SGN January 15, 2021

Page 1

Celebrating 47 Years! Issue 3 Volume 49

FRIDAY January 15, 2021 FREE!

25¢ in bookstores & newsstands

TRUMP IMPEACHED AGAIN

SEE PAGE 16

Seattle Gay News S E AT T L E ’S L GB T Q

N E W S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T W E E K LY

CAPITOL HILL IN 2020

Pandemic, protests, and small businesses by Egan Orion Special to the SGN

For small businesses on Capitol Hill and across Seattle, two dates in 2020 symbolize the story of this oh-so-bad year: Monday, March 23, when Gov. Inslee announced a two-week shutdown of all nonessential businesses to curtail the spread of the coronavirus; and Saturday, May 30, when violence

between police and protesters erupted on the streets of downtown Seattle in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The first told businesses if and how they could be open; the second started months of protests on Capitol Hill that put them on the frontlines and for some, in the crosshairs.

2020 was perhaps the hardest year in a generation to run a small business on Capitol Hill, as owners swam upstream against a tide of government mandates, fear of the virus, a loss of profits, Paycheck Protection

see CAPITOL HILL 2020 page 5

Truth or consequences

Trump’s parting shot strips LGBTQ protections

Mike Solan – Photo courtesy of NBC News

Mike Solan – Photo courtesy of NBC News

Pressure on head of Seattle police union to resign by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Eight of the nine members of Seattle’s City Council have joined the growing call for Mike Solan to resign as president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG). Solan – who campaigned for his position as an anti-protest hardliner – stirred up a hornets’ nest of controversy with remarks

blaming Black Lives Matter for the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6. On January 8 Solan retweeted a rightwing conspiracy theory that “an extreme BLM activist” was among those in the proTrump mob. “As the [mainstream media] point to one group as being the culprits, clearly evi-

see SOLAN page 4

place under the Obama administration. The Obama-era rules forbid federal grant recipients from discrimination In the waning days of his embattled against people on the basis of age, disabiladministration, Donald Trump found the ity, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, time for a parting shot at the LGBTQ com- gender identity, or sexual orientation. They also required federal grant recipimunity. New rules issued by the Department of ents to recognize same-sex marriages. Health and Human Services (HHS) strip see TRUMP page 16 LGBTQ people of legal protections put in

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer


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