drag and burlesque performers, singers, and comedians, featuring Shoctavia, Jizzuhbelle Johnson, Aletha Weapon, Sneaky Boo, Pat Smear, Mx. Pucks A’Plenty, and more. (Here-After, 6 pm, 21+)

Bi Panic at the Disco

Dance the night away beneath bisexual lighting with a soundtrack from Ives, Henry Mansfield, and Standish & Co. (Hidden Hall, 8:30 pm, 21+)

Community Pride Shabbat 2025

All are invited to the Community Pride Shabbat presented in partnership with the Greater Seattle Jewish Community and Temple Beth Am. (Temple Beth Am, 6:15 pm, free, all ages)

Indigiqueer Festival

Quileute drag artist Hailey Tayathy co-founded the Indigiqueer Festival in 2022 because they felt that an LGBTQ-friendly city named for a Suquamish and Duwamish Chief deserved its own big Indigenous Pride celebration. We couldn’t agree more, so we’re thrilled for the event’s return to the waterfront on Pier 62 for its fourth year. This year’s programming includes live music, food from the Indigenous local business Natoncks Metsu, and performances by two-spirit Cowlitz dancer Kitty Keene, Diamond Divas Drag Revue owner/operator Genesis Storm, Navajo drag queen Holli B. Sinclair, self-described “rez clown Bratz doll” Cherri Bepsi, Yakima Nation and two-spirit drag performer Koko Swallowz, and many other talented artists. (Pier 62, 1–8 pm, free)

Queer/Pride Festival 2025

The organizers for Queer/Bar’s Pride festival truly outdid themselves with the lineup this year—the headliners include Nasty Girl™ Tinashe, Queen of Rap Lil’ Kim, “Friday” singer turned queer hyperpop princess Rebecca Black, Bravo’s cuntiest Real Housewife Countess Luann, and The Hills villainess Heidi Montag. Other highlights include your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen Sasha Colby, and iconic co-hosts Jane Don’t and Delta Work. (Capitol Hill, June 27–29, 21+)

Trans Pride Seattle

This annual free festival is advertised as a “love letter to Trans people everywhere” with a performance lineup of all-trans talent and tabling fair featuring 100+ trans-led organizations, community groups, artists, and services. Masks are required. (Volunteer Park Amphitheater, 5 pm, all ages)

Wildrose Pride 2025

This is your semi-regular reminder that there are only 34 remaining lesbian bars in the US, and Wildrose, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is widely considered to be the longest-running one. Live it up with bands, DJs, drag performances, and dancing, and honor the spirit of late Wildrose co-owner Shelley Brothers. (June 27–29 Wildrose, 6 pm, 21+)

Y2K Pride: Sapphic Dance Party

Grab your hot pink velour Juicy tracksuit, your Louis Vuitton handbag, your Lancôme Juicy Tubes lip gloss, and your bedazzled Motorola Razr, because the people behind Sapphic Events are hosting this Y2K-themed bash intended for all queer women and sapphics. (Nectar Lounge, 9 pm, 21+)

AZN GLO Pride

See a special Pride edition of this party centered around queer, trans, Asian, and BIPOC joy, founded by drag performer Kylie Mooncakes. (Neumos, 9 pm, 21+)

Unicorn Pride Block Party

Capitol Hill’s carnival-themed bar will host its fourth annual celebration with over 50 drag performers and DJs, plus surprise guests, a show-tune sing-along with Ruby Bouché and Louvel, and karaoke with Glory Joel and CarLarans. (Unicorn & Narwhal, June 27–29, 6 pm, 21+)

Saturday 6/28

Sounders Pride Night

If Bend It Like Beckham was your gay root, join the Sounders for a special Pride-themed night with discounted tickets and rainbow-striped socks as they face off against Austin FC. (Lumen Field, 7:30 pm, all ages)

Kremwerk Pride 2025: Slip Pride

Throw on a leather harness and ready your poppers and Red Bull for this all-nighter featuring a steady stream of sickening drag performances and danceable DJ sets. (Kremwerk, 10 pm, 21+)

Pridefest Capitol Hill

Stroll through one of the nation’s largest pride festivals, which is blessedly free and encompasses six blocks of local vendors, beer gardens, and family and youth programming, plus four stages for live performances. (Broadway, Capitol Hill, noon, all ages)

Sapphic Factory: Queer Joy Party

Featuring music from Chappell Roan, Muna, boygenius, Kim Petras, Girl in Red, and many more. A portion of the proceeds will go to PLUS1 x NOISE FOR NOW Reproductive Health Access Fund. (Baba Yaga, 9 pm, 21+)

The Sapphic Renaissance: Pride Edition

The world may be burning, but it’s a damn good time to be a girl kisser, so take full advantage with this dance party showcasing the music of queer artists like Kehlani, G Flip, Doechii, Reneé Rapp, Megan Thee Stallion, and Billie Eilish. (Nectar Lounge, 9 pm, 21+)

Dungeons & Drag Queens at Crocodile

Nerd out as drag queens give the classic fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons a fabulous, glittery makeover. (The Crocodile, 6 pm, 21+)

Pride Darty hosted by the Social Queer at Havana

Early bedtime? No problem—check out this day party with DJ Big Ugly and drag king MC Pam Jobb N. Moore. (Havana, 1 pm–5 pm, 21+)

Cuff Pride Fest June 28–29, Cuff Complex

Morgan McMichaels, Judas Joe Manson, Dolly Madison, and Anita Spritzer

This drag concert hosted by local drag star Anita Spritzer will feature a trio of queens each performing as legendary divas: Morgan McMichaels as P!nk, Judas Joe Manson as Lady Gaga, and Dolly Madison as Cher. It’s probably the closest you’ll ever come to seeing those three icons together in the same night! (West Seattle, 9 pm–11 pm, 21+)

Cuff Pride Fest

Cuff Complex is back with its long-standing Pride festival—this year, the lineup includes London-based DJ collective Horse Meat Disco, Scissor Sisters’s frontwoman Ana Matronic, EDM duo Crush Club, DJ Tommy Hart, and many more. Drag royalty LaLa Ri and pop singer-songwriter Joshua Flores will host. (The Cuff, June 28–29, various times, 21+)

Union Pride Block Party

Union Street (between 10th and 11th Ave) will be filled with outdoor bars, DJs, and music videos for this free annual Pride block party. (June 28–30, Capitol Hill, various times, 21+)

body / electric: an overnight raveritual of body, touch, and trance at Asylum Collective

Get in touch with your body at this ritualistic rave beneath the waxing crescent moon. Attractions include acupuncture, reiki, tarot, tattoos, custom herbal tea blends, guided meditations, yoga, somatic movement, and more. (Asylum Collective, 10 am–5 am, 21+)

Sunday 6/29

Pridefest Seattle Center

Follow the Pride Parade to the Seattle Center for hundreds of local vendors, food, drinks, and live music. (Seattle Center, noon, all ages)

Queer Pier Pride

This official post-Pride Parade gathering features performances from electronic duo the Knocks and electro-pop singer-songwriter Dragonette. (Pier 62, 3 pm, all ages)

Sapphic Pride

This year, Sapphic Pride is bigger than ever as they take over both the Crocodile and Madame Lou’s with DJs, live music, dancers, and drag artists. (The Crocodile, 3 pm, 21+)

Seattle Pride Parade 2025

This is the big one. More than 300,000 people— including activists, small businesses, nonprofits, drag royalty, dancers, DJs, speakers, and allies—will march from Westlake Park to the Seattle Center in the name of “joy, justice, and belonging.” (Downtown Seattle, 11 am, all ages)

Seattle Pride Legacy Drag Brunch Fundraiser

With drag gems Amora Namor, Brandi Marxxx, Bruno Baewatch, Dion Dior Black, Kara Sutra, Viper Fengz, and Maya Mem Saab. Proceeds will directly benefit the Seattle Pride Impact Fund. (Hilton Motif Seattle, 10:30 am, 21+)

Laser Pride

What better way to unwind from a day in the sun than to hide in a dark room to watch “breathtaking laser displays set to the music of iconic queer artists”? Edibles optional. (Pacific Science Center, various times, all ages)

Revel Revolution Women & Nonbinary Ride

All women and nonbinary cyclists can join one of two Revel Revolution Rides. There’s a shorter 14-mile route and a longer 27-mile scenic loop around Lake Sammamish. All experience levels are welcome. More information available at cascade.org. (Bellevue College, 8 am, all ages)

Stacey

Almost Levine

Levine’s Third Novel Came Very Close to Winning the 2025 Pulitzer for Fiction

BY CHARLES MUDEDE

Mice 1961, Stacey Levine’s third novel, came very close to winning the 2025 Pulitzer for Fiction. It was one of the prize’s three finalists, but the judges selected a fourth-placed novel, Percival Everett’s James, due, apparently, to a stalemate at the top that couldn’t be resolved. Levine is a Seattle writer. She has lived and worked here for as long as I can remember (she was raised and born in St. Louis, Missouri). Her first book, My Horse and Other Stories, won the PEN/Faulkner Literary Award for Fiction in 1994. Her second novel, Frances Johnson published in 2005, played a role in her winning The Stranger’s Genius Award for writing in 2009. Her latest novel, Mice 1961, is set in Miami during the month, April, that’s now remembered for US’s failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Though this world-historical clusterfuck plays an important role in Mice 1961 ’s plot, particularly in its penultimate chapter, the greatness of the novel is not found in the story but in the way it’s told. And this is the way it should be. One doesn’t read literary fiction for narrative design—the sole function and art of the kind of detective fiction that counts Dorothy L. Sayers as a master of the interwar years (1920s and 1930s). The art found in Mice 1961 , as well as Levine’s other novels and short stories, concerns language, the English language. Levine handles words and sentences with what can best be described by the German word for a form of care that’s philosophically (or existentially) sensitive, sorge. You will not find a neglected word, sentence, passage in this book. Such is her sorge What follows is a conversation I had recently had with Levine. I emailed her questions; and she emailed me her responses.

When I learned your new novel, Mice 1961, was a finalist in this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, I admittedly thought it had to be more conventional than your previous work. But when I read the novel, I was surprised to see you were all there: the witty humor, the brilliant flashes in descriptive passages, the testing and retesting of the limits of the language, the dreaminess, the ghostliness, the care. You had surrendered nothing to the market. How was this possible? How did you pull it off? I really want to know. When I started writing it, I thought about the publishing marketplace’s pressures all the time in the back of my head, such as: Who will ever publish this thing unless it “clips” along briskly picking up complications, then has a big car chase, solemn resolutions, etcetera. It didn’t help that an agent read some of the pag-

es and declared the MS “a bit slow.” (The book wound up not having an agent; I connected with a publisher myself.) It was so annoying and crushing having those continual market thoughts… until finally, I formed those concerns into a little meta shelf inside the book. It’s the part where the main character, Girtle, is frustrated even if mesmerized that she finds herself inside this story and how she hates knowing that an obligatory “helper” character is going to come along and “save” the white-blonde female protagonist Ivy (who is nicknamed Mice). Once I installed that shelf in the book, the writing got a bit easier.

You will not find a neglected word, sentence, passage in this book.

Do you think your narrator, her commentary on the nature and expectations of a novel, played a role in catching the attention of the Pulitzer people? (By the way, Girtle reminded me of the narrator of Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Charles Kinbote, and the Helper, of the KGB-like assassin Gradus.) Maybe, but really I have no idea; the Pulitzer jury members are notably silent after the

fact regarding their judging processes. But to your question, maybe, because the character’s commentary forms another layer in the book. As in, a novel can contain exposition, descriptions of characters or setting, the main narrative and supblots; another element could be a meta layer in which the narration interrogates itself. You know this from music, where a piece could get layered with strings or other percussion or something and that adds another side to the whole.

There was almost 20 years between your second novel, Frances Johnson, and Mice 1961, your latest and third novel. What took you so long? (I know you also published a collection of short stories, The Girl with Brown Fur: Tales & Stories, in 2011, so it’s not like you were dormant or anything.)

Because during the economic downturn, I got laid off from UW Medical Center and wound up getting a teaching job to support myself. I hadn’t taught very much before that, and it was SUCH a steep learning curve, just all-consuming. And then there’s all the grading at night. A friend put it this way: “When people teach, they just kind of disappear.” How true. I could only write substantially on weekends or school breaks. In the end it was the best thing for this book, because lots of time helps cure a novel and makes it better. Also teaching English classes helped me, a

pretty shy person, learn to talk on my feet and get to know grammar rules really well. I just accepted that it was going to be horribly slow but that I’d finish the book someday.

Mice 1961 takes place in Miami, a place that has a climate and culture that’s very different from the Pacific Northwest. More curious yet, the locations of your first novels are fictional. Miami is a real place in the world. Why did you select Miami to be your first actual city? Why not Seattle, your own city? For as long as I have known Seattle, I have known Stacey Levine. My novel Frances Johnson is also set in Florida, though in a fictional town. I guess Florida is my conceptual sandbox. I’ve thought of setting a novel in Seattle, but Seattle is so here

Your novel takes place in 1961? What drew you to this period and its political climate, the Cold War?

It wasn’t an intellectual decision. Initially I just got the impulse and feeling to write about this. Then I wanted to describe white insulated Americans of that era who were adjacent to passionately pro-Castro Cubans and fierce Batista supporters. I mean the human animal gets so emotional about their countries and leaders. Think of the cultural split here and now. I did a lot of reading about the Kennedy era and even a weird self-published book by one of the Alabama Air Guards whom the CIA hired to fly on the Bay of Pigs mission in April 1961. I also got a small grant from Artist Trust to go down to Miami and research. It was so necessary for this book.

What happened to my favorite character in Mice 1961, Mrs. Lou Fox, the rich “philanthropist from the neighborhood who generally bought and sold painted plates”? She wonderfully floats into the party/potluck in the second section of the novel. She is amazing, she crackles, and just when you are ready for her to do her snobby thing for the rest of the book, she suddenly leaves the party and the novel. Mrs. Fox lasts for barely two pages. Where did she go? Is she in another novel you might be working on? Oh she’s so spoiled! Would you believe there are about 40 characters appearing or mentioned in the novel, including the dogs? Most of them are fly-by-night characters, neighborhood folks at the party. Now how are all of those going to have an arc? Are you saying that wouldn’t be impractical? I love Mrs. Fox though, with her husband sitting in the idling car. Who the hell is he? Oh—I guess he is Lou Fox. But I wonder what he would be like. I also love Sheila, the baker, and the beatnik poet Harry Kulp, and the little dentist, Dr. Warm. I’m leaving all these people in the dust. My new book doesn’t have them. ■

Stacey Levine’s Mice 1961 surrenders nothing to the market.

BILLIE WINTER

Unseen in America

Daniel Tam-Claiborne Shows Us a New Way to Be Here in His Debut Novel, Transplants

BY KATIE LEE ELLISON

They say an MFA in creative writing will ruin your enjoyment of a book. Instead of getting caught up in the story, in the characters you love or hate, in the world that’s built to get lost in, you think instead about timing and language, and generally devolve into a joyless obsessive consumed with how to imitate or become an original best. I’ll admit that I think this side of me took over in the first 50 pages of Daniel Tam-Claiborne’s debut novel, Transplants, especially because he is a friend, and I was looking for his voice, himself, in the phrasing and choices. But the deeper I got into the book, the more I forgot him and myself, evermore invested in the two protagonists and how they and their experiences mirror each other.

Transplants is a compelling and surprising novel about Lin, a Chinese college student, who becomes friends with Liz, an American English teacher in China. The two play out a Sliding Doors-adjacent scenario, and the book is braided so that each chapter switches between their two stories. The lines are both generous and tight, the story

The book lays bare the ways in which this country’s government essentially left us all to die.

successfully had me gasping at times, angry, heartbroken. I don’t read a ton of novels, so I don’t read a lot of novels about China and Chinese American experiences, but this book’s existence and this story feel essential. When we spoke for this interview, Daniel explained that our reading habits are opposite, because all he reads are novels about China and Chinese or Asian American experience. As a result, he set a high bar for himself in writing something he hadn’t read before. “We’re telling stories that have been told in different iterations and across time and geographies,” he says. “But what we’re adding is the nuance of one particular viewpoint that we can bring to bear on a particular set of characters. So I wanted to do my homework: Who’s written about some of these similar issues that take place during a similar time period? I didn’t want to waste people’s time.”

When I asked about his literary elders, he named some classics as well as recent outliers of note: Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Cathy Park Hong, Chang-rae Lee, Salman

Rushdie. Of the classics he said, “It’s not that I don’t read their work now, but one of the initial conceits of [my] book was trying not to cater to an explicitly Western audience. Not to say that those authors were, but it was a different time, right? You know Amy Tan, I have a lot of respect for her and her work, but not a lot of people had understanding or contact with Asian Americans, with Chinese Americans specifically, at that time, and they saw Asian Americans as inscrutable, hard to read, through this perpetual foreigner stereotype. Unfortunately, a lot of that is still true, two generations later. I think the last thing a writer wanted to do at that time was write something illegible to the audience with whom they were trying to find connection. So Tan’s work does an incredible job of teaching the reader customs and traditions about Chinese history, lineage, ancestry in a way that those characters, if left to their own devices, would not be saying [so much] because they implicitly know about their own families, their own histories.”

Of his influences, he mentioned Aube Rey Lescure’s River East, River West; The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian Kang; and The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Of The Leavers, he said he closely imitated the structure, tone, tenor, and narrative shifts in Transplants . “My own obsession as a writer is around that dynamic, valence of feeling, not fully belonging in America, but also having a similar but different experience when you go to like, ‘the homeland.’”

As we spoke about Liz and Lin—the former a Chinese American teaching English in China; the latter Chinese and an exceptionally good student of English, and many other subjects—Daniel confessed the characters were two parts of himself, and they served in the book as mirrors to each other. As one came, the other went. They crossed paths only once and had a beautiful kind of falling-in-love friendship, that for a moment, I swear I thought was gonna go beautifully queer, but did not, alas. Instead, they lived parallel lives, finding shreds of evidence from their respective familial pasts, and struggling to reconcile all of that with their own futures. “I see them as surrogates,” Daniel says. “Which is why I made the names so similar. I was thinking about how, from the outside, they can be read as interchangeable, in a way that we sort of think about the mutability of the Asian diaspora, this very stereotypical view that individuals could stand in for others.

other, and also the ways in which they’re able to find greater understanding through this shared connection, then hopefully, that may give hope to the ways in which we all might broaden our viewpoints and ability to empathize with and tolerate others.”

An exciting and warm element in Daniel’s book is that there is Mandarin throughout the dialogue, inner and outer, for his characters. This move didn’t take me out of the story as someone who knows exactly no Mandarin. Instead, it brought me in. In not knowing exactly what was written, I read the scene and context for meaning, feeling a discomfort both these main characters in their own ways experienced with Mandarin (in Liz’s case) or English (in Lin’s case), depending on the situation. “It’s not the utmost priority to me whether or not anyone who reads this is able to absorb 100 percent of everything that’s happening,” said Daniel. “I think that’s exciting. It’s more our generation, who are trying to play with how that can look and to give permission to do that, so others can tell stories without the hangups of writing to a particular audience.”

“This is an incredibly inhospitable place to live for Americans, let alone for any immigrant or nonresidency-holding individual.”

In our friendship, I’m perpetually surprised at Daniel’s ability to stay cool, to empathize, to offer solutions. He himself will never admit that he possesses those qualities, but he did offer that he has many female friendships, and that that was a way into writing two complex female characters. “In my own life, my closest friends are women. So in some ways it didn’t feel wholly out of character to try to inhabit that world,” Daniel says. “Of course, I was greatly helped by first readers who could call me out on lots of things that were problematic and saved the book from going into really inauthentic territory. There was a desire to talk about issues that decenter men, that talk about patriarchy and inequality in these sorts of relationships. Thinking really deeply and hard about what it means to live a life that’s outside of yourself, I think, forced me to do more due diligence and more research than maybe I would have if it was just me trying to write about any random man that exists in that same space.”

“There is something to be said about the ways in which the world has seen so many unfairly, or not fully, as a result.” Daniel continues, “There’s instances of that in the way that Liz characterizes Lin, and in terms of the naiveness that she attributes to Lin. There was a huge part of me that wanted to address that if these two have this enormous gulf, then what does that say about the greater population? If I’m able to figure out, what are the ways in which they’re misunderstanding and mischaracterizing each

The CID is a primary setting in the book, and despite all my time spent there, his storytelling in that space had me there in a whole new way. We spoke about how he managed to write about lesser-known parts of the neighborhood during COVID, and whether he was there and doing the things he was writing about. I also wondered what kind of interviewing and research he’d done to get a close-up of a part of Seattle that, it could be argued, felt the effects of COVID the hardest. Particularly because the CID in the book, at the height of COVID, is not the CID most of us know before nor after lockdown.

“I was volunteering with a group called SCIDpda, the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority,” says Daniel. “Every week, they had volunteers deliver groceries to

elders in buildings. I was lucky to have the benefit of meeting someone who, like one of my characters, is from China and studied nursing in the US. I asked him why he was interested in studying nursing—like why are you trying to help people who, in some cases, may harbor these incredibly negative stereotypes about you? Why would you want to stay in America? It was really helpful to gain perspectives of people who were in those positions themselves, and be able to glean aspects of their rationale that could be applied to the characters.”

About halfway through Transplants , I wondered how Daniel was going to reconcile all this critique of the United States, for the simple reason that he lives here. The book lays bare the ways in which this country’s government essentially left us all to die, while many other countries around the world took extreme measures to care for themselves and each other. I wondered: How do we care for each other? Specifically in the United States, because that’s where a lot of the book takes place, and because it seems our only option: Our government is doing its very best to harm us.

“I think some part of it comes down to recognizing each other’s humanity, forming broader coalitions,” says Daniel. “I don’t think the panacea is that Pan Asian solidarity will save the world, as much as I would love that to be true. There’s still tons of in-

fighting, even if you talk about the broader umbrella of Asian American communities, and we still make up a very, very small percentage of the US by population. So it’s not as if anything we do in concert could necessarily counteract these external forces that make life challenging.”

“In trying to imagine the lives of Lin and Liz beyond this moment,” Daniel continues, “it’s hard to see an argument where Liz continues to live in China just because of the ways in which things have continued to escalate, creating an environment that’s more hostile to outsiders, and also, provides fewer opportunities for folks both international and domestic. And the same could be said of America. This is an incredibly inhospitable place to live for Americans, let alone for any immigrant or non-residency-holding individual. So why would anyone want to make their life more difficult? It takes an incredible leap of faith. Maybe the true extraordinariness of these characters is that they are willing to go to these incredible lengths to find a sense of belonging, even when that road is paved with potholes and landmines, and just the most awful things possible. They’re still willing to give it their best shot.” ■

Transplants is available via Regalo Press. Daniel Tam-Claiborne will be at Third Place Books in Ravenna on June 17 for a conversation with Anne Liu Kellor.

COURTESY OF DANIEL TAM-CLAIBORNE

Unstoppably Real

Still Mighty Real Offers the Strength of Community Rendered in Art

BY NICO SWENSON

For the third year, Anouk Rawkson and Jordan Christianson bring you a gallery of powerful, boundless, and queer-as-fuck artwork in the form of Still Mighty Real at Vermillion Art Gallery throughout Pride month. At the opening reception on June 12 as part of Capitol Hill Art Walk, you can expect to see a wide range of queer-made pieces ranging from garments to paintings, photography, and even a vending machine of kawaii dolls. With previous years being titled Mighty Real and Mighty Realer, this year’s gallery especially emboldens the necessary reminder that “we’ve been here, we are here, we will always be here, henny!” Amid the tidal wave of conservative politics and rising costs of just about everything, Still Mighty Real fortifies an accessible space for community to engage with art, resources for artists, and the celebration of self-expression. This year features work from a

robust roster, including both Christianson and Rawkson, as well as Kerstin Graudins, David van der Linden, Tara Thomas, Kelly O, Nell Kerr, Julianee Mendoza, Varin Volk, Ham West, Samara Dot Ghoul, Harlen Munsö, and Sidney Woodruff. It will also feature archival posters from ’80s and ’90s

“I want people to not be ashamed to live their truth. Art is a great way to do that.”

gay bars provided by Doghouse Leathers, and projection visuals by Rajah Makonnen.

As Christianson says, another reason for this year’s title is in response to “all the push back on our community, trying to tamp us

down. Historically, it’s happened over and over and over, and we’re more equipped now because there’s more people who are comfortable with standing up and being loud.”

It goes deeper than just pushing back against negativity—the gallery has always strived to create positive change for representation as well. “Initially, we noticed that in the art world, there’s not a lot of representation for marginalized communities,” Rawkson says. “Seattle’s very big on doing that recently, but for a while it just was like, if you have money, you can create. So we started curating shows.” The pair got to work creating opportunities for diverse artists through a variety of events like Imminent Mode, Misfit Toy Box, and The Haunt-

ing of Cloud Gallery. “We know each other’s language. It’s been going on almost 20 years. We just riff off each other very well,” says Christianson. “There’s all these different shows,” Rawkson continues, “and we said, well, why don’t we do a queer show?” Mighty Real came to us based on the Sylvester song, which is the queer anthem for everyone. Sylvester was just, ‘Honey, I’m queer as fuck.’”

In line with Rawkson and Christianson’s overarching work, Still Mighty Real features up-and-coming artists, established artists, and people who just need a chance. They say Diana Adams, Vermillion’s owner, has been essential in making the goals of the gallery possible. Both curators describe Adams as “a pillar of the

Let Them Eat, dress by Jordan Christianson modeled by Adé Cônnére.

POCO: Mi Vida En Rosa (My Life in Pink) by Anouk Rawkson.

JORDAN CHRISTIANSON

KELLY O

community” and “a champion of the arts.” “We’ve worked with Diana for a long time” Christianson says. “We have a home with Diana. She trusts what we do, she trusts in our vision.” The curatorial team has valued that trust since grants and other arts funding has not always offered the same support. Christianson explains that after their struggles with applying for grants and being turned down, they said, “Well, fuck that, we’ll do it ourselves.”

The pair put a lot of their own finances into making the show happen. Other than selling their own artwork, they don’t take a cut. “To us, the payment is just having a creative outlet for other creatives,” Rawkson explains. “It’s worth it. Seeing an artist’s smile when their first piece sells at a queer show—that’s exciting to them and that’s exciting for us, too.” Christianson adds, “That’s why it’s so important to us to have this space for them to get that opportunity, and to have that chance. If they do, they’re going to want to come back next year even bigger and better because they’ve been emboldened with that confidence—that what they have to say is valid, and it matters.” Community support goes a long way, and they both underscored how meaningful it is to the artists, gallery owners, and curators when there is significant turnout at events.

Rawkson and Christianson also noted that Still Mighty Real expands past what you might expect. Rawkson points out that it’s not a “gay” show, it’s a “queer” show. “‘Gay’ more defines the typical West Hol -

Summer Glow

Longest Day: Solstice Celebration June 21

lywood, muscle-bound guy. Queer is such a big spectrum and it’s open to everyone who identifies as that.” The focus is also more on providing space to diverse, queer artists than on explicitly queer subject matter. “It’s art, but through a queer lens,” Christianson says. “You can read into it, but it is for everybody. It is experiences coming out on canvas, and our community happens to have some really crazy experiences trying to navigate this world, and even stay alive, you know?”

Still Mighty Real offers something very vital by showcasing a visual display of these perspectives and experiences at a time when they are being challenged on a larger scale. As Rawkson says, “ We need a sense of community and visibility, especially right now, because people are being forced to hide again, and we don’t need to hide anymore.” Christianson adds, “I hope it brings a sense of strength, a sense of confidence that I think is slowly being eroded. There’s also this assimilation happening with the idea that you can be queer anywhere now, but that’s not always the case. We still need a gayborhood. We still need community and spaces where that’s very visible, very upfront, and not looked down upon. I want people to not be ashamed to live their truth. Art is a great way to do that. You can still hide behind your art, but it’s your heart telling a story.”

Still Mighty Real runs June 5–29 at Vermillion Art Gallery with an opening reception June 12, 6 pm–9 pm. ■

Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng/ South Vietnam’s Golden Music Archive

July 3 - Aug. 9

Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building

July 3 - Aug. 9

This Could Be Us by Jordan Christianson.

JORDAN CHRISTIANSON

Hex Education

Post-Punk Weirdos Casual Hex Hold a Black Mirror to Society

with Zig Zag Lady Illusion II

BY NOLAN PARKER

Now split between Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma, Casual Hex return with new album Zig Zag Lady Illusion II (arriving June 13 via Youth Riot Records)—the politically charged sonic continuation of their first full-length.

The band has been quiet since the 2018 release of their weirdo post-punk monolith Zig Zag Lady Illusion , and—despite being one of Seattle’s best bands at the time— went dormant for years. That is until last month, when they surprise-released the psychedelic music video for “The System,” announcing Zig Zag Lady Illusion II

From the very beginning of their relationship, core band members Erica Miller (guitar) and Jessie Odell (bass) had plans to create music together. “Jessie and I have known each other since middle school. We had high school guitar class together and talked about moving to Portland to start a band,” explains Miller of her and Odell’s time growing up in Maryland.

Miller did end up in Portland post-high school, with Odell heading to Seattle. Convinced of their need to start a band, Miller was driving up and down the I-5 corridor until relocating to the Emerald City. The foundation was immediately laid for Casual Hex once Miller moved to Seattle in 2015. “I was introduced to [drummer] Nick Anderson the day I moved to Seattle. The three of us hung out at Cafe Presse, then jammed until four in the morning,” remembers Miller. “That was basically the inception of us playing music together; it was meant to be.” Anderson moved to New York and no longer plays with Casual Hex, though he was essential in getting the band to where it is today. “He played on the first album, and we did a European tour with him,” says Odell. “We miss him.” “It was really hard for us to find a new drummer that was a good fit,” laments Miller. “Me, Jessie, and Nick were best friends, hanging out constantly.”

Finding the right person to join a band, especially when the group is already an album deep, is like finding a drumstick in a haystack—it’s not easy, but when it happens, you lock in immediately. After playing with several drummers—including Anthony Beauchemin of J.R.C.G., and Fiona Moonchild, who played with Scott Yoder—Casual Hex enlisted Keegan Wilt-

shire into the band in January of this year. He and Odell also play in Seattle garage band the Nags; once the three were able to

The lyricism is unbelievably nuanced while remaining completely relatable to every person who isn’t a billionaire.

meet and jam together, it was a no-brainer asking Wiltshire to join Casual Hex permanently.

Between a rotating cast of drummers, Miller’s move back down to Portland, and the pandemic, a seven-year gap separating the band’s two full-lengths is understandable, perhaps even necessary. Zig Zag Lady Illusion II continues the band’s black-mirroring of society’s existential collapse. The absurdity of expectations placed upon individuals ranking lower in the currently resolidifying caste system, when those at the top need not worry about laws or the lives of other humans, is not lost on Casual Hex. Nowhere on the album is this more potently felt than on the opening track and first single, “The System.” Miller’s deadpan continually asks both the listener and the powers that be, “Can you tell us why it’s all a disguise?” The human answer here

is no, no one can say why world powers like the United States continually fund genocide around the globe when issues such as houselessness and gun violence in this country have become epidemics. The capitalistic answer to the question is money and power—trite desires that should pale in comparison to the need for building community and expanding social resources. That same line can also be read as Miller asking, “Can you tell us why?” and then immediately answering her own question: “It’s all a disguise.” The lyricism here is unbelievably nuanced while remaining completely relatable to every person who isn’t a billionaire.

“Samuel Joner II” shares a name with the “Samuel Joner” track on ZZLI —both are mid-album noise-psych freakouts akin to the more experimental Sonic Youth offerings of the mid-’90s. It acts as a palate cleanser between the two sides of the record. Not that the A and B sides are departures from one another; rather, the “Samuel Joner” tracks offer a moment without vocals for the listener to absorb and process.

Album favorite “Active Wire” heralds the beginning of Zig Zag Lady Illusion II’s second half with the frightening statement: “We found fear and our bodies were inside.” Are our bodies inside our own fears? Do we fear the Self to the point of alienation and isolation? These questions can’t immediately be answered by the collective, but must first be reckoned with by the individual—only then can we address and eventually live with our Selfs and the Selfs of others.

Noisy late-album meisterwerk “No A” sums up the album’s themes with deft precision when Miller repeats, “Power, control, and ammunition,” over the angular drones of guitar, bass, and percussion. Not conceptually dissimilar from Janet Jackson’s meteoric 1986 single “Control,” “No A” finds the band seeking emancipation from established and would-be systems of oppression—understanding and acknowledging what it means and will take to become completely autonomous. ■

Casual Hex play two Seattle release shows: June 12 at Sonic Boom Records and June 13 at Clock-Out Lounge. Zig Zag Lady Illusion II drops June 13 via Seattle’s Youth Riot Records.

VIC LUNA

Jessie Odell and Erica Miller and who we can only assume is the Zig Zag Lady.

Sweetness & Spice

Shikorina’s Fruity Pop-Tarts and Caramel Cookies Are Fueled by Community

BY JULIANNE BELL

Asign hanging above the door of Shikorina Bakeshop & Cafe greets guests with the welcoming message: “You deserve a sweet little treat.”

If you heed its siren call and enter, you’ll find yourself ensconced in a cozy queer oasis with lofty ceilings and a soothing lavender interior. Lesbian and gay pride flags are proudly displayed front and center, and a pastry case beckons with enticing treats like homemade Pop-Tarts, cookies, banana bread, brownies, pie, and whimsically decorated cakes. You might hear Chappell Roan or SZA playing in the background.

Shikorina owner and pastry chef Hana Yohannes first fell in love with baking as a kid via the Betty Crocker mixes her Eritrean mom used to use, which were always crowd-pleasers. But it wasn’t until 2019, when Yohannes found the community bakeshop the Pastry Project, that she learned how to create a range of baked goods from scratch. “My mom’s an amazing cook, but in our country, we traditionally don’t have any desserts, so we were pretty limited in terms of our skills there,” she says.

Yohannes was working in marketing for Seattle Children’s Hospital at the time, and the Pastry Project, which provides free baking and pastry training for individuals who would normally have barriers to employment in the industry, was searching for participants for the first cohort of its 12-week program. She signed up and soon became fascinated with the chemistry of baking, eagerly experimenting with different flavor profiles.

Just after she graduated, the pandemic hit. With nothing else to do, Yohannes used her newfound skills to bake cookies and cakes out of her apartment for friends and family, and word quickly spread. When she found a former home for rent in the Central District, she took a leap of faith and decided to open her own bakery. “There was just so much going on during the pandemic, it just felt like it was the right time to do something a little reckless and try something new,” she says. “I figured, any business owner can do everything right and you might still fail, you never know what’s going to happen. I kind of leaned on my community a lot and just went for it.” A successful GoFundMe campaign raised over $18,000, and thus Shikorina Pastries opened its doors in 2021. Appropriately, the word shikorina is a term of endearment meaning “sweetness” or “sweetheart” in Tigrinya.

The bakery moved to Capitol Hill and reopened as Shikorina Bakeshop & Cafe in 2024. Yohannes says the transition has been challenging due to the faster pace of the neighborhood and the fact that rent is three times higher than it was at the Central District location. She’s currently the only employee and works six days a week. “At our old location, I was very lucky to be able to just follow my passions and bake the things I wanted to bake and lead with my heart, and

“I’m just so incredibly lucky to own my own business, that’s not lost on me. It’s really a privilege.”

everything else would just fall into place,” Yohannes says. “But now I definitely have to be more business-minded to make things work.” This often means focusing on popular items like coffee and working on custom

cake orders to bring in extra income.

Despite hardships, Yohannes is grateful. “I’m just so incredibly lucky to own my own business, that’s not lost on me,” she says. “It’s really a privilege, especially to see all the regulars that I’ve gained here and all the wonderful people who come here and support me, so it’s definitely well worth it.”

Because the Pastry Project helped her get her start, Yohannes is committed to “sending the elevator back down” and hopes to pay it forward by employing and training new bakers in the future.

All of Shikorina’s ingredients are organic and/or locally sourced, as well as fair trade. Johannes employs organic fair-trade chocolate from the Bellingham bean-to-bar factory K’UL Chocolate, Washington-sourced flour from the Utah-based supplier Central Milling, berries from a farm in Yakima, and tea from Friday Afternoon in Wallingford.

True to her Betty Crocker mix roots, chocolate chunk cookies are still Yohannes’s favorite thing to make and eat. She has nostalgic memories of baking cookies with her siblings as a kid, and cookies were the first thing she learned

how to make at the Pastry Project. “I’m just in love with them,” she says. “I feel like I’m constantly tweaking the recipe, because I always feel like baking is never perfect, and I’m always trying to make them better.”

Pop-Tarts were another mainstay of Yohannes’s childhood, so she whips up her own gourmet versions based on another recipe she learned from the Pastry Project, with tender, flaky pastry and fillings like caramel apple, maple butter, and brown sugar cinnamon, plus a savory variation with beef and onions. Blueberry matcha and strawberry are especially popular.

One of Shikorina’s signature offerings, the berbere caramel cookie, came about when Yohannes wanted to pay homage to her Eritrean culture. Since Eritrean cuisine doesn’t traditionally include desserts, she tried baking with the savory spice blend berbere, which contains red pepper, ginger, garlic, and onion. The feisty mix makes for a slightly bitter, earthy flavor that’s the perfect foil for the fudgy ribbons of caramel encased in a chewy cookie.

Yohannes cultivates a sense of inclusivity at Shikorina by providing multiple menu items for those with allergies and dietary restrictions, including gluten-free, nut-free, and vegan options. Board games are available to provide entertainment. Eventually, she hopes to host community events, such as DJ nights, exhibitions from local artists, pop-ups from small local businesses, poetry nights, tea parties, and paint-and-sip classes.

Last year, Capitol Hill Block Party rented out the bakery to host performers, which resulted in the Midwest Princess herself, Chappell Roan, dropping by with her drag mother Sasha Colby. Unfortunately, Yohannes didn’t get to meet them, but as a fan, it was a surreal moment for her, and she heard that Roan loved the space. CHBP will use the shop again this year, so only time will tell which artists visit next.

The most fulfilling part of Yohannes’s journey has been building a relationship with her customers. She’s baked cakes for people’s birthdays multiple years in a row and gotten to witness kids grow up as she bakes cakes for their baby showers and first birthdays.

“Just getting to know people slowly, on a deeper level, every time I meet them, is so rewarding,” she says. “You start as strangers, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to see you again…Then eventually I know what you were doing last weekend, and I get to check in on that. I know exactly what your order is. Building those friendships is really nice.” ■

Hana Yohannes went from Betty Crocker mixes to berbere caramel cookies.

KAE-LIN WANG

Seattle Is a Bánh Mì City How Seattle Quietly Mastered a Humble Street-Food Staple

BY MICHAEL WONG

Seattle is decidedly a teriyaki city. Apparently, a pizza city. Trying to be a bagel city. Absolutely not a burger city. But somewhere along the way, without much fanfare, we also became a bánh mì city.

Not in the cute and ephemeral way where trends take over neighborhoods for a season.

I mean it in the throw-a-dart, four-solid-options-in-a-three-block-radius kind of way. From White Center to the CID and Little Saigon, from Georgetown to Othello and beyond, Seattle is flush with best-in-class bánh mì spanning the gamut from OG shops slanging fried-egg sandwiches in paper bags to new-age cafes introducing the form to new generations and demographics. Quietly. Casually. Almost like it snuck up on us. But nothing this good ever just happens.

Bánh Mì Origins

The first time I had a bánh mì was at Bobachine in Southcenter Mall, back when KB Toys and pay phones were in the food court. My mom and I split a grilled pork bánh mì with no jalapeños or cilantro, and despite those handicaps, the flavors still rocked my age-10 culinary worldview. I didn’t know mayo could do things like that, to be honest. I didn’t know I could rock with pâté. Ever since, I’ve chased the dragon of that first bite at nearly every bánh mì shop I’ve ever lived within five miles of. You don’t need a cultural studies degree to understand why it works. The French left the bread, crusty, and rigid, and the Vietnamese made it work for them. Pickles pack the punch. Cilantro and chilies add bite. Pâté softens the blow. The protein depends on what your mom could afford that week. Resourcefulness dressed up as a sandwich. And what’s wild is, it stuck.

Bánh mì has been silently stacking compound interest for decades in Seattle. In neighborhoods people forgot about. In bakeries that also sell lottery tickets. In shady pool halls. You want the best bánh mì in town? Ask someone who knows how to play Thirteen. That’s not nostalgia. That’s community. That’s infrastructure.

growing up, bánh mì was a luxury,” Khánh told me over a far-too-powerful Vietnamese coffee, “even at a dollar.” “We didn’t eat it all the time, but we wanted to.”

And some of the kids who grew up in that infrastructure? They’re running it now. Khánh Nguyễn, one of the owners of Saigon Drip Cafe in Pioneer Square, is one of them. He and his boys—Phú Đặng, Dara Ek, Thông Ksor—grew up in a subsidized neighborhood in Kent, literally raised on rice, plus whatever else their moms could stretch. They call themselves “welfare kids.” “Believe it or not,

Back then, getting a bánh mì was a treat for when someone’s mom had to go to City Hall or the bank or Viet Wah. And even now, with a business catering orders from Amazon and TikTok, and new locations opening soon, Khánh still talks about his post-church fried-egg sandwich from Saigon Deli like it was his first kiss.

“Biting into my first bánh mì trứng from Saigon Deli, I won’t ever forget it, and how the butter just fucking meshed with the pork. It’s probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever had.”

It’s an experience he’s been aiming to match at Saigon Drip ever since.

Respectfully Rebellious

Walk into Saigon Drip and it feels like the future of something—though it’s not clear whether that something is a bánh mì shop,

an event space, or a clubhouse for cool Asian kids who used to split sandwiches and now split rent in Capitol Hill.

The vibe is artsy, relaxed. A parked moped looks down on you from a high-up alcove, Cafe Du Monde tins act as intentional decor. There’s hip-hop playing, a subtle scent of phở broth in the air, and tablet menus with items called Piggylicious and Vegan Vortex. And behind the counter, guys who look like they could be your cousin, your weed plug, or your realtor. And in Khánh’s case, sometimes all three.

It’s fast (ask any office worker in Seattle with a 30-minute lunch hour). It’s delicious (even Yelpers agree). And it’s built with the kind of respectful rebellion that comes from both reverence and refusal—reverence for what bánh mì meant growing up, and refusal to just reheat the past. “Our parents had to chase cheap. We get to chase quality,” says Khánh. That’s evident in how they choose their bread, which comes from An Xuyen in SeaTac. Faced with a city full of bakers, the Saigon Drip boys carefully chose An Xuyen bread not just for taste, but also for its performance. “It passes the ultimate tests,” he told me with a sly smile. “We like how it behaves.”

Their most popular item, the Bánh Mì Drip, started as a stoned epiphany—Phú dunking a half-eaten sandwich into leftover broth. It’s now their flagship. Think French dip, but Vietnamese: a culinary reverse-colonialism-Uno card served hot in a sliced baguette. In these ways, Khánh and his fellow “welfare kids” aren’t creating the new version of your dad’s favorite shop. It’s your younger cousin’s version, cooler, louder, unapologetically theirs. But Saigon Drip isn’t trying to erase anything, either—they’re building on top. The first bite of a Bánh Mì Drip or Piggylicious sandwich shows you a shop that still knows where it came from.

The Quiet Architects

To fully understand Seattle’s bánh mì scene, we have to understand where it started. Take a look around the city and you’ll see it: Saigon Deli in the CID, with its dazzling table of room-temp Viet favorites and index card-amended menu prices. Tony’s Bakery & Deli near Othello, where you can grab a bánh mì, a tray of fried quails, and a birthday cake in one transaction. Tammy’s Deli & Bakery in Beacon Hill, still slanging sandwiches

MICHAE L WONG

faster than most Jimmy John’s to every demographic in the city. Or even Voi Cà Phê in Georgetown, serving rarities like sardine bánh mì for the real ones.

And then there’s Billiard Hoang: part pool hall, part restaurant, all legend. This is not a spot you stumble into. It’s a place you get put on to, either by a Vietnamese friend who really loves you, or one who wants to take your money on the felt. It’s on the edge of Rainier, a part of Seattle that feels forgotten, untouched, to its benefit. Left alone. Inside, you’ll find Vietnamese uncles playing cards and smoking cigarettes, sipping bún bò huế broth between inhalations. Pool tables hosting both very friendly and sometimes very contentious games of pool, commonly resolved with a cold-cut bánh mì with a Corona on the side. Say hi to Auntie Jannie Truong: smiling, joyous, and greeting every customer, every day.

to your family. “All the time, customers order dozens for their trip back home, even to Alaska,” Jannie says. “We don’t advertise. People just know. They always come back.”

“You want the best bánh mì in town? Ask someone who knows how to play Thirteen.”

And that’s the point. These shops never needed a marketing strategy. Bánh mì, when done right, is wordof-mouth food. The shops that make them have location memory. Flavor memory. Core memories. Places like Billiard Hoang, Saigon Deli, and every institution in between, have community cred you can’t buy or build overnight. The kind that feeds a city, including those on a budget. The kind that makes space for the next generation, and hands them the playbook wrapped in paper and a rubber band.

The OGs didn’t wait for permission. They just kept making lunch.

Conclusion

I’ve previously posited that Billiard Hoang, and spots like it, are the most Vietnamese places in the city. For both the stereotypes, which live their truths comfortably in these shops, and for the feelings of home they afford an immigrant community. The kind of places where you can relinquish double consciousness at the door, and just escape into a familiar meal with people who look, sound, and gamble like you.

And yes, if you haven’t guessed, their bánh mì are hall-of-fame worthy. It’s a sandwich that hits so hard, you gotta buy extras to bring home and prove it

These days, people think food culture is built in test kitchens and “for you” pages. But in Seattle, it’s created in bakeries with cash-only signs. In neighborhoods nobody is hyping. Between two halves of carefully selected baguettes. So, when you think of what kind of city Seattle is, in all its glory and its pitfalls, take a moment to appreciate the humble bánh mì. No viral trends. No branding think tanks. Just bread, meat, pâté, and tradition.

While Seattle didn’t invent bánh mì, if you know where to look, you’ll realize we’ve quietly mastered it. ■

IN YOUR AREA IN YOUR AREA

We do our best for accuracy, but please check venue websites for updates and more information, as event details may have changed since press time!

Housekeeping note: We have ceased to include pricing information, unless the event is free or sliding scale. (This is mostly due to third-party ticket vendors, like Ticketmaster, who have a monopoly on pricing that is not only unfair, but also confusing, due to varying fee structures. We hate them, and so should you.)

MUSIC

Clean Lines, Rotten Apples, Emi

Pop

JUNE 6

This show doubles as a benefit for the great Seattle drummer Kevin Fitzgerald, who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2021, and a record-release party for his band, glam-punk charmers Clean Lines. (Fitzgerald’s career as a powerful drummer includes stints with Circle Jerks, Geraldine Fibbers, and 400 Blows.) Screwdriver Bar co-owners Chris Jones and Maxwell Edison lamented that songs Clean Lines had cut before Fitzgerald’s stroke were languishing in limbo, so they formed the Screwdriver Records label to issue two of their best tunes as the “Love Boomerang”/”Rat Race” 45, which was manufactured at Third Man Pressing. The songs are instant earworms, chunky glam-rockers that slap with the amped-up bonhomie of prime T. Rex and Joan Jett. All proceeds from this gig and the single—which you can purchase at Screwdriver and at the BYC show—go toward aiding Fitzgerald’s ongoing recovery. Edison said, “This record embodies what Screwdriver is all about: art, music, friendship, love, community, and inspiration. We’re super excited to... help a fallen friend see his dreams, dedication, and creativity come to fruition.” (Belltown Yacht Club, 8 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

Zookraught, Sux, Mikey Moo

JUNE 6

Sux claim to be Seattle’s “tightest band,” but with songs like “I’ll Kick Your Ass” and “Matte Black Tesla,” (off their frenetic debut Shit City) or “Boner Killer” and “Party Girl” (off the follow-up scorcher, Suxcess), I’d say they’re also one of the toughest/funniest. Their shows are incendiary blasts of tightly-wound punk rock ’n roll and everyone in the band looks and dresses cool (which, yeah, I think is important, fight me). For fans of: early Misfits, arm wrestling, killer basslines, party wigs, chainsaws, irony, and boots-the-fuckinghouse-down guitar solos. Punk/dance trio Zookraught, queer psych-pop group Mikey Moo, and Seattle’s Only Bisexual DJ round out the bill. This show is also benefiting the Trans Justice Funding Project—an organization that is run by, and for, trans people. (Darrell’s Tavern, 8 pm, 21+) EMILY NOKES

Big Ass Boombox

JUNE 6–7

With most summer music festivals charging upwards of $200 for a weekend pass, it’s unimaginable that the Sunset Tavern’s locally focused music festival Big Ass Boombox is still completely free. The two-day, all-ages affair includes performances from Beautiful Freaks, Tongues, Anthers, Rat Queen, Pyramid Scream, Cat Valley, Chico Detour, Desert Sushi, OK Bucko, Pet Wussy, Shadow Pattern, Brat, and Dusty Suns. Plus, there will be two stages, one

indoors and one outdoors, to provide the true mini summer music festival experience. (Sunset Tavern, 6:30 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Laura Hickli, GLITT, Faunix

JUNE 11

How many Kate Bush disciples does it take to dance on the head of a music critic until said critic passes out? We may never know the answer to that important question. But Canadian singer-songwriter Laura Hickli is one of the more accomplished artists now operating in the slipstream of England’s longreigning, cloudbusting-est pop star. Hickli emerged

in 2022 with Both Feet in the World, at Least I Can Stand, on which piano and strings burgeon around her Bush-esque swoops and sincere-as-heaven emoting. With the brilliant new album, dark secrets, Hickli begins a trilogy about her trauma, grief, and recuperation from a near-fatal vehicular accident while on tour in 2023. She’s assembled a crack band that’s up to the challenge of augmenting her nuanced, powerful pipes and gently stormy arrangements. Although she’s obscure right now, Hickli’s manifesting arena-sized tunes that augur much bigger, stranger things. (Hidden Hall, 7 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

Cascadence 2025: Gong, Khu.éex, Rachel Flowers, Kathy Moore Super Power

JUNE 14

Formerly known as Seaprog, Cascadence is a showcase for progressive music of many strange stripes. The big headliner this year is Gong, an ensemble who attained underground notoriety in the ‘60s and ‘70s by creating some of the most cosmic and whimsical psych-/prog-/jazz-rock in the world. Founders Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth are long gone, as are all original Gongsters, so what we have is a Sun Ra Arkestra/ Tangerine Dream situation. But the Gong catalog abounds with astounding compositional feats; no matter who’s carrying the group’s torch (they’re currently fronted by ex-Cardiacs guitarist Kavus

Cat Valley

Big Ass Boombox, June 6–7, Sunset Tavern

RACHEL BENNETT

Torabi), we’re guaranteed a night of sonic dazzlement and surprises. Led by Tlingit bassist/vocalist Preston Singletary, Indigenous musical adventurers Khu.éex’ have been weirding up the PNW for a dozen years. Hip enough to have the late Bernie Worrell in their lineup for a spell, Khu.éex’ convey Great Native Northwest storytelling over a spacious, jazz-inflected funk of deep emotional heft. (Rainier Arts Center, various times, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Wild Powwers, Biblioteka, M.O.S.S.

JUNE 20

I typically roll my eyes all the way back into my head when femme-fronted rock bands are compared to Bikini Kill or Sleater-Kinney, but hear me out, Wild Powwers’ new album, Pop Hits & Total Bummers Vol. 5, legitimately belongs in the same sentence as the riot grrrl and post-riot grrrl bands. Lara Hilgemann and Lupe Flores’s overlapping vocals give the songs a welcome tension that is delightfully released when their vocals join in harmony. They will be joined by fellow garage-rock trio Biblioteka and the self-identified “twangy sludgy country slacker doom pop” band M.O.S.S. (Baba Yaga, 7 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Valerie June, Mick Flannery

JUNE 22

The cover for Valerie June’s latest album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, looks like an Instagram photo from 2011—washed-out filter and all. Coincidentally, the early 2010s is when June first began releasing music. The new album doesn’t just take aesthetic inspiration from her musical beginnings, but returns to her indie roots with a raw, gritty, rock-infused soul sound. What varies from her humble beginnings is the collaborations on the album—Norah Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama—dream guests for any jazz, blues, or soul artist. She will support the new album alongside Irish folk singer-songwriter Mick Flannery. (The Showbox, 7 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Jonathan Richman

JUNE 22–25

I first came under the spell of Jonathan Richman after seeing a clip from his performance of “Vampire Girl” on the Conan O’Brien show in 1993. Richman croons about intriguing goth girls with an almost child-like spirit, strumming his hollowbody electric guitar with a huge grin while shaking his hips and maintaining intense eye contact with the crowd. The result of this performance should be kind of fucked up, but it’s undeniably charming and refreshingly authentic. This “so wrong it’s right” contradiction is what makes Richman an enduring counter-culture icon and godfather of punk rock. Seriously, his music has influenced a long list of music legends, including Brian Eno, the Sex Pistols, Joan Jett, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop. The modern-day Buddy Holly, striped-shirt icon, Velvet Underground fanboy, man, myth, and legend, Jonathan Richman, is coming to the Tractor Tavern for five shows across four days alongside his trusty sidekick, drummer Tommy Larkins. (Tractor Tavern, times and age-ranges vary)

AUDREY VANN

Perfume Genius, Storefront Church

JUNE 26

Give me a big mood, big music, big art direction; by all means, take up space on the strength of an album cover alone. An uncannily strawberry-blond Mike Hadreas, in a crop top and low-rise jeans, strewn across the floor of a mysterious cabin? We needed this.

Zola Jesus

JUNE 17

If you’re familiar with the music of synth-pop queen Zola Jesus, then you know that an old church—complete with a gorgeous stained-glass window and arches higher than the heavens—is the ideal venue to see her. She will stop by the Abbey Arts’ newest venue, Woodlawn Hall, where she will perform acoustic skeletons of her experimental discography that spans electronic, industrial, classical, goth, and pop. With her otherworldly vocals reminiscent of Florence Welch, Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser, and Siouxsie Sioux, I foresee Jesus’s voice echoing beautifully around the large open space. This show is a must for fans of moody pop angels like Lorde and Ethel Cain. (Woodlawn Hall, 7 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

For Perfume Genius’s seventh album, Glory, Hadreas and company swerve towards a more driving rock sound, while keeping it very weird and very queer. The sweaty, fever-dreamlike videos for the singles, “It’s a Mirror” (featuring a leather-clad Hadreas riding a motorcycle,

getting a full facial of gasoline in a field, and so much more) and “No Front Teeth” (featuring Aldous

O.M.D. June 10–11, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Detroit Cobras, the Fucking Eagles, Chico Detour June 8, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Charlie Sexton June 12, Woodland Park Zoo

Star Anna, Drea & the Marilyns, Beclynn June 12, Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Marcus Miller June 12–15, Jazz Alley, all ages

They Might Be Giants June 13–15, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Lobby Sessions: Weep Wave June 13, the Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

Casual Hex w/Versing, SUX, Fine June 13, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+ (see preview pg. 64)

The Bad Things Vaudeville Show featuring the Bad Things, Chaotic Noise Marching Corps, Blackhearts Society, Leslie Rosen, J9 Fierce June 14, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Ashe, Bo Staloch June 16, Showbox, 7 pm, all ages

Chokecherry, Instant Crush, Swamp Wife June 17, Madame Lou’s, 8:30 pm, 21+

True Loves, Annie J June 18, Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, free, 21+

Spacehog, EMP June 18, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Panchiko, Tanukichan June 19, 7 pm, Showbox Sodo, all ages

OK Go, L.A. Exes June 20, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Oso Oso June 20, Vera Project, 7 pm, all ages

Karate, Cryogeyser June 20, Madame Lou’s, 6:30 pm, 21+

Beats Antique, Eggshells June 21, 9 pm, 21+

Small Paul album release, Møtrik, M.A. Sampson June 21, Tractor Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+

The Kooks, lovelytheband June 21, Showbox Sodo, 7 pm, all ages

Save Ferris, Mister Blank, College Radio June 21, Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Yola, MYXA June 21, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue June 23, Moore Theatre, 6:30 pm, all ages

Pixies June 23–24 Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Queer/Pride Festival 2025: Tinashe, Lil’ Kim, Rebecca Black, Countess Luann, Heidi Montag, and more June 27–29, Capitol Hill, various times, 21+

Halsey June 28, White River Amphitheatre, 7 pm, all ages

The Hoot Hoots, Stetson Heat Seeker, the Purrs June 28, Sunset Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Wu-Tang Forever June 28, Climate Pledge Arena, 8 pm, all ages

Harding in a psychotic waffle-making-and-eating scene, and so much more) were made by Cody Critcheloe, whose warped aesthetic, as always, sets the whole thing off. If the live show is bringing this same energy, in the words of a YouTube comment I read at 2 a.m. on the album teaser: “We’re about to witness the slay of the century.” (The Showbox, 8 pm, all ages) EMILY NOKES

More

Lobby Sessions: Tres Leches June 6, Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

TOKiMONSTA June 6–7 Neumos, 7 pm, all ages

The Minus 5, the Rubinoos June 7, Tractor Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+

The Golden Door: an American Immigrant Song Cycle June 8, 2 pm, Armory Stage at the Seattle Center, free, all ages

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Brandy Clark June 10, Benaroya Hall, 7 pm, all ages

Early Warnings

Washed Out (DJ Set) July 11, Nectar Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Silversun Pickups July 13, Pier 62, 5 pm, all ages

Macy Gray: ‘On How Life Is’ 25th Anniversary Tour July 15, The Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

Capitol Hill Block Party July 18–20, Capitol Hill, 21+

Maseo July 19, Remlinger Farms, 6 pm, all ages

Of Montreal: The Sunlandic Twins 20th Anniversary Tour, Bijoux Cone July 22, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+

Devo July 23–24, Woodland Park Zoo, 6 pm, all ages

Cap’n Jazz July 25, Neumos, 8 pm, 21+

Timber! Outdoor Music Festival July 24–26, Tolt-Macdonald Park

Coral Grief, TV Star, New Issue July 26, Tractor, 7:30 pm, 21+

Sophie B. Hawkins July 26, Triple Door, all ages Iggy Pop July 28, Marymoor Park

Some Velvet Sidewalk July 31, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

VIVIEN KILLILEA/GETTY IMAGES

Jonathan Richman

Tractor Tavern

RICHMAN

Death Cab for Cutie: Plans 20th Anniversary June 31 and Aug 2, Climate Pledge Arena, 8 pm, all ages

Pickathon July 31–Aug 3, Happy Valley, OR Mekons Aug 2, Tractor, 8:30 pm, 21+

THING Fest Aug 2, Aug 9, Aug 16, Aug 23, Remlinger Farms

Less Than Jake, Fishbone, the Suicide Machines, Catbite Aug 5, Showbox Sodo, 7 pm, all ages

Colleen Green, Rozwell Kid Aug 6, Vera Project, 7 pm, all ages

Heart Aug 8, Gorge Amphitheatre, 8 pm, all ages

Lady Gaga Aug 6-7, Climate Pledge, 8 pm, all ages

LCD Soundsystem, TV on the Radio Aug 7–8, Remlinger Farms, 6 pm, all ages

Dinosaur Jr., Snail Mail, Easy Action Aug 8, Chateau Ste. Michelle, 6:30 pm, all ages

Lucy Dacus, Julia Jacklin Aug 10, Remlinger Farms, 6:30 pm, all ages

Alabama Shakes Aug 16, Climate Pledge Arena, 7 pm, all ages

The Lumineers Aug 16, T-Mobile Park, 8 pm, all ages

L7 and Bratmobile South Sound Block Party August 22-23, the Port of Olympia, all ages

Hunx and His Punx Aug 26, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+

Stardew Valley: Symphony of Seasons Aug 29–31, Benaroya Hall, various times, all ages

Bumbershoot 2025: Arts and Music Festival Aug 30–31, Seattle Center, all ages

Wet Leg, Mary in the Junkyard Sept 1–2, Paramount Theatre, 6:30 pm, all ages

Japanese Breakfast, Ginger Root Sept 2–3, Woodland Park Zoo

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts: Love Earth Sep 5, Gorge Amphitheatre, 7:30 pm, all ages

Osees Sep 5–6, Nuemos, times and age-ranges vary

W.I.T.C.H. Sep 8, Tractor, 7 pm, 21+

Viagra Boys Sep 12–13, Showbox SoDo, all ages

The Psychedelic Furs, Gary Numan Sep 13, the Showbox, 8 pm, 21+

Anthony White

EVERY TUESDAY–SATURDAY, THROUGH JUNE 28

From the end of May to the end of June, the Greg Kucera Gallery will exhibit the art of Seattle-based queer Black artist and curator Anthony White. Painting with glossy and textural polylactic acid, White crafts unique still lifes and portraits that combine cultural critique, nostalgia, and humor, that aim to disrupt, he explains, “hierarchies of status and wealth by placing seemingly trivial, low-brow accoutrements in palatial and referential environments.” Some of the things you can expect to see in his paintings are Silly String, Flintstones vitamins, Bratz dolls, Smucker’s Uncrustables, and credit card company logos, all in an I Spy-style arrangement. (P.S. Galleries are basically just art museums with no admission, so don’t feel like you have to be Mr. Monopoly to step inside.)

(Greg Kucera Gallery, free) AUDREY VANN

HAIM, Dora Jar Sep 18, WAMU Theater, 7:30 pm, all ages

Grandaddy Sep 18, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Princess Nokia & Big Freedia Sep 27, Pier 62, 6:30 pm, all ages

Pup, Jeff Rosentock, Ekko Astral Oct 7, Showbox Sodo, 7:30 pm, all ages

Garbage, Starcrawler Oct 15, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Destroyer: Dan’s Boogie Tour Oct 25, The Crocodile, 5 pm, 21+

Shonen Knife, the Pack A.D. Oct 25, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Freakout Festival: Melt-Banana, Liz Cooper, Wine Lips, and more Nov 6–9, various locations, 21+

Belly: 30th Anniversary of King Nov 9, The Crocodile, 6 pm, 21+

The Mountain Goats Dec 3–4, Neptune Theatre, all ages

VISUAL ART

Artists Doing: Nothing

JUNE 7

Love this premise: a group of artists across disciplines show up at 9 a.m. and work together on a “festival of performance” that they’ll be putting on at 8 p.m. the same day. Artists will include Jéhan Òsanyìn, Timothy White Eagle, Alyza DelPan-Monley, and Adrienne Mackey, and the theme is doing nothing, as in: “slow attention, and unplugging from algorithms.” This happening is put on by the Feast, a local theater company that “prizes virtuosic artists working in extremes; pays those artists really well; and builds maximalist, collectivist, welcoming events.” Communications Director Jesse Roth says, “Facebook and Instagram are making money off our attention and supporting fascist policies. People say these platforms are essential for succeeding in the arts, but we don’t think that’s true. We want to divest our time, money, and attention from these algorithms and draw focus back to community: sharing space together, in real life.” Preach! (Actualize Art Space, 8 pm) EMILY NOKES

Passing On: Carmen Winant

EVERY THURSDAY–SUNDAY, THROUGH SEPTEMBER 25

In this focused collection of collage works, Columbus-based artist Carmen Winant places a trove of newspaper obituaries of feminist activists and organizers alongside her exhaustive annotations to “reflect on a lineage of non-biological inheritance and how language shapes memory and history.” Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to absorb each piece, and don’t forget your reading glasses! Winant’s work is meticulously detailed and deserves a close eye. (Henry Art Gallery) AUDREY VANN

Pride: The Ric Weiland Collection

EVERY DAY FROM JUNE 14–OCTOBER 5

If you didn’t know already, Ric Weiland was a software developer and programmer who was hired as the second employee for a little company called Microsoft. Given his early involvement at the tech giant, Weiland was able to retire at the young age of 35 to dedicate his life to philanthropy and LGBTQ advocacy. Sadly, Weiland died at just 53, but his legacy lives on through the $65 million he left to queer rights organizations (such as the Pride Foundation). The MOHAI will honor Pride Month with a smallscale exhibit of photographs, letters, ephemera, and artifacts from Weiland’s estate that reflect his enduring fight for equality. While you’re there, be sure to check out the Collections Spotlight: Denim, which showcases artifacts from the MOHAI collection that

Hugh Hayden: American Vernacular

EVERY WEDNESDAY–SUNDAY FROM JUNE 28–SEPTEMBER 28

On his first solo museum exhibit on the West Coast, New York-based artist Hugh Hayden will display his whimsical sculptures that range from cherry bark-coated stilettos, meticulously carved wooden rib cages, and anthropomorphized pots and pans plated in 24-karat gold. Hayden tackles themes of athletics, food, fashion, and childhood to reveal how life’s mundane objects can reflect the values and tensions of modern society. ( Frye Art Museum, free ) AUDREY VANN

More

Hannah Flowers: Two Moons in a Violet Sky Through June 7, Roq La Rue, free

Anne-Karin Furunes: Illuminating Nordic Archives Through June 8, National Nordic Museum

Figure It Out: Queer Figure Drawing June 10 (and every second Tuesday of the month), Vermillion, 6 pm

Fringe Practice: Alternative Methods in Photography Through June 12, Photographic Center Northwest 2025 Hi-Fructose Invitational June 13–Aug 2, Roq La Rue, free

Belltown Art Walk June 13 (second Friday of every month), various locations, free

Chase the Light: Pop-Up Exhibition & Print Sale June 21, Photographic Center Northwest, free Dawn Cerny: Portmeirion Through June 22, Frye Art Museum

Romson Regarde Bustillo: To Remember or Forget Through June 25, J. Rinehart Gallery, free

FriendsWithYou: Little Cloud Sky Opens June 27, Seattle Art Museum

Hugh Hayden: American Vernacular June 28–Sept 28, Frye Art Museum, free

WoP: Hibiki Miyazaki, Vander McClain, Stas Orlovski, Julie Liger Belair Through July 6, AMcE Creative Arts, free

Suchitra Mattai: she walked in reverse and found their songs Through July 20, Seattle Asian Art Museum, sliding scale

Josh Faught: Sanctuary Through Aug 3, Henry Art Gallery

Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei Through Sep 7, Seattle Art Museum

Carmen Winant: Passing On Through Sept 25, Henry Art Gallery, Thurs–Sun, suggested donation

Boren Banner Series: Tarrah Krajnak Through Oct 5, Frye Art Museum

Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form Through Jan 4, 2026, MoPOP

Tariqa Waters: Venus Is Missing Through Jan 5, 2026, Seattle Art Museum, Wed–Sun

Ten Thousand Things Through Spring 2027, Wing Luke Museum

tell the history of your ol’ blue jeans. (Museum of History & Industry) AUDREY VANN

COURTESY OF GREG KUCERA GALLERY

COURTESY OF FRYE ART MUSEUM

Hugh Hayden Frye Art Museum

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) Through May 17, 2027, Olympic Sculpture Park, free

Cable Griffith: Return to Sender June 28–July 26, J. Rinehart Gallery, free

Early Warnings

Who’s Offended: Solo Show by Ezra Dickinson July 11-Aug 2, Base Camp Studios 2

Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled July 12, Frye Art Museum, free

Seattle Art Fair July 17–20, Lumen Field Event Center Spirit House June 26–Jan 11, 2026, Henry Art Gallery, free

Kameelah Janan Rasheed Aug 23–April 26, 2026, Henry Art Gallery, free

LITERATURE

Author Talk: Casey Johnston, ‘A Physical Education’

JUNE 4

In the age of Ozempic and rampant misinformation promoted by the likes of RFK Jr., we are living in a dangerously regressive time when it comes to wellness and body image, but voices like Casey Johnston’s might just be the antidote we need. I’ve followed Johnston, a cultural critic and veteran weightlifter, since she was writing the column “Ask a Swole Person” for the site The Hairpin (RIP), which led me to her “couch-to-barbell” fitness program LIFTOFF and her newsletter She’s a Beast. In her new memoir, A Physical Education, Johnston shares how her weightlifting journey empowered her and helped her to escape the nefarious clutches of diet culture. You don’t need to be a protein-shake-swilling gym rat to

be interested in her story, either: As one Vanity Fair writer put it, “This book is about exercise in the way that Friday Night Lights is about football.” Johnston will be joined in conversation by Cat Bohannon, author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. (Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free) JULIANNE BELL

Author Talk: Susan Choi, ‘Flashlight’

JUNE 7

You might be familiar with author Susan Choi from her critically acclaimed bildungsroman Trust Exercise, which received the National Book Award in 2019. She returns with her latest novel, Flashlight which began as a 2020 short story in the New Yorker and examines the traumatic fallout that occurs when 10-year-old Louisa’s father mysteriously disappears after a walk on the beach. This heartrending disaster splits Louisa’s family wide open, revealing long-hidden secrets and faded memories, juxtaposed with the fraught geopolitical conflict between Korea and Japan. Choi will discuss her work with novelist and Yale Emeritus Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures John Whittier Treat. (The Wyncote NW Forum, 7:30 pm) JULIANNE BELL

Author Talk: Caroline Fraser, ‘Why So Many Crimes Came from the Northwest’

JUNE 12

If you’re anything like me and like to unwind at the end of a long day with horrific true crime documentaries while rereading the JonBenét Ramsey Wikipedia page, then consider spending your Thursday evening learning about why so many crimes happen in our neck of the woods. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser will talk about her new book Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers which maps the lives of infamous murderers like Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalker, and the Hillside Strangler. Fraser took her research across the Northwest, looking for evidence that the emissions from lead, copper, and arsenic smelters may have sickened and warped the young minds of these criminals. (The Wyncote NW Forum, 7:30 pm) AUDREY VANN

Author Talk: Melissa Febos, ‘The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex’

JUNE 14

Melissa Febos’s last two books, Girlhood and Body Work, should be required reading for all. Her essays and memoirs provide a masterclass in radical vulnerability while putting words to bottled-up, patriarchy-fueled anger. Febos will stop by Elliott Bay Book Company for a conversation with fellow author Claire Dederer about her new memoir, The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex. The memoir chronicles her year of celibacy, not out of moral superiority or religious shame, but out of a desire to break the “daisy chain of romances” and carve out time for herself. The result is an ode to solitude, freedom, and feminist creatives like Hildegard von Bingen, Virginia Woolf, and Octavia Butler. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free) AUDREY VANN

More

Wendy Elisheva Somerson (Wes) with Ijeoma Oluo June 10, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm, free

Jeff Weiss with Martin Douglas and Lindy West, June 11, Third Place Books, Ravenna, 7 pm, free Daniel Tam-Claiborne with Anne Liu Kellor June 17, Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm, free (see preview pg. 57)

Mai Der Vang with Jane Wong June 18, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Susan Choi June 7, The Wyncote NW Forum

Casey Johnston June 4, Third Place Books

PAUL MYERS

ELENA MUDD

BANTER with William Shatner & Neil deGrasse

Tyson June 18, McCaw Hall, 7:30 pm

Daniel Brook June 23, The Wyncote NW Forum, 7:30 pm

Jayson Greene with Claire Dederer June 23, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Michelle Yang with Ellen Forney June 24, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

Matt Baume: What’s So Gay About Frasier? June 24, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm

Shannon Watts and Brooke Baldwin June 27, Town Hall, 7:30 pm

Lisa Jewell with Andrea Dunlop June 28, Town Hall, 2 pm

Early Warnings

Chuck Tingle Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

R.F. Kuang Sept 12, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

David Sedaris Nov 16, Benaroya Hall, 7 pm

W. Kamau Bell: Who’s With Me?

JUNE 27

With fascists hubristically trying to crowbar their way into permanent power in America and to (re)institutionalize racism, politically incisive humorists such as W. Kamau Bell are more crucial than ever. The stand-up comic/TV host/ podcaster has been a witty force for progressive ideas over the last 20 years. In that time, he’s been delivering trenchant leftist jabs to racism and hypocrisy in their myriad forms via such vehicles as the Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell television show, the CNN documentary United Shades of America, and the Politically Re-Active podcast with Hari Kondabolu. Bell also dissected the life and work of disgraced comedic icon Bill Cosby in the TV series We Need to Talk About Cosby. And let’s not overlook his funny observations about the challenges of raising mixed-race children and the frustrations of being mistaken for Questlove. (Neptune Theatre, 7:30 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

PERFORMANCE

Ira Glass

JUNE 7

You might know him as the creator, producer, and host of This American Life, but I will always know Ira Glass as the sexiest voice in radio. I’ve been in love with his disembodied voice ever since I found the NPR station on my portable radio headset in second grade. Now, the man attached to the voice is randomly stopping by Tacoma this month with his touring lecture, Seven Things I’ve Learned. Using audio clips, music, and video, Glass will share lessons, failures, successes, and inspiration from his career to give the audience a peek inside his creative process. (Pantages Theater, 7:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Black Trans Comedy Showcase with TS Madison

JUNE 14

If you own one of those trendy “Protect The Dolls” shirts, then you better be putting your money where your T-shirt slogan is. The Lavender Rights Project’s 4th annual Black Trans Comedy Showcase is a great place to start, with ticket sales directly funding the ongoing work to “decriminalize our people, protect Trans youth, and ensure that Black Trans communities across Washington State have access to safety, dignity, and opportunity.” Plus, you’re also supporting four amazing local comedians and getting some deep belly laughs out of the deal. Actress, performer, reality TV star, and RuPaul’s Drag Race judge TS Madison will host the evening of comedy sets from Mx. Dahlia Belle, Pink Foxx, and Ariyah Jané. There will also be a performance from neo-soul artist JusMoni. (Location provided with ticket purchase, 5:30 pm) AUDREY VANN

‘The Effect’

JUNE 19–JULY 13

Emmy Award-winning British playwright and producer Lucy Prebble, who is behind the TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl and I Hate Suzie and also happened to work as a writer on a little show called Succession, wrote the 2012 play The Effect, a clever Black Mirror-esque, sci-fi, romantic thriller. The story features two young volunteers, Connie and Tristan, who participate in a clinical drug trial for a potent new antidepressant and fall in love, but are uncertain whether their budding romance is natural or simply a side effect of the medication. The New York Times selected the play’s 2024 revival at The Shed as a Critic’s Pick, calling it “heady and scintillating” and “cosmic and atomically intimate,” so seize the chance to see this exhilarating production. ( vary) JULIANNE BELL

‘The Grown-Ups’

JUNE 20–JULY 27

I am a sucker for a good summer camp story, so I fell hook, line, and sinker for the concept for the immersive dark comedy The Grown-Ups by Skylar Fox and Simon Henriques: Five counselors gather around the fire late at night and are determined to maintain a positive experience for their young campers, despite a mysterious, lurking threat growing ever closer. The apocalyptic play was originally staged for a tiny audience around a real campfire in a backyard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and rapidly sold out, prompting New York to call it “the coolest new play you probably can’t see.” Now, the local theater company Dacha is putting on a production of their own, set amidst various parks and secret pop-up locations in the Puget Sound area with “real-fire and theatrical-fire options.” Bring your own blanket

Ms. Pak Man: On Another Level

JUNE 6

Ms. Pak Man brings everything I love about the iconic girly yellow circle to life: the clickity-clack of her high heels, giant pink bow, obsession with fruit, and absolutely xanned-out personality. (Did you know that the power pellets she’s always munching on are actually pills?) The local drag diva will take her theatrical cabaret show to the “next level” with an evening of singing, dancing, and comedy. Anyone by the name of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, or Sue will not be allowed on the premises.

(The Triple Door, 7 & 9:30 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

5th Avenue Theatre, various times, all ages

Joketellers Union with Taylor Clark June 11, ClockOut Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

NW New Works Festival 2025 June 12–14, On the Boards, various times

Ramy Youssef: Love Beam 7000 June 14, Moore Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Daddy Issues: Billie Manton, Jason Katz, Kylee Ann, Alexa Hansen, Laura Lyons, and Chandler Noble Hatch June 14, Here-After, 6 pm, 21+

TUSH with Betty Wetter June 19, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

Alex Edelman: What Are You Going to Do? June 19, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm, all ages

Mama Tits “Scandalous” June 26, Triple Door, 7:30 pm, all ages

Kevin Nealon June 26–28, Emerald City Comedy Club, various times, 21+

Early Warnings

Solomon Georgio Jul 12, Here-After, various times, 6 pm, 21+

The Vanishing Seattle Variety Show Jul 16, Here-After, 21+

Kate Berlant July 25, Neptune Theater, 7 pm, all ages

Ron Funches July 25–27, Emerald City Comedy Club, 21+

Chris Fleming July 27, various times, all ages & Juliet July 29–Aug 3, Paramount Theatre, various times, all ages

Bridget Everett and the Tender Moments Aug 3, Moore Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

After Midnight Aug 5–Aug 24, 5th Avenue Theatre, various times, all ages

Steve Martin & Martin Short Aug 22–23, Paramount Theatre, various times, all ages

A Play That Goes Wrong Aug 28–Sept 28, Seattle Rep, various times, all ages

Taylor Tomlinson Sep 5–7, McCaw Hall, various times, all ages

Fancy Dancer Sept 18–Nov 2, Seattle Rep, various times, all ages

Nikki Glaser Sept 12–13, McCaw Hall, 7 pm, all ages

Suffs Sept 13–27, 5th Avenue Theatre, various times, all ages

An Enemy of the People Sept 20–Oct 5, ACT, various times, all ages

Shrew Oct 18–Nov 2, ACT, various times, all ages

Chicago Oct 22–Nov 2, 5th Avenue Theatre, various times, all ages

Nate Bargatze Nov 6, Climate Pledge Arena

and/or camp chair, and don’t forget the s’mores. Various locations, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

Always… Patsy Cline May 14–June 14, Taproot Theatre, various times, all ages May 16–June 8, Seattle

Public Theater, various times, all ages

Duel Reality May 29–June 22, Bagley Wright Theater, various times, all ages

The Dollop Podcast Live June 6, Neptune Theatre, 6:30 pm, all ages

Paula Poundstone June 6, Pantages Theater (Tacoma), 7:30 pm, all ages

Varietopia with Paul F. Tompkins June 7, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Mamma Mia! June 10–15, the Paramount, various times, all

Bye Bye Birdie June 10–June 29,

FILM

Unstreamable: ‘Pink Flamingos’

JUNE 26

In their popular Unstreamable series, The Stranger’s former staff writer Jas Keimig and former editor Chase Burns champion the “films that slip through streaming’s cracks,” and the infamous “Sultan of Sleaze” John Waters’s trash-tastic magnum opus Pink Flamingos is perhaps one of the most notable of these omissions to ever exist. Starring the legendary drag queen and frequent Waters collaborator Divine as the “filthiest person alive,” the transgressive NC-17 film is a nonstop parade of one shockingly taboo act after another, culminating in an unforgettable dog-feces-eating scene (“the real thing,” as Waters helpfully clarifies via voiceover). Don’t pass up this rare opportunity to glimpse the “most joyfully deranged celebration of bad taste ever committed to celluloid” on the big screen. (SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7 pm) JULIANNE BELL

KELLY O

‘Materialists’

OPENS JUNE 12

Who says the rom-com is dead? Not if Celine Song can help it: The writer and director of 2023’s poignant Past Lives is back with her highly anticipated sophomore feature, Materialists. Shot on 35mm film, the film stars the world’s most notorious lime fan, Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a New York City matchmaker who finds herself torn between wealthy, handsome “unicorn” bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal) and her equally handsome and charming but penniless ex John (Chris Evans). (We’ve all been there before—am I right, ladies?!?) Interestingly, this marks the third MMF love triangle that Song and her husband (Challengers screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes) have put out in the last two years—are they trying to tell us something? (SIFF Cinema Uptown, times vary) JULIANNE BELL

Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers

JUNE 13 & 16

If you are a fan of any of the following, then Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers is a must-watch for you: the early films of John Waters, vanilla ice-cream cones, ostrich-feather boas, and Buster Keaton-style physical comedy. Robert J. Kaplan (whose only other directorial credit is the pornographic Jaws spoof Gums) directs this long-lost camp masterpiece starring Warhol superstar and transgender icon Holly Woodlawn as she flees her boring Kansas upbringing to make it as an actress in New York City. Along the way, she meets an eccentric cast of characters, including a sailor-mouthed nun, misandrist twin sisters, and a revered lounge singer named Mary Poppins (played by fellow Warhol superstar Tally Brown). I am so pleased to see this film receive a snazzy restoration and a proper theater screening—I predict a Criterion release is on the horizon. (The Beacon, 7 & 7:30 pm) AUDREY VANN

‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘Before Sunset’ double feature

JUNE 16

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset can please the pickiest of movie watchers. From rom-com fanatics to Criterion Collection snobs, it is scientifically impossible to hate these movies. Part of this is because of Richard Linklater’s mastery of making films that are smart but not pretentious, romantic but not cheesy, and artsy but still entertaining. And Ethan Hawke and Julie Delphy’s performances will make any viewer fall in love with them by the first film’s end. Sit back and enjoy nearly three-and-a-half hours of gorgeous Vienna sunsets, heart-fluttering chemistry, and two excellent soundtracks. In my opinion, this is the perfect date night. (Northwest Film Forum, 6:30 pm) AUDREY VANN

More

To Live Is To Dream: A Northwest Tribute To David Lynch Through August 10, multiple locations

Cross-Faded Cinema with DJ Nicfit June 4, Here-After, 7 pm

The Phoenician Scheme Opens June 5, wide release, various times

Hackers: 30th Hack-the-Planet-@versary June 7-11, Central Cinema, various times

Collide-O-Scope: Pride Edition June 9, Here-After, 7 pm

Raiders of the Lost Ark June 13-16, Central Cinema, various times

High Fidelity with John Cusack June 14, Pantages Theater, Tacoma, 7:30 pm

They Call Her Death Opens June 14, SIFF Film Center, various times

Hundreds of Beavers June 25, Central Cinema

Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Special Musical Guests June 15, Here-After, 8 pm, free

Barbie the Movie: In Concert with the Seattle Symphony June 27–28, Benaroya Hall, various times

Early Warnings

Good Garbage: Deep Blue Sea July 9, Here-After, 6 pm, 21+

The Sandlot Special Event with the Cast July 11, Neptune Theatre, 7 pm

DreamWorks Animation in Concert July 11–12, Benaroya Hall, various times

Mourning Sickness with Miss Monday Mourning: Barbie July 20, Northwest Film Forum, 8 pm

Koyaanisqatsi: Live with Philip Glass Ensemble July 22, Benaroya Hall, 8 pm, all ages

Movies at the Mural Every Friday, July 25–August 22, Mural Amphitheatre, 9 pm

The Rocky Horror Picture Show—50th Anniversary Oct 28, Paramount Theatre, 7:30 pm

FOOD

Author Talk: Adam Roberts, ‘Food Person’

JUNE 9

Have you ever wished for a version of Hacks or The Devil Wears Prada set in the culinary world? Then have I got the book for you: In his debut novel Food Person, writer Adam Roberts (whose website The Amateur Gourmet was one of the early golden-era food blogs) introduces us to young gourmand Isabella Pasternack, who is fired from her job at a digital food mag after a livestreamed soufflé demo gone awry, and must take a job ghostwriting a cookbook for the former teen TV starlet Molly Babcock. At first, Isabella and Molly, who is trying to rehabilitate her image

Author Talk: Gaz Oakley, ‘Plant to Plate’

JUNE 12

As so many of us fantasize about doing, Cardiff-born vegan chef Gaz Oakley left behind his stressful urban life in London four years ago to move to an idyllic farmstead in the Welsh countryside. There, he reconnected with nature and the seasons, discovered self-sufficiency by growing his own food, and fell in love with the slower pace of rural living. Today, Gaz shares his bucolic existence with 1.78 million subscribers on YouTube, where he demonstrates how to make simple meals from his cozy sunlit kitchen and gives gardening tips—while speaking in his soothing accent. His debut cookbook Plant to Plate contains 100 “delicious and versatile” plant-based recipes, from strawberry lavender Welsh cakes to stuffed harissa onions. He’ll drop by Book Larder for a recipe demo, author talk, and book signing. (Book Larder, 6:30 pm–8 pm) JULIANNE BELL

Jon Kung June 26, Book Larder

post-scandal and is indifferent about food, butt heads, but over time, they slowly realize they have more in common than expected. Who doesn’t love a good slow-burn enemies-to-friends plot? (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free)

JULIANNE BELL

Author Signing: Jon Kung, ‘Kung Food’

JUNE 26

Chinese American chef and self-described “third-culture kid” Jon Kung switched career paths after graduating from law school to pursue his love of cooking and ended up launching the popular pop-up Kung Food Market/Studio. When COVID shut down public dining, he turned to social media and gained a loyal following via his playful and educational food videos, as well as 1 For The Table, the podcast he cohosts with famed drag queen Kim Chi. Now he’s coming to Book Larder to celebrate his debut cookbook, Kung Food, which is packed with so many things I would like to eat immediately, such as dan dan lasagna, buffalo chicken rangoons, Hong Kong chicken and waffles, sesame shrimp toast, and curried mac and cheese. (Book Larder, 12:30–2 pm) JULIANNE BELL

Gobble Up SLU

JUNE 28

The indie craft show Urban Craft Rising first launched their annual specialty food show Gobble Up during the winter holiday season, but there’s no reason that an array of tasty small-batch products should be relegated to the wintertime, so they’ve added this summer edition with more than 80 small businesses and food trucks, offering everything from New Zealand-style “real fruit” soft serve to Argentinian empanadas. Your loved ones will surely appreciate gifts like hand-thrown pottery, Twin Peaks-inspired earrings, and floral watercolor paintings—or just treat yourself to something special. (Lake Union Park, 10 am–5 pm) JULIANNE BELL

More

Ballard Farmers Market Every Sunday, Ballard Ave, 9 am–noon, free

Capitol Hill Farmers Market Every Sunday, E Denny Way and Nagle Pl, 11 am–3 pm, free West Seattle Farmers Market Every Sunday, Alaska Junction, 10 am–2 pm, free Fremont Sunday Market Every Sunday, Evanston Ave N and N 34th St, 10 am–4 pm, free

My Dinner with SAM: Renee Erickson June 5, Olympic Sculpture Park, 6:30 pm

Panda Fest June 6–8, Fisher Pavilion

Author Talk: Dr. Jessica B. Harris with Kristi Brown, Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine June 19, The Great Hall, 7:30 pm

Seattle Pride Bar Crawl June 21, Ozzies, 4 pm Pastry Project’s Soft Serve Window Opens June 26, the Pastry Project, 3 pm

Jollof Festival June 28, Wa Na Wari, 2 pm

COURTESY OF GAZ OAKLEY

JON KOPALOFF/GETTY IMAGES

Early Warnings

Seattle Red White and Brew Bar Crawl July 4, Ozzie’s, 4 pm

Ballard Seafood Fest July 11–13, Downtown Ballard Bite of Seattle July 25–27, Seattle Center

Samin Nosrat Oct 14, Benaroya Hall

THIS &THAT

Fiber Fusion Northwest

JUNE 7–8

Whether you are an expert knitter who regularly whips up intricate Fair Isle cardigans or have never touched a needle or crochet hook in your life, this Monroe festival dedicated to fiber arts promises plenty of entertainment. I’m excited to see 2025’s featured sheep breed, the adorable Shetland, but rest assured there will be lots of other fuzzy, fiber-producing animals present, including alpacas, goats, and Angora rabbits. Admire beautiful fiber arts show entries, participate in raffles, check out food and drink vendors, and watch live demos on spinning, weaving, felting, knitting, sheep milking, and more. (Evergreen State Fairgrounds, 9 am–6 pm on June 7; 9 am–5 pm on June 8, free) JULIANNE BELL

Burien Strawberry Festival

JUNE 14

It’s time to give Burien some love! The nearby suburban city isn’t just where the good thrift stores are, it’s also the home of culinary delicacies like Stevie’s Famous Pizza, Lowrider Cookie Company, and La Costa Mexican fare. Plus, their Trader Joe’s has an actual parking lot Hit up all the beloved Burien staples while you head into town for the annual Strawberry Festival. The long-standing tradition kicks off summer with a weekend of strawberry-flavored treats, local artisan booths, live music, kids’ activities, and a classic car show for Father’s Day. (Downtown Burien, 10 am, free) AUDREY VANN

Juneteenth at NAAM: A Movement for Joy

JUNE 19

In the words of Frederick Douglass, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” Head to the Northwest African American Museum for this Juneteenth celebration, which commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States with a powerful party. You can bust a move at a family-friendly, all-day skate sesh, but if life on wheels isn’t your thing, don’t worry—shop Black-owned vendors, try out arts and crafts activities, or grab a bite from “soulful” food trucks instead. (Northwest African American Museum, 10 am–5 pm, free, all ages) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Fiber Fusion Northwest June 7–8, Evergreen State Fairgrounds

Summer Bonsai Solstice

JUNE 25

The summer solstice is just one of two nights per year where the Pacific Bonsai Museum stays open past 4 p.m., and it’s lovely to behold bathed in the golden glow of a late June evening. Celebrate the extra daylight as well as the natural beauty of the museum with free rejuvenating sound baths led by breath facilitator Mary Clymer, food and refreshments, mindful garden strolls, and tai chi sessions guided by the Federal Way Community Center Tai Chi Group. Afterwards, pick up some trinkets to commemorate your visit at the pop-up shop and bask in your renewed energy. (Pacific Bonsai Museum, 4 pm–8 pm, free) JULIANNE BELL

More

Drag Bingo with Sativa Every Friday, Rough & Tumble, 7 pm

Seattle Mariners 2025 Home Games Through September 28, T-Mobile Park

Seattle Reign FC 2025 Home Games Through October 17, Lumen Field

Black Night Market June 13, June 20, Pier 62

Georgetown Carnival June 14, Airport Way S between Lucille and Vale St

24th Annual Juneteenth Celebration June 18, Rainier Beach Community Center

9th Annual Juneteenth Celebration June 21, Othello Playground

Marysville Strawberry Festival June 20–22, Marysville, WA

Kitsap Medieval Faire June 21, Kitsap County Fairgrounds

Indigiqueer Festival June 27, Pier 62

Early Warnings

The NW Pinball and Arcade Show July 6–8, Greater Tacoma Convention Center

Urban Craft Uprising Summer Show July 26–27, Magnuson Park Hangar 30

Monster Jam Sep 19–21, Tacoma Dome

Burien Strawberry Festival June 14, Downtown Burien

Savage Love

BY DAN SAVAGE

Slut Biome

My girlfriend and I started to do butt play (her butt) about two months ago. It was a once-per-week thing, first with butt plugs and then, after two weeks, anal. Two weeks ago, shortly after anal sex, she caught a really bad flu (confirmed by a medical test) that lasted a week, with a stubborn fever and fatigue. She is not the type to usually get knocked out by an illness; she’s healthy, active, eats well, etc. After her symptoms finally passed, we waited about a week, and then we were back to business, though this time with just the butt plug. A day later, her fever and fatigue were back, and again they hit her harder than she’s used to and lasted a few days.

So, here’s the thing: Everyone’s talking these days about the importance of the body’s natural biome and healthy bacteria. I know that gut bacteria are obviously deeper in the intestine, but I’d imagine there’s got to be some “good bugs” in the ass, too, right? Basically, I’m wondering if she’s just been having a spate of bad luck with some coincidental timing, or if shoving stuff up your butt can actually weaken or damage your biome and kill your healthy bacteria.

Some other details: She doesn’t use any chemical anal douches or anything (just shower water, thoroughly applied by hand), the butt plug is silicone (washed with soap and water), we use Sliquid Sassy (a water-based lube), we never go A-to-V, and there’s no evidence we’re doing things too rough (i.e., some moderate soreness the day after but no blood).

Neither of us wants to give up our new hobby, but we also don’t want to risk damaging her immunity. Is there any evidence, medically or anecdotally, that this is a real issue?

Biology Upends Naughty Shenanigans

Your girlfriend’s gastrointestinal tract is 30 feet long—so, unless you’re hung like three consecutive horses and/or you’re shopping for butt plugs in the “you’ve got to be kidding me” aisle of the sex shop, BUNS, you’re only playing with the last six to 10 inches. And the bacteria in your girlfriend’s rectum (good witch bacteria, bad witch bacteria) are on their way out, BUNS, not up, and douching and anal play can only hasten their departure. So, I would chalk your girlfriend’s recent post-anal-play illnesses up to coincidence. And what she experienced was a thing—or if it’s still a common thing (“flulike symptoms” are an early sign of HIV infection)—rabid anti-gay bigots would not shut up about it (they love talking about butt stuff), and actual gay men would schedule anal on the Fridays of three-day weekends. Just the fact that sexually active gay men into anal (#NotAllGayMen) don’t set aside three days to recover after anal sex is solid anecdotal evidence that this was a coincidence, BUNS, not a thing.

Trans woman from Denmark here. I’ve matched with a cuck on Feeld who’s looking for people who want to have sex with

his fiancée. He was clear that this is not a simple “hotwifing” scene, as he enjoys the humiliation aspect of it. So, if this thing happens (we are still negotiating), what word would I use to describe myself? What would my position be called? I heard on the podcast that the person who fucks the wife of a cuckold is sometimes called a “bull.” This strikes me as a very male-coded term. What if the third party is a woman? Does this touch upon some kind of gendered bias in the cuck culture? Is it more typical to want a man to fuck your partner?

Nervous About Terminology

You don’t fuck another man’s fiancée—or another man’s wife or girlfriend or boyfriend or husband—with a term, NAT, you fuck another man’s fiancée with whatever it is you enjoy fucking people with, e.g. your fingers, your tongue, your toys, your dick (bio or strap-on), etc. Cuckold scenes are about power, not nicknames, and you can enjoy the power play—you can enjoy having sex with this man’s fiancée—without having to embrace and/or tacitly endorse terms other people use to describe themselves when they fuck other people’s partners. That said, “bull” is the most common term for the third in a cuckold scene, and a bull is typically understood to be a dominant, well-endowed man who is sexually superior to the cuck. Some people feel the term is hypermasculine (in a bad way), dehumanizing (in a bad way), and racially loaded (in a very bad way). The stereotype of the Black bull—brought in to ravish a white wife while the white husband watches—is a common trope in cuck porn and play, and some find it deeply problematic. But something can be problematic and still be a turn-on; there are Black men out there who identify as bulls and enjoy play-

ing that role for couples who respect them as people. But the term is optional. If you’re into the dynamic and the chemistry with this couple is right and you’re certain his fiancée has enthusiastically consented to “cheating” with you, you can and should go for it—as yourself.

But if you like the term, NAT, you aren’t disqualified from using it just because you’re a woman. While the term is male-coded, it’s also insertive-partner-coded (bulls do the fucking), but gay cucks refer to the men who sleep with their top husbands as bottom bulls. If gay bottoms can use the term “bull,” NAT, why can’t a woman?

I’ve been a bottom since my youth. Sadly, my youth is long gone, and I can’t be bothered anymore, so these days I often end up topping by default. And I am very bad at it. It takes an act of God to get me hard enough to get inside, and once I am inside, I come in seconds. It’s embarrassing! I guess the answer is practice, practice, practice, but the fact is I don’t get many opportunities—certainly not repeat opportunities with the same guy. What can I do solo to train myself to be slightly less useless at this?

Often Limp Dude

I posted your question to last month’s Struggle Session—where I respond to comments and invite my readers to give advice—and Jonathan, one of our superstar commenters, had some great advice: men of all ages can bottom, ED meds can help you get hard when you wanna top, and condoms can help you last longer by decreasing sensitivity. “It’s also not fair to have bottoms go through their prep [if OLD knows he’s likely to fail],” Jonathan added. “Really, the only place he should be topping is in a bath-

house or during an anon cumdump scene where the bottoms know he’s not their only source of pleasure for the evening.”

My two cents: If you’re not into bathhouses and/or anon cumdump scenes— and not everyone is—consider investing in some high-quality silicone dildos, plugs in different shapes and sizes, and a comfortable harness. Having the freedom to switch back and forth between your dick and your growing collection of toys will take the pressure off your dick, OLD, and taking the pressure off is a highly effective ED treatment all by itself. Lots of gay men enjoy toys, and a not insignificant number of gay men actually prefer them. So, having a nice collection of high-quality toys is a selling point, not a consolation prize, OLD, and including pics of your toys in your profile will attract the attention of men who love being pegged as much or than they love being fucked. And succeeding with toys — instead of failing with dick — will do wonders for your confidence, OLD, and boys you pegged the shit out of will be hitting you up for repeats.

P.S. Gay sex doesn’t have to include anal penetration — instead of “defaulting to top,” you could embrace being a side. Jerking off with other guys at JO parties, I’ve been told, is a great way to make new friends.

Read the full version of this column at thestranger.com! ■

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