SGN October 31, 2014 - Section 1

Celebrating 41 Years!

Issue 44 Volume 42

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What’s next?

Kris Hermanns, Executive Director of the Pride Foundation

SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

by Kris Hermanns Pride Foundation Special to the SGN As marriage equality continues to gain momentum across our region and the country, we are at a unique moment in LGBTQ history – a critical turning point that has the potential to fully transform the lives of everyone in our community.

We went from having marriage equality in 19 states – in addition to 10 Native American tribes, and Washington D.C. – to 32 states in a matter of weeks. As lawsuits across the country continue to play out, we can expect even more change soon.

Many of us never imagined we would live to see the day we could legally marry in our home communities. As more and more LGBTQ couples are able to publicly commit themselves to the one they love, my heart is filled with a joy and fulfillment that is hard to describe.

While things have moved quickly these past few months – indeed so quickly that it can be hard to keep up with it all – it is clear that this work did not happen in a vacuum. It has

been a long uphill climb to build the community and public support needed to reach this moment.

When Pride Foundation was part of the marriage equality campaign in Washington in 2012, we knew that it was necessary to prioritize sharing people’s stories. In order to change hearts and minds, it was important to make connections and support people on their journey to acceptance. This wasn’t always easy, and it made for some tense and uncomfortable moments. But it worked – creating a framework that has led us from victory to victory across the country.

This same base building and infrastructure support is what is now needed to carry our movement forward. We have been working diligently on the ground in each of the states Pride Foundation works in – Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington – to do just that; with the goal of real, lived, lasting equality for everyone in our community.

I am constantly asked, “What’s next?” now that we’ve achieved see Pride page 10

PrEP can be effective on intermittent SCS celebrates 45 years; PFLAG co-founder basis, French study says Arleen Nelson honored at annual SCS gala

Courtesy of Seattle counseling Service

AP Photo / Jeff Chiu

lead researcher Jean-Michel Molina closed the randomized phase of the study early and put all his control group – who had been taking a placebo – on PrEP. Molina’s research team found a significant difference in incidence between the two groups with a “very significant reduction” in the risk of HIV infection in the PrEP group. In fact, the reduction in HIV risk was described as “much higher than the one observed in the iPrEx trial,” referring to a pioneer PrEP study in 2007 and 2008.

Molina’s study, called IPERGAY, was run by the French national AIDS research institute, ANRS, and began in February 2012. The study researched the effects of PrEP in 400 volunteers in several French cities and in Montreal.

IPERGAY participants did not take PrEP daily, but only when they anticipated having sex. The regimen involved taking two pills of Truvada in the 24-hour period Truvada, PrEP HIV treatment drug before anticipated sex and then, Arleen Nelson they can be effective at preventing if sex took place, two separate

by Mike Andrew claim what Seattle Counseling SerHIV infections even if taken inter- one-pill doses in the two days fol- by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer vice (SCS) can: They are as relevant mittently right before and after sex. lowing sex.

SGN Associate Editor PrEP drugs are not only effecIn fact, the study showed that see PrEP page 18 Few LGBTQ organizations can tive, a new French study says, but PrEP meds were so successful, that see SCS page 22

2 Seattle Gay News

October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

Murder is murder

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

“We could very well be calling Fryberg a depressed sociopath with a bloodlust for a girl he felt an unnatural ownership over,” wrote Maria Guido in a blog post for the parenting news and information blog www.MommyIsh.com.

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According to Guido, for one in five women who ever experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner, the first experience of some form of partner violence happened between 11 and 17 years of age.

Guido says that while she is sorry for the parents who are grappling with the horror of losing a child this way and that she “wouldn’t wish this situation on my worst enemy” she does, however, refuse to excuse Fryberg’s actions or “talk about his bright future or depression.”

“He was a young man who killed a girl he couldn’t control,” she said. “That’s how over 30% of female homicide victims over the age of twelve die in America. We need to talk to our kids about this. Now.” Guido says that the big problem in this country, exacerbated by easy access to guns, has roots planted in the belief that women – or girls in this case – are not entitled to agency over their own bodies. She maintains that Fryberg was a product of a society that teaches boys from a very young age that their female counterparts are not peers; they are trophies to be won.

“News story after news story keeps repeating the narrative that Jaylen was jilted and lovesick. But what about the girl whose life he ended? He believed she was ‘his.’ When she didn’t return his affection – he killed her,” said Guido. “This is not a new story. This is a story far too many women know. It’s a narrative way too many women have lost their lives to.”

Guido says now is not the time to ask how did this happen? It’s the time to ask, why does this keep happening and what can we do to stop it?

“Our daughters deserve better,” she said.

“So do the 4,000 women who will die this July 8 – Fryberg retweeted “I’m not jeal- year if we continue to turn a blind eye to ous, but when something is mine, it’s mine” the horrors of violence against women and from Horny Facts. repeatedly excuse men for violent behavior August 20 – Fryberg tweeted “Tell me what because of their poor, broken hearts.” your plan is …. You can’t make a bond with anyone like the bond me and you have right now …. Tell me what your (sic) going to do …”

And the tweets became increasingly more threatening: August 20 – Fryberg tweeted “Your (sic) not gonna like what happens next!!”

August 20 – Fryberg continued “Your (sic) gonna piss me off … and then some shit’s gonna go down and I don’t think you’ll like it.”

September 19 – Fryberg tweeted “Did you Victims Andrew Fryberg and Zoe Galasso forget she was my girlfriend?”

Facebook

The way our society sometimes reassigns guilt or innocence – sometimes even changing the severity of a person’s actions – in this country sickens me. It’s an outrage and it happens all the time.

The latest example of this ridiculous behavior happened last week in Marysville when 14-year-old Jaylen Fryberg walked into his high school cafeteria and shot three girls and two boys before turning the gun on himself.

Several of his friends described him as a great guy who had recently become depressed over the fact that one of his victims, 14-year-old Zoe Galasso, did not return his affections.

Zoe Galasso died at the scene. Jaylen Fryberg shot her in the head. 14-year-old Gia Soriano died from her injuries on Sunday.

At the time, the public and mainstream media did not know that Galasso and Fryberg, both deceased, and the only two to die at the scene (Fryberg turned the gun on himself in the end), knew each other. But when news broke that both of the male victims were his cousins and that Galasso was not in love or lust with Jaylen Fryberg but had, in fact, been dating Jaylen’s cousin Andrew Fryberg, 15, the media seemed to change the narrative about who Jaylen Fryberg is. And so did social media commentators and trolls. Suddenly, facts are ignored and the devil becomes an angel.

Even though he is one, Jaylen Fryberg does not fit everyone’s idea of what a killer should look like.

Never mind that Fryberg walked into a school last Friday armed and ready to kill several of his peers and family members by texting them all to invite them to lunch before making his way to the cafeteria to shoot them. Never mind that that is premeditated murder. He was attractive and had recently been voted as Homecoming Prince and so we don’t like to prosecute those kind of people; instead we somehow feel better saying that the heart-broken homecoming Prince shot the girl that broke his heart.

“Instead, we’re calling him the heartbroken Homecoming Prince. There is a lesson here for parents of girls and boys alike; this is what happens when you neglect to teach boys that the object of their affection isn’t their property.”

Guido says that the way people are talking about this murderous rampage is sending a message to young girls everywhere: Don’t be the girl who drives the boy crazy – you may wind up dead. And no one will speak of you or your right to rebut his advances or choose whom you want to give your 14-year-old heart to. You’ll be a distant memory to most – but your killer’s name will live on as everyone grapples to figure out how he could possibly have done it? When in fact, it’s the most obvious motive in the world.

“Women die at the hands of ‘jilted’ men at an alarming rate in this country,” she said.

“Ignoring the lesson parents should be learning here – to teach their children that people they like are not objects to be won or owned – is a grave mistake and makes the loss of these lives even more senseless.”

“To everyone who says they didn’t see it coming – I disagree; this is textbook domestic violence – when it happens to kids it’s called “teen dating violence,’” said Guido.

A quick glance at his Twitter account, Guido points out, shows Fryberg’s motive.

“He was depressed. He was jilted. He was also exhibiting traits of an emotionally abusive partner,” she said.

After death, his Twitter feed is an eerie peek into a mind gripped by jealousy and rage. And the telling tweets and retweets date back months. The tweets include:

October 31, 2014

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4 Seattle Gay News

October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

ACLU of Washington to recognize Champions of Civil Liberties Sienna Colburn to be honored for her support of Mark Zmuda

Youth Activist Award: Sienna Colburn The Youth Activist Award is presented to a young person (age 22 or younger) or group of young people whose activism exemplifies work to defend and extend liberty and justice for all. Sienna Colburn, a student at Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish, led the charge in a movement to support Mark Zmuda, a former vice principal who was fired last December for being married to a man. Si-

enna was a sophomore on the swim team coached by Mr. Z. Outraged by his unfair firing, she posted to Twitter #savemrz2013. A social media campaign to Keep Mr. Z followed her tweet, and what ensued was a groundswell of support. Hundreds of students from Eastside Catholic and neighboring high schools organized walk-outs and sitins; the swim team posted a banner reading “We swim for Zmuda” at a swim meet; alumni conducted rallies and warned the school they would stop donating; parents threatened to remove their children from Eastside Catholic; and a petition calling for Zmuda’s reinstatement garnered more than 20,000 signatures. Student activists also marked January 31 as Z Day and urged Zmuda’s supporters to wear orange, one of the school’s colors, and to join in a minute of silence to show support for Mr. Z. The students at Eastside Catholic bravely stood for the right to love and spoke out against injustice. Zmuda says, “It is those memories I will cherish and remember after all that transpired.” Though Eastside Catholic refused to reinstate Zmuda, he has accepted a position as Associate Principal and Director of Athletic Programs at Mercer Island High School.

courtesy of ACLU

At the Bill of Rights Dinner on Saturday, November 1 at the Sheraton in Seattle, ACLU supporters will honor lifetime and recent civil liberties heroes and enjoy contemporary political humor. Awards will go to Floyd U. Jones and Alene Morris for lifetime achievements in advancing civil liberties; two legal teams from Perkins Coie that worked tirelessly on ground-breaking cases to reform public defense and enforce voting rights; internationally known rapper Macklemore, an outspoken advocate of LGBT equality; and student activist Sienna Colburn, who sparked a protest movement over the firing of a Gay educator. Comedian Larry Wilmore of “The Daily Show” will offer his unique insights on matters absurd and serious in our current political scene.

Youth Activist Sienna Colburn

Courtesy of ACLU of Washington

Election 2104: Background checks, smaller classes likely winners, new poll says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer I-594, requiring background checks for all transfers of firearms, and I-1351, mandating smaller primary school classes, are both likely to win, according to a KCTS-9/Washington Poll released October 30.

I-591, which competes with I-594, faces an uncertain future.

I-594 requires even gun show dealers and private sellers to do background checks on potential gun buyers, hoping to close the socalled “gun show loophole” that allows some buyers to avoid checks.

I-591, on the other hand, ties Washington state gun laws to a “national standard,” effectively ruling out any tightening of state controls.

According to the new poll numbers, 61.1% of respondents say they will vote

for I-594, and 52% are “certain” they will vote Yes. Only 27.9% say they will vote No. Yes votes are heavily concentrated in the Puget Sound region, but the measure leads even in Eastern Washington, although by a smaller margin.

I-591 shows only a 41.7% Yes vote, against a 38.8% No vote and 17.1% Undecided. The poll shows more Undecideds leaning No than Yes. Since the initiatives are contradictory, voters need to choose between tighter gun controls and no change. If both win, there will almost certainly be litigation to determine which should go into effect – if either.

I-1351 is also a likely winner, with 56.3% of poll respondents saying they will vote Yes, 48.7% saying they are “certain” to do so. The measure has slightly more support in Eastern Washington than in the Puget Sound region, but leads in all regions of the state.

Probably because these issues are on the ballot, when poll participants were asked to name the “general issue” that was most important to them, the largest numbers chose “education reform/education funding” (23.7%) and “gun laws” (21%). “Fixing the economy/recession” came third with 12.3%.

More than 84% of the respondents said they “don’t know” what issues are important.

While 48.6% of respondents say the state is “going in the right direction,” and only 36.3% said Washington is “seriously on the wrong track,” Washingtonians are skeptical of their state government, the poll shows.

Some 38.4% said they had a favorable

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impression of the state legislature, while 38.8% had an unfavorable view. Favorables were higher in Western Washington than in the eastern part of the state.

The state legislature still ranks higher in people’s estimation than Congress does.

Only 22.5% of poll respondents had a favorable view of the U.S. Congress, while 67% had an unfavorable opinion. These views were shared relatively evenly in all regions of the state.

According to the poll, Washington remains a “Red” state, with 48.4% saying they prefer a generic Democrat for Congress, and only 40.5% picking a Republican.

The Puget Sound region was decisively pro-Democrat, while other parts of the state opted for Republicans. That suggests there will be no changes to the state’s Congressional delegation, since all incumbent Democrats represent Puget Sound districts and incumbent Republicans hail from the rest of the state.

One-third (33.3%) of respondents selfidentified as Democrats, with 23.3% identifying as Republican, and 36.6% as “independent/other.” Independents tilt slightly toward the Republican side, with 37.3% saying they lean Republican and 34.8% leaning Democratic.

Of those who identified with a party, 62.9% said they identified “strongly,” while 35.3% said they did not strongly associate with their party.

Democrats are trusted more “to make the right decisions to improve economic conditions in Washington state.” Just under 41%

said they trusted Democrats to do so, while only 35.2% named Republicans.

Almost 32% of respondents said they were on the liberal end of the political spectrum, with those people concentrated in the Puget Sound region. More than 30% said they were conservative. Almost 17% said they trusted neither party. Democrats held a 15-point lead in the Puget Sound Region, while Republicans led in other areas of the state.

Although they are not on this year’s ballot, Governor Jay Inslee and U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell enjoy general approval.

Some 53.8% have a favorable view of Inslee, with only 28.9% holding an unfavorable view of the governor. Inslee is wellliked throughout the state, with somewhat higher favorables in Western Washington than in the east.

Senator Patty Murray has a 53.8% favorable rating and 34.6% unfavorable, and Senator Maria Cantwell enjoys 56.4% favorables against 29.7% unfavorables. Murray tends to have higher “very favorable” ratings than Cantwell, even though her overall favorable total is a little less than her colleague’s. Both are more popular in Western Washington than east of the mountains.

Among other issues polled, marriage equality continues to get wide approval.

Two years after Washington voters approved Referendum 74, a whopping 71.4% of those polled say Gay and Lesbian couples should have a right to marry. Only 23.8% disagree.

October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 5

Local reaction to Trans woman’s murder in the Philippines Facebook

Jennifer Laude

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor A pact that allows American troops to join large-scale combat exercises in the Philippines is “imperfect,” but Manila is unlikely to amend it, the country’s top diplomat said Thursday.

The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which was signed by the treaty allies in 1998, has come under renewed criticism by leftwing groups and nationalists after it allowed American officials to retain custody of a U.S. Marine accused of killing a Transgender Filipino earlier this month.

The U.S. military agreed to transfer Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton from an American warship to the Philippine military’s main

camp in metropolitan Manila, but he remains guarded by fellow Marines in a compound with an outer security ring of Filipino troops.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said amending the agreement could disrupt joint military exercises.

The Philippines turned to the U.S. for help in modernizing its underfunded military amid a territorial row with China.

“It’s an imperfect agreement but given that, as I said, it’s not plausible for us to amend at this time,” del Rosario told the ABS-CBN TV network, adding that the accord needed to be abrogated by both countries to pave the way for any proposed changes.

The agreement has no clear provision outlining how it can be amended, according to Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose.

“If we abrogate,” del Rosario said, “it interrupts the ... joint exercise between our two armed forces. It consequences the modernization, the joint training, the inter-operability.”

Critics have cited the custody provision of the accord – which says American military suspects shall remain in U.S. custody until legal proceedings are completed – as proof that the agreement is lopsided and undermines the sovereignty of the Philippines,

which was an American colony until 1946.

Philippine police said Pemberton met Jennifer Laude, 26, at a disco bar in Olongapo city, northwest of Manila, on October 11, then went to a motel room where Laude’s body was later found. Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey, had apparently been drowned in the toilet bowl.

Philippine and U.S. authorities engaged in a high-profile custody battle over another U.S. Marine, Daniel Smith, who was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on charges of raping a Filipino woman in 2005. A Philippine appeals court overturned his conviction in 2009, allowing him to leave the country amid anti-U.S. protests.

for justice, the Pacific Northwest BAYAN QUEER COLLECTIVE will be holding a vigil to honor her life as well as the lives of Trans people who have fallen victim to a culture of violence against the Trans community.

We will meet at the shelter near Spokane Street in Jefferson Park at 5 p.m.

(In case of heavy rain, please meet at Inay’s instead.)

The walking procession will begin at 5:30 p.m. going down Beacon Ave., turning left on Lander Street and walking through the neighborhoods until we reach Inay’s Kitchen.

There will be an access shuttle for those who need it.

LOCAL VIGIL PLANNED We will have speakers and performances TO HONOR VICTIM at Inay’s, the program starting at 6 p.m.

Justice for Jennifer Laude Vigil There will be a letter station for you to write November 2, 5 p.m. letters of support to Jennifer’s family.

Jefferson Park, 3801 Beacon Ave. S. Program and reception afterwards at Inay’s Please contact us if you have questions: Asian Pacific Cuisine, 2503 Beacon Ave. S. oralexpression@gmail.com The following is a Facebook announce#REMEMBERJENNIFERLAUDE ment made by Bayan Queer Collective: In light of the tragic murder of Jennifer Justice for Jennifer Laude!

Laude, a Filipino Trans Woman, at the hands Trans Lives Matter! of a U.S. Marine and the urgent demand

Couple who killed “Gay” child avoid death penalty

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Pearl Fernandez and her former boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, will take a plea deal to avoid the death penalty for the murder and torture of her son, eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in May 2013. The boy was allegedly killed because the couple thought he was Gay. According to court papers, the Southern California couple will be sentenced to life in prison without parole for pleading guilty to first-degree murder and torture with special circumstances in the death of Gabriel Fernandez. They both

waived their right for an appeal and will remain in prison for the rest of their lives.

The fact that these two incredibly horrible people were even offered a plea deal has many people upset, particularly because the facts of the case show that the young boy suffered months of painful beatings and psychological abuse.

On May 22, 2013, Gabriel Fernandez was found barely breathing in his mother’s home in Palmdale, CA (north of Los Angeles) and died two days later. Paramedics found the boy naked in his bedroom, with a cracked skull and broken ribs. Gabriel also showed signs of having been restrained and shot with a BB gun in the groin

and other forms of torture. The abuse lasted over the course of eight months said authorities.

The couple called the boy “Gay” and beat him with belts and baseball bats when he got caught playing with dolls. They also forced him to eat cat feces and his own vomit, doused him in pepper spray and locked him inside a cabinet with a sock stuffed in his mouth, not even letting him out to use the bathroom.

Gabriel Fernandez’s teeth were knocked out because of the beatings.

Gabriel’s mother and Aguirre were arrested in connection to his death the day after he was discovered. They were charged with

capital murder on May 28, 2013.

Several social workers responded to several reports of abuse from Gabriel Fernandez’s teachers and grandfather but they determined he was not at risk – even after social workers found a suicide note the boy wrote. They concluded he did not have a specific plan to kill himself. Four social workers were cleared in connection with the case.

The boy’s maternal grandfather, who took care of Gabriel Fernandez most of his life, has filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the county and the Department of Children & Families.

Court tosses claim by Kansas Christians that marriage is their property; Westboro church wants in on the suit

6 Seattle Gay News

October 31, 2014

afforded civil rights and granted the imprimatur of respectability by a license from the government; and that in doing so the government violates its duty of religious neutrality; and puts itself in the position of imposing sin on the citizens, to the great detriment and harm of the health and welfare of the citizenry,” the petition states.

Westboro – the creation of the late Fred Phelps, and still run by Phelps family members – is based in Topeka, Kansas.

While it claims to be a Baptist church, it

is not affiliated with any organized Baptist denomination.

Marie v. Moser was filed by the ACLU on October 10, on behalf of two Lesbian couples who were denied marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand all existing appellate rulings in favor of same-sex marriage. Among them were two Tenth Circuit court decisions.

Since the Tenth Circuit has jurisdiction in Kansas, the ACLU argues, same-sex marriages should be allowed to proceed there.

Bilerico.com

The federal district court considering Kansas’s ban on same-sex marriage has tossed out a petition from a Christian couple claiming they have a property right to the institution of marriage.

Phillip and Sandra Unruh petitioned to intervene in Marie v. Moser on the grounds that granting same-sex marriage rights would deprive them of their property – the institution of marriage – without due process, in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree scornfully rejected their claims, however.

“The Unruhs have identified no federal statute giving them an unconditional right to intervene in this case and the Court has identified no such statute,” Crabtree wrote in his decision.

“Specifically, the Court doubts whether plaintiffs can show that their marriage constitutes a protectable property interest under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution or that this case’s disposition will impair their ability to

protect that interest…

“But the Court need not decide those questions, because the Court concludes that existing defendants adequately represent the Unruhs’ interests and denies their request for intervention of right on this basis.”

Instead, the Unruhs may submit an amicus brief, the judge concluded.

The Unruhs are not the only would-be litigants who want to get in on the case. On October 26 the Westboro Baptist Church filed a petition to intervene in the case as well.

In its filing, Westboro claims that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt cannot adequately represent the church in the lawsuit.

“The Kansas Attorney General (representing all defendants) is unable to adequately represent WBC because of the political pressure that flows from widespread disagreement with WBC and her ministry and religious message,” the Westboro petition says.

Westboro claims it has a material interest in the case because court approval of samesex marriage would, in fact, impose sin on Kansas citizens, to their detriment.

“WBC desires to assert that it is constitutional folly to suggest that a sinful-based behavior union should be a union that is

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Phillip and Sandra Unruh

Celebrating 41 Years!

Apple CEO Tim Cook comes out as Gay

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

9to5mac.com

Cook had never denied being Gay in all The most powerful man in technology, Tim Cook, came out as Gay in an essay he fairness. Like Ricky Martin, Anderson Coowrote for Businessweek, published Thursday. per and others that people had long since suspected were closeted, he did not speak publicly about his sexuality.

All that changed on Thursday when readers saw Cook declare: “So let me be clear: I’m proud to be Gay, and I consider being Gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”

Cook went on to say that he feels his sexual orientation has given him an acute social perspective. “Being Gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It’s made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. It’s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise Apple CEO Tim Cook above adversity and bigotry. It’s also given

me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.”

Some people say the writing was on the wall when, just days earlier, Cook advocated on behalf of LGBT rights in his home state of Alabama. “[Alabama is] still too slow on equality for the LGBT community,” he said, per the Associated Press, while calling for laws protecting people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “Under the law, citizens of Alabama can still be fired based on their sexual orientation. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it and we can create a different future.”

Cook’s sexuality has been a point of speculation before. Gawker reported that Cook was Gay back in 2011 before he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook has dropped hints about his sexuality. Still, he never actually came out and said, “I’m Gay” until this week.

GLSEN releases new National School Climate Survey on America’s Middle and High Schools Benchmark survey reveals some improvements in climate: Schools nationwide remain hostile environments for LGBT youth NEW YORK – On October 22 GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) released its biennial National School Climate Survey report, which shows how ongoing hostile school climates impact the safety and mental health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students, as well as their educational outcomes.

“Progress is being made in our nation’s schools,” said Dr. Eliza Byard, GLSEN’s Executive Director. “But when more than half of LGBT youth continue to report unsafe or even dangerous school climates, we all have a responsibility to act.”

This latest edition of GLSEN’s National School Climate Survey, which first began in 1999 and remains one of the few studies to examine the middle and high school experiences of LGBT youth nationally, includes four major findings: • Schools nationwide are hostile environments for a distressing number of LGBT students. Seventy-four percent were verbally harassed in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 55 percent because of their gender expression. As a result of feeling unsafe or uncomfortable, 30 percent missed at least one day of school in the past month.

• A hostile school climate affects students’ academic success and mental health. LGBT students who experience victimization and discrimination at school have worse educational outcomes and poorer psychological well-being. Grade point averages for these students were between nine and 15 percent lower than for others.

• Students with LGBT-related resources and supports report better school experiences and academic success. LGBT students in schools with an LGBT-inclusive curriculum were less likely to feel unsafe because of their sexual orientation (35 percent vs. 60 percent).

Unfortunately, only 19 percent of LGBT students were taught positive representations about LGBT people, history or events.

• School climate for LGBT students has improved somewhat over the years, yet remains quite hostile for many. Increases in the availability of many LGBT-related school resources, due in part to efforts by GLSEN and other safe school advocates, may be having a positive effect on the school environment. LGBT students re-

ported a lower incidence of homophobic remarks than ever before – from over 80 percent hearing these remarks regularly in 2001 to about 60 percent now.

“GLSEN’s biennial survey allows us to understand the ever-changing landscape that is the education system for LGBT students,” said Dr. Joseph G. Kosciw, GLSEN’s Chief Research & Strategy Officer. “This most recent report shows that there has been progress in improving the school experience for LGBT students and that positive LGBT resources in school can make a difference in the lives of these youth.”

In addition to the impact GLSEN campaigns and programs like ThinkB4YouSpeak, Ally Week, Day of Silence and No Name-Calling Week have had on improving school climates, GLSEN’s Safe Space Kit, its flagship resource for educators, provides concrete strategies to educate school personnel and students about how to eliminate anti-LGBT bias. Earlier this year, GLSEN completed sending over 60,000 Safe Space Kits, reaching every middle and high school in the country.

Other key findings in the new survey include: • Thirty-six percent of LGBT students were physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 23 percent because of their gender expression, while 17 percent were physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked, injured with a weapon) in the past year because of their sexual orientation and 11 percent because of their gender expression.

• Sixty-five percent of LGBT students heard homophobic remarks (e.g., “dyke” or “faggot”) frequently or often. Thirty-three percent heard negative remarks specifically about Transgender people, like “tranny” or “he/she,” frequently or often.

• Fifty-six percent of LGBT students reported personally experiencing LGBT-related discriminatory policies or practices at school and 65 percent said other students at their school had experienced these policies and practices. This included 28 percent reporting being disciplined for public displays of affection that were not disciplined among non-LGBT students.

• LGBT students with 11 or more supportive staff at their school were less likely to

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feel unsafe than students with no supportive staff (36 percent vs. 74 percent) and had higher GPAs (3.3. vs. 2.8). Unfortunately, only 39 percent of students could identify 11 or more supportive staff.

• Verbal and physical harassment based on sexual orientation and gender expression were lower than in all prior years of the NSCS, and physical assault has been decreasing since 2007.

An executive summary and the complete GLSEN National School Climate Survey report can be found at www.glsen.org/nscs, along with shareable infographics.

About GLSEN GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Edu-

October 31, 2014

cation Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe and affirming schools for all students.

Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For information on GLSEN’s research, educational resources, public policy advocacy, student organizing programs and educator training initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.

Courtesy of GLSEN

Seattle Gay News 7

Revisiting a pre-Stonewall LGBT sit-in

October 31, 2014

rowing tactics from the civil-rights movement, that stretches back 20 years before Stonewall,” he said.

As Stein and his fellow LGBT historians do more research, a fuller picture of LGBT life in the decades after World War II is taking shape. The sit-in at Dewey’s, for example, can no longer be dismissed as an isolated, random event, thanks to the work of Transgender scholar Susan Stryker.

Her 2005 documentary, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, examines a 1966 incident in San Francisco that is strikingly similar to the sit-in at Dew-

Dewey’s sit-in

ey’s, with one difference: at Compton’s, the drag queens literally punched, kicked and scratched to defend themselves.

Obviously, more work must be done. But recognizing the significance of what a ragtag group of LGBT teenagers and the adults who supported them accomplished at Dewey’s is a good first step.

Ray Simon is an editor and freelance writer in Philadelphia. He has written about everything from cryptograms to drag kings and environmental sustainability to video games. courtesy of Philadelphia Gay news

8 Seattle Gay News

Dewey’s sit-in

courtesy of Philadelphia Gay news

The sit-in at Dewey’s, which occurred at a Philadelphia restaurant in the spring of 1965, is not as well known as the Stonewall Riots, but it deserves wider recognition.

On the evening of Sunday, April 25, 1965, staff at the diner turned away more than 150 people they believed to be LGBT. According to the August 1965 issue of Drum magazine, which mixed beefcake pictorials with news for Gay men, the restaurant’s staff refused “to serve a large number of homosexuals and persons wearing nonconformist clothing.”

Eventually, three teenagers – two boys and one girl – refused to give up their seats, in effect beginning a sit-in. In the week that followed, LGBT activists used tactics borrowed from the civil-rights movement to put pressure on the restaurant’s owners until the ban was lifted.

On closer examination, the sit-in at Dewey’s suggests that Gay militancy began at least a few years before Stonewall. It also hearkens back to a time when Gays, Lesbians and Transgender people clearly saw their struggles as intertwined.

For Marc Stein, a professor of history at San Francisco State University, the sit-in at Dewey’s not only adds to our knowledge of the past, it also prompts us to reevaluate our current understanding of LGBT history.

“I think one of the important things to see is that there was a history of these episodes for at least five years before the Stonewall Riots,” Stein said during a telephone interview.

“I think for a lot of us,” he continued, “if there’s one thing we want to challenge, it’s the notion that the movement began at

Stonewall or the notion that Stonewall was the first time that Gays and Lesbians, that LGBT people, fought back.”

The story of the sit-in at Dewey’s may very well have been forgotten if it were not for Stein. The mainstream media ignored the incident then and it received scant attention from scholars before Stein began his research.

Fortunately, a handful of men and women mentioned the restaurant to the historian while he was interviewing them for his book, “City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-72.”

Dewey’s was a small, family-owned chain of diners that operated in Philadelphia from the 1940s to the 1970s. When the chain’s owner, Farrel Yesner, passed away in 2003, his obituary stated that “Dewey’s doled out tasty comfort food to customers at restaurants that were mostly old-fashioned lunch counters.”

The all-night eateries served customers from all walks of life, but its 13th Street and 17th Street locations drew many LGBT customers, especially after the bars closed.

According to Laurie Barron, one of Stein’s interviewees, the restaurant was known as “Fag Dewey’s.” And another, Joan Fleischmann, told him that at Dewey’s “you’d find streetwalkers, you’d find drag queens, you would find everybody.”

Why things came to a head on Sunday, April 25, 1965 is unclear. The June 1965 newsletter of the Janus Society, the local homophile organization, indicates that the diner’s management had grown tired of a group of young LGBT kids just sitting around, being rowdy and ordering little, so it encouraged its employees to shoo them away.

As Stein put it, “What I do know is that in

by Ray Simon Philadelphia Gay News

courtesy of Philadelphia Gay news

courtesy of Philadelphia Gay news

Dewey’s Leaflette Handed Out At Demonstartion April 1965

the months or years leading up to the Dewey’s sit-in, that Dewey’s had become a late-night hangout, especially for young people and for lots of people we would now call Trans.”

That night, staff interpreted the directive zealously. Eventually, three teens refused to budge, the police were called and so was Clark Polak, a local LGBT businessman and advocate. At the time, Polak was head of the Janus Society and also published Drum magazine.

Exactly what Polak did that night is unknown. The businessman claimed that he was advising the teens of their rights, but Stein acknowledges it’s easy to imagine him getting cantankerous.

“We know from other stories that Polak would scream and curse at the police, but he would also argue. He was almost fearless. So I’m sure emotions got intense,” Stein said.

The police promptly arrested Polak and the three teenagers. The savvy businessman quickly organized a picket outside Dewey’s.

Roughly 1,500 pieces of literature were distributed to customers and passersby over the next five days. Finally, on Sunday, May 2, just one week after the initial confrontation, a handful of teenagers began a second sit-in.

The police were once again summoned, but this time they refused to arrest anyone. Both parties spoke to one another, the situation was defused and the restaurant resumed serving LGBT customers.

This was no small victory. Writing in the Janus Society’s May 1965 newsletter, its editor, Barbara Horowitz (who signed her work Barbara Harris), asserted, “There is no reason to assume that this cannot be called a job well done.”

That same editorial also makes it clear that Horowitz, and, by extension, Polak, recognized that what took place was about more than just being able to order a cup of coffee.

As Horowitz wrote: “All too often, there is a tendency to be concerned with the rights of homosexuals as long as they somehow appear to be heterosexual, whatever that is. The masculine woman and the feminine man often are looked down upon by the official policy of homophile organizations, but the Janus Society is concerned with the worth of an individual and the manner in which she or he comports himself.”

That statement suggests that at least some LGBT activists saw the limitations of pursuing a policy of militant respectability, which was, roughly speaking, the notion that straights would accept LGBT people if only LGBT people could demonstrate that they were just like everybody else.

There is still more work to be done regarding Dewey’s. Who were the three teenagers arrested that first evening? Were they the same teenagers who initiated the final night’s sit-in? Who manned the picket lines? Were the people involved in the action radicalized by it? What happened to them as the years passed? These remain unanswered questions.

Perhaps fighting for the opportunity to sit in a diner and order a meal appears trivial, but it is important to remember that the civil-rights movement had already demonstrated that seemingly mundane actions could have profound implications.

Studying the sit-in at Dewey’s, Stein discerns significant implications for our understanding of LGBT history. Later in the 1960s, a new kind of LGBT activism emerged: the Gay Liberation Movement, which was more radical than the earlier homophile movement.

For many, Stonewall was the momentous beginning of that next phase of activism, but Stein believes otherwise. In the sit-in at Dewey’s, he finds evidence of LGBT militancy beginning much earlier than 1969.

“The idea of fighting back, the idea of bor-

Dewey’s sit-in

Celebrating 41 Years!

The National Park Service LGBTQ Initiative: Scores of LGBT sites eyed for landmark status A National Park Service project has identified hundreds of potential LGBT sites across America that could someday win federal landmark status.

The list, which as of late last month was nearing 400 places, runs the gamut from Gay bars and bathhouses to places of worship and LGBT community centers. It includes the homes of prominent LGBT individuals, such as the late Gay civil-rights leader Bayard Rustin’s New York City apartment, and several Gayborhoods, such as San Francisco’s Castro district and the hamlet of Cherry Grove on New York’s Fire Island.

Last October, as part of its National Park Service LGBTQ Initiative, the federal agency issued a call to historians, preservationists and archivists who specialize in LGBT history to suggest sites that warrant being listed on the national register or designated as historical landmarks.

Megan E. Springate, a queer archaeology graduate student at the University of Maryland, has been compiling the sites on an interactive online map that now contains nearly 300 places of import to the LGBT community. As the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco’s Gay newspaper, reported in January, Springate is working on a National Historic Landmark LGBTQ Theme Study and proposed framework for the National Park Service.

This past May, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell publicly acknowledged the park service’s LGBT initiative at a ceremony at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The site of a riot in 1969 credited with launching the modern civil-rights movement in the LGBT community, the Gay bar is currently the only LGBT-associated site that has been designated a national historic landmark by the National Park Service.

“I am very pleased the park service has come around to wanting to recognize queer historic sites and I want to do everything I can to help them get those sites processed,” said Mark Meinke, 66, a Gay man who founded the Washington, D.C.-based Rainbow History Project.

Meinke has been assisting Springate with her work to locate properties with LGBT historical value that could be nominated for various federal landmark statuses. He is also working on nominating the apartment Rustin lived in at 340 W. 28th St. in Manhattan for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rustin’s partner, Walter Naegle, who still lives in the apartment, is supportive of the landmark status proposal. Because the park

service does not recognize individual units, Meinke is working on gathering support from other residents of the co-op to have the entire building be listed on the register.

The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union built the property in the mid-1950s to house workers in the industry as well as low- or middle-income New Yorkers. The park service has given the entire complex a “declaration of eligibility” for landmarking status, said Meinke.

“Rustin moved in in 1962, a year before the March on Washington, and lived there until his death in 1987,” said Meinke, who expects to present his proposal in March to the New York State Historic Preservation Office. “It should be considered for a national landmark historic status. But the first step is to place it on the National Register of Historic Places, which is a common path to take.”

Five properties recognized According to park service officials, only five properties in the country have been granted some form of federal historic preservation recognition specifically due to their relationship to LGBT history. In addition to the Stonewall Inn being deemed a National Historic Landmark, there are four sites presently included in the National Register of Historic Places, described by the park service as “the nation’s inventory of properties deemed central to its history and worthy of recognition and preservation.”

The quartet comprises the Dr. Franklin E. Kameny Residence in Washington, D.C. (listed 2011); the James Merrill House in Stonington, Conn. (listed 2013); and Fire Island properties the Cherry Grove Community House and Theater (listed 2013) and the Carrington House (listed 2014).

In 1957, Kameny was fired from his federal government job for refusing to answer questions about his sexual orientation. Considered “the father of Gay activism,” he died in 2011 at the age of 86.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Ingram Merrill, a celebrated American poet who died in 1995 at the age of 68, and his partner, David Noyes Jackson, who died in 2001 at the age of 76, bought their Stonington home in 1956.

Merrill wrote almost all of his important works, including 25 volumes of poetry, three plays and two books, while residing in the house.

The Carrington House is considered “an important link” in Fire Island’s development as a Gay resort area on the East Coast. The Cherry Grove property opened in 1948 and is considered the country’s “longest continuously operating Gay and Lesbian theater.”

The next listing will likely be the Chicago courtesy of Philadelphia gay news

A historian is working to nominate the Manhattan apartment where Bayard Rustin (r) lived with his partner, Walter Naegle, to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

Rick Gerharter

by Mathew S. Bajko Bay Area Reporter Special to the SGN

A mural of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk is painted outside his former camera shop in the Castro.

home of Henry Gerber, who in the early 1920s formed the Society for Human Rights, the first American Gay civil-rights organization. As the B.A.R. reported earlier this year, the federal landmarks program is working with University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Professor Michelle McClellan on the nomination for Gerber’s house.

Parks official are eager to see more properties related to LGBT history be nominated, but the agency relies on public individuals to submit the required paperwork before it will consider a property. And a key requirement is having the backing of the current owner(s) of the site in question.

Designation as a National Historic Landmark, for instance, “actually takes some time (it’s a three-to-five-year process); this is compounded by our need to negotiate with property owners (who must agree to nomination and potential designation),” explained Alexandra M. Lord, Ph.D., branch chief of the National Historic Landmarks Program. “That said, we have received a few inquiries regarding some potential sites.”

One site that is frequently mentioned as worthy of receiving federal landmark status is 575 Castro St. in San Francisco, where the late Gay Supervisor Harvey Milk lived, operated a camera shop, and headquartered his campaigns for public office. The property is listed as a city landmark but has yet to be nominated for national recognition.

Local preservationists are first waiting for the completion of a historic context statement for the city’s LGBT community, expected to be finished in early 2015. The local planning document is considered the first step toward preserving places and structures of significant LGBT historical value and is often referred to by gov-

ernment agencies when determining requests for historic preservation designations.

“I am less anxious about reaching the point of having sites in San Francisco listed on the national register or be nationally landmarked, that will be fairly readily accomplished,” said local historian Gerard Koskovich, who is on the advisory committee for the historic context statement project. “It is places outside of San Francisco that need an extra boost and helping hand. That part of our history is less well known, and it is intriguing to me to learn about those sites outside of San Francisco.”

Koskovich, who has also been helping Springate locate LGBT historical sites for her National Park Service project, said one step federal officials could take is to update the listings of already-landmarked sites so that their ties to LGBT history are added and highlighted.

“A strategy many of us are looking at is the amending of the historical description of sites already listed on the national register. A number of which, including here in San Francisco, have a Gay history connection but it is not mentioned in the original designation,” he said.

“It is easy to imagine the national register, with 80,000-plus listings, has dozens if not possibly hundreds of sites already listed for other reasons that also have a significant LGBT history.”

For more information about the National Park Service LGBTQ Initiative, including a link to the interactive map of LGBT historic sites, visit http://www.nps.gov/heritageinitiatives/lgbthistory/.

October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 9

Matthew S. Bajko is an assistant editor at the Bay Area Reporter. To read the B.A.R.’s earlier story, go to http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=69379.

PRIDE

continued from cover marriage equality in many of the states we work in. The answer is simple. Too many LGBTQ people are still not able to live openly and safely. They face threats to their livelihood and well-being that represents a threat to all of us.

Until everyone is able to be who they are, where they are, Pride Foundation will continue to focus our work on the serious challenges currently facing LGBTQ people across the Northwest.

mately help us build stronger communities.

Most importantly, educating providers and expanding the network of clinics that are able to provide culturally competent care to LGBTQ patients will bring much-needed support and relief to people living in rural and remote locations.

Healthcare Access The majority of U.S. health insurance policies specifically exclude medically necessary healthcare coverage for Transgender people.

Transgender-based exclusions are often written broadly and apply to both transition-related care – including hormones, mental health care, Workplace Discrimination and surgery – as well as gender-specific care like In 29 states across the country, it is still cancer screenings and reproductive healthcare. legal to fire someone for being Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual, and in 34 states it is legal Discrimination and harassment are also to fire someone because they are Transgen- large barriers to care for Transgender and der or gender non-conforming. In three of gender non-conforming individuals. Acthe states where Pride Foundation works – cording to the National Transgender DisAlaska, Idaho, and Montana – LGBTQ peo- crimination Survey: ple do not have any statewide legal protections. In addition to facing workplace dis● 50 percent of survey participants recrimination, LGBTQ people in those states ported having to teach their medical providare also open to discrimination in housing ers about Transgender care, and; and public accommodations. ● 28 percent postponed medical care Lack of legal protections has left many LG- when they were sick or injured due to disBTQ people vulnerable to poverty and finan- crimination. cial instability. According to a report recently released by the Center for American Progress Lack of healthcare coverage coupled with and the Movement Advancement Project, a discrimination can lead to serious – even greater number of same-sex couples are living life-threatening conditions. A shocking in poverty, compared to married opposite-sex 41 percent of Transgender people have atcouples; 15 percent of Transgender people are tempted suicide at some point in their life. making less than $10,000 per year, compared With access to gender transition related to just 4 percent of the general population; and care, medical research shows that the suisingle LGBTQ adults with children are three cide attempt rate drops to roughly three to times more likely to have incomes near the five percent, only slightly higher than the poverty line as their non-LGBTQ peers. LG- general public.

BTQ people of color also face the highest rates We have recently made important strides in of poverty and food insecurity.

Washington and Oregon to remove outdated In Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, advocates exclusions that deny Transgender people have been working diligently for decades healthcare coverage, yet it will be important to add the words “sexual orientation” and to monitor implementation and ensure that “gender identity” to the state’s human rights insurance companies are held accountable. law, without success. As a result, local non- In Alaska, Idaho, and Montana, Transgender discrimination ordinances are even more people can still be denied healthcare coverage important – protecting LGBTQ residents at simply because of who they are. the city level from discrimination in employIn addition to ensuring access to healthment, housing, and public accommodations. care, there is still significant work that must While that work continues to gain mo- be done to ensure that high quality, culturmentum – with local non-discrimination ally-proficient care is being provided to ordinances established in four cities and one Transgender and gender non-confirming county in Montana and nine cities in Idaho – patients. we need to continue to work towards a more comprehensive, federal solution that ensures Discrimination, Harassment, everyone in our community has access to leand Bullying gal protections, regardless of their zip code.

Despite the progress our community has made, the day-to-day experiences of many HIV/AIDS Prevention LGBTQ people throughout our region are and Support Services often marked with fear and uncertainty.

As federal funding for HIV/AIDS preYouth who identify as LGBTQ continue to vention and support services continues to face harassment and bullying at school. The decrease, many in our community are left 2013 National School Climate Survey found without access to critical prevention re- that 85 percent of LGBTQ students were sources. This shift in funding particularly verbally harassed in the past year. In addiimpacts Gay men and Transgender women tion, 56 percent of LGBTQ students expeliving in rural areas, many of whom already rienced discriminatory school policies and feel marginalized due to their HIV/AIDS practices. The survey also found that many status and often have nowhere to turn. schools lack the necessary resources and Across the country, Gay, Bisexual, and oth- support to help LGBTQ students feel more er men who have sex with men continue to welcomed and safe at school. be the most seriously affected by HIV. One in Many LGBTQ people continue to face disfour new HIV infections is among youth ages crimination and harassment well into adult13-24, and African American men continue hood, with the lack of employment protecto face the highest risk of infection – repre- tions exacerbating the problem. A 2013 Pew senting 36 percent of new HIV infections Research Center survey found that 21% of among all Gay and Bisexual men.

LGBTQ respondents had been treated unfairly Access to free and low-cost prevention by an employer in hiring, pay, or promotions. services, as well as resources and education Ninety percent of Transgender people reportare critical for our community. Working ed experiencing harassment, mistreatment or to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/ discrimination on the job, or took actions like AIDS will allow individuals to engage in risk hiding who they are to avoid it (National Transreduction strategies, positively impacting gender Discrimination Survey). And 47% of people’s health and well-being.

Transgender people reported having been disIn addition to focusing our efforts on pre- criminated against in hiring, promotion, or job vention, we must also remove the isolation retention because of their gender identity. and fear that people living with HIV/AIDS In recent years, we’ve also seen an increase face. Finding ways to empower individuals in the amount of hate crimes targeted at LGto talk about their HIV status and connect BTQ people – despite the fact that other biwith others in similar situations will ulti- as-motivated crimes are generally decreas-

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Seattle Gay News

October 31, 2014

ing in frequency. A recent report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found that reports of violence against LGBTQ people increased in severity in 2013, with a 21% increase in reports of physical hate violence. The 2013 report continues to document multi-year trends revealing that anti-LGBTQ and HIV-affected hate violence disproportionately impacts Transgender women, LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities of color, Transgender people, and Transgender people of color.

Just this year, Seattle was listed as having the third highest rate of anti-LGBT hate crimes in the country.

As we continue to gain legal rights, we still have much work to do to combat homophobia and transphobia, and ensure that everyone is able to live openly in their communities without fear.

homes, instead of out on the streets.

Elder Care According to a recent research report from Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), three million LGBT people in the United States are age 55 and older, and the population is rapidly growing.

Many LGBTQ seniors report anxiety about safety and support – both emotional and financial – as they age. Few long-term care facilities and healthcare providers deliver trainings on how to meet the needs of LGBTQ seniors, leading to a lack of resources and supports for LGBTQ seniors.

Nearly 50 percent of LGBTQ older adults report discrimination from care providers and 40 percent of LGBTQ people in their 60s and 70s say they have not shared their sexual orientation with their healthcare providers, due to fear that they will be harassed or mistreated. In addition, two thirds of Transgender adults fear limited access to healthcare as they get older.

Supporting training and education for care providers can help create a more compassionate system that allows all LGBTQ seniors to age with dignity and respect. Continued advocacy efforts focused on increasing the quality of care and support that is provided to LGBTQ elders will go a long way in ensuring that all seniors feel safe and secure as they age.

Youth Homelessness LGBTQ youth continue to be disproportionately represented throughout the child welfare and juvenile justice systems – severely impacting the opportunities available to queer youth, as well as their ability to reach their full potential.

A recent national report by The Palette Fund, True Colors Fund, and the Williams Institute found that approximately 40% of all homeless youth or youth at-risk of becoming homeless identify as LGBTQ. AcThe Path Forward cording to the survey, the top five reasons When you think about the wide array of that youth who identify as LGBTQ were challenges currently facing our community homeless are (in order of prevalence): – workplace discrimination, HIV/AIDS prevention and support services, healthcare ac1. Ran away because of family rejection of cess, bullying, youth homelessness, and elder their sexual orientation or gender identity; care – it paints a much clearer picture of the 2. Forced out by parents because of sexual work that must be done to ensure that all LGorientation or gender identity; BTQ youth, adults, and families are able to 3. Physical, emotional live safely and openly in their communities. or sexual abuse at home; While we continue to advocate for legal 4. Aged out of the foster care system; changes and protections, it’s critical that we 5. Financial or emotional neglect at home. simultaneously build the broad-based support that’s needed to change hearts and minds.

To make matters more complicated, many We’ve shown what our community is capayouth providers, child welfare workers, and ble of with the incredible progress we’ve made foster parents have little knowledge about around the freedom to marry. Public support how to best support LGBTQ youth. This and momentum is on our side and it is now absence of information combined with LG- time to turn our efforts to the entrenched and BTQ bias leads to a lack of safety and per- long-standing barriers that keep LGBTQ peomanency for LGBTQ youth in the system. ple from thriving and being their full selves.

Youth are often moved from placement to We have an opportunity to create lastplacement, never making permanent con- ing equality for everyone in our communections to any support system. nity – let’s seize it.

By advocating for stronger policies, training providers, compiling best practices, and Kris Hermanns is the Executive Director amassing resources for LGBTQ youth at of Pride Foundation, a regional community different points throughout the system, we foundation that inspires giving to expand opcan help create a streamlined process that portunities and advance full equality for LGputs queer youth back in loving and caring BTQ people across the Northwest.

Celebrating 41 Years!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 11

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October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

MoSS Alley MotorS, Inc. SpecialiStS in VolVo, Honda, toyota and Subaru

932 12th ave.

Seattle, Wa 98122 (206).325--.3992 www.mossalley.com Seattle’s most progressive auto shop!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 13

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Celebrating 41 Years!

Local DJ and fiancé want you to buy them a wedding gift – but not for the reason you might think

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

“If you’d like to purchase a wedding gift for us, please visit www.nearbyregistry.com/ bretandKevin. There are gifts of all price ranges, so you could even get a couple that would go to multiple charities if you’d like,” said Bret.

“Kevin and I really want to be able to make a

big difference, and maybe even set a trend, so that more people take this idea and find their own ways to give back when they can,” he said.

“So, feel free to share, post and tell people.”

“Thanks so much for all the love you’ve given to us as a couple,” said Bret. courtesy of DJ Bret Law

Anyone who knows Bret Tiderman or Kevin Moser won’t be surprised by this; however, if you do not know either one of these two amazing men, you’ll definitely want to after reading this! On December 14, Bret and Kevin will exchange vows and get married; something this fulltime DJ (Bret) and infrastructure developer (Kevin) fought for as members of Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

It is customary for folks who are getting married to register somewhere so people can buy gifts for the newlyweds – especially if you can’t make it to the wedding. As Bret puts it, “While we absolutely wanted to invite each and every one of you, but sadly we aren’t able to do so.”

“Over the last 6 years, we’ve built a beautiful home, full of everything we could need so when deciding what to do about the wedding registry, we chose to do something a little different,” said Bret to his friend on Facebook.

“People love to buy wedding gifts (I know I do!) and wrap them and see a table at the ceremony over-flowing with gestures of love.

With that in mind, we partnered with the fabulous Nearby Registry to create a registry that could do just that, except all the gifts would be able to be purchased locally and would all go to five designated charities that mean something to us.”

The charities Bret and Kevin chose are Lambert House, Lifelong, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle Humane: The Humane Society for Seattle/King County and Olympic Peninsula Humane Society.

“They all do amazing work, but need things to be able to continue to serve those in need,” said Bret. “We took their wish lists, and created a registry of things you can get for us as wedding gifts. The true gift will be that in the first few months as a married couple, Kevin and I get to go to these places and share your love and support with them.”

He says they couldn’t be more excited to be able to give back to the places they hold so dear, and to do so with the help of family and friends. Seattle Gay News heard about this and asked the couple if they didn’t mind the general public helping out and they loved the idea. Aren’t these two great!?

Kevin Moser (l) and Bret Tiderman (DJ Bret Law)

SGN takes part in pioneering national journalism effort documenting LGBT history Seattle Gay News has been pleased to participate this month in the ninth annual National LGBT History Month Project, a nationwide journalism endeavor that seeks to uncover and explore the storied history of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.

The project was begun in 2006 and this year will see record success, having expanded to include three-dozen partner publications and websites, each of which will carry stories on LGBT history throughout Octo-

ber, National LGBT History Month.

Previous History Month coverage has featured interviews with President Barack Obama and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and in 2011 the “We Are America” special featured never-beforeseen evidence suggesting that the country may have already had its first Gay president, James Buchanan, and exhaustive research illustrating our country’s freedom was in part attained by a Gay man: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben.

Topics this year range from interviews with an LGBT activist who took part in an LGBT picket nearly 50 years ago to an exploration of early Lesbian comic Moms Mabley to the National Park Service’s current efforts to identify and register sites of historical importance to the LGBT community.

Philadelphia Gay News publisher and project coordinator Mark Segal noted that the initiative is a valuable team effort by the circle of contributors and partners LGBT publications that will go a long way

to preserve LGBT history.

“This is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of incredible journalists. I want to thank our writers and PGN editor Jen Colletta, who stepped up to the plate to make this year very special,” Segal said. “This project, which started with a small number of newspapers, now unites the majority of local, quality, professional LGBT publications across the nation, allowing our community to showcase and appreciate its own history.”

Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer cleared by church court Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer, once defrocked by his denomination for officiating at his Gay son’s same-sex wedding, was cleared of all charges by his church’s Judicial Council on October 27.

Schaefer, who delivered the annual Matthew Shepard Memorial Sermon at Seattle’s Trinity Episcopal Church on October 12, performed his son’s wedding in 2007. He was brought up on charges of “disobeying the church” – which does not sanction same-sex marriage – last year.

His conviction ended an 11-year stint as pastor of Zion United Methodist Church in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. This June, however, his conviction was overturned on appeal and he accepted a new position at a Methodist church in Santa Barbara, California.

The church attorney who initially prosecuted him appealed the appeal, however, bringing Schaefer’s case before the church’s Judicial Council.

In a statement, the Judicial Council upheld the appeals committee, and left Schaefer in his ministerial position.

“The Judicial Council upon careful review of

the decision of the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals in the matter of the Rev. Frank Schaefer and the questions of law presented by the counsel for the church finds there are no errors in the application of the church law and judicial decision,” the group said in a statement. “The penalty as modified by the Committee on Appeals stands.”

Schaefer, who told SGN [October 10, 2014] when he was in town that a win for him would be a major setback for conservative forces within the Methodist church, called for greater openness towards the LGBT community.

“Today, we are witnessing a small, but significant step toward taking another look at the exclusionary policies of The United Methodist Church,” he said.

“The UM Church needs to find a way toward reconciliation, full inclusion of our LGBTQ community and an open altar for all God’s beloved children. I will continue the fight alongside thousands of others in the reconciling movement for full inclusion and an open altar for all.”

The Methodist Judicial Council reportedly made its decision on technical grounds only, and did not endorse the idea of samesex marriage.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

Photo by Kathy Gilbert / United Methodist News Service

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Frank Schaefer

The Methodist church has some 12 million members worldwide, many of them in Africa and Latin America, where LGBT relationships are not widely accepted.

Schaefer told SGN that three of his four children identify as LGBT and that he has “absolutely no regrets” about defying church authorities.

“I did what I did based on my heart and

my conscience,” he said. “What I did for my son, quite frankly, I had to do.”

Traditional Methodist teaching on human sexuality and marriage harms LGBT people, Schaefer stressed. His own son, he said, considered suicide because he had been taught that he would be excluded from heaven.

“He did not want to live any more. He was in so much pain,” Schaefer said.

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October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

Sir Elton John challenges LGBT community to refocus on AIDS the HRC to do exactly that: engage in the fight against HIV in the most at-risk communities, including the American South, African-American communities, people recently released from prison, and other marginalized communities.

The statistics in those communities are grim: if a Gay black man in Atlanta becomes sexually active at 18, he has a 60 percent chance of becoming HIV-positive by age 30. Meanwhile, the American South has a third of the country’s population, but half of new AIDS cases.

At the Elton John AIDS Foundation gala in New York City on October 28, Elton and David Furnish will be backing that challenge up by announcing over a million dollars in new grants to help fight AIDS. Elton is also taking his call to the nation’s leaders: on Friday, he met with Secretary of State John Kerry on PEPFAR. As the LGBT community looks for its next fight, Elton is effectively saying: let’s go back and win the fight we didn’t finish.

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On Saturday, October 25, at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) annual gala in Washington, D.C. – arguably the largest LGBT gala of the year with over 3,000 guests in attendance and featuring a keynote speech from President Bill Clinton – Sir Elton John and his longtime partner David Furnish were honored with the HRC’s National Equality Award for their work as international AIDS activists and philanthropists through the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a global nonprofit organization working tirelessly to combat stigma, prevent infections, provide treatment and services, and motivate governments to end AIDS. In his acceptance speech Sir Elton John issued a major challenge to the LGBT movement: we’re winning marriage, but with HIV infection rates spiking (as high as in the 1980s in some communities) we need to refocus on AIDS. His speech (a transcript of which follows this article) is a bold call to the community.

Also on Saturday, the Elton John AIDS Foundation announced a $300,000 grant to

Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish

David Furnish’s acceptance remarks

Thank you so much to our friend Ambassador Young for that wonderful introduction.

Let me express our sincere thanks, from the bottom of our hearts, for this wonderful honor.

Elton and I would like to dedicate this award to someone very special, someone who gave us what no one else could: two beautiful sons.

Zachary and Elijah have made us happier than any painting, hit single, or award ever could.

So we dedicate this honor to the surrogate mother of our children. She made it possible for us to have a family. And we love and treasure our family beyond all else.

Our commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic began long before the profound gift of our little sons changed our lives so fundamentally.

But now we want more than just an AIDSfree world for them.

We also want a world that is much more compassionate, accepting, and understanding, because that is truly the only way we will end AIDS. Consider our work at the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Most of what we do is fight against homophobia, bigotry, ignorance, and stigma.

We have come to realize that what perpetuates the HIV epidemic isn’t a virus: it’s a lack of compassion.

Science has come a long way. But pills, shots, and studies are powerless against hate and stigma.

If a young Gay man won’t get tested because he’s afraid of the stigma attached to HIV, that’s how the virus spreads.

If a former prisoner can’t get the medicine she needs to bring her viral levels down, because no one cares about prisoners, that’s

how HIV spreads.

If a drug user won’t bother with rehabilitation or HIV prevention because he has been told time and again that his life is worthless, that is how HIV spreads.

The hard question we must ask ourselves is: In a time when we have so many ways to prevent the spread of AIDS, why are transmission rates only increasing in our communities?

Ending the AIDS epidemic has as much to do with ending stigma as it does with advancing science.

Lack of compassion for others is a learned behavior – as is love.

We are either brought up to be compassionate, understanding, and loving, or we are taught bigotry and prejudice.

So the fight against HIV starts with us.

It starts with families that teach their chil-

Sir Elton John’s acceptance remarks www.hrc.org

Sir Elton John speaking at HRC LGBT Gala with partner David Furnish (l)

Let me echo David by thanking our dear friend and neighbor in Atlanta, the one and only Andrew Young.

And our deep thanks to the Human Rights Campaign for this honor, and for all of the amazing work you do. David and I are genuinely humbled by this recognition.

Most people don’t know that we are now at a critical moment in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Right now is the moment that decides whether we will end the HIV/AIDS epidemic once and for all, or whether it will make a devastating comeback.

According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 30 percent of

Gay and Bisexual men have had an HIV test in the past year.

A majority of Gay men don’t even talk about HIV with their friends or partners.

More than 60 percent don’t even talk about HIV with their doctor.

How can this be, when HIV is the number one health issue facing Gay men in America?

How can this be, when one in eight Gay men in America is HIV positive?

How can this be, when new infections have gone up by 12 percent among Gay men in America in recent years?

This is the critical moment in our fight, and so many of us don’t seem to care. Even in our own community. Especially in our

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dren how to care, how to love, how to be compassionate.

It starts with communities that reach out with love and compassion to ALL who are struggling with homelessness, poverty, addiction, and discrimination.

It starts with empowering people to speak out for their rights to health and economic equality.

Because we still have a long way to go.

About 50,000 people in the United States still get infected with HIV every year. We can’t stop until that number is zero.

And we can get there with the help of everyone in this room. You are on the forefront of the campaign for compassion. You will end the HIV epidemic.

So thank you for your work, thank you for spreading love, and thank you again for this honor.

own community.

Right NOW, the Gay community needs to take a hard look in the mirror and start to address these concerns in our own backyard.

Everyone in this room has fought so hard for Gay rights. But we are hypocrites if we don’t fight the stigma around HIV that’s rampant in the Gay community.

The discrimination isn’t just out there – it’s also right here at home.

That’s why the Elton John AIDS Foundation has provided a major grant to the Human Rights Campaign to start a new awareness and outreach effort.

With this grant, we challenge the LGBT community to dig in and focus on this crisis.

We must put the same kind of resources and dedication and creativity that we put into the battle for marriage equality and apply it to the fight to end AIDS. Today, we have to fight stigma in the same way we first took on AIDS 30 years ago – as if our lives depend on it – because they do.

Just like 30 years ago, if we don’t lead this fight, no one will.

Because the truth is, it’s up to us to end AIDS. It’s really up to us.

The only way to succeed in this critical moment is for us to start acting. And if you’ve acted in the past, I thank you, and I ask that you act again. NOW. As David mentioned, the scientists have done their part.

We have life-saving treatments for HIV and AIDS. We even have a new medication, PrEP, to prevent HIV infection.

So much effort and resources and money have been spent to secure these scientific advancements.

Why aren’t we embracing these advancements?

We must do this so we can really finish the job.

We have to do our part right NOW. HIV spreads because people don’t get tested, and people don’t get tested because of stigma.

HIV spreads because people can’t or won’t get access to the treatment they need because of the fear of stigma.

Often there is NO treatment available because of the stigma and indifference of people holding office and making policy decisions that clearly say, “We don’t care if you get sick and have no insurance or healthcare. We’ve got ours – go get your own.”

We have to change the conversation around health and HIV in the Gay community. No one can be a bystander.

We need everyone working together to end this crisis, starting right here in this room.

I know we can do this. We have made so much progress in the past 30 years. We can end AIDS in the next 30 years. I truly believe that.

But it’s up to us. HRC has done so much to make marriage equality a reality. I am committing to work with you, and I ask that you work with me to make the end of AIDS a reality.

So I thank you again for this honor – but even more, thank you for doing your part to end this epidemic once and for all.

Thank you.

October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 17

Courtesy of Human Rights Campaign

yagg.com

Jean-Michel Molina

PREP

continued from cover All participants were also offered a package of prevention measures including “personalized and frequent” counseling, repeated HIV testing, screening and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis B vaccination, condoms and lubricant.

So-called “on demand” PrEP extends the versatility of the prevention method and provides an alternative regimen to daily dosing. Critics of PrEP worry that patients will miss their regular daily dosage of Truvada and therefore believe they have protection against HIV infection when, in fact, they are at risk. Molina’s findings suggest that worry may be misplaced.

“The biomedical concept of on-demand PrEP at the time of sexual exposure, in a broader prevention framework, is validated,” Molina said. “We owe this to all trial vol-

unteers without whom we could never have achieved these results.”

He also cautioned that “condoms remain the cornerstone of HIV prevention. Combining all prevention tools that have proved to be effective will certainly allow us to better control the HIV epidemic.”

Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, Director of ANRS, commented, “This is a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV. The results of the ANRS IPERGAY trial should change national and international recommendations for HIV prevention.”

The trial will continue on a non-randomized form for at least a year, because of the need to demonstrate that “on demand” PrEP can have long-term benefit and to gather data on safety. The full results should be available early in 2015.

According to the World Health Organization, around 2.3 million people are infected with HIV every year.

San Francisco will help men access PrEP meds

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October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News

www.hivequal.org

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors – their city and county council – voted on October 28 to allocate $301,600 to help locals access PrEP drugs. The vote was 10-1.

The money will go for San Francisco Department of Public Health employees who will work as “health navigators” to steer potential PrEP patients through proper channels to get Truvada – the most common PrEP drug.

Health navigators will also receive cultural competency training to ensure they can serve all San Francisco’s diverse communities.

Supervisor David Campos, who introduced the measure, said it was part of the city’s Getting to Zero initiative – an effort to eliminate new HIV infections in the city.

“San Francisco is already a sanctuary city, so let’s please make it a sanctuary city from HIV,” he said at the Board meeting.

While the proposal funds health workers to promote use of Truvada as an HIV preventative, it does not include money for

insurance co-pay assistance to patients who budget process,” Tang said. important for us to look at the broader piccannot afford the expensive drug.

“PrEP is really one part of the ‘getting to ture as to how it is that we address these isWhen Campos introduced the legislation in zero’ initiative…and I think that it’s really sues in our outreach efforts,” she added.

September, he asked for $801,600, but the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee reduced the appropriation to $301,600.

Campos said that he considered the health navigators the key to HIV prevention, so he decided they should be funded first. In the future, he said, the Board of Supervisors can still devise a co-pay assistance plan for the drug.

“This is the first step,” said Laura Lane, legislative assistant to Campos. “We don’t want to start something that we may not be able to continue in the future.”

Once the 2015-2016 fiscal year arrives, she added, the other portion of the legislation may be reintroduced.

The lone No vote came from Supervisor Katy Tang. Although she voted against the proposal, she did express support for preventive HIV measures and hoped money could be set aside in the city’s next budget.

“I really do feel that this is something we PrEP Rally by the PrEP Demonstration Project in San Francisco in 2012 can absolutely address during the regular

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Celebrating 41 Years!

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October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

Huge Taiwan Pride: 70,000 “Walk in Queers’ Shoes”

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

entation has been protected by law since 2003 in education and since 2007 in the workplace.

Taiwanese also have a legal right to change their gender. In August 2013, the Taiwanese government OKed the country’s first samesex marriage between two Trans women,

after deciding that one of the couple was legally still a man.

A 2013 poll showed that 53% of Taiwanese support same-sex marriage. According to the poll 76% are in favor of equal rights for Gay men and Lesbians.

Dennis Engbarth / ip

Some 70,000 people attended Taiwan Pride on October 25, making the 2014 parade one of the largest since the event began in 2003.

This year’s theme was “Walk in Queers’ Shoes” featuring voices from marginalized LGBT communities – HIV-positive people, sex workers, and disabled Queers.

“Most of the participants in the parade voiced their support for the legalization of same-sex marriage,” Lin I-fan reported on Global Voices website.

“A marriage equality bill presented to the Legislative Yuan by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights in 2012.

The legislature passed the first reading on October 25, 2013, but the legislative process was suspended in reaction to a massive mobilization of opponents of same-sex marriage.

“Gay rights activists began pushing legislators to resume their work in early October this year and a public hearing for the bill was held on October 16. Many couples in the LGBT communities took the opportunity of this year’s pride parade to share their stories and hope with others.”

Global Voices is an international collective that collects and translates reports from social media worldwide.

Some parade-goers told reporters that the “Walk in Queers’ Shoes” theme did not fit with the push to legalize same-sex marriage.

“I feel like the parade is not well-linked to the current drive for gay marriage,” a man who identified himself as “Snox” told the Taipei Times.

“A lot of people have the stereotype that gay men are promiscuous; a push for marriage could combat that view,” Snox said, adding that he and his partner have been planning for marriage for several years. For the occasion they wore matching T-shirts reading “We would like to get married.”

Another participant, who asked to be identified as “Yangyang,” said this year’s theme was positive. Dressed in a men’s blazer and a women’s black skirt, Yangyang said the government needed to allocate more resources to setting up restrooms for Transgender people.

As the parade made its way through central Taipei, an anti-Gay rights coalition led

by Christian groups demonstrated in front of the parliament building, calling on the government to protect children from what it called “public displays of indecency.”

Other religious groups supported the LGBT community, however, with members of the Tong-Kwan Lighthouse Presbyterian Church, a Gay Christian organization, marching in the parade.

Taiwan is relatively progressive on LGBT rights, and its capital, Taipei, is sometimes called “the San Francisco of the East.”

Same-sex sexual activity is legal, and Gays and Lesbians have been allowed to serve in the country’s armed forces since 2002. Sexual ori-

Taiwan Pride 2014

Good Pope, bad Pope Don’t “bastardize” marriage, Francis says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Pope Francis used a Papal audience to make clear that his supposed “openness” to LGBT Catholics does not include recognition of same-sex relationships.

“The family is being hit, the family is being struck, and the family is being bastardized,”

the Pope said on October 25 in the Vatican.

“What is being proposed is not marriage, it’s an association. But it’s not marriage! It’s necessary to say these things very clearly and we have to say it! So many families are divided, so many marriages broken, (there is) such relativism in the concept of the Sacrament of Marriage. There is a crisis in the family because it’s beat up from all sides

and left very wounded!”

According to the Catholic News Service, the Pope spoke in response to questions from members of the Schoenstatt Movement, who were granted an audience with him. The group is based in Germany and is particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary.

The Pope’s words seemed to be a clear rejection of language used in a preliminary AP Photo / Andrew Medichini

Pope Francis

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October 31, 2014

report from his synod on the family, in which Gay and Lesbian relationships were characterized as “a precious support” for the people involved.

The draft report also said that LGBT Catholics have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.”

The draft statement was promptly denounced by conservative Cardinals, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who called for “major reworking” of the document.

Within 24 hours, the Vatican started walking back the nice words about Gays, and the synod ultimately failed to come to consensus on a statement about Gay and Lesbian partnerships.

The Pope’s latest pronouncement seems to dash the hopes of liberal Catholics that their church might be prepared to modernize its position on same-sex relationships – or, for that matter, on oppositesex relationships outside of a churchblessed marriage.

At times, Francis even seemed scornful of contemporary relationships. “[Y]ou can call everything family, right?” he sneered.

The Pope also stepped back from an unequivocal commitment to internal reform of church government. Asked about his process of reforming the Roman Curia, the church bureaucracy based in the Vatican, Francis said that renewal is often equated with adapting to the times. But that is not true renewal, he continued.

“It’s strange (that) no one speaks of the reform of the heart,” the Pope said. “They don’t understand anything of what the renewal of the heart means: which is holiness, renewing one’s (own) heart…”

Seattle Gay News 21

SCS

continued from cover and needed today as they were the day they first opened their doors. For SCS, the door opened 45 years ago when the world was a very, very different place for the community and our allies. There are people who, both then and now, will tell you that they owe their life to SCS. During the parade, when their contingent makes its way down the parade route, people scream out “Thank You SCS!” or “We Love You SCS!” It’s not magic, however, that has created this fandom and respect. It’s dedication and hard work. It is the fact that through it all – no matter what – the leadership and staff of counselors, administrators and more, actually give a damn and push themselves to realize the organization’s mission on a daily basis. It’s sponsoring other community organizations and supporting the efforts of like-minded allies who believe like they do, that everyone deserves a fighting chance. No matter if you are depressed, trying to kick cigarettes for the first or last time, dealing with relationship issues or need help with an addiction that is ruling your life, they will do what they can to aid you through your journey of recovery, understanding, and counseling.

Make no mistake – heroes occupy the offices at 1216 Pine Street.

On Sunday, October 26, Seattle Counseling Service held its 45th Anniversary Gala at the Westin Seattle, celebrating 45 years of dedicated service to the LGBTQ community. The Gala theme, “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” was appropriate as officials asked the public to join SCS to explore the amazing change and growth they have experienced both as an organization and as a community since the year of its birth – 1969.

Local Drag entertainer and activist, Aleksa Manila hosted the show. Aleksa Manila is rightfully viewed as one of Seattle’s most philanthropic queens. Her message of inclusion and understanding is relevant and she always does a great job. Sunday was no exception. Aleksa opened the show with a few provocative jokes just to remind people to relax, laugh a little and smile while raising money for charity. It worked as it always does for her; she knows her craft.

Seattle Counseling Service is near and dear to Aleksa Manila’s heart and soul. She has produced and hosted SCS’ annual benefit “ICON: A Celebration of Drag, Art & Life” for a decade. But more importantly, Aleksa, when not in face, works as SCS’ Addiction Services Program Supervisor and Project NEON Program Coordinator.

“For the past 11 years, “he” (Aleks Martin) has tirelessly dedicated his profession to ensure that SCS’ mission is upheld and celebrated by everyone,” said SCS officials.

The VIP reception entertainment was provided by Brian Buck and Ray Brooks. Brian Buck is a familiar face to SCS Gala and ICON attendees by now, having served as both a pianist and photographer for past events. While he is best known as a photographer, he’s played keyboards for many years in jazz bands and as a solo pianist in concerts, charity events and silent movies around Seattle. Ray Brooks is a multi-instrumentalist, fluent in both brass and piano in a wide range of genres from pop to jazz to classical. The 45th SCS Gala brought the two together for the first time since performing many years ago in Tallahassee, Florida where they first met.

The gala, although not as performance heavy as ICON, booked some of the best entertainers in town. Miss Indigo Blue, Seattle’s burlesque stalwart, is sexy, funny, irreverent and ingeniously clever. Miss Indigo Blue flirts with the edgy, exotic and erotic fringes of burlesque. She did not disappoint at the 45th SCS Gala – performing as a naughty nurse.

Arnaldo! Drag Chanteuse performed more than one cabaret number at the gala; however, it was her second song, “I’ve Got Your Picture, She’s Got You” that was easily the best performance of the evening. Appearing onstage in a blue gown fit for a gala, the audience had no idea what was about

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Seattle Gay News

to happen. After pulling out of her dress, a photo of Arleen Nelson, SCS intern supervisor, she began to pull out everything from a golf club, a crutch, records, a turkey baster and more. The performance earned Arnaldo! a standing ovation.

SCS has been supporting community members since the beginning of the modern LGBTQ movement and continues to evolve to meet the community’s ever-changing needs.

Here’s a look back at the rich history that attendees at the gala shared with the board members, staff and volunteers at Sunday’s gala: Founded in 1969, Seattle Counseling Service is the oldest LGBTQ-focused community mental health agency in the world.

Starting as part of the Dorian Society in Seattle in 1969, SCS later expanded to become an independent organization. SCS began in a rented house with one telephone and several volunteers who hung out, ready to answer the phone, talk with people who dropped by, and offer counsel and support.

SCS has been licensed as a mental health center since 1974. Among the programs pioneered

by SCS, the Domestic Violence Program (started in 1982) was one of the first in the nation to offer help to those in same-sex relationships.

In 1985, SCS received status as a United Way agency. SCS was the first Gay-specific agency to receive that status in King County.

SCS began offering services for people with HIV/AIDS concerns in 1985 by providing HIV Test counseling at the Seattle Gay Clinic. Longterm AIDS therapy and an AIDS drop-in group began in 1986, and the AIDS Crisis Intervention Program was initiated in 1989. In 1996, SCS placed a therapist on site at Bailey-Boushay House.

In 1990, SCS became a sponsoring agency of Lambert House, an LGBT youth drop-in center.

In 2003, SCS and King County Public Health created a collaboration to house Project NEON, a harm reduction program for users of crystal methamphetamine. 2003 also brought the advent of SCS Chemical Dependency Services, assuming the role previously filled by Stonewall Recovery Services in King County.

In addition to its role providing direct services to sexual minority community members, SCS plays a significant regional role as a psychology and social work professional training site. SCS serves as the practice training site for an average of four universities each year. Since 1992, SCS has also provided training to mental health providers statewide to increase their capacity to appropriately serve sexual minorities in their home communities.

Collaboration is important to the staff and board of SCS. SCS works with other King County Mental Health Providers to advocate on behalf of clients in the mental health system. SCS belongs to the Cross Cultural Alliance, the Washington Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs.

Over the years SCS has garnered numerous awards for services provided to the community and they continue to add new programs and services to meet the changing needs of the LGBTQ communities.

Seattle Counseling Service since 1998. She chose to work with SCS because she wants to work directly with and for the LGBTQ community with which she identifies. With the essential support of a dedicated and hardworking staff and Board of Directors Ann has led the organization onto a strong financial footing and solid program expansion.

“I’ve often described SCS as ‘The Little Ship That Could” because we have managed to survive some big waves of change over the past 45 years,” she continued. “Through all of that change we have continued to stay dedicated to the behavioral health and social well-being of our community.”

This year marks the first annual Dr. Deisher Founder’s Award. Dr. Robert Deisher was dedicated to helping troubled teens. He sought support for social services for Gay youth at a time when those actions were unheard of. He opened Seattle Counseling Service – the first counseling center for sexual minorities in the world - and began the Pioneer Square Youth Clinic among other incredible accomplishments.

“Dr. Deisher affected the lives of so many throughout his life and his legacy is one we are proud to continue,” said McGettigan.

On Sunday, Seattle Counseling Service gave the first-ever Dr. Deisher Founder’s Award to Arleen Nelson, MSW, LICSW. “Arleen came to SCS in 1979 to introduce herself as a possible referral source for parents and family members of Gay and Lesbian individuals,” said SCS officials. “She walked out with the task of developing and leading a four-day training for the agency’s telephone counselors. Little did she know that she was embarking on a lifetime career supporting the LGBTQ community.”

“For the past 35 years Arleen has brought her wisdom, compassion and fierce advocacy to her work at SCS,” said McGettigan. “Arleen is a founding member of both the local and national chapters of PFLAG. In the early years of the AIDS crisis she helped to develop and supervise an HIV Program. She then spent a large portion of the ‘90s as a couples and family counselor at SCS while also overseeing the long-term AIDS therapy program.

Since retiring in 2000, Arleen has continued supervising SCS interns and providing invaluable consultation.”

Nelson accepted the award and was received by the audience with a standing ovation. It was a touching moment for everyone that was in the room; it isn’t often that people get honored in such a way.

Each year, SCS has asked someone they have helped to give a client testimonial. This year’s client testimonial was presented by Melissa Batson and really made for a wellrounded evening. Batson’s story was provocative and interesting. Batson is a proud male to female Transsexual. She graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science in Business

Administration and from the University of Oklahoma in 1988 from their school of law.

She practiced in Oklahoma and Washington, specializing in civil rights and the rights of minorities in the workplace. She left active practice in 2001 and focused on her own development as a Transgender person.

While in the Army, Batson described how she remained closeted and excelled at the military to deflect any attention off of the fact of who she really was inside. She served as an officer and commanded tanks. Eventually her secret got out and she was discharged from the U.S. Army without any benefits or anything. The experience changed her forever. She would eventually go on to manage a multi-million dollar company and is currently employed by Costco at their campus headquarters in Issaquah.

Melissa is currently a trustee for The Emerald City Club and edits the Emerald City Newsletter.

Another wonderful part of the 45th SCS Gala were the 45th anniversary video interviews of George Bakan, Aleks Martin, Marsha Botzer, Ann McGettigan, David Breland, Kris Butler, Donnie Goodman, Davin Majkut, Arleen Nelson and Robert Wood. The interviews, recorded by Yoyostring Collective, a full service Seattle video production company that includes camera, editing, motion graphics, and live event video production serving Seattle, Portland and San Diego, were played in short 1 to 3 minute segments with the first one being “Looking Back,” then “Moving Forward” and finally “Telling our Stories.”

Other production or audio/visual support for the gala was provided by Dru Dinero at Visual Affairs, a local video production company, Seattle Gay News, Seattle’s LGBT News & Entertainment weekly since 1974, Nate Gowdy Photography, and John Beursken Photography. Other support or sponsorship came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Westin Hotel & Resorts.

In addition, Vulcan: A Paul G. Allen Company served as the event’s Visionary Sponsor; Goodwill: Because Jobs Change Lives served as the Advocate Sponsor for the 45th SCS Gala. Corporate Listeners included Group Health, Amerigroup Real Solutions, Seattle Children’s Hospital/Research/Foundation, and First Security Bank.

The gala came to an end with a champagne toast to the health and vitality of the organization for years to come and a drag performance of some of Katy Perry’s most known hits, by drag superstar Isaac Scott. For the last song, Isaac invited all of the staff, board members and interns up onto the stage to dance with her. It was a wonderful ending to this “Little Ship That Could.”

As Seattle Gay News goes to print, SCS has not released the final amount that was earned by the agency on October 26. We will update you as soon as we know the total. For more information visit www.SeattleCounselingService.org.

“Tonight I’m honored to be with all of you as we take a moment to look back to the early days of our LGBTQ history in Seattle and remember where this organization came from,” SCS Executive Director Ann McGettigan told attendees. “I am grateful to Dr. Robert Deisher for his early vision about the work we need to do and to his early colleagues who joined with him to start SCS in 1969. I’m also grateful to all of the community members who had the courage to reach out for help and support and found a safe haven in SCS.” Ann McGettigan has over 35 years of professional experience working with social change non-profits in various positions from crisis line worker to executive director. She has coordinated rape prevention programs, worked in battered women’s shelters, provided community education on sexual and domestic violence and administered programs that support reproductive rights for women and girls.

Ann has been the Executive Director at

October 31, 2014

Celebrating 41 Years!

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October 31, 2014

Seattle Gay News 23