The Stranger June 2026

THE

QUEER JUNE 2026 • THESTRANGER.COM

ISSUE!

JUNE 2026

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4 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

WELCOME TO QUEER ISSUE

T

he Democrats and the mainstream media have pushed me out of the greatest administration in Earth’s 4,000-year history, and The Stranger, a publication I have never heard of but was familiar with my excellent track record, asked me to temporarily fill in as its public editor for this “queer” issue. They had read about my husband and wondered if I had reevaluated my views on the LGBTQIA+ (where do I stop?) community. I have not. Since the job of the public editor is to evaluate, and I am skilled at passing judgment on others, I accepted the $12 commission, which has yet to arrive by mail (a waste of taxpayer money, I’ll add).

But I may have missed it. Cricket, the family dog, doesn’t bark anymore.

When I read this “newspaper,” a front for Antifa dark money, I was scandalized and confused. Gender ideology. Inappropriateness. Anti-American and anti-business views. And is it with this obsession with the anus? I am certain it violates some law. And if it isn’t illegal, the President will make it illegal. I would suggest it to him, but he is no longer taking my calls.

To start, I learned that lesbians, like the women who stare at me while I’m on the elliptical at Planet Fitness, enjoy stargazing.

I read on the Internet that this accompanies “yearning,” which is not in the President’s vision for this country. A “bisexual” writer, Audrey Vann, interviewed artist Claire Johnson about her paintings (pg. 41). I also learned that when “gay” men are at Planet Fitness, they use a coded sign language involving their genitals (pg. 27). (I have not seen it, I use the correct bathroom.) Mothers: Cruising has nothing to do with American-made automobiles, and it does not support the global economy. Fathers: Note that “furries” is not slang for pelts (pg. 73).

News Editor Vivian McCall’s column (pg. 38) on the “safe” performance of anilingus did not make sense to me because

H H H BY PUBLIC EDITOR H H H

KRISTI NOEM

I do not have an anus. Undermining the authority of the federal government, Deputy News Editor Nathalie Graham told readers how to “safely” take the dangerous illicit drugs trafficked into our country. I know drug enforcement. When I was Governor of South Dakota, we were on meth!

I was tickled that Stranger contributor Kate Burns wrote about some Christian Nationalists I was familiar with (pg. 13).

A few nice young men are consolidating power in your Godless city. You should be thankful.

Clearly, you’re not. Editor-in-Chief Hannah Murphy Winter’s story blames innocent Christians, savaged by homosexuals, for calling on the police for help! Then it goes after the police for not knowing that Capitol Hill is a gay neighborhood. Do we have to ask neighborhoods for their pronouns now?

If you have pronouns—I do not—you can find a comprehensive list of “accessible,” “fun” events for your “pride” month (pg. 51).

Thank you for reading. I am looking for work.

This Issue Brought to You By… Martini Jell-O shots Spending $35 on a watermelon because you were simply too embarrassed to admit to the checkout clerk that you were incapable of basic by-the-pound math Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, queers, and those fucking plus signs

All the Kash Patel bourbon we could ever want Imma bust in the sense I can no longer last Inviting the snakes back to Ireland to eat the British Everything in its right place Praising God with my Gucci on

Michael Crichton, freakishly tall MD Spaghetti hitting the wall with a disappointing marinara slap

Praising Gucci with my God on I swear to Gucci I can’t even remember

Dildos hitting the wall with a disappointing marinara slap

A secret corporate acronym

Shame bell alarm clock Clear communication Politician using roller chair like chaise lounge Letting the tiger take a bite at my funeral so I’d live on as a majestic beast Release my inhibitions for me Puppy ears turning into grown up ears Strategically placed screaming pillows The Pope’s 42,000-word manifesto declaring war on AI

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6 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS I Saw U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Looking Like Richey from Manic Street Preachers at Trader Joe’s

Last Month This Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 All the Liberal Hogwash and Bottles of Kash Patel Whiskey You May Have Missed in May

I, Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Tracey Cataldo

Advertising

Editorial

Ben Demar, Katie Phoenix

EDITOR IN CHIEF

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR

PUBLISHER

Hannah Murphy Winter

Marketing

ARTS EDITOR

Christian Parroco

NEWS EDITOR

EMAIL MARKETING LEAD

DIRECTOR OF VIDEO PRODUCTION

DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST

Nathalie Graham

Tonya Ray, Tyra Triche

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Charles Mudede

Art & Production

Technology & Development

STAFF WRITERS

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Vivian McCall

Party Smarter, Not Harder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Don’t Be an Idiot—Test Your Drugs

Social Media & Video Production

MARKETING MANAGER

God’s Army Is Hiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

And Other Lessons Learned by the Seattle Police Department in the Year Since the Cal Anderson Counterprotest

Jenna Ward

Megan Seling Emily Nokes

‘Wait, Capitol Hill Is Gay?’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

MANAGING EDITOR

Thank You for Radiating Joy

Russell Johnson built Pursuit into the Pacific Northwest’s fastest-growing evangelical empire. Now he’s bringing in two Christian supremacist heavy hitters. Experts say it’s a strategic power grab.

PRODUCTION

David Caplan, Feedback Graphics

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Evanne Hall

David Quantic

Andi Carmichael

LEAD DEVELOPERS

Corianton Hale

Julianne Bell, Amanda Manitach, Hunter Pauli, Audrey Vann

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR

PHOTO DIRECTOR

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Billie Winter COPY EDITORS

Anthony Keo

Michael Crowl, Nick Nelson DEVELOPER

Chaytan Inman

Char Harris DESIGNER

IT MANAGER

Fox Allison, Dave Segal

Shira Friedman-Parks

Grant Hendrix

Business

ASSISTANT TO BRADY WALKINSHAW

Taylor McCormick

Bold Type Tickets

FOUNDER/CHAIRMAN

AP/AR COORDINATOR

HEAD OF BOLD TYPE TICKETS

The Last Cigarette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Adventures in Tobacco

Seattle Is Not ‘Overwhelmed’ by Trans People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 But We Do Have a Burgeoning Refugee Crisis, and It’s Time for City Hall to Step Up

Brady Walkinshaw

Surprise Paradisio

Bring Back Analog Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

PRESIDENT / CFO

The ‘Neurotic Little Freak’ Behind the Curtain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CRO

Noisy Creek Productions

PROJECT MANAGEMENT/CLIENT

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS

SOLUTIONS REPRESENTATIVE

HEAD OF MARKETING & CREATIVE

CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS REPRESENTATIVE

Sam Pierce Is Your Favorite Drag Queen’s Favorite Life Preserver

Rob Crocker Dan Brown

HEAD OF FINANCE & OPERATIONS

A Germaphobe’s Guide to Eating Ass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Crawling Through the Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Stargazing With Intergalactic Artist Claire Johnson

Katie Lake

HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES

Alia Graham

CHIEF STRATEGY AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER

Kendall Turner

How Do We Talk About Juniper Blessing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 We don’t know why she died, but we know it was too soon.

HEAD OF PRODUCT

Anthony Hecht STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Tim Keck

All! The! Pride! Parties! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Every Parade, Block Party, Dance Night, Drag Show, Film Screening, and Tarot Reading Happening in Seattle in June

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR

Caroline Dodge

DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Luke Lamb

Kevin Shurtluff

CLIENT SOLUTIONS MANAGER

Diana Schwartz

Campy Draper

Tim Neill

Rou Leonard

HEAD OF CONTENT & COMMUNITY

Allie Huska

Anita Chao

EverOut

HEAD OF PRODUCTION

Lindsay Powers

EVEROUT MANAGER

Noisy Creek Podcasts

Katya Schexnaydre

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Janey Wong

Patrick Kearney

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Nancy Hartunian SENIOR PRODUCER

Celene Ramadan

CONTENT LEAD

DATA MANAGER/STAFF WRITER

Shannon Lubetich STAFF WRITERS

Bri Brey, Langston Thomas

A River Runs Through Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Timothy White Eagle Tells the Story of the Duwamish

A Woman Possessed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Alice Bag Reflects on the Power of Punk Rock and Why Being Bisexual Is, Like, Really Cool

Nobody Is Safe From the Rumba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Sacha Maxim Brings Latin Sounds Home With Disco Mundo

Smooth Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

COVER ARTWORK Jess Vosseteig jessvossart.com

Cocoa Legato Is the Cafe/Venue/Chocolate Shop of Aaron Lindstrom’s Dreams

Spotlit in Seattle: L .A . Kendall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

CREATIVE DIRECTION Corianton Hale, with invaluable support from Keith Bacon, Vivian McCall, and The Stranger editorial team.

Bringing Pride of the Past Into Community of the Future, DJ Kendall Is a Mentor to Us All

A Queer Summer Reading List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Books From Three Local Geniuses (Plus a Classic)

The Trash Panda Slush at Slightly Furry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 An Apple-licious Frozen Cocktail With Malört and Ango Bitters

Things to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Music! Art! Literature! Film! Food! Performance! This and Also That!

Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 And an Extra Gay Crossword Puzzle!

THE STRANGER 1101 E. Pike St., Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98122

VOICE 206-323-7101

Mon–Fri, 9 am–5:30 pm; editor@thestranger.com

JUNE 2026

Thee Mary Steve Halvorson Sinseers Earle

Sgt. Papers

Caitlin Canty

Cosmic Tones Research Trio

The Takes

Built to Spill

Hannah Hill

D.K. Harrell Ben Chapman

Automatic

Family Company

El Khat

The Womack Sisters

Widowspeak

DUG

Terror|Cactus

Lyrics Born

Setting

Meridian Brothers

Acid King

Briscoe

Dylan Earl

Friendship

Meatbodies

SA-Roc

mercury

Ken Pomeroy

Boy Golden

Esther Rose

Clinton Fearon

Alela Diane

Florry The Onlies

Hannah Juanita

Marcos Valle

Buddy Wynkoop Ana, Frango Electrico

Leroy From the North

Quasi

Rose Gerber

Portland Songwriters Guild Folk Bitch Trio the South Hill Experiment

Shakey Graves

PISS

Nathan Bowles

The Brothers Comatose jonny's Day Out

Hannah Frances

The Altons

Channing Wilson

Prewn

Corndog Cowgirl

Ora Cogan

William Surly

Hogslop String Band

Hudson Freeman

Rumbo Tumba

Mexican Institute of Sound

PENDARVIS FARM · HAPPY VALLEY, OR

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8 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

PRIDE 2026 DRAG CONCERT | JUNE 27 | 9PM - 11PM Featuring Coco Montrese & Queen Andrew Scott WERK THE W DRAG BRUNCH | JUNE 28 | 9:30AM - 11AM Featuring Anita Spritzer & Friends

JUNE 2026

9

I Saw U…

Land That Skate Trick at the Ferry Terminal, Making Conversation at Analog, Looking Like Richey from Manic Street Preachers at Trader Joe’s

D

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ADAM SNEED

id 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 U messages every week on TheStranger.com.

Cutie Near Cal weds 5/20 You in Gym clothes, me in my uniform. We crossed paths @ Howell/11th Ave next to Cal. You said hi, I mouthed it back. You lingered in my thoughts. hmu Saw you land that skate line Tues 5/12 down at the ferry terminal hottie doing a skate line on quads/inlines (too far to tell). Almost crashed my bike to watch you land that.

Spilling apples at trader joes You:looking cute whilst spilling apples Me:pink haired guy trying to find an excuse to talk to you (I didn’t) Lets go on a date Apple picking maybe?

Blue eyes and hibiscus on the 2 line We sat next to each other earlier when the 2 line went down and there were delays. We

talked about teas, soccer and moving, eyes that matched the lake Smiles at the Park 5/20 Walking around opposite ways Maple Leaf Park loop. You beautiful blonde woman with the loveliest smile each time. Me man in goofy hat. Coffee?

seatac. we both kept stealing looks. u: yellow shirt me: tattoos. we have the same curls. boyfriend twins?

Pony booth hottie Table next to me at Pony Fri night with your 3 friends. You had mustache & septum piercing. We locked eyes couple times. Hit me up or Pony next Fri? Thursday The 14th, Broadway Chipotle @ ~5:30 Behind my friend & I in line who complimented your piercings says you were sending me signals I missed while yapping about my jarred specimens. Sup?

Ray-Ban Sunglasses at Saint Edward State Park Ray-Ban Sunglasses near the steps to the parking lot behind the Lodge. Folded up and left them hoping you’d find them and be happy!

Covid cautious cutie at the movies We both saw a movie solo at southcenter wearing masks. You held the door for me & I should have said hi. Let’s sit together next time?

Post-punk boyish at TJs on Capitol Hill at closing time U have red hair/red denim jacket & look like Richey from Manic St Preachers. I’m fresh from Austin TX & would like to take your photo professionally.

Your dog likes me At the sculpture park, I bent down to greet one your fur babies. You said, “She usually doesn’t like guys”. Do you remember what I replied?

My coworker knows you as tall Temu Pedro pascal I saw u at the baba yaga art walk after party in February but haven’t seen you since.

Please let me buy you a better beer than a Rainer next art walk

Le Labo by Cal You: Working the closing shift on 5/4 Me: Yellow shorts, rainbow tote, mesmerized by your eyes and smile. Let’s get drinks and nerd out on fragrances? sprinting for the Lynwood line both of us barely made it to the train from

Caught Looking: Vegas to Seattle Vegas to Seattle flight. Salt & pepper hair, brown jacket, white shoes. You kept catching me looking. I was the tall one in the striped shirt. Say hi?

Subaru Angel at PCC rescued me and my toddler!

I’d left my wallet home like a moron & was stuck trying to exit pcc. You lent me your credit card & wouldn’t accept Venmo back.

You’re our hero.

Curly head in Carhartt Last Friday u fixed our ice machine. The whole kitchen was blushing! I wanted to ask u out after, but I was nervous. Come back the same time, say hi:)

Orca Hottie with the Keyblade Tat You were checking Orca cards, but didnt check mine (thanks, I had not paid). I had a vial of estrogen around my neck. You forgot to ask for my number.

Can’t Hardly Wait To say thank you to you for the DVD you unexpectedly gave me on the light rail at 9:30 AM. Watched it with my friends and had a blast. You rock!

Vic on the light rail to Lynnwood, 5.16.26 Cap Hill @10pm. You: cutie who lost your phone on the train. Me: butch in a Boy Dyke shirt annoyed about the stairs. Coffee & tell me about Dallas?

Hottie in a hot pink crop Bumming Smokes at Jupiter U bummed 2x cigs, I gave you my number.

Like a total dweeb, i said “hope to see u around” instead of “text me.” Please text me - let’s get drinks!

Cake and a blender You saw me smoking in an alley while you and your friend were looking for a cake pop up.

You told me I looked “picturesque.” Coffee?

On 12th Ave in front of Violet. You helped me move cupboards to my place I was only slightly embarrassed to be seen so out of breath when you carried the thing so easily. Hope to see you around TJ’s Red haired, jean jacket @ Analog You were a few spots ahead of me in line on 5/16. I loved how you sparked conversation with everyone in line. Maybe we could have a spark?

I’ll be ur dirtbag 5/5, 13th Ave, sunset: we locked eyes. I recognized u from the apps, u were looking for ur dirtbag..? Ur stunning, I’m scruffy + lefty, let’s do this Is it a match? Follow The Stranger on Instagram and leave a comment on our weekly I Saw U posts to connect!

10 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

LAST MONTH THIS MONTH

BY VIVIAN McCALL AND NATHALIE GRAHAM

All the Liberal Hogwash and Bottles of Kash Patel Whiskey You May Have Missed in May

LD

CO RS I/G ET TY IM AG ES

MAN SEEKING THE VOID

Gentleman, mid 30s, normal penis, would like to corres pond with respectable, busty abyss. Seeking meaningful connection with the idea of nothing in a world of so much. It is too loud. I am so tired. The apps. The speed dating.

No one wants to hear about the siege of Stalingrad, or how the Mariners are doing that piggyback thing with their pitchers and how it’s bad for team morale. They do not listen. They invite me to the run clubs. The one in Green Lake, the one in Ravenna. I am but a man running in place in the rat race of modern love. I have tried straight. I have tried gay. I have tried they and them.

All that calls me is the tentacled starry gaping maw of the void. Your void. If interested, find me at Stoup Brewing (in Ballard). I have a red rose in my left pocket, and a pocket pussy in my sock. I’ll be wearin g a quarter zip. Wear nothing and I’ll know you’re the one.

*** Or he could take the great American road trip. He should ask the US Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, for recs. The former reality TV star just wrapped up a drive across the nation to celebrate its birthday. Duffy’s Big Adventure was paid for in part by local safe-airplane manufacturer and war profiteer Boeing. This $1 million was surely for gas, and has nothing to do with the US Department of Transportation’s regulatory investigations into Boeing’s commercial aircraft killing passengers.

Zuckerberg pinky promised there would be no more layoffs this year. *** With all the money the Zucks of the world are lighting on fire to pursue the dream of a techno-feudal AI future, we could have saved thousands of Hopvine Pubs. The beloved Capitol Hill dive needs to raise $50,000 to get through a current spate of hard times. Sam’s Tavern is also closing, but who cares?

RE EZ

E/ GE TT YI MA GES

*** Seattle has a lot of needs. Like more shelter beds. Mayor Katie Wilson is chugging *** Three cheers for the hometown heroes. It away on a plan to create 500 more tempoturns out the wealthy residents of Laurel- rary and emergency shelter beds ahead of hurst have been stopping helicopters carry- the FIFA World Cup. Seattle City Council has approved her plans to expand the ing sick and injured children from landing size of temporary shelter sites at Seattle Children’s Hospital for and has greenlit another decades. They’re too noisy! plan expanding Not the moaning chilemergency shelter dren, the helicopters. capacity. At this Word got out, and rate, the number the angry response of new shelter forced the Laurelbeds will far hurst Commuexceed the nity Council, the number of neighborhood actual hotel group responrooms peosible for this ple have booked mess, to allow for the World the hospital to do Cup. Okay, that’s its job. Who needs hyperbole, but forehope when we can casts from the hosbelieve in shame R CE pitality industry show once again?

World Cup bookings are *** “Quiet, Rachel Maddow is on.” bad, bad, bad.

Maybe the same tactic will work on the big *** bosses at the Seattle Times who won’t agree This is supposed to be a fun way of processto not replace union workers with AI. ing the horrors, but we have to stop the jokes Management rejected a proposal from the and acknowledge two awful killings this Seattle Times Union guaranteeing those month: Quusaa Margarsa, 25, shot in the AI protections, telling them “journalism back at his workplace, Growler Guys, and Juniper Blessing, 19, a trans University doesn’t mean journalists.” of Washington student stabbed to death in *** No one is safe from the clunker craze. Meta a laundry room at an off-campus student fired 8,000 employees as part of its focus housing building. Both deaths were sudden on all things AI. It then reassigned 7,000 and shocking, and there’s not much more to other employees to jobs related to AI. Mark say than that.

IB

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melting sea ice and our It’s almost America’s birthday, habit of starving all livbut before that, it’s gay people’s ing beings. Look at it birthday, for a whole month. this way. With the The President will not Strait of Hormuz be normal about closed, that’s a this. Things are not supply of oil going well for him, we can count you see, and a o n . Ca rs, national game powered of smear the by whales. queer hits the Imagine. spot when your approval rating *** If it were an is taking a nose omen, the dive over an administraunpopular war in tion would tell Iran so economus. They have a ically devastating O line directly to to the American pubOM PS I CH God and held a Chrislic that any day now the tian nationalist rally most annoying people you know will be talking “That’s what Pearl Harbor was?” on the National Mall.

In school, we learned about biodiesel. Cars, about the separation of church and state, powered by Chinese restaurants. Imagine. but that’s for cucks. A nation’s power lies *** But the Democrats have more important with God—Iran is a theocracy, and they things to discuss, like why did Kamala don’t seem to be able to lose.

Harris lose the election, and no, we don’t *** know this “Gaza” you’re referring to. Is We’d like to have Democracy. What we probthat a hashtag? The party’s 50,000-word ably won’t be able to have is representative post-mortem on the 2024 election didn’t democracy in—hold on, let’s get the list— mention Gaza once. “I am not proud of this Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South product; it does not meet my standards, and Carolina, because Republicans are gerryit won’t meet your standards,” said Demo- mandering the fuck out of their states to cratic National Committee Chair Ken Mar- bring us back to their glory days: the Jim Crow era. Gentlemen, raise your hoods. tin. We know, Ken, you’re a Democrat.

You can come out into the light. *** It makes us want to mail a gun to ourselves *** and do what comes naturally. To our great In a serious blow to the Russian intellifortune, we might be able to. It’s been ille- gence community, Tulsi Gabbard has gal since 1927 (too many tommy guns), but resigned as director of national intelligence. We thought Trump would axe that was Second Amendment-violating FBI Director Kash liberal hogwash, thinks the JusPatel first, but tice Department. About two this is a nice dozen state attorneys surprise. general have opposed the proposed rule *** Director Patel change, but the has been busy.

Trump adminisBusy handing tration is in its out bottles post-law hoe of Kashphase, and branded tired of this whiskey to constant yamanyone who mering about would take “democracy.” them, busy Shut up! polygraphing *** current and The whales have former staff, and the right idea. busy snorkeling They’re dead and over a watery grave keep dying. In WashRA GE site at Pearl Harbor. He ington this year, 21 gray should take a cruise. Tickwhales have washed up ets for the MV Hondius are on our shores. Scientists “Burn us all before the cheaper than ever. believe it is linked to the water wars begin.”

JUNE 2026

I, Anonymous

Readers’ Rants and Confessions ILLUSTRATION BY STEVEN WEISSMAN

Dear neighbor, I pass by you a couple times a week, me walking my dog, you grooving to what must be awesome tunes in your earbuds and smoking a joint on the sidewalk across from our “smoke-free” apartment campus.

You look so happy and in-the-moment, you dance like you feel the music in your bone marrow, you hold your joint like it’s a ceremonial item, you grin at me as if we’re both in on some delicious secret of life.

I just want to thank you for creating your own joy and radiating it outward in public. Your genuine smile always pulls a genuine smile out of me, too. I see you choosing to throw your own dance party, and I’m reminded that I have that choice, too.

Please keep doing what you’re doing. It brightens my day. Be well and be blessed.

That’s all!

–Your neighbor Do you need to get something off your chest? Submit an I, Anonymous, and maybe we’ll illustrate it! Send your unsigned rant, love letter, confession, or accusation to ianonymous@thestranger.com. Please remember to change the names of the innocent and the guilty. Read more I, Anonymous letters every week at TheStranger.com.

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12 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

Your Local Everyday Gift Shop In the heart of the Wallingford neighborhood

PNW gifts & complimentary gift wrap

JUNE 2026

13

God’s Army Is Hiring

Russell Johnson built Pursuit into the Pacific Northwest’s fastest-growing evangelical empire. Now he’s bringing in two Christian supremacist heavy hitters.

BY KATE BURNS PHOTOS BY MADISON KIRKMAN COLLAGE BY ANTHONY KEO

O

n April 19, 2026, Russell Johnson, the founder and lead pastor of the right-wing megachurch Pursuit NW, took to Instagram, as he often does, to deliver two important messages to his congregation.

He told them the church needed $52 million to purchase a building and parking lot, and that two luminaries in the Christian supremacist movement, Ross Johnston and Jay Koopman, would be joining as pastors.

To those of us who watch the world of the lanky man on screen—a Ballard boy reared on conservative Christianity who has not so jokingly likened his stringy, youth pastor appearance to the Waco cultist David Koresh—it made sense.

Johnson has a taste for prestige. For designer labels—particularly Louis Vuitton and Gucci—and, in a way, designer people.

People whose names open doors on the extreme, grandiose, and chronically online side of the Christian right he is fast ascending. Both Johnston and Koopman are rising stars in this space—figures whose names function as currency, whose presence signals that something important is happening here. Their hires were strategic consolidations of power, experts say. Experts warn it is exactly the kind of consolidation

of power that, in the current political climate, could invite police state overreach to anyone who opposes the church.

Pursuit is the Pacific Northwest’s fastest-growing evangelical empire, with campuses spanning from Seattle’s University District to Kirkland, Snohomish, and Spokane, 279 miles away; it also has a preschool, two elementary schools, and a ministry college.

Johnson runs in elite circles. In December 2024, John Hagee—a pastor who once claimed God sent Hitler to trigger the cre-

I reached out to Johnson for comment over social media.

He responded, “HAHAHAHAHAHA.” ation of Israel—flew in especially to name Johnson the Washington State director of his organization, Christians United for Israel.

Johnson’s White House ties are equally tight.

Paula White-Cain, Senior Advisor in the White House Faith Office, called Pursuit “the

tip of the spear” in spiritual warfare when she spoke there in August of 2025. A month earlier Johnson was invited to attend a worship event at the White House.

Similarly, Johnston and Koopman are not mere peripheral figures on the religious right. They’re two of the most active street-level operatives in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), an enormous and highly influential evangelical movement led by self-appointed Apostles and Prophets who claim to receive fresh, divine revelation directly from God. These leaders teach that powerful demonic spirits control governments, media, education, and other key institutions, and that these spirits must be cast out of those institutions before Christians can seize control and remake nations under biblical rule. I reached out to Johnson for comment over social media. He responded, “HAHAHAHAHAHA” then posted the request and response to his Instagram Stories.

Johnston has built a rapidly growing ministry around California Will Be Saved (CAWBS), a Gen-Z-branded anti-LGBTQ organization he cofounded in 2020, which tries to make young people not gay or trans through Jesus. The group hosts pop-upstyle worship events across California that

regularly feature water baptisms in plastic tubs and makes claims of “miracle healings.” He also co-led Mayday USA revival events last year, including a Seattle stop at Cal Anderson Park on May 24, 2025, that resulted in mass arrests and prompted a federal investigation.

Koopman is leaving his job as associate pastor at Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, California, where he is directly subordinate to one of the most powerful hard-right evangelical figures in the world, Ché Ahn, a key leader within NAR. He has also spent the last few years touring the country with Sean Feucht, a worship musician and self-described Christian nationalist who believes God should be in charge of writing the laws of the land, and has brought his deliberately confrontational “Let Us Worship” events to cities around the country, including to Gas Works Park last summer.

Both have taken spiritual warfare from the pulpits and into the streets, confronting LGBTQ-friendly and minority communities in a deliberate effort to claim public spaces for Christian dominionism, the belief that Christians are called to seize control of secular institutions and cities, or as the movement puts it, “take territory.”

As the old guards of the NAR and charis-

14 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE matic movements age, experts believe both Koopman and Johnston are reading the room and see Pursuit as the best place to grow their profiles and careers. It also signals that both men see opportunity in Seattle, one of the most secular cities in America. That may seem puzzling from the outside, but to those familiar with their tactics, it makes perfect sense: Successful Christian supremacists live oppositional lives. They are not simply building their reputations, or a church. They are preparing for “spiritual warfare.”

Their movement is built on provoking their “enemies” and filming their reactions for viral proof that the anti-Christian world is laying siege to them, the soldiers of God. In the face of this so-called persecution, they must rise up and fight in a “spiritual war.” They preach that, in an invisible world all around us, angels and demons are locked in constant battle over the earth.

And, of course, living close to the enemy you can actually see—liberals, queer people, and anyone who does not subscribe to a version of Christianity most of the faithful could not recongize—saves gas.

Katherine Stewart, Author of Money, Lies, and God and The Power Worshippers, says, “Many charismatic churches and pastors at least implicitly promote a dualistic mindset that says there are two forces at work in the world: the force of good and the force of evil.” What makes this different, or dangerous, is how charismatics apply this concept to the political and culture sphere.

“They may literally demonize political enemies, opposition political parties, or those who fail to conform in some way, and they see themselves as participating on the side of good in a spiritual battle, taking God’s side against demonic forces.”

deeply connected to the broader NAR and charismatic networks Koopman and Johnston come from, and these men have worked together many times before.

In March 2024, Johnson and Pursuit hosted the inaugural “Let Us Worship Firestarters Conference.” Co-led by Feucht, Koopman, and Johnston, the conference was designed to push Christianity toward a more radical, activist posture focused on youth mobilization and what organizers called “infiltrating culture,” or mobilizing young believers to embed themselves in

most spiritually bereft and even ‘dark’ place they can go to,” he says.

Taylor says he “would not be surprised to see [Johnson, Johnston, and Koopman] ramp up their oppositional stance and be hailed as heroes” by the right as a whole.

An Antigay Crusader from a Gay Family

Ross Johnston’s origin story, which you will hear if you ever see him holding a microphone, is the cornerstone of his entire brand. He was born by artificial insemination, raised in a les-

The Draw of Pursuit

Pursuit’s theology is rooted in two overlapping traditions: the prosperity gospel and the independent charismatic movement.

The prosperity gospel, promoted by figures like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland, teaches that strong faith and generous tithing will bring wealth, health, and success, as a sign of God’s favor. It allows pastors like Johnson to draw large salaries, wear designer clothes, and—as seen in recent months—hopscotch between four Sunday campuses by helicopter across King County and by chartered plane from Snohomish to Spokane.

The charismatic movement emphasizes the active presence of the Holy Spirit through intangible “spiritual gifts” such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, and miracles. A decade ago, this movement was on the fringe. Today it’s one of the fastest growing movements in America with leaders positioned in the White House.

This is best represented by a belief common in both spaces: the “7 Mountain Mandate,” a theology that teaches Christians are called to take influence—or outright control—over seven major spheres of society: religion, family, education, government, media, entertainment, and business.

“The ideology is antithetical to the values of pluralism and equality that represent the best of the American promise. It’s very much an us-versus-them mentality, one that says ‘us’ should rule,” Stewart says.

Pursuit and its leadership are already

“They may literally demonize political enemies, opposition political parties, or those who fail to conform in some way, and they see themselves as participating on the side of good in a spiritual battle, taking God’s side against demonic forces.” those seven major spheres of society.

Matthew Taylor, visiting scholar at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University and the author of The Violent Take It by Force, sees Pursuit’s new leadership as deliberately choosing the Pacific Northwest for its oppositional potential, comparing their strategy directly to Mark Driscoll’s at Mars Hill, who relished in his opposition to Seattle culture.

In Taylor’s view, the region’s progressive, secular identity is uniquely appealing to leaders who thrive on conflict. “From their perspective, it is the most popular, most liberal, LGBTQ-friendly, and therefore the

bian household, and says he never heard the name of Jesus until he was invited to church at 15, and was born again shortly after.

In a July 2023 interview with the rightwing podcast Red Liberty, he said that during a crisis of faith in 2019 and 2020, God told him directly: “If you don’t stand with me now, you never will.” He broke into tears, began repenting, and prayed, “Whatever you want to do with my life, use it, give me people.” Shortly after, he walked into a revival tent in Orange County, California, saw a worshiping Joel Mott, a Christian worship leader with deep ties to NAR, and knew immediately they needed to connect.

The two then attended one of Feucht’s “Let Us Worship” events—a traveling charismatic revival that emerged during the early COVID-19 lockdowns as a response to restrictions on church gatherings in 2020—and the youth-focused California Will Be Saved (CAWBS) was born.

Mott serves as the musical lead while Johnston functions as hype man, crowdworker, and public face, always centering his personal origin story. He’s been known to get the crowd going with a take on Digital Underground’s “Thuglife Party” replacing the words “thug life” in “Ain’t no party like a thug life party” with “holy ghost.”

Johnston uses his upbringing in a queer household to build credibility and trust with LGBTQ audiences before delivering the conclusion that homosexuality is “a sin and not the design of God,” but one that Johnston and Jesus can “save and heal.”

As he outlined in an 2023 YouTube video, he befriends queer people, earns their trust, and then convinces them they can be redeemed through Christ. “Does sin separate us from God? Absolutely. Is living in an LGBTQ lifestyle a sin? Absolutely,” he said.

His YouTube channel reinforces the message, with titles such as “Transgender man surrenders to Jesus,” “Does my lesbian mom support me as a Christian?” and “Can I be gay and Christian?” the answer to the last one, per Johnston, being a firm no.

Although affirming and queer-friendly ministry has grown steadily more mainstream over the years, with hundreds of congregations across nearly every major denomination now openly welcoming LGBTQ members and clergy, Johnston and co. radically oppose them and regularly call them out, which, in some cases, has resulted in harassment on social media.

His rhetoric extends well into politics. In one video on his YouTube channel, Johnston declared that since they couldn’t vote for Jesus himself, the only candidate aligned with “biblical design” and “God’s own law” was Donald Trump. In April of 2026, Johnston was invited to the White House to attend a worship event put on by the National Faith Advisory Board. He has also enthusiastically spread QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories, framing the “LGBTQ agenda” as a demonic force targeting children.

Johnston’s institutional standing received a major boost in April 2024 when NAR Apostle, and write-in candidate for Governor of California, Ché Ahn officially recognized him as an Evangelist, a title in the NAR world, at Harvest International Ministry’s global summit, unlocking access to a network of over 25,000 ministries across 65 countries. Ahn praised Johnston specifically because he “can speak to transgenderism” and “the gay community” as someone raised in that environment.

“He didn’t know a dad, and God radically saved him for such a time as this,” Ahn said.

By early 2025, Johnston had partnered with anti-LGBTQ activist and former multilevel marketer Jenny Donnelly for the multi-city “Mayday USA” tour, framed explicitly as spiritual warfare against queer people and abortion rights. The Seattle stop of Mayday resulted in mass arrests of counterprotesters and the so-called “Rattle in Seattle,” where Pursuit and Mayday claimed they were being persecuted by

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city leadership for being Christian while in Seattle and have since sued the cities of Seattle and Los Angeles.

At a February stop at Portland’s Collective Church to promote Mayday, he told the crowd, “You’re already known as a Christian white nationalist, so you might as well act like one and get out onto the streets with us.” Johnston has also begun targeting public high schools, boasting that thousands of students have come to Jesus through his school gym sessions. “We’ve prayed for decades to get into public schools,” he said, “and now we’re in them.”

I contacted Johnston for comment via social media for this piece—he responded by taking a dig at the pronouns in my bio and encouraged me to “figure out who you are first” before requesting an interview.

From Addict to Champion of Men’s Ministry

Jay Koopman’s relationship with NAR Apostle Ché Ahn is the defining fact of Koopman’s ministry, and he is deeply embedded in the NAR’s dominionist project to establish a theocratic takeover of American culture, politics, and institutions.

Ahn himself was active in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, taking the main stage on January 5, 2021, at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Freedom Plaza,

Pursuit’s new leadership “are desperate for attention, that’s what they live off, it’s the playbook, that’s their lifeblood.”

Washington, DC. As associate pastor at Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, California, Ahn’s flagship congregation, Koopman was his direct subordinate.

Koopman’s testimony, his redemption from addiction, is key in his work today, where he regularly does altar calls, asking people to surrender their cigarettes, vapes, and drugs in exchange for God’s approval.

Koopman rose through his partnership with Feucht, and joined his “Let Us Worship” tour in 2020. He was Feucht’s hype man—a crowd-energizing counterpart to Feucht’s musical lead, and a role he reprised on Feucht’s 2024 election-focused “Kingdom to the Capitol” tour. That working relationship continued through to 2025, just before a group of Feucht’s former staff launched a website alleging spiritual and financial abuse within his ministries.

Koopman’s activities extend beyond small local revival events. He was present at the NAR’s Hope Fest LA alongside Johnston and other key NAR figures, where Ahn led the crowd in reciting what he called the “Family First Pledge”—a public commitment to vote only for candidates who oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. Ahn framed it plainly: “We are calling this the Family First Pledge and that you would vote righteously for family first candidates.”

I contacted Koopman for comment

for this piece, again via social media. He did not respond—however, he posted my request to his Instagram stories with a joke about not being a “stranger.”

Why Seattle?

Taylor, the religious scholar, emphasizes that the legal landscape in this country has fundamentally changed, pointing to the Task Force for the Eradication of Anti-Christian Bias hosted at the DOJ, and a National Security Memo identifying anti-Christianity as a marker of domestic terrorism, noting that Pursuit’s leaders have “direct channels to DOJ, the FBI, and to the White House.”

He draws a parallel to the DOJ’s fraud investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center, the civil rights organization that monitors extremist groups. The DOJ indicted the SPLC on 11 counts including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, alleging SPLC defrauded donors. The SPLC has pushed back against the charges, stating, “We will not be intimidated” and framing the indictment as politically motivated.

Taylor described it as “a completely concocted prosecution” that nonetheless has “real impact,” and warns that a provocative event that turns violent could “be leveraged into a new round of DOJ prosecutions of activist groups.”

Most sobering is his point that even dismissed cases carry a lasting cost: “It doesn’t have to be a really well-laid trap, either, because people would still be known as this anti-Christian domestic terrorist.” He urges extreme caution, stressing that Pursuit’s new leadership “are desperate for attention, that’s what they live off, it’s the playbook, that’s their lifeblood,” and that Johnson’s close ties to the Trump administration mean that “Todd Blanche or Kash Patel could be reached on the phone within an hour or two.”

His ultimate warning is that “there is a very real possibility of a police state overreach that people are not ready for.”

Both Johnston and Koopman have already commenced their new Pursuit NW roles, leading worship at several campuses. Johnston has been seen traveling via helicopter in between campuses while Koopman has been building out Pursuit’s men’s ministry.

On Monday, May 18, two teenagers opened fire at the San Diego Islamic Center, killing three people before turning the guns on themselves. The attackers had glorified neo-Nazis and espoused antigay and anti-trans ideology.

The following day, Johnson and Pursuit’s official Instagram page collaborated on a post with the headline “Islam isn’t taking over WA state,” a direct reference to the Muslim Association of Puget Sound’s purchase of an eight-acre property for $45 million, located just two miles from Pursuit’s Kirkland campus. Johnson accused Muslims of following a false God and stated that the region belongs to “one true God” alone.

Three men. One organization. A post staking Christian territorial claim the morning after three Muslims were shot dead. This is not just poor judgment—it’s the playbook, executed in real time, at the intersection of grief and power, and their flock loved it.

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16 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

‘Wait, Capitol Hill Is Gay?’

And Other Lessons Learned by the Seattle Police Department in the Year Since the Cal Anderson Counterprotest

BY HANNAH MURPHY WINTER

How could they have known Capitol Hill was gay?

H

appy Anniversary! It’s been one year since Christian supremacists took over a historically queer park in Seattle’s historically queer neighborhood.

The event, which you may have read about in last year’s Queer Issue, was part of the Mayday USA tour, an anti-trans, anti-abortion spectacle specifically designed to goad Seattleites into a protest that served their narrative: Christians as victims of left-wing oppression.

“We’re going in this time with guns blazing and all our pieces in place. . . . we’re here to fuck people up.”

It worked. Mayday USA’s carefully edited videos appear to show droves of radical black bloc leftists descending on an innocent and peaceful worship event, forcing the Seattle Police Department to protect the worshipers.

And they were able to create that alternate reality on their social media feeds in large part because Mayday USA played SPD like a fiddle. Cops cracked down on protesters, forcing them back

RYDER COLLINS

with bicycles and batons and violently arresting some for “destruction of property” because they untied Mayday’s balloons. City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who was at the protest, said in a council meeting that SPD’s pepper spray had given her chest pains for more than a week.

A year later, City Hall and SPD insisted that they’ve learned from their mistakes. Last summer, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) convened a panel of SPD officers and community members to discuss the events of the weekend and its 16 reported uses of force by the cops. And last month, the OIG presented the results of their panel discussions to Seattle City Council. So what better time to review.

“Is that why there’s so many gay bars here?”

According to the OIG report , SPD came in hot with the counterprotesters because officers came from precincts outside the neighborhood, and didn’t understand or acknowledge the “cultural significance of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and specifically Cal Anderson Park, for LGBTQ+ communities.” The rainbow crosswalks were too subtle.

They also seemed to think they were reaching out to the wrong gay people.

“Certain LGBTQ+ community organizations historically receive more atten-

17

18 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

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The panelists discussed 16 reported uses of force from SPD that day.

RYDER COLLINS

tion, credibility, and outreach from SPD than others,” the report says. SPD didn’t reach out to LGBTQ organizations that had “prior knowledge” about the rally, to prepare for “potential tensions.” The report doesn’t say which orgs they reached out to.

It’s an awfully roundabout way of saying they have no gay friends.

“The confusion and uncertainty were exacerbated by SPD engaging in multiple melees and arrests amidst the chaos of the officers riding bicycles quickly into the crowded area,” the report continued.

Civilian panelists recommended that they try “avoiding running bystanders over with bicycles.”

“What’s the word you can’t say?”

The report had been public for months, but May’s public safety meeting was the first opportunity for council members to ask the OIG questions directly in the public record. It started with a bang.

About half a dozen protesters—including two people violently arrested at Cal Anderson—spoke during public comment about their experiences with SPD, and, when they pivoted to the presentation, effectively shut the meeting down.

Councilmembers Eddie Lin, Dionne Foster, and Alexis Mercedes Rinck joined the

The most famous quotes from the cops that day came from a public records request in January. “We’re going in this time with guns blazing and all our pieces in place,” said Officer Matthew Didier.

“We are past talking to people; we’re here to fuck people up now.”

The quote didn’t even make it into the report, but it did acknowledge that SPD worked closely with Mayday USA’s private security, and that they’d picked up the “transtifa” term from the organization’s “liaison.” (It’s like antifa, but more transgender.)

The police outreach engagement officers, a team established to work with the public after the 2020 protests, started using the term, and according to the report, it spread among the SPD officers on the scene. The report acknowledges that the word was “perceived by community members as anti-transgender.”

SPD also went into the event believing that “antifa” (anyone who opposes our current government) and “black bloc” (a protest tactic) are organized, hierarchical groups intent on confronting the police, and used “open-source intelligence” (social media) to gather intelligence on “antifa.” The report encouraged them to do literally anything else (our words, not theirs).

Crowd Control

All of this, the OIG says, led SPD to misjudge what crowd control measures were necessary, leading to flagrant, escalating shows of force rather than “targeted arrests.” They said these arrests were “not consistent with that policy or training and resulted in officers striking numerous peaceful counterdemonstrators without warning or opportunity to move.”

What’s Next?

Civilian panelists recommended that they try “avoiding running bystanders over with bicycles.” protesters on the floor while they talked about what it was like to have a cop kneeling on their neck.

Eventually, a disgruntled Committee Chair Bob Kettle pivoted to a virtual meeting.

Foster pointed out perhaps the most frustrating detail in the report—OIG had made the same recommendations in their reviews of the 2020 protests. OIG chief Lisa Judge responded with word salad.

“There are going to be common themes,” she said. “It’s not that SPD didn’t implement recommendations.” And then again: “Those recommendations were implemented,” she said. “But they didn’t use all of the lessons learned.”

“They were implemented, but not implemented that day,” Foster said back.

As one of the protesters said: “Culture eats policy for breakfast every day.”

19

20 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

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JUNE 2026

Party Smarter, Not Harder

Don’t Be an Idiot—Test Your Drugs

BY NATHALIE GRAHAM ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE MERGENTHALER

T

he sun is out. So are your ass cheeks. Robyn is thumping. So is your heart. It’s summer, it’s a bacchanal. So, it’s only natural to invite some… enhancements to the party. Some MDMA here, a bump of coke there, a Perc, a bar. It’s not going to kill you.

Probably. To make sure, you should test all your drugs before you use them.

Do what you want. Just don’t be stupid.

Fentanyl has been infiltrating street drugs and pills like Percocet, OxyContin, and Xanax for years. Last year, 78 percent of fatal overdoses in King County were caused by fentanyl and 83 percent of those overdoses included one other drug. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, “there is significant risk that illegal drugs have been intentionally contaminated with fentanyl… increasing the likelihood of a fatal interaction.”

Small traces of fentanyl can cause overdoses—two milligrams is lethal. If you don’t know what’s in your supply, you could overdose; your cunty summer looks a lot less cunty from inside the morgue.

Don’t eyeball it: Fentanyl looks like other drugs, according to Public Health – Seattle & King County spokesperson Ellis Johnson.

“Fentanyl is found in pressed pills, powder, and rock drugs,” Johnson wrote in an email. “People should test any drugs that weren’t prescribed to them and purchased from a pharmacy for fentanyl.”

Luckily, the public health department is into harm reduction and there are free fentanyl- testing strips available all over the county. You just need to know where to look. And, if you don’t want to look for them, you can have them mailed to you.

Go to Public Health’s website to order

test strips directly to your home or business. Public Health will mail individuals five test strips, which have a shelf life of two to three years. Businesses or community organizations can order strips in bulk.

Plan ahead—sometimes it takes about two weeks for them to arrive.

The easiest way to get test strips is by using Public Health’s free vending machines. There are five around town. Simply scan a QR code on the machine, take an anonymous survey, and you’ll get a PIN good for two items. The machines contain fentanyl test strips, as well as injectable naloxone and Narcan nasal spray to reverse overdoses. You can use the machine once a week. Find them at: • Peer Seattle • Peer Kent • Maleng Regional Justice Center • Compass Center Day Center • YouthCare Seattle’s Orion Center At Peer Seattle in Capitol Hill, program director Marc Shelffo sees all types of people take test strips.

“We have parents who come in and grab stuff for their kids who are going to their first rave or going out to college,” Shelffo says.

“Police and first responders come in sometimes. Peer Seattle members come in. People from out of town sometimes will come in.”

Summer is their busy season, Shelffo says. Raves, music festivals, and Pride mean more partying and more drugs. If people take out fentanyl test strips, Peer Seattle won’t judge. They’ll encourage people to get some Narcan, too.

“If you decide you’re going to use, don’t use alone, and test,” Shelffo says. “You’re not going to lose anything by testing, but you lose everything by not.”

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22 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

The Last Cigarette Adventures in Tobacco ILLUSTRATIONS BY PABLO IGLESIAS

The Frenchman Cheered

uched a cigarette. ven’t so much as to ha I e, lif y m of t os or m gh school at a le of friends in hi up co a th wi e on ed back.

I shared hing, and never look yt an led ha in ly re sleepover, ba birthday. I couldn’t to Paris for my 34th nt we I , ar ye t las t Bu rtunately, I loved ing in Europe. Unfo ok sm of r ou m gla my girlfriend resist the hio Paris-Brest with ac st pi a ed ar sh I n se Cemeit. Whe ar the Père Lachai on a park bench ne a g a Marlboro Red, tery while smokin , by ed izz bicycle wh Frenchman on a al. cheering his approv to be a hedoos What was supp ed ly treat followed nistic vacation-on e, and thus me home statesid casional began a habit of an oc st ar te d in du lg en t ci g. I d pack carrying a battere purse y m in of Marlboros ruck. st for when the urge snuck Earlier this year, I ow at outside during a sh d to en fri y m Bad Bar with ion at ul im escape the overst m in drum ed and smoked as ra roof. It was perfect. on the covered patio garette was after an My most recent ci ue Dirty Shirleys at Bl evening of drinking re ra my best friend, a Moon Tavern with cited to r 30s. We’d been ex ou in us r fo n sio ca oc g rly. I felt the cravin t ended up leaving ea bu , ys da g. ge ba lle k co in r -p relive ou from my Barbie and produced one lighter, the for a tipsy cigarette old-fashioned gold y m th wi up d ke ey wanted Clumsily, I spar asked my friend if th I . nd wi e th in g in . feeble flame flicker grinned and agreed ief hesitation, they br a r te , af er d th an ge it, to t e to shar the nigh we walked through , re su ea pl y tle ilt lit gu a Bonded by about life, and for d forth as we talked passing it back an rld. JULIANNE BELL s right with the wo wa ng hi yt er ev , ile wh

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Pretty and Pink

made it through high school and most of college without succumbing to the peer pressures of smoking cigarettes. Although my 20-year-old self would have told you it was because of my moral superiority (saving baby birds from choking on butts, not supporting another evil capitalist system, etc.), the truth was that the social intimacy of smoking felt like more of a death sentence than the tobacco itself. Then one Saturday afternoon, while my longtime friend Noah and I wandered around downtown Olympia, jobless, broke, and surviving on chocolate chip cookies from the Greenery (the Evergreen State College’s buffet-style eatery), Noah pulled out a gorgeous pack of colorful cigarettes with filters gilded in gold leaf and lined up by color: blue, yellow, red, and pink. “Want one?” they asked.

I paused. What would normally be an obvious “no” was complicated by the beauty of what I’d be rejecting. How could I turn it down? The pink cigarette matched my baby pink polo dress and Wet n Wild blush. While I imagined myself as Jayne Mansfield in her pink palace, Noah lit my cigarette. I inhaled. I exhaled. I nearly coughed up a lung. Then, I continued to let the pink cigarette burn down between my painted fingernails like an old Hollywood star. AUDREY VANN

H

Not-So-Cold Turkey

oneymooning in Tu rkey, we entered a shop wallpapered rette packages. “W with black cigahile we’re here, w e could split one af my new husband, ter every meal,” Harry, suggested.

“Like locals.” I w cigarettes. But this as raised to fear was Europe (and al so Asia). “Sure, why Each package feat not?” ured a visceral im age of a smoking si baby, gangrene legs de eff ect. A shriveled , gross lungs, a foot with a toe tag. Ou woman gasping fo rs had a picture of r breath. We boug a ht it for $1.75 US do We split one next llars. to the ruins of Perg amon. We had anot while stray cats cl her after lunch, imbed on top of an d under our table. made us feel less Th e cigarettes like outsiders whe n we ventured on for a swimming ex to a pi rate ship cursion frequented

by Turks. When w cigarettes with yo e shared ung men on the bo at, they commiser our government. “I ated about t sounds like Turk ey,” they said, flick into a soda can. W ing ash e smoked at a wat er park just down from the ancient th e road city of Ephesus. W e chased a roofto alongside Cappad p dinner ocia’s spires with a smoke, luxuriatin Istanbul, we need g. In ed a new pack.

That pack’s image was a mouth full of black, rotted teeth. couldn’t look at it.

I I have a thing abou t teeth. Harry scrib it out with a ballpoi bl ed nt pen. Better. Drun k on raki, we smok watching a soccer ed while game at a bar with a Texan couple. H in Big Tobacco. Sh er family was e didn’t smoke. Not for health reasons. cigarettes didn’t ca She insisted use cancer.

With one cigarette and one night left, we lit up on our ba looking the Bospho lcony overrus Strait. The call for prayer sounde all over the city, cr d fr om mosques eating an ethereal chorus. We savore sounds, the smok d the views, the e. A new reality aw aited tomorrow. NA THALIE GRAHAM

I

My Last Cigarette Was This Morning

n 1995, a little-known Bristol duo called Mon k & Canatella released a track, “I Can Water My Plants,” that captures the art of having a good smoke. The key line: “I can water my plants and smoke a cigarette or go out for a walk, on my own or with friends.” Now, this is how it’s done. The quiet smoke with your plants and in your slippers. Smo king with friends is ugly and ruins what should be a perfect moment: lighting the tobacco, taking a few drags, and letting your mind wan der a little. In this perfect setting, which is dom estic, one can reflect on, say, the fact that plan ts produce food by gathering sunlight.

Riding a bike while smoking, a practice which boggles me and seems to be popular in Berlin, will just not do. The movements of a true smoker are always kept to a minimum; the conversation should only be with yourself.

Not all solitary smoking is good, however. Take, for instance, this line in Prince’s tune “17 Days”: “So here I sit in my lonely room, lookin’ for my sunshine / But all I’ve got is two cigarettes and this broken heart of mine.” This is bad smoking and must be avoided because how can your mind wander in such a state? Each drag of the cigarette is captured and consume d by your lovesickness. You are, in short, not really smoking. You are burning time.

One more point: Smoking, like reading a book , com plet ely baffles crows. They just don’t get it. “What’s this business all about?” they ask. If you are not eating, then why are you putting that burning thing in your mouth?

Crows think they know everything about humans. They don’t. The tranquility of smoking breaks their otherwis e too-clever minds. CHARLES MUDEDE

I

The Perpetual Nausea

smoke my last cigarette, my didn’t make the decision to es, I was a chain smoker of body did. In my early twenti ke, Reds—or, when I was bro cowboy killers, Marlboro the seafoam pyramid on the Pyramid menthols because s an idiot.) Then my ve.” (This was 2016, and I wa packaging looked “vaporwa longed, lifelong case of , an antidepressant, for my pro trin llbu We d ibe scr pre tor doc sation aid, snuffed is also used as a smoking ces ich wh g, dru the e, onc At s. the sad up. I was in a t I was quite ready to give it tha t No e. otin nic for ire des out my shaky rooms are not exciting, about waiting around. Green band, and being in a band is t the cigs never quite hit. in freezing temperatures. Bu n eve is, y alle r’s oke sm a but e effect would last as me queasy. I figured this sid de ma puff a n tha re mo t, In fac would welcome s ever off it again, cigarettes wa I if and , trin llbu We k long as I too nd. oldering arms like an old frie me back into their crispy, sm staying en Wh g. flin I were just a As it turns out, Wellbutrin and oa int eks two we with a bandmate’s relatives t lef nta lly mo nth lon g tou r, I’d acc ide lizing this behind my 90-day supply. Rea Atlanta the of about an hour outside ve and suburbs, I texted the relati learn prepared to turn back, only to just that the garbage man had s tes hos r Ou hauled it away. ipscr had tos sed my pre tion drug bottle in the trash , almost the moment we left r no mi est ird we on e of the s far. thu me on crimes perpetrated nk it thi she I’ve often wondered, Did fuse con she was, like, heroin? Molly? Did “drugs” and drugs? the Wellbutrin nausea stuck.

The Wellbutrin was gone, but bummed my fair of alcohol over the years, I’ve er isp wh the by ed rag cou En ing three years ago, at d for it. I decided to stop try share of cigarettes and suffere r a porch railing. It was party, while leaning dizzily ove my future drummer’s house Spirit, the most ass is that it was a blue American ret reg y onl My . ice cho ht the rig smoke out there. VIVIAN McCALL

JUNE 2026

I

23

Chicago Made Me Do It

lly before, and I had never rea had never been to Chicago k dar and tured icy flat coldness wanted to because I just pic k pea icago in January. Peak dark, winter skies. Here I am in Ch ting kes me like Seattle more. Sit cold. Every city I go to just ma k of bac the on t over steak frites at the bar, where a man is ben at tly gen g the fries and noddin a black baby grand, fingering ks loo umbent strings. Everyone the thrumming of giant rec y. ather-bitten Midwestern wa chiseled here, in a certain we idel g kin fuc ouse. Chowder A cheese blanket at the steakh No vy! gra mble. It’s like clam cious, with oyster cracker cru follow-it-to-the-end-of-thereal clams, but the gravy is I’llthe server laugh? He’s been world good. How can I make ah, all one-liners, riffs, and here longer than Methusel loth clears, all the crumbs insincere winks. The tablec s. How long does memory barely there food memorie en Mill Cocktail last in the tummy? At the Gre Lounge, overheard: Maybe because nobody needs me.

Just friends but not like before. Her thick glasses, this low ceiling, why can’t k we have music like this bac ge ver home? Intimacy on the of collapse of personal space, entwined in musical coitus t with the mic, just five fee at wh g, away. What is she singin like it’s is he saying ? I don’t know, love the keyboarding in tongues. I me. The strong, silent type. So sue s. It’s cle cir tablecloths draped in d. On col cold, it’s harsh, it’s flat. It’s one cigathe way out, a man asked for . This is why rette, and you gave him two the last time I I love you. I can’t remember re, s probably right then and the smoked a cigarette, but it wa groni Ne low, somewhere between a a drag of American Spirit yel and an Uber. AMANDA MANITACH

I

Every Lesbian, but Her

don’t know when I became a smoker, but I alwa ys knew when I was going to stop. Through my early 20s, I told myself that if I ever started dating a nonsmoker, I’d know it was time to quit. For a long time, that was deeply hypothetical. It was Brooklyn in 2014.

Every lesbian in their 20s was at least a casu al smoker—that’s what bar patios were made for. But then I met Billie . She was going through a messy breakup, and was extremely off-limits, but we became fast friends. On paper, at least . After a few drinks, I’d sigh and tell my friends, “It’s okay , I’ll just love her forever, and she’ll never know.” She knew I was a smoker, and we’d go out drinking until all hours of the night, but I always waited to light a cigarette until we’d said goodnight.

The n one day, I was on a bar pati o in Brooklyn. I was sitting on a bench with my arm draped over the back and a freshly lit Cam el Blue between my fingers when Billie appe ared in the doorway. When I saw her walking dow n the stairs, I looked at the cigarette in my hand , opened my fingers, and let it fall into the grav el.

I’d had a lot to drink that night before she got there, and more to quell the nerves once she did, so the memory is a little hazy. But that’s the night we consider our anniversary.

I got to work late, hungover, not entirely conv inced the night before had actually happened. A coworker aske d me if I wanted to grab a smoke. While I recounted the hazy mem ories of the night before, I looked down and said out loud, “Well, I gues s maybe this is my last cigarette.” It was. I married her. HANNAH MURP HY WINTER

24 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

25

Seattle Is Not ‘Overwhelmed’ by Trans People But We Do Have a Burgeoning Refugee Crisis, and It’s Time for City Hall to Step Up

BY HANNAH MURPHY WINTER ART BY TIM SILBAUGH

I

n the middle of May, the Advocate, a national LGBTQ magazine, published a rare headline about Seattle. “Transgender Americans are fleeing hostile red states,” it read. “Seattle says it’s overwhelmed.”

The headline was posted to social media, picked up by other queer outlets, and pingponged around the internet, latching onto readers’ confirmation biases on every side of the political spectrum. The story eventually bounced back to Seattle, where TV reporters parroted the Advocate’s headline: Seattle is overwhelmed by trans people!

Let’s state the obvious first: We are a city that’s overwhelmed by many things. Our booming population? Sure. The tech sector? Maybe. High income earners inflating our cost of living? Most certainly. But our city of 800,000 people is not “overwhelmed” by trans people fleeing red states.

Unfortunately, that meme-able headline overshadowed what Seattle’s queer community was actually saying: The City isn’t overwhelmed, but our queer community organizations are. Seattle is witnessing the beginning of an internally displaced refugee crisis. And it’s time for the city government to step in and live up to its claims that it’s a “Welcoming City,” and be one.

The story started with an article in Seattle Gay News on May 12. Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission had sent a letter to the Mayor’s Office, City Council, and City Attorney’s Office, asking that they declare a civil emergency to address the increasing number of trans and queer people moving to Seattle from hostile states to escape anti-trans legislation, threats to personal safety, and a lack of health care and legal recognition.

Seattle is on a short list of US cities that are widely known to be especially safe for trans people. But moving here also means moving into one of the most expensive cities in the county—undoubtedly more expensive than the city they’re coming from—in the midst of a housing and affordability crisis.

Jessa Davis, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, tells The Stranger that new arrivals are struggling to find work and housing. “We have people who come here, and they sleep on a couch for two weeks, and then go to another couch for two weeks, and then maybe they have a car, maybe they choose to get a tent,” she says. “It’s really impossible to get the kind of money you need to rent a place on your own, and building a network fast enough where you can get a roommate or move in with someone long-term.”

There are no official (or even unofficial) numbers for how many trans people have moved here since the Trump administration poured fuel on the fire of the Repubican Party’s anti-trans campaigns took off, but local organizations have consistently

There’s no official number for how many trans people have moved to Seattle since the Republican anti-trans campaign took off. reported increased demand. “In some cases, demand already exceeds available capacity,” the letter reads. And Seattle’s emergency response systems aren’t built to help people who are displaced in their own country. So they felt it was necessary to declare a civil emergency.

A “civil emergency” is largely a bureaucratic lever. Declaring one allows the mayor to throw money at a crisis without going through the time-consuming legislative process of allotting funds through City Council. And this wouldn’t be the first time the Trump administration cornered us into it: Mayor Bruce Harrell declared a civil emergency when SNAP benefits went unfunded last year.

In this case, the commission hopes that declaring a civil emergency could allow the city to financially support the organizations that are already serving trans refugees in the city with housing, behavioral health, food access, legal services, and violence prevention.

A civil emergency isn’t the only iron in the fire, and it might not be the best one.

In the weeks before the commission sent the letter, City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck had already been working with community groups on an early draft of a Trans Bill of Rights that would “shape the city’s approach to welcoming trans refugees.” She supported declaring a civil emergency when SNAP bene-

fits were on the line, because there was a clear, single-step course of action ahead of them: Use emergency funds to fund the food banks. But in a nuanced situation like this refugee crisis, the demands on the executive branch aren’t as clear. “A civil emergency only works when the executive knows what they want to do,” she says.

Davis stands by their letter. “It’s a shortterm solution,” she says. “We don’t have money [for those services] in the budget today. But we have emergency funds, and we need to do something today… If we start by just talking about the future, then we are dooming the people between now and that future budget cycle to being entirely on their own in the face of potentially collapsing social support.”

After the swirl of the headlines settled, the mayor didn’t declare an emergency. Instead, she announced a first step: an “interdepartmental team” that will figure out what the executive wants to do. They’ll work in “active partnership”—whatever that means—with the commission, community groups, and city council to recommend new legislation, including Rinck’s Trans Bill of Rights.

One of the City’s biggest challenges will be assessing just how many trans people have moved to Seattle—it’s hard to allocate resources when you don’t know how many people need them. Rinck says she’s been talking to the trans mutual aid groups like couch-surfing networks that have popped up all over the city, which have the most consistent, direct contact with trans people who have fled other states. They’re able to give her verbal estimates of the number of people they’re working with, but many of them are informal and decentralized by nature. “I can’t pull from a data system and say here are the exact numbers.”

Some of that is by design. “People are surviving by staying invisible,” says Rinck. It’s true of anyone experiencing homelessness, she says, “but there’s a tremendous amount of danger that is facing trans people.”

The letter did commit to work on an “accelerated timeline,” and they plan to finish in August. When it comes to funding, though, the letter committed to nothing.

“Although our city is experiencing challenging budget constraints, we will proactively search for ways to meet urgent needs while planning for a stronger future,” Mayor Wilson wrote. But both Rinck and Davis have been heartened by the City’s quick responses so far. “It surpassed my expectations,” Davis says. “It’s been met with a level of seriousness and engagement that I’m frankly proud of.”

26 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

Bring Back Analog Sex

BY THE STRANGER’S QUEER CONSULTING AGENCY ILLUSTRATIONS BY LISA CZECH

W

e hate our phones. We hate your phone. We want all phones, along with the internet, to be destroyed in some illegal, fiery fashion.

We’re losing the ability to talk to one another, and it’s hurting our love lives.

Phones and technology are cucking us into gameless, anxious slugs who are having less quality gay sex than actual slugs, which mate by entwining their massive head penises. A frottage

beyond imagination. Straight people are probably having less sex as well, but this isn’t the Straight Issue, and they are of no concern to this team, which is on a mission from God to glaze this town with gay cum and snail trails.

That’s praxis, or something.

Except, the apps. People born after 1992, spayed by loin-ossifying pandemic captivity, know only the apps.

Subjected to the intense clarity of in-person rejection, cyborgs accus-

tomed to sexual pursuits ending in cold, sudden silence are liable to self-destruct.

But life, our dear dykes and fags, is rejection. What are we afraid of ?

Feeling like a creep? A disparaging up-and-down from a fading twink?

A big-titty goth girl squashing our hearts with her oversized, spiked platform boots? Well, yes, that sounds awful, but you miss 100 percent of the backshots you don’t take.

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28 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

CRUISING LESSONS FROM THE JERK-OFF JEDI

Paul Rosenberg is the owner and founder of Rain City Jacks, a fun, relaxed club where men check their politics at the door to connect by jerking it normal style.

The rules of jacking off are simple. All guys are welcome to sit down and go to town, as long as “no lips [go] below the hips” and “nothing goes inside anybody’s anything.” It’s not the first J-O club, but it is the only nonprofit J-O club. I asked Rosenberg about cruising. He was flattered and happy to offer his thoughts as “a wizened slut.” This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

is initial contact, that eye contact. The second part is the follow-up, which is looking back. And the third step is actually going off together and doing something. Or having coffee. Making any kind of contact that leads you into a relationship that’s either five minutes long or five decades long.

There’s always the possibility of misread signals—how can someone keep themselves safe?

Gosh, how do I put this? I don’t think you can entirely eliminate the element of dan-

you know, whipping their dick out, or smiling, or doing something in response to that request, even though it may be silent.

Should younger gay men try cruising if they haven’t tried?

What I think they should try is just take a chance of mixing it up socially with people without phones. That’s the bottom line. No matter what kind of interaction you want to have with somebody, you need to recognize when you’re being distracted from just socializing, just being with other people. If

Cruising intimidates younger gay people who are used to the apps. Was it intimidating for you?

Not for me! I was a very horny and very precocious young guy back in the 1970s, which is when I came out. I’m a member of “Generation Jones,” too young to get drafted, but I benefited from Stonewall. And I also got to play first for a good long period of time before AIDS showed up.

Do you remember your first experience?

I don’t [chuckles]. I just remember that before I came out, I was a big reader. I know that I read somewhere that the the bottom line of cruising is eye contact; I remember reading a scenario where you see somebody on the street, you make eye contact, one might touch their crotch, and then you go past each other. Then the payoff is when you look back and you’re both looking back at each other. That’s the follow-up that locks it in.

Walk me through a night of cruising: What are we wearing, where are we going, what are we doing, and what time is it?

In my experience, guys who cruise are always ready to cruise. It’s not so much a night of cruising, so much as a life of cruising. Once you acknowledge that you’ve got an availability for this kind of random contact, then suddenly you begin to see opportunities around you, and it changes how you interact in public.

How do you know when you’re barking up the right, or wrong, tree?

It’s the look back. So, for street cruising, there are basically three elements. The first

LEX IS MY EX

We had our hopes. “Grindr” for lesbians! “Grindr” for trans people*! The learned did not believe the hype. But even the most pessimistic oracles did not foresee that Lex, an app for love and sex, would become the worst poetry journal on earth. Lex was better as an Instagram. Money ruins everything. (*For a lot of us trans people, Grindr for trans people is Grindr.) VIVIAN McCALL

ger, but you can prepare yourself by not not being in a dangerous place. It’s like going to a protest, you need an escape route, you need an alternative, you need plausible deniability, and you need to not be so dick drunk—I mean, just to be completely male centric—so dick drunk that you make stupid mistakes that can get you in trouble either with the law or with a homophobe.

If a lot of cruising is eye contact and vibes, how do we make sure we’re getting someone’s consent?

I always think the best way to foster a culture of consent is to practice it. Consent is simple at Rain City Jacks. Basically, we train people to say the words, “May I?” With public sex cruising, it’s more likely going to be a silent signal. You do something to indicate “I am interested in this or that,” and then the other one has to respond by,

you can do that, then you’re going to have opportunities to notice that somebody is into you, to let somebody else know you’re into them in whatever subtle or overt way that happens. And yes, cruising will happen, and it’s fun, it’s so fun. VIVIAN McCALL

THE SNIFFIES REPORT

Bad news, gay guys. Beloved cruising app Sniffies just got a $100 million investment from dating app tycoons Match Group.

Starting off as simply Match.com, over the years Match Group has consolidated their hold on the online dating marketplace by snatching up any rival that rises to the challenge, such as mainstream titans Tinder and Hinge, as well as more boutique queer dating apps like LDSPlanet (defunct) and

29

RepublicanPeopleMeet (also defunct).

Match Group’s investment is only a minority stake, meaning the app’s original Seattle developers maintain control for now. Part of the deal, which Sniffies founder and CEO Blake Gallagher says will usher in “a new era of cruising,” is that Match can acquire the rest of the company at a later date.

Even as a former Seattle Parks and Recreation trail worker, I’m in no position to comment on the specifics of how an underdog like Sniffies provides a preferred user/ cruiser experience compared to other apps.

I am, however, qualified to complain about what the acquisition represents: another loss for consumers from corporate consolidation in the age of collapsing antitrust enforcement.

Whether it’s Standard Oil or Match Group, one company monopolizing a sector of the economy always results in enshittification for customers. Sniffies itself had a rocky path to market after being removed from Apple’s App Store, which itself has been sued by the US Department of Justice for alleged unfair monopoly practices.

Historically, monopolization has meant less gas for your dollar (glad we solved that!), while in the world of hookup apps it means less sex. Match Group’s products are not designed to get you laid or find you love—that is not the company’s goal.

Rather, they are designed to make you pay money and give the company personal data from which they profit in your doomed quest for sex.

And the less sex you have, the more desperate and willing to pay for it you are.

This is the Match Group business model at heart: funnel the world’s horny people onto an app that promises sex while delivering little of it, therefore keeping them on the app, increasingly horny, increasingly desperate and willing to pay. Perhaps this is why, despite the explosion of dating apps, people are fucking less than ever. It’s really an issue that the Federal Trade Commission should take up, but I wouldn’t expect them to ride to the rescue any time soon.

On the bright side, I find it hard to believe there aren’t enough software engineers in Seattle alone (where they’re increasingly unemployed) who could cobble together an open-source P2P alternative to Sniffies. Or even a more mainstream dating/sex app, for that matter. Sniffies may have been born in Seattle, but cruising will find a way to survive in Seattle long after it’s gone. HUNTER PAULI

TIPS FROM THE GAY PEOPLE IN MY PHONE

It has been a while since I’ve fucked a stranger, or seriously flirted with one.

Blame it on monogamy. These days, when charismatic men want to banter and eyefuck, I worry I’m a step away from cheating. So I’m not equipped to discuss a subject I haven’t batted my eyes at in nearly a decade. I’m also not a gay guy. Fear not. I knew just whom to talk to. The gay people in my phone.

“Do you have any cruising tips?” I texted my friend out of the blue. To respect his

30 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

VANCOUVER’S MOST COLOURFUL ESCAPE. Plan your visit vanartgallery.bc.ca Installation view of Jim Lambie: Zobop (Colour-Chrome), exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery from October 22, 2025 to October 12, 2026, Photo: Vancouver Art Gallery

JUNE 2026

unbridled honesty, let’s call him “A.” (He suggested “Anonymous Furtive Cruiser” but it was too many words.) A came out when we were in college and has spent many postgrad years in Seattle cruising, rimming, and railing.

“In my experience, it’s all about the eye contact,” he responded immediately. “But it’s pretty dependent on location.”

He asked me not to quote him on specific public, outdoor cruising locations—we don’t want to blow your blowing spot, gay people, but they’re common knowledge (if you’re not in the know, ask a gay). A, though, usually picks people up at the gym.

“Gym cruising for me has been a lot of eye contact,” he wrote. He looks for repeated, lingering glances. Sometimes guys shift their packages around in a “subtle, but meaningful way.”

A will sometimes do a certain move in the sauna to gauge if someone’s cruising or interested in him. “I always wear a towel around my waist (raised Catholic so need to at least feign being prudish) and I’ll use the edge of the towel to wipe sweat,” A wrote. “If I see them peeking, I take that as ‘perhaps interested.’ And vice versa pretty obvious if they’re not.”

(He’s pretty cautious, so he makes extra sure before he makes a move. Sometimes he’ll make casual, nonsexual conversation to gauge interest. If a guy is straight, they’ll usually bring up a wife or a girlfriend pretty quickly.) Another tactic A sees and uses himself is to “skew your workout to show off a bit (squat, bench, whatever ur glamour muscles may be).”

“What are your glamor muscles?”

“I’ve been told I have a beautiful butt.”

This made sense. His ass is juicy.

I told him this.

“Thank you.”

A continued: “I like doing upper body tho. Love a bench.”

Other times, at the gym, you get lucky by catching a peek in the bathroom or at a urinal, he wrote.

“Locker rooms can be mild to wild depending on the facilities,” he wrote.

One gym that I will not name “used to have a super cruise-y sauna + gang showers.”

Another text: “There were times I was even clutching my pearls lol but was glad it existed.”

He described the showers as columns with faucets on each side. So, someone cruising could take an adjacent faucet or one nearby to watch.

Those were a “moment,” he said. “Lots of people’s fantasies. Once I got to shower with a visiting rugby team.”

That one gym’s locker room was a scene, A said. He called it the “gayest space I would visit tbh. Instrumental in my coming out.”

“There was a daddy doctor that would show off for me,” he wrote. “*Sigh* I hope he’s well.”

The straight guys remain clueless. “They’re generally oblivious to stuff like that and just assume people are nice (which is true, sometimes, tho in Seattle? Idk),” A wrote.

The space has since been renovated,

and A isn’t sure if the things that made it a cruising haven are still there.

I texted another friend if he had any cruising tips.

“Don’t get caught.”

“Helpful,” I replied.

“And have fun.”

(If getting caught is your kink, there are places for that, too, A, says. Like Steamworks Baths.) NATHALIE GRAHAM

FLIRTING DOS AND DON’TS WITH ADÉ

Adé A Cônnére is a Seattle nightlife icon, both on stage—as disco-pop chanteuse Bijoux (full disclosure: she performs with my husband) or the adorable goofball version of herself in Scott Shoemaker’s War on Christmas—and behind the bar. The first time I laid eyes on her, circa 2012, Cônnére was singing a number on top of the bar at Pony, the beloved, glory-holed institution where she went on to work. She’s spent

is a teasing, goofball, dark sense of humor kind of flirt. But I also feel like I’m a bad flirter, which is why I’m bad at picking up when people are “serious” flirting.

Adé’s DON’Ts: Don’t gush. There are some people who just don’t stop, and there’s like a line where it becomes an annoyance.

I get really uncomfortable when people are too flirtatious with me at work. It makes me feel like I’m on the spot.

Adé’s DREAM FLIRT: I would love for some stunning, impossibly handsome guy to come up and be like, “I think you’re gorgeous and I want to do bad things to you.”

Be a little naughty, but also kind of silly.

There has to be humor involved.

Adé’s WORST FLIRT: I was sitting at the bar at Donna’s and this guy comes in and sits down next to me and starts chatting, getting drunker and drunker. He’s like, “You have beautiful hair and eyes, and such beautiful hands and beautiful lips… they would look really great wrapped around my cock.” That could have been something, if he’d had a little humor in there, instead of

31

CALL ME DEFINITELY

Seattle seriously needs to get some goddamn game. You know what’s sexy and cool? Writing your name and phone number on a napkin or piece of paper, perhaps along with a note, walking up to someone you find compelling/hot/fuckable, and telling them to give you a call. EMILY NOKES “Nothing special!” I said, giggling and changing the subject, likely to something as unsexy, panic-inducing, and confusing as “skin care.” I’ve only been on a handful of dates with women, and I’ve become aware of our epidemic-level inability to flirt. It’s almost like women are afraid to flirt with other women because they’re afraid of acting like men. No one makes the first move, and therefore nothing happens, and all we have are deeply chaste, safe compliments. Your date is not your sister or your bestie, so consider saying something more forward or creative, like “Wow, your skin looks so soft,” or “Your skin is glowing,” or simply “I’m really into you.” AUDREY VANN

CREEP THEORY

the past decade slinging drinks at the bar, so she’s seen a thing or two go down in the flirt department: Adé’s POV:I’ve been in the nightlife industry for so long, and it’s interesting to see how people have changed. Even in the past 10 years, people have changed, boundaries have changed. What used to be considered harmless flirting is now considered harassment, crossing lines. You can’t touch people without their consent, which is great—I’m all for that—but I think that people just don’t know how to flirt anymore because the entire idea of flirting is different. Also: People are just really, really hypersexual these days. It’s like one moment I look over and someone’s in the talking zone, the next minute they’re making out, hands down each other.

Adé’s DOs: Simple, sweet, direct. I like someone that gets to the point! Silly flirting.

Not taking it too seriously. Not too aggressive. Complimenting what I’m wearing is always a nice icebreaker. But no over-complimenting. You can take it too far. My style

just going for it. You can’t just go for it. You blew your chances there, buddy (no pun intended). AMANDA MANITACH

IS THIS A COMPLIMENT, OR A SEX THING?

I am a bi woman, so I can say this—women largely do not know how to talk to women they are interested in. Recently, I was sitting at a dimly lit wine bar in Columbia City with a woman I met on Feeld.

She was dressed mysteriously in a black leather knee-length trench coat, with wild curls framing her heart-shaped face; I was into her, mystified, and hopeful. Until she asked the kind of question sapphics everywhere dread. “What’s your skin care routine?” I froze. Was she complimenting my skin, or did she want to know which brand of soap I use to wash that skin? I started to say “La Roche-Posay…” and then stopped.

The creep lives in a universe that is perfectly their own. There is no chance, no accident, no free will, no nothing but their singular will and reality—and the latter is always condemned to conform to the former. Anything else will not do. When the creep goes to a club, getting lucky is out of the question.

No luck is involved when it comes to obtaining what their sexual desire demands. It must happen; it will happen. This certainty defines the creep.

But look at how desiccated this situation is. It lacks the haze of creativity. The creep can learn nothing new because the world outside them has no surprises. They only know their own predetermined goals. Discovery is absent from their nature. The creep refuses to eat anything but steak.

What must be taken at face value is “going out to get lucky.” Luck is not a matter of necessity, or chance and necessity: just chance. This is why the richness of any night out on the town requires the recognition and appreciation of the cloud of probabilities that surround chance encounters.

You enter a conversation not really knowing what the outcome might be. You could get lucky, or you may not. And both possibilities are in themselves not clear or evident. You could get lucky but end up with no magic in the bed. You might not get lucky but end up doing something else that totally blows your mind. No growth or novelty is possible without probabilities. If you are a creep, you don’t need to be told “Go fuck yourself ” because, at the end of the day, you can only fuck yourself.

CHARLES MUDEDE

32 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

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The ‘Neurotic Little Freak’ Behind the Curtain Sam Pierce Is Your Favorite Drag Queen’s Favorite Life Preserver

BY HANNAH MURPHY WINTER PHOTOS BY BILLIE WINTER

A

bove a winding maze of clothing racks, dozens of styrofoam heads stare down at me. Sitting on three long rows of shelves, each head supports a carefully coiffed wig, tall, teased, and organized by color. Long pins stick out of some of them to hold them in place. Others have pins sticking out of their cheeks, lips, and chins like voodoo dolls. In the corner, one wig is sliding over the styrofoam head’s eyes.

Looking up at the menagerie of hair, Sam Pierce shakes their head. “I put all these shelves up,” they say. “When we first got

here, all these wigs were just in piles.”

My eyes got wide imagining all of the work that goes into shaping, gelling, and perfecting each wig on the wall.

Sam shrugged when they saw my face.

“Don’t worry, they’re plastic,” they said.

“They don’t have souls.” (They later clarified: “Some of them do. I try not to come in here at night.”)

We’re standing in the center of a drag studio in a Capitol Hill basement, the home base for local legends Jane Don’t and Bosco (you might recognize them from Drag Race Seasons 14 and 18, respectively). A corset

“There are people like Sam all over the drag world— you’d be surprised how many.”

made of monster faces hangs from the ceiling. A giant bird-shaped headpiece named Denise is perched on a pipe. Mannequins of every size and gender watch over vanities and sewing machines.

It’s clearly a second home for Sam. They aren’t a drag queen, but in every corner of the studio, you can find something they’ve touched. The shelves, obviously.

Every carefully bedazzled five-inch heel.

The drawers, labeled “Spikes/Chains,” “Crystal,” “Pearls/Bangles,” “Glasses,” “Nails,” “Miscellaneous Jewelry.” The feather boa stitched into the hem of Jane’s

34 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

“It’s fun to take something that’s not shiny and make it shiny.”

Sam created the Samdega in the studio, a one-stop shop for all of your emergency drag-show needs (above). The queens discovered early on that Sam is especially fast at rhinestoning their looks (right). dress. The “Samdega” full of makeup, hairspray, and other essentials. The suitcases in the corner? They’ve packed them.

The Grindhaus posters on the wall? They co-produce the show.

Sam doesn’t have a formal job title in the studio. Sometimes they’re described as a studio manager. Sometimes as an assistant.

A stage manager. An all-purpose them.

A handythey. Whenever I ask them to put a name on their position, they struggle to find an answer.

But what’s not up for debate is that some of Seattle’s biggest drag acts could not happen without Sam. They’re part of what Jane Don’t calls an “unseen force” behind the drag world: the people who do everything in the drag world but the drag. “I always joke that behind every amazing creative person that you know, there’s a neurotic little freak hiding back there, taking care of all the weird little things that the creative person can’t do,” Sam tells me.

“There’s people like Sam all over the drag world—you’d be shocked how many,” says Jane Don’t. “But my Sam is the best Sam.”

Sam was introduced to the Seattle drag scene in 2018. They were newly out, looking for community, and started hanging around Queer/Bar. “I had friends that had gotten me into Drag Race,” they told me over coffee. “But this was like a way to

reach out and touch it, you know?

I could walk up and be like, ‘Hello, I’m gonna talk to you,’ which was exciting to me.”

They were drawn to the pageantry of drag. “They’re so not normal,” they say. “So larger than life. I feel at home here.”

“I was determined to get involved somehow, in whatever way,” they say. “The shows used to have dancers, and they would pick up the money after each number. But when the show couldn’t afford to pay the dancers anymore, Visage Legs LaRue was there at the time, and I had just been around a lot. I think she felt my urge to get involved and reached out to me on Facebook Messenger.” She offered 50 bucks a night, and Sam jumped at it.

In burlesque, they’re called Stage Kittens—picking up clothes and tips so the performers don’t have to. “They shouldn’t have to scoop their own dirty, wet money off the floor,” Sam says.

“Sometimes they physically can’t, they’re wearing too much stuff.”

From there, they started noticing more and more things that could be made better, or easier, or more organized. “I just found myself being too neurotic,” they

35

say. “I just didn’t want to watch the drag queens struggle. I just started seeing problems and being like, ‘I can fix that.’”

Queer/Bar’s also where she met Bosco.

“She became one of my close friends. We started doing crafts together,” Sam says.

She got cast on Drag Race Season 14 in 2021. “I ended up helping her with her whole package and getting everything ready. There were three of us that made all of her stuff that went on her original season.”

That’s when they discovered their knack for rhinestoning. “I’m apparently very fast at it. So, the girls love to be like, ‘Can you do this project in 24 hours?’

36 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

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And I’m always like, ‘Fine.’”

“It’s fun to take something that’s not shiny and make it shiny,” they say. “I do a lot of pasties.”

Their role organically grew from there. It was all guided by what they called their “brain worms,” which made them fix things. “Let me help you buy some shelves and hang things up and make it efficient in here, instead of just…piles.”

They paused for a second. “This is gonna make them sound really unorganized and messy. But they On the floor counting dirty dollar bills (top) is “truest to who I am,” Sam says.

The first thing they fixed in the studio was much-needed wig storage (bottom). are.”

Sam is quick to downplay how much they contribute to the queens they work with.

When they told me that they helped build entire outfits for Bosco’s Drag Race run, my jaw dropped a little, and they shrugged. “It was mostly bras and panties.”

I asked Jane Don’t if she’d noticed how quickly Sam shrugs off their work, and I could hear her rolled her eyes through the phone. By the time Jane Don’t was getting ready to go onto RuPaul’s Drag Race, Sam

had already prepped two other queens for the show. They were a rare pro.

Jane says 14 or 15 people worked on her building out her outfits for the show, but Sam had something to offer that no one else did: experience organizing and packing a whole season’s worth of sparkling, largerthan-life looks.

“It’s funny, because it’s like you think, ‘Oh, I just have to sew everything, and I put them in a box and I take them,’” Jane told The Stranger. “But it’s also about

organizing things—having systems that make it easier for you to just do what you have to do when you’re there. That’s really Sam’s forte. And they had just done it so many times that it was so streamlined.”

Jane calls Sam her “life preserver.”

“When I think of Sam, it’s me crashing out and Sam just being like, “Hey, dumb dumb, go sit on the couch, I’ll just let me do it.’”

“They just do a lot to make all of our sort

37

of quality of life a lot better.

We’ve known each other for so long and worked together so closely that now they’re also just like extended family—my little/sometimes older sibling, and also kind of my assistant, and our studio manager, and the show runner, and my personal organizer.”

But she wanted to make sure we didn’t overlook the fact that Sam is a creative force on the team, too. And it’s not just they co-produce Grindhaus with Bosco every quarter. “Bosco will be like, ‘I need a giant cage on wheels,’ and Sam will figure out how to make it. Or ‘I need a big box that I have to come out of,’ and Sam will sit there and sculpt it out of foam. They are an artist and a craftsperson in their own right.”

“Drag is so interdisciplinary,” Jane says, “and it’s fundamentally goofy.”

“It’s the classic story of drag and and queer art. It demands so much labor that people don’t see,” she says. “The drag world runs on people like Sam.”

38 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

A Germaphobe’s G I

n t h e m i d - 2 0 1 0 s , T i m e ’s pronouncement that America had reached the transgender tipping point overshadowed another startling edict from Salon a few months later: Ass was the new pussy.

Licking it. Suckling it. Introducing it to a curious finger. Dicking it down with fleshy and artificial phalluses. The world had caught up to Mozart, who, in 1782, penned “Leck mich im Arsch,” translated from German as “Lick me in the ass.” He probably meant kiss my ass, but who are we to presume the inner workings of a genius who loved poop and fart jokes.

Though the practice of darting fast and deep between the cheeks is indeterminably old, psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing

Anilingus is not unusually risky. But there’s risk. It’s sex. didn’t coin the term anilingus until 1886.

The Romans defined cunnilingus and fellatio for us centuries earlier.

Salon’s 2015 ass supremacy proclamation quoted porn star Asa Akira. She was right. Culturally, by then, everyone was talking and singing about tonguing ass, even the straights. Nicki Minaj sang about a guy tossing her salad in “Anaconda” around the same time disgraced NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams watched his daughter Allison Williams act out anilingus on the season four premiere of Girls. A father’s dream.

How times change. A month after his daughter got rimmed on TV, NBC suspended Williams because he told a BS story about Iraq, claiming that he’d been on a helicopter that was forced to land when it took rocket-propelled grenade fire. It never happened. Minaj has moved on from ass to shit—she’s gone MAGA. Some of those who helped move ass eating into pop culture may be gone from our hearts, but rimming remains evermore.

Still, I worry. Whenever a sexual practice

hits the mainstream, the discussion tends to focus on licking invisible, cultural barriers and not speaking of the actual, physical barriers and practices that make sex safe.

I get why. Taboos are more fun to talk about than STIs, or giardia, one of the microscopic parasites one can ingest when rambling south of the taint.

The two primary risks are sexually transmitted infections and bacteria. Australian studies have shown that men who have sex with men (MSM) were having steadily more oral-to-anal sex between the 1980s and early 2000s. An Australian study from 2016 found that among 1,312 MSM, 70.5 percent had received anilingus. The authors of the study concluded that the use of saliva during sex—from rimming and as lubricant for anal sex and fingering—“may play a key role in gonorrhea transmission in MSM.” Data from another Australian study in 2022 suggested that both kissing and rimming were “important” practices in gonorrhea transmission. We know that bacteria like shigella and campylobactor can also transmit this way.

In regard to the sex pests we’re all more familiar with—gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis, Mpox, and so on—anilingus is not unusually risky. But there’s risk. It’s sex.

Gonorrhea can pass from the throat to the asshole, no problem. In its early stage, syphilis spots can bloom on the mouth and tongue.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is transferred by skin-to-skin contact if lesions are present. You can also catch HPV, chlamydia, herpes, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B (a lower risk) through anilingus. However, your chance of HIV infection from oral-anal contact is basically zero in the absence of bleeding gums or open sores.

If I ever had the MAHA crowd, by now I’ve lost them, so please get vaccinated against common STIs if you have the means. It’s an easy way to help yourself and your community.

Concerning heterosexuals, yet another Australian study found men were far more likely (25.5 percent) to have rimmed their

JUNE 2026

uide To Eating Ass

BY VIVIAN McCALL

partners than women (9.3 percent). Whether this has to do with straight men washing or not washing their ass cracks in the shower, I cannot speculate.

I’m not saying the data should dissuade you or anyone else from rimming. I simply believe information is both a sword and a shield. Dr. Chase Cannon, a provider at the county’s Sexual Health Clinic at Harborview, whom I called last month, didn’t want to rain on anyone’s parade either.

“Folks can have their pleasure as long as they’re being mindful,” he says.

Here’s a practical question before you go down: Hey, [partner X], are you feeling well? If the answer is “no,” give rimming a pass, at least for the night.

Joshua Lumsden, a physician assistant certified at the queer-focused clinic Capitol Hill Medical, concurred. If a partner is vomiting or having diarrhea, it’s “not a good time to fill your mouth with joy.”

There’s always the risk that partner X is sick and does not know it. Asymptomatic transmission is possible. Dr. Cannon knows this might not be the “most popular” suggestion, but he says consider using a barrier like a dental dam, or taking a regular condom, slicing it lengthwise, and laying down that raincoat like a picnic blanket between two hills. Consider a dab of lube for anal comfort.

A gentle, external wash of the anus with soap and lukewarm tap water can also reduce the chance of a bacterial infection. The poop-sensitive among us who cannot tolerate the thought of another human being discovering shit in their ass may be tempted to reach for the douche. Drop it!

Dr. Cannon says research shows douching can increase the risk of certain infections because it wears down the lining of the rectum by creating microtears and bringing immune cells to the surface. But if you must power wash your hole, opt for lukewarm tap water. Commercially available enema solutions are too harsh. As are hot water and high pressure.

And if you are using soap on the outside of

your hole, avoid anything scented or dyed, as they can also carry an STI risk from irritating the rectal lining, Lumsden added.

“Probably, more practically, you just don’t want an irritated butthole.”

Here are a few more wise words: While you’re washing your ass, wash your hands, and consider the order in which you do those two things. Following a sexual PEMDAS is generally a good idea. (Please Excuse My Dear Ass, Sexually.)

It is no easy task in the heat of the moment. If you’ll allow me to speak directly to your lizard brain: ass last. Pole before hole. Pink before stink. Alternating between the ass and the genitals is like inviting a UTI into your living room and offering it a tall glass of anything but cranberry juice cocktail.

If you want to rim a partner and are unsure their hygiene is up to snuff—either because you don’t know them or know them all too well—Lumsden suggests you incorporate showering into foreplay. That way, nobody gets their feelings hurt or an unpleasant, surprising flavor with a sickening after-effect.

But ass eating is not all biological. It’s a matter of the heart as well. Asking to lick someone’s ass, or asking them to lick yours, is vulnerable.

Zoey Watson-Hanson, a LICSW in Seattle, talked about how it may be easier for people seeking casual and spontaneous sex on Tinder or Feeld to ask for what they want than it is for people in established partnerships with long-term partners. It depends on how comfortable they’ve been sharing their sexual interests in the past.

Either way, “what you got to do is just come right out and say it,” she says—preferably not while you’re in the middle of sex, when someone might feel more pressured.

Just be normal about it: Pick a casual setting, during a non-aroused conversation, and deliver that ask as an ask, not an ultimatum. Emphasize pleasure and consent, and let your partner ask questions.

Eating ass may be simpler for you than for a germaphobe or reformed fundamentalist who connects a “dirty” act to moral impurity. In other words, you gotta go deep to get deep.

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40 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

41

Crawling Through the Milky Way Stargazing With Intergalactic Artist Claire Johnson

BY AUDREY VANN PHOTOS BY BILLIE WINTER

“

W

hen I’m painting, I have this weird feeling, like I’m crawling over the dimensions of the subject,” Claire Johnson says from the passenger seat of my Subaru. We’re on our way to stargaze at Golden Gardens, to stare into the night sky that has inspired many of her paintings.

Whether it’s a star-filled twilight, a sprinkle-

encrusted donut, or a blazing forest fire, Johnson captures every faint speckle on her subject’s surface like an ant summiting a crumb. She paints beyond what she can see; she paints what she can feel, what she knows is there, what she wishes she could see. “I think about the paintings I want to make all the time,” she tells me. “A scene will haunt me until I paint it.”

I first met Johnson in 2023 during her solo show at SOIL, where she’s been a longtime member. I was completely entranced by her oil paintings of the night sky, which don’t just capture the brightest stars, but the ghosts of stars and the suggestions of nebulae, creating a twinkling multidimensional effect. At the show, I saw Johnson frantically run-

ning around the gallery with a bandage wrapped around her left hand. “That was right after the accident,” she tells me, three years later. “I was working on a construction project for a private client after my day job. I was tired. The table saw was turned off, but was still slowly spinning. I glided my hand across it. It did so much damage to my finger that it

42 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE had to be amputated.” I grip the steering wheel with a full-body cringe. “After that, I had to make a rule,” she tells me, laughing.

“No more working after work!”

We arrive at the park just after 10 p.m., not realizing it closes at 10:30 p.m. “We wouldn’t want to trespass or anything!”

Johnson says to me with a wink. Using our phones as flashlights, we walk to a park bench facing the water and the big open sky. The night is especially dark, due to the new moon—essential for quality stargazing (the brighter the moon, the lighter the stars). She sets up her supplies: a simple tripod and her phone, which she swipes back and forth on between the camera and Sky Guide, a free app that can identify any star, planet, constellation, or satellite by simply pointing the lens at the sky. Almost immediately, she identifies Taurus above us. “See the little triangle head, and its little horns?” I was skeptical about stargazing within the city limits with no telescope, but as my eyes adjusted, more and more stars revealed themselves.

“Even if I can’t see it, I know what I’m looking at, and that’s important to me,” she tells me as she adjusts the settings on her phone camera. Johnson creates her night sky paintings in a number of ways, including long-exposure phone photos and vivid memories, often using the Sky Guide app to ensure that every

The paintings don’t just capture the brightest stars, but the ghosts of stars and the suggestions of nebulae. fleck of paint is in its proper place. Johnson explains that her sky paintings started with random dots, but quickly became an exact science. “My work is a lot about observation of the world around me,” she says. “Every time I paint something, I need to know how it works.”

Earlier at her studio, Johnson had showed me a painting, which she claims is unfinished but looks flawlessly vivid to me: a wide-open, dark blue sky bending into a baby blue haze. The Milky Way cracks through the center like a door into the sky. Meteors bolt across the canvas, and a Jeep with bright headlights zooms around the corner. “That was a night I stayed up and watched the Perseid showers,” she explains. “I was sitting at my camp when I heard a Jeep coming down the road blasting Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’.’ There were a bunch of people in the car singing along at the top of their lungs. I was captivated. After that, the song became kind of a thing for me. I really like that song and what it says. It’s so positive. It’s great for when you’re really down, and there’s a psychopath running things.”

When Johnson revealed to me that she hasn’t had time to paint since last November, my heart literally ached. Since the early 2000s, she has worked as a freelance art preparator, installing shows at the Frye and the National Nordic Museum, as well as

Above: Claire Johnson’s cat, Tenny, orbiting her sky paintings. Below: Johnson in her home studio. constructing pedestals and walls for private clients. She began working independently, hoping that she’d have more time for her own art. But she works more than if she had a regular nine-to-five. “It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work,” says Johnson. “My knees are gone. I can’t really climb ladders anymore. I feel like I’m aging out of this job. I wish I could retire.”

Claire Johnson was raised in Seattle, but moved to the San Francisco Peninsula when she was 8. “God, I hated California so much,” she says. “There were no trees, just sticks.” Since her father was a dispatcher and her mother was a stewardess, Johnson’s family stayed connected to the Pacific Northwest, frequently visiting

her father’s airline buddies in the Vancouver, BC, area. “I love looking out windows, especially on planes,” she says with literal stars in her eyes. “I love the way everything gets miniature.” This affinity for zooming in and zooming out has shown up in her paintings for the past five decades.

At a young age, Johnson became fixated

JUNE 2026

43

with drawing after watching her mother doodle while on the telephone. “My mom was an artist, but they wouldn’t let her go to school in the 1940s,” she tells me.

“I think she wanted me to do what she couldn’t.” Johnson’s mother encouraged her creative inclinations with plenty of art books and museum visits. “I became really self-sufficient, entertainment-wise,” she recalls. “All they had to do was sit me down with some pencils, and I would just Johnson creates her night sky paintings in a number of ways, including long-exposure phone photos and vivid memories. entertain myself for hours.”

After high school, Johnson moved back after that, California’s first openly gay poli- says. “But once they were revitalized, we identifying the trees and making notes to Seattle, where she studied art at the tician, Harvey Milk, was killed, along with weren’t needed anymore, and the art spaces about the ground cover. Gradually, I could University of Washington for one year. “I San Francisco mayor George Moscone. A we built would be replaced with condos.” identify everything in the forest. It made was a terrible student,” she says. “I thought few years later, the first cases of HIV/AIDS She sighs. “Anyways, I’m being bitter…” the experience of walking in the woods so I knew everything.” Johnson recalls getWhile living at the co-op, Johnson began much better. Learning the stars has made ting a D on her final project because she working in forestry on the suggestion of the experience of looking at the night sky her mother, who had read about seasonal so much better.” Johnson plans her annual didn’t paint it in class. “I entered that same tree planting in the newspaper. “She told vacation around the Perseids meteor painting in the county fair and won first me that a lot of artists do it because it’s showers each August, randomly selectplace!” she says with pride. Johnson got a seasonal,” she recalls. “The more trees ing a campsite from a book of Washington scholarship to the Academy of Art Univerwe planted, the more we got paid. Some campgrounds. “There is a thrill in feeling sity in San Francisco, where she focused on painting portraits of her friends in the people were really fast. On my first day, the connected to this really big space out there. queer community. “I felt the need to show foreman said to me, ‘You’re not gonna last It makes me feel connected to the galaxy,” what life was like at that time. I loved see- were reported in California. “That series the day,’ which made me even more deter- she says. “I don’t know if it’s the motivation, ing what history looked like through paint- makes people kind of emotional,” says mined.” Johnson recalls the labor-intensive but it’s a side effect.” ings of the old masters, so I tried to do my Johnson. The paintings now reside in the work, which included crawling over piles “I haven’t talked this much in years!” own version of that.” halls of Seattle’s INSCAPE building. of brush and lugging around 50-pound tree Johnson tells me as we stumble back to In 1978, Johnson created a series of In 1987, she moved back to Seattle, where bags. Later, she joined the fire crew, watch- my car in the dark. “I haven’t listened this paintings from a Halloween party at a gay she lived in an artist cooperative in Pioneer ing controlled burns of logging residue and much in years!” I think to myself. I spent bar in San Francisco, which she realized, Square’s Washington Shoe Company build- doing forest inventory, both of which have the evening scaling the craters of her mind, after the fact, captured the “last gasp of ing. Johnson remembers 1990s Seattle as a become subjects of her paintings. life, and interests, with the kind of detail innocent hedonism.” A couple of weeks playground for artists with co-ops, studios, “I really enjoy knowing what I’m paint- she uses in her paintings. After I dropped after the party, 918 people were found dead and installations filling abandoned buildings. ing,” she tells me as we look up at the stars. her off back at her studio, I drove home in Jonestown (the notorious cult with “Artists have a way of moving into run-down “It’s sort of like when I was working in for- with a new connection to the sky, to the roots in the Bay Area). A couple of weeks neighborhoods and revitalizing them,” she estry… part of the job was counting and stars, and to the artist herself.

“There is a thrill in feeling connected to this really big space out there.”

44 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

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JUNE 2026

49

How Do We Talk About Juniper Blessing?

We don’t know why she died, but we know it was too soon.

BY VIVIAN McCALL

Graffiti in memory of Juniper Blessing next to Hot Rat Summer, a guerrilla mosaic in Cal Anderson Park that has become a symbol of trans resilience.

J

uniper Blessing was killed while doing her laundry in an off-campus student housing complex, Nordheim Court, near U Village. Video released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office shows her kneeling at a dryer, cleaning the lint trap. Stills and video show the suspect, 31-year-old Christopher Michael Leahy, look directly into a security camera before leaving the room.

That’s when the video ends. A short time later, her body was discovered with more than 40 stab wounds.

Leahy has been charged with premeditated murder. His arraignment, where a plea is entered, was scheduled for May 21, but was rescheduled at his attorney’s request, as he needed more time to evaluate his client’s mental state. The arraignment is now scheduled for June 4, the day after this issue hits newsstands.

B l e s s i n g ’s k i l l i n g h a s b e c o m e a national news story; she is being mourned by trans people and their allies across the country. According to an email newsletter from Gender Justice League, more than 500 people showed up to an on-campus vigil organized with the UW Trans Collective.

There was a vigil at the statehouse in New Hampshire, and in Boston. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle posted about Blessing’s death.

In Blessing ’s home city of Santa Fe, about 200 gathered for a vigil held by the Human Rights Alliance, a local organization that has advocated for and been

in direct contact with her family. As the Santa Fe New Mexican reported, the executive director, Kevin Bowen, invited them to “let it all out.” “Then came the screams— of despair, of anger, of sorrow in the wake of the death of Juniper Blessing,” wrote the paper. The Stranger reached out to Bowen, who said the family had requested that no more interviews be given. Out of respect, The Stranger has made no attempt to talk to a family that has expressed their desire for privacy numerous times.

We don’t yet know if Juniper was the target of a transphobic murder, or even a misogynistic murder. According to charging documents, Leahy allegedly stalked another female student before “eventually following this student into the same building and same room where he would viciously murder Juniper.” Detectives also released video of a man who appears to be Leahy trying to open the front door of a Ravenna home five days before Blessing ’s killing. It could have as easily been a crime of opportunity, or something else entirely.

Many trans people are still taking her death as a tragic sign of the times. A student from a supportive family could come to a destination city for trans people fleeing persecution in red states and still end up dead. Trans people like Blessing are four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victims of a violent crime, according to data compiled by the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. In Seattle

last year, I reported on a string of unusual assaults on transgender women by groups of men, most in broad daylight. In at least one case, the men did not know one another, yet joined in.

“I don’t have any other category, I don’t have any other protected status, I don’t have any other marginalized group that is being attacked in this pattern, in this egregious way where a group joins in,” Yesse-

Many trans people are still taking her death as a tragic sign of the times. nia Manzo, the senior deputy prosecuting attorney and hate crimes prosecutor at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO), told me at the time.

And even if her killing was not motivated by hate—notably, the KCPAO did not file hate crime charges—she is still another trans person who didn’t get to live her life.

It’s easy to understand why trans people can see the limited facts laid out before them and still feel that Blessing died in the context of a society that was often violent toward her existence.

The message is in the headlines; in the thousands of anti-trans bills across America; in the influx of trans refugees to cities like Seattle barely scraping by. What stuck out to many of my trans friends in this city

CHARLES MUDEDE

was the vicious things written about Blessing in the comment sections of almost every story about her.

Commenters deadnamed Blessing, and suggested that any news organization that called Blessing a woman was lying to its readers by avoiding the reality of her sex and gender. They also insisted that Blessing must have lied to her killer about being trans and caused her own death. There is nothing to suggest that happened.

Comment sections are ugly places.

Everyone knows that. But it’s the pride and glee they seemed to take in making statements—in any light, an abnormal way to react to the news that a person who has hurt no one is dead—that would be shameful and stigmatizing in a healthy society.

They were so preoccupied with her transness that the possibility of security problems allowing someone to allegedly sneak into the building, kill someone, and escape without being caught did not faze them.

The comments stopped short of open celebration, but how far?

A lot of parents say their children have beautiful singing voices. Blessing’s were correct. I’ve seen two videos of her singing.

Her voice was special, haunting now. Particularly her performance of Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” a song about the freedom found through love. I haven’t seen any horrible comments under videos of that performance asking anyone to confront the reality of Juniper Blessing, when reality was plain to see.

50 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

ALL! THE! PRIDE! PARTIES! 2026

51

Every Parade, Block Party, Dance Night, Drag Show, Film Screening, and Tarot Reading Happening in Seattle

Queer Swing Seattle’s Swung Out Pride Dance Party June 21, Clock-Out Lounge COURTESY OF QUEER SWING SEATTLE

Hyper: The Return of the End JUNE 5 With DJs Hyperpoppers, Rowan Ruthless, Viper Fengz, and Aquarium Drink, and performances by Pupusa, Miss Mimi Gina, Uh Oh, and Hoochie Papa. (Cherry, 10 pm, 21+)

Space Age: A Futuristic Drag Cabaret JUNE 5 Hosted by Indie Scent and Kitty Vixen, this drag show includes performances by Vima Venom, Claude Ville, and Canella Dalyte. (Timbre Room, 8 pm, 21+)

The Empress Ball JUNE 5

beer garden, more than 100 vendors, and a kids’ area with a super slide and bouncy castle. Wait, can adults go on the slide, too? (SW Roxbury St and 16th Ave SW, free, all ages)

and Lonnie Lusardo will take you to “the places

Seattle Pride in the Park 2026

as the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements.”

JUNE 6 Seattle Pride’s annual party in the park is packed with talent, including Cheer Seattle, Mx. Pucks A’Plenty, Emerald City Kings, AZN Glo with Kylie Mooncakes, DJ Essex, and Seattle’s most beloved drag show, TUSH, featuring Betty Wetter, Beau Degas, Miss Texas 1988, and more. And it’s free! (Volunteer Park, noon– 7 pm, free, all ages)

The Original Sapphic Soiree

and spaces that have welcomed queer Seattleites for decades and learn how our city’s queer history overlaps with other movements for social equity, such (Station House, 11 am–1:30 pm, all ages)

meatspace pride JUNE 6 With music from 9-5 Hyperfuck and Juno Deluxe, and visuals by Death Cult Culture Club. Why’s it called meatspace? Who knows, but what a great word.

(Gallery 1412, 7:30 pm, all ages)

Fat Bottom Productions Presents Kickoff to Pride JUNE 7 With Moxie Blue, Giuseppe Boppi, Anna Nymph, Alexa Perplexa, Sin de la Rosa, Ramona Rhapsody, Strawberry Dykeri, Ryder Nightlong, and Amara Strutt.

(Obec Brewery, 7 pm, 21+)

Uptown Queens, Higher Heels: A Pride Kickoff Drag Brunch

Charlie’s Queer Book Fair

JUNE 7

JUNE 6–7

Drew Paradisco, and Ladie Chablis. (Gantry Public

Saturday features author appearances from Elaine

House, noon–2 pm, all ages)

Cho, Robin Elan, Keezy Young, Django Wexler, Lark

Queer Community Days

With Jessica Paradisco, Dion Dior Black, Gia Nova,

The Seattle Tarot Syndicate’s annual pride event features music from Floridian Slip, only/hank, and D8W, with a tarot booth running all night. (Kremwerk, 10 pm, 21+)

JUNE 6

White Center Pride Street Festival

Queer Capitol Hill: A Historic Walking Tour

JUNE 6

JUNE 6

your tattoo appointment in advance to guarantee

Wednesday, including “The Ocean Is Queer” and

This might be the only Pride party in town with LIVE WRESTLING! There will also be drag performances, a

On this walking tour, presented by the Seattle Architecture Foundation, tour guides Michael Langberg

availability. (Charlie’s Queer Books, times vary, free,

“Animal Superpowers: Queer Reef Talk.” Queer sea

all ages)

creatures! (Seattle Aquarium, times vary, all ages)

With DJs, tarot and fortune telling, flash tattoos, and a pink, red, black, frills, and lace dress code. (Asylum Collective, 9 pm, 18+)

Sullivan, S.A. Chant, Hillary Behrman, and Charlie Evans, Rod Driver, and Paul Michael Winters. Sunday, day two, is for vendors, including Ambrosia Zine, Transplants Zine, Those Girls Press, NMC Design Studio, and flash tattoos by Kat and Grace. Book

JUNE 7–28 The Seattle Aquarium is hosting art talks and drag story time every Sunday in June for Pride month. There will also be talks every Sunday and

52 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE Dungeons & Drag Queens Pride June 12, Crocodile

MASHA SHAMFAROVA

Collide-O-Scope Pride Edition JUNE 8 Collide-O-Scope always delivers a hilarious, surprising montage of found video footage, and their annual Pride installment is consistently horny, wild, and weird in the best way. (Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+)

Fiesta de Putxs JUNE 11 This Pride edition features an all-trans lineup, including performances by Delyla Dalyte, Moonyeka, Vita Soy, Siempre Bruja, Exesive, and Xōchi. Plus go-go dancers and a fashion show. (Chop Suey, 9 pm, 21+)

Dungeons & Drag Queens Pride JUNE 12 This special Pride edition of Dungeons and Drag Queens features Alaska Thunderfuck, Miss Ma’amShe, and Kylie Mooncakes. Yes, they really play D&D! Nerds welcome! (June 12, Crocodile, 7 pm, 21+)

Association. (Kraken Community Iceplex, times vary, all ages)

Joosed JUNE 13 This special Pride edition of Joosed features othrwrld from Portland, Tabitha, and David Gueguy. (Kremwerk, 10 pm, 21+)

In Heaven JUNE 13 With Succubass and DJ Girlfriends, aka Korra and Mirin Doja (they’re married IRL!). (Timbre Room, 10 pm, 21+)

Heated Rivalry: Pride Edition JUNE 13 Featuring Alfonso Tan and music from the show.

(Chop Suey, 9 pm, 21+)

Children of Shelly’s Leg JUNE 13–JULY 7 Actualize AiR is celebrating Pride month with a visual art exhibition (featuring the Hot Rat Summer mosaic

Pride Show and Circus Open House

artists!), workshops, and several performances

JUNE 12–13

artists’ panel, DJs, and performances. Read more

Caela Bailey hosts Emerald City Trapeze’s Pride events, which feature aerial arts, circus performances, and flying trapeze. Friday night’s event is alcohol-free, while Saturday’s party includes a dance party with DJ Noa Disco. (Emerald City Trapeze Arts, 8 pm, 18+)

Seattle Pride Classic 2026 JUNE 12–14 Sure, gay hockey players are hot right now, but the Seattle Pride Classic has been around for years, since being founded by the Seattle Pride Hockey Association in 2021 with four teams. Today, with 20 teams and more than 300 players, it’s the world’s largest LGBTQIA+ ice hockey tournament, and you can cheer them on in June during an all-star game on Saturday, June 13, and the competitive final on Sunday, June 14. The weekend ends with a Pride skate, with 10 percent of proceeds donated to Seattle Pride Hockey

throughout June, featuring Marco Farroni, Miss Texas 1988, and Fox Whitney. The opening party is 5 p.m. to midnight Saturday, June 13, at Actualize, with an about it in our calendar on page 75! (Actualize AiR and 505 First Ave S, times vary, free, all ages)

Lucky You: Piercing & Tattoo Event JUNE 14 A flash tattoo event to raise money for Asylum Collective’s free queer education classes. With a bar, cafe, and DJs. Tattoos are walk-ins only. (Asylum Collective, 3–6 pm, 18+)

Seattle Sing-Along Brunch JUNE 14 With brunch, mimosas, and music provided by DJ Trent Von of c98.5 (Admiral Pub, 10 am–1 pm, 21+)

JUNE 2026

Queercrow Archive Vol. 4

winner. King Leo Mane emcees the party. (Kremwerk, 7 pm, 21+)

JUNE 14

Masc vs. Femme: A Pride Dinner Show

Queercrow Archive Vol. 4 will include highlights of queer culture from Seattle and beyond, pulled from boxes of videotapes that MIPoPS has been digitizing for Scarecrow over the years. Footage may include, according to MIPoPS, “30-year-old footage of Neighbors, R Place, and clubs of days long past [and] lesbian buddy-detective films that look suspiciously like they were shot in the offices of The Stranger.”

That checks out, tbh. (Northwest Film Forum, 4–6 pm)

Seattle Is Burning JUNE 16 Three Dollar Bill Cinema and the Seattle Film Society will present the winner of Three Dollar Bill’s Queer Cinema Fellowship, followed by a screening of Paris Is Burning. Afterwards, SWACE Health will lead a discussion about Seattle’s ballroom community and then everyone can party. (Hidden Hall, 6 pm, 21+)

Emerald City Kings Ball: Pride Show JUNE 20 Featuring performances from Sherwood Ryder, Faberg’ee Greg, Harley Sayne, Bruno Baewatch, Chance Hazard, Sid Seedy, D’Angelo Danger, and Kiran Chaotic. Masks encouraged. (Mountain Room, 8 pm, 21+)

Emo Pride JUNE 20 With Living with a Bear, Happy Heartbreak, and Digital Darlings. (Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+)

Pride Night with DubSea Fish Sticks JUNE 20 White Center Pride is partnering with the DubSea Fish Sticks (our local summer college baseball team) for a Pride night with limited-edition jerseys, a 50/50 raffle, and Future Primitive’s Queer Beer. The Stranger’s own publisher, Tracey Cataldo, will throw out the first fish! (Steve Cox Memorial Park, 6:35 pm, all ages)

Studio Saturdays: Pride Edition JUNE 20 Five competitors will compete for a six-month Studio Saturday residency, with the audience deciding the

JUNE 20 The Lumber Yard’s third annual competition is back with a battle between mascs and femmes! Featuring performances by Chastitty Honeydew, Mad Mav, Zia, Pam Jobb, and Magic Dyke. With music by DJ Toya B. (Lumber Yard Bar, 6–8 pm, 21+)

Queer Swing Seattle’s Swung Out Pride Dance Party JUNE 21 Hosted by Free’Da Follow, with music from Christian Pincock’s Baseless Accusation (playing a selection of swing music by queer jazz artists) and Jacqueline Tabor. (Clock-Out Lounge, 7:30 pm, 21+)

Drag Brunch Hosted by Ladie Chablis JUNE 21 Rendezvous’s first drag brunch since reopening earlier this year celebrates Pride and Juneteenth, and is hosted by Ladie Chablis. (Rendezvous, 11 am, all ages)

Massive Pride JUNE 24–29 Turns out White Center’s Pride event isn’t the only party in town with wrestling! Massive’s five-day Pride bonanza features an art show curated by Jay Valentine, Meet Us in the Parking Lot’s drag queen wrestling (June 25), Cucci’s Critter Barn (June 26), Sabor Street Party (June 27), and [HOME] Pride Street Party with Frooty Treblez. The weekend’s DJ lineup includes softchaos, La Mala Noche, Mitch Ferrino, SisterGoldDust, Succubass, and so many more. (Massive, times vary, 21+)

Deck’d Out: Pride Edition JUNE 25 The Pride installment of Monkey Loft’s summertime rooftop dance party features Viper Fengz, HAUS|GASM with Alfonso Tan, Onyx, Kween Kaysh, Brandon Keys, and YourMOM. (Monkey Loft, 7 pm, 21+)

Seattle Pride in the Park 2026 June 6, Volunteer Park

WHY FOR GOOD

53

54 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

Body Roll Pride

55

Indigiqueer Festival

JUNE 25

June 72, Pier 62

Queen Andrew Scott hosts this night of music, improv, and burlesque featuring Ghoul Talk, Absinthe Father, Dulce, Fawna Fae Tal, Glory Joel, and more. (Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+)

TUSH JUNE 25–26 TUSH’s special Pride shows featuring performances

by Beau Degas, Betty Wetter, Miss Texas 1988, Moscato Sky, Purple Lemonade, and Woody Shticks.

DJ Dark Wiley will start the party, as ever. (Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+)

Kremwerk Pride 2026 JUNE 25–28 The Kremwerk Complex (featuring Cherry and Timbre Room) will be throwing a party that spans four spaces, five bars, and a patio, with DJs, dancing, drag performances, and more. Timbre Room has Club V with DJ Hoodriah while Cherry hosts Crush, featuring BabiDoll, DJ Girlfriends, Kontravida, and Big Rich NRGY. (Kremewerk Complex, times vary, 21+)

Trans Pride Seattle JUNE 26 Presented by Gender Justice League, featuring music, performances, speakers, and more. Masks required.

(Volunteer Park, 5–10 pm, free, all ages)

World Stunt: Pride Kickoff Block Party JUNE 26 With a queer vendor market, a cocktail garden, and performances from more than a dozen DJs and drag queens, including RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Tayce, DJ Essex, Sabor, La Mala Noche, Kylie Mooncakes, and Viper Fengz. (Harvard Ave between Pike St and Pine St, 4 pm, free, all ages)

Union Pride Block Party JUNE 26–28 Union’s big block party features multiple bars, live DJs, and lasers on the dance floor, and it’s free. (Union, times vary, free, 21+)

Wildrose Pride 2026

JO COSME COURTESY FRIENDS OF WATERFRONT PARK

to additional food trucks and outdoor seating. (Cuff, times vary, 21+)

Unicorn Pride Block Party JUNE 26–28 Unicorn will have indoor and outdoor stages for three days of DJs, drag performances, and even a music video sing-along party. Performers include Satanna, Makayla Couture, Nearah Nuff, and Joey Jay. (Unicorn, times vary, 21+)

Comet Tavern & Lost Lake Cafe’s 2026 Pride Party JUNE 26–29 Comet Tavern and Lost Lake will have two stages and a beer garden, with performances from Abbey Rose, DJ Pretty Please, Viper Fengz, Dark Wiley, and more.

JUNE 26–28

(Comet Tavern and Lost Lake Cafe, times vary, free,

Three days of DJs, live music, burlesque, and go-go dancers, featuring performances by TEZATalks, Betsy Olson Band, DJ Mixx America, Ashleigh Flynn and the Riveters, SisterGoldDust, and many more. Single-day and three-day passes are available. (Wildrose, times vary, 21+)

21+)

Queer/Pride Festival 2026 JUNE 26–28 With Keke Palmer (she sang several songs on the I Love Boosters soundtrack!), DJ Pretty Mess (yes, Erika Jayne from Real Housewives!), JT, Junglepussy, Tiffany Pollard, and RuPaul’s Drag Race showcases with Seattle’s own Jane Don’t and Irene the Alien, Sasha Colby, and Willow Pill. Willam and Pupusa will be hosting all weekend, and there will also be nightly shows from Bosco. Read more about it in our calendar on page 75! (11th Ave between Pike St and Pine St, times vary, 21+)

Cuff Pride Fest 2026 JUNE 26–28 With Dan Slater, Paulo, Jon Klaft, Aluna, Karsten Sollors, Horse Meat Disco, and many more. Single-day and three-day passes are available. VIP passes include expedited entry, a private bar, and access

Seattle Storm’s Pride Night JUNE 27 Before the Seattle Storm take on the Atlanta Dream, there will be a fan fest on Climate Pledge Arena’s west concourse with food and music. The team will also have a Pride merch collection designed by artist Monyee Chau. (Climate Pledge Arena, 6 pm, all ages)

Indigiqueer Festival JUNE 27 This year’s lineup includes Aiyana Reid, Kitty Keene, Cherri Bepsi (maybe the best drag name ever?), Duckhunt, Gila Suspectum, Lio Moonflower, and more, all on the picturesque Pier 62. There will also be an artists’ market and workshops. (Pier 62, 2–8 pm, free, all ages)

Werk: A Pride Club Night JUNE 27 With the music of Olivia Rodrigo, Doechii, Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga, Madonna—all the girlies, really.

(Chop Suey, 9 pm, 21+)

PrideFest Capitol Hill

Werk the W Drag Brunch

JUNE 27

JUNE 28

PrideFest will take over five blocks surrounding Cal Anderson Park for three stages of entertainment.

There will also be a chalk-in in front of Seattle Central College, with a contest for best chalk art. (Broadway and Cal Anderson Park, noon–8 pm, free, all ages)

With Anita Spritzer and friends. The buffet and bottomless Bloody Mary bar open at 9:30 a.m. so you have time to pre-funk the Pride parade. (W Seattle, 9:30 am, 21+)

The FIFA World Cup Pride Free Ball

JUNE 28

JUNE 27 Contestants are asked to “bring it as any team colors or merchandise competing in the World Cup 2026,” with cash prizes for winners in nearly a dozen different categories, including best dressed, face, runway, performance, and sex appeal. General admission is free, but RSVP is required. (Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 9 pm, 21+)

MXD FRUIT JUNE 27 “Every fruit, every flavor” is invited to party at Neumos for MXD Fruit Pride Dance Party. (Neumos, 9 pm, 21+)

Drag Concert JUNE 27 Anita Spritzer will host the show, which features Coco Montrese performing as Janet Jackson and Queen Andrew Scott taking the stage as Selena.

(W Hotel, 9 pm, 21+)

Trans Pride Music Festival JUNE 27–28 Saturday’s lineup includes Rat Princess, Pyramid Scream, Kitty Junk, and Flesh Produce (who fucking rule). Sunday’s show features Overripe, Dream Theory, Sarya, and Zara. Twenty percent of the proceeds will go to Capitol Hill Mutual Aid. (Chop Suey, 5 pm, 21+)

Sapphic Pride JUNE 28 With Tox!c, King Captain, Pastelle, SinA, Phoenix Rising, Baby Van Beezly, and many more. (1509 Broadway, 3–8 pm, 21+)

Seattle Pride Parade 2026 Seattle’s biggest, longest-running Pride parade starts at 11 a.m. at Fourth Ave and Union Street. Hundreds of marchers, musicians, performers, and floats make their way down Fourth Ave to Denny Way at 3:30 p.m. This year’s Grand Marshals are activist Deaunte Damper and the Seattle Torrent. The Stranger will be there, too, handing out copies of our June issue and throwing candy! Come say hi! (Downtown Seattle, 11 am–3:30 pm, free, all ages)

PrideFest Seattle Center JUNE 28 After the parade, PrideFest will fill the Seattle Center with vendors, food, and three stages of entertainment. (Seattle Center, noon–8 pm, free, all ages)

Tacoma Pride JULY 11 The Mix in Tacoma always has a star-studded lineup, and this year is no different. Bob the Drag Queen will headline the party that also features Naomi Smalls, Karma Rivera, DJ Qurly Cue, and more. With hosts Anita Spritzer and Macy Marcs!

(The Mix, 2 pm, 21+)

Georgetown Pride JULY 25 Georgetown Pride has also moved its celebrations to July, giving folks a chance to recharge after June’s debauchery. They’ll party on the 25th with a neighborhood parade at Oxbow Park, and the infamous Hot Dog Prom! (Downtown Georgetown, time TBA, all ages, free)

56 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

57

A River Runs Through Us

Timothy White Eagle Tells the Story of the Duwamish

BY AMANDA MANITACH

O

n a languid spring evening in South Seattle, the wind ruffled through a web of fabric strung across the courtyard of Mini Mart City Park.

Long, ripped strips of red, black, marigold, and white twisted, braided, and tangled overhead. They were anchored at points along the building ’s roof and converged around a pole that rose, treelike, from the center of a 12-foot-diameter base of charred plywood. Around the perimeter of the base, large chunks of diatomite—a chalky rock composed of fossilized aquatic organisms—were placed at intervals.

Viewers tightened around the makeshift medicine wheel as Timothy White Eagle, chanting, dipped the ends of fresh cedar fronds into a pail of river water, which he splashed across the ground. He picked up a piece of diatomite. With the stone in one trembling hand and a spoon in the other, he began to scrape at it, the blunt curve of the utensil shattering the stone’s softness.

As the incantatory drone of White Eagle’s vocables melted into the sound of rushing river water mixing through speakers, the diatomite diminished, stroke after stroke, scattering and exploding into a fine, particulate ash that dusted everyone and everything—the backs of hands, phones, clothes, the burnt black wood.

It was a ritual to manifest healing at the opening of Once Wild River, the culmination of a yearlong artist-in-residence initiative piloted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Six estuary watersheds across the US were selected; the Green-Duwamish Watershed was one, and White Eagle was the artist selected for it. His task: spend an entire year with the river and relay to us what he found.

To understand the exhibition, one must first understand the Duwamish River, which—like many rivers in the US—has been altered beyond recognition. The original estuarine mudflats and marshes were filled and replaced by a deep, straight, industrialized channel to allow ships passage. The last remaining undeveloped meander is a tiny bend that curls around Kellogg Island, salvaged only because the remains of an ancestral Duwamish village were discovered there in 1977. A century of industrial dumping by shipping, aviation, and manufacturing companies left the river so contaminated that in 2001, the lower five miles were named an EPA Superfund Site—a designation given to the most hazardous waste sites in the US. At the mouth of the river, where the brackish river water meets the bay, the bottom is so thick with heavy metals and toxic waste

ADRAIN CHESSER

Adrain Chesser’s portraits document Timothy White Eagle’s chemotherapy (day 21 on the left; day 95 on the right). that bottom feeders like flounder and crabs are unsuitable to eat.

In some ways, it seems White Eagle was made for the work of listening to a river.

The 59-year-old artist, half white and half Indigenous, is descended from the Mohave tribe, “the People of the River.” At three days old, he was adopted into a white Mormon family in Montesano, Washington.

“Part of my approach has been learning how to be in a reciprocal relationship with the river. It’s a foreign concept to colonizing minds. How do you give back?”

He was one of the only children of color at his school, and one of the only Mormons.

He was nerdy and artsy, but couldn’t draw to save his life, so he was never the star

pupil in any art class. He was always a bit of a class clown, but never over-the-top.

He took eighth grade algebra with Kurt Cobain—his brush with PNW fame, he notes, wryly. He was also gay. “I was a big screaming queen trying not to be screaming,” he says with a smile. “I was not quite like the other boys.”

White Eagle’s father was very strict and very Mormon, but also had an independent streak. “He had an idea that God understood him,” he says. “Even if he wasn’t doing things right according to Mormonism—having a beer with the loggers in town or not tithing so he could pay off his house—he just knew that God gets who I am, and it’s okay.”

That unorthodox spirituality set the tone for White Eagle’s own emergent, very nontraditional relationship to the divine.

He doesn’t recall how or when it started, but his early 20s became a testing ground for experimenting with ritual as he sought to develop his spirituality. “Nobody taught me how to do it. Nobody said, ‘You should go do this,’” he says. “Some early attempts with art friends out at the beach were really wonky and didn’t work.”

After earning a theater degree from University of Utah, Salt Lake City, he moved to Seattle for an internship at Seattle Rep. The opportunity fell through due to a misunderstanding—he was underqualified—but he stayed anyway, working at small black-box theaters and restaurant jobs. He also discovered the Radical Faeries at Wolf Creek Sanctuary in Southern Oregon. “That’s where I started learning about traditional pagan ritual structure,” he says, “how to hold space for a community, how to state intention, how to make public prayer.”

After scraping a few years at an Italian restaurant in Pioneer Square called Umberto’s (plus a small influx of cash from a death in the family), he’d saved enough to open his own cafe and “home for freaks”—the Coffee Messiah. Located off John Street and Denny Way on Capitol Hill, the Coffee Messiah opened during Gay Pride of 1995, complete with a Jesus photo op (White Eagle dressed as Christ) and a coin-operated discotheque bathroom. Soon after, cafe regular Marcus Wilson—who would go on to open Pony—conceived the Cabaret of Despair, a Berlin Stories–inspired, drag-studded open mic that ran nightly from 2 a.m. to dawn.

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ADRAIN CHESSER

Fueled by risk, chaos, inclusivity, and fun, the Coffee Messiah thrived for five years, until the arrival of a Starbucks up the street brought revenue to a dribble, and White Eagle sold the shop in 2000.

Over the next decade, he traveled, cleaned houses, and refined his wonky beach rituals.

Through the Radical Faeries, he connected with Shoshone and Paiute mentors who introduced him to traditional native practices. Though he had long believed he was White Mountain Apache—a mistake tied to his adoption records—he only recently discovered through DNA research that his lineage is Mohave.

Over time, threads of tribal tradition, theater, pagan ritual, queerness, and Mormonism fused into the immersive ceremonial works that define his practice and emerge in projects like The Red Room, The White Room, and The Indigo Room, which all reimagine sacred space. Modeled after the Celestial Rooms of the Mormon temple—accessible only to the “pure of heart”— The White Room functioned as a public space for healing ceremonies, drum circles, themed dinners, and even birthday parties.

Even at its most serious, White Eagle’s work has a side of humor that reveals his trickster streak. He was always a bit of a class clown, after all.

When White Eagle was awarded the Green-Duwamish Watershed residency, he spent the first three months researching the river’s geologic history. He and his longtime collaborator, photographer Adrain Chesser, walked along the upper parts of the watershed inaccessible to the public, accompanied by geologists and hydrolo-

gists. “We walked the river taking photos for three months,” says White Eagle. “We were still trying to figure out our way into the project. Then I got sick.”

It was a fluke they caught it so early: a stubborn double gastrointestinal infection kept sending White Eagle to the hospital.

While there, doctors discovered stage one cancer of the pancreas. “It was really, really lucky,” he says. “And so it happened that in the middle of this consideration of a toxic river, I get this toxic diagnosis.”

As chemo treatments ensued and he wrestled with this new, unexpected component of his residency, White Eagle gath-

“A physical object, like a photograph, can carry medicine.” ered a team of additional artists to help realize the project—artists whose work already centered on the Duwamish, or connected in some way to water and restoration. The exhibition would be mounted at Mini Mart City Park, a gas-station-turnedart-venue that is also an active subsurface soil remediation site.

Each of the artists pulls on a different thread tethered to the river: Laura Wright created wallpaper using pigments derived from foraged hyperaccumulator plants— species used in the EPA’s restoration efforts for their ability to absorb heavy metals from contaminated soil. Crystal Cortez’s immersive audio compositions are made

from field recordings of the river overlaid with oral histories by Native elders. Tapestry-like images by Epiphany Couch are assembled from photographs mounted to birch panels, encased by weavings made from reclaimed river trash, like tarp and caution tape. Sarah Kavage’s sculptures are made with wild harvested willow and found Douglas fir branch.

Anchoring the exhibit are Chesser’s photographs, conducted during their long walks. Images like the one of three cranes arched against a silver sky hover somewhere between documentary and dream. “They’re these static, stiff material forms that, when looked at from the right perspective, take on a kind of archetypal presence,” says White Eagle. “We’re playing with bringing in that industrial spirit energy.”

Over the past two decades working together, Chesser and White Eagle’s approach to photography has become a ritual of its own. “A physical object, like a photograph, can carry medicine,” says White Eagle. “These objects, these photographs, have the capacity to transmit energy. If we start our creation process with the intention of making a medicine object, a photograph can heal.”

Chesser’s photos are typically drenched in color. These are a departure: not quite black-and-white, the deep darks of the images shift toward tints of ochre and red cedar—both traditional healing medicines that are a recurring theme through both the artwork and site. (Cedar branches line the edges of the exhibition floor, extending outside into the court.)

Chesser also documented White Eagle’s

physical transformation during the course of the residency. A video captures the moment he takes shears to his long, flowing hair, bent over a table, as a black cat slinks in and out of the frame. When done, he carefully wraps the bundle in a piece of cloth, secured with ribbons. On a footbridge over the river, he drops it in—a prayer, a gift.

After a year with the river, what did White Eagle find? Not answers. “I know less than I did when I started,” he says, “because I’m aware of the questions. Part of my approach has been learning how to be in a reciprocal relationship with the river. It’s a foreign concept to colonizing minds. How do you give back? It seems almost impossible, but one place to start is gratitude, even if it’s just for the tranquility you experience when you’re sitting by it, hearing it.”

Alongside photographs of the river itself are a series of Chesser’s portraits documenting the dx wdəw abš (Duwamish) Canoe Family, a group representing the Duwamish Tribe of Seattle, dedicated to preserving Coast Salish traditions, including annual tribal journeys across the water.

“For me, the healing is present in those pictures,” says White Eagle. “Or in the incredible portrait of a Duwamish tribal member who is 2 years old. It feels so optimistic. For me, the whole reason for the show is the optimism contained in these images. One of the most important things is to recognize that the river’s original caretakers are still here, still trying to carve out a toehold of culture and space. We need to listen to what Native people have to say.

Had we listened from the beginning, we’d be in a very different place.”

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PICKFORD FILM CENTER – BUY TICKETS ONLINE: 1318 BAY ST. BELLINGHAM, WA

JUNE 2026

61

A Woman Possessed

Alice Bag Reflects on the Power of Punk Rock and Why Being Bisexual Is, Like, Really Cool

BY AUDREY VANN

GREG VELASQUEZ

Bag secured.

I

t was from the glittering ashes of male-centric glam rock that one of LA’s first punk bands emerged. As a music-obsessed teenager who was convinced she’d one day marry Elton John (this is the bi experience, people), Alice Bag met Patricia Morrison (Legal Weapon, the Gun Club) while waiting in line to see John guest star on Cher’s variety show. Later, when the two unsuccessfully auditioned for a post-Runaways Kim Fowley project, they scouted the fellow audition rejects. And this was the start of the Bags, a group of paperbag-masked teenagers making angry, chaotic music. Although the Bags only released one single during their three-year stint, the band’s freewheeling ethos lives on through Alice’s solo music, collabo-

rative projects, memoirs, advocacy, and Penelope Spheeris’s seminal punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization (as the Alice Bag Band).

“As soon as I stepped on stage, I felt all this energy pierce through my body. I shortcircuited.”

“I believe in punk rock,” Alice told me over the phone from her home in Los Angeles. “I believe it has the power to bring communities together and to help

people get rid of frustration, tension, and trauma that builds up in the body.”

I spoke with the punk icon ahead of her final Alice Bag Band tour about her first time on stage, how David Bowie taught her about bisexuality, and advice on making time in our busy lives for art.

You recently posted a picture of the Bags performing in 1978 with the caption “Sid Vicious tried to crash our set, but I wasn’t having it.”

Can you tell me more about that memory?

We went up to San Francisco to see the Sex Pistols play at the Winterland Ballroom. My band booked a show so that we could afford to drive up for it. My friend Hellin Killer was dating Sid, and brought him to our show. They were in the front row, swaying—I think they were high.

As the set got more aggressive and the audience became more engaged, Sid just decided to get on the stage. He put his arm around me and started swaying with me like he was about to sing an old country song. At a certain point, he tried taking the microphone. I pulled it away from him, and then he threw himself on the ground and rolled around. I thought he was doing an impersonation of a little kitty with a ball of yarn. He was on his back with his arms and legs up in the air, and was kind of swatting at things. I thought, “Wow, he’s really into the music!” At that time, I was a big fan of Sid, so I was totally thrilled that he was up on stage with us. Unfortunately, I realized that he was just really, really high. After that, he passed out in our dressing room.

62 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

Elton Bennett (1910–1974) Original hand-screened silkscreen artwork from the artist’s estate THE ELTON BENNETT SHOWROOM AT WHISPERWOOD GALLERY 633 East Pioneer, Montesano, Washington 98563 Open Tuesday–Saturday and by appointment

For information call the artist’s daughter Barbara at 360-532-3235 www.eltonbennett.com

JUNE 2026

What is the most memorable show that you’ve played?

I would say my first show, even though I don’t remember most of it, the spirit of it is memorable. I was kind of out of control.

We had only been together for about six weeks. We had eight songs, and we had been hired to headline a show at the Masque, based on the strength of our outfits. Our shtick was that we wore paper bags on our heads that we turned into masks. As soon as I stepped on stage, I felt all this energy pierce through my body.

I short-circuited. I felt like a woman possessed, like I wasn’t in control of what I was doing.

Before I went on stage, my friend Bobby Pyn [aka Darby Crash of the Germs] told me to take off my bag so that I could connect with the audience. I refused. He knew better than me. As soon as we got on stage, Bobby started tearing up my bag. I was sweating, and the bag was sticking to my face.

Pretty soon, I was peeking out a rip in the corner. It was surreal doing a concert with half a ripped bag on my head.

I was trying to remain undercover while remembering the lyrics. It was really exciting and chaotic. We got an encore, and it was received beyond my wildest dreams.

RUBY RAY/GETTY IMAGES

Above: Alice and Pat Bag (Patricia Morrison) performing onstage at Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.

Do you still feel like a “woman possessed” when you perform?

There are still times when I feel possessed, but now I have something that stops me—my age. Last time I was on stage, I got really into it, and I started to feel like I was going to have a heart attack. I was so out of breath, and my heart was beating really fast. I thought, “It’s time for me to step back and let somebody else do this.” I probably won’t play Alice Bag Band songs after this year. I love my band. I love punk rock. I believe in punk rock. But I also believe that my body’s telling me to slow down.

Was queerness talked about and accepted in the LA early punk scene?

I think it was accepted. I don’t think there was as much of a desire to crusade about it, same with gender and ethnicity, even though we were all aware of it. I don’t think anyone felt like queerness was their main identity. It’s not that we were hiding it—we definitely weren’t. In my experience, the scene was very inclusive and open. The thing that set us apart and created most of the tension in our lives was being strange, being weirdos, being outcasts. The thing that we most identified with was being punk. This is important to say, because there are times when I’ve been discriminated against because I’m a woman, or because I’m Latina, and then that part of my identity becomes center stage. We’re multifaceted individuals with more than one identity, and the identity that comes forward is usually the one that needs to step up

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Below: The Bags looking incredible in a 1980 press photo.

source of jealousy. I’ve been told, “I feel like I can’t give you what you want.”

But they didn’t understand that I don’t want everything at once. I like cheesecake and chocolate cake too, but that doesn’t mean I want both at the same time! For a while, I even felt like the queer community wanted me to make up my mind. I identify as bi. I’m not a part-timer. My queerness isn’t less GETTY IMAGES GEORGE ROSE/ valid than yours.

to either defend itself, claim its place, show strength, show unity, and show community.

I read that you first realized you were bisexual after reading a David Bowie interview in junior high. Did you come out to your friends or family at that time?

My parents were very prudish. They didn’t talk about sex at all. My mother didn’t even have a name for anything below the waist. She just said, “down there.” Like, “Are you itching down there?” or “Are you sore down there?”

At one point, I made out with a girl at the Sugar Shack, and somebody at school leaked that I was queer. At that time, I didn’t feel like anyone needed to know. There was a girl who assumed I had a crush on her and started bullying me. I was outraged that she thought I had a crush on her just because she was a girl. I didn’t even know she existed.

Do you think it’s important for people to be vocal about their bisexuality?

I don’t want to make that choice for anybody. I personally do mention it whenever I get a chance, because I’ve been married to a man for over 30 years, and people assume that I’m heterosexual. I may be in a monogamous relationship, but it doesn’t mean I stopped identifying as queer. It was important for me to know that David Bowie was bisexual. It’s normal. It’s okay.

It’s better than okay, actually, it’s like, really cool to be bisexual.

What has been your experience affirming your queer identity within a heterosexual marriage?

For me, my husband is very accepting of who I am. Sometimes he’ll just laugh when I comment on how attractive someone is, and then we usually agree. In past relationships, I’ve felt that my sexuality was a

You continued making music during your 20-plus years as a public school teacher. Do you have any advice for people who want to make space for art while they’re working a full-time job?

You have to put it on your calendar, even if you just schedule an hour to write or listen to your favorite music. I like to use the analogy of cooking on a four-burner stove: move the stuff that needs attention right now to the front burners. When you have time, like when you’re home from work, or the baby’s asleep, or your parents don’t need a ride to the doctor, bring your creative projects to the front burner. Life is like that—it’s about moving it all around and making time when you have it, but don’t neglect it completely. Keep it on simmer.

See Alice Bag at Black Lodge on July 17, 7 pm, all ages.

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Nobody Is Safe From the Rumba

Sacha Maxim Brings Latin Sounds Home With Disco Mundo

BY GRACE MADIGAN PHOTO BY BILLIE WINTER

I

t’s easy to glamorize the life of a record store owner. Just look at High Fidelity (both the original and the remake).

Shooting the shit all day with your similarly music-obsessed friends while you mercilessly judge the tastes of customers— what more could you ask for?

Well, a lot, but that’s beside the point.

Romanticizing the experience of vinyl—listening to it, buying it, and selling it—is easy.

It invokes nostalgia for some and a way to connect to simpler times for others.

“It’s a whole tactile experience. There’s something about being able to walk over to a turntable and take something out of a sleeve,” says Sacha Maxim. “It’s such a commitment that it is almost like a ritual.”

Maxim is the owner of Disco Mundo, a pop-up record shop that specializes in the Afro, Indigenous, and mestizo sounds and musicians of Latin America.

People crave the analog nature of records. In 2025, vinyl sales exceeded $1 billion in revenue nationally. Despite the allure of the vinyl renaissance and title of “record store owner,” Maxim started Disco Mundo for other reasons. “I realized that, for me, the thing that brings the most joy from it, other than listening to music, is connecting with people,” she says.

Maxim moved to Seattle from Los Angeles when she was 8 years old. In her Venezuelan/Colombian household, music was always playing. The sounds of cumbia and salsa filled their home along with disco, new wave, and “a healthy amount of Steely Dan.” Yet, throughout her life, she struggled to find a community where her identities as a queer Latina who loved music could coexist. “My Latin identity was a more personal thing, something that really only I could express with my family,” Maxim says. “When we first moved here, the Latin community was a lot smaller and very heteronormative, so I didn’t really know how to fit in.”

After graduating from Seattle University, Maxim started working as a graphic designer while playing guitar/bass in the indie-rock band Posse. In 2014, the trio garnered critical acclaim for their sophomore album, Soft Opening, yet all the band members worked nine-to-five jobs, and they had no intentions of abandoning their careers for music. Posse was just a fun side project; they released their final album in 2017.

Then, in 2024, Maxim—who was working in tech as a product designer—hit a wall.

“I got burnt out and had to take a mental health leave. During that time, I was like, I can’t—this isn’t me.”

So she quit her job and decided to return to the thing that always brought her joy: music. “I know the folks at Spin Cycle [Records], so I started working

Find Disco Mundo records at Bonito Café y Mercadito, and every third Saturday at Global Groove. there a couple times a week, then started doing some DJ nights,” she recounts. “I found myself giving more of myself to those interests, realizing this is what makes me really happy.”

During one of her first DJ gigs at a Pride party outside Corvus & Company, Maxim remembers at one point struggling with what to put on next. “I didn’t really know how to play to this crowd, and I was like, I’ll just put on this song called ‘Nadie Se Salva de la Ruma’—‘Nobody Is Safe from the Rumba,’” she says. “I didn’t think people were gonna respond to it. I was totally

“It’s not the vinyl first, it’s the culture first.” wrong. Everyone started dancing.” One couple gave her a $20 tip after she played the salsa classic. “When somebody can be made that happy from hearing a song—that really stuck with me.”

Now she can be found DJing (as DJ piojin) monthly at Global Groove and Otherworld Wine. But her favorite part of sharing Latin music with others isn’t just playing it, but the interactions she has and connections she makes. Over the last few years, the number of Latineand queer-focused spaces in Seattle has

grown, including businesses like Bonito Café y Mercadito and Café Calaveras, and events like Sazón, a night dedicated to Latin house music, and Coffeeton, a daytime reggaeton rave.

“I want to be able to connect with people in a different way, where it’s not just me playing the music, but empowering folks. ‘Oh, you love this song? You love this album? Well, now you can find it here, in your backyard.’”

This, along with the frustration of not being able to easily find Latin music on vinyl, led her to launch Disco Mundo.

She’d learned the ins and outs of running a record shop while working at Spin Cycle—how to grade records, how to price them, how to order through distributors.

She credits shop owner Jason Grimes for giving her confidence in the vinyl world.

Maxim has learned a lot in the first year, and is constantly thinking of how to grow Disco Mundo’s reach. “I started off thinking I need to get those super cool, rare albums,” she says. “Now I’m like, no, man, I want the stuff that is gonna appeal to all sorts of people. I want to meet folks who, for them, it’s their culture. It’s not the vinyl first, it’s the culture first.”

This past February, Maxim went on a business trip to purchase records for Disco Mundo’s inventory. She documents the ins and outs of her experiences on Instagram: a day of crate-digging in Mexico City amid

an outdoor market, where record players are set up for listening. In another post, she interviews a shop owner in Barranquilla, Colombia, who tells her the store’s name, Discos el Cofla, is derived from a childhood nickname. “By the end, it was like, these are friends of mine,” says Maxim. “We talk about music, we could talk about whatever.”

Though Disco Mundo is still in its infancy—under a year old—Maxim thinks about the future, and what it could grow into. “The brick and mortar dream is less about having a storefront, and more about having a consistent space where community can come together,” she says. “I don’t like the fact that, for us, if we want to dance, we have to go to a club. It’s such a controlled environment. I want to create something more like what’s back in Colombia and other South American or Latin American countries, where you can literally be in front of a corner store with chairs outside, people hanging out, having a beer or whatever, dancing.”

For now, Maxim will focus on bringing the Latin music of people’s childhoods back into their homes and introduce it to others through her DJ nights. Whether it’s pop-up markets, wine bars, or clubs, Maxim will be there to provide the music and the culture.

Disco Mundo will be at Punk Rock Flea Market June 19–21. See DJ piojin every fourth Saturday at Otherworld Wine.

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JUNE 2026

67

Smooth Operator

Cocoa Legato Is the Cafe/Venue/Chocolate Shop of Aaron Lindstrom’s Dreams

BY MEG VAN HUYGEN

I

n the summer of 2023, Aaron Lindstrom became a free agent. After a decade working in the chocolate industry, the former director of chocolate experiences at Theo Chocolate lost his job when the Fremont factory closed its doors. He decided to put his résumé to work and start his own chocolate biz, starting with importing ethically sourced, single-origin cacao from Colombia and Peru. But because his other great love is music, it would also be a venue, he imagined, as well as a daytime cafe serving coffee and chocolate. Lindstrom, who is queer and Latino, also wanted the project to be an inclusive space that would spotlight queer, BIPOC, and female talent. A chocolate community center. “I just grabbed as many people as I could,” Lindstrom says of the Theo exodus. “Most of my favorite team members at Theo, they work here now.”

He and his team opened Cocoa Legato in early 2025, traversing a rocky road as they took over a long-vacant meal-prep kitchen at 85th and Greenwood. The team handled the massive build-out themselves and fabricated everything: the stage, the sound system, all the electrical, the barista station and all the plumbing within, the bathroom (with cladding made from old cassette tapes), and the entire chocolate processing works. It took almost two years to open, about twice as long as anticipated.

The result is the combination coffee shop/ chocolate factory/music venue of Lindstrom’s rich, decadent dreams.

Born in Colombia and adopted by a Mercer Island family as a baby, Lindstrom points out that visibility as a Latino chocolate maker is huge, since faces like his aren’t common in the American chocolate game. “A lot of the chocolate industry is powered by white straight men,” he explains. “There are not a lot of brown people making chocolate in this country, and especially people from the places where the chocolate actually grows natively.

Colombia, Peru, Ecuador.”

It’s the best chocolate being made here in Seattle, by an order of magnitude.

Queer-owned chocolate producers are also unusual in this country, Lindstrom adds, and as such, representation and inclusivity are crucial parts of Cocoa Legato’s ethos.

“That’s also why my chocolate is all vegan and nut-free,” he says. “We only make dark chocolate, no milk chocolate. I’m not person-

PHOTOS BY MADISON KIRKMAN

Representation and inclusivity are crucial parts of Cocoa Legato’s ethos. ally a vegan, and I don’t have nut allergies. I just want everyone to be able to eat it.”

Lucky for everyone, because this is extremely high-quality chocolate, whether in bar form or via the cafe’s luxurious chocolate-enhanced grilled cheese sandwich.

Following a tour of the chocolate factory and a few samples of different cacao quotients, I was ready to argue it’s the best chocolate that’s being made here in Seattle, by an order of magnitude.

The cafe space shares a Venn intersection with the venue seating. Its menu is small, and everything is tinged with chocolate, sometimes in places where you feel like maybe it shouldn’t be, e.g., the avocado toast is drizzled with a cocoa nib balsamic dressing. Their mocha is a big focal point, understandably. (“We get told almost daily that our mocha is the best in the world,” Lindstrom says.) The S’More Pride and the Mousse Springsteen are pretty choco-

normative expressions, and there’s a whole coda on sipping chocolate. Chocolateimbued tea is a curious intermezzo. I’d brought a friend along, who ordered the green salad with caramelized cocoa nibs, garbanzos, and the same chocolatey vinaigrette. It’s nice! The unsweetened nibs seem like dried fruit, maybe blueberries.

Little chocolate Nerds.

Foodwise, that chocolate grilled cheese is the prima donna of the menu, served on buttered Cottage Bakery bread with a molten alloy of housemade chocolate and white cheddar burbling down the sides.

Certainly weird but no less delicious, it’s kind of cheesecake-coded and tastes like a Ween song. “It has cheddar-on-apple-pie logic working for it,” my buddy remarks.

Even a chocolate layman like me can sniff out the tremendous quality of the cacao here, despite it being anointed by Beecher’s Flagship cheese oil.

I take home a bar of 80% Peruvian, and inside the packaging, I find a QR code that leads to a “music pairing” playlist. Mine links to “OWNO,” a track by Seattle-based R&B artist Young-Chhaylee, and I put it on the big stereo while I savor the goods. The “tasting notes” on the back describe it as fruity, a word I never really thought of as pertaining to chocolate. Along with being bold and intense, it’s indeed delicately fruity, and I think back to the caramelized cacao Nerds in the salad that I thought were berries at first. There are tones of lemon and mango and lychee. A whiff of banana in there, too, maybe ginger.

Perhaps I’ve been thinking about chocolate wrong. All my life, I’ve approached it as a sugary confection—a dessert, not a plant.

This seems like first-day-on-Earth shit in retrospect, but… a cacao pod is botanically a fruit, of course, which is why it can also work in things like salads and sandwiches. The concept suddenly snapped into place, like a metric shift on a song, where the downbeat is moved and now the whole aesthetic feels different. Chocolate is fruit. Right. This is why people love this song so much.

If building a music venue inside a chocolate factory doesn’t seem like the most organic move, well, it is if you’re Lindstrom, a lifelong musician who’s singing and playing guitar and/or bass in “four or five different bands” currently. “Music was always going to be a part of this concept,” he says.

Bands play on weekends, and while genres err toward folk and jazz, it’s not limited.

“The other day,” he says, “we had CenterPlay, and the drummer just killed it.

It made me love her even more. We had a fusion band in here the other day that had marimbas. We’ve had bands that come with live dancers. We’re open to anything, honestly.”

Yet another unique aspect here is that Cocoa Legato is a bean-to-bar producer, meaning Lindstrom imports raw fermented cacao beans directly from farms in South America, then roasts, winnows, mills, tempers, and molds them into chocolate bars.

This is all done on-site, in his adorable (subjectively) miniature chocolate factory— which is open for free tours, by the way.

Ultimately, the name perfectly subsumes Lindstrom’s whole notion and melds all the different elements together. Legato means “smooth” in Italian—a directional note for a musical passage to be played in a fluid, even style. “I chose it because it’s exactly how I think about chocolate,” Lindstrom says, “and the aesthetic of the venue, too. I want people to walk by and hear music flowing and then look in the window, at the factory, and see chocolate flowing. That was what I was dreaming of all along.”

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JUNE 2026

69

SPOTLIT IN SEATTLE

L.A. Kendall

Bringing Pride of the Past Into Community of the Future, DJ Kendall Is a Mentor to Us All

BY NICO SWENSON

P

ride in Seattle is a well-lubricated machine. If you’ve ever come out to Pride to party, find community, or rally for the good fight, I’d like to highlight one of the people who makes that possible.

L.A. Kendall has accepted the label of “elder” with a 30-year career in nightlife.

Alongside being Deputy Director of Seattle’s PrideFest, Kendall is a DJ, event producer, talent manager, booking agent, and champion of community fundraising. Her years of experience come with firsthand knowledge of how the city has changed and stories from mentors who inspire her own commitment to mentorship.

In a cinematic start, Kendall stepped off a plane from Arizona with a goal of working in the entertainment industry and hit the ground running, bartending and teaching herself to DJ from broken equipment at the bar. In 1993, at the age of 21, she was working in Seattle’s nightlife during the peak of the AIDS crisis, the height of grunge music, and an era where Seattle had more than one lesbian bar. “A lot of the gay men that had HIV were coming over to the lesbian bars where they were more welcome than they were at some gay bars,” Kendall told me in our interview. “HIV/AIDS still had so much stigma to it. We had safe-sex packs everywhere in every bar. We were raising a lot of money for Chicken Soup Brigade, which then became Lifelong AIDS Alliance. The lesbians from the bar would go and feed or drop off food or sit with the guys that came into the bar that didn’t have family. We became their family.”

She recalls having meetings with the lesbian mafia. “As younger lesbians, we called our elders the lesbian mafia because they were protecting us. They would take us for these lunch meetings to give us a terse talking to, plan a party, or just give us a history lesson. I can’t tell you how much I would give to go back and have one of those meetings again.”

Kendall reflects on three core mentors.

Amanda Bailey taught her how to bartend and made sure Kendall knew her queer history. In the early 1970s, Bailey was “part of these young queers that were going across the country after the Christopher Street Liberation Day parade, risking their lives.

It was not a popular thing to do to start these Pride marches across the country.”

Kendall recounted Bailey’s stories of “people attacking them physically, throwing tomatoes at them, throwing rocks. This wasn’t a safe thing to do, but that was very inspiring to me. It’s because of her that I feel so strongly about Pride and trying to keep the community tied into the past—to

L.A. Kendall arrived in Seattle in 1993, an era where Seattle had more than one lesbian bar. bring the past into the future so that we don’t ever forget about that.”

Another mentor was the late and beloved co-owner of the Wildrose, Shelley Brothers.

“I always used to try to give her credit for being an elder and she would always say ‘big sister!’ I was so lucky to have her in my life to gossip with, to have a cigarette with, to get advice from. She was a great support to me. That woman had my back in so many spaces.” Kendall says Brothers not being here has been devastating, but she is also “so happy that Martha and Katie have taken the torch and run with it.”

A third mentor to Kendall has been Caroline Davenport, cofounder of Tasty Shows. “Caroline basically took me under her wing. Caroline was groundbreaking.

She was in with the grunge scene, Kurt Cobain, everything. She gave so many of those bands their first shows. They had this club night called Lemon Twist.” Kendall remembers going to the event and feeling like “Alice in Wonderland. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it since.”

With that spark, Kendall began planning her own events. “I started this club night called Caliente at the Easy.” It was so well attended that Davenport helped her move it to the Showbox. “We are still very good friends. Without her I would definitely not be doing this. She taught me the integrity of event work.”

Kendall’s career continued to grow.

She worked for Virgin Records, then KBA Marketing, and eventually went all in on producing club nights, DJing, and deepening her strong bond with the drag community. Eventually a fateful connection was made with Egan Orion, Executive Director of PrideFest. “Egan had run into a coffee shop like, ‘Do you know any lesbian DJs?’ The girl at Vivace just happened to be one

“There was no social media, so your ass had to get up at 1:30 a.m., get all dolled up, stomp over to the clubs, and pass out flyers.” of my good friends.” She went from DJing to booking to producing, and then Orion offered the role of Deputy Director. Now she’s also a big part of the Mix’s Pride block party in Tacoma, and has recently been brought on for Portland Pride as well.

On top of this, Kendall does considerable community fundraising with her wife, Amy Kendall Labree. They started DSA

KEITH D. JOHNSON

(Do Something Already) in honor of Amy’s mom. The organization includes things like the StarLightsStarBrights Fund, which provides micro-grants during the holiday season, the $500 Glitter Grant to help event producers, and the Julian Fund. “It’s a $1,000 grant that we give on Pride weekend. Amy does all the fulfillment, but we hook them up to mentors and connections.

As a recipient, you can come to us always, for anything. It’s about creating community.

Do Something Already is all-volunteer. All of the money goes out to the community and 95 percent of our donations are small business and individual contributors.”

When asked about Seattle’s past and where she wanted the scene to go, she reflected on how interconnected the community used to be and how she hopes we can regain that. “All the queer nights were so diverse. There was no social media, so your ass had to get up at 1:30 a.m., get all dolled up, stomp over to the clubs, pass out flyers, put flyers on every car, wheatpaste the light boxes in the darkness of the night. You had to make really deep relationships. There was a lot more direct conversation. It was a lot more integrated then. I hope to see our community come back together, because when it’s important, we are going to need every last one of us to fight this fight. And we have a real fight ahead of us.”

70 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

A Queer Summer Reading List

Books From Three Local Geniuses (Plus a Classic)

BY KATIE LEE ELLISON

I

n honor of Pride month—and in honor of highly complex queer dynamics that are at least one thing we can count on, from our relationships with each other to our relationships with this country—I’m bringing you a queer summer reading list which I hope will have you feeling deeply seen, entertained, and engaged.

We Had No Rules

by Corinne Manning

Ever lusted after a straight girl? Lost your dog in a break up? Been married at city hall in chaps? Then you’ll deeply identify with the propulsively readable stories in We Had No Rules, a collection by a Seattle queer icon—ever heard of indie lit journ a l T h e J a m es Fra n co Review?—Corinne Manning. This local treasure of a book hasn’t gotten nearly enough hype, likely because it was released in spring of 2020, just as we were settling into our pandemic sweatpants, which is a travesty and an injustice. I read this book again and again.

Autobiography of Red

by Anne Carson

And now, a classic from 1998. If you haven’t read Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, I highly recommend doing so out loud with a bunch of friends and strangers as I did a couple of weeks ago at a friend’s house, because that’s how some people like to spend time together, okay? It’ll take about three hours to go on a roller coaster of embroiled, lustful, and dysfunctional gay love, toxic obsession, and no clean resolution whatsoever. A perfect take on the Greek myth of Geryon given timeless relevance

by Carson—a poet and classicist who’s won many an award for making her own rules about how to retell ancient myths.

A Catalog of Future Mercies

by Serena Chopra

Next, we have a classics hero in our midst in this city, who in 2017, retold the story of Icarus in her collection Ic from 2017. This year, Serena Chopra gives us A Catalog of Future Mercies, set for release from Graywolf Press on June 23. In this memoir-in-poems told by a compelling voice shaped by both victims and perpetrators of historical, personal, and cultural violence, Chopra gives far more grace and complexity to her fellow humans than one can find on an average day lately. These poems rock across the page with a rhythm so sharp I heard drums reading them. The way she uses space on the page, and her timing and language, will break you open, make you tender in ways only a queer poet can.

ballast (and others)

by Quenton Baker

Quenton Baker has been reading around Seattle often lately, and missing them means missing a voice made for telling stories into a microphone.

B a ke r ’s r e a d i n g s a r e unforgettable every time, and that’s to say nothing of their sneaker collection.

Get your paws on ballast, Baker’s 2023 collection of primarily—but not exclusively—found poems made from US Senate documents that record the only successful revolt of 135 enslaved people on the ship Creole in 1841. If that’s not enough, which would be understandable, you could also check out their books we pilot the blood and This Glittering Republic. Baker is a profound talent—support their work, read their books, and break open your mind in so doing. Oh, and fair warning: They have a book coming out next year, the beast comes to you as smoke from Haymarket Books, that you might want to prepare yourself for.

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No cash value.

JUNE 2026

THE LAST WORD

The Trash Panda Slush at Slightly Furry

An Apple-licious Frozen Cocktail With Malört and Ango Bitters

BY MEG VAN HUYGEN ILLUSTRATION BY JAYA NICELY

A

t the Northwest Cider Symposium back in March, I spotted someone on the vendor floor wearing a plush upholstered animal tail.

They didn’t have a fursuit or mask on, just street clothes and the gravity-defying two-foot tail. Oh, right. I know exactly who this is.

Aaron Kalin—aka Martini, a gray-andwhite anthropomorphic fox—co-owns Slightly Furry Beverage Company, which moved into its Rainier Avenue HQ in 2024. As Stranger news editor Vivian McCall wrote, Slightly Furry’s grand opening made it “the only queer, openly furry cidery in the US, and maybe the world.” It’s also one of the nation’s very few queer-owned cideries.

I said hello to Kalin, and as we chatted, he mentioned that they’re now serving cider cocktails in their taproom.

Well, I said, I want them.

Then I paused. Kalin immediately assured me that they welcome everyone, not just furries— before I’d even asked. It’s a question he fields often.

Bet. I rolled up on a Wednesday in a slouchy cardigan and mom loafers, nary a cat-ear headband, armed only with an interest in delicious cider. And a hope that their cider is, indeed, delicious.

Woof, is it ever.

I’ll admit I was surprised to discover that these rainbow-glittered, cartoon-covered cans would contain such exquisite, complex craft cider. I sincerely was not expecting to love a beverage called CinnaBEAR. But you don’t have to take it from me; Slightly Furry won double gold twice in the CIDERCRAFT Awards this spring—for their Screechy Peach and Purrrfectly Pear ciders—and took home a Judges’ Pick for that CinnaBEAR cider, their signa-

ture drink, infused with roasted cinnamon.

By itself, the unadorned CinnaBEAR is sweet like an apple and not like an entire barrel of brown sugar, as ciders often are.

But there’s plenty of tart malic acid present too, plus a tiny bit of scrump.

And if those elements didn’t balance out the fructose, the version that’s doused with lime juice, Malört, and Angostura bitters and then poured into the slushie machine—the Trash Panda Slush—certainly does. (You can also order the Trash Panda in an unslushified form.) This isn’t the first time I’ve loved a cocktail that contained Malört, which, despite its nasty rep, is as delicate and savory as any hipster-approved amaro or aquavit. It’s just bitter, and bitter is beautiful. For my money, in the refreshing patio cocktails arena, this fruityherbal adult Slurpee. could go up against a brunchtime frosé anytime.

After landing at Slightly Furry at 5 p.m. to innocently sample wares, I ended up putting away six different half-pints and karaokeing with strangers until 10. A couple folks wore masks, but most were in plainclothes, and all were exceedingly warm and gracious to this cishet “mundane” (furry slang for non-furry). I took home a four-pack of Purrrfectly Pear and plan to return for more. Oops, I think I might hang out here now?

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EPIPHANY COUCH

MAY 2 8 AUG 3 0 2026

Č’ADAC (INHERITANCE)

EPIPHANY COUCH, FLORENCE & JOHNNY AT MOTHER’S ALLOTMENT HOME, 2024, GLASS BEADS, RECLAIMED TIN CONTAINER, AND GICLÉE INKJET PRINT ON FINE ART PAPER. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST. PHOTO: MARIO GALLUCCI

SUPPORTED IN PART BY

ORGANIZED BY ELLEN ITO, CURATOR OF COLLECTIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS

T A C O M A A R T M U S E U M . O R G

JUNE 2026

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!

$

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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.)

Jeff Rosenstock June 4–5, Neumos BARRY BRECHEISEN/GETTY IMAGES

MUSIC Tarteeth, Fleamale, Toxic Tears, Alista Shay, Atrocity Girl JUNE 4 Self-proclaimed as “Seattle’s Seraphic Rapper” and “Egyptian Enigma,” Central District’s own Tarteeth has been busy forming a charitable community organization called New World Orchard, the entity behind this event, which centers around “pronoia,” a concept popularized by author Rob Brezsny in the early 2000s.

Pronoia champions the proactive harnessing of positivity to counter personal and societal paranoia.

This benefit show, which will send money and goods

to Mary’s Place and Elizabeth Gregory Home (donation stations will be live at the venue), features an all-local femme lineup of musicians and vendors. Come to support a good cause, and stay for some charged-up grunge from Fleamale, retro heaviness from Atrocity Girl, fierce anarcho-punk from Toxic Tears, a plugged-in solo set from exciting Seattle newcomer Alista Shay, and a headlining set from the ringleader herself. (Chop Suey, 8 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Jeff Rosenstock, Star 99 JUNE 4–5 You know that feeling when your brain starts to feel thick and heavy with worry and anxiety and all you want to do is peel open your skull with a can opener, scoop out your brain, and run it under a pressure washer until all the icky, sticky thoughts flow off it like those carpet cleaning ASMR Instagram videos?

It’s not (yet) physically possible, unfortunately! Jeff Rosenstock’s music is the next best thing. He is the

pied piper of brain goblins. He gathers up all the thoughts that keep us awake at night and smashes and molds them into cacophonic punk songs that are full of guitar fuzz, feedback, gang vocals, and the underlying message that everything is gonna be okay (or, at least, we’re not alone while we all go down in flames). There are also sometimes horns. You’ll leave dripping in sweat—yours and other people’s—but your brain will be sparkling clean. (Neumos, 8 pm, all ages) MEGAN SELING

as the one of a Channel One set at London’s Notting Hill Carnival, are viral. That said, this sound system is operated by Mikey Dread (not be confused with other reggae legend, the late Mikey Dread—“I was walking down the street in the afternoon, when I saw a natty dread in a barber saloon—he cut of all his locks… he was an idiot”). These days, it’s hard to find a deeper dub, which can only be spiritual, than the one Channel One rocks. You are a fool to miss this show. (Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+) CHARLES MUDEDE

Channel One Sound System lowercase, Thrones, feat. Ras Sherby, Kid Hops, Caustic Resin DJ Cray JUNE 10

JUNE 9 Here is what you must do right now. Go to Instagram and request videos of Channel One Sound System.

The evidence of what I have to say in this preview will be provided. Indeed, some of the videos, such

Who remembers the important indie-rock band lowercase? They released three strong albums in the ’90s on Amphetamine Reptile and Vern Rumsey’s Punk in My Vitamins label in the vein of methodical quiet-loud slowcore groups such as Codeine and Seam, with hints of Slint’s tumultuous, brooding rock. On LPs such

76 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

DACHA THEATRE PRESENTS:

CLOCK IN. MAKE DREAMS. SAVE CARL.

CLOCK IN. MAKE DREAMS. SAVE CARL.

in antheinteractive theatre ofplay the set mind

5 - 27arts 12thjune avenue

JUNE 2026

as All Destructive Urges... Seem So Perfect and Kill the Lights, Imaad Wasif’s hoarse, distressed vocals rumble over nuanced yet noisy rock, reflecting the over-the-top emotions of youth. The title “Rare Anger” perfectly encapsulates lowercase’s sound and vision.

Surprisingly, lowercase reunited last year to do some shows with Unwound, Brainiac, and others. Drummer Brian Girgus tells me that “the reception has been awesome and we can’t wait to take the show up to the Pacific Northwest.” For this tour with bassist Bobb Bruno (the For Carnation, Best Coast, etc.) replacing Tiber Scheer, lowercase will play a couple of new songs and also be selling vinyl reissues of Kill the Lights and The Going Away Present. (Barboza, 7 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

Hunx and His Punx, Slippers, DJ Mister Sister JUNE 10 LA-based trio Hunk and His Punx sounds like the Ramones if they were fronted by Etta James, produced by Phil Spector, and dressed like the B-52s.

After an 11-year hiatus, the band’s current iteration of singer/guitarist/artist Seth Bogart, bassist/the voice of our generation Shannon Shaw (Shannon and the Clams), and beat queen Erin Emslie, returned with their third album, Walk Out On This World, which offered a visceral escape from our modern nightmare, full of girl group harmonies and lyrics about bad boys and makeup. They will support the album alongside indie-pop project Slippers and DJ Mister Sister.

(Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+) AUDREY VANN

TsuShiMaMiRe, Brute!

JUNE 14 Legendary Japanese all-female rock trio TsuShiMaMiRe comes to Ballard touring in support of their 27th anniversary and new digital single “Oversized American Dreams.” Big in Japan since 1999, their musical style ranges from art punk to indie pop, with concerts featuring noisy distortion and high kicks throughout. If you caught Otoboke Beaver at the Pier last year, you’ll definitely love this band. The Sunset is Seattle’s most reasonably sized room, and without a doubt the ideal place to discover for yourself this criminally underrated band. And $20 certainly ain’t bad. With local punks Brute! opening, it’s sure to be an exciting evening—check out TsuShiMaMiRe’s KEXP in-studio session from 2024 if you don’t believe me.

(Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+) DYLAN BUECHE

Belle and Sebastian, Quasi JUNE 14 Belle & Sebastian has one of the greatest band origin stories: Back in 1994, Stow College students Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David recorded a few demos for a school project with their music professor Alan

77

Rankine (formerly of the Associates). After one of their singles was picked up by the college’s record label, Electric Honey, the label offered to release their debut album, Tigermilk, which went on to shape the genre of indie pop as we know it, combining gentle folk vocals with chamber pop instrumentation. Basically, if you’re a fan of Sufjan Stevens, you have Belle and Sebastian to thank! The band, whose lineup has evolved over the years but is still fronted by Murdoch, will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album at the Neptune, followed by a show at the Woodland Park Zoo playing their seminal follow-up, If You’re Feeling Sinister, in its entirety alongside Portland-born indie-rock duo Quasi.

(Woodland Park Zoo, 4:30 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

Choker JUNE 15 Detroit singer/producer Choker arrived in the late 20-teens to fertile ground in the boho-R&B scene.

With a voice and aesthetic that sounds strikingly similar to Frank Ocean, Choker’s Peak (2017), and even more so Honeybloom (2018), found the ears of fans thirsty for Ocean material that was not forthcoming.

But in the same way that MAVI emerged on the heels of Earl Sweatshirt, the now 30-year-old Choker, real name Christopher Lloyd [place Back to the Future conspiracy theories here], proved, at least in flashes, worthy of the name check. He returned this February with Heaven Ain’t Sold, his first release in seven years (a very Ocean-esque span), which finds the artist as pensive and quick to dish stream-of-consciousness raps as ever. Entirely self-produced, the album’s best moments center on Lloyd’s creative turns in beat making, which he navigates with ease on the mic. The slower moments are just that, but his talent remains evident here, and the man is worth checking out.

(Neumos, 7 pm, all ages) TODD HAMM

Gia Margaret, Brendan Eder Ensemble JUNE 20 Gia Margaret is proof that music doesn’t need to be hook-driven or algorithmically created to be a viral success. In 2023, her blissed-out instrumental piano track “Hinoki Wood” became an unlikely internet sensation when it soundtracked a popular meme illustration of a smirking dog called “Chill Guy.” Both the meme and Margaret’s song represented a refreshing reprieve to anxious teens on TikTok yearning to slow down, take a deep breath, and enjoy life’s tiniest pleasures. On her new album, Singing, the Chicago-based artist does exactly as the title says, inching away from her Brian Eno-esque sound collages and toward lyrical indie pop reminiscent of Clairo, Ichiko Aoba, and Feist. She will support the album alongside the chamber-music collective Brendan Eder Ensemble. (Fremont Abbey Arts Center, 8 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

TsuShiMaMiRe June 14, Sunset Tavern

Sango JUNE 12

Seattle’s most worldly producer, Sango, pops in for a characteristically select activation at the town’s premier Qlub.

Since being birthed in our fair city, Kai Asa Savon Wright has earned a global following as both a beatmaker and DJ, due in large part to his ability to synthesize disparate influences into an international language of rhythm and movement. Having frequently drawn from Midwest house/techno influences (he and his musician-heavy family have physical, not just stylistic roots in Michigan), his output is typically built for the dance floor, but it’s the interlacing of Latin, specifically Brazilian carioca funk, coupled with his own nocturnal shadow-take on sunny samples that have built his brand. His sets are typically a call-up of astute influences meshed with his original productions, which together make for a top-shelf mix, so grab a ticket if you can (they are disappearing quickly).

(Q Nightclub, 10 pm, 21+) TODD HAMM

Ak’chamel, Diminished Men, Derek Monypeny JUNE 25 The mysterious Houston entity Ak’chamel wear robes and elaborate headdresses and masks apparently made out of decaying flora, and they call their music “Fourth World post-colonial cultural cannibalism.”

Recording for the great French label Akuphone, Ak’chamel use oud, hand drums, self-made fiddles, ATSUKI IWASA

and hurdy-gurdy to summon ritualistic, hypnotic folk

music of unknown origin. Some of their songs possess melodies of exquisite beauty, like Sun City Girls when they stop being arch. Some emit Glass Beams’ otherworldly chill vibes, but without the head-nodding beats. Some sound arcanely demonic. Guaranteed, you won’t hear and see anything like Ak’chamel any time soon. Derek Monypeny is a master of the shahi baaja, an Indian instrument that’s like a zither with typewriter keys attached to it, to change pitch. It also possesses 10 unfretted strings that serve as a drone harp. He exploits its unusual timbres to create pieces that coalesce into mesmerizing Moebius strips of sound. (Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+) DAVE SEGAL

78 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE Helms Alee

June 13, Tractor Tavern

RON HARRELL

Panic Shack JUNE 26 Rare is the new punk band who can make this geezer jump up and punch the sky. Lambrini Girls were the last unit to provoke this reaction, and before that... uh, can’t remember. But the woman-dominated Welsh group Panic Shack have the special sauce that can excite even listeners ancient enough to have witnessed punk’s birth. Formed in 2018 in Cardiff, Panic Shack understand that creating music with furious energy is nice and all, but writing earworm melodies can really make songs resonate long after the sweat has dried and the bruises have healed, post moshing. Panic Shack’s self-titled 2025 debut album slaps, from the brash “Girl Band Starter Pack” to the ultra-urgent buddy anthem “Thelma & Louise,” while cleverly tackling body image issues, sexual harassment, and the importance of pockets. Riot grrrl ‘tude + Buzzcocks-ian catchiness = huge win. (Baba Yaga, 8 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Sir Richard Bishop, Climax Golden Twins JUNE 26 After helping elevate Seattle legends Sun City Girls to avant-rock illuminati status, Sir Richard Bishop has forged a solo career that’s flaunted his erudite guitar skills and innovative electronic-music inclinations. His large discography abounds with bejeweled virtuosity on electric and acoustic guitar, as he improvises sonic travelogues that transport you to foreign realms (North Africa, India, the Middle East) as well as to John Fahey’s Appalachia. The Portland-based wizard’s previewing Hillbilly Erotica (out July 31), whose fleet-fingered, serpentine inventiveness on acoustic guitar will give your ears benevolent whiplash. Seat-

tle’s long-running, shape-shifting rock group Climax Golden Twins released their magnum opus in 2022, Climax Golden Twins, a sprawling double LP of funky psych-rock, eerie imaginary soundtracks, and surreal folk. It’s impossible to replicate live, but do know that anything can happen at a CGT show—and probably will. (Black Lodge, 7 pm, all ages) DAVE SEGAL

Queer/Pride Festival JUNE 26–28 This festival is sort of like if Seattle PrideFest got tangled up in the Capitol Hill Block Party. Outside of Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar, gaggles of queer icons will take the outdoor stage with music, drag, and burlesque performances. After last year’s lineup with Lil’ Kim, Rebecca Black, and Countess Luann, it was hard to imagine what could top that, but oops!...they did it again. Multi-hyphenate superstar Keke Palmer will headline along with City Girls rapper JT, rapper/ actress Junglepussy, and electronic DJ Honey Dijon (best known for her work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance). In classic Queer/Pride Fest fashion, reality TV villainesses Tiffany “New York” Pollard and Erika Jayne will DJ. Plus, RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Sasha Colby, Willow Pill, Bosco, and Jane Don’t will goop and gag the crowd alongside local drag royals Stacey Starstruck, Norvina Dubois, and Moscato Sky. (Queer/ Bar, times vary, 21+) AUDREY VANN

Heavenly JUNE 27 Between the reformation of the Softies and now Heavenly, it’s a really good time to be a twee-pop fangirl. The British quintet will return to the Pacific Northwest to support their first album in three decades, Highway to Heavenly. The album picks up right where they left off in the mid ’90s with upbeat pop hits reminiscent of the Cardigans and Stereolab. Don’t miss the chance to hear Heavenly frontwoman Amelia Fletcher’s saccharine vocals, which have also fronted legendary punk-minded bands Marine Research, Tender Trap, and my personal favorite, Talulah Gosh. I wouldn’t be surprised if PNW music man Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening) graces the stage to perform their collaborative tracks “C Is the Heavenly Option” and “Pet Monkey.” Fellow twee legends the Umbrellas and Fletcher’s side project, Swansea Sound, featuring Hue Williams of the Pooh Sticks, will open.

(Crocodile, 6 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN

More

Heavenly

Chico Detour June 4, Sonic Boom Records, 7 pm, all ages

June 27, Crocodile

ALISON WONDERLAND

Great Women of Folk and Country: Pride Edition June 4, Royal Room, 7:30 pm, all ages

JUNE 2026

Louis Tomlinson, the Aces June 4, Climate Pledge Arena, 7 pm, all ages

Alex Hitchcock, Logan Kane, Miguel Russell, Lex Korten Jun 13, the Mountain Room, 8 pm, 21+

Listening Session: Miles Davis, On the Corner June 4, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 5 pm, 21+

Clorox Girls, Wimps, Emi Pop, DJ CK 1 June 13, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

Sunny Rave: DJ Pressed June 5, Substation, 9 pm, 21+

Flesh Produce, Filth Is Eternal, Miscomings, 9-5 Hyperfuck June 13, Baba Yaga, 6:30 pm, all ages

Hyper: Hyperpoppers, Rowan Ruthless, Viper Fengz, Aquarium Drinker June 5, Cherry Nightclub, 10 pm, 21+ Old Coast, Chris King & the Gutterballs, American Postcards June 5, Sunset Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Blitzen Trapper June 5–6, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Listening Session: Angine de Poitrine, Vol. I June 6, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 5 pm, 21+ Coffin Break, the Scoffs, Sinister Six, Cheliceral Kiss June 6, Chop Suey, 5 pm, 21+ Acapulco Lips, Daisychain, Peyote Ugly June 6, Baba Yaga, 7 pm, 21+ Rave Up!: Maxwell Edison and Heavy Friends June 6 (every Saturday), Screwdriver Bar, 9 pm, 21+ Bob Dylan June 6–7, Chateau Ste. Michelle Amphitheatre, 6:30 pm, all ages Lip Critic, Flatwounds, Bejalvin June 7, Barboza, 7 pm, 21+ Wayne Horvitz Ensemble June 8, Royal Room, 7:30 pm, all ages The Human League, Soft Cell, Alison Moyet June 8, Marymoor Park, 6 pm, all ages Toadies, Local H, Sparta June 9, Showbox, 8 pm, 21+ Dorian Electra June 9, Substation, 7 pm, 21+ Off Off On, Whiting Tennis June 9, Royal Room, 7:30 pm, all ages Jonny G, Evelyn Frances, Exact Same Speed June 9, Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

Live Life Loud: Gaytheist, Coffin Break, Year of the Cobra, Trigger Object, guests June 13, Quilcene Lantern, 5 pm, all ages The Aquabats, the Bandulus, the Lashes June 13, Showbox, 7 pm, all ages Quintron and Miss Pussycat, the Cripples June 14, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+ Smoking Popes, Alien Boy June 14–15, Black Lodge, 7 pm, all ages Laser Beam, Fruitless Worship, Modern Bird, Ryan Norwine June 14, Belltown Yacht Club, 7 pm, 21+ Kid Cudi, Big Boi, Dot Da Genius June 16, White River Amphitheatre, 6:30 pm, all ages Sara Camille, Taryn Hadfield, Molly Guardino Jun 17, Sunset Tavern, 7:30 pm, 21+ GLITT, Hot Hail!, Mutual Shock June 18, Belltown Yacht Club, 7 pm, 21+ Listening Session: Beastie Boys, Check Your Head Jun 18, Shibuya Hi-FI, 7:30 pm, 21+ Miles Davis Centennial: Miles Electric Band June 18, Town Hall Seattle, 8 pm, all ages Terror/Cactus, Lobo Lara, Bloqueador Solar, Toña Zubia June 18, Baba Yaga, 8 pm, 21+ Landlady June 18, Rabbit Box Theatre, 6 pm, all ages Obscenely Obscure with DJ Veins and DJ Dad June 18, Screwdriver, 8 pm, 21+ Deck’d Out Season Opener: Shvili, Sky Rivers

Shaun Crawford & the Reasons, Her Mountain Majesty, Sheryl Wiser June 10, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

June 18, Monkey Loft, 7 pm, 21+

Tigers Jaw, Pool Kids, Bleary Eyed June 11, Crocodile, 8 pm, 21+

Slim’s Last Chance, 6 pm, 21+

Laminate, Supreme Joy, Brat, Combing June 11, Belltown Yacht Club, 7 pm, 21+

10 pm, 21+

Byland, Zander, Abby Gundersen June 11, Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, all ages The Lemon Twigs, Mod Lang June 11, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Plash, Lemon Boy, séhee June 12, Baba Yaga, 7 pm, all ages Ghost Fetish, the Fabulous Downey Brothers, Bijoux, DJ Spicy Cherry Pop June 12, Clock-Out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+

Massy Ferguson, the Staxx Brothers, Shaina Shepherd, Ayron Jones, Shaun Crawford June 19, Paul Oakenfold, Liquid Todd June 19, Q Nightclub, Chico Detour, Friends Friends, Timothy Robert Graham June 19, Belltown Yacht Club, 8 pm, 21+ Smokey Brights, Family Worship Center, Stetson Heat Seeker June 20, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+ Ghost in the Willow, Little Venom, Quiet! They’ll Hear You June 21, Belltown Yacht Club, 7 pm, 21+ Joel Romeo’s Birthday: Creatura, Green River Thrillers, Joel Romeo (book release), guest DJs June 21, Sunset Tavern, 6 pm, 21+

Beverly Crusher, Cosmic Kitten, Killbuzz June 13, Add-a-Ball, 8 pm, 21+

Listening Session: Screaming Trees, Dust (30th

Helms Alee, Anthers, Czar June 13, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+

Metric, Broken Social Scene, Stars June 25, Chateau Ste. Michelle Amphitheatre, 6 pm, all ages

Warren Dunes, Marco Marco June 13, Sunset Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Melanie Radford, Sheridan Riley June 26, Chapel Performance Space, 8 pm, all ages

Dead Spells, Pale Endless, Meridian Arc June 13, Belltown Yacht Club, 8 pm, 21+

Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs, the Black Tones, Parshall Blue June 26, Tractor Tavern, 8:30 pm, 21+

Lip Critic June 7, Barboza

Anniversary) June 24, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 8 pm, 21+

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80 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE Listening Session: Outkast, The Love Below June 26, Shibuya Hi-Fi, 7:30 pm, 21+ Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hurray for the Riff Raff June 26, Chateau Ste. Michelle Amphitheatre, 6 pm, all ages Lizzie No June 26, Conor Bryne Pub, 9 pm, 21+ Mt Fog, Marika Christine June 27, Ghosts Vintage, 8:30 pm, all ages DJ piojin June 17 (every fourth Saturday), Otherworld Wine, 7 pm, 21+ Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, Lucha Luna, Cómo Que June 27, Clock-out Lounge, 8:30 pm, 21+ Monsterwatch, the Grizzled Mighty, Killbuzz June 28, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+ Stewart Copeland June 28, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages A$AP Rocky June 30, Climate Pledge Arena, 7:30 pm, all ages

Early Warning

The Revivalists, True Loves July 1, Woodland Park Zoo, 4:30 pm, all ages Kurt Vile and the Violators July 3, 5th Avenue Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Wimps, Love in Hell, DJ Martin Douglas July 9, Sunset Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ Modest Mouse, Pinback July 10–11, 5th Avenue Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Ballard Music & Seafood Fest: Built to Spill, Low Cut Connie, Nite Wave, the Dusty 45s, Wild Rumours, Coral Grief, and More July 10–12, Downtown Ballard, free, all ages Zookraught, Buddy Wynkoop, Edging, Toxic Tears July 11, Baba Yaga, 9 pm, 21+ Art Gecko, Russian Blue, Velvet Heartbreak July 11, Neumos, 5 pm, 21+ Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, Illuminati Hotties Jul 18, WAMU Theater, 7 pm, all ages Colleen Green, Mini Blinds, Faerie Born July 22, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+ Maren Morris July 23, Woodland Park Zoo, 4:30 pm, all ages Kim Gordon, Sasami July 25, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Pavement, Street Night July 29, Woodland Park Zoo, 4:30 pm, all ages Fitz and the Tantrums Jul 26, Chateau Ste. Michelle Amphitheatre, 7 pm, all ages Mexican Institute of Sound x Meridian Brothers present Ruido Tovar July 27, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages of Montreal, Sloppy Jane July 28, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+ Den Fest Aug 7–8, Sunset Tavern, 21+ Capitol Hill Block Party: Muna, Disco Lines, Wet Leg, Parcels, Magdalena Bay, and More Party Aug 7–9, Capitol Hill Man Man, American Tomahawk Aug 12, Neumos, 7 pm, 21+ Silkworm, Nina Nastasia Aug 21, Tractor Tavern, 8 pm, 21+ KEXP BBQ: Ty Segall, Arlo Parks, Angine de Poitrine, Los Mirlos, Packaging, Sea Lemon Aug 22, Northwest Courtyard at Seattle Center, 2 pm, all ages Eagles of Death Metal Aug 29, Neptune Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Osees ft. Brigid Dawson, Traps PS Sept 2–3, Neumos, 7 pm, all ages (Sept 2) and 21+ (Sept 3) Bumbershoot: Turnstile, Peaches, Lucy Dacus, Bikini Kill, Death Cab for Cutie, De La Soul, Orville Peck, and More Sep 5–6, Seattle Center, times vary, all ages Chance the Rapper Sept 26, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm, all ages Perfume Genius, Dan English Sept 28, Town Hall, 8 pm, all ages The Hayley Williams Show, Magdalena Bay, Rico Nasty Sept 30, White River Amphitheatre, 7 pm, all ages Iron & Wine, Ken Pomeroy Oct 13, 5th Avenue Theatre, 8 pm, all ages

VISUAL ART Lars Bergquist: Recognize Me in Everything JUNE 4 Lars Bergquist grew up here, and his relationship to the city is informed by how he’s moved through both its seen and unseen underbelly as a street artist. For years, he worked with wheat paste, pasting up largescale, hand-painted watercolors across both high-visibility structures and out-of-sight corners. Recognize Me in Everything is an evolution in Bergquist’s work— and his first solo exhibition in a decade—that features oil paintings and installation elements in his exquisite, hyperrealistic trompe l’oeil style. Like a flock of 40 hand-painted, life-size pigeons (each individually mounted and suspended in space), old payphone boxes overtaken with flowers and graffiti, construction signs printed with poetry, and decommissioned newspaper boxes, busted, paneless, and somehow sublime. Bergquist makes us look closer at the things we often filter out. Note: Shows at Europa are usually one-night-only, so don’t miss it on art walk. (Europa, 6 pm) AMANDA MANITACH

Ancestral Future: Taino Archives JUNE 4–AUG 8 Born to Puerto Rican parents in London, raised in New Jersey, and relocated to Seattle as an adult, Gabriel-Bello Diaz is an artist who bridges cultures, people, art, fashion, and tech. In his case, the art-tech thing isn’t hypothetical: Diaz (or GABO, as he is known) holds degrees in architectural engineering, civil engineering with sustainability, and robotics. For the summer, he’s taken over the exhibition space at King Street Station with an exhibit that showcases his exceptional range—one can get lost in his Mi Gente paintings as mere two-dimensional objects, but some will come alive with augmented reality—as well as his visionary clothing designs, made of reclaimed materials and repurposed clothes. (ARTS at King Street Station) AMANDA MANITACH

The Children of Shelly’s Leg: And Her Children Sang JUNE 13–JULY 17 It’s a Hot Rat Summer in Pioneer Square! Trans/queer joy is poised to take over the neighborhood that was once home to Seattle’s first (openly gay) disco, Shelly’s Leg. Honoring this heritage (and in defiance of the 778 anti-trans bills that have been introduced in 43 states), the Children of Shelly’s Leg and Living Dream Lab are organizing visual art and performance activations throughout Occidental Park and Pioneer Square. The program, which runs through July 7, includes film screenings, drag shows, workshops, a rooftop party, and performances by Marco Farroni and Miss Texas 1986. And Her Children Sang, a group art exhibit curated by Molly Jae Vaughan (and featuring a huge new mosaic by the iconic Hot Rat Summer), anchors the program at Actualize Space, where there will be an opening reception and party June 13. Outside the gallery, peep the Hot Rat Summer outdoor arts festival, featuring hundreds of rats from dozens of trans artists.

(Actualize AiR) AMANDA MANITACH

Andy DeLapp: Hang in There, Baby!

JUNE 5–28 Andy DeLapp is one of the most exciting painters today. Named a Neddy Artist Award finalist fresh out of art school last year, DeLapp is a trans artist who takes representational oil painting to a place of unforced freshness by queering the classical

JUNE 2026

ONCE REMOVED 02 JUNE 13

It’s the second installment of ONCE REMOVED, a curatorial stroke of genius that softens the blow of gentrification, just a little. The first event happened in February in a little bungalow in Greenwood, where a group of artists were given the keys to a house slated for demolition and had five days to race the excavators and transform the place into a piece of temporary poetry. This time, the artists (Julia Monté, Michael Higgins, Chloe King, Hannah Simmons, Isabella Rinald, and Beni McAllister) have a longer runway and an even bigger house to fill with installation, sculpture, video, music, and DJs. Sofiiak will be on decks for the night, with a performance by atm/overdraft. For the address, message ONCE REMOVED on Instagram or email them at hello@ onceremoved.org. (A House in West Seattle) AMANDA MANITACH and infusing scenes plucked from antiquity with contemporary pops. Trompe-l’oeil stickers of cartoon characters and imagery from video games look like they’re taped to the surface of the canvas, except they’re oil paint, too. Hang in There, Baby! is DeLapp’s first solo show, and it riffs on the 1970s inspirational poster and ur-meme featuring a kitten who’s hangin’ in there. Each of the pieces in the show feature something hanging in some sort of trompe-l’oeil way, and over half the work features cats! Geheim Gallery is in Bellingham, but it’s worth the trip. Also, buy up his work now while you can! (Geheim Gallery, Bellingham) AMANDA MANITACH

More

Sarah Winkler: Folded Earth, Open Sky June 4–20, with opening reception June 4, Foster/White Gallery Cut/Construct: Jordan Clark & Joey Bates June 4–28, with opening reception June 4, Dirkse/Prim Gallery Carry On: A Portfolio of Small Works June 4–July 11, with opening reception June 4, J. Rinehart Gallery Koplin Del Rio Presents Eirik Johnson: Pine June 4–July 25, with opening reception June 4, Foster/ White Gallery

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82 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

SAYED ALAMY

Three adventures.

One unforgettable summer.

This summer, Seattle Rep brings three extraordinary shows to the stage: the return of an epic comedy where everything goes hilariously wrong, a heartfelt world-premiere musical about two unlikely heroes, and a bold reimagining of what happens after Peter Pan’s Neverland.

Whether you’re discovering the theater for the first time or returning for another amazing night out, these summer stories prove that the biggest journeys can happen right here at Seattle Rep.

JUN 11 – 28

JUL 30 – SEP 6

Back b y popula r deman d!

AUG 7 – 16

FROM THE PRODUCERS OF COME FROM AWAY

Tic no kets w sal on e

ets Tick ale on s 11 June

BY Henry Lewis, Henry Shield

s & Jonathan Sayer DIRECTED BY Dámaso Rodrígu ez

BOOK & LYRICS BY Anthony Drewe MUSIC BY Ryan Fielding Garrett BASED ON THE NOVEL BY Rodman Philbrick DIRECTED BY Michael Barakiva CHOREOGRAPHED BY Patrick McCollum A co-production with Cleveland Play House

BY Kimberly Belflower DIRECTED BY Deanna Martinez

JOIN US ALL SUMMER LONG

seattlerep.org Seoyoung Park in The Heart Sellers (2025).

JUNE 2026

Claire Johnson: A Life in Sticky Notes Through June 18, Gallery 4Culture

Curtis Steiner

Sharon Shapiro: Tender Wild Opening Through June 20, Spectrum Fine Art

June 6–27, Traver Gallery

Ann Gardner: The Color of Light Through June 20, Winston Wächter Samantha Yun Wall Through June 20, ArtX Contemporary Timothy White Eagle: Once Wild River Through June 21, Mini Mart City Park Drie Chapek: Then Is Now Through June 27, Greg Kucera Gallery Orders of Nearness: Erin Milez, Emily Counts, and Matt Jones Through June 27, studio e TADAIMA: I’m Home Through July 12, Museum of History & Industry Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest Through Aug 2, Seattle Art Museum

and Proud,” “Relevance of Ethnic Studies,” “Yellow Brotherhood Food for Thought,” and “The High Cost of Saving Face the American Way.” For this workshop, Densho members shall discuss Gidra’s role in creating Asian solidarity, labor movements, plus its fights against racism, displacement, and gentrification. Then the audience will create their own zine… and what on Earth might that lead to? (Seattle Central Library, 2 pm, all ages) ANDREW HAMLIN

Cole LeFavour JUNE 11 “I Love Idaho, and We Can Do Better,” reads Cole LeFavour’s website. As a former Idaho state senator and the first openly queer politician in the state, they grew up on a ranch in the Gem State’s proverbial middle of nowhere, learning in due course that their homeland

83

was notorious for both spuds and Nazis. Their new memoir, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America, details love, knowledge, resistance, inspiration, identity, and the determination to make something better out of a land for which many liberals threw in many towels.

Can we hope to do better? They think so. (Town Hall, 7:30 pm, all ages) ANDREW HAMLIN

The Moth StorySLAM JUNE 26 I’ve been telling everyone, take your date to the Moth.

There’s not enough to chat about at the bar, and you can’t talk at all (or drink) during a movie. The Moth StorySLAM—an open-mic storytelling competition— might be the perfect in-between. Ten attendees each tell a five-minute, true story that all share a common

Black. Power. Black Panthers. Through Aug 3, Arte Noir Perri Lynch Howard: Mapping the Invisible June 4–July 25, with opening reception June 4, ArtX Contemporary Curtis Steiner: A Queer Light June 6–27, Traver Gallery

Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving Through Aug 30, Burke Museum Chloë Bass: Soft Services Through Aug 2026, Volunteer Park

Soo Hong: Iluminate June 6–27, Vestibule

Moomins’ Sea Adventures & Tove and the Sea Through Sept 6, National Nordic Museum

Sum of Its Parts June 6–26, with public reception Jun 7, AMcE Creative Arts

Lost & Found: Searching for Home Through Sept 14, Wing Luke Museum

Artists’ Choice with Guest Curators June 6–Oct 11, Frye Art Museum

Tom Lloyd Through Sept 20, Frye Art Museum

Cyril Hatt: Domestic Glitch June 7–27, Greg Kucera Gallery

Samantha Yun Wall: What We Leave Behind Through Oct 4, Seattle Art Museum

Timothy White Eagle June 11, the Stranger, 5–8 pm

Jonathan Lasker: Drawings and Studies Through Oct 11, Frye Art Museum, free

Queer for All June 11, with opening reception June 11, the Factory Chase the Light June 13–14 and June 20, Photographic Center Northwest

Ongoing

The Prehistoric Group Show Through June 6, Roq la Rue Haunted Through June 7, Tacoma Art Museum Brittne Lunniss: Seattle Music Now Through June 7, Grunge Mart You’ve Had It in You All Along Through June 7, Avery Barnes Gallery In Practice: Work by PCNW Faculty Through June 7, Photographic Center Northwest Modern American Masculinity Through June 12, Base Camp Studios 2 River Coello: HAMPI Through June 13, Jack Straw New Media Gallery Claire Partington: The Small Things Through June 13 with artist reception May 9, Winston Wächter Crafting Futures: Emerging Artists Invitational Through June 13, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art 2026 University of Washington MFA + MDes Thesis Exhibition Through June 14, Henry Art Gallery Aimee Lee: Tethered Through June 14, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

Zine Making Workshop June 6, Seattle Central Library

Let There Be Light Through Sept 30, Cannonball Arts

Boren Banner Series: Chloe King Through Oct 11, Frye Art Museum, free Eric-Paul Riege: ojo|-|ól Through Oct 25, Henry Art Museum Monochrome: Calder and Tara Donovan Through Jan 17, 2027, Seattle Art Museum A Room for Animal Intelligence Through Jan 2027, Seattle Art Museum Ten Thousand Things Through May 2, 2027, Wing Luke Museum Pioneer Square Art Walk Every first Thursday Capitol Hill Art Walk Every second Thursday Georgetown Art Attack! Every second Saturday Chris Kallmyer: Song Cycle Ongoing, Seattle Art Museum Gossip: Between Us Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum Legacy: Highlights from the Permanent Collection Ongoing, Tacoma Art Museum Qiu Zhijie: Map of the History of Science and Technology Ongoing, Olympic Sculpture Park, free Ash-Glazed Ceramics from Korea and Japan Ongoing, Seattle Art Museum Rebels + Icons: The Photography of Janette Beckman Ongoing, MoPOP

LITERATURE One Book, One Coast: Zine-Making Workshop with Densho JUNE 6

COURTESY OF DENSHO

Founded in 1996, the Densho project was designed to ensure the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans didn’t get forgotten—but it’s branched out to other elements of Asian American history. The organization holds archives of Gidra, a zine/newspaper published at UCLA between 1969 and 1974, covering Asian American politics and culture on the campus and eventually, the Asian American scene over Los Angeles itself. Articles included “Yellow

MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES

Chris Smalls with Ijeoma Oluo JUNE 8

Chris Smalls is a real-life superhero. Back in 2020, when the world was shutting down, Smalls and his colleagues at a Staten Island Amazon warehouse were being made to work harder. As he saw workers fall ill with little to no support from the company, he knew something had to be done, so he and his coworker Derek Palmer staged a walkout. What started as a contained workplace health issue quickly grew into a nationwide labor movement, with workers from Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, and Apple following suit. Smalls will be joined by author Ijeoma Oluo (So You Want to Talk About Race) to talk about his new book, When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class, chronicling how he fought the ever-present tech giant and won. (Third Place Books, 7 pm) AUDREY VANN

84 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE thread, and this round’s theme is Holiday Gone Wrong.

It’s basically This American Life with fewer steps.

The open-mic nature means it might be as funny as stand-up, or as painful as improv. It’s intergenerational, multicultural, and exceedingly human. Take a date, go with friends, go by yourself, and sign up to perform a story. Ten Seattleites bare their souls for you to relate to or talk shit about, and then you can talk about yourselves during the intermission. Get there closer to 7 p.m. to guarantee a chair! (Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 8 pm, all ages) DYLAN BUECHE

More

University of Washington Honors Poets June 4, Barnes & Noble University District, 5 pm Mary Fontana June 6, Barnes & Noble University District, 4 pm David Sedaris: The Land and Its People June 7, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 6 pm Salon of Shame June 9, Theatre Off Jackson, 8 pm Brooke Averick with Heather McBreen June 9, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm Scott Kurashige June 10, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Kim Thayil with Krist Novoselic June 11, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Joseph Eckert with Kim Fu June 12, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Bushwick Book Club: Music Inspired by Hannah Templer’s Cosmoknights June 13, Hugo House, 7:30 pm Emerald City Romance Reader Event June 13, South Seattle College, 11 am–5 pm, 18+ Bookish Bazaar June 14, Old Stove Gardens, 2–7 pm Tomás Q. Morín w/ Daniel Tam-Claiborne June 15, 7 pm, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Dave Eggers and Andrew Sean Greer June 15, Town Hall, 7:30 pm Daniel Pope with Daniel Tam-Claiborne and Julia Hands June 16, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Lynda Mapes June 18, Town Hall, 7:30 pm Senator Chris Murphy with Marcus Harrison Green June 19, Town Hall, 7:30 pm Scrib Fest June 20–21, Town Hall, 9 am Seattle Youth Poet Laureate Ahsenti Alfedil’s Chapbook Launch June 23, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm

Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamo June 20, Neptune Theatre

sunl i ght caf eveget ar i an. com eG

Jess Walter June 25, Barnes & Noble University District, 5 pm Serena Chopra with Divya Victor June 25, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm Earthseed: Honoring the Past and Future of Feminist Science Fiction with Amber Flame, Rashida J. Smith, and Imani Sims June 25, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 5:30 pm

PERFORMANCE Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic JUNE 5–20 I’ve been saying it for years: Pride month needs more ski slope murder mysteries. Thankfully, the good people at the Annex Theatre have listened. Writer Monty Rozema and director Adrian Prendergast have teamed up for the perfect lesbian whodunnit in Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic. The title is the whole plot. A group of sapphics are going to a snowy kink party when one party member goes missing. Newcomer Lois wants to investigate. Her friends don’t want her to ruin the party. Chaos ensues. What better way to enjoy a beautiful gay summer than seeing a sexy, spooky, screwball lesbian ensemble comedy? (Annex Theatre, times vary) NATHALIE GRAHAM

Scott Shoemaker’s Ms. Pak-Man Out of Control 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 promises to be “out of control” with an evening of singing, dancing, comedy, and confessions. Anyone

JUNE 2026

Robby Hoffman

KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES

JUNE 6

Depending on what kind of TV you like to watch, you either know Robby Hoffman from her breakout role as Randi on HBO’s Hacks, or as the wife of beloved reality TV star Gabby Windey (The Bachelorette, Dancing With the Stars, Traitors, Love Overboard). But before her entrance into the cultural zeitgeist, Hoffman was an underrated stand-up comedian gracing small stages (her last headlining set in Seattle was at the 100-seat Here-After), where she talked about her Hasidic Jewish upbringing, queer identity, and love of dried apricots. Now she’s back, rightfully selling out the 1,000-seat Neptune Theatre, with only accessible seating available on the first-hand market. As she recently told Seth Meyers, “If you’re a bitch in a wheelchair, you’re in luck!” Continuing, “It’s not every day you’re sitting in America going ‘Great!’ But for the Robby Hoffman tour, this could be your in!” (Neptune Theatre, 7 and 9:45 pm, all ages) AUDREY VANN by the name of Blinky, Pinky, Inky, or Sue will not be allowed on the premises. (Triple Door, 5 pm [17+] and 8 pm [21+]) AUDREY VANN

Wish You Were Here June 11–July 5, Arts West, times vary, all ages

More

Tush: Amora Namor, Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill, Betty Wetter, Karma Sutra Stanwyck, Pussy Willow, Stasia Coup June 11, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm

Seattle International Dance Festival June 6–14, Broadway Performance Hall, times vary, all ages Aviatrix Through June 7, Seattle Public Theater, times vary The Circus of Second Chances Through June 14, 12th Avenue Arts, times vary

Olivia Carter June 11, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+

The Distillery New Works Festival June 11–14, Seattle Public Theater, times vary Seattle Rep Presents: The Play That Goes Wrong June 11–28, Bagley Wright Theater, times vary

NW New Works 2026 June 4–6, On the Boards, 7 pm

Dungeons & Drag Queens Pride: Alaska Thunderfuck, Miss Ma’amShe, Kylie Mooncakes June 12, Crocodile, 7 pm, 21+

Sally Ride June 4–6 and June 11–13, Theatre Off Jackson, 7:30 pm

Naomi Watanabe June 12, Neptune Theatre, 7 and 9:45 pm, all ages

Dream, Carl, Dream June 5–24, 12th Avenue Arts, times vary

Tig Notaro June 13, Woodland Park Zoo, 7 pm, all ages

Yoni Ki Baat June 4, Tasveer Film Center, 7:30 pm

Disappearance at the Rocky Mountain Leatherdyke Snowpicnic June 5–20, Annex Theatre, times vary Frida… A Self-Portrait June 6–28, Union Arts Center, times vary Therapy Gecko June 6, Crocodile, 6 pm, 21+

KUOW Focus Live Event: Adults in the Room June 18, Central Library, 7 pm The Bald and the Beautiful: Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamo June 20, Neptune Theatre, 7:30 pm, 18+ Emerald City Kings Ball Pride 2026 June 20, the Mountain Room, 8 pm, 21+

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86 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE Ms. Pak-Man June 6, Triple Door

BRONWEN HOUCK

Mama Tits: Side Effects May Vary June 25, Triple Door, 7:30 pm Jessie Jetski Johnson June 25, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+ Tush: Beau Degas, Betty Wetter, Miss Texas 1988, Moscato Sky, Purple Lemonade, Woody Shticks June 25–26, Clock-Out Lounge, times vary My Straight Friends June 26, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7 pm, 21+ The Lauren & Mary Show! With Lauren Lapkus and Mary Holland June 27, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7 and 9:30 pm, 21+ Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon June 28, Woodland Park Zoo, 5:30 pm, all ages Stavros Halkias June 30, Neptune Theatre, 7 and 9:30 pm, all ages

Upcoming shows

Jun 3-30, 2026

WED 6/3: VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE ENTHUSIASTS MEETUP 7 PM Fri 6/5 & sat 6/6: NW downbeat orchestra summer sessions 2026 - 2 days of live music, selector sets, vendors, and fun!

Mon 6/8: BONE haus // Buttstuff // Scorn dog 7 PM TUE 6/9: LIVE BAND KARAOKE w/ DYLAN LOST 6 PM FRI 6/12: el steiner // the vases // novachrome 8:30 pm sat 6/13: trip the wire // atrocity girl // prelude to a pistol 8 pm MON 6/15: OPEN MIC w/ Levi said. 6-9 PM TUE 6/16: LIVE BAND KARAOKE w/ DYLAN LOST 6 PM wed 6/17: songwriter night 7 PM fri 6/19 (FEATURED show // no cover!): staxx brothers // massy ferguson // shaina shepherd, AYRON JONES, shaun crawford // Steve aliment & annie o'neill 5 PM Sat 6/20: small yards // margo adrift // insect man 9 pm Mon 6/22: OPEN MIC w/ Levi said. 6-9 PM FRI 6/26: Hüligan // Stargazey Pie // Sharkeologist // Guilded Lilly 8 PM MON 6/29: OPEN MIC w/ Levi said. 6-9 PM

+ MORE SHOWS ADDED WEEKLY!

great OUTDOOR PATIO // ICE COLD BEER // 4 VARIETIES of CHILI + MORE

ENJOY YER SELF!

21+

5606 1st Ave S, Seattle WA 98108 tix/menus/info: slimslastchance.com

Early Warning

Stormy Daniels July 7, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+ James Austin Johnson July 8, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7:30 pm, 21+ Leslie Jones July 10–12 Emerald City Comedy Club, times vary, 21+ Iliza Shlesinger July 16, Emerald City Comedy Club, 7 and 9:30 pm, 21+ Amanda Knox: Cartwheel July 30–Aug 1, Rabbit Box Theatre, times vary, all ages Jack Bensinger Aug 16, Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, 21+

FILM Bleak Week JUNE 5–11 At the heart of Bleak Week, a weeklong film fest that, the Beacon says, “spotlights some of the greatest films from around the world that explore the darkest sides of humanity, as well as some of the bleakest points in human history,” is Dancer in the Dark, a movie by Lars von Trier, the modern master of melancholy cinema. Starring Iceland’s pop icon Björk, and featuring a Bernard Hermann-esque score by the star, Dancers in the Dark is something like the point at which Douglas Sirk meets Edvard Munch. Trier’s film is unremittingly dark. Things go from worse to worse. And its ending enters a world that can only be described as hell, which is not a place but, instead, the total absence of hope or, put another way, despair. The Bleak Week series, which also includes Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, might mark the stage when our society transitions from sadness to depression.

(The Beacon, times vary) CHARLES MUDEDE

Seattle Is Burning JUNE 16 Jennie Livingston’s landmark 1990 documentary shone a light on New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag ball scene, creating a rarely seen portrait of fashion “houses,” warlike contests, and valiant house mothers. It should be noted, though, that some participants felt exploited by the film, and feminist scholar bell hooks wondered about its voyeuristic aspects. Amid times of intense homophobia, transphobia, racism, poverty, and HIV/AIDS, there were voguers, drag queens, and trans women who forged community despite near-insurmountable odds—and despite valid criticisms of Paris Is Burning, it does celebrate these pioneering figures. Three Dollar Bill Cinema & the Seattle Film Society will screen the film, followed by a community Q&A with SWACE Health exploring the history, impact, and current state of ballroom culture, and ending with a late-night dance party.

(Hidden Hall, 6 pm) LINDSAY COSTELLO

Mad Max: Fury Road JUNE 18 AND 21 I think that the greatest statement about the top movie in the Mad Max series, Mad Max: Fury Road, was provided by the talented and yet hit-and-miss director Steven Soderbergh. His words: “I don’t understand how [George Miller] does that, I really don’t, and it’s my job to understand it. I don’t understand two things: I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film, and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.” There you have it. I watched that movie in a Memphis hotel room in 2017 and was equally flabbergasted. How did it get done?

How is it not another Apocalypse Now? The other films in the Mad Max universe are not, however, as impressive Fury Road. But the series is relevant due to climbing gas prices and the US’s endless wars over fossil fuels. We don’t need another hero. (The Beacon, times vary) CHARLES MUDEDE

Ask Any Buddy JUNE 20–24 I am once again asking you to watch porn to learn something about gay people in the years after Stonewall. Before gay sex was Oscar-bait and the stuff of sitcom plotlines, the local porno theater was one of the few reliable places to see gay life on screen in the liberatory, hedonistic era before AIDS. Elizabeth Purchell’s cut-up of 126 classic-era gay porn films includes rare shots from dozens of “real bathhouses, bars, movie theaters, Pride parades, and legendary gay hotspots that no longer exist,” writes Northwest Film Forum. Live a little. Learn a little.

Watch some porn. (Northwest Film Forum, times vary) VIVIAN MCCALL

JUNE 2026

Bottom JUNE 24 Bottom is about bottoming, as in, one anonymous man’s grail quest to get rawed by as many men as he possibly can in a year. Come for the “load count,” stay for all the ways this documentary will make you feel.

(Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm) VIVAN MCCALL

More

The Princess Bride Through June 4, Central Cinema, times vary Flow SIFF Film Center, June 5, 7 pm Take One (Theatrical Cut) Through June 7, Northwest Film Forum, times vary She Don’t Fade: The Short Films of Cheryl Dunye Through June 7, Northwest Film Forum, times vary Truth To Fiction: MASC June 4, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm Cross Faded Cinema: No Country for Old Men with DJ NicFit June 5, Rabbit Box Theatre, 8 pm, all ages How to Not Have Sex June 5, Tasveer Film Center, 7:30 pm Jennifer’s Body June 5–10, Central Cinema, times vary Northwest Noir: NWFF Annual Gala June 6, Washington Hall, 5 pm Critical What?! June 7, Northwest Film Forum, 4 pm Collide-O-Scope Pride Edition June 8, Clock-Out Lounge, 8 pm, 21+ Retro Night: Gladiator June 10, Majestic Bay, 7 pm RRR June 11, Central Cinema, 8 pm Kamikaze Hearts June 11–14, Northwest Film Forum, times vary VHS Über Alles June 12, Beacon Cinema, 10 pm Amores Perros (4K Restoration) Opens June 12, SIFF Cinema Uptown

She’s the He Opens June 12, SIFF Film Center, times vary The Friends of Eddie Coyle June 12–14, Beacon Cinema, times vary Buffet Infinity June 12–16, Central Cinema, times vary Spirited Away June 12–17, Central Cinema, times vary Paths of Glory June 14–15, Beacon Cinema, times vary Love Letter June 15–17, Beacon Cinema, times vary Bound June 16, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm Chopper June 16–17, Beacon Cinema, times vary Retro Night: Inception June 17, Majestic Bay, 7 pm Gangsterism June 17–18, Northwest Film Forum, 7:30 pm Unstreamable: By Hook or By Crook June 18–21, Northwest Film Forum, times vary Magic Theater: Do The Right Thing June 19, Seattle Public Theater, 7 pm Everybody to Kenmure Street Opens June 19, SIFF Film Center, times vary Best of SECS Fest June 19, Beacon Cinema, 10 pm The Devil Queen June 19–22, Beacon Cinema, times vary The Beastmaster June 20, Beacon Cinema, 10 pm Kaledeiscope June 20–24, Northwest Film Forum, times vary Community Screening: The Wizard of Oz June 21, SIFF Cinema Downtown, 11 am Witness for the Prosecution June 21–22, Beacon Cinema, times vary Sleepaway Camp: The Midnight Mass Experience June 24, SIFF Cinema Downtown, 7 pm Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark with the Seattle Symphony June 26–27, times vary, all ages An Elephant Sitting Still June 28, Beacon Cinema, 5 pm Anatomy of a Murder June 28–29, Beacon Cinema, times vary

Onda Nova JUNE 12–14

In 1941, Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas signed a stupid and sexist law that banned women and girls from playing sports such as soccer and rugby because they were “incompatible with the conditions of their nature.” That ban was lifted in 1979, but women weren’t allowed to form official teams until 1983, two years before the collapse of the country’s conservative military dictatorship. This is the setting for Ícaro (Francisco C) Martins’s and José Antonio García’s “erotic” and “anarchic” comedy about a group of young women in São Paulo forming the Gaivotas Football Club amid a media circus. Naturally, it’s gay, and until now, it has never been released outside of Brazil. (Northwest Film Forum, times vary) VIVIAN McCALL

87

88 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

JUNE 2026

FOOD&DRINK

of collegiate ballplayers staying in shape in their off-season. For the purposes of the Fish Sticks, the stadium is dubbed “The Fryer.” These games are full of kitsch and whimsy. Instead of the first pitch, there’s a first fish (yes, someone throws a fish).

In between innings, the Fish Sticks put on weird activities like inflatable mascot races, sing-alongs, and something called “Fish Sticks on the Face.” You better believe team mascot Fin Crispy Jr. is heavily involved. It’s a good, goofy time. And it’s cheap.

Tickets cost $14. On certain Thursdays, all concessions are $3. Yes, even the fish sticks. Who needs the Savannah Bananas when we’ve got the DubSea Fish Sticks? Catch them in the Fryer June through the first week of August. (Steve Cox Memorial Park, 6:35 pm, all ages) NATHALIE GRAHAM

The Pastry Project’s Soft Serve Window Opening JUNE 4 The Pastry Project’s soft-serve window is only open for the summer, and it offers three flavors—purple vanilla, chocolate, and twist. While the ice cream is decadent enough to enjoy on its own—no cheap, icy mix here—the true magic is in the toppings. A hard shell dip is available in butterscotch, chocolate, and strawberry passionfruit, and you’re gonna definitely want to add their rainbow peanut crunch. That’s housemade honeycomb-esque peanut brittle that has been smashed to bits and mixed with chopped peanuts and rainbow sprinkles. Nut-Blasting Crispy Magic Rainbow Crunch Fuck Yeah is what they should call it. That on a twist cone with the strawberry passionfruit dip tastes like a PB&J turned up to 11.

On June 4, the window’s first day of the season, the Pastry Project is giving away free mini ice cream sandwiches to the first 100 people in line. (The Pastry Project, 3 pm, free) MEGAN SELING

Corgi World Championships JUNE 27-28

Gays Eating Garlic Bread in the Park JUNE 6 Perhaps you were one of the millions of people who became aware of the “Gays Eating Garlic Bread in the Park” sensation after a simple poster advertising it went massively viral on TikTok last year. The joyful gathering, which bid attendees to “BYOGB,” ended up drawing hordes of friendly carb-seeking queers. It’s back again with plenty of beverages and games under a veranda. Go forth and thaw the Seattle freeze, and don’t forget to bring your own buttery, allium-laced snacks to share. (South Woodland Park, noon–5 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Gobble Up JUNE 27 The indie craft show Urban Craft Rising typically hosts 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’re hosting this brand new summer version with over 75 small businesses and food trucks. If you want to plan ahead with your gift-giving, the Cancers, Leos, and Virgos in your life will surely appreciate birthday presents like hand-

Corgi World Championships

June 27-28, Emerald Downs

Fremont Fair 2026

400TMAX/GETTY IMAGES

NAKED PEOPLE ON BIKES! But the annual Fremont Fair is so much more: body painting on naked people on bikes, giant puppets, stilt-walkers, dancers, floats, and musicians all coming together to observe the longest day of the year in our hemisphere. A lot has changed in Seattle over the past 35 years, but the Solstice Parade remains a bastion for quirky, radical self-expression and community-forward, hippie-bacchanal vibes. When the parade concludes, the fair continues with a bevy of food trucks and cocktail and beer gardens, a huge art and craft market, a plant-based block party, live bands, a showcase of Seattle Art Cars, and one great big slide! Keep solstice weird! (Downtown Fremont, times vary, free, all ages) AMANDA MANITACH or just treat yourself to something special. (Lake Union Park, times vary, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

More

Brewology June 6, Seattle Center, 7 pm, 21+ Ballard Cocktail Trail June 6, Columbia Bank, 4 pm, 21+ Chao Club x Ming Oun’s June 9, the Wayland Mill, 5 pm, 21+ Grill Time!: Noah Galuten and Renee Erickson June 25, Lioness, 4 pm, all ages Book Club: What Is Queer Food? June 27, Book Larder, 10 am, free

SO! MANY! PRIDE PARTIES!

Welcome to the best weekend of your life, when dozens of corgis from all over the world (or, at least, the Pacific Northwest) run their adorable butts off on the Emerald Downs horse race track. Their legs are so short! The track is so muddy! Look at them go! As entertaining as the annual race is, the Corgi World Championships are not a novelty; they are a sport.

They are aired on ESPN2! And we have two chances to watch them play out in person, with the qualifying races on Saturday, June 27, and the finals on June 28. Festivities begin with a parade of the corgis; it ends with dozens of fluffy buns dashing as fast as they can for 50 yards while the crowd goes wild. Who will win? Who will stop mid-race to try to shake off their bandana? The drama is almost too much to take.

(Emerald Downs, 11:30 am, all ages) MEGAN SELING

More

JUNE 20–21

crafted salami, chili crisp, or wooden cutting boards—

COURTESY EMERALD DOWNS

89

THIS&THAT

Northwest Pinball & Arcade Show June 5–7, Tacoma Convention Center, times vary, all ages White Center Pride Street Fest June 6, Downtown White Center, time TBA, free, all ages Cutie Fest June 12, Cal Anderson Park, 3–8 pm, free, all ages Indigenous People Festival June 13, Seattle Center, 10 am–7 pm, free, all ages 25th Annual Juneteenth Celebration June 18, Rainier Beach Community Center, 5–8 pm, all ages, free Punk Rock Flea Market June 19–21, Quality Flea Center, times vary, all ages Gather for Goals: World Soccer Match Watching Party June 26, Downtown White Center Find all these listings and more on our sister site, EverOut Seattle! EverOut.com/Seattle Looking for World Cup stuff? Check out our World Cup Survival Guide pullout in this issue for all the watch parties and sports bars we recommend.

DubSea Fish Sticks Home Opener JUNE 6 This summer, you should go to a DubSea Fish Sticks game. Get your ass out to White Center to Mel Olson Stadium inside King County’s Steve Cox Memorial Park and watch the Fish Sticks, a team

It’s June; it’s Pride Month. And Seattle is absolutely silly with parties and dance nights and drag shows and tarot readings and baseball games and

games of Dungeons & Dragons, all in the name of Pride. There are so many events, in fact, we couldn’t fit them all in these eight pages of event listings,

Don’t peek! Puzzle on pg. 91.

so we squeezed in an extra three pages with more than 50 Pride parties on page 51. Dance your pants off! And don’t forget to drink plenty of water.

90 THE STRANGER’S QUEER ISSUE

UPCOMING EVENTS JUN 3 - 30, 2026

THU 6/4: DUSTY 45s w/guest openers! 6-9 PM FRI 6/5: suction // moonspots // nonmodern // luna moss 8 PM SAT 6/6: white center's Annual pride festival - music all day!

Sun 6/7: admiral radio // the paula boggs band Mon 6/8: Crafty Night, 6-9 PM TUE 6/9: Mode music's aLL-AGES open mic + Open mic w/Levi said Thu 6/11: Dusty 45s with guest openers! 6-9 PM Sat 6/13: School of rock matinee 2 PM SAT 6/13: SKATES! // WILL RAINIER & THE PINES // special guests 8 PM SUN 6/14: Second sunday matinee: return of deadgrass 2 PM SUN 6/14: carrie jennings // audrey stangland // jane covert-bowlds 7 PM TUE 6/16: OPEN MIC W/ LEVI SAID., 7 PM THU 6/18: rat city art walk 5-8 pm + DUSTY 45s w/guest openers! 6-9 PM SAT 6/20: 22 Pines // catalyst // devil's duvet 8:30 PM SUN 6/21: mode music school's out benefit 3 PM Mon 6/22: Crafty Night, 6-9 PM TUE 6/23: OPEN MIC W/ LEVI SAID., 7 PM THU 6/25: DUSTY 45s w/guest openers! 6-9 PM FRI 6/26: Swindler // the high seagrass 8 PM sat 6/27: Reggae Night + MORE SHOWS ADDED WEEKLY!

HAPPY HOUR 4-6 PM M-F // ALL AGES until 10 PM // WE CATER!

9655 16th Ave sw, Seattle WA 98106 // TIMSLIVEMUSIC.com

JUNE 2026

True Colors BY NATE CARDIN

54. Major heart artery

ACROSS

28. Hole-punching tools

1. Like jeans that are very much not skinny

30. Sub’s term of address for his dom, perhaps

57. 1979 Kermit the Frog song that hints at this puzzle’s circled letters, as well as what unites the LGBTQ+ community

31. “Believe” queer icon with an Oscar for “Moonstruck”

60. Bills slipped to a drag king or gogo boy

32. Peru’s capital

61. Starts doing business again

14. “Someone Like You” singer who’s called the LGBTQ+ community her “soulmates”

34. Promise-to-pay note

62. 2022 RuPaul clapback “Blame It on the ___”

15. Red-___ Louboutins

36. Rowers’ paddles

17. Sourdough or rye

37. Big rig

18. Shades of color, like across a spectrum

38. Boob tubes

6. Network featuring openly gay reporter Ari Shapiro 9. Blue Ribbon brewery

35. Vitamin infusion hookups: Abbr.

63. Spot for a stud 64. Word before Electric or Motors

40. Dumbbell weights: Abbr.

DOWN

21. Kissing in public, for example: Abbr.

41. To be, in Spanish 42. “___ Just Not That Into You”

1. Flutter, like your eyelashes at the soft butch across the bar

24. Mrs., in Marseilles

45. Place for pillow talk between ace partners, say

25. Brad and George Takei, in the tabloids

48. Reply to an invitation, like to a queer wedding

26. Queer ___ (“Fab Five” Netflix show)

50. Country home to Manvendra Singh Gohil, the world’s first openly gay prince

27. “Aladdin” monkey whose name is hidden in “Fabulous!”

52. “Rocky” actress Shire

Seeking Local

2. Like many queer parents 3. Field of research influenced

by Judith Butler and Simone de Beauvoir 4. Twinkle 5. Enthusiastic word of affirmative consent 6. Midday quickies 7. Podcast guest’s bit of selfadvertisement

ARTISTS

ILLUSTRATORS

CARTOONISTS

10. Pleasant smell 11. Smile broadly, with a deep sense of self worth 12. 2012 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis queer anthem 13. NFL six-pointers: Abbr.

16. Horse races, like in Kentucky

19. Jeweler’s magnifying glass

43. Web addresses, like twocc.org for the Trans Women of Color Collective

9. Hip beer brand whose initials are spelled out in 9-Across

15. Vampires’ nemeses, like Buffy and Faith

20. Wanders

22. 2025 “The Advocate” headline: “National Park ___ Rebel Against Queer Erasure on Trans Day of Visibility”

8. Strikes down, like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell or the Defense of Marriage Act

65. Where to find a sub with cut meat?

39. Palindromic Vietnamese New Year festival

91

22. Detox centers 23. 2015 Demi Lovato queer anthem “Cool for the ___” 25. Netflix baking show “___ Cake?”

45. “Six Degrees of ...” actor Kevin, who starred in the 2022 queer horror film “They/ Them”

49. Made your voice heard at the polls

33. Lung compartment pouch

46. Run away to get married, like two brides might

44. Washing machine cycle

47. Roadside eatery

29. Figure (out) 31. Work together on a project, slangily

55. “Double, double ___ and trouble”

50. What’s pumped in gyms

56. Against

51. Prefix for tiny technology

58. thetrevorproject.___

52. Overly cutesy

59. Subject for some immigrants: Abbr.

53. “Pitch Perfect” actress Kendrick

Answers on pg. 89

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