Celebrating 44 Years! Issue 28 Volume 46
FRIDAY July 13, 2018 FREE!
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Remembering Tab Hunter: A tribute to the Hollywood legend SEC 2 PG 1
Village Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals August 10-12 SEC 2 PG 1
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
Under cover of religion:
More litigation claiming a religious right to discriminate
Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer After two less-than-definitive US Supreme Court cases centering on a supposed First Amendment right to discriminate against LGBT people, new cases claiming a religious right to deny services to LGBT customers are going forward in state courts.
In a case now before the Arizona Supreme Court, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is trying to convince the state’s high court that businesses have a constitutional right to refuse to sell their services and products to same-sex couples. The ADF also represented Masterpiece Cakeshop before the US Supreme Court earlier this year.
see RELIGION page 11
Brett Kavanaugh, a SCOTUS nominee everyone can hate?
SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh and President Trump – Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer New US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has one friend and many enemies. Fortunately for his career, that one friend is the president, Donald Trump. But his nomination has brought together a host of critics from both sides of the political spectrum.
Kavanaugh’s main virtue in Trump’s eyes is no doubt his 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, in which he argues that US presidents should be exempt from “timeconsuming and distracting” lawsuits and investigations, which “would ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis.”
see KAVANAUGH page 5
SHAMEFUL: Maine Gov. LePage Sen. Murray announces vetoes bill protecting LGBTQ opposition to Supreme Court youth from the dangerous nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh practice of “conversion therapy” citing President Trump’s extreme ideological
litmus test on Roe v. Wade, health care, and other rights and freedoms
Paul LePage – Photo courtesy of AP
WASHINGTON, DC – [On July 6], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, released the following state-
ment strongly condemning Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of legislation that would have protected LGBTQ youth in the state from the dangerous and discredited
see SHAMEFUL page 6
U.S. Senator Patty Murray – Photo courtesy of the Office of Sen. Murray
WASHINGTON, DC – [On July 10], US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Assistant Democratic Leader and top Democrat on the Senate health committee, released the following statement opposing President
Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court: “President Trump has been very clear about what he wants in a Supreme Court
see PATTY MURRAY page 5