SGN November 20, 2015 - Section 1

Celebrating 41 Years!

Issue 47 Volume 43

SEC 3

CHECK OUT OUR HOLIDAY EVENTS CALENDAR PG 5

Seattle Gay News

FRIDAY November 20, 2015 FREE!

25¢ in bookstores & newsstands

SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

City Council votes to add $75,000 Tom Rasmussen offers counter to the Office of Arts and Culture in proposal to LGBT community 2016 for AIDS Legacy/Memorial

center budget item

Seattle City Council Chambers – en.wikipedia.org

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Good news for outgoing Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen this week.

On Monday the City Council voted to add $75,000 to the Office of Arts and Culture in 2016 to help fund the initial planning process for an AIDS Legacy/Memorial.

Also, Rasmussen’s office confirmed that there will be a $75,000 match in commuTom Rasmussen – westseattleblog.com nity support, for a total planning budget of $150,000 for the project Rasmussen gained by Mike Andrew colleague Kshama Sawant to fund a study to SGN Staff Writer support for within the past few weeks. explore creating an LGBT community cen“Most importantly,” said Tobias Pulliam, ter. legislative assistant to Rasmussen, “this is a At a Seattle City Council budget commitSawant’s measure would have instructed community investment in planning for an tee meeting November 16, Councilmember the Seattle Parks Department to develop a see hiv/aids memorial page 4 Tom Rasmussen opposed a proposal by his see Tom rasmussen page 5

SPD films training videos for officers in preparation for new Transgender policy set to begin

Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremonies to be held in Seattle, Bellevue and Edmonds The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is a day set aside to remember and honor Transgender persons who were murdered in the last year. Sadly, this year has seen a marked increase in the number of such hate-motivated crimes. The Puget Sound Transgender community and its allies gather to remember those who were taken from us at ceremonies around the Puget Sound region.

We invite you to stand with us.

We are holding four ceremonies for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

SPD to film training videos in preparation for new Transgender policy – www.seattle.gov

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Seattle Police Department officials began work on a Transgender specific policy in late 2013 that would govern how officers deal with everything from traffic stops to body searches of Transgender people in Seattle. Earlier this year, SPD, in cooperation

with several members of the local Transgender community, sent the policy to the feds for consideration after SPD Chief of Police Kathleen O’Toole and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed off on the policy and praised the work that had been done to finish the project.

According to SPD officials, the Department of Justice recently gave the policy a

The first two will be held on Friday, November 20.

One will be at Seattle City Hall (entrance at 5th Ave. & Cherry St.) in the Bertha Knight Landes Room. Aidan Key will deliver the keynote address entitled “Fighting Back.”

Captain Smartypants, an ensemble from the Seattle Men’s Chorus will perform “Lean on Me” and Diverse Harmony, an LGBT youth chorus will perform “True Colors.”

The second ceremony will be held in Edmonds at St. Hilda/St. Patrick Episcopalian Church (15224 52nd Ave. W., Edmonds).

The church choir will perform “Lacrimosa” and “Ave Verum Corpus,” both by Mozart.

Mother Carla Robbinson will be the featured speaker. She is a Transwoman of color who is also an Episcopalian Priest.

The first will be at Seattle’s Ravenna United Methodist Church (5751 33rd Ave. NE, Seattle). The Wallingford United Methodist Church Choir will perform “Agnus Dei” and “In Paradesium” by Fauré. Mother Robbinson will be the featured speaker.

The second ceremony will be at the First United Methodist Church of Bellevue (1934 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue). The church choir will perform “Requieum” by Ezekiel and Claire Michelle Burgess will perform “True Colors.”

Each of the ceremonies will have a reading of the names. The names of the Transgender persons who were murdered in the last year will be read.

Most ceremonies have Transgender persons reading the names. However, at ours we will invite anyone who wants to read a name to come forward and do so.

We remember and honor the Transgender persons who lost their lives because of Transgender hatred and we respect and embrace our allies who stand with us against the hate.

Admission is free and light snacks will be served after the ceremony. For more information call us at 360-353-4193 or email us at TDORSeattle@gmail.com.

Courtesy of Transgender Day of RememWe will hold two ceremonies on Satur- brance Seattle see spd training page 4 day, November 21.

2 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

Mayor wants to strengthen labor laws

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is proposing new legislation to strengthen the city’s progressive labor standards.

“The legislation is aimed to better protect workers, deter and penalize bad actors while leveling the playing field for businesses that are already in compliance,” the Mayor’s office said in a November 19 press release.

Murray’s measure would strengthen Seattle’s landmark Minimum Wage, Administrative Wage Theft, Paid Sick and Safe Time, and Job Assistance ordinances, including: • giving workers a private right of action to sue employers for wrongdoing, • increasing recovery for wronged workers up to three times the amount owed, and • strengthening the ability of the City’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS) to identify businesses that fail to comply with the City’s labor laws.

The right of private action, which allows workers to seek remedies in court, was a key demand of local labor unions.

“This proposal advances our groundbreaking workers’ rights protections by ensuring the spirit and letter of these laws are upheld,” Murray said.

“We’re making reforms that will allow the Office of Labor Standards to better protect our workers, take meaningful actions against bad actors, and allow us to help level the playing field for businesses that already are doing the right thing by paying employees their full paycheck.”

The proposed changes also create incentives for employers to resolve investigations quickly so that workers receive compensation owed to them as soon as possible. Murray said he hoped the measures would help

Visit us online www.sgn.org

Mayor Ed Murray – www.kirotv.com

workers quickly recover their earned wages when violations occur and ensure greater compliance by more employers.

“These amendments provide stronger incentives for employees to report labor standards violations and for employers to comply with labor standards requirements,” said OLS Director Dylan Orr. “The result will be increased equity and a healthy economy for everyone in Seattle.”

“Seattle is making history once again by becoming the first large city to develop a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind proposal that harmonizes and strengthens the City’s enforcement of its labor standards,” said Rebecca Smith, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project.

“This proposal guards against workers being cheated out of their wages by badactor employers, ensuring they are paid the wages that they’ve earned.”

Research cited by the mayor’s office indicates that wage theft and other pay-related violations are major issues.

A National Employment Law Project

study found that more than two-thirds of 4,387 workers surveyed in low-wage industries in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week, amounting to an average loss of 15% of their weekly earnings. Based on this finding, potentially tens of thousands of the estimated 102,000 low-wage workers in Seattle may regularly experience wage theft.

Casa Latina, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization, reported filing 100 wage theft complaints with the Washington Department of Labor and Industries in an 18-month period in 2010-11, and receiving 250 calls per year from workers who said that they were not getting paid.

A comprehensive study of wage theft across the state, authored by a student at UW Evans School of Public Affairs, reported that Washington State Labor and Industries closed 14,799 wage theft claims from 2009 to 2013, adding up to $46 million in claims. The average claim per worker in King County was $3,281.25.

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 3

SGN exclusive interview:

George Pieper talks about an LGBT community center

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer George Pieper, president of Seattle LGBTQ Community Development, was “disappointed but not deterred” by the Seattle City Council budget committee decision not to explore ways to create an LGBT community center.

Pieper has spent seven years working to build a new LGBT community center since the last incarnation closed its doors in 2008.

Seattle LGBTQ Community Development is dedicated to building a financially sustainable LGBT center.

At the City Council’s November 16 budget committee hearing, he testified in support of Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s proposal, but offered what he called a “friendly amendment” – to ask for help from the City’s Office of Economic Development and Human Services Department, rather than the Parks Department, as Sawant had proposed.

“What I’m advocating would be very different from a Parks Department–provided center,” Pieper told the SGN in a phone interview. “I think Councilmember Sawant understands that, but she found money for the proposal in the Parks budget.

“The problem is that the money is already accounted for. I wouldn’t want to fight other organizations when we could find money in other areas.”

Pieper told the SGN that he had spoken about his idea with Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who successfully amended Sawant’s proposal for an LGBT center, but had not had the time to speak at length with Sawant.

“Unfortunately it all unfolded so quickly,” Pieper explained. “Councilmembers tend to submit their ‘green sheets’ in a hasty manner.” So-called “green sheets” are amendments to the city budget that coun-

George Pieper – lgbtqseattle.org

cilmembers can submit to the Council’s budget committee.

Pieper’s Capitol Hill group had originally hoped to find a home for the LGBT community center at the Broadway and Denny transit center now nearing completion.

That project did not pencil out, however.

Sound Transit “had a housing minimum in the package,” Pieper told the SGN. In other words, the agency wanted the development of affordable housing units included in the bid package.

“That made it more expensive and not as inclusive,” Pieper said. Seattle LGBTQ Community Development is still looking for a suitable site for a community center.

Unlike previous LGBT centers, Pieper wants his project to be financially sustainable from the beginning.

“We have a plan [for a community center] in place,” Pieper says. “A real business plan, so we don’t have to keep asking the community for money year after year.”

“We’re trying to create something very new here,” he continued. “There’s a big distinction in the idea of a community center.

In fact, rather than calling it a ‘community center’ we want to call it an ‘LGBT Community Impact Hub.’ We want to attract community nonprofits that already have sustainable budgets and staff.

“We already have service providers, so it’s not a question of getting service providers. It’s how to coordinate the services and provide a place for these services.”

the generational divide but that the hiv/aids memorial across people who should be telling the stories

from the early days of the AIDS crisis is the people who were there.

In the first two decades of the AIDS epidemic, Seattle experienced a tragic loss of nearly 4,000 persons.

‘The epidemic was met by a cross-section of our community who worked creatively and tirelessly in the face of fear and

discrimination to help those diagnosed with the HIV virus,” Rasmussen told SGN. “The history of the early days of the AIDS epidemic and how Seattle responded has not been comprehensively collected or recorded or presented,” he added, saying that this important work needs to be done because many from that generation are aging or have moved away as examples of why the time has come to get started.

“It is important that the experience of those who were first on the front lines of the battle against AIDS and the stories of the lives that were lost be chronicled,” he said.

Pulliam tells Seattle Gay News that more information about next steps will be forthcoming.

Seattle LGBT Commissioner Mitch Hunter, participated in the video and photo shoot.

Each participant was asked a series of questions in an interview-style video shoot so officers could get to know Transgender people in a way that many of them may not have had, or taken the chance to do so, before this training. SPD and other departments know that humanizing people from marginalized communities helps officers better serve those folks. The participants stated their name, age and number of years residing in Seattle; the age they began to recognize that they are Transgender; employment or position (board member/elected positions/etc.); list some of the problems they may have experienced in life

because they are Transgender; explain any past interaction with Seattle Police officers or other police departments (if any); as well as answer the questions “When I interact with the Police, the thing I would most appreciate is: __________” and “The most important thing for me as a Transgender person is that the police: __________.”

The move to develop and implement a Transgender policy for the Seattle Police Department is not a part of the Consent Decree, the federally mandated comprehensive settlement agreement to ensure that police services are delivered in a manner that fully complies with the Constitution and laws of the United States, which effectively ensures public and officer safety,

and promotes public confidence in the Seattle Police Department and its officers.

Several out officers, Sina Ebinger and Jim Ritter (SAFE PLACE program founder) worked on the policy with many others on their own volition. The policy idea and production was supported by the Chief of Police and its contents agreed upon by members of the local Transgender community.

Seattle joins the short list of major U.S. cities with such policies. As of 2015, only Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C. – and now Seattle – have Transgender policies in place.

continued from cover

AIDS Legacy Memorial Project in Seattle – and diverse stakeholder groups will be closely involved.”

Currently, Seattle does not have an HIV/AIDS memorial. Rasmussen told Seattle Gay News that it is important that this project include input and talent taken from

spd training continued from cover

thumbs up and SPD training officials began to plan out the best way for the policy to be implemented for patrol officers, detectives, and civilian employees alike. One of the best ways, they thought, was visual presentations by way of videos starring none other than real Transgender people from our very own community.

On Tuesday morning, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Seattle Police Training Center (2203 Airport Way S.) several Transgender activists and community advocates such as Pride Foundation’s Gunner Scott, Social Outreach Seattle’s Mac S. McGregor and

4 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

UFCW 21 announces new Trans health benefits

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21 has announced that its largest employee insurance trust, Sound Health and Wellness, will now include full medical services for Transgender union members.

UFCW 21 is the largest private-sector union in the state, with 44,000 members in the grocery, food processing, retail, and healthcare industries.

The change in healthcare coverage applies to more than 23,000 of the union’s members, “everybody in our grocery stores and some of our healthcare members, plus their spouses and kids,” according to UFCW 21 spokesperson Tom Geiger.

“It includes all medically necessary treatment for Transgender individuals, including surgery. Twenty years from now this will be a nonissue, and I’m proud our union will have a role in making it a nonissue.”

“This is a really big deal,” said UFCW 21 member Lilian Queen. “Just to have one of the largest unions in the state say ‘Trans’ out loud is a big deal.”

Queen moved to the Seattle area from Florida in September 2014 and now works at a Safeway in Skyway. She began her transition just before moving, although she had

tom rasmussen continued from cover

plan for the City to create an LGBT center on Capitol Hill.

The idea for an LGBT community center was raised by several of the participants in a March forum on hate crimes organized

by Councilmember Sawant and local LGBT activists. The concept was also one of the recommendations of Mayor Ed Murray’s LGBT Hate Crimes Task Force.

At the committee hearing, Rasmussen offered a substitute motion that focused on recreational activities and not the community services Sawant had envisioned.

“Community centers are supposed to fulfill the recreational and social needs of all communities,” Rasmussen said at the budget hearing. “The special needs of the LGBT community are not under the purview of the Parks Department.”

“Community center means community,” Councilmember Jean Godden commented, “and it should be all communities. There are some parts of this city that don’t have a community center. We’ve been trying to develop a community center in Lake City…”

“This is not about recreational services,” Sawant replied. “It’s in addition to services the Parks Department now provides. If I’m facing discrimination at work, what do I do?

If I’m homeless, where do I go? There should be a center LGBT people can turn to.”

In the end, only budget committee chair Nick Licata and Councilmember Mike

known for a long time that she was a woman.

“People think there are so few of us,” she told the SGN. “They think ‘why should I care about a few people.’ A lot of us are invisible. You might think you’re meeting a male coworker – but no!”

Although she does not plan to have surgery, Queen says the additional insurance coverage is important to the community.

“Most insurance companies say it’s just cosmetic surgery, and now we can say ‘no, it’s necessary,’ ” she explains. “And so many Trans people end up in retail. Back in Florida I worked at Kmart and Winn-Dixie. Of course there was no union so we didn’t have any representation. In the South, Trans people are kind of a hyperminority.”

Queen told the SGN that she’s glad she’s now a union member.

“When I first got here I had a lot of questions from coworkers,” she recalled. “Trans people, sometimes we become a spectacle.

People ask all kinds of questions. Your privacy is gone.

“I had a big problem with one of my coworkers. He was just really obnoxious.

HR investigated, and then the union rep stepped in and talked with everybody and solved the problem.

“I was glad, actually, that he had representation too,” she added.

UFCW 21 has a long history of adO’Brien lined up with Sawant to support an LGBT community center focused on providing services, and not merely recreation, to the community.

Council President Tim Burgess and Councilmembers John Okamoto, Sally Bagshaw, and Jean Godden joined Rasmussen to vote yes on his substitute motion.

Councilmember Bruce Harrell was not present.

The statement written by Rasmussen that will go to the full City Council and be voted on as part of the budget now calls on the Parks Department to: • “ensure that community centers are the focal points in our neighborhoods and serve as places where people can connect, foster relationships, build community, and enhance their health and well-being by offering programs, activities, and events to Seattle’s changing population,” and • “ensure community centers are physically and emotionally safe and welcoming places for individual enrichment and community growth.”

The expression “LGBT” was excised from Rasmussen’s proposal, which passed

by Council vote, 5-3.

LGBT activists react Local LGBT activists, many of whom had recently advocated for an LGBT community center, expressed disappointment at the budget committee’s action.

Gender Justice League Executive Director Dani Askini said it was “a disappoint-

Visit us online www.sgn.org

Lilian Queen – Photo by Tom Geiger/UFCW 21

dressing LGBT issues. It was one of the first unions to offer same-sex domestic partners equal benefits to those afforded to oppositesex married spouses. In 2012, the union played an important role in the R-74 marriage equality campaign, hosting Washington United for Marriage in its Georgetown union headquarters.

In July, UFCW 21 presented a resolu-

tion at the annual Washington State Labor Council convention committing all the WSLC’s affiliated unions to removing discriminatory exclusions from their healthcare policies and to bargaining for Transinclusive contracts.

ing move by the council, which claims to be ‘progressive’ – except when it comes to our community.”

“Gender Justice League strongly supported this proposal to STUDY the possibility of an LGBTQ community center supported by the Parks Department,” Askini wrote in an email to the SGN. “Given that we only have Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill – with very little LGBTQ-specific programming – we have heard a lot of calls from LGBTQ homeless youth, Trans people, and other vulnerable community members that a citysupported study would help us lay a path forward to a successful, self-funded LGBTQ center.

“We are disappointed that the statement of legislative intent was shot down today, but not surprised. While Seattle is experiencing perhaps the highest anti-LGBT hate crimes per capita of any major city, city leaders seem content with ‘window dressing’ approaches to the issue. Rainbow sidewalks and window decals will not address the root causes of anti-LGBTQ violence.

However, an LGBTQ community center would be a vital resource for the most vulnerable in our community.”

Trans activist Jade Vogelsang, who describes theirself as a “person of color who has struggled personally with homelessness and has been actively involved in the community for quite some time, working as a social justice advocate and as a peer support for other LGBTQ homeless individuals,”

noted that Seattle has failed to keep pace with its growing LGBTQ population.

“Due to the lack of LGBTQ-specific resources and safe spaces, our LGBTQ community is divided. And now we are seeing an increase in anti-LGBTQ violence and gentrification,” they told the SGN. “Whether it’s an LGBTQ community center, an LGBTQ service center, or more LGBTQ-specific resources, we need something that can better help build and unite our LGBTQ community and counter the gentrification we are seeing happen here in Seattle. There are a lot of needs that aren’t being met for the LGBTQ community, and a lack of representation around these issues.”

Debbie Carlsen, executive director of Allyship, which helped organize the March forum on hate crimes, also said she was “disappointed.”

“Allyship’s 1100+-participant LGBTQ safety survey uncovered that youth between the ages of 18 and 24 and seniors 55 and older strongly support a LGBTQ community center to address LGBTQ public safety and social isolation of youth and seniors in our community,” she said in a statement.

“We need a community center that centers the needs, voices and experiences of the most marginalized in the LGBTQ community and is funded and sustained by the City of Seattle. I want to thank Councilmembers Kshama Sawant, Nick Licata and Mike O’Brien for championing concrete safety solutions for vulnerable LGBTQ community members in Seattle.”

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 5

6 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 7

MoSS Alley MotorS, Inc. SpecialiStS in VolVo, Honda, toyota and Subaru

932 12th ave.

Seattle, Wa 98122 (206).325--.3992 www.mossalley.com Seattle’s most progressive auto shop!

8 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 9

10 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

Utah judge removes himself from Lesbian child custody case – HRC files ethics complaint

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A Utah state judge who took a foster child away from a married Lesbian couple first reversed his decision and then removed himself from the case as criticism of his ruling mounted.

Judge Scott Johansen originally removed a baby girl from the custody of April Hoagland and Beckie Pierce and placed the child with an opposite-sex couple. In his ruling, he cited supposed research claiming that children do better when raised by opposite-sex parents.

Hoagland and Pierce accused the judge of imposing his personal religious values and asked that he be disqualified from their case. The American Psychological Association has said there is no scientific basis for believing that Gay and Lesbian couples are unfit parents based on their sexual orientation.

Johansen reversed his order on November 13, allowing the baby girl to remain with the couple pending a new hearing he set for December 4.

However, he removed himself from the case November 16, shortly after HRC called for an investigation of possible ethics violations.

Taking the child away from Hoagland and Pierce merely because they are Lesbians is a clear violation of the Utah Code of Judicial Conduct, the group said. The

Utah State Judge Scott Johansen – www.joemygod.com

code expressly forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. HRC filed a complaint with the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission.

“Removing this child from a loving and permanent home based solely on the sexual orientation of its parents is not only discriminatory but is also counter to the overwhelming evidence that children being raised by same-sex parents are just as healthy and well adjusted as those with different-sex parents,” said HRC Legal Direc-

tor Sarah Warbelow.

“It is unconscionable that any judge would let bias interfere with determining the true best interest of a child, and we strongly encourage the commission to take appropriate action to hold this judge accountable and to affirm that personal bias has no place in judicial decisions in Utah.”

The same day that HRC filed its complaint, the watchdog group Alliance for a Better Utah called for Johansen to be impeached.

“This guy now has a pattern of doing these kinds of outrageous things,” the group’s founder, Josh Kantor, said.

According to Kantor, Johansen slapped a 16-year-old boy in 1995 after the boy supposedly spoke disrespectfully to him.

Three years ago, a woman filed a complaint against the judge because he ordered her to cut off her 13-year-old daughter’s ponytail in a plea deal, after the girl cut off a threeyear-old’s hair.

Johansen has been a judge since 1992.

Trans exclusion in ADA may be unconstitutional, DOJ says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The provision in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) excluding Transgender individuals may be unconstitutional, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on November 16, and courts should ignore it to avoid legal problems.

The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination and requires employers – among others – to accommodate their disabilities.

However, the law explicitly excludes people with gender identity disorder (GID) except for those whose GID results from “physical impairments.” DOJ now says that Transgender people should be able to pursue ADA claims “because a growing body of scientific evidence suggests” that being Transgender may have a physical origin.

DOJ commented in the case of Blatt v.

Cabela Retail, in which a Trans employee is suing her former employer for discrimination and harassment under the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Kate Lynn Blatt charges that she was forced by her employer to use the men’s bathroom at work, and that her colleagues called her “ladyboy,” “freak,” and “sinner.”

Cabela’s refused to reasonably accommodate her, Blatt says, when the store denied her use of an appropriate restroom and the

ability to wear a nametag with her correct name.

DOJ has already found that the Title VII protection against discrimination on the

Visit us online www.sgn.org

basis of sex protects Trans employees, and it now says that the ADA requires that employers accommodate Trans employees by allowing them to use appropriate restrooms

and wear correct nametags.

In their brief, Blatt and her attorneys have mounted a head-on challenge to the constitutionality of the ADA’s exclusion of Transgender people.

They cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in United States v. Windsor, which struck down DOMA, saying that the ADA exclusion injures Trans people.

“Similar to the Supreme Court’s admonition in United States v. Windsor ... the exclusion injures the very class of people the ADA seeks to protect,” according to the brief. They also urge U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Schmehl to find the exclusion unconstitutional.

“DOJ’s position creates a path forward for transgender people who need reasonable workplace accommodations, which is a good thing,” said Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project at Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

“It also concedes that unless the court interprets the statute in some way to allow protections for transgender people under the ADA, there is a constitutional problem.”

“This is the next logical progression of the LGBT movement,” said Jillian Todd Weiss, a professor at Ramapo College’s School of Social Science and Human Services, who is also working on a case in Texas brought against Saks Fifth Avenue by a Transgender employee.

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 11

Clinton racks up big endorsements

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Hillary Clinton won two big endorsements this week, getting the support of Jim Obergefell, plaintiff in the historic marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, on November 16 and the endorsement of the huge Service Employees International Union (SEIU) the next day.

“I refuse to let Republicans undo the progress that we’ve made, and that is why we need Hillary Clinton in the White House, because she will be by our side as we break down barriers and finally reach full equality for all,” Obergefell said in a statement.

SEIU, which represents two million members, endorsed Clinton despite a public letter circulated by a big Oregon SEIU local asking union leadership to wait and see how the campaign develops before turning their backs on Clinton’s main rival, Bernie Sanders.

“We do worry about the message it will send if SEIU backs the establishment candidate over a staunch labor ally in this primary,” the letter read. “It will tell our true friends that SEIU won’t have their backs when they stand up for us.”

Nevertheless, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry insisted on lining up with Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” Henry said in a statement. “This movement for economic, racial, immigrant and social justice is poised to turn out to vote in November with their families and communities and keep pushing elected officials to deliver once in office.”

To date, Clinton has won endorsements from three big public sector unions – the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which together boast 4.6 million members, as well as the 1.6 million–member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSMCE).

In addition, Clinton has won the endorsements of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) and the International Association of Machinists (IAM), who represent Boeing workers, among others.

Sanders has gotten the endorsements of National Nurses United (NNU) and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).

APWU President Mark Dimondstein said Sanders “stands above all others as a true champion of postal workers and other workers throughout the country.”

Hillary Clinton – Getty Images via mic.com

Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), has joined the Sanders campaign as a full-time volunteer in large part because Clinton supported fast-tracking the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Although Clinton has since backtracked and no longer supports the TPP, Cohen says Sanders has had the correct position from the beginning.

Cohen also helped launch Labor for

Bernie, a group of rank-and-file union activists. The group has tried to slow union endorsements for Clinton. Cohen said that regardless of how unions endorse a candidate, he hopes union leadership will give members the freedom to campaign for whomever they want.

The third Democratic presidential hopeful, Martin O’Malley, has yet to win a major union endorsement.

HRC President Chad Griffin testifies at firstever Congressional Forum on Anti-Transgender Violence

HRC President Chad Griffin – youtube.com

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, November 17, the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus held the first-ever Congressional Forum on Violence Against the Transgender Community in an effort to raise awareness of the scourge of violence impacting the Transgender community – particularly Transgender women of color.

Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, testified before Congress emphasizing the need to implement and enforce legislation that will protect Transgender Americans and curb the rampant violence against their community.

In his testimony, which can be read in full here, Griffin said: “Congress must pass the Equality Act to clearly and consistently prohibit discrimination against transgender people in every area of their lives: at work and at school, in seeking health care, and when accessing credit or housing.

We must also make anti-bullying laws and policies trans-inclusive and meaningfully implemented, and we must help teachers and school administrators more consistently provide real support to the victims. Congress has the power to make this change and protect all students by passing the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non-Discrimination Act.

12 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

We must demand that state and federal agencies ensure that young people in foster care and those living on the streets have access to appropriate and safe emergency housing and supportive services. And they must provide better opportunities for education and job training to give them the opportunities they need to succeed. Passage of the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act is essential to ensure that transgender youth aren’t turned away from these vital shelters.

Congress should hold law enforcement agencies accountable by requiring mandatory reporting of bias motivated crime data. Finally, Congress must commit to adequately funding the programs that em-

power transgender people, including those that provide job training and affordable housing.”

This historic forum included testimony from community organizers, advocates, and service providers on the impact and causes of violence. It included two panels: one representing the lived experience of transgender victims and educating on the scope of violence experienced by transgender people and a second panel featuring HRC President Chad Griffin and other voices of organizations dedicated to ending bias-motivated violence against transgender people. Preceding the forum at a press conference this morning, the LGBT Equality Caucus also announced the launch of a new task force focused on transgender equality.

The events come the day after the FBI released its Hate Crime Statistics for 2014.

For the second year in a row, the report included statistics on bias-motivated incidents based on gender identity – which grew from 31 reported to the FBI in 2013 to 98 in 2014, though thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country did not submit data. The new statistics come just days after HRC released a joint comprehensive report with the Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC) on the epidemic of violence against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color.

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

Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign

Celebrating 41 Years!

We know Jeb but we really don’t like him that much, Florida voters say New poll shows Jeb Bush in 5th place

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is well known – but apparently not so well liked – in his home state, according to a new Business and Economics Polling Initiative (BEPI) survey.

In fact, Bush comes in far down the list of Republican presidential hopefuls.

In a poll BEPI conducted November 15 and 16, businessman and TV huckster Donald Trump is way ahead among likely Republican voters, with 36% support.

Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio comes second with 18%, followed by Ben Carson (15%), and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (10%). Bush trails with only 9% of respondents.

“Despite conjecture that Donald Trump has plateaued, his support in Florida remains very strong and could be growing,” said Kevin Wagner, associate professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University and BEPI research fellow.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has an enormous 44-point lead over Bernie Sanders, 66% to 22%.

The downside for Clinton is that she continues to trail among Florida voters in headto-head matchups with the Republican frontrunners, trailing Carson 50% to 41%, and Trump 49% to 41%.

On the other hand, “while Clinton is losing in all the trial heats, she is winning among females,” BEPI director Monica Escaleras noted. “Thus it appears that her strategy of targeting women is working.”

While Trump and Clinton are clear frontrunners among Florida voters, neither one of them is well liked, according to the BEPI poll.

Trump has a favorable rating of just 41% among all voters, while 51% have an unfavorable impression of him. His numbers are more positive among likely GOP voters, however, with 63% favorable compared to 32% unfavorable.

Clinton has the same problem, with

Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush – Rebecca Cook / Reuters via cnbc.com

voters giving her a 41% favorable rating, compared with 54% saying they have an unfavorable impression of her. Among selfidentified independent voters, Clinton’s numbers drop to 35% favorable and 56% unfavorable.

BEPI surveyed 355 Republicans and 297

Democrats for their party primary survey, and 829 registered voters regardless of party preference for their head-to-head general election matchups. The margin of error for the party polling was between 5.2 and 5.6 points, and for the general election polling, 3.3 points.

Ukraine passes LGBT protections to get free travel to EU, as EU discusses end to open borders

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Ukraine finally passed a law protecting its LGBT residents from discrimination in order to win the right for Ukrainians to travel freely in the EU, but less than a week later, France proposed that the EU scrap its open borders policy.

After six tries, and only two days after voting the bill down, the Ukrainian parliament passed LGBT protections on November 12. Supporters of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko argued that the country had to comply with European human rights standards in order to get the right to visafree travel in the EU under the Schengen

Agreement on open borders.

Unfortunately for Ukraine, that agreement may soon be a thing of the past.

In the wake of a horrific terrorist attack, France proposed on November 16 to scrap the Schengen Agreement as a security measure.

The new Ukrainian law updates the country’s Labor Code, to protect a number of groups against discrimination.

It specifically bans workplace discrimination on the basis of “race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic, social and foreign origin, age, health, disability or suspected presence of HIV/AIDS, family and property status, family responsibili-

ties, place of residence, or participation in a strike.”

“The idea is that, if a person is working, we cannot discriminate,” a section of the bill reads.

The EU had made it clear that such a law was a precondition for Ukraine entering the Schengen zone. The Schengen zone was created in 1985. In 1990, the agreement was updated to include the abolition of all border controls among European countries and the adoption of a common single-visa policy.

On November 16, however, the British newspaper The Telegraph revealed that European diplomatic sources told reporters that France wanted to resume border checks, after finding that some of the ter-

rorists who launched deadly attacks in Paris had entered France from other countries.

“The French are going to push hard for everyone else to institute border controls, particularly Belgium, but across the wider Euro area. To all intents and purposes it will be a temporary suspension of Schengen,” one source said.

Claude Moraes, a member of the European Parliament and chair of the Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, said that the French demands would test Schengen “to the limits,” even if the agreement still technically remained on the books.

AHF calls for more STD funding after new syphilis report Congenital syphilis up 38%

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer In the wake of a new report on STDs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) called for increased funding to combat what it called an “STD epidemic.”

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published November 13 showed that cases of congenital syphilis (CS) increased 38% between 2012 and 2014.

With 11.6 cases per 100,000 live births, congenital syphilis is now at its highest rate since 2001.

The new findings contrast sharply with

the decrease noted between 2008 and 2012, when cases went from 10.5 cases per 100,000 down to 8.4.

“Congenital syphilis” means that the disease is present at birth, and it results when the mother of the child has syphilis. Congenital syphilis can result in a number of birth defects, developmental problems, and subsequent secondary diseases.

According to the CDC, “a substantial percentage of CS cases are attributable to a lack of prenatal care; even among those receiving some prenatal care, the detection and treatment of maternal syphilis often occurs too late to prevent CS. “Health departments, in partnership with prenatal care providers and other lo-

Visit us online www.sgn.org

cal organizations, should work together to address barriers to obtaining early and adequate prenatal care for the majority of vulnerable pregnant women. Women who are uninsured or underinsured and women with substance use issues have been found to be at increased risk for receiving inadequate or no prenatal care, placing them at increased risk for CS.” The CDC recommends that all pregnant women be screened for syphilis at their first prenatal visit and that at-risk women living in high-morbidity geographic areas should also be screened at the beginning of their third trimester and again at delivery.

AHF, which provides free testing for STDs, including syphilis, called for more

federal money for outreach and treatment.

“The federal government [and] state and local health departments should see these numbers as more evidence of the need to address the STD epidemic nationwide,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein.

“Cutting back on funding while the need for outreach and easy access to treatment and medical care only continues to grow is a recipe for disaster. Our elected leaders should be doing everything they can to encourage sexually active people to undergo regular screening for STDs at each stage of their lives.”

AHF is the nation’s largest communitybased HIV/AIDS healthcare provider, with more than 400,000 clients in 36 countries.

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 13

Legal Services MARTIN SJOLIE

www.sgn.org

Over 20 Years Experience

Last Will, Power of Attorney & Health Care Directive (Living Will)

$500.00/Person or $750.00/Couple for complete, personalized services.

(206) 841–1373 www.sjolielaw.com

Auto accidents, DUI, Small business needs.

www.sgn.org

14 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!

religion & spirituality

HOME & SPECIALIZED SERVICES

Gary D. TorGerson Co. Expert Painting and Repairs Rot Repair: siding, doors, windows, porches and decks.

Lead-Safe Certified

See photographs of our work at www.TorgersonCompany.com Email: info@torgersoncompany.com Contractor Registration #: GARYDTC134CJ Phone: 206-781-0999

Health and Personal Services

www.sgn.org www.sgn.org

Visit us online www.sgn.org

November 20, 2015

Seattle Gay News 15

16 Seattle Gay News

November 20, 2015

Celebrating 41 Years!