SGN May 1, 2015 - Section 1

Celebrating 41 Years!

Issue 18 Volume 43

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Jinkx Monsoon’s Drag Becomes Him World Premiere Conversation with DJ Kirk Calvo

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Seattle Gay News

Thousands killed in Kathmandu, Nepal earthquake

SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

SCOTUS hears marriage arguments Why we may not get everything we want

SGN exclusive interview with Gay Seattle man who witnessed it all

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On April 25, a powerful 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal, killing more than 6,200 people and causing widespread damage to the Capitol City of Kathmandu. In seconds, buildings were destroyed, lives ruined and fear and uncertainty blanketed Kathmandu.

Nearly 8 months ago Carson Cook, 29, moved to Kathmandu with his friend and business partner Briton Stender to bring part of their credit card and financial services company, StenCo Payments to Nepal.

Cook lived in Seattle for many years; handsome and likable, Cook eventually became a well-known bartender at Neighbours Nightclub where he helped raise money for local charities and community groups by participating in fundraisers, pageants and more.

I’ve known Cook since 2009 and we became good friends over the years. He was always a good sport about community events so it didn’t surprise me when he agreed to help raise money for the nonprofit Social Outreach Seattle, of which I am president, by

Photo by Carson Cook – Special to the SGN

participating in a male underwear model contest. He did a fantastic job! But that’s who he is. He is helpful, polite and caring. I was so happy for him when he told me he’d made the decision to move to Nepal. I mean, c’mon, that is a once in a lifetime adventure and I told him, “do it!” when he asked me what I thought about his decision.

Nepal is a landlocked country in the Himalayas located in South Asia. It borders China, India, and is separated from Bangladesh by the narrow Indian Siliguri Corridor

The Supreme Court of The United States – latimesblogs.latimes.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

the attorneys’ responses, looking for clues to the eventual outcome.

There are plenty of clues, but not all of In a historic hearing on April 28, the U.S. them bode well for LGBT rights.

Supreme Court weighed arguments for and Chief Justice Roberts against marriage equality. Before the twoworries about sex discrimination part hearing even concluded, pundits were see Nepal page 5 sifting through the justices’ questions and see scotus page 13

City Council fireworks Okamoto picked to succeed Sally Clark

Seattle Counseling Service to launch LGBTQ Refugee/ Immigrant Outreach Project

John Okamoto being sworn in – courtesy of Seattle City Council

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

The staff at Seattle Counseling Service – courtesy of Seattle Counseling Service he would not seek to be elected to the seat Clark gave up, the vote touched off fireworks within the LGBTQ community for 45 years,

by Shaun Knittel between Council members Kshama Sawant has announced the May 5 launch of the orSGN Associate Editor The Seattle City Council picked John and Tom Rasmussen. ganization’s new LGBTQ Refugee/ImmiAmong other high-profile administraOkamoto to succeed Sally Clark, who regrant Outreach Project.

Seattle Counseling Service (SCS), a comtive positions, Okamoto was previously disigned April 12. munity based organization that has been Although Okamoto will serve only see okamoto page 5 dedicated to promoting health and wellness see scs page 5 through January 1, and had to promise

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Seattle Neighborhood Greenways intern releases LGBTQ Safe Streets Project

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Christie Santos-Livengood spent 2014 as an intern at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, a safe street advocacy organization made up of a volunteer coalition representing many neighborhoods across Seattle who plan and advocate for safe, equitable, and comfortable streets connecting us to the places we want to go. While interning, she conducted interviews with community members about their concerns regarding hate crimes in Central Seattle Greenways – which includes Central District and Capitol Hill.

According to Santos-Livengood, the Informant’s identified that community members are most concerned about: Gentrification and Newcomers, Mistrust of Police, Hate Crimes and Nightlife Culture.

“Based on these concerns,” she told Seattle Gay News, “I’ve created an Infographic with recommendations for the City of Seattle, The Seattle Police Department, Businesses and Organizations and The LGBTQ Community.”

For City Government 1. Implement comprehensive rent control to mitigate the increase in violence that occurs as a result of gentrification.

2. Host community forums before (May) and after (July) Pride Month to share concerns, identify preventive measures and generate action-oriented solutions to mitigate hate violence.

a. Require key government officials to be present for forums – Councilmembers, Legislators who serve Seattle and the Seattle Police Department.

b. Invite mainstream media outlets to forums.

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For the Seattle Police Department 1. Track police enforcement of anti-LGBT crimes.

2. Train all first responders (e.g. beat police, 911 dispatchers) to greet community members involved using gender-neutral

language, (e.g. “Good afternoon.” instead of “Good afternoon, Ma’am.”), ask for the pronoun they use (e.g. “Which pronoun do you use?”) and adhere to their pronoun throughout incident reporting, addressing and post-report data analysis.

3. Compile a quarterly report that tracks

all anti-LGBT incidents including the date, time, location and context of the incident, to be in alignment with transparency goals.

For Businesses, Organizations and Employers 1. Remove required education from job descriptions and use measurable skills to replace this gate-keeping hiring practice that reduces the ability for LGBTQ people, people of color and individuals with multiple identities from accessing jobs.

2. Place rainbow stickers, flags, and LGBT-themed art (e.g. two women kissing) in storefront windows to remind the community to know that they belong, and to let ‘outsiders’ know that they are in an LGBT-affirming space.

For the LGBTQ Community 1. Advocate and lobby City and State legislators for policy change to mitigate anti-hate violence, create sustainable rent control, and establish equitable employment hiring practices.

2. Collaborate with community organizations like Entre Hermanos, Gender Justice League, API Chaya, and Center for Multicultural Health, Gay City, Ingersoll Gender Center and The NW Network to build bridges and create community-centered solutions to LGBT-phobia and anti-LGBT hate violence and crimes.

3. Continue to create, flourish, live and celebrate our community to resist oppression and communicate confidence.

4. Report hate violence to advocates and allies at the NW Network 206-214-9834, a Seattle LGBT anti-violence organization.

5. Trust your intuition.

Celebrating 41 Years!

nepal

continued from cover and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Kathmandu is the nation’s capital and largest metropolis and the country is home to eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest.

On April 24, just hours before the earth began to shake all around him on April 25, Cook and I briefly chatted on Facebook.

Nothing really profound or anything. We just talked about the normal things, “How are you,” “Good and U?” type stuff. He told me how great the people are in Nepal and how amazing a city Kathmandu is. Shortly thereafter, I went to bed. When I awoke the next morning and began checking emails I saw that I had received news updates from major news websites I subscribe to with breaking news headlines about an earthquake hitting Nepal and thousands reported dead or missing. My stomach jumped into my throat and I began to check Facebook for news of Cook’s well-being. As I searched I also found more information about the amount of destruction the 7.8 earthquake caused. It must’ve been a nightmare to experience.

According to officials, the earthquake was the most powerful disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake.

The quake was so powerful that casualties have been reported in the adjoining areas of India, China, and Bangladesh. The earthquake occurred at 11:56 a.m. at a depth of approximately 9.3 miles, which is considered shallow and therefore more damaging than quakes that originate deeper in the ground, with its epicenter approximately 21 miles east-southeast of Lamjung, Nepal, and only lasting approximately twenty seconds. Within less than one minute, 1 million children were severely affected by the disaster reports the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) program headquartered in New York City that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. On April 27, The Himalayan Times reported that as many as 20,000 foreign nationals may have been visiting Nepal at the time of the earthquake.

As reports come in from isolated villages, it is possible that total deaths may reach

scs

continued from cover “This is an exciting time for us as we implement a ground-breaking initiative to reach an incredibly underserved part of our community,” Ann McGettigan, executive director for SCS told supporters in an email announcing the launch this week.

“So many of our community members have benefitted from the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act with increased access to medical and behavioral health insurance,” she continued. “We’ve become increasingly aware that there are still portions of our community who still do not have access to care. Partnering with the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, this year we aim to learn about and provide outreach to undocumented immigrants

Okamoto

continued from cover rector of administration for the Port of Seattle. He is also a friend of Mayor Ed Murray, and the man Murray appointed acting director of Seattle’s Department of Human Services.

While some Council members might have seen Okamoto’s resume as a positive factor, Sawant said “It would be scandalous…if any council member today voted for John Okamoto, who presided over the Port of Seattle, which was a cesspool of corruption when he was the chief administrative officer, when the port gave sweetheart deals to big developers, sometimes with 30 percent profit margins and during a time

or exceed the more than 10,000 killed in the 1934 earthquake. Hundreds of people are still considered missing and more than 450,000 are displaced.

In addition, the earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 19 (including 1 member of a Seattle mountain climbing club camped out on the mountain); making it the most lethal day on the mountain. The earthquake also triggered another huge avalanche in Langtang valley, where 250 are now missing. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square and the Bhaktapur Durbar Square. Continued aftershocks have occurred throughout Nepal, with one shock reaching a magnitude of 6.7 on April 26. Aside from the damage caused by the earthquake, Nepal is at constant risk of landslides as well.

I periodically checked for updates about Cook throughout the rest of the day. As day entered into night and with still no word from my friend I began to fear the worst.

Meanwhile, with all cell phones and Internet down in Nepal, Cook got a hold of a satellite phone and called his mother, Julia Cook, who lives in Fremont, Nebraska.

Julie says she was relieved to hear Cook’s voice at the other end of the phone.

“I was driving home from South Dakota and he gave me a call and I started to cry and he goes mom please don’t cry, everyone is crying over here, I’m okay,” Julie said.

News that Carson was shaken up but alive began to reach his friends, myself included. With his physical health intact, Cook, along with millions of others living in Nepal must now focus their attention on cleanup and coping with the loss of life and sense of security that now grips their everyday lives.

Carson told Seattle Gay News he was lying in bed when chaos struck. “The whole house was shaking like a tilt-a-whirl,” he said. “When I realized what was going on, I jumped out of bed and ran out of the house.”

Cook says once he was on the street the ground continued to move beneath him.

“Buildings turned to rubble right before my eyes,” he said. “It was the most devastating experience I’ve ever witnessed.”

Cook recalls telling his mother, “Life

can change in a heartbeat and you better cherish every day.”

Just as all of his friends would expect, Cook quickly joined rescue efforts to find survivors and Photo by Carson Cook – Special to the SGN bury the ily members. We are still searching for all dead. It was backbreaking work and the powerful after- 30 of the staff throughout the city and have managed to locate about 15 people.” shocks didn’t help much he said.

During the tragedy StenCo Payments I helped pull people out of the wreckage,” he told SGN. “A lot of the people died.” provided fresh water, living space, and open And as for business, well, it’s seen better Internet for people to call their loved ones. days. The fact of the matter is, nearly half “We left our batteries on as long as possible of his staff of 30, are still missing. Few re- to provide charging for the phones of those turned to the company call center after the in the area and hot water for those living in crisis. Cook, a man who’s spent so much the fields,” Stender said.

In an effort to continue to help, Cook time and talent helping others now finds himself on the other side at the moment. He and Stender want to give an extra month is asking for people to help him so he can of salary to each person who works at the StenCo office; however, because of the continue to help others, too.

His business partner, Briton Stender, earthquake StenCo is struggling to stay who also survived, set up a GoFundMe.com open.

“We would all be grateful if you could online fundraising campaign at http://www. gofundme.com/stencosupport. People that help us out with a small donation to provide are interested in sending money donations money to continue to search for all of our staff,” said Stender. can do that by clicking the link provided.

“We take our social responsibility in this According to Stender, he and Cook, “promised the [Nepal] government that country very seriously, and everyone has they would create 50 jobs over the course of become like a family to us,” he said. “Please a year and so far, there are 30 people work- help us rebuild the houses of our staff and continue to support our work here.” ing with them.”

StenCo Payments has set a $15,000 “All of these 30 people rely on this income to support their families and homes,” goal. So far they’ve raised over $2,000 so he said. “In Nepal when you take on an they have a long way to go. According to employee you take on much more. You Cook your donation would help fund two become part of their family and their fam- months’ salary for each person to help them ily yours. Our company sends their kids to get back on their feet, medical fund for inschool, pays for their rent expense, and pro- jured Nepalese, house repair fund for damvides them with a paycheck that is usually aged homes as well as office repairs so they divided between everyone in their family can continue to offer free WiFi. Seattle Gay News wishes all the best to group.”

“Unfortunately, the earthquake devas- the survivors of the April 25 Nepal earthtated Kathmandu, killing thousands of peo- quake and offers our condolences to the ple,” said Stender. “Many of the staff here at families of loved ones who perished in the StenCo Payments lost their homes and fam- disaster.

and refugees who identify as LGBTQ.” According to McGettigan, SCS will build relationships with community partners who are currently serving immigrant and refugee populations as well as seek to gain knowledge about barriers to care in order to increase access. Additionally, SCS will share expertise in order to better integrate these individuals and their families into Seattle’s healthcare delivery service and increase collaboration.

“Our goal with this project is to contribute to research that helps our agencies and others better understand the LGBTQ Immigrant population’s needs, barriers to care, and ways that we can use collaborative relationships to decrease these barriers. In the future, we hope to develop a behavioral health program that is suited to the needs of the LGBTQ Immigrant community,” she said.

“As an immigrant myself, I believe that affordable, competent and culturally relevant mental health and addiction recovery services should be accessible to everyone, regardless of citizenship status,” said McGettigan, who immigrated to the U.S. from the United Kingdom.

SCS officials say the organization remains committed to providing accessible services, offering a sliding fee scale in addition to accepting Medicaid and many insurance plans.

There are two ways for the community to support SCS and the work they do.

One is to participate in The Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG, one-day, online charitable giving event to inspire people to give generously to nonprofit organizations who make our region a healthier and more vital place to live.

This year’s GiveBIG takes place on May

5. To make a donation to SCS, which will then be matched, go to http://www.seattlefoundation.org/npos/Pages/SeattleCounselingService.aspx?bv=nposearch.

Another way to support SCS and the LGBTQ Refugee/Immigrant Outreach Project is by attending the organization’s annual gala, ICON. Billed at the “funnest fundraiser in town,” “ICON XI – A Celebration of Drag, Art and Life!” Is scheduled for May 17 at the W Hotel Downtown Seattle, 5 p.m. VIP/6 p.m. GA. ICON is hosted by Aleksa Manila and will feature performances by Arnaldo! Drag Chanteuse, Isaac Scott, Miss Indigo Blue, Atasha Manila, Shanghai Pearl and more. Tickets are available at https://app.etapestry.com/cart/SeattleCounselingCenter/default/index.php.

when the outgoing Port CEO was paid a $340,000 salary for a year after his retirement…”

In 2007, while Okamoto worked for the Port, the Washington State Auditor’s office issued a highly critical report charging Port management with circumventing public bidding requirements, concealing information from the elected Port Commission, and wasting more than $97 million in taxpayer money.

Okamoto, Sawant charged, was merely “another politician who will represent the interests of big developers, big business, and the superwealthy – somebody who is all too willing to continue the status quo of politics.”

Her remarks drew a harsh rebuke from

Council member Tom Rasmussen, who supported Okamoto.

“I think it’s possible to speak to the strength of a candidate that you support without smearing the reputation of a candidate that you do not support,” Rasmussen said, “and the false statements by Council member Sawant against John Okamoto are really odious and it’s unfortunate that she has to stoop so low.”

Rasmussen then reeled off a long list of community leaders who also supported Okamoto.

When the vote came, more drama ensued.

Sawant voted for affordable housing activist Sharon Lee. Nick Licata and Mike O’Brien voted for labor activist and former

HUD staffer Sharon Maeda. Four council members – Rasmussen, Sally Bagshaw, Tim Burgess, and Jean Godden – voted for Okamoto.

The remaining Council member, Bruce Harrell, had not revealed beforehand who he was supporting, but when his time came, he voted for former NAACP official Shelley Secrest.

On the second ballot, Harrell switched his vote to Okamoto, giving him a 5-4 majority.

Licata and Rasmussen have already announced they will not run for reelection.

Okamoto has promised he will not seek election to a term of his own. All the other Council members will be on the primary ballot in August.

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Patty Murray introduces $12 federal minimum wage bill

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Washington’s senior U.S. Senator Patty Murray has introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour.

Although some states and municipalities have set higher minimums, the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi were at a press event to support Murray’s bill. More than half of the Senate’s 46 Democrats are expected to support the proposal.

The federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009, as the final step in a threestage increase passed by the Democraticcontrolled Congress in 2007 and signed by Republican President George W. Bush.

The first minimum wage to take effect was set at 25 cents per hour in 1938. An earlier minimum wage law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Murray’s proposal would raise the minimum even higher than President Obama’s proposed $10.10 minimum.

While minimum wage increases used to be routine, recent proposals to raise it have been blocked by Republican House Speaker John Boehner. Murray said she was not deterred by his opposition.

“John Boehner has never stopped me before,” Murray joked in an April 29 interview.

“I’ll be doing the introduction of the legislation [April 30] . . . When you put something out there, it is an act of building support, and that is how eventually you get things done. I think if support becomes sufficient, you force Congress to act.”

Seattle is currently phasing in a $15 per hour minimum wage passed by the City Council last year. Washington’s state minimum wage is higher than the federal standard, but at $9.47 per hour is much lower than either Obama’s or Murray’s proposals.

This year the Washington State House of Representatives passed a $12-an-hour minimum wage measure, but it died in the Republican-run State Senate. An initiative campaign in 2016 is thought to be likely.

Last November four red states – Alaska,

U.S. Senator Patty Murray – columbian.com

Arkansas, South Dakota and Nebraska – voted to raise their state minimums, indicating that higher wages resonate with voters across party lines.

A wage hike is one of two measures

Murray is leading in the Senate. The other is the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would try to correct the wide disparity in men’s and women’s income.

Major child advocacy organizations join HRC in calling for defeat of anti-LGBT legislation

Discriminatory measures introduced in many states would undermine well-being of our nation’s children and youth WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday, April 16, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation and five leading national child welfare organizations joined forces to repudiate as harmful to children and families anti-LGBT legislation introduced in states across the nation.

The joint statement warned that the shameful measures, including a virulently anti-LGBT adoption measure a Florida Senate committee is scheduled to hear Monday, would “foster discrimination and do harm to our clients, our patients, our students, and their families.” The organizations called on legislatures across the country to cease action on bills that would “undermine protections for this highly vulnerable population.”

“These bills,” the statement continued, “ignore the fact that our duty is to ensure the best care for our children, youth and their families.”

Organizations that signed the statement, in addition to HRC Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Education Association.

In the statement, the organizations expressed deep concern about the harmful messages the anti-LGBT bills are sending to youth, and pointed to discriminatory action that could result if the harmful bills are passed.

• A guidance counselor could refuse to work with an LGBT student who is seeking help with family challenges; • A physician could deny services to a gender non-conforming child or the child of LGBT parents;

• A recreation center could refuse to include a LGBT teen on their soccer team; • A small business owner could refuse to serve a group of teens who he perceives are LGBT;

transgender student, subjecting the school to potential liability under Title IX, the national civil rights law that prevents schools receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex.

cluding measures that would allow discrimination in adoption and foster care, criminalize transgender people who attempt to use restrooms, and, under the guise of religious liberty, give service providers the power to deny child welfare services to the very people who need our care the most.”

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. www.hrc.org Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign

• A mental health professional, based on their religious beliefs, could circumvent professional ethical standards by refusing to serve youth; and • A school could be prevented from creating appropriate accommodations for a

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“We, as organizations dedicated to serving the best interests and well-being of children and youth, are deeply concerned about the spate of anti-LGBT bills that have been introduced in state legislatures around the country this year,” the statement says, “in-

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Trans inmate entitled to surgery, federal judge affirms California prison system. She was incarcerated in 1987 on a second-degree murder charge and began transitioning in 2000.

Both her prison doctor and her psychiatrist agreed that surgery was medically necessary in her case.

The California Department of Corrections argued that Nosworthy had already been waiting for surgery for many years, and there was no urgent necessity for them to provide it.

They have announced that they will appeal to the Ninth Circuit. In 2014, the First Circuit Court ruled in a similar case that a Massachusetts inmate was not entitled to transitional surgery.

If the Ninth Circuit upholds Tigar’s original ruling, the issue might well go to the U.S. Supreme Court to sort out the differences between the conflicting circuit court rulings.

U.S. District Judge John Tigar – Todd Rogers/The Recorder

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

A federal district judge has cleared the way for a Transgender California prison inmate to receive medically necessary surgery.

U.S. District Judge John Tigar declined to stay his previous ruling and reaffirmed his order that the California state penal system must provide sex reassignment surgery for inmate Michelle Nosworthy.

Tigar ruled on April 3 that denying surgery to Nosworthy was causing her extreme psychological harm, and ordered the California Department of Corrections to rectify the situation immediately.

The department then asked for a stay

while it prepared an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court. On April 28, Tigar denied the request for a stay.

Nosworthy has been receiving hormone therapy while in prison, but had been denied surgery. Tigar’s ruling is reportedly the first time a federal judge has recognized the medical necessity of surgery for Trans inmates.

“The state provides essential medical care to all people being held in prison, and everyone – transgender or not – should find it troubling that the state is trying to take that away from Michelle just because of who she is,” Transgender Law Center Executive Director Hayashi said.

The Transgender Law Center represented Nosworthy in her lawsuit against the

California inmate Michelle Nosworthy – Transgender Law Center

Printer can refuse pro-Gay messages, Kentucky court says Company apologizes for Georgia printer who did the same

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

A printer in Lexington, Kentucky, is within his rights to refuse to print pro-Gay T-shirts a state court ruled on April 27.

Meanwhile, a national printing company has apologized for a Georgia franchisee who refused to print invitations for a Lesbian wedding.

Blaine Adamson, owner of Hands On Originals printing company, refused a customer’s request to print T-shirts with proGay messages last year, claiming that the messages violated his religious beliefs.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission ruled that he had violated the Lexington’s Fairness Ordinance, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Adamson appealed the commission’s decision to the Fayette County circuit court, and was represented by the anti-Gay group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

The court ruled for Adamson, saying that he had a First Amendment free speech right to refuse to print messages he found offensive.

There was no evidence that Adamson refused to print the shirts because of the sexual orientation of the potential customers, Judge James Ishmael said. Instead, “it is clear beyond dispute that [Hands On Origi-

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nals] and its owners declined to print the T-shirts in question because of the message advocating sexual activity outside of a marriage between one man and one woman.”

Ray Sexton, executive director of the Lexington Human Rights Commission, said that the commission would probably appeal the court’s decision.

“We don’t look at this as a loss,” Sexton told reporters April 27. “We look at it as a one-one tie right now.”

Georgia apology Meanwhile, the AlphaGraphics printing chain issued an apology for one of its franchisees in Atlanta, Georgia, who refused to print wedding invitations for a Lesbian couple.

According to Paige Beckwith, one of the couple, she has been open with all potential vendors that there would be two brides on the wedding day. She says none of them seemed to care, except for the printer.

“The owner [of the print shop] called me back and let me know that he’s not going to print our invitations because he does not support same sex marriage,” Beckwith said.

“I kept asking him how, why, how he could do this? He just basically stood on his religious beliefs, referenced the Bible, called it a sin, and I was basically in tears saying how could you treat me this way?”

The AlphaGraphics main office has

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apologized for its Atlanta franchisee and promised to print Beckwith’s invitations at no charge.

“We do not condone discrimination of any kind, and wish to make clear that customers of any race, religion, nationality, ethnicity or sexual orientation are welcome at our franchisees’ locations nationwide,” the company said in a statement.

“We also wish to apologize to the customers who were impacted by the actions of this franchisee, and hope that our response conveys the level of commitment we feel toward upholding our company’s standards of inclusion, and that all members of the Suwanee [Georgia] community continue to feel welcome at AlphaGraphics.”

AlphaGraphics prinitng chain issued an apology for one of its franchises – www.thebiglook.com

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scotus

continued from cover The most tantalizing question of the day came from Chief Justice John Roberts, who asked Michigan Solicitor General John Bursch whether sexual orientation was even relevant to the appeals at hand.

“I’m not sure it’s necessary to get into sexual orientation to resolve this case,” the Chief Justice said.

“I mean, if Sue loves Joe and Tom loves Joe, Sue can marry him and Tom can’t. And the difference is based upon their different sex. Why isn’t that a straightforward question of sexual discrimination?”

Bursch’s reply led the court off on a tangent about the supposed biological rationale for opposite-sex marriage, but what if Roberts was floating a trial balloon, suggesting that the court decide for marriage equality based on sex discrimination and not on sexual orientation discrimination?

Roberts has taken this tack before. In the 2012 Obamacare case he unexpectedly made the fifth vote to uphold the law, but concocted his own legal theory for why the law was constitutional. This allowed Roberts to write a majority opinion restricting the scope of the commerce clause – long hated by conservatives because it has been used to justify federal regulation of private business.

Some pro-equality legal scholars have indeed based their arguments for same-sex marriage on sex discrimination. For example, Northwestern law professor Andrew Koppelman and Mason law professor Ilya Somin filed an amicus brief, making just that argument.

“This would be a clean, formalistic way for the court to resolve the case,” Koppelman said in an interview. “It could just apply existing sex discrimination law.”

While a decision based on existing sex discrimination law would give us marriage, it wouldn’t give us much else, and that may be the very point Roberts is trying to make.

All lower court rulings in favor of marriage equality have asserted that same-sex couples are subjected to discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. Almost all of them have said that courts should apply the “heightened scrutiny” standard to laws treating LGBT Americans differently.

In other words, lower federal courts have ruled that LGBT Americans should be treated as a protected class, even though we

don’t yet have that status in federal statutes.

If their rulings were upheld by the high court, they could lay a basis for future lawsuits claiming equal rights in all areas where LGBT Americans are still unprotected, including employment.

Conservatives like Roberts, on the other hand, don’t want to set up new protected classes. In fact – as shown by their 2013 ruling on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – they want to remove protections from already established protected classes.

Writing a ruling based on existing federal laws against sex discrimination would allow Roberts to come in “on the right side of history,” but at the same time restrict protections offered to LGBT Americans, and prevent us from using the marriage decision as an argument in future lawsuits for other rights.

Justice Kennedy worries about millennia Another intriguing statement came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, author of the Supreme Court decision striking down DOMA, and the reported “swing vote” on marriage equality. Kennedy publically worried about having to overturn the historically accepted definition of marriage.

“I don’t even know how to count the decimals when we talk about millennia,” he said during oral arguments. “This definition has been with us for millennia. And it’s very difficult for the court to say, ‘Oh, well, we know better.’”

Kennedy added that social science studies showing that same-sex couples make just as good parents and form just as stable relationships as opposite-sex ones are “too new” to be taken at face value.

Kennedy’s line of argument was quickly shot down by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who reminded him that there’s no need for the Supreme Court to strike down “traditional marriage” because history has already done so.

“Marriage today is not what it was under the common law tradition, under the civil law tradition,” Ginsberg said. “Marriage was a relationship of a dominant male to a subordinate female. That ended as a result of this court’s decision in 1982, when Louisiana’s Head and Master Rule was struck down.”

“Would that be a choice that states [still] should be allowed to have? To cling to marriage the way it once was?” she asked Solicitor General Bursch.

“No” was all he could say.

In light of his past opinions on LGBT rights, and especially his majority opinion in USA v. Windsor, it would be hard to imagine Kennedy voting against marriage equality, but it wouldn’t be so hard at all to imagine him voting for some half-way solution.

He could, for example, find that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to recognize lawful same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, but that it does not require states to legalize same-sex marriage within their own borders. This would be in line with Kennedy’s longstanding commitment to states’ rights, and also to his equally longstanding sympathy for LGBT Americans.

Justice Scalia worries about full faith and credit In the second half of the hearing, addressing the question of states recognizing marriages performed in other jurisdictions, Justice Antonin Scalia asked why the full faith and credit clause did not control the case.

That part of the Constitution requires states to recognize the rulings and decisions of other states, and if it did control, then the justices might rule that states had to recognize out-of-state marriages, but did not have to sanction same-sex marriages themselves.

Tennessee Solicitor General Joseph Whelan fumbled the question, but did manage to reply – after being corrected on several points of law by Justice Stephen Breyer – that Supreme Court precedents have distinguished between court orders and lesser documents like marriage licenses. Orders and judgments get full faith and credit, Whelan maintained, but marriage licenses do not.

However, there’s no reason that has to be the case. The Supreme Court could say that the clause does, in fact, apply to marriage licenses, and use that interpretation to construct a half-way compromise on marriage.

The Fourteenth Amendment and federalism In many ways, the marriage equality issue turns on the Fourteenth Amendment and the question of federalism, and that question is fraught with ideological consequences.

Liberals tend to give the Fourteenth Amendment the widest possible scope. In

their analysis, the Fourteenth Amendment “federalizes” the Bill of Rights, prohibiting states from doing the things that the federal government is prohibited from doing.

In the marriage cases, the Supreme Court has already ruled in USA v. Windsor that Gay and Lesbian couples have Fifth Amendment due process and equal protection rights against federal discrimination in marriage.

To liberal legal scholars, that means they also have a Fourteenth Amendment protection against discrimination by the states, and this was the basis for lower federal court rulings striking down state marriage bans.

On the other hand, conservatives want to limit the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment, and allow wide latitude to the states to make whatever laws they please. In his dissent in Windsor, Chief Justice Roberts went as far as to deliberately obscure Justice Kennedy’s reasoning for striking down DOMA. “The dominant theme of the majority opinion is that the Federal Government’s intrusion into an area ‘central to state domestic relations law applicable to its residents and citizens’ is sufficiently ‘unusual’ to set off alarm bells,” Roberts wrote. “[I]ts judgment is based on federalism.”

If Roberts is correct, Windsor does not establish a precedent for same-sex marriage rights, but just the opposite – it would establish a precedent for allowing states to define marriage any way they please.

This is contradicted by Kennedy’s own clear statement in the DOMA decision.

“The liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause contains within it the prohibition against denying to any person the equal protection of the laws,” Kennedy wrote.

“While the Fifth Amendment itself withdraws from Government the power to degrade or demean in the way [DOMA] does, the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment makes that Fifth Amendment right all the more specific and all the better understood and preserved.”

If Kennedy sticks to the reasoning he employed in Windsor, and doesn’t get sidetracked by sex discrimination and concerns about millennia of tradition, we will get a decision that not only gives us marriage, but also lays the legal basis for more extensive legal protections.

You’re Gay so go away, Pope tells French Ambassador

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Pope Francis met with France’s openly Gay Ambassador to the Vatican, but only to tell him that his appointment was unacceptable.

According to Le Canard Enchaine newspaper, French diplomat Laurent Stefanini met the Pope in a 15-minute private audience, and was told by the pontiff that his appointment to represent France at the Vatican was unacceptable.

His sexual orientation was reportedly only part of the reason the Vatican rejected him. France’s 2013 legalization of same-sex marriage was also a reason he was unacceptable to the Vatican.

Stefanini was appointed to represent France at the Vatican in January, but until his meeting with the Pope, he had no communication at all with Catholic diplomatic

officials.

Stefanini is a practicing Catholic and worked as France’s deputy ambassador to the Vatican from 2001 to 2005. He is currently chief of protocol in President François Hollande’s government.

Stefanini’s appointment was supported

by French Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, who wrote to Pope Francis elaborating on the diplomat’s merits, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The French Government confirmed the meeting between Stefanini and the Pope had taken place at a regular press briefing on April 22, but insisted that Stefanini remains France’s Ambassador to the Holy See. “There was a meeting between the Pope and Mr. Stefanini,” French Government spokesperson Stephane Le Foll told Reuters news agency. “[But] nothing has changed. France has

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French diplomat Laurent Sefanini – Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

proposed a candidate and for the time being we are waiting for the Vatican’s reply af-

ter the usual discussions and review of his candidacy.”

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Ecuador OKs same-sex civil unions

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Ecuador’s National Assembly has passed a bill creating civil unions for both sameand opposite-sex couples. President Rafael Correa is expected to sign the bill into law.

Correa, a leftist who was a close friend and ally of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, announced last year that same-sex couples could register their “de facto” relationships. Under the new measure, they will get enhanced rights.

The new legislation specifically states that civil unions are “not considered as marriage,” and the partners must be at least 18 years old, but they are no longer required to prove they have been in a relationship for two years or more.

The bill does not deal with adoption rights, or custody of children. Correa has said he is opposed to adoption by same-sex couples.

The Ecuadorian LGBT rights group Matrimonio Civil Igualitario (Civil Marriage Equality) said the bill was a good step in the direction of full equality.

“We hope that society opens their hearts and minds, and that they realize that for us to have access to marriage or adoption or have total recognition of families with same-

sex parents, will not generate chaos or the apocalypse,” the group’s spokesperson Pamela Troya said in a statement.

“What we are doing is creating more just and equal societies. It is that simple. Because a homosexual couple will not prevent a heterosexual couple from getting married and reproducing.”

Nevertheless, some human rights advocates said the bill did not go far enough.

Lawyer Yolanda Herrera noted that there are still “legal loopholes that are up in the air, like the affiliation of the child of a same-sex couple that decides ... to have children.

‘Today, those two mothers cannot [both] be registered, or in the case of surrogate mothers for two fathers, they cannot register their children. Only the person that gives birth [will be registered as a parent].”

Article 67 of Ecuador’s constitution limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, but Article 68 allows any “two persons” to form a union with “the same rights and obligations as held by families built through marriage,” except for the right to adopt children.

When the constitution was passed by referendum in 2008, Correa said he wanted it to include protections for same-sex unions.

“Let’s be clear that the profoundly humanistic position of this government is to respect the intrinsic dignity of everyone, of

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Seattle Gay News

Ecuador President Rafael Correa – Guillermo Granja/Reuters

every human being, independently of their creed, race, sexual preference,” Correa said at the time.

“We will give certain guarantees to stable gay couples but matrimony will continue being reserved for a man, a woman, and the family…

“Every person has dignity, that’s to say, one must respect a person independently of their sexual preference. Be careful not to deny employment to someone because of

their sexual preference. That is discrimination, that is unconstitutional.”

During the 2013 presidential election, Correa opposed same-sex marriages and reproductive choice, but two other leftist candidates supported both. Correa won the multi-candidate election by a wide margin.

Celebrating 41 Years!

Paul J. Everett – In Memoriam Paul J. Everett, 69, passed away from a sudden illness December 25, 2014 in Seattle, WA. He was born in Miami, FL. He worked in restaurant management until his retirement. He is survived by his sisters Nancy Prigg Rawls, Pensacola Beach, FL, Mary Jeffery of Corona, CA, Jane Ellington of Springfield, OR and a brother Thomas Adams in Greensboro, GA. Private services for the family will be held at a later date.

We in Seattle mourn his loss. We first met him at the Inside Passage, a bar and restaurant owned by Tom Rantz, Nathan Benedict, and Steve Nyman. He was then managing a Chuck-E-

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Cheese restaurant. When Steve and Nathan opened another restaurant, Thumper’s, he briefly worked for us. Then he met the love of his life, Corey, and moved to Florida. He managed restaurants there as well as the food service operations for assisted living communities. He continued this career upon his return to Seattle, and when the opportunity arose, he rejoined us at Thumpers as manager until it closed in 2006. He continued his work in restaurants for many years after that.

A party in his honor will be held at Diesel May 9, 4-6 p.m. All are welcome.

We will miss him terribly. He was always a good man.

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Seattle Gay News 15

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Celebrating 41 Years!

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