Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 6 Volume 43
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Laura Griffith
gets ready to ride the
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“Walking While Black – Obama budget gives Always Dangerous Until Social Security benefits to all married couples Proven Otherwise” courtesy of
black boy, raised by white parents “ages out” of honorary white and suburban privilege and into a world where folklore, statistics and conjecture deem him dangerous until proven otherwise, and author of Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy – has organized a protest and walk this weekend, in conjunction with #BLACKLIVESMATTER, demanding an end to what he says is law enforcements racism towards black men, called “Walking While Black – Always Dangerous Until Proven Otherwise.” Chad is a Gay man of color so he has a stake in this claim. He is going to protest and William Wingate, a 70-year-old veteran walk and he’s asking you – with a golf club in and retired bus driver arrested by SPD hand – to join him. “As black men, in the eyes of many, we are by Shaun Knittel viewed as dangerous until proven otherSGN Associate Editor wise,” he said. “Therefore, by extension, anyChad Goller-Sojourner – author of Rid- thing carried by us or attached to our person ing in Cars with Black People & Other Newly is often viewed as a weapon. For example Dangerous Acts: A Memoir in Vanishing see Walking page 6 Whiteness, the story of what happens when a
youtube.com
Protest and walk to end bias policing scheduled for Saturday, February 7
President Obama
cies – will only pay benefits if the couple actually lives in a state that recognizes their marriage. Same-sex marriages are currently President Obama’s new 2016 budget pro- recognized in 36 states. posal funds Social Security benefits for all Under the present system, for example, a same-sex married couples, regardless of the couple married in California but living in state they live in. Kentucky could not claim Social Security Currently, the Social Security Adminissee OBama page 16 tration – almost alone among federal agenby Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Alabama Public Health officials said they are sending updated marriage forms to probate judges in all of the state’s 67 counties in anticipation of the first samesex marriages due on February 9. Instead of listing “bride” and “groom,” the new forms include “first listed spouse” and “second listed spouse.” Catherine Donald, the state registrar and director of the Center for Health Statistics, said there are a few other minor changes that have made the marriage certificate slightly longer. For instance, it now asks for the gender of each spouse, which will allow the state to track how many marriage licenses are issued to Gay couples. U.S. District Judge Callie Granade struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriages, but stayed her ruling till February 9. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to extend the stay, and on February 4 suspended its action on the issue until the U.S. Supreme Court rules. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has asked the Supreme Court to extend the stay, but so far nothing has been forthcoming from the high court. That means – barring any last-minute complications – same-sex marriages should begin in Alabama on February 9. Meanwhile, the state’s chief judge, Roy
Moore, is telling probate judges they do not need to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Moore sent a letter to the judges on February 3, saying the Granade’s decision is not binding on them. Moore has also urged judges not to comply with any U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. “I can’t tell them how to think. I can’t tell them how to interpret the Constitution. I can say that they are obliged to follow the Alabama Constitution and nothing prevents that,” Moore said. “To disobey the Alabama Constitution would be to ignore the 81 percent of the people in this state that adopted the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment.” In response, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has filed two judicial ethics complaints against Moore. “Justice Moore is, I think, a dangerous person. He’s created a crisis in the state before. He just seems hell-bent determined to do it again,” said Richard Cohen, president of the SPLC. Cohen said judges who refuse to issue licenses risk being sued and were being led into “very, very hot water by suggesting they ignore Judge Granade’s order.” SPLC and Moore have tangled before. In 2003, an ethics complaint filed by the group got Moore kicked off the state bench. He later won a new election to the post of chief judge.
Tassaneewan Laksanasopin, Columbia Engineering
Alabama set for Gay and Test for HIV on your smartphone Lesbian marriages February 9 Results in 15 minutes
HIV testing device
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Researchers at Columbia Engineering have unveiled a new smartphone accessory that can test for HIV and return an accurate result in only 15 minutes. The device, called a dongle, replicates all the mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a laboratory blood test, but costs only $34 to produce. In contrast, the equipment for an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs upwards of $18,000. The smartphone accessory also requires no stored energy, since all necessary power is drawn from the smartphone. In addition to HIV, the dongle also con-
ducts two separate tests for syphilis. “Our work shows that a full laboratoryquality immunoassay can be run on a smartphone accessory,” lead researcher Samuel K. Sia told Science Daily. “Coupling microfluidics with recent advances in consumer electronics can make certain lab-based diagnostics accessible to almost any population with access to smartphones. This kind of capability can transform how health care services are delivered around the world.” The research team’s pilot device was field-tested by healthcare workers in Rwanda on 96 patients who were enrolling see HIV Test page 9