SGN July 10, 2020

Celebrating 46 Years!

Issue 28 Volume 48

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Seattle Gay News S E AT T L E ’ S L G B T Q N E W S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T W E E K LY

Summer Taylor, rest in power

Seattle Schools pass sweeping resolution to affirm LGBT community

Untitled by Zarich Uban, 7th Grade, Aki Kurose Middle School – Image courtesy of Seattle Public Schools Summer Taylor – Photo courtesy of GoFundMe

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Summer Taylor was killed in the early morning of July 4, at a Black Femme March on I-5. They were only 24. A driver, later identified as Dawit Kelete, plowed into the

demonstrators as they were dancing the Cupid Shuffle on the roadway.

Diaz Love was also injured by Kelete’s car. Both were taken to Harborview, where Taylor later died. Love remains in critical condition but is recovering.

see SUMMER TAYLOR page 5

by Renee Raketty SGN Staff Writer “The resolution will encourage departments, schools and staff to increase their efforts to affirm inclusion…”

The Seattle School Board voted unanimously to enact a resolution “Affirming Inclusion of Our LGBTQIA+ Students, Staff

and Community.” The resolution would affect everything from new construction, classroom curriculum and result in the renaming of a school in honor of an LGBT individual in the state’s largest school district.

The resolution reads, in part: “The resolution will encourage departments, schools and staff to increase their efforts to affirm inclusion

see SEATTLE SCHOOLS page 4

Seattle’s Lambda Legal: “Together for Pride” Freedom of religion heralded as big success is not freedom to harm First-of-it’s-kind three-day event brings LGBT community together amidst pandemic

Image courtesy of Seattle Pride

by Renee Raketty SGN Staff Writer Seattle’s “Together for Pride” virtual Pride weekend drew 3,300 average viewers per day over the three-day event, which included Trans Pride on Friday, PrideFest

on Saturday and Seattle Pride on Sunday.

The producers of the three events, Gender Justice League, PrideFest and Seattle Out and Proud combined their efforts this year to pull off the effort.

see SEATTLE PRIDE page 7

Photo by Joshua Roberts / Reuters

WASHINGTON, DC (July 8, 2020) – Today, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to approve the Trump administration’s expansion of large employers’ ability to largely ignore the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) birth-control insurance rule, which Congress enacted to

increase equal treatment of women workers. The Obama administration’s rules for implementing this requirement allowed large employers covered by the ACA to object on religious grounds to providing

see LAMBDA LEGAL page 9

THIS AD SPACE HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY DONATED BY KRISTIN COSTELLO IN MEMORY OF SGN PUBLISHER GEORGE BAKAN

2 Seattle Gay News

July 10, 2020

Celebrating 46 Years!

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JESSE’S JOURNAL

For the benefit of Mr. Kight (a new biography of Morris Kight)

by Jesse Monteagudo SGN Contributing Writer I met Morris Kight (1919-2003) in 1978.

That year, Kight came to Miami to serve as Grand Marshal in the annual Pride Parade.

Since the Pride Committee did not have money to entertain its guests, I ended up driving Kight, his Co-Grand Marshal Rev. Lucia Chappelle, and Pride Chair Rev. Joseph Gilbert to Fort Lauderdale, where my lover Stephen Jerome made dinner.

Alas, dinner with “the most famous gay in America” (Gilbert’s phrase) was a disaster due to Jerome’s inability to keep his mouth shut, which only managed to drive the great man out of the room.

During the early decades of the LGBT movement (1950-1980) our community was headed by a remarkable group of leaders; men and women who combined great courage, determination and more than a touch of narcissism. One needed a large amount of self-esteem to represent the gay community at a time when homosexuality was thought by most to be a mental illness, a sin, and a crime; and when most queers hid in the closet. High among those individuals was Morris Kight. In 1957 the Texasborn Kight moved to Los Angeles, where he made a name for himself by assisting gay youth with financial, health or legal problems. In the sixties he played a leadership role opposing the Vietnam War and, after Stonewall, fighting for gay liberation.

Kight’s resume is quite remarkable. He founded or co-founded the Gay Liberation Front of Los Angeles (1969); Christopher Street West (L.A.’s Pride Committee) (1970); the Gay Community Services Center of Los Angeles (1971); and Asian/ Pacific Lesbian/Gays (1980), just to name a few. Indeed, one could write a history of the LGBT movement in Los Angeles during the second half of the last century around the activities of Morris Kight. A personality as vast as Kight deserves a biography, and he finally has one.

Mary Ann Cherry, who knew Kight during his last decade of life, has written a fascinating life of one our greatest leaders.

Morris Kight: Humanist, Liberationist, Fantabulist – A Story of Gay Rights and Gay Wrongs (Process Media Publication $22.95) is to L.A. what Randy Shilts’s The Mayor of Castro Street was to San Francisco; only Castro’s history ended abruptly in 1978 when its subject Harvey Milk was assassinated. Kight’s story moves forward, from the dark days of anti-gay violence and

Image courtesy of Process

police brutality against lesbians and homosexuals to the “heroic age” of queer liberation (1969-73) to the AIDS epidemic and beyond. All the great names are here: Harry Hay, Jim Kepner, Don Slater, Troy Perry, Pat Rocco, Joseph Hansen, Don Kilhefner, Jon Platania; and even Milk makes a cameo appearance. Above all there was Kight; always convinced of his own greatness and that of the community that he loved.

Morris Kight, based on interviews with Kight’s friends and foes, living or dead, is clearly a labor of love. Though Cherry obviously admires Kight, she is careful to note the great man’s faults, primarily his “boundless ego.” Cherry calls him a “fantabulist,” which the dictionary defines as “a person

who benignly imagines or invents wonderful, but untrue, aspects of their character or history.” Kight’s narcissism was a turn-off for many people, especially lesser figures like Advocate publisher David Goodstein.

However, if anyone in the movement had a right to be vain, it was Kight. Younger activists who came out after Stonewall admired the avuncular Mr. Kight, who was fighting the good fight when they were still in their diapers. The LGBT community showered him with well-deserved honors, most notably a Chinese magnolia tree that the City of West Hollywood dedicated to “the Venerable Morris Kight.” The plaque is still there, for all too see.

Publication of names, photographs, or likeness of any person, organization, event or business in this publication cannot be taken as any indication of the sexual orientation of the person, organization, event or business.

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Liberating “The Farm” – Photo courtesy of Process

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Morris Kight (r) with Gore Vidal – Photo courtesy of Process

July 10, 2020

Seattle Gay News 3

Confederate memorial in Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery toppled

by Justin Carder Capitol Hill Seattle blog Ten tons of granite hewed from the Georgia mountain birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan has come tumbling down from the top of Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

The controversial monument to Confederate soldiers of the Civil War in the middle of Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery was pulled down apparently Friday [July 3, 2020] or overnight. Witnesses described a scene indicating the huge Stone Mountain granite monument was toppled and dragged until it collapsed. Yellow pull straps were left behind at the scene.

The Independence Day episode echoes with efforts to remove and topple monuments to racist figures and the Confederacy around the country during a wave of Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

States bearing the Confederate “stars and bars” are also grappling with pressure to remove the symbol.

Meanwhile, with the controversial monument toppled, 4th of July also brought a crowd of about 100 chanting and marching right wing protesters and Trump supporters to the area where the Capitol Hill protest zone was cleared earlier this week.

Around 1pm Saturday, the march clashed with groups of counter-protesters near 11th and Pine and video showed a right wing demonstrator spraying his opponents with pepper spray. The group, including some apparently heavily armed participants, was reported marching around the neighborhood and into Volunteer Park.

The monument was also targeted in June.

Photo by CHS reader Jonathan / courtesy of CHS

Seattle might seem like a strange place for a Confederate monument but sympathies for the South rose even in the distant Pacific Northwest. The Lake View monument, erected in 1926, is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a national organization representing a collection of local associations dedicated to marking the contributions made by Southern women during the war, and collecting and preserving “the material necessary for a truthful history of the War Between the States.”

Unlike the nearby Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery which makes a permanent resting place for 219 Union Army veterans and wives, the Lake View monument does not mark any graves or honor specific people.

The memorial, said to be hewn from a “10-ton” block of “Stone Mountain, Georgia” rock, was created by the Seattle chapter

SEATTLE SCHOOLS continued from cover

of LGBTQIA+ students, staff, and community in Seattle Public Schools. Curricula that are relevant to the life experience of students from diverse backgrounds have been shown to have positive impacts on the development of a strong identity connected to achievement. For LGBTQIA+ students, and non-LGBTQIA+ students, too, LGBTQIA+ inclusion leads to a greater appreciation of foundational values of equity and justice that contribute to our collective understanding that LGBQTIA+ history is American history.“ The resolution calls on the school district to audit schools to identify one genderneutral restroom and to construct one such multi-stall bathroom in all new school construction. School staff will receive competency training on serving the LGBTQIA+ community. History, English language arts, and other curriculum will be updated to include LGBTQIA+ representation, such as important people and events. A LGBTQIA+ studies program for high school students is also being discussed.

The Seattle Gay News spoke with with the director of the Seattle School Board, Zachary DeWolf, this week about the resolution. DeWolf represents the Capitol Hill, International District, First Hill, Leschi, Madison, downtown and Central District neighborhoods. He has served previously as the Director of Communications and Education at the Pride Foundation in Seattle.

Seattle Gay News: How did this resolution come to be?

Zachary DeWolf: One of the promises I made when I ran in 2017 was to bring

Zachary DeWolf – Photo courtesy of Seattle Public Schools

LGBTQ history curriculum to Seattle Public Schools (SPS). As soon as I was elected, an incredible community of students, families, advocates, and organizers met – calling themselves Inclusive Washington – [and] created a checklist of needs they had for LGBTQIA+ students in SPS. One immediate item on their list was to fix the databases so they all consistently used the name and pronoun with which our students identify as correctly everywhere. So we fixed that. But more needed to be done – I began developing parts of the resolution throughout the summer of 2019. Then, as is tradition, I met with students across the district, and I had the privilege to meet with students from Meany Middle School’s [student government]. During our meeting, I asked them, “What do you want to see from Seattle Public Schools?”

of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reportedly with money raised at “Dixie Day” during the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo. The group included the actual daughters and wives of Confederate soldiers living in Seattle but the placement in 1926 came during a wave of historical revisionism and romanticizing of the Confederate South.

The monument continues to be managed by the national organization representing a collection of local associations that strive to provide support for families of Confederate veterans, pay tribute to the contributions made by Southern women during the war, and to “collect and preserve the material necessary for a truthful history of the War Between the States.”

But it is also seen as a symbol of hate.

Only weeks earlier, the monument was targeted with paint and graffiti in one of a continuing string of attempts to deface and And their first answer – LGBTQ history in our curriculum. It was breathtaking. So I began further developing the resolution. And, after collaborating with organizations, such as Greater Seattle Business Association, SOMOS Seattle, WAISN, Pride Foundation, Equal Rights Washington, NAACP LGBTQ, Gender Justice League, GLSEN, Gender Diversity, LGBTQ Allyship, Ingersoll Gender Center, Gay City, and Washington LGBTQ Commission, as well as consulting with the Student Advisory Board and the NAACP Youth Council, it was ready.

SGN: How would you describe the reaction of your colleagues and SPS community to the passage of the resolution?

ZD: I’ve received two reactions: one of surprise that this wasn’t done sooner, though I remind people that we can all be well intentioned. We can all assume the best for everyone. But, much like our conversations about racial justice, we can’t just assume things will be anti-racist. We must be explicit in putting that down as our values and embed that on policy. Not having any Queer representation on the School Board has absolutely everything to do with why the components of the resolution weren’t already a part of SPS. The job of the Board is to listen to the community, ask what they need, and write it down in resolution or policy. The other reaction I experienced was complete joy and gratitude. My Board colleagues were supportive of this resolution from the moment it was introduced. I’m grateful we have one of the most engaged, curious, progressive, and passionate group of leaders on the Board.

SGN: How will this empower teachers?

ZD: First, it clarifies the values and position of the Board, which speaks for

damage the stone structure. In 2018, the memorial suffered damage when several parts of the stone and brass plaques were smashed, including a portion of the monument’s inscription, an insignia, and a relief of General Robert E. Lee atop a pair of crossed muskets. Later that year, it was targeted by a national campaign calling for its removal.

“The Lake View Cemetery Confederate monument was put up during an era of intense racial violence in the South – a period that had also seen the Klan expand across Washington and Oregon, when lynchings became a common way of terrorizing black communities around the country,” a statement from Michelle Merriweather, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, calling for the memorial’s removal read. “It continues to send the message it was erected to convey. The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle – which has been fighting on behalf of Seattle’s most vulnerable communities for as long as this monument has stood – is loudly calling for its removal.”

Neighboring Volunteer Park, Lake View is a private cemetery operated by a nonprofit association. In the past, cemetery officials have said that since the memorial belongs to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, it is that organization’s responsibility to handle repairs and that the monument does not violate any of the cemetery’s policies.

This time when we contacted Lake View following the paint attack in June, the office declined to speak with CHS. We were told that manager George Nemeth was no longer interested in talking about the memorial.

Reprinted with permission – www.capitolhillseattle.com Seattle Public Schools. Second, it provides a training on LGBTQIA+ identity so all educators understand, a bit more, the students they serve and teach. Third, it creates a clear understanding of the importance of these identities in our students but also illustrates the affirmation and pride we have in our LGBTQIA+ educators. And, since more LGBTQIA+ history will be embedded in the curriculum, it will open up more dialogue and discussion among educators and their students about LGBTQIA+ and our critical role in the American story.

SGN: How will this benefit students and their families?

ZD: In the immediate, it benefits students and families because they know their district supports and affirms their LGBTQIA+ identity in our schools and the District. Beyond that, as a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation, I tend to think using the seven generations principle, which states that what we do now must have positive, sustainable, and meaningful solutions for today AND seven generations into the future. This resolution has great short-term benefits: changing the name of a school, and ensuring our new construction includes one multi-stall gender-neutral restroom. For seven generations thinking, I focus on the curriculum. I imagine it may not have an immediate impact, but in ten or 15 years, after thousands of SPS students read a Queer book in middle school English language arts, they will have had discussions about the book, understand a little more about the community, and are less scared of people with difference, that is the real benefit.

A copy of the resolution is available online at www.seattleschools.org

www.gofundme.com/f/seattle-gay-news-needs-your-support-now 4 Seattle Gay News

July 10, 2020

Celebrating 46 Years!

SUMMER TAYLOR continued from cover

Both identify as nonbinary and use they/ them pronouns.

Kelete entered I-5 via an off-ramp and swerved around demonstrators’ cars blocking the freeway before plowing into the crowd at high speed, leading observers to believe he deliberately tried to hit demonstrators.

The Black Femme March has been going nightly from Capitol Hill to the West Police Precinct at 8th Avenue and Virginia Street.

On their way back to Capitol Hill on July 4, they paused to dance on I-5.

Earlier on the night Taylor was killed, an off-duty Seattle Police Department officer drove her personal vehicle through the demonstration, police confirmed, but no one was injured at that time.

In an earlier Facebook post, Taylor said they were anxious about being in the march.

“To say I’m scared … to be going out and protesting this weekend is an understatement,” Love wrote in a July 3 Facebook post.

“Still, we need to protect Black women. So I think I’ll get in the streets to livestream again tonight.”

Taylor worked as a veterinary technician at Urban Animal veterinary clinic. Katelyn Hoberecht, who worked with Taylor at Urban Animal, said Taylor had been a regular participant in Black Lives Matter protests.

“Summer has been there since day one

standing up for Black lives. Staying out all day and night, while still working full-time taking care of animals,” Hoberecht said.

“Summer talked me about the protests, and how incredible it was to be a part of something so huge. A part of history.”

“They were drawn to the protests because they believed that Black lives matter and that it was important to do everything in their power to support Black lives and fight for them,” Taylor’s friend Giana O’Shaughnessy said, describing them as “caring and compassionate.”

The night they were killed was Taylor’s first Black Femme March. Love had been splitting their time between protests in Seattle and Portland, according to their Facebook page.

“I’m alive and stable. In a lot of pain” Love wrote in a Facebook post from the hospital. “I can’t believe Summer was murdered.

“If they thought this murder would make us back down, they are very wrong,” they added. “Very wrong.”

Cops blame, then mock victims The response of police to the killing ranged from unsympathetic to callously mocking.

The Washington State Patrol, which has jurisdiction over traffic control on freeways, blamed the protestors for the incident.

“Blocking a freeway is a crime, and no longer are we going to enable that criminal conduct to continue,” said State Patrol Cap-

tain Ron Mead, a police spokesperson.

“We are not going to be allowing protesters to access the freeway unimpeded, and there are consequences for criminal conduct.”

State police would begin arresting demonstrators for blocking freeways, he added.

Meanwhile, embattled Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best released a brief statement in which she managed to both misspell Taylor’s name and to misgender them.

But that was not the worst to come from police. Mike Brown, a King County Sheriff’s detective, posted a Twitter meme depicting a car running over people, captioned “All lives splatter.” Several Twitter users who “liked” the post were later identified as sheriff’s office employees.

Brown went on to write, “I see a couple of people got infected with COVID-19 from the hood of a car on I-5 last night.”

In an earlier tweet, Brown mocked the killing of Lorenzo Anderson in the CHOP protest zone next to the East Police Precinct at 12th Avenue and Pine Street.

“The CHAZ/CHOP have renamed Cal Anderson Park the ‘Lil Renz’s Last Stand Park.’” Lil Renz was Anderson’s nickname.

It later emerged that Brown is the driver and principal security officer for King County Executive Dow Constantine and a cousin of Gov. Jay Inslee. Asked to fire Brown, Constantine would only say that discipline of sheriff’s office employees is not his responsibility. Inslee said he was “disappointed” in his cousin.

Photos by Renee Raketty

Visit us online www.sgn.org

July 10, 2020

Seattle Gay News 5

“Zoom bombing” plagues LGBT organizations, virtual safe spaces Seattle’s LGBT students, families and staff subjected to online attack, vile language ends virtual meeting

by Renee Raketty SGN Staff Writer Zoom and virtual meeting platforms have become a necessity in a COVID-19 reality because life doesn’t stop – even in a global pandemic. I have several of these apps on my phone, including Zoom and GoToMeeting – even Facebook has gotten in on the video conferencing bandwagon with it’s “Messenger Rooms” feature.

However, the one thing all of these have in common is they can be hard to protect against intrusion from unwanted guests.

On June 27th, I discovered for myself how easily virtual “safe spaces” for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community can become anything but “safe” while participating in a Seattle Trans Pride workshop, titled: “Community Pillars: Tea Time with Trans Leaders.” The workshop was one of many offered as part of the virtual Seattle Trans Pride event.

“During our presentations there was a verbal, abusive, attack,” recounted Marsha Botzer, a panel participant. “I have been on other calls with other… community organizations when the attacks included visual abuse. I am sad and a little fearful when this happens, especially when my beloved colleagues and our visitors are there and we are all working together.”

The workshop moderators were forced to close the virtual room to new entrants and the panel could not be extended. It was later learned that the link to the workshop had been posted to Twitter from which anti-LGBT individuals came to attack. Botzer stated that this incident gave her “renewed energy” and “resolve” to continue doing her work.

“The attackers will not win, they will not break us,” she said. “Their acts also demean and distrust their own humanity and that is a way of being that can not succeed.”

The Seattle Gay News heard anecdotally from other LGBT organizations that this type of event, often referred to as “Zoom bombing” or “hacking” is all too common.

However, many declined to be interviewed.

Lisha Sterling, Executive Director of Geeks Without Bounds, spoke with the SGN this week about the issue. Her Washington state based nonprofit supports humanitarian open source technology through education and direct technical support. They assisted with tech at Standing Rock; helped build public water infrastructure tools in Tanzania and Uganda; and worked on gender-based violence prevention in India. They also built software for Baltimore Public Health and the American Red Cross. Therefore, Sterling had no problem explaining “Zoom bombing.”

Image courtesy of Zoom

“If a link has been shared publicly with no password set or the password is published with the link, that is the most common way that people get into these meetings,” said Sterling. “The second [most] common way is that someone just ‘fuzzes’ the link. That’s when you change characters in the part of the link that identifies the individual meeting… So you change the digits one by one, until you show up in a room full of people.”

On Tuesday, a Zoom meeting created for Seattle Public Schools LGBTQIA+ students, families and educators – which featured School Board Director Zachary DeWolf and was hosted by the Seattle Parent Teacher Student Association – was the victim of an attack. The participants included elementary aged children who were subjected to words such as “N*gg*r” and “F*gg*t.” An

Lisha Sterling, Executive Director of Geeks Without Bounds – Photo by Randy Stewart, blog.stewtopia.com

6 Seattle Gay News

July 10, 2020

individual also said that there were only two genders, male and female, as a Transgender student spoke. In addition, someone typed “Nobody likes f*gg*ts” in the group chat.

DeWolf ended the call early and told participants that he would reschedule the Zoom call for a later date. On his Facebook page, DeWolf apologized for what had occurred. “Tonight, our community call was cut short because bigots spewed vitriolic, transphobic, and racist language toward students and families helping inform our work at Seattle Public Schools,” he wrote. “The safety of students on the call was paramount. I condemn the use of that language in Seattle Public Schools.”

DeWolf added a message for the LGBT students that may have been affected: “To our young LGBTQIA+ folks, you are loved, worthy, valued, and you matter – no harmful language like that can diminish your light and your power. Be proud of who you are because I know I am.”

Sterling said that, more often than not, bias and harassment appears to be the goal.

“I don’t have statistics on it but, anecdotally, it seems that hate is the number one reason behind this type of ‘hacking’,” she said. “And by ‘hate’ I am including the sort of immature pranks where the perpetrators would say: We don’t actually believe those things. We just thought it was funny!”

It’s a problem that affects organizations both big and small, according to Sterling.

No one is immune. “People are having to learn how to navigate the security issues quickly and, if they’ve never experienced online abuse themselves in the past, they may not even realize it’s a thing they need to worry about,” she said. ”The first time many organizations realize that they need to put security measures [in place] is often

when they have an incident...”

Krystal Marx, the Executive Director of Seattle Out and Proud, said that her group spent a lot of time coordinating their Seattle Pride component of the virtual Together for Pride events. “All of our content was loaded securely into our app and on a private, unlisted, YouTube channel,” she said.

“In addition to employing a ‘one strike rule’ that stated a participant would be removed, without warning, if they were found to be posting harassing, threatening, homophobic, transphobic, racist and/or ableist remarks, all three organizations responsible for the Together for Pride virtual event dedicated volunteers to monitor live streams and chat rooms for these types of comments. We also made sure registration was a requirement to access most of the features.”

Sterling said that taking precautions is key. She shared a few tips for holding a successful virtual meeting: • Use a password that gets shared separately from the link to the call and/or use the waiting room feature and have a moderator allow people in to the main meeting.

• For a public meeting, make sure that everyone – except the moderator – is muted and only allow the moderator can unmute participants.

• Make sure that file transfer is turned off in public meetings and that only the moderator can share their screen.

• If you are doing a webinar where there will only be questions from the audience, another tool may be preferable. YouTube live, for example, allows you to have several people who are invited in by the moderator of a panel and, then, have the audience ask questions through text chat.

Celebrating 46 Years!

Dolly Madison performs – Image courtesy of Seattle Pride

SEATTLE PRIDE continued from cover

The weekend included workshops, performances and presentations with a focus on the voices of Black, Indigenous and other People of Color hosts, presenters and artists. People from 24 states and four countries (Russia, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe) participated.

“While creating a first-of-its-kind event from scratch comes with a range of challenges, I think we were able to create programming that was timely, relevant and enjoyable,” said Krystal Marx, Executive Director of Seattle Out & Proud, which produces Seattle Pride each June. “The Board, staff, partners and volunteers of Seattle Pride were thrilled with the three-day ‘Together for Pride’ virtual event and the feedback we have received from the community has been positive as well.”

The virtual event was organized in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where Be proactive, suggested Sterling, before your next virtual meeting. “If you’re not the organizer, you probably don’t have control of much, so it can be scary,” she said. “I would say that you should talk to the organizers of the meeting and ask them to be clear about what they are doing to avoid a “meeting bombing.”

Marx agreed that the responsibility for participant safety is with the event organizer.

“Just as we hire additional security for our in-person events, I believe it is crucial to maintain a safe virtual environment for our participants as well,” she said. “Whether LGBTQIA+ or ally, we know that Pride events hold an almost sacred element to them; these are places where we remember those who have lost their lives due to homophobic or transphobic or racist attacks, those who lost their battle with HIV/AIDS, and those who have dedicated their entire lives to fighting for equal rights for our LGBTQIA+ community. As such, it is our duty to ensure that participants are able to engage authentically and without great concern of being harassed or targeted.”

Until there is a vaccine for COVID-19, the need for virtual meetings will continue.

That poses challenges for small smaller nonprofit organizations. Breanna Bry Kellar, President of the Washington Gender Alliance (WGA) and it’s parent organization the Pacific Gender Institute, said all of its work has moved online. The WGA operates support groups in Bellingham, Everett, Skagit County and Shoreline. They also provide resource referrals but have had to cut back on expansion plans due to the pandemic.

“It’s apparent we are going to have to change how we operate in the long term with COVID-19 now being a long-term issue,” said Keller. “We’ve pretty much been reduced to online options for getting those we already know together and some very limited crisis services, again to those we already know.

large in-person events were unlawful due to social distancing requirements. “It was crucial, however, to make sure we continued to provide space for our community to honor the past, celebrate the present and envision the future while also centering the Queer Trans Black Indigenous People of Color community,” Marx continued. “It was important that the Greater Seattle LGBTQIA+ community and our allies know our visibility, rights, identities and personhood is important with or without the typical events.”

Marx added that “out of an abundance of care for our LGBTQIA+ community” SOAP’s signature events, Seattle Pride in the Park and the Seattle Pride Parade had to be cancelled to protect those “at-risk.”

Marx adds she was heartened to receive messages from participants in the event app, Whova. “I received many messages from individuals for whom this was their first ever Pride event and who were grateful to have an event to participate in after all in-person events were cancelled,” she said. “That let

Mike Hintze, Partner at Hintze Law & UW Privacy Law instructor – Photo courtesy of FPF

“Online security is a huge part of that.

We just don’t seem to have the expertise in our group to truly be sure we are doing all we can. Our current response is to stop until we do. That will really just stop some LGBT people from getting the help they need.”

The SGN spoke with a privacy and data security legal expert to find out what can be done to discourage “bombing” or “hacking” of virtual meetings. “Unfortunately, in the world we live in, there are a lot of rotten people out there who – for whatever reason – feel the need to engage in this behavior,” said Mike Hintze, an instructor of privacy law at the University of Washington Law School and a partner at Hintze Law, a privacy and data security boutique law firm in Seattle. “It could, for sure, [be illegal] depending on the circumstances.”

Hintze outlined three ways that the behavior may be unlawful. First, there are

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me know that what we value most is community and the ability to create it where we can; just like we have always done.”

The “Together for Pride” weekend included tributes to Seattle Gay News publisher George Bakan, who passed away last month at the offices of the weekly paper he shepherded since 1983. In addition to a video tribute, he had additional memorial mentions about him and his LGBT activism during the Sunday programing. Marx said that SOAP has “additional things planned for this year” to honor him.

SOAP plans to incorporate more virtual events from “here on out” into their programming to increase “accessibility” and to provide a more “well-rounded experience for our LGBTQIA+ community.”

However, Marx hopes for a return to an inperson Pride event next year.

“I cannot wait for the 2021 Seattle Pride in the Park and Seattle Pride Parade,” she said. “We will have all been apart – in varying degrees – for over 15 months by the time those events occur in June, 2021... and I think it will be powerful to see the resiliency of the LGBTQIA+ community live and in full color.”

PrideFest announced on it’s website, www.PrideFest.org, that it is working on a plan with the City of Seattle to host an inperson event later this summer, but has not given any formal details about the location or scope of the event. Meanwhile, SOAP has made many of its Pride content available on its website, www.SeattlePride.org.

Tribute to George Bakan – Image courtesy of Seattle PrideFest

both federal and Washington state laws that prohibit unauthorized hacking of a computer or online system. “There is a federal law and a number of states have equivalents called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.” he said. “It is basically a law that is designed to prevent hacking – computer trespass. It prohibits a person from gaining unauthorized access to a computer or online system. The factual question comes down to – Is it unauthorized? That is not as straightforward as it might sound.

“For example... if someone had posted the information about the call publicly and someone – using Google search – happened to find it – even if they weren’t the intended audience for the call – that would probably not rise to the level of being unauthorized because there really was no serious effort made to prevent people from joining. If someone had the invitation forwarded to them by someone who had been invited, that probably also wouldn’t rise to that level.

“If they broke into it through true hacking, they broke into a system and got the information – cracked the password somehow – got into it through that kind of method; it probably would raise to the level of being unauthorized. That could be a violation of that federal law.”

Second, recording a virtual meeting may run afoul of the law. “Another area where it could be an illegal context would be if they got in and they recorded it,” said Hintze.

“Many states have requirements that all participants in a conversation have to agree to a recording for it to be recorded. If someone came in that was unauthorized and recorded the call in some way, that could potentially be a violation of the wiretapping law.”

A third way a “bombing’ or “hacking” might be illegal was if it violated state law prohibiting harassment and cyberbullying.

“The laws around cyber harassment and cyberbullying – those are state by state,” said Hintze. “There are not strong federal

laws in that area – but there are certainly laws, particularly to protect children.

Depending on the nature of the ‘bombing’ and the things that are said – how targeted it is and whether they’re the kind of threats that someone could be made good on – it certainly could violate those laws.”

Hintze offered some advice for conducting virtual meetings and responding to incidents:

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• Make the invitation very clear about who is invited and who is not because that can help bolster the argument that someone was not invited and was unauthorized under the Computer Abuse Fraud and Abuse Act. • Reporting it to law enforcement and the state Attorney General’s Office is an important step to help to build a case, particularly for repeat offenders.

• Utilize privacy settings to configure the meeting and manage the meeting proactively to strengthen the legal claim that someone does engage in unlawful activity.

• Keep records of “hacking” when it happens. Document their names, phone numbers and statements.

Hintze advised that call moderators be “diligent” about taking the necessary steps but added that all too often perpetrators go free. “They may very likely be anonymous and try to maintain their anonymity,” he said. “So, reporting it to law enforcement – getting law enforcement or someone else to figure out who was actually doing this and tracking that down; that may be hard or impossible in some cases.”

Sterling noted that other virtual meeting platforms, such as Big Blue Button, has many safety features built-in and can be run in a browser – eliminating the need to download software or apps. Additional Zoom resources can be found online at: support.zoom.us

Seattle City Council passes progressive revenue bill

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Seattle City Council approved Teresa Mosqueda’s JumpStart tax bill on July 6. The proposal is expected to bring in an additional $214 million each year.

“Seattle residents have made it clear – now is not the time for government austerity or divisiveness,” Mosqueda said in a statement following the council’s vote.

“Investing in communities of color, small businesses, and community health leads to a more robust and resilient economy. We are in the midst of a health and economic crisis that even a strong economy like Seattle may not be able to recover from quickly.”

“Thank you to the large coalition of

community organizations who supported this plan – investing in Seattle is investing in our economy and our future,” Mosqueda added.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who publicly opposed the measure, can now choose to sign the legislation, let it become law without her signature, or veto it. The bill passed by 7 votes to 2 – with only Debra Juarez and Alex Pedersen opposed – which makes a veto-proof majority, so barring any last-minute flips by councilmembers, any veto by the mayor would be an empty gesture.

According to the bill, beginning on January 1, 2021, Seattle companies with payrolls $7 million and up will be taxed on pay to employees making more than $150,000 per year.

The tax rate is tiered by payroll levels and business revenue, ranging from 0.7% to 2.4% for the highest pay grade in the richest business.

Councilmembers Tammy Morales and Kshama Sawant had proposed an even more stringent tax that would have raised more than twice the revenue of Mosqueda’s plan, but they supported Mosqueda once it became clear that their proposal lacked the votes to pass.

In a press release after the vote, Sawant credited passage of the bill to public demands for progressive taxation.

“Today’s vote to pass an Amazon Tax in Seattle is a historic victory for working people. This victory was hard fought and it was hard won,” she said.

AHF: Stop the global AIDS drug stockouts!

WASHINGTON (July 6, 2020) – The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today called on governments, global health organizations, and pharmaceutical companies the world over to work together to swiftly overcome barriers and eliminate stockouts of lifesaving AIDS medicines, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has blamed on the global coronavirus pandemic. The WHO reports AIDS drug stockouts in two dozen countries, with an additional 73 countries warning they are or may be at risk of stocks running out.

According to POLITICO Pro (Carmen Paun, 7/6/20), the AIDS drug shortfall “… threatens the access to medicines for some 8.3 million people who were benefiting from the therapies in 2019, or about onethird of all people taking HIV drugs globally, the WHO said.”

“Nearly 24 million people living with HIV or AIDS today are on treatment – a remarkable accomplishment. It is a bitter irony that one pandemic is now wreaking deadly havoc with the steady progress we have made on the other,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AHF. “First and fore-

Image courtesy of AHF

most, the world must now work together to do everything we can to quickly eradicate these stockouts of lifesaving AIDS medicines and keep millions of people alive.”

In laying blame for the drug shortfall on the coronavirus pandemic, POLITICO Pro noted, “A slowdown of freight transport and the shutting of international borders affected the sourcing of raw materials for medicines,

as well as the procurement and distribution of finished products, UNAIDS said in a separate report published Monday.”

The AHF says the current global AIDS drug shortages blamed on COVID-19 also confirm the need for vastly improved global public health planning, coordination, and strategic stockpiling.

“Our response to global public health

“The ONLY reason this passed is because of the strength of our movement.

A movement that wouldn’t give up, and that faced down a seemingly endless series of obstacles: from the shameful attempts of corporate Democrats in the State Legislature to pass a ban on municipal big business taxes, to unfounded delays in the City Council, to a pandemic and lockdown [that] prevented signature gathering, to relentless attacks in the corporate media in Seattle and nationally.”

“We are winning because of the determination of workers and socialists to smash all obstacles and find a path to victory,” she said.

threats has repeatedly been tested and we continue to fail,” added Weinstein. “We saw this with Ebola in West Africa in 2014–2015, where we lacked even a supply of basic PPEs – masks, gowns, booties – stockpiled in an accessible continental site. We certainly see it with the free-forall for PPEs, medicines, and leadership on COVID-19 in the US and abroad. For the good of our health, we need to really get on it and step up our game globally.”

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/ or services to over 1.4 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/the Caribbean, the Asia/ Pacific region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about the AHF, visit www.aidshealth.org or www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow it on Twitter and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

Courtesy of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Only 3% of sexually active Transgender people use PrEP LOS ANGELES (July 9, 2020) – A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that only 3% of transgender adults in the US who are at high risk for HIV infection use Truvada as preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). High risk for HIV transmission was defined in the study as those not living with HIV who had had sex with cisgender men and/or transgender women within five years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regards PrEP as a highly effective tool to prevent the transmission of HIV. Previous research has shown that transgender people, and particularly transgender women, are disproportionately impacted by HIV. The current study found that 23% of transgender people who are at high risk for HIV infection have never been tested for HIV, while 46% are tested for HIV annually, as recommended by the CDC. Transgender people of color and those who searched online for LGBT health resources were more likely than other transgender people to be tested regularly as recommended by the CDC. Slightly less than half (48%) of sexually active transgender people are familiar with PrEP, and 72% of them have a favorable attitude toward it. More sexually active trans men (58%) than trans women (35%) were familiar with PrEP.

“That awareness of PrEP was so low among sexually active trans women is concerning given the high rates of HIV among trans women,” said the study’s principal investigator Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute. “It is also troubling that a significant percentage of sexually active transgender people are not being tested or taking advantage of advancements that prevent the spread of HIV.” “People who experienced affirmation of their gender identity were more likely to use PrEP than those who didn’t experience gender identity affirmation. This suggests that gender affirmation is an important factor in promoting HIV prevention and treatment for transgender people,” said Jae Sevelius, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. “Our findings reinforce the need for gender-affirming PrEP services for transgender people at risk of HIV.”

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KEY FINDINGS PrEP • Only 3% of transgender people who are at high risk of HIV infection currently take PrEP; slightly more trans women (3.2%) than trans men (2.3%) take PrEP, but the difference was not statistically significant.

• People who regularly tested for HIV

and people who experienced affirmation of their gender identity were more likely to use PrEP. • Significantly more sexually active trans men (58%) than trans women (35%) were familiar with PrEP. • Among trans people familiar with PrEP, 72% regarded it favorably.

• Those who were not tested for HIV at least once a year were less likely to have favorable attitudes toward PrEP. HIV testing • Nearly half (46%) of transgender people who are at high risk of HIV transmission were tested for HIV at least annually, but 23% had never been tested for HIV. • Transgender people of color were eight times more likely than white transgender people to be tested at least once per year.

• People who searched online for LGBT health information were more likely to meet CDC recommendations for annual HIV testing.

About the study The report, “HIV Testing and PrEP Use in a National Probability Sample of Sexually Active Transgender People in the United States” appears in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and is co-authored by Jae M. Sevelius, PhD, Associate Professor with the Center

for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco; Tonia Poteat, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill; Winston E. Luhur, B.S., Research Assistant at the Williams Institute; Sari L. Reisner, ScD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; and Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute.

Research reported in this report is part of the US Transgender Population Health Survey (TransPop). TransPop is funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD grant R01HD090468) and through Supplement to grant R01HD078526 from the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and the Office of Research on Women’s Health. The TransPop investigators are Ilan H. Meyer, PhD (PI), Walter O. Bockting, PhD, Jody L. Herman, PhD, and Sari L. Reisner, ScD (coinvestigators, listed alphabetically).

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a think tank on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy, is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research with real-world relevance.

Courtesy of the Williams Institute

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8th Circuit revives lawsuit by health care sales specialist denied job because he is Gay (July 6, 2020) – Today, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit reversed a lower court decision and revived a lawsuit by Mark Horton, a health care sales specialist whose job offer at St. Louis–based Midwest Geriatric Management (MGM) was withdrawn when the employer learned Horton is gay. The appeal was filed by Lambda Legal and co-counsel Mathis, Marifian & Richter, Ltd. Today’s ruling follows the US Supreme Court’s decision three weeks ago in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Lambda Legal argued Mark Horton’s case to the 8th Circuit on April 17, 2019, the day before the Supreme Court held its conference in which it decided to grant review in the Bostock case. Mr. Horton’s appeal was immediately put on hold awaiting the decision by the Supreme Court.

“When the Supreme Court settled at long last the issue of whether discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status violates Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination because of sex, it was only a matter of time before the 8th Circuit would apply that new precedent to Mark’s case,” said Greg Nevins, senior counsel and employment project director at Lambda Legal. “Mark was clearly qualified, and in fact it was all systems go until management at MGM learned that Mark is gay. As the Supreme Court made clear: when you harass or fire employees or reject applicants because they are LGBTQ, you violate federal law.”

“The 8th Circuit sees what happened to me as the same as was happened to Mr. Bostock and the other brave plaintiffs who took our battle all the way to the Supreme Court,” Horton said. “Midwest Geriatric Management basically ended my career.

I left my previous job to accept what appeared to be a great offer at MGM, a position that I had been recruited for. When MGM rescinded the offer, suddenly I was jobless. Being able to be open and bring my whole self to my work has been an asset, and I have the track record to prove it.”

In February 2016, Horton, then vice president for sales and marketing for Celtic Healthcare, was approached by an execu-

LAMBDA LEGAL continued from cover

this insurance if they give notice of their objection, so their employees can receive that insurance through a separate process.

The Trump administration changed those rules, allowing essentially any employer to deny the insurance based on religious or personal moral objections of any sort and without giving notice. Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued to protect the workers entitled to this insurance, arguing that the Trump administration rules are inconsistent with the ACA and were adopted through an improper process. A self-insured religious order that provides social services entered the litigation to help defend the Trump administration rule.

The ruling came in the two cases, Trump v. Pennsylvania and Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v.

Pennsylvania, which had been combined in the Supreme Court. Lambda Legal senior counsel and law and policy director Jennifer C. Pizer issued the following statement: “It is hard to overstate the harm the Supreme Court has visited today both upon women and other vulnerable populations, and upon the rule of law and fundamental fairness. It has endorsed the Trump administration’s high-handed flouting of both the will of Congress and our rules of administrative procedure. But religious freedom

Mark Horton – Photo courtesy of Lambda Legal

tive search firm hired by Midwest Geriatric Management, a Celtic Healthcare competitor, to fill a similar position at MGM. While Horton was not actively looking to leave Celtic at that time, MGM’s representative persuaded him that it would be worth his while, so Horton decided to apply. After an extensive assessment and interview process, in mid-April, 2016, Horton received a written job offer from MGM’s owners, Judah and Faigie (Faye) Bienstock. Horton accepted the offer on May 4, and received an enthusiastic reply email from Faye Bienstock welcoming Horton to MGM. Based upon both the written offer and the enthusiastic reply, Horton notified Celtic Healthcare that he would be leaving.

In the course of finalizing his start date and tracking the last remaining academic records for MGM’s background check, Horton had several communications with Faye Bienstock, none of which indicated any

issue. Then, on May 17, in an email updating Bienstock on the status of the academic records search, Horton revealed he was in a same-sex relationship when he wrote: “My partner has been on me about [my MBA] since he completed his PhD a while back.”

Five days later, Bienstock wrote Horton withdrawing the offer of employment.

Mark S. Schuver and Natalie T. Lorenz of Mathis, Marifian & Richter, Ltd., represented Horton in the lawsuit filed last August, 2017, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The lawsuit was dismissed, and Lambda Legal joined the case in its appeal to the 8th Circuit.

Gregory R. Nevins, Omar GonzalezPagan, and Sharon M. McGowan are the attorneys for Lambda Legal in this matter. They are joined by co-counsel Mark S. Schuver and Natalie T. Lorenz, of Belleville, IL–based Mathis, Marifian & Richter, Ltd. The case is Horton v. Midwest Geriat-

ric Management. Read the ruling at www. lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/horton_mo_20200706_decision.

Read about the case at www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/horton-v-midwestgeriatric-management.

More information about Lambda Legal’s work on employment protections is available at www.lambdalegal.org/issues/ employment-and-rights-in-the-workplace.

has never been a license to deny the rights of others and give the back of one’s hand to the rule-making process. In effect, the Court today has given the administration a green light to ignore Congress and the rights of workers to receive promised benefits, all in the name of religious freedom. That was not and cannot be what the framers intended.

“Today’s ruling goes beyond simply allowing certain employers to cite religion- or personal morality–based reasons for denying their employees birth control coverage in the employee health care plans required by the ACA. Instead, it permits essentially all employers – both religious and secular – to effectively block their employees from securing that essential health benefit through another route. We call upon Congress to fix this travesty, which today’s decision acknowledges Congress can do.”

As Justice Ginsburg noted in her powerful dissent, as joined by Justice Sotomayor, “In accommodating claims of religious freedom, this Court has taken a balanced approach, one that does not allow the religious beliefs of some to overwhelm the rights and interests of others who do not share those beliefs. Today, for the first time, the Court casts totally aside countervailing rights and interests in its zeal to secure religious rights to the nth degree.

“Destructive of the Women’s Health Amendment, this Court leaves women workers to fend for themselves, to seek contraceptive coverage from sources other than

their employer’s insurer, and, absent another available source of funding, to pay for contraceptive services out of their own pockets. … The Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause, all agree, does not call for that imbalanced result. Nor does the Religious Freedom Restoration Act … condone harm to third parties occasioned by entire disregard of their needs.

I therefore dissent from the Court’s judgment, under which … between 70,500 and 126,400 women would immediately lose access to nocost contraceptive services.”

Pizer explained further: “While the implications for women’s health of today’s ruling are dire, so too are the implications for LGBTQ people, everyone living with HIV, and many more. Even before our nation came to be gripped by the worst public health pandemic in a century, LGBTQ people and their families endured widespread abuse and discrimination in the health care context, as in other contexts, often with religious motives, as many studies and surveys have documented, including Lambda Legal’s own ‘When Health Care Isn’t Caring’ report.

“Today, with responses to the COVID19 crisis polarized politically, together with the growing number of major medical centers with explicit religious affiliations due to frequent hospital mergers, the potential of today’s catering to religious interests to harm LGBTQ people and many others is alarming. In this country, freedom of religion has never meant allowing religious

objectors to deny the rights or freedoms of others. Again, we call on Congress immediately to override what the Trump administration has done, which today’s Court majority acknowledges Congress can do.”

Lambda Legal’s attorneys in Trump v.

Pennsylvania and Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania are Jennifer Pizer, Camilla Taylor, Jamie Gliksberg, and Omar Gonzalez-Pagan.

Read our amicus brief in the case at www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/ little_us_20200506_amicus-brief.

Read Lambda Legal’s report, “When Health Care Isn’t Caring,” at www.lambdalegal.org/sites/default/files/publications/ downloads/whcic-report_when-healthcare-isnt-caring_1.pdf.

Read about Lambda Legal’s work fighting religious exemptions at www.lambdalegal.org/blog/topic/religious-exemptions.

Read about Lambda Legal’s work in the prior religious challenge to this health benefit, Zubik v. Burwell, at www.lambdalegal. org/in-court/cases/zubik-v-burwell.

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Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education, and policy work. More at www.lambdalegal.org.

Courtesy of Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education, and policy work. More at www.lambdalegal.org.

Courtesy of Lambda Legal

NCLR responds to Supreme Court decisions on religious employers and contraception under the Affordable Care Act

Photo courtesy of NCLR

WASHINGTON, DC (July 8, 2020) – The Supreme Court issued two important decisions today that significantly change the relationship between freedom of religion and anti-discrimination protections.

In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v.

Morrissey-Berru, the Court ruled 7 to 2, in an opinion authored by Justice Alito, in favor of two religious schools [that] argued that they had a constitutionally protected right to fire teachers whose duties included teaching religion, even if the schools’ actions would otherwise violate federal anti-discrimination laws prohibiting discrimination based on age or disability. The Court held that religious employers may avoid anti-discrimination laws that protect employees if the employer believes that particular employees play an “important” religious role. Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented.

“While the immediate impact of the Court’s ruling is limited to teachers who were required to teach religion and lead prayers as part of their duties, the Court’s

analysis is disturbingly broad and appears to open the door to sweeping new exemptions to anti-discrimination laws,” said Shannon Minter, the NCLR legal director. “Depending on how the Court applies this decision in future cases, it may enable religious employers to evade civil rights laws simply by claiming that virtually any employee is somehow fulfilling an important religious function. Protecting religious liberty is important, but this decision goes too far and leaves far too many employees vulnerable to being fired or abused for reasons that have nothing to do with religious beliefs. The ruling is particularly harmful for LGBT employees who already face a pervasive threat of being singled out for discriminatory treatment by religious schools and other religious employers.

“Coming so soon on the heels of the Court’s recent decision in Bostock, which held that LGBT workers are protected under Title VII, today’s decision effectively takes away with one hand what it gave with the other for the many LGBT people who

work for religious employers. For these LGBT workers, the victory in Bostock may end up meaning very little if a religious employer can fire them at will merely by invoking today’s decision.”

In Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, the Court, in a 7-to-2 opinion authored by Justice Thomas, upheld the Trump administration’s promulgation of a rule creating extremely broad exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that all health insurance plans must provide contraceptive coverage to female employees. Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissented.

“The Court today gave a green light to the Trump administration’s rules that grant sweeping religious and moral exemptions to employers who want to deny their employees coverage for birth control, a benefit otherwise guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act,” said Julianna S. Gonen, the NCLR federal policy director. “While prior regulations and court decisions had limited such exemptions to religious entities or compa-

nies controlled by a small group of people with shared religious beliefs, today’s decision allows any employer to cite religious or moral objections and withhold coverage for essential preventive services. Women should not have their health care decisions dictated by the beliefs of their bosses. We are gravely troubled that the Court has once again allowed religious beliefs to trump access to reproductive health care.”

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national legal organization committed to advancing the human and civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Since its founding, the NCLR has maintained a longstanding commitment to racial and economic justice and the LGBTQ community’s most vulnerable. More at www.nclrights.org.

Courtesy of the NCLR

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s response to Supreme Court’s dangerous decision to attack birth control access WASHINGTON, DC (July 8, 2020) – The Supreme Court decided to allow the Trump administration to implement a rule that virtually allows any employer or university to declare itself exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate, in Trump v. Pennsylvania.

In response, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s political director Lillian Lanier released the following statement: “The Supreme Court’s decision reveals that anti-choice extremists will stop at nothing to control reproduction and gut access to essential health care services, like birth control. Reproductive freedom in our country is in direct threat. Allowing the Trump administration to let employers deny care based on their religious beliefs will disproportionately impact those who already struggle with birth control access, includ-

ing BIPOC, students, and LGTBQ+ communities. We are more determined than ever to make sure that Trump is a one-term president and that we expand our reproductive freedom majority in November.”

The threat to reproductive freedom presented by [today’s decision on two] Supreme Court cases is part of a coordinated effort by the anti-choice movement to attack our fundamental rights to gain power and control. Leading voices in the anti-choice movement oppose birth control and repeatedly pushed disinformation about it to restrict access to it, even though the public overwhelmingly supports access to contraception. Most voters (75%) consider birth control part of preventive care for women, and 77% of women voters want to keep the Affordable Care Act (ACA) birth control benefit.

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July 10, 2020

As the Trump administration and antichoice politicians across the country target reproductive rights in their quest to maintain white patriarchy and control women, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is expanding upon our reproductive freedom majority in the state legislature for the 2020 election.

Our state reflects and will continue to reflect the 77% of Washington voters who support Roe v. Wade. To win big in the upcoming election, we are strategically mobilizing voters in key districts where we can unseat anti-choice incumbents and flip critical seats.

The Reproductive Parity Act passed in Washington in 2018 ensures that patients statewide can get any form of contraception without cost-sharing under any Washington health plan. This ruling directly threatens this historic legislation.

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the leading grassroots pro-choice advocacy organization in Washington State, and we believe that every woman should be able to make personal decisions about the full range of reproductive health options.

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington works to protect every woman’s right to access the full range of reproductive health options, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is the state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Courtesy of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington

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Sen. Murray responds to Supreme Court ruling undermining access to birth control WASHINGTON, DC (July 8, 2020) – Today, US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Pennsylvania (Little Sisters of the Poor), which was announced this morning. The

court ruled that employers can deny birth control coverage to employees, upholding rules from President Trump and Vice President Pence.

“I’m incredibly disappointed by the Court’s decision that leaves many who can’t afford birth control on their own, but I’m as determined as ever to keep up the fight

for reproductive rights. Over a decade ago, Congress passed a law to make sure insurance would cover care like birth control, and in light of this decision, it’s important we take action once again to make good on that promise. Essential health care shouldn’t be a luxury for people who can afford it, and no one should have to worry about their health

care decisions being overruled by their employer, their school, or President Trump and Vice President Pence.”

Sen. Murray and several of her Democratic colleagues also filed an amicus brief in Trump v. Pennsylvania.

Courtesy of Sen. Patty Murray

HRC praises Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force platform recommendations WASHINGTON, DC (July 8, 2020) – Today, the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force submitted their platform recommendations to the DNC Platform Committee on issues related to climate change, criminal justice reform, the economy, education, health care, and immigration. In response, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Alphonso David issued the following statement: “The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force recommendations prove this upcoming platform will be among the most, if not the most, pro-equality platform from any party in our history.

“These recommendations also clearly contrast with the virulently anti-LGBTQ

Republican platform – a poorly considered copy-and-paste job they didn’t even bother to update for our day and age. Trump, Pence, and their allies have made no secret of their years-long campaign to dehumanize LGBTQ people and strip away our rights.

“The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force recommendations would help us turn the page and build a better, stronger future for all LGBTQ people.”

Background The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force recommendations include the following: • Condemnation and a commitment to reverse the Trump administration’s move

to revise the regulation implementing [Section] 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to undermine nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ patients.

• Clarifying that federal health plans are required to provide coverage for HIV/AIDS treatment and HIV prevention medications like PrEP and PEP, gender-confirmation surgery, and hormone therapy.

• Commitment to enacting strong protections for LGBTQ people in housing and combatting homelessness which disproportionately impacts LGBTQ people • Reinstatement of Title IX guidance regarding schools’ obligations to transgender students

• Restoration of funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides critical health care services for thousands of LGBTQ people across the country • Mandate that the Inspectors General (OIG) conduct an investigation into immigration enforcement spending, detention determinations, detention conditions, and practices, including whether there are policies that discriminate against black and brown immigrants and other instances of racial, ethnic, religious, and LGBTQ+ bias Courtesy of the HRC

PRIDE

More than 50,000 viewers tune in for San Francisco Pride’s official Pride 50 online celebration SAN FRANCISCO (July 6, 2020) – As Pride month comes to a close, the board of directors of San Francisco Pride shared today that more than 50,000 viewers tuned in for the official Pride 50 online celebration [on] June 27–28, 2020. With concurrent live streams across two virtual stages, Pride 50 offered 26 hours of programming, which captivated viewers locally in the San Francisco Bay Area and reached viewers around the world, based on initial data.

“We are thrilled that our online celebration was a success,” said Fred Lopez, executive director of San Francisco Pride. “Just about two months ago, we were unsure what we would be able to present to our communities to commemorate 50 years of Pride.

While this year was not at all what any of us expected, the needs for connection and visibility remained at the forefront of our planning process, and we delivered on hours of original programming. Now, we turn our attention to how we can best present a 2021 Pride that reflects our unique circumstances.”

“Pride 50 was truly a weekend dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices, from our virtual Pride content to all of the many opportunities community members took to make their voice heard in the street,” said Carolyn Wysinger, San Francisco Pride board president. “While we knew it was important for us to encourage individuals to be safe, we are happy that everyone was able to choose how they celebrated those voices. I am personally proud of the local Black LGBTQ+ artists that were able to grace our mainstage in ways some hadn’t been able to before.”

Set in front of a virtual backdrop of San Francisco City Hall, iconic San Francisco drag queens and activists Honey Mahogany, Per Sia, Sister Roma, and Yves Saint Croissant hosted the weekend-long tribute to LGBTQ+ luminaries and queer solidarity. The event ampli-

Image courtesy of SF Pride

fied Black voices with headliners Big Freedia and Thelma Houston, paid homage to the history of San Francisco Pride, and offered words of inspiration and hope for the future. Viewers were introduced to the community grand marshals and nonorees of 2020, and observed the contributions of former San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt. Featured programming also included “Decades of Drag,” where legendary drag icons Heklina, Honey Mahogany, Landa Lakes, Madd Dogg 20/20, Peaches Christ, and Sister Roma reflected on decades of activism, struggles, and victories; and a conversation between Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia

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Garza and Carolyn Wysinger. For additional information about Pride 50 entertainers and special guests, visit SFPride.org.

A livestream of community-programmed offerings celebrated the diversity of LGBTQ+ culture in San Francisco and beyond. The Soul of Pride Urban Global Village stage featured, among others, D’Wayne Patrice Wiggins, founding member of Tony! Toni! Toné!; and Yo-Yo, outspoken hip-hop artist, actress, and entrepreneur. The Women’s Stage showcased a selection of the Bay Area’s best, such as dance-club DJ, radio mixtress, and club promoter Page Hodel, as well as Christie

James, Olga T, Alex D, and Rockaway. And the Don Julio Latin Stage – presented by Club Papi, Gay Club TV, and Media Concepts PR – featured performances by the legendary Ana Barbara, Natalia Jimenez, Daniel Reyes, Los Horoscopos De Durango, and more.

The livestreamed program will be uploaded to the online channels of San Francisco Pride by the end of the month, and will be available for viewing into the future.

Earlier on Sunday, June 28 – the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall uprising that street

July 10, 2020

Seattle Gay News 15

see SF PRIDE page 16

PRIDE

More than 57 million people joined world-first Global Pride event for LGBTQIA+ community

Image courtesy of Global Pride

(July 6, 2020) – Global Pride, the 27-hour virtual Pride that took place on June 27, reached a worldwide audience of 57,050,978 viewers in at least 163 countries, organizers have confirmed.

Broadcast on the YouTube channels of Todrick Hall and iHeart Radio, and on Facebook and Revry, Global Pride featured content from more than 500 Pride and LGBTQIA+ community organizations from 91 countries. Content included music and drag performances, speeches and messages from activists, and archive footage from Pride events around the world.

Major artists including Laverne Cox, Elton John, Denise Ho, Adam Lambert, Olivia Newton John, Pussy Riot, Kesha, and Pabllo Vittar appeared alongside world leaders, including former US Vice President Joe Biden; Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau, Xavier Bettel, Erna Solberg, and Leo Varadkar; HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark; and President of Iceland Guðni Th. Jóhannesson.

The event gave focus to the Black Lives Matter movement in acknowledgement of the international response to the deaths of George Floyd, Tony McCabe, and others that has prompted a historic demand for racial justice. Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza spoke during the Global Pride “main stage” segments.

Natalie Thompson, co-chair of Global Pride and from Capital Pride in Washington, DC said, “As a Black woman in the LGBTQIA+ community, it was so important to confront the systemic racism and violence facing my Black brothers, sisters,

and nonbinary siblings, in the larger culture and within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Global Pride’s tens of millions of viewers learned, cried, and surely were moved to action to further confront hate and prejudice and fight for equality. This was a historic success in every way, and I was proud and humbled to work beside so many diverse colleagues from around the world and provide the community with the kind of hope and inspiration the Pride movement has for decades. The work continues and we will never be silenced.”

Viewers were encouraged to donate to a Pride COVID-19 Relief Fund managed by international Pride organizations, InterPride, and the European Pride Organisers Association. A total of almost $53,000 was raised during the event, exceeding the organizer’s target of $50,000. Pride and LGBTQIA+ organizations will be able to apply to this fund for financial assistance.

Kristine Garina, co-chair of Global Pride and from Baltic Pride in Latvia, said, “We know that LGBTQIA+ people have been affected financially by COVID-19, and so fundraising was always going to be a challenge. But we are enormously grateful to everyone who donated, and we’d urge everyone who enjoyed Global Pride to donate anything they can. All funds will be directed to Pride organizations in need. There are a number of ways to donate, via our website at www.globalpride2020.org/donate.”

A team of more than 100 volunteers from across the world worked on the Global Pride project, most from Pride organizations affected by COVID-19. These

included video editors, producers, and specialists in fundraising, communications, and nonprofit leadership.

“When we began this project we were well aware we were entering uncharted territory and had a near-unbelievable vision, but we needed to do something at a time when we had an international platform,” said Natalie Thompson. “Pride is not simply about parties or parades; our work, from marches to programming to amplifying diverse voices in our community all year long, helps push the needle towards true equality and freedom for LGBTQIA+ people worldwide. Global Pride 2020 gave us an opportunity to allow Prides worldwide tell their own stories to the largest audience in history that was accessible in new ways. Together, afterward, it felt like we had accomplished a queer miracle, but given the feedback and response, it was worth every moment of work.”

Businesses are increasingly part of the fight for equality for LGBTI people around the world. Global Pride was possible because of the support of Queerty, Gilead, DIVA Media Group, Time Out Group, TripAdvisor, Erika Lust, GIPHY, and 32 other partners.

Organizers are now evaluating the project and will produce a report in due course.

A decision on future Global Pride events has not yet been made.

SF PRIDE

PRIDE 50 HONOREES Community Grand Marshals • GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick (Members’ Choice) • Documentary filmmaker StormMiguel Florez • Photographer and founder and project director of the Bay Area Lesbian Archives Lenn Keller (Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal) • LGBT Asylum Project (Public Choice, Organization) • Spahr Center Founder Rev. Dr. Jane Spahr (Public Choice) • CEO of San Francisco Community Health Center Lance Toma

• Author Gabby Rivera (José Julio Sarria History Maker Award) • San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band Artistic Director of the Marching & Pep Bands Mike Wong (Audrey Joseph LGBTQ Entertainment Award)

continued from page 15 activist Marsha P. Johnson is credited with starting – crowds maintaining strict social distances gathered next to the African American Art & Culture Complex on Fulton Street in the Western Addition, where “BLACK LIVES MATTER” had been applied to the asphalt in giant yellow type only days before.

Emceed by SF Pride’s own Carolyn Wysinger, the event brought Pride back to its roots as a movement built by Black, transgender individuals. Several hundred people heard from advocates and community leaders, including Janetta Johnson (executive director of the TGI Justice Project) and Janelle Luster (The Transgender District).

16 Seattle Gay News

Awardees • San Francisco AIDS Foundation Founder Cleve Jones (Gilbert Baker Pride Founder’s Award)

July 10, 2020

Notes • The full list of all speakers and artists who appeared at Global Pride can be found at www.globalpride2020.org. All prior press releases can be found at www.global-

SPONSORS OF SAN FRANCISCO PRIDE 2020 • Principal Sponsor: Kaiser Permanente • Premiere Sponsors: Bud Light Seltzer, Facebook, Genentech, Gilead, KPIX CBS Bay Area, and KBCW 44 Cable 12 • Visionary Sponsors: Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Parc55 San Francisco • Supporting Sponsors: The Commonwealth Club, Frameline, the GLBT Historical Society For a complete list of San Francisco Pride sponsors, visit sfpride.org/sponsor/.

pride2020.org/news.

• All speakers and artists donated their appearance, and none were paid by Global Pride 2020 or the partner organizations.

• The live streams of the Global Pride content were accessed a total of 28,525,489 times on June 27. As many of these streams will have been viewed by more than one person, the figure has been doubled, but this is a conservative estimate, as in some cases the stream was being viewed by many people in one location.

• 100% of funds raised by Global Pride 2020 will be distributed to Pride organizations in financial need.

• Global Pride 2020 is organized by European Pride Organisers Association, InterPride, Fierte Canada Pride, US Association of Prides, OLA Orgullo Latinoamerica, CSD Deutschland, Svenska Pride, UK Pride Organisers Network, and representatives of Prides in regions where no network yet exists. The Global Pride team includes representatives of Prides in Canada, the USA, Mexico, the UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Latvia, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Greece, South Africa, and Australia.

• A team of more than 100 volunteers from across the world gave up their time to organize and deliver Global Pride. All are experienced Pride organizers.

• A daily updated list of cancelled and postponed Pride events can be viewed at www.epoa.eu/coronavirus.

• Courtesy of Target Cue The San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to produce the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The mission of the organization is to educate the world on LGBTQ issues, as well as commemorate the heritage, celebrate the culture, and liberate the people of all LGBTQ communities.

A world leader in the Pride movement, San Francisco Pride is also a grant-giving organization through its Community Partners Program. Since 1997, San Francisco Pride has granted over $3 million dollars in proceeds to local nonprofit LGBTQIA organizations and organizations working on issues related to HIV/AIDS, cancer, homelessness, housing rights, and animal welfare.

Courtesy of San Francisco Pride

Celebrating 46 Years!

BOOKS

Larissa Lai wins the 2020 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize Lambda Literary is pleased to announce that Larissa Lai has been named the winner of the 2020 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.

The prize, which is dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins, honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise

to continue publishing high quality work for years to come. Introduced in 2007, this award is made possible by the James Duggins, PhD Fund for Outstanding Mid-Career LGBTQ Novelists, a fund of the Horizons Foundation, and includes a cash prize of $5,000.

Judges Shani Mootoo and Brian Leung were unanimous in choosing Lai from a group of incredibly talented novelists who

submitted their work.

From the judges: “Larissa Lai is way overdue for a prize that honors her very productive career that, since 1995, has been well received for its innovativeness and importance to cultural studies internationally, especially Asian Canadian/American literature. Her novels and other works are pertinent not only to lesbians, but to the entire queer community. She

been engaged in arts activist and cultural organizing work. She has given talks and readings all over the world—from Nagoya, Japan to Wollongong, Australia to Nanjing, China, to Berlin, Germany to San Francisco, USA. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Astraea Award, she has made the Tiptree Honor Book list twice.

She has also been finalist for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Sunburst Award, the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Award (twice), the bpNichol Chapbook Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism. She was born in La Jolla, California; grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland; and spent most of her adult life in Vancouver, British Columbia. With gratitude, she currently makes her home on Treaty 7 Territory, where she holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Calgary and directs The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing.

Are there any LGBTQ writers or books that you count as formative influences to you as a writer? How did you discover them?

For me the biggie is an anthology put out by the now defunct Sister Vision Press called Piece of My Heart. Piece of my Heart is a lesbian of color anthology which was edited

by Makeda Silvera and released in 1991. For me, writing community and social/political grounding are very closely connected, and writing is important to keep social/political communities grounded. I was fortunate enough to come up and out through a very supportive community in Vancouver in the early 1990s. Shani Mootoo was a friend, mentor and an important influence, especially her books Out On Main Street and Cereus Blooms at Night. A little bit later, I met speculative fiction writer Hiromi Goto whose Chorus of Mushrooms came out a year before my When Fox Is a Thousand, and the poet and water activist Rita Wong whose first book Monkeypuzzle came out in 2000. Chrystos’s Dream On was important, as was Dionne Brand’s No Language is Neutral. Brand’s What We All Long For, though it comes a bit later, was and remains a really key book for me. Hiromi and I met Nalo Hopkinson together in the early 2000s.

Her Brown Girl in the Ring and The Salt Roads matter to me for the ways in which they bring “home” mythologies and image systems, as well as queer and racialized histories to the table. Also the little known but very brilliant jam ismail and her pun-ful chapbooks including sexions and diction air published in editions of ten or twelve and then surreptitiously photocopied and circulated among folks with an interest in gender and language have been very influential in terms of opening my ear to the Englishes of Asia and to the ways in which language is always already gendered. Persimmon Blackbridge, Lizard Jones, Susan Stewart and their collective Kiss and Tell were also formative. There was a book called Her Tongue on My Theory published in 1994 by Press Gang where many of us on the West Coast got our start. The dub poetry of Lillian Allen, as well as her committed and inspiring community work, have also been central to my world. I never met Monique Wittig, but Les Guerillères was a major influence on The Tiger Flu. Jeannette Winterson’s The Passion was also formative.

My influences have been my friends – some of them a bit older and supportive in a “big sister” kind of way, some of them the same age or younger. All have been generous. I hope the reverse is also true, and that I too have given them something of value.

In this way, influence is exchanged and community gets built.

In many ways I have been so lucky in terms of influences and community. I’ve had the benefit of supportive communities that circulated around a number of community/ arts spaces: The Vancouver Status of Women, ALOV (Asian Lesbians of Vancouver), Video In/Video Out. There were also a lot important one-off gatherings in the early 1990s: In/Visible Colours Film and Video Festival, Writing Thru Race, The Appropriate Voice, First Ladies, Race to the Screen. I met Shani at one of these festivals. Or I was at a reading or an art opening and heard her read or

July 10, 2020

Seattle Gay News 17

Larissa Lai – Photo courtesy of the author

LARISSA LAI has authored six books, including Salt Fish Girl and The Tiger Flu. Addressing themes of futurity, ecology, memory, mythology, community, movement, race, gender and sexuality, her novels engage imaginative anti-realism while simultaneously connecting to the world as we actually inhabit it.

Since the late 1980s, she has been engaged in arts activist and cultural organizing work. She has given talks and readings all over the world – from Nagoya, Japan to Wollongong, Australia to Nanjing, China, to Berlin, Germany to San Francisco, USA. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Astraea Award, she has made the Tiptree Honor Book list twice.

She has also been finalist for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Sunburst Award, the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Award (twice), the bpNichol Chapbook Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism. She was born in La Jolla, California; grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland; and spent most of her adult life in Vancouver, British Columbia. With gratitude, she currently makes her home on Treaty 7 Territory, where she holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Calgary and directs The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing. [LINK TO INTERVIEW: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2020/05/5-questions-withjim-duggins-prize-winner-larissa-lai/]

5 Questions with Jim Duggins Prize Winner Larissa Lai [May 20, 2020]

by Brian Gentes Lambda Literary Awards Manager The Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize is dedicated to the memory of author and journalist Jim Duggins and honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come. It is made possible by the James Duggins, PhD Fund for Outstanding Mid-Career LGBTQ Novelists, a fund of the Horizons Foundation.

2020 Duggins Prize Winner Larissa Lai has authored six books, including Salt Fish Girl and The Tiger Flu. Addressing themes of futurity, ecology, memory, mythology, community, movement, race, gender and sexuality, her novels engage imaginative anti-realism while simultaneously connecting to the world as we actually inhabit it. Since the late 1980s, she has

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is also known for supporting the queer work and politics of younger writers, and of Indigenous communities. Academically and intellectually, through her writing, critical and fictional, and through her initiation of conferences and broader public conversations, Lai has been an enduring and important voice in literature regarding issues of queerness, identity in general, language and citizenship.”

see LARISSA LAI page 21

BOOKS

Xandria Phillips and Calvin Gimpelevich win the 2020 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers Lambda Literary is pleased to announce that Xandria Phillips and Calvin Gimpelevich have been named winners of the 2020 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers.

The award recognizes LGBTQ-identified writers whose work demonstrates their strong potential for promising careers.

Each award includes a cash prize of $1,000.

The judges for this year’s prize were Hannah Ensor and Theodore Kerr.

About Xandria Phillips, judge Hannah Ensor shared: “In reading Xandria Phillips’s poems and hybrid texts, we wonder what it is ‘to partake in a gender, to fashion one’s self a living process of it.’ Their work is rigorous, demanding, lush and luscious, complicated, full of aural and physical pleasures and all of the readerly implication involved in feeling those pleasures. Xandria Phillips has written some of my favorite poems; they are kaleidoscopic, shimmering, asking new things of their reader with each new return. Someday I hope we’ll all get to take Xandria’s courses – they are currently the First Wave Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaching ‘Liberation Poetics’ and ‘Queering the Word.’ Until then, we have their remarkable full-length collection, HULL, which Luiza Flynn-Goodlett described as ‘vast in both ambition and scope, striving to capture the depths and complexity of queer diasporic African identity in verse that is as fierce as it is tender and searing as it is celebratory.’ And soon, I imagine, we’ll be reading their manuscript in progress, Presenting as Blue / Aspiring to Green, which elegantly explores gender alongside color alongside performance-of-self alongside ‘a constant hunt for stimulation and texture.’”

Phillips’s collection HULL is also a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry.

On Gimpelevich, judge Theodore Kerr wrote, “In short stories like “Las Vegas,” “You Wouldn’t Have Known About Me,” and “Wolves” Calvin brings to life working class experiences across the US, through the lives of queer and queer-adjacent people, a reminder to me as a gay cis dude in my shared Brooklyn apartment, that most of us do not live in LGBTQ enclaves.

Within his work, I am drawn into Calvin’s attention to trans experiences through the lens of economics, and community, making space for the complexity between surviving and thriving to emerge. In addition to his writing, what I found inspiring about Calvin was that his community commitments and excellence extends the page. He is a founding member of the Lion’s Main Art Collective for Queer and Trans Artists, and he is the recipient of awards from Artist Trust, in addition to residencies through CODEX/Writer’s Block. His short story collection, Invasions, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.”

XANDRIA PHILLIPS is a poet and visual artist from rural Ohio. Xandria has received fellowships from Oberlin College, Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, where they are the First Wave Poetry Fellow. Their poetry has been featured in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Poets.Org, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Their first book, HULL, was published by Nightboat Books in 2019. [LINK TO INTERVIEW: https://www.lambdaliterary. org/2020/05/five-questions-xandriaphillips/]

18 Seattle Gay News

Hull – Image courtesy of Nightboat Books

Xandria Phillips – Photo courtesy of the author

5 Questions with Judith A. Markowitz Award Winner Xandria Phillips [May 6, 2020]

by Brian Gentes Lambda Literary Awards Manager The Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers recognizes LGBTQ-identified writers whose work demonstrates their strong potential for promising careers. Two Emerging LGBTQ Writer prizes are awarded annually.

2020 Markowitz Award Winner Xandria Phillips is a poet and visual artist from rural Ohio. Xandria has received fellowships from Oberlin College, Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, where they are the First Wave Poetry Fellow. Their poetry has been featured in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Poets.Org, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.

Their first book, HULL, was published by Nightboat Books in 2019 and is currently a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry.

July 10, 2020

Are there any LGBTQ writers or books that you count as formative influences to you as a writer? How did you discover them?

This is such a difficult question because I feel like I’m still discovering texts and people that feel foundational all the time.

If I had to pick a first, I would say, hands down, Audre Lorde. I ate up her biomythography, collected poems, and nonfiction as an undergrad. I particularly remember feeling, as I read Sister Outsider and I am Your Sister, that she was speaking directly to me. It was exhilarating. That must have been the first time I felt seen in a text. I discovered Audre Lorde my junior year. I was assigned Zami: A New Spelling of My Name in a class called Immigrant Narratives. Shoutout to Professor Afia Ofori-Mensa for holding space for this lifechanging book in her syllabus.

What does a writing day look like for you?

A making day has to start just right. I’m

learning now that moving my body activates my brain, so ideally, I will go for a walk or do a bit of stretching. I’m very no-frills, though for a while I hoped to write like Ntozake Shange, adorned so beautifully. I start by hand usually; I think it comes down to the physicality again. I frequently write to music or television, though these things generally fall away when editing comes. My favorite approach to writing has been to switch between it and painting for the duration of the day. When the paint is drying, I write.

When the draft is settling, I paint. The longer I paint, the more sensitive I become to fonts.

When I type up and format my writing it will be in either Perpetua or Spectral font. On a more prolific day, I might resort to huntergatherer tendencies and subsidize meals with dried fruit, chocolate-covered espresso beans, and spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Are there other LGBTQ poets working today whose work you particularly admire?

There are far too many to name, but I will take this opportunity to celebrate two people who are foundational to me. I’ll name two writers that I knew back in my Audre Lorde discovery days. I so admire Taylor Johnson and Chekwube Danladi, both of whom I met at Oberlin College. I remember witnessing Taylor’s poetry for the first time at an open mic in Afrikan Heritage House. I remember reading Chekwube’s secret poems in a secret house. Syntactically, both of these poets challenge and delight me in everything they write, which is why I can’t wait to celebrate the launch of both of their first poetry collections.

Taylor’s book Inheritance is forthcoming from Alice James Books in November. Chekwube’s book Semiotics drops in September from the University of Georgia Press.

What are you reading now? Is there any book that you’ve found cathartic or instructive during the pandemic?

I’ve just gotten into a new author who feels formative to me in a new genre. Reading Calamities by Renee Gladman has probably been the most resolutory practice I’ve had during quarantine. Each essay starts with the phrase: “I began the day…”

With kickstarting each day being one of my biggest challenges, this text has been very grounding. Gladman is able to expand so fruitfully on minutiae, and her work asks me to be more curious and attentive to my immediate surroundings. Gladman is also a writer who makes visual art. This line in Calamities very much resonated with me as an artist: “I had grown used to content being the gesture I made.”

What’s next for you?

I’ve been courting the idea of a poetry project book that explores Blackness in television through the ekphrastic mode. The manu-

Celebrating 46 Years!

CALVIN GIMPELEVICH is the author of the short story collection Invasions. His work has been recognized by Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, 4Culture, CODEX/Writer’s Block, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Lambda Literary. A founding member of the Lion’s Main Art Collective for Queer and Trans Artists, Calvin has organized readings and art shows at venues throughout the Pacific Northwest.

He is currently at work on a novel. [LINK TO INTERVIEW: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2020/05/five-questions-calvin-gimpelevich/]

Invasions – Image courtesy of Instar Books

Calvin Gimpelevich – Photo courtesy of the author

5 Questions with Judith A. Markowitz Award Winner Calvin Gimpelevich [May 6, 2020] script is tentatively titled Spectacle. I’m also working on a non-fiction hybrid text called Presenting as Blue / Aspiring to Green. The best way to describe it now would be a collection of thought experiments about color theory, gender, syntax, and television. I’m always looking for more ways to tailor teaching into my life. My present work is gratifying and unexpected. I’ve been doing a bit of freelance writing for an artificial intelligence app, and it’s been fun to use language more as script or dialogue. When left to my impulses I am painting, painting, painting.

For more information about the award and Judith A. Markowitz. [https://www.lambdaliterary.org/special-awards/] Check out the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards finalists at https://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/

by Brian Gentes Lambda Literary Awards Manager The Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers recognizes LGBTQ-identified writers whose work demonstrates their strong potential for promising careers. Two Emerging LGBTQ Writer prizes are awarded annually.

2020 Markowitz Award Winner Calvin Gimpelevich is the author of the short story collection Invasions. His work has been recognized by Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cul-

Visit us online www.sgn.org

tural Center, 4Culture, CODEX/Writer’s Block, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Lambda Literary. A founding member of the Lion’s Main Art Collective for Queer and Trans Artists, Calvin has organized readings and art shows at venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. He is currently at work on a novel.

Are there any LGBTQ writers or books that you count as formative influences to you as a writer? How did you discover them?

I picked up a Samuel R. Delaney book at the thrift store and hated it – then couldn’t

July 10, 2020

stop thinking about, went back, and read almost everything he ever wrote. Like a literary rom-com, the hatred turned into love and Delaney is now a solid influence on my work.

For a prose (as opposed to lifestyle) model, Yukio Mishima. Spring Snow is one of my favorite books. His recreation of Reni’s Saint Sebastian is also the best author photo I’ve seen.

What does a writing day look like for you?

I wake up, make coffee, and work four hours. After, I’ll go on a long walk–about two hours–to mull over concepts. Later, I usually handwrite notes from the walk and (sometimes) get back on the computer for formal writing. Evenings, I read.

Are there other LGBTQ writers working today whose work you particularly admire?

So many. I don’t even want to name them, because there’s so much good stuff coming out, I can’t list them all. Ali Smith’s How to be Both was a favorite.

What are you reading now? Is there any book that you’ve found cathartic or instructive during the pandemic?

It’s a terrible answer, but I’m enjoying Kafka right now.

What’s next for you?

I’m editing one novel and drafting another. Experimenting (slightly) with nonfiction too.

For more information about the award and Judith A. Markowitz [https:// w w w. l a mb d a l it era r y. or g /sp e ci a l awards/] Check out the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards finalists at https://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/ About Lambda Literary Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.

Our programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, LGBTQ Writers in Schools, Lambda LitFest, and the Lambda Literary Review. https://www. lambdaliterary.org Support our work: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/donate/ Courtesy of Lambda Literary

Seattle Gay News 19

Allyship - an organization of LGBTQ individuals fighting for economic and social justice. www.LGBTQAllyship. org, allyship@yahoo.com, (206) 279-8169.

American Veterans for Equal Rights - www.aver.us Another Gay Social Club! - www.meetup.com/AnotherGay-Social-Club/ Bellingham/Whatcom County - www.theslowlane. com/guide.html BiNet Seattle is a mixed gender, social group for Bisexuals, their partners & other Bi-friendly folks - www. binetseattle.org.

Bremerton/Kitsap County - www.outwestsound.org Capitol Hill Alano Club - www.chacseattle.org Cascade Rainbow Community Center (Mount Vernon) - (360) 840-8499 and on Facebook.

Central Washington University GALA Hotline: (509) 963-1994.

Channel Q 103.3 FM - LGBTQ+ Talk Radio Network News and information, pop culture and music. radio.com COLAGE unites people with LGBTQ parents and caregivers into a network of peers and supports them as they nurture and empower each other to be skilled, self-confident, and just leaders in our collective communities - www.colage.org DIFFA/Northwest (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). (206) 763-8885; www.diffanorthwest. org DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL ASSAULT: Crisis Clinic, (206) 461-3222 (24 hour line); King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) - 24-hour crisis line for information, support, & medical & legal assistance: 1-888-99-VOICE; Northwest Network support & advocacy for Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian & Gay Survivors of Abuse & Dating Violence, (206) 568-7777 (voice), 517-9670 (tty), www.nwnetwork.org; Pierce County Domestic Violence Helpline: Teresa, (253) 798-4166; Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities - offers on-going support groups for men: 323-1768; Seattle Police Dept Domestic Violence Unit, (206) 684-0330; State Wide Domestic Violence Hot Line, 1-800-562-6025. In an emergency call 911.

Report domestic violence and sexual assault.

Equal Rights Washington - (206) 324-2570; www. equalrightswashington.org Everett/Snohomish Cty - www.gaysnohomish.org Freely Speaking Toastmasters - www.freelyspeaking.org Gay City promotes wellness in LGBTQ communities by providing health services, connecting people to resources, fostering arts, and building community. Gay City Health Project’s Wellness Center provides anonymous & confidential HIV/STD testing. 517 E Pike St. More info or to schedule an appointment, (206) 860-6969. www.gaycity.org Gay & Lesbian National Hotline (GLNH): 1-888-THEGLNH (1-888-843-4564). Non-profit, peer-counseling, information & local resources telephone hotline for GLBT people across the country.

Generations Aging With Pride empowers elder LGBTQ adults to live with pride and dignity by promoting, connecting, and developing innovative programs and services that enhance belonging and support, eliminate discrimination, and honor the lives of older members of our community - (206) 393-3400; info@gapseattle.org; gapseattle.org GLSEN/WA - Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network - (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa.org Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) - (206) 363-9188; www.thegsba.org HIV/AIDS Program, Seattle/King County Dept of Public Health, provides confidential/anonymous information about & testing for HIV/AIDS. (206) 205-7837. For a comprehensive list of HIV/AIDS service organizations see the GSBA Guide or visit www.thegsba.org or call Lifelong AIDS Alliance, (206) 328-8979.

Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle & the Olympic & Rainier Empire - www.facebook.com/ISCSORE; www. imperialcourtofseattle.com Lambert House - (206) 322-2515; www.lamberthouse. org LGBT Library - 517 E Pike St. Open Mon-Fri 2-8pm; Sat 2-5pm. A wide range of fiction and non-fiction for the LGBT community and allies can be borrowed free of charge.

LGBT MS Connection - (425) 785-8593; lgbtmsconnections@comcast.net. Support group for LGBT persons with MS and their partners and their caregivers.

Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Lifelong AIDS Alliance - (206) 328-8979, www.lifelongaids alliance.org Lion’s Main Art Collective - www.lionsmain.org MEN: Gay City: (206) 860-6969, www.gaycity.org; Knights of Mantra: (206) 329-0886, www.jetchapterkofm.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Northwest Bears: www. nwbears.com; The Olympians: www.TheOlympians. net; POZSeattle: www.pozseattle.com; Q-Squared: www.qsquared.org; Rain City Jacks: www.raincityjacks. org; Seattle Gay Couples: www. seattlegaycouples.org; Seattle Men in Leather: www.seattlemeninleather. org; Seattle Prime Timers: Gay & Bi men 40 & over, www. seattle primetimers.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www. tacomaolderlgbt.org. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.)

MUSIC: Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; Rainbow City Band: 1-866-841-9139 ext 2126; rainbowcityband@onebox.com; www.rainbowcity band. com; Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus: (206) 388-1408, (206) 323-0750. www.seattlechoruses.org.

Northwest Lesbian & Gay History Museum Project - gayhistnw@aol.com

20 Seattle Gay News

community resources Northwest Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf - www. nwrad.org Olympia/Thurston County - www.RainbowCenterOly. org Out & Equal Workplace Advocates/Seattle Regional Affiliate supports the work of LGBT employees and the growing number of ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) making a difference within local companies, including Alaska Airlines, Amazon.com, Amgen, AT&T, Bank of America, Deloitte, Macy’s, Microsoft, Russell Investments, Safeco Insurance, Starbucks Coffee, Xerox. www.outandequal.org/affiliates/seattle Out & Proud Grays Harbor Coalition - http://outandproudgh.org PARENTHOOD: Families Like Ours provides a gateway for LGBT families interested in adoption & provides a network of safe placement agencies, training, support & resources: (206) 441-7602, www.familieslikeours. org; Family Works offers support, information & activities for LGBT families: (206) 694-6727, www.familyworksseattle. org; Gay Fathers’ Association of Seattle offers support groups & social activities: www.gfas. org; Proud & Loud Families - Northwest, www.meetup.com/proudand-loud-families-northwest, plfnorthwest@aol.com; Queer Parent Networking Dinners: (206) 568-7777, qpnd@nwnetwork.org, www.nwnetwork.org; Rainbow Families of Puget Sound: www.rainbowfamiliesps.org PFLAG is the national organization for parents, families, allies, and LGBTQ people united for equality with chapters in Seattle, Bellevue/Eastside, the Puget Sound region and across Washington state. PFLAG Seattle: (206) 325-7724, info@pflagseattle.org, and www.pflagseattle.org; PFLAG Bellevue/Eastside: (425) 483-6642, info@bellevue-pflag.org, http://community. pflag.org/PFLAGBellevue; PFLAG Pacific Northwest: www.pnwpflag.org; PFLAG Washington State Council: www.pflagwsc.org.

Peer Seattle (formerly Seattle Area Support Groups) is a non-profit organization that builds community and cultivates powerful, healthy lives by providing emotional support and personal development services to those affected by HIV/AIDS, the Queer communities, and those who love them. Our work is done in a spirit of safety, trust, inclusiveness, and celebration of individual differences.

(206) 322-2437; www.peerseattle.org PEOPLE OF COLOR: AARTH (African American Reach & Teach Health Ministry), (206) 850-2070, www.aarth.org; Asian/Pacific Islander Queer Network Program at API Chaya, (206) 467-9976; Center for MultiCultural Health, (206) 461-6910, www.multiculturalhealth.org; Entre Hermanos, GLBT Latinos/as, (206) 322-7700, www.entrehermanos.org; Ile LaiLai, (206) 781-3565, iya@ilelailai.org; Men of All Colors & Cultures Together (MACCT), (206) 923-8313, macctseattle@yahoo.com, www.macctsea.org; Northwest Two Spirit Society, https://www.facebook.com/ groups/nw2spiritsociety/, Nubian Pride Productions, nubianpride@gmail.com; People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN) offers rapid HIV testing, M-F, 10am-5pm, (206) 322-7061, www.pocaan.org and on Facebook; QBASS - Queer Black Alliance of the South Sound, (253) 256-1846, weareqbass@gmail. com; Sistah 2 Sistah, LBT women of African descent, (206) 322-7061, (206) 255-8951; Somos Seattle, somosseattle.org; Trikone-Northwest, GLBT South Asians, (425) 985-4376, www.trikonenw.org; Two-Spirit Honor Project, 1-866-685-0164; U.T.O.P.I.A. Seattle, www.utopiaseattlewa.org; VietQ Greater Seattle, vietqorganization@gmail.com Pierce County AIDS Foundation - (253) 383-2565; www.piercecountyaids.org Pride Foundation - (206) 323-3318; www.pridefoundation. org Pride Lives - www.facebook.com/PrideLives/ Pride Radio 93.3 HD2 Project NEON is a program of Seattle Counseling Service providing FREE information & services to Gay & Bi men to reduce health risks associated with methamphetamine use. (206) 323-1768. www.crystalneon.org Public Health-Seattle & King County Online Comprehensive Health Information for Sexual Minorities: www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/personal/ glbt.aspx Q Law: The GLBT Bar Association of WA - (206) 682-6711; www.q-law.org Q Law GLBT Legal Clinic - (206) 235-7235.

Queer Geek! - queergeekseattle.org Rainbow Center - Resource Center for Tacoma/Pierce County LGBTIQA community. Through education, advocacy and celebration, the Rainbow Center expands resources, and safe space for the LGBTQIA community.

July 10, 2020

Sponsors Tacoma Pride Festival. (253) 383-2318, www. rainbowcntr.org SEAMEC interviews, researches & rates candidates for public office on issues of concern to the LGBT community. www.voteseamec.org Seattle Area Support Groups & Community Center (SASG) i- SEE LISTING for Peer Seattle.

Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network - BiSeattle.wixsite. com/SBWN and on Facebook.

Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities is a community mental health service for GLBT persons & their families providing comprehensive mental health services on a sliding scale. (206) 323-1768.

Seattle LGBTQ Commission - (206) 684-4503. www/ seattle.gov/lgbtq Seattle Out & Proud - (206) 322-9561; www.seattlepride.org Seattle Police Department Sexual Minorities Community Advisory Council: kim.bogucki@seattle.gov Seattle PrideFest - www.seattlepridefest.org Servicemembers Legal Defense Network - (202) 328-3244; www.sldn.org Sex Workers Outreach Project - https://seattle. swopusa.org Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Abbey of St. Joan - (206) 860-3666; www.theabbey.org Snohomish Health District HIV/AIDS Program provides free confidential/anonymous HIV counseling & testing 9am-5pm Monday-Friday, until 7pm Tuesdays.

(425) 339-5298.

South Sound Q Calendar - LGBTQ events in Tacoma, Olympia & Sound Puget Sound area; www.SouthSoundQCal.com Spokane/Inland Northwest - www.outspokane.com; www.stonewallnews.net SPORTS & RECREATION: Bent Car Guys: www. bentcarguys.org; Border Riders Motorcycle Club: www.borderriders.com; Bottom Dwellers Scuba Club: www.bottomdwellers.org; Capitol Hill Cyclers: join their Facebook group or email capitolhillcycling@ groups.facebook.com or jordan.l.simonson@gmail.com; Cascade Flag Football: www.cascadeflagfootball.org; Cascade Flyers: www.cascadeflyers.org; Emerald City Mudhen Rugby: www.mudhenrugby.com; Emerald City Softball Association: www.emeraldcitysoftball. org, www.eteamz.com/womensecsa; Ethyl Forever Car Club: ethylforever@hotmail.com; Festival of the Babes: www.festivalofthebabes.com; Olympic Yacht Club: www.oycnw.org; OutVentures: outdoor education & recreation activities, www.outventures.org; Pacific Northwest Gay Rodeo Association: www.pacificnwgra.org; Puddletown Squares: www.puddletownsquares.org; Rain City Soccer: www.raincitysoccer.org; Rain Country Dance Association: a country-western dance organization catering to the LGBTQ community but open to all, www.raincountrydance.org; Sea Dawgs: LGBT ice hockey - SkateSeaDawgs@gmail.com and on Facebook; Seattle Frontrunners: www.seattlefrontrunners.org; Seattle Gay Basketball Association: www. seattlegaybasketballassociation.com; Seattle Orca Swim Team: www.orcaswimteam.org; Seattle Otters Water Polo: www.otterpolo.com; Seattle Quake Rugby: www.quakerugby.com; Seattle Tennis Alliance: www. seattletennisalliance.org; Seattle Unified Bowling Association (SUBA): magee98106@aol.com, www. teamseattle.org/bowling.htm, www.theprideleague. com, Century 21 League; Seattle Volleyball Club: www.seattlevolleyballclub.com; Ski Buddies: www. skibuddies.org; Team Seattle Gay Sports Network is an umbrella organization for a wide range of local GLBT sports activities, (206) 367-4064, www.teamseattle.org (see website for comprehensive list of sports clubs); Triangle Recreation Camp at Bender Creek: recreational camping for GLBT folks. Must be 21; ID required. trc@ camptrc.org, www.camptrc.org, 1122 E Pike St #1069, Seattle 98122-3934.

Strength Over Speed - www.strengthoverspeed.org Tacoma/Pierce County - Rainbow Center, 2215 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, a resource center for the LGBTIQA community of Pierce County, (253) 383-2318, www. rainbowcntr.org Three Dollar Bill Cinema - TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival; Translations: Seattle Transgender Film Festival; Outdoor Cinema at Cal Anderson Park. www. threedollarbillcinema.org TRANSGENDER: Emerald City Social Club: (425) 827-9494; Gender Alliance of the South Sound: www.

SouthSoundGender.com; Gender Diversity: www. genderdiversity.org; Gender Justice League: www.genderjusticeleague.org; Gender Odyssey: www.genderodyssey.com; Hermanos Trans Latino & Foreign-Born

Support Group: (206) 322-7700; Ingersoll Gender Center: (206) 329-6651, www.ingersollcenter.org; Lion’s Main Art Collective: www.lionsmain.org; The New BoyZ Club: www.olympiaftmgroup.webs.com; Olympia Trans Discussion Group: www.facebook.com/pages/ Olympia-Trans-Discussion-Group/262449878114; [trans] ACTION: Trans* & Gender Non-Conforming Sex Workers’ Support Group - a safe, peer-led space. mail@utopiaseattle.org; TRANSform Washington: transformwashington.com; Trans Resource & Referral Guide: kctransguide.org; Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network: Funding the collective liberation of Trans women of color – https://m.facebook.com/ TWOCSolidarityNW/; Washington Gender Alliance: (360) 445-2411, www.washington genderalliance.com WOMEN: Aging Ballard Lesbian Exchange (A.B.L.E.): We are Lesbians 60 years (generally) and up, living (mostly) in the north half of Seattle. The purpose of the group is to connect, socialize and support each other. ruthemilyvogel@gmail.com; Aging Lesbians in South Seattle (ALISS) - Lesbian Group at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center. This is a gathering primarily for Lesbians but all are welcome to attend. Kate, (206) 722-0317; www.sessc.org; BABES: support groups for HIV+ women. (206) 720-5566, 1-888-292-1912; Coming Out Women Support Group of Tacoma: www. comingoutwomen.org; Festival of the Babes: www. festivalofthebabes.com; Mature Friends: Gay men & women 40 & over, www.maturefriends.org; Puget Sound Old Lesbian Organizing for Change: http:// psoloc.org, (253) 777-3357; Older Lesbians Organizing for Change/WA State Chapter: gloria@oloc.org, mary@oloc.org, www.oloc.org; Pacific Northwest Lesbian Archives: www.pnwlesbianarchives.org; RainshadowWomen: RainshadowWomen@aol. com; Seattle Bisexual Women’s Network: BiSeattle. wixsite.com/SBWN; Seattle Girls of Leather: www. sgol.org; Tacoma Lesbian Concern (TLC): www.tacomalesbianconcern.org; Tacoma Older LGBT: www. tacomaolderlgbt.org; Women of West Seattle (WOWS): a fun, member-driven social group for Lesbians, http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/womenofwestseattle; YWCA Women’s Health Outreach: providing low or no-cost mammograms for income eligible 40+ LBTQ individuals. Follow us at http://lbtqhealth-ywca.blogspot.com, twitter.com/ingridWHO or email lbthealth@ywcaworks. org, (206) 461-4493. (See also listings under Bisexual, Parenthood, People of Color, Transgender.)

YOUTH: B-GLAD (Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Trans & Questioning Adolescent Drop-In Group): Youth Eastside Services offers many programs for GLBT youth, including B-GLAD, (425) 747-4937; Coyote Central: www.coyotecentral.org; Diverse Harmony: www.diverseharmony. org; GLSEN/Washington State (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) & Washington State GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Network: GLSEN works to create safe schools for LGBT students. WA GSA Network supports youth-led GSA’s to fight harassment & homophobia in Washington state schools. (206) 330-2099; www.glsenwa. org; www.wagsa.org. GLOBE (GLBTQ Loving Ourselves, Becoming Empowered): a support group & HIV/STD prevention program for GLBTQ youth, 14-20, in Everett, (425) 263-2908, www. globeyouth.org; It Gets Better Project: www.itgetsbetter.org; Lambert House: an activities & resource center for LGBT youth, 14-22, 1818 15th Ave @ E Denny Way, with additional support groups organized in smaller towns throughout King County, (206) 322-2515, www. lamberthouse.org; Lifelong HEYO (Health Education Youth Outreach): for LGBTQ youth, ages 16-24: (206) 957-1665; www.llaa.org/HEYO; www.MatthewsPlace. com; The Mockingbird Society: (206) 323-KIDS (5437), www.mockingbirdsociety.org; New Horizons: social services and shelter for homeless youth, 2708 3rd Ave (in Belltown), (206) 374-0866, http://namin.org; Oasis Youth Center: for GLBTQ youth, ages 14-25, in Tacoma, (253) 671-2838, www.oasisyouthcenter. org; OKAY! LGBTQ+ Outreach for Kent Area Youth: (253) 859-0699 ext 3034. OKAY! is an open support group for youth ages 13-19 who identify as LGBTQ+. A program of Kent Youth & Family Services; OUT There Adventures: www.outthereadventures.org; Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG)/ Puget Sound: (206) 325-7724, www.seattle-pflag.org; Pizza Klatch: weekly lunchtime support groups for LGBTQ youth in Thurston County, www.pizzaklatch. org; Prism: for LGBTQ youth, 14-21, in Puyallup Cherise.Alexander@ multicare.org; www.facebook. com/PuyallupPrism; Proud Out Wonderful (POW!): for LGBTQ youth, 13-21, in South King County, (206) 326-9112, www.facebook.com/proudoutwonderful; Q Youth Resources: in Kitsap County - (360) 698-3335; www.kchaf.org; Roots Young Adult Shelter: 1415 NE 43rd St., (206) 632-1635; www.rootsinfo.org; Safe Schools Coalition: www.safeschoolscoalition.org; (206) 451-SAFE, (206) 451-7233 (non-emergency), 1-877-SAFE-SAFE (1-877-723-3723) (crisis line); Seattle Young People’s Project (Queer Youth Resource Board): (206) 860-9606, www.sypp.org; Street Youth Ministries (SYM): (206) 524-7301 ext 111; www. streetyouthministries.org; Teen Link: (206) 461-4922, 1-888-431-TEEN; The Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor; www.thetrevorproject.org; True Colors - Connecting LGBTQ Teens: in Shoreline, (206) 362-7282 x 8018, lbagley@chs-nw.org; The Vera Project: fuels personal & community transformation through collaborative youthdriven engagement in music and art. (206) 956-8372; theveraproject.org; Vista Youth Center: for LGBTQ, questioning and allied youth, ages 14-21, in Kennewick, (509) 396-5198, www.vistayouthcenter.org; YouthCare/ Isis Program (Transitional Living Home for LGBTQ Young Adults, 18-22): (206) 522-8412; YouthCare/ Orion Center Young Adult Shelter: 1828 Yale Ave @ Stewart St. (206) 622-5555; Youth in Focus: (206) 723-1479; www.youthinfocus.org; Youth Suicide Prevention Program (OUTLoud-GLBTQ): (206) 297-5922, ext 116, 1-800-273-TALK, www.yspp.org

Celebrating 46 Years!

BOOKS

Salt Fish Girl – Photo courtesy of Thomas Allen

LARISSA LAI

continued from page 17 speak. Maybe we read at the same reading together? We became friends and, together with another writer – the critic Monika Kin Gagnon, who has also been very important to me in the realm of anti-racist arts organizing – formed a writing group. We would meet on weekends, taking turns hosting. Shani introduced me to Barbara Kuhne and Della McCreary at Press Gang Publishers and encouraged them to publish my first novel.

I met Hiromi because she called me some time in 1996 to have a conversation about our mutual interest in mythologies of our respective “old countries”. My influences have been my friends – some of them a bit older and supportive in a “big sister” kind of way, some of them the same age or younger. All have been generous. I hope the reverse is also true, and that I too have given them something of value.

In this way, influence is exchanged and community gets built.

What does a writing day look like for you?

I wake up, I make tea and porridge. I leave the porridge to sit and take the tea to my desk. I try to dive right into the work if I can, preferably before all the sleep has come off me, when I’m still half in dream world and the irritations of daily life have not yet had a chance to infiltrate. If I’ve had dreams that I remember, I write them down. Then I try to get into the project at hand with a bit of freewriting. I think of this as a kind of visiting – the muse, the ancestors, my characters or whatever. Someone smarter and more in touch with history, mythology and the imagination than my ordinary “real world” self. It is like going to their house to see if they are home and if they have something to tell me.

If they are home, and in a good mood, and have something to say, then I write until the voice runs out. Writing is a kind of transcription for me, in the sense that I am writing down what the voices say. More often than not though, the ancestor/muse isn’t there, or they’re there but they’re grumpy or shy or suffering a little dementia. I write down whatever fragments they are willing to give. Then I get the porridge, and feed myself while I feed my characters, by doing research or reading.

Sometimes the ancestor/muse gets excited by what I’m reading and comes back and tells me more. More often, they go down for a nap. But

the more I try to visit, the more likely they are to be there the next day with more to say in the field of the story or poem or essay. By the time I’m into the reading and research, email is going nuts, or I have to go teach or go to a meeting or check in with a student. Eventually, I have to cede creative time to work time. The rest of the day becomes about daily things – answering queries, working on the finances for the creative writing house I run, prepping lectures or talks or travels, grading, reading student work and providing feedback.

On a good day, I’ll fit in a walk or a bit of yoga in the afternoon. I work until suppertime.

After dinner I read, or watch TV or Netflix.

At night, I try not to do anything too active because I find that that way lies burnout.

Are there other LGBTQ novelists working today whose work you particularly admire?

I admire very much my LGBTQ2S writer colleagues here at the University of Calgary: Suzette Mayr (Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall), Rain Prud’hommeCranford (Miscegenation Round Dance) and Vivek Shraya (The Subtweet). There is a generation of younger LGBTQ2S novelists who are blowing my socks off. Kai Cheng Thom (Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars, I Hope We Choose Love) is brilliant for her deep insight into the complications of community and her commitment to interrogating the dynamics of lateral violence. If we are to have a healthy and inspiring LGBTQ2S movement, we need to work on the ways we imagine, historicize and treat one another across “internal” differences. It is really difficult and dangerous to talk about lateral issues.

Kai Cheng faces the fear and still does it – to my mind, this is real bravery. To top it off, she is a very talented writer, so she does it well.

Also powerful is Tom Cho’s work and his gender and genre bending fiction. I love his Look Who’s Morphing for its invocations of Dirty Dancing and Godzilla, and for the strange transformations that unfold in his book. He does both pop culture and anti-realism in ways that make me want to dance in the streets.

Joshua Whitehead is my graduate student, but I’m still allowed to admire him, right? His novel Jonny Appleseed tells the story of a Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer NDN glitterprincess trying to survive on the streets of big city Winnipeg in the week before his stepfather’s funeral. The writing is witty, biting, sexy and very down-to-earth. There

Visit us online www.sgn.org

The Tiger Flu – Photo courtesy of Arsenal Pulp

are also writers who have been around for a while whom I feel don’t get the credit they deserve: Lydia Kwa (The Walking Boy) and Paul Yee (A Superior Man) jump to mind.

What are you reading now? Is there any book that you’ve found cathartic or instructive during the pandemic?

Right now I’m reading A Superior Man, Yee’s first novel for adults, about the Chinese sojourners who worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Indigenous communities they met while doing that work. It is incredible. It’s an interesting demographic fact that most if not all of the best Chinese Canadian writers are LGBTQ, including Yee. I just finished Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God and Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild – both great. In relation to the pandemic, as research for The Tiger Flu, I read quite a few apocalypse (some zombie-full, some zombie-free) and/ or virus novels that I enjoyed a lot: Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, Kenneth Calhoun’s Black Moon, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, David Walton’s The Genius Plague. I still need to read Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of Crusted Snow. I think because I’ve been imaginatively inhabiting these apocalyptic spaces for some years, I didn’t feel that surprised when the pandemic hit. Whitehead, St. John Mandel, and McCarthy had already taught me not to be too attached to early 21st century comforts. Dimaline reminded me that Indigenous peoples have already survived one apocalypse already and are surviving another. Walton taught me about the powers of mutation. In spite of their incapacities to see some of the contradictions, I still feel I learned a lot too from second wave feminist speculative fiction especially Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. There’s a special place in my heart for Joanna Russ’s The Female Man and Monique Wittig’s Les Guerillères, and the lesbian separatism of both writers, not because I want to go there – I know there are problems, the dangers of trans exclusion not the least among them – but because I still value the work of utopian dreaming. The pandemic is a good time to do that, though it’s also a grim time, which makes it hard to get into a utopian frame of mind.

What’s next for you?

I have a poetry book called Iron Goddess

of Mercy coming out off of Arsenal Pulp Press next spring. The speaker of this book is possessed by a capacious army of furies to whom she writes letters. In the world of tradeable commodities, “Iron Goddess of Mercy” is a type of tea – a variety of oolong.

The Goddess of Mercy is also a much respected deity along the South China coast where my family has its roots and routes.

The book addresses the ever-evolving history of Hong Kong, its various occupiers, and its diaspora. It also ponders the possibility of feeling in relation to such a home place when the political status of that home place is always shifting and never still. Along the way it takes up the contradictions of the socalled “dumpster fire” burning in the contemporary cultural field and the difficulties of struggling for justice in an ongoing history with more than two players. This poetry book is comprised of sixty-four fragments in honor of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Chinese turtle oracle known as the I-Ching.

My new project is a novel tentatively entitled The Lost Century. It is about a Chinese Canadian woman called Tobee Go, who goes to China to adopt a child and gets derailed in Hong Kong by her peculiar maiden aunt. The aunt tells Tobee the story of a man, Tobee’s grandfather, who poisoned his own first grandson in a misguided attempt to get revenge on the Japanese occupiers.

July 10, 2020

Seattle Gay News 21

For more information about the award and Jim Duggins, PhD. [https://www. lambdaliterary.org/special-awards/] Check out the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards finalists at https://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/ About Lambda Literary Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives.

Our programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, LGBTQ Writers in Schools, Lambda LitFest, and the Lambda Literary Review.

Support our work: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/donate/ Courtesy of Lambda Literary

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