SGN August 26, 2016 - Section 1

Celebrating 42 Years!

Issue 35 Volume 44

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2016 Bumbershoot Line Up

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Clinton landslide?

New poll may show trend

Hillary Clinton – Photo courtesy of motherjones.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer “We are starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clinton landslide as her 10-point lead is further proof that Don-

ald Trump is in a downward spiral as the clock ticks,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, as he released a new survey on August 25.

The good news for Clinton is that she now tops 50% in a head-to-head matchup see LANDSLIDE page 4

Rights for Transgender students blocked by federal court

California legislature passes new all-gender restroom bill

Phil Ting – Photo courtesy of thetruthaboutguns.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer California’s legislature has passed what is being described as “the most inclusive restroom access law in the US.” AB 1732 passed the California Sen-

A federal district judge ruled on August 21 that the Obama administration may not enforce its directive that Transgender students should use restrooms corresponding to their gender identities.

US District Judge Reed O’Connor said that the administration’s order usurped local control of schools and threatened student safety and privacy. The lawsuit O’Connor decided was brought by Texas and 12 other states, seeking to preserve their ability to discriminate against Trans see BLOCKED page 4

see ALL-GENDER page 5

Trump donates $100k to Tony Perkins’ church

Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas (r) – Photo by JayJanner

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

ate on August 22, after having passed the state’s Assembly in January.

The bill requires that single-occupancy restrooms in California businesses, government buildings, and places of public accommodation be universally accessible to

Tony Perkins – Photo courtesy of joemygod.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer According to CNN, Donald Trump has donated $100,000 to Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, currently pastored by Family Research Council boss Tony Perkins.

The donation could be a violation of election finance rules, since Perkins previously provided services to Trump’s election campaign. According to Trump, Perkins wrote his notorious “Two Corinthians” speech. see DONATION page 4

7th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

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SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

August 26, 2016

43RD LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT

Celebrating 41 Years!

Families to celebrate Justice Mary Yu

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Washington State Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu will join couples she married and families where she presided over an adoption for a group photo on Sunday, August 28, at 11 a.m., at the Seattle Center International Fountain.

According to Sarah Toce, publisher of The Seattle Lesbian and founder of Seattle Women’s Pride, Justice Yu has presided over hundreds of weddings and adoptions during her 16-year tenure as a judge.

“She officiated the state’s first legal same-sex marriage at midnight on the day the voter-approved law went into effect [December 9, 2012] and has presided over 1,000 second-parent adoptions,” Toce said in a media release Thursday.

The families and couples now want to recognize Yu’s role in their shared experience. The hashtag #becauseofyu has gone viral and a Facebook event page has been created to unite the parties involved in this monumental reunion.

Families not able to participate are sending photos, stories, and stand-ins on their behalf.

“Justice Yu has had a positive impact on so many families,” said Toce. “I wanted to create a space where people could thank her for the role she’s had in their lives. Uniting the couples and families she’s helped is the least I could do. The responses have been uplifting and endearing. I look forward to seeing so many beautiful faces come together Sunday for Justice Yu.” According to Toce, Justice Yu’s weddings and adoptions are renowned for

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Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu – Photo courtesy kuow.org

bringing families closer together.

“Taking the duty beyond its perfunctory administrative proceeding,” Toce said, “the ceremonies are celebrations.”

“It’s a great opportunity to celebrate our families and lives and relationships,” said Justice Yu, “to affirm people in the life and love choices they’ve made.”

Appointed by Governor Jay Inslee on May 1, 2014, Justice Yu joined the Washington Supreme Court after more than 14 years as a trial court judge in King County Superior Court. Justice Yu is the first Asian, the first of woman of color (Asian and Latina), and the first member of the

LGBT community to serve on the Washington Supreme Court. Before becoming a judge, Justice Yu served as Deputy Chief of Staff to former King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and as a Deputy Prosecutor in the Criminal and Civil Divisions. Yu was raised in Chicago by immigrant parents – her mother came from Mexico and her father from China – and she is the first in her family to graduate from college.

August 26, 2016

Seattle Gay News 3

LANDSLIDE

continued from cover with Donald Trump. Among likely voters, Clinton gets 51% to Trump’s 41%.

When third-party candidates are added in, Clinton gets 45%, with Trump at 38%, Libertarian Gary Johnson at 10%, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein at 4%.

The latest Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,498 likely voters between August 18 and August 24. The poll used live interviewers calling both land lines and cellphones. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points.

As noted in previous polling, women and people of color make up Clinton’s base of support. Women back her 60% to 36%, while men favor Trump by a much smaller margin, 48% to 42%. White voters back Trump 52% to 41%, while nonwhite voters back Clinton by a whopping 77% to 15% for Trump.

Clinton also scores well among younger voters, with 48% of the 18-34 age bracket backing her, as opposed to only 24% for Trump. Clinton’s share of the vote declines and Trump’s increases among older voters.

More good news for Clinton is that voters’ choices now seem to be baked in.

Ninety-one percent of Clinton voters and 89% of Trump voters tell pollsters they have already made up their minds about how to vote.

Clinton far outscores Trump on the issue of qualifications to be president. Sixtysix percent say Clinton is qualified, while

With a 10-point lead, Hillary pulls into the lead over Trump – Photo courtesy twitter.com

58% say Trump is not.

Clinton leads in other measures. For example, 58% say she has good leadership skills, compared to only 46% who say the same about Trump. Seventy-one percent say Clinton has “the right kind of experience to be president,” compared to only

32% for Trump.

Eighty-seven percent of respondents perceive Clinton as intelligent, as opposed to 67% who think the same of Trump.

In the all-important category of who “cares about average Americans,” 51% say that Clinton does, but only 41% say the

Phil Ting – Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

new course for equality that other states should follow.”

Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center, says the law would make everyone’s life easier.

“Having restrooms open to all genders will mean less hassle for everyone going about their day, and will allow people who don’t fit neatly into expectations of what it looks like to be male or female to use the restroom without fear of harassment,” Hayashi said.

“This is a common-sense proposal,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “Our home restrooms are already all-gender. So are restrooms on airplanes and at many hospitals and gas stations. The benefits of this simple change

ALL-GENDER continued from cover

all genders, beginning in March 2017.

The measure now goes to California Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

“This bill sends a simple message that everyone’s rights must be respected and protected. It provides a common-sense alternative to the hate being enacted in other states,” said the bill’s author, Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat.

“Restricting access to single-use restrooms defies reason,” Ting added. “It is a basic necessity of life, and everyone should get in and out on the same terms. By signing this bill, Gov. Jerry Brown can chart a

DONATION

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will enable all Californians to use restrooms in a way that is more safe, fair, and convenient.”

Jerilyn Stapleton, president of California NOW, added, “We have universal bathroom access at home and on airplanes, so why not require it in public buildings?”

because of his extremist views.

Among other anti-LGBT statements, Perkins has conflated homosexuality with pedophilia.

“While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two. It is a homosexual problem,” he said.

He also branded the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying campaign “disgusting,” saying, “It’s part of a concerted effort to recruit [kids] into that lifestyle.”

Trump’s campaign would not comment on the CNN report.

continued from cover Perkins – who in the past has alleged that God sends storms and floods to punish LGBT people and their allies – was flooded out of his home in Louisiana recently and had to escape in a canoe. His church was also damaged.

Perkins’ organization, the Family Research Council, has been listed as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

News of Trump’s donation comes just a week after the candidate confirmed he would be attending a Family Research Council rally, alongside a number of anti-LGBT activists. Every Republican presidential nominee since George W. Bush has avoided Perkins’ annual rally

same about Trump. This mirrors voters’ final choice between the candidates.

The downside for Clinton is that voters just don’t like her. On the other hand, they like Trump even less.

Both candidates have negative favorability ratings, 41% favorable to 53% unfavorable for Clinton, compared with and 33% to 61%, respectively, for Trump. In fact, 37% said they would consider voting for a third-party candidate.

Only 44% of poll respondents like Clinton “a lot” or “a little,” while 47% dislike her “a little” or “a lot.” Eight percent “hate” her.

But only 35% of respondents like Trump “a lot” or “a little,” while 53% dislike him “a little” or a lot,” and 10% “hate” him.

Respondents also said – by a margin of 60% to 37% – that they perceive Clinton as someone who believes she does not have to play by the same rules as everyone else.

In this very negative race, 64% of Trump supporters say they are voting mainly anti-Clinton, while 25% say they are voting pro-Trump. Among Clinton supporters, 47% are mainly anti-Trump while 32% are pro-Clinton.

“Trump’s missteps, stumbles, and gaffes seem to outweigh Clinton’s shaky trust status and perceived shady dealings,” Malloy concluded. “Wow, is there any light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?”

Anti-LGBT extremist and pastor of the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, Tony Perkins – Photo courtesy of joemygod.com

August 26, 2016

Celebrating 41 Years!

BLOCKED

continued from cover students in public schools.

O’Connor’s ruling came only two weeks after the US Supreme Court blocked a lower court order that would have let a Transgender high school student in Virginia use gender-appropriate restrooms at his school.

The Obama’s administration’s directives protecting Trans students, and the court orders resulting from them, were based on an interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Administration lawyers said that the ban on discrimination on account of sex found in that legislation also protects gender identity.

According to the administration’s reasoning, the Department of Education could withhold federal funding from school districts that refused to allow Trans students to use restrooms appropriate for their gender identities.

Absent any federal civil rights legislation explicitly protecting LGBT people, the administration tried to reinterpret existing bans on sex discrimination to protect LGBT students. That strategy is now on hold, pending appeals of O’Connor’s ruling.

O’Connor’s ruling comes only three days after a federal judge in Michigan struck a blow against another Obama civil rights strategy.

In that decision, US District Judge Sean Cox ruled that the US Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case allowed faith-based discrimination against LGBT employees.

Cox’s decision overturned an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Gender equal symbol to label bathrooms – Photo courtesy of concordmonitor.com

(EEOC) guideline saying that the ban on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibited discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Both decisions will be appealed, and both were somewhat limited in scope.

In the Title IX case, Judge O’Connor said his ruling was based on the administration’s failure to follow rule-making procedures and did not address the underlying issues of Trans students’ rights.

In the Title VII case, Judge Cox limited his decision to employers who could demonstrate that their business models were based on religious convictions that precluded them from hiring or promoting

LGBT employees. Presumably, secular employers are still barred from discriminating against LGBT workers.

According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), one of the LGBT organizations that submitted briefs in the Texas case, O’Connor’s ruling does not “undo the years of clear legal precedent nationwide establishing that transgender students have the right to go to school without being singled out for discrimination.”

“This unfortunate and premature ruling may, however, confuse school districts that are simply trying to support their students, including their transgender students,” NCLR warned.

“So let us make it clear to those districts: your obligations under the law have not changed, and you are still not only allowed but required to treat transgender students fairly. The scope of this injunction has no effect on the ability of other courts or lawyers representing transgender people to continue to rely on the federal government’s interpretations of Title IX or on prior decisions that have reached similar conclusions about the scope of federal sex discrimination laws.”

Texas sues feds to block Trans health coverage under Obamacare

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Only two days after persuading a federal judge to bar Transgender students from gender-appropriate restrooms, Texas was back in court with a lawsuit to deny Trans people access to medical care.

Texas, four other states, and several faith-based medical groups filed the suit on August 23. They allege that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulation guaranteeing Transgender people access to necessary medical procedures “not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it also forces them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.”

The suit has been assigned to the same judge – US District Judge Reed O’Connor – who moved to block Trans rights in the suit over restroom access.

Health and Human Services, the agency charged with administering the ACA, has said that insurers must cover all medically necessary procedures for their Transgender clients.

In their lawsuit, Texas and the other plaintiffs explicitly reject the findings of medical science, labeling medically necessary services related to transition “controversial” and “harmful.”

“On pain of significant financial liability, the [Health and Human Services

US District Judge Reed O’Connor (r) may again undermine Trans Obamacare – Photo courtesy of usherald.com

Department’s] Regulation forces doctors to perform controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly designed to permanently change an individual’s sex – including the sex of children,” the complaint in the lawsuit alleges.

Jillian Weiss, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the federal rules were in line with rules established by a number of states. Ten states and the District of Columbia require private insurers to cover Trans-

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gender health care, while six states plus the nation’s capital cover such services through their Medicaid programs, according to advocates.

“The only thing a doctor is obliged to do is treat all patients, including Trans patients, with dignity and respect and to make treatment decisions free from bias,” Weiss said. “If a doctor has a sound, evidencebased, medical reason to delay transition care for a specific patient, that would be respected under the regulations.”

August 26, 2016

An increasing number of large employers voluntarily cover Trans healthcare, following medical recognition that it can lead to healthier outcomes for the individuals involved. The number has gone from zero in 2002 to 418 last year. Medicare began covering medically necessary sex-reassignment surgery in 2014.

The Texas attorney general’s office has led a series of multistate efforts challenging federal policies put forth by the Obama administration, including a 13-state suit to prevent the Department of Education from enforcing its rules allowing Trans students to use school restrooms corresponding to their gender identity.

“This is the thirteenth lawsuit I have been forced to bring against the Obama Administration’s continued threats on [sic] constitutional rights of Texans,” Attorney General Paxton stated. “The federal government has no right to force Texans to pay for medical procedures designed to change a person’s sex.”

The religiously affiliated nonprofit groups, meanwhile, are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The Becket Fund has been one of the key groups backing religious-based challenges to the ACA, including the Hobby Lobby challenge to Health and Human Services rules on contraception access.

Seattle Gay News 5

Man who threw boiling water on Gay couple gets 40 years in prison

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Every night, all across the world, millions of LGBTQ people fall asleep next to a loved one. This could be their significant other, someone they are dating, their child, or even a friend. We feel good, as humans, when we are close to those we love; especially when we sleep. Why? Some say it is because at times when we feel the most vulnerable we also feel the most loved. And of all the things that you might imagine would wake you up (i.e. alarm clock, early morning trash collection, etc.) one’s mind simply does not jump to: boiling water.

In February, Anthony Gooden told his family he was Gay. Shortly after, Gooden, 23, slept on a mattress in his mother’s Atlanta, Georgia living room next to Marquez Tolbert, 21, the man he’d been dating for about six weeks.

The two men awoke to excruciating pain.

According to court reports, Martin Blackwell, a 48-year-old long-haul trucker who stayed at the house when he was in town, came in and saw the two unconscious men lying next to each other. He went to the kitchen, pulled out a pot, filled it with water and set it to boil. Moments later, he poured the scalding water over the men.

On Wednesday, a jury convicted Blackwell after deliberating for about 90 minutes. Blackwell was found guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault, according to the Associated Press.

Blackwell was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

“The Pain Doesn’t Let You Sleep” Tolbert wept as he testified in court, recounting for the jury, what happened to himself and his boyfriend that night.

On February 12, after working for 12 hours, the couple collapsed onto a mattress in Gooden’s mother’s living room.

Tolbert said the two men often slept there, together, after they finished work.

Not long after, Blackwell – who didn’t live in the apartment – walked in.

For reasons fueled by what Tolbert says could only be motivated by hate, Blackwell threw boiling water on them, splashing it across their torsos, faces and limbs.

For a moment, Tolbert had no idea what could have provoked the alleged attack.

“We were just burning,” he said. “My body was just stinging. It was like a really, really severe kind of stinging. I could hardly think straight.”

Tolbert says that Blackwell claimed the two men were having sex when he poured water on them. Vickie Gray, a friend of Tolbert’s, said that’s not true; they were asleep after a long day of work – not that the alleged attack would have been justified in any case, she noted.

“The pain doesn’t let you sleep,” he continued. “It’s excruciating, 24 hours a day. It doesn’t go anywhere, it doesn’t dial down. It’s just there.”

The couple said Blackwell had made them uneasy before, asking if they’d ever been intimate. But they never thought he might hurt them.

Still, both men’s families said they’d feared something like this might happen ever since Gooden and Tolbert came out as Gay. Gray says Tolbert’s mother, Jaya Tolbert, confessed that her greatest fear was that her son would be attacked for his sexuality.

“It’s a shame that our society places that kind of fear in a parent’s heart,” she said.

“It gives you a feeling of helplessness, and when it actually occurs, you lose hope.”

Diyawn Jackson, a cousin of Gooden, wrote on a GoFundMe.com page that had

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Martin Blackwell had plenty of time to change his mind but chose to follow through – Photo by John Bazemore

been set up to help pay for medical bills said he had the same worries that something might happen because Gooden came out as Gay, too.

“But never did we think it would happen in the very place he is supposed to be safe,” he said on the GoFundMe page, “at his own home by someone he trusted.”

“It’s so hard for me to look at my cousin,” Jackson continued. “… Before this tragedy he was so independent, happy, outgoing and charismatic. He was always the life of the party, and was there to help everyone. Now, as I sit and watch him cry and have mental breakdowns, asking if there is anything he could have done differently, [it] just tears my heart apart. This should NEVER happen to anyone.”

“It’s Just a Little Hot Water” There was never any doubt that Blackwell was the culprit. In fact, according to the police report taken at the scene, the Atlanta truck driver is quoted by responding officers as telling them, “They were stuck together like two hot dogs … so I poured a little hot water on them and helped them out.”

“They’ll be alright,” he continued, “It was just a little hot water.”

Blackwell then yanked Tolbert off the mattress and yelled, “Get out of my house with all that Gay.” Blackwell then threw them out of the apartment. They went door to door looking for someone to help them. The tenants of the first apartment their approached would not let them in.

Eventually, the couple found friends who let them use their phone to call 911, according to a police report.

Though the incident happened in February, the couple only decided to go public with their story in March, after Gooden was released from the hospital.

Blackwell Scarred the Men for Life Burns can be classified as partial or full thickness. For examples, second-degree partial thickness burns reveal that blisters can be present; it can involve the entire epidermis and upper layers of the dermis; the wound will be pink, red in color, painful and wet appearing; the wound will blanch when pressure is applied; but should heal in several weeks (10-21 days) without grafting, scarring is usually minimal.

However, second-degree full thickness burns, can be red or white in appearance, but will appear dry.

The burn involves the destruction of the entire epidermis and most of the dermis; sensation can be present, but diminished.

Full thickness will most likely need exci-

August 26, 2016

sion and skin grafting to heal.

Both men experienced second and third degree burns.

Third-degree burns are life altering and certainly leave physical scars. According to medical professionals, all layers of the skin are destroyed; the burns extends into the subcutaneous tissues; burn areas can appear black or white and will be dry and appear leathery in texture; and the burn wounds will not blanch when pressure is applied.

Compared with first- and second-degree burns, third-degree burns carry the most risk for complications, such as infections, blood loss, and shock, which is often what could lead to death. At the same time, all burns carry the risk of infections because bacteria can enter broken skin.

Tolbert must now wear compression garments 23 hours a day for the next two years and is attending weekly counseling and physical therapy sessions to deal with his emotional and physical scars. It’s difficult for him to go outside, because sunlight exacerbates the pain of his burns.

Gooden, who was burned even more severely, was in a medically-induced coma for several weeks. More than 60 percent of his body was burned, and he had to undergo skin graft surgery to repair damage to his face, neck, back, arms, chest and head.

No Hate Crime Charges Filed A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an

added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

It is important to note that hate itself is not a crime – and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties. This means that if someone calls a Gay man a “faggot” in public, even though it could be considered hate speech, it is still protected as freedom of speech.

Investigations by state and local authorities handle the vast majority of hate crime cases throughout the country. Hate crime statutes at the state level matter.

In this case, Blackwell wasn’t charged with a hate crime because Georgia is one of five states that do not have hate crime statutes.

An FBI spokesman told Reuters that federal investigators are considering whether to charge Blackwell with a federal hate crime.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 gives the FBI authority to investigate violent hate crimes, including violence directed at the LGBTQ community.

As Seattle Gay News goes to print, the FBI has yet to file hate crime charges against Blackwell.

“I Feel I Could Help Somebody” The resilience of humankind is something to behold. At times, just when you think that a person has been beat down for the last time, either physically or emotionally, time and time again they fight back.

The resilience of the LGBTQ community is one of the strongest, I think, in humankind. In this case, Tolbert proves that.

Crowdfunding pages for the two men combined raised more than $100,000 to help offset medical bills.

“It gives you that feeling that not everybody in the world is bad,” Tolbert said. “I am just glad there are people out there that care enough that they want to help.”

Although he is still recovering, he said the attack changed his plans for his life.

Tolbert wants to go back to school to get a medical degree, or pursue some sort of public speaking. He hopes to do something for people who have been in similar situations.

“This incident has opened a couple of doors in my head for me,” he said. “… I feel I could help somebody.”

Anthony Gooden (l) and Marquez Tolbert (r) both received third degree burns – Photo by John Bazemore

Celebrating 41 Years!

Trans artist sues Chicago for sex discrimination Targets city law against exposing breasts in bars

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A Transgender performance artist is suing the City of Chicago and its mayor, Rahm Emanuel, for sex discrimination because a city ordinance prohibits only women from exposing their breasts in venues with liquor licenses.

Bea Sullivan-Knoff charges that the law “reinforces archaic stereotypes and overbroad generalizations of the impropriety of women’s breasts versus men’s breasts.”

Men routinely remove their shirts in the summer, she added, but women are forbidden to do so, and if they do so in a bar, they may imperil the establishment’s liquor license.

“In 2016 in a city as diverse as Chicago, there should not be an ordinance reflecting 19th century ideas about sex and gender,” said Sullivan-Knoff’s attorney, Mary Grieb.

“Moreover, Ms. Sullivan-Knoff is a 23-year-old engaged in the very difficult task of making a living as a young performance artist, yet has been prevented from performing deeply personal pieces due to the City’s transphobic and blatantly sexist ordinance that should be an embarrassment to a modern city in the 21st century.”

According to the complaint, the City of Chicago Municipal Code 4-60-140 specifically prohibits only women from exposing their breasts in bars, while allowing men to go shirtless.

“No person licensed under this chapter shall permit any employee, entertainer

or patron to engage in any live act, demonstration, dance, or exhibition on the licensed premises which exposes to public view…any portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.”

At a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Sullivan-Knoff rejected the proposal to make men cover their chests as well.

“That would be going backward, which is not what we’re looking for,” she said.

Trans performing artist Bea Sullivan-Knoff – Photo courtesy of trbimg.com

Sullivan-Knoff’s suit charges Chicago with violating her First Amendment freedom of expression rights, the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, sections of the Illinois state constitution, and the sections of the Illinois Human Rights Act barring sex and gender identity discrimination.

According to Radio Chicago’s DNAinfo website, Sullivan-Knoff has been pre-

vented from performing a piece in which she appears onstage wrapped in a sheet, with a paper bag reading “Touch Me” over her head. Audience members are then given five minutes to touch her before she removes the bag.

“It was very much an act of bravery and vulnerability on my part,” SullivanKnoff said, adding that responses to the piece were “over the moon.”

Americans still tied to gender stereotypes, new study shows

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Americans are still tied to old-fashioned gender stereotypes – even when they try to describe the dynamics of same-sex couples – a new study shows.

The study, titled “Making Money, Doing Gender, or Being Essentialist? Partner Characteristics and Americans’ Attitudes Toward Housework,” was conducted by Indiana University.

“This is the first study that looks at Americans’ beliefs about how partners should divide chores and childcare tasks,” said Natasha Quadlin, the lead author of the study.

Quadlin and her team surveyed more than 1,000 adults in 2015 to determine which characteristics, including relative income, masculine or feminine traits, and sex, shape Americans’ ideas about how married couples should divide household labor, indoor and outdoor chores, and childcare.

Each respondent was randomly assigned a description of an opposite-sex or a same-sex couple, including information about each partner’s occupation and income, as well as his or her hobbies and interests. This information was intended to cue the respondent whether the

Natasha Quadlin – Photo courtesy of news.indiana.edu

partner had stereotypically masculine or feminine traits.

The respondents also received a list of chores and childcare-related tasks to divide up between the two partners.

“Nearly three quarters of our respondents thought that the female partners in heterosexual couples should be responsible for cooking, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and buying groceries,” Quadlin said.

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“In addition, nearly 90 percent of our respondents thought that heterosexual men should be responsible for automobile maintenance and outdoor chores. Regardless of the partner’s relative income or gendered hobbies and interests, our respondents gravitated toward the person’s sex instead.”

When respondents were asked to assign tasks between same-sex partners, traditionally female chores were generally given to the partner perceived as more stereotypically “feminine,” and traditionally male tasks were typically assigned to the more stereotypically “masculine” partner.

According to the researchers, 66% of respondents believed the more “feminine” partner should be responsible for buying groceries, 61% also felt that partner should cook, and 58% thought that partner should clean the house and do the laundry.

On the other hand, 67% of respondents believed that the more “masculine” partner should handle automobile maintenance and outdoor chores.

“Sex was by far the strongest determinant of which tasks people assigned to each spouse in heterosexual couples,” Quadlin said.

“But, surprisingly, that theme extended to same-sex couples. When there wasn’t a sex difference between partners,

people relied on information about gender to guide their beliefs about what people should be doing. So, in other words, they took the heterosexual norm, where there are certain chores that men are expected to do and certain chores that women are expected to do, and used that same rationalization to determine household responsibilities for same-sex couples. We were surprised that happened to the extent that it did, because we thought expectations for household responsibilities would be more egalitarian between same-sex partners.”

Quadlin said the research provides insight into the state of gender equality in America.

“Determining who does what in the home is a complex negotiation that reflects underlying power dynamics in the household,” Quadlin said.

“We have public policies aimed at ensuring that women and men have equal earnings, but those policies will not necessarily advance gender equality in the home if people maintain such gendered attitudes. Even if women have higher earnings than their husbands, they are expected to come home and perform a second shift of chores and childcare.”

August 26, 2016

Seattle Gay News 7

Pride ASIA presents Dim Sum Dialogues: Geisha of a Different Kind

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On Monday, August 22, Pride ASIA, the organization of volunteers that produces the annual Pride ASIA event at Hing Hay Park, in Seattle’s Chinatown/ International District, along with The Seattle Public Library, presented a Dim Sum Dialogues book reading featuring C. Winter Han, author of Geisha of a Different Kind: Race & Sexuality in Gaysian America. The event was held at the Capitol Hill Branch of Seattle’s Public Library and was attended by nearly 75 people.

Aleksa Manila, Pride ASIA founder and current director, said the event was “a once in a lifetime experience to hear one of Seattle’s gem in the literary, academic and activism realms!”

About the author: Author C. Winter Han is Associate Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College in Vermont. Prior to becoming an academic, he was an award-winning journalist and served as the editor-inchief of Seattle’s International Examiner, the oldest continuously publishing pan-Asian Pacific American newspaper in the United States.

About the book: In gay bars and nightclubs across America, and in gay-oriented magazines and media, the buff, macho, white gay man is exalted as the ideal – the most attractive, the most wanted, and the most emulated type of man. For gay Asian American men, often viewed by their peers as submissive or too “pretty,” being sidelined in the gay community is only the latest in a long line of raciallymotivated offenses they face in the United States. Repeatedly marginalized by both the white-centric queer community that values a hyper-masculine sexuality and a homophobic Asian American community that often privileges masculine heterosexuality, gay Asian American men largely have been silenced and alienated in present-day culture and society. In Geisha of a Different Kind, C. Winter Han travels from West Coast Asian drag shows to the internationally sought-after Thai kathoey, or “ladyboy,” to construct a theory of queerness that is inclusive of the race and gender particularities of the gay Asian male experience in the United States.

Through ethnographic observation of queer Asian American communities and Asian American drag shows, interviews with gay Asian American men, and a reading of current media and popular cultural depictations of Asian Americans, Han argues that gay Asian American men, used to gender privilege within their own communities, must grapple with the idea that, as Asians, they have historically been feminized as a result of Western domination and colonization, and as a result, they are minorities within the gay community, which

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Author C. Winter Han – Photo by Shaun Knittel

is itself marginalized within the overall American society. Han also shows that many Asian American gay men can turn their unusual position in the gay and Asian American communities into a positive identity. In their own conception of self, their Asian heritage and sexuality makes these men unique, special, and, in the case of Asian American drag queens, much more able to convey a convincing erotic femininity. Challenging stereotypes about beauty, nativity, and desirability, Geisha of a Different Kind makes a major intervention in the study of race and sexuality in America.

Author C. Winter Han did not read excerpts from his book, but instead, took time to explain to everyone gathered to meet him and buy a copy of the book, why he wrote it and what he experienced during the interviews he conducted before writing the book. Many of his interview subjects, he said, have become lifelong friends.

The book has been well received by critics.

“Geisha of a Different Kind bravely engages with the struggles and triumphs of Asian American gay men as they inhabit American society and its gay mainstream. A lucid study with an unflinching focus on the daily contingencies of these men’s lives, this book is an important contribution to the scholarly understanding of contemporary U.S. sex/gender systems and their fraught links to racial formations,” said Martin F. Manalansan IV, author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora.

Following Han’s presentation was a dynamic panel discussion with Antonio Perez (Young Asian Men’s Study), Gaysha Starr (First Asian Empress of Seattle), and Tanya Rachinee (First Trans Miss Gay API International). The Q&A with the author and guests was moderated by Aleksa Manila (Miss Gay Filipino 2001 and former Community Facilitator of the Young Asian Men’s Study also know as YAMS).

Dim Sum Dialogues are cultural competency conversations to educate allies about the Queer API story. To date, Pride ASIA has spoken at colleges and libraries. For more information, go to www.

PrideASIA.org.

Geisha of a Different Kind by C. Winter Han

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“Cocks not Glocks” protest hits University of Texas Largest anti-gun rally in Texas history

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Thousands of University of Texas (UT) students strapped on dildos and paraded around the university’s Austin campus on August 24 to protest a new state law allowing concealed-carry handguns on university campuses.

UT student Jessica Jin started organizing the massive protest – timed to coincide with the first day of fall semester – last year.

“It seems that I have cracked an enormous dick joke on the Internet,” Jin told the San Antonio Express-News.

Jin’s protest movement came in response to a SB 11, a law that went into effect this month. It allows licensed firearms owners to carry concealed handguns into most buildings on campus. The law also gives a certain amount of latitude to campus presidents to designate so-called “gun-free zones.”

Reading about the gun measure, Jin realized UT’s code of conduct bans socalled “obscene devices” – as defined in the Texas Penal Code – from campus.

These include anything “including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”

“You would receive a citation for taking a dildo to class before you would get in trouble for taking a gun to class,” Jin wrote on the Facebook event page she created.

“Heaven forbid the penis.”

Jin said on the page that dildos are “just about as effective at protecting” students from “sociopathic shooters” as guns are.

Jin got the support of a number of campus organizations, and with their help distributed thousands of dildos to UT students.

“Let’s put a dildo in the hands of every pissed off college student who hasn’t been heard in this safety conversation,” Jin said.

“Strap it on, feel the discomfort, feel the weird looks. Wear it loud, wear it proud,

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin – Photo courtesy of dublindiocese

and don’t take them off until people take their guns home.”

A campus gun group, Students for Concealed Carry, said they had no problem

with the dildo demonstration.

“If carrying a phallus to class helps you express yourself, go for it,” Brian Bensimon, Texas state director for the group, said in a statement. “We welcome this demonstration that freedom of speech and concealed carry of handguns can coexist on the same campus.”

The group is also selling T-shirts and decals bearing the word “coexist,” with the “X” formed by a crossed handgun and dildo, symbolizing what they call a “gun/ dildo alliance.”

John Bird, UT’s Director of Media Outreach, told reporters there would be no increased police presence on campus to deal with the protest because it is protected political speech.

“We encourage our students to engage in free speech and debate issues of public policy,” Bird said.

HRC Foundation & Whitman-Walker Health release comprehensive transgender sexual health guide First-of-its-kind resource provides life-saving and affirming information for transgender and gender expansive people and their partners WASHINGTON DC – [On Tuesday, August 23,] the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, and WhitmanWalker Health, a community health center with special expertise in LGBTQ and HIV-related care, released Safer Sex for Trans Bodies, a comprehensive sexual health guide for transgender and gender expansive people and their partners. The guide fills a significant gap in inclusive, publicly-available sexual health resources for transgender and gender expansive people. [The guide is available online at: http://www.hrc.org/resources/safer-sexfor-trans-bodies.]

“Transgender people are too often denied crucial and relevant guidance around sexual health that everyone needs to live healthy, safe and whole lives,” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown. “Transgender health issues, especially those related to sexual health, are all too often stigmatized or completely ignored. Safer Sex for Trans Bodies provides essential information that will help minimize health risks that can develop because of a lack of knowledge.”

This first-of-its kind resource was drafted by HRC and Whitman-Walker Health in consultation with Casa Ruby, Trans United Fund, and TransLatin@ Coalition. It was made possible with support from the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with HRC in creating this important resource for the community,” said Josh Riley, Director of Community Commitment at Whitman-Walker Health.

“Too often in healthcare settings, if there is a focus on sexual health at all, it is only explored through the lens of pathology or dysfunction. Sexual health for trans bodies is even less recognized, rendered

and competent care. Last year, the HRC Foundation released a guide for transgender people navigating insurance plans, which often exclude coverage for medically necessary transition-related care.

The annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), the HRC Foundation’s national benchmarking tool that evaluates health care facilities’ LGBTQ-inclusive policies and practices, measures services and treatment of transgender patients.

To learn more about HRC’s work on transgender equality, visit http://www. hrc.org/transgender.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

First-of-its-kind, Safer Sex for Trans Bodies offers health resources for Trans people – Image courtesy of hrc.org

invisible because of ignorance or stigma.

This new guide emphasizes sexual health, wellness, and exploration, in addition to risk reduction, and will be a valuable tool for trans-identified individuals across the spectrum, as well as their healthcare providers and other allies.”

The guide is written by and for members of the transgender community and offers them a long-overdue resource on potentially life-saving and affirming practices, from respectful terminology and definitions to helpful practices for sexual health following transition-related care. It will be available online and at Whitman-Walker Health’s locations in Washington, DC. A Spanish-language version will be released in the com-

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ing months. HRC and Whitman-Walker Health also hosted a Facebook Live conversation about transgender health on Wednesday, August 23rd at 1 PM Eastern on the HRC Facebook page.

Ruby Corado of Casa Ruby, a bilingual, multicultural organization providing life-saving services and programs to LGBT people in the DCarea, offered her support of the guide.

“This publication is critical to support informed decision-making in trans communities that lack access to many resources. Through this guide, providers will have ready access to culturally competent guidance,” Corado said.

Transgender people frequently experience significant barriers to inclusive

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Established in 1978, Whitman-Walker Health is a non-profit, community health center serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Through four sites in the District of Columbia, WhitmanWalker Health offers primary medical and dental care; mental health and addictions counseling and treatment; HIV education, prevention, and testing; legal services; and medical adherence case management. Whitman-Walker Health is committed to meeting the health needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and people living with HIV/AIDS. www.whitman-walker.org Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation

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Gay Softball World Series 2016 Wrap-Up

Each year, NAGAAA (North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association) partners with a Host City to deliver the Gay Softball World Series (GSWS) – the largest annual, LGBT single-sport, week-long athletic competition in the world. Teams from the 43 Member Cities across North America compete to qualify and represent their city in one of five Divisions. Series 2016 was held from August 15th-20th in Austin, TX, and was the 40th Gay Softball World Series. http://austingsws2016. org/ – http://www.nagaaasoftball.org/

2016 Masters Division 1st – New York Cranky Yankees 2nd – Seattle Silverbacks 3rd – Fort Lauderdale Alive and Kicking 4th – Austin Bat Boys 5.0 Congratulations to all winners and to all participating teams!

Courtesy of NAGAAA

Following is a list of the 2016 GSWS winning teams: 2016 A Division 1st – Dallas Texas Force – Powered by Woody’s 2nd – Atlanta Elite 3rd – Portland Brewers 4th – Palm Springs Rounders 2.0

Seattle Atomics at Gay Softball World Series 2016 – Photo courtesy of Nissan; Photo credit: Larry Barthel

2016 C Division 1st – Kansas City Cocktails 2nd – Austin Outlaws 3rd – San Diego Firestorm 4th – DC Envy

2016 B Division 1st – Los Angeles Thunder 2nd – Orlando Unicorns 3rd – Seattle Los Gallitos 4th – Twin Cities Freak

2016 D Division 1st – Phoenix Saints 2nd – DC Titans 3rd – Las Vegas Wranglers 4th – Nashville Avengers

Gay Softball World Series 2016 – Photo courtesy of Nissan; Photo credit: Larry Barthel

Four Gay men killed by ISIS, including two members

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The terrifying trend continues in ISIS controlled territory as four men accused of homosexuality and sodomy were executed Saturday, August 20, in Mosul, a northern Iraq city.

Similar to previous executions, the men were pushed off a shuttered central Mosul office building, according to a report in Iraqi News, which also noted that two of the men were ISIS members.

As is typical in ISIS executions where people are pushed off buildings, crowds gathered at ground level to watch the killings.

Another man accused of homosexuality was killed in a similar fashion earlier this month in Mosul. The Daily Mail embedded on their website a video that depicts an ISIS

commander preaching before a crowd gathered at the base of a tall building in Mosul, informing bystanders that the victim has been found guilty of “corruption of thought” and “homosexual acts.”

The punishment for such crimes, under ISIS interpretation of Islamic law, is death by stoning or by being thrown from the tallest building in the city. The speaker then warns the crowd of men and young boys gathered not to have Gay sex, as such acts are “forbidden in the caliphate.”

The camera then shifts its focus to the roof, where several uniformed men can be seen surrounding another man in a blue shirt standing at the ledge of the building. One of the militants shoves him, and the man falls to his death. Shortly thereafter, additional militants can be seen rushing to remove the body.

The first reported executions of men convicted of the “crime” of homosexuality appeared in western press as early as 2014. Similar executions have been performed before a large crowd of locals reportedly gathered at the base of the building to watch the victims die. In some instances, victims who survived the fall were subsequently stoned to death.

Still other victims have been beheaded by ISIS members who found them guilty of engaging in “sodomy.”

Last August, the terrorist group allegedly killed nine Gay men at once, by dropping them from another tall building in Mosul. That same month, the United Nations reported that at least 30 people had been killed in such a manner after being accused of being Gay. Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, fell under ISIS control in June 2014. By August,

ISIS leaders had declared that the city’s universities must segregate all classes by gender, with women attending class in the morning and men taking their classes in the afternoon, according to Education News. ISIS adheres to a radical, and some scholars say, un-Islamic interpretation of the Koran, which mandates the conversion, enslavement, or execution of captured nonbelievers, and the violent subjugation of women, who are the property of their husbands. There is some dissent about whether the anti-Gay provisions of Sharia law are enshrined in broader hard-line Islamic values, or whether the ongoing executions are yet another ISIS perversion of what millions of people say is a peace-loving religion.

to understand,” he concluded.

In a statement, the seminary’s trustees said trainee priests will be paying heed to Pope Francis’ recommendation to spend more time with women and families to “benefit” their studies.

Martin personally intervened to dismiss the three students from the seminary after receiving a series of anonymous tips from other students there.

“One (allegation) is that there is a homosexual, gay culture, that students have been using an app called Grindr, which would be inappropriate for seminarians and not just because they are going to be celibate priests,” Martin said in an August 9 interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE. “If this is going on a large scale in the seminary and it hasn’t been noticed in the seminary, then there is something wrong,” he added.

Fr. Hugh Connolly, the president of

the seminary, denied any “concrete evidence” of a Gay subculture at his college.

He said he had no formal complaints from students there and that no official investigation had been launched prior to Archbishop Martin’s intervention.

“It is very important that anything we do, we do in natural justice, in other words, that we will always act only when we have clarity and when we have grounds to act,” Connolly told RTE. “Broadly speaking, I think the atmosphere is a very good one.”

In response to the controversy, Fr. Brendan Hoban, an Irish priest, author, and radio personality who has had numerous conflicts with official Church doctrine, remarked that at seminary “you are always going to have a mixture of gay and heterosexual candidates, that has always been the case, and there will be, from time to time, incidents that people would prefer didn’t happen. But they do happen, human nature being what it is.”

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Irish Catholic seminary to monitor social media apps in wake of Grindr scandal

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Roman Catholic seminary officials at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland, will now monitor their students’ social media apps to make sure none of them are on Grindr.

The seminary was ordered to review its social media policy after three seminarians were expelled earlier this month for using the internationally popular hookup app.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin sent the trainee priests to Rome in an effort to break up what he called a “Gay culture” at the seminary.

“People are sexually active in the seminary,” Martin said. “People are on an app or website called Grindr,” which was not appropriate for men training to become celibate priests, the Archbishop added.

“An app like that is something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality,

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin – Photo courtesy of dublindiocese

which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest

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