SGN August 11, 2017 - Section 1

Celebrating 43 Years!

Issue 32 Volume 45

FRIDAY August 11, 2017 FREE!

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Seattle Gay News

Man and his transgender Transgender service wife sue Amazon for members sue Trump discrimination, harassment

Crowds protest Trump’s trans military ban outside the White House – Photo by Ted Eytan Dane Lane and his wife Allegra Schawe-Lane – Photo by Jillian Weiss/AP

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A Kentucky man and his transgender wife sued Amazon on August 9, charging that they endured sustained discrimination and harassment during the year they spent working at Amazon’s warehouse in north-

ern Kentucky.

Dane Lane and his wife, Allegra Schawe-Lane went to work for Amazon in October 2014, and quit a year later because they found their working conditions “intolerable” their lawsuit says.

see AMAZON page 6

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Five transgender service members filed suit against Donald Trump and other federal officials on August 9.

The five are collectively identified as “Jane Doe” in the 15-page complaint filed on their behalf by the National Center for

Lesbian Rights and GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders).

The lawsuit – now known as Doe v.

Trump – charges that Trump’s tweets barring trans people from military service “upset the reasonable expectations of plaintiffs and thousands of other transgender service members and the men and women

see LAWSUIT page 6

Pew Research Center First-ever LGBT cultural releases report on countries and trade mission to that allow gay marriage Taiwan, Hong Kong The GSBA plans historic ten-day visit to Asia

Malta is the most recent country to legalize same-sex marriage – Photo by Matthew Wade

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer The battle for equal rights for LGBTQ people around the world continues. And while we’ve enjoyed legal same-sex marriage in Washington state since 2013, and federally since 2015, it is important to note that in all reality only a small portion of the world’s population actually get the freedom to marry who they choose. Saying you want

to get married to your best friend in a country like Russia or Syria can get you killed.

On August 8, Pew Research Center released the report “Countries That Allow Gay Marriage.” The authors compiled a list of nation’s that allow same-sex couples to legally wed, the year the law was passed or changed, and a paragraph or two of background about how marriage equality was achieved.

see PEW page 12

Taipei 101 Tower glowing at sunset – Photo courtesy of Taipei Travel

The Greater Seattle Business Association, the largest LGBT chamber of commerce in North America, and Asian Pacific Tours announce the first-ever LGBT Cultural and Trade Mission to Taiwan and Hong Kong scheduled for October 26 - November 4, 2017. The mission will focus on

three areas of interest: LGBT civil rights, economic development, and tourism.

The goals of the 10-day mission are a cultural exchange with, and creating lasting relationships between, LGBT business and

see MISSION page 4

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2 Seattle Gay News

August 11, 2017

Celebrating 43 Years!

Seattle Gay News FOUNDED 1974 MEMBER

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2017

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Classifieds - Thursday at noon Calendar - Tuesday 6pm Display Ads: Space Reservation - Monday 5pm Ad copy (non-camera ready) - Tues. 5pm Ad copy (camera ready) - Wed. 5pm Letters to the Editor - Tuesday 5pm Obituaries - Call the SGN office All others - Tuesday 5pm

Editor in Chief George Bakan Associate Editor Shaun Knittel Travel Editor George Bakan Copy Editor Rick McKinnon (since Dec. 2013) Advertising Department George Bakan, Maggie Bloodstone and MK Scott National Advertising Rep. Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Staff Writers Mike Andrew, Sara Michelle Fetters, Miryam Gordon, Shaun Knittel, Albert Rodriguez Contributing Writers Rev. Barbara Allen, Ron Anders, Eric Andrews-Katz, Madelyn Arnold, Alice Bloch, Maggie Bloodstone, Beau Burriola, Sharon Cumberland, Jessica Davis, Tina Gianoulis, Anthony Greer, Milton W. Hamlin, Nevin Jefferson, Richard Kennedy, Liz Meyer, Jason A. Miller, Jesse Monteagudo, David Nguyen aka Teriyaki Temple, Rod Parke, Don Paulson, Jerry Peerson, Jessica Price, Scott Rice, Leslie Robinson, MK Scott, Gaysha Starr, Paul Torres, Janice Van Cleve, Ed Walsh, James Whitely, Scott Wittet, Rex Wockner Calendar Editors Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Classifieds Rick McKinnon Photographers Nate Gowdy, Joseph P. Herron, Shaun Knittel, James Whitely Production Liz McCarty Website Designer Barry Thorsness / Digital Team Works Seattle Gay News is published weekly by Frogs and Ink, Inc. © 2017, Frogs and Ink, Inc., all rights reserved. Reprints by permission.

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

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In Loving Memory Of Steve Foiles, Scott Roger Alpert, Cookie Andrews-Hunt, James Leland Moore, Randy Peters, Lee Richeson, Shaun Shelton, Jim Tully, James Arnold

John Lauritsen: The Shelley-Byron Men

by Jesse Monteagudo SGN Contributing Writer John Lauritsen is “an independent scholar” who has “the freedom to tell the truth as I see it, without concerns for career or ‘collegiality.’” His first contribution to gay studies was 1974’s The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935), which he wrote with David Thorstad.

Lauritsen has since written on a variety of topics before he specialized on the English Romantic poets of the early 19th century, a period that Will and Ariel Durant called, “next to the age of Elizabeth I, the brightest flowering in the four centuries of English poetry.”

In The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein (2007), Lauritsen argued that this book was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, not by his second wife Mary, and that “male love is the dominant theme of Frankenstein.”

Lauritsen also edited new editions of Shelley’s translations of Plato’s The Banquet (2001) and Aeschylus’s Oresteia and Prometheus Bound (2011), while at the same time arguing that Shelley was gay, or at least bisexual. All these books were published by Lauritsen’s own Pagan Press, which he founded in 1982 to “publish books of interest to the intelligent gay man.”

Much has been written about the same-sex love affairs of George Gordon, Lord Byron, to convince most people of that poet’s bisexuality. On the other hand, Shelley scholars still defend their poet’s heterosexuality, since he died while he was still in his twenties and is best remembered for his two marriages to Harriet Westbrook and Mary Godwin. In Lauritsen’s new

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book, The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost angels of a ruined paradise (Pagan Press, 192 pages, $16) the two romantic poets are revealed as centers of a literary group devoted to “male love” and “the homoerotic ethos of Ancient Greece.” Along with their friends – Thomas Medwin, Edward John Trelawny and Edward Ellerker Williams – the poets settled in Pisa, Italy (1822), where they met daily in Byron’s Renaissance palace

for literary discussions that lasted well into the night. “For too long, biographers have falsified the love lives of the Shelley-Byron Men. The time has come to bring them into the light of day,” Lauritsen notes. “It is my contention that these five men – Byron, Shelley, Medwin, Williams, and Trelawny

August 4, 2017

– along with Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson Hogg in England – were drawn together by sexual affinities, that they discussed male love, and endeavored to liberate it.” That those men lived in exile in Italy is no surprise to Lauritsen: sodomy was then a capital offense in England while in Italy, as with other countries influenced by the Napoleonic Code, it was legal. Williams was Shelley’s “inseparable companion” and, according to Lauritsen, most likely his lover. The two youths died together in a boating accident in the Gulf of Spezia on July 8, 1822. The Shelley-Byron Men were together for just half a year.

In The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost angels of a ruined paradise, Lauritsen does not try to “prove” that Shelley, Byron, et al. were “gay” in the modern sense of the word. Instead, Lauritsen argued “that male love represented an important part of their lives and works, with male love understood as comprising love, sex, and friendship.” Like Walt Whitman later in the century, these men worked for the emancipation of male love, even if they themselves were not “liberated” as we understand that term today.

Though much of their work was censored or destroyed after their deaths, “some of their research, translations, and argumentation (if such there were) went into a Uranian underground to surface later in the works of others.” They realized, as the Action Committee of a gay united front in Germany declared in 1921, that “in the final analysis, justice for you will be the fruit only of your own efforts. The liberation of homosexuals can only be the work of homosexuals themselves.” This is liberating work that we must continue every day.

The Shelley-Byron Men: Lost angels of a ruined paradise may be purchased at Amazon.com or directly from the publisher, Pagan Press (paganpressbooks.com).

Seattle Gay News 3

Jenny Durkan announces support from Seattle city employees Following yesterday’s endorsement of Seattle Building & Construction Trades Council, former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan announced the sole endorsement of the Professional & Technical Employees (PTE) Local 17, which represents nearly 3,000 Seattle City employees.

“We are proud to solely endorse Jenny Durkan who has the experience to lead thousands of employees and address many of the issues facing our city and workers.

Our members are standing with Jenny because she is a strong progressive focused on addressing inequality and worker’s rights,” said Behnaz Nelson, Executive Director of PTE Local 17.

“Running a growing city like Seattle, and a government of 10,000 employees, is no easy job, which is why I’m honored to have the backing of the men and women working to solve the urgent challenges our

city faces. Our city government should help lead the way to ensure employees have living wages, strong protections, and benefits like paid parental leave and family care leave,” said Durkan.

In addition to the Seattle Building & Construction Trades Council and SEIU 775 the largest union local in the state, Durkan has the support of the Seattle Fire Fighters Local 27, the Heat and Frost Insulators and Firestop Containment Workers Local 7, Laborers 242, and Ironworkers Local 86.

Courtesy of the Jenny Durkan campaign

Jenny Durkan – Photo by Megan Farmer/KUOW

GSBA honored for national leadership in civil rights and economic development

The International Business & Leadership Conference in Las Vegas – Photo courtesy of NGLCC

MISSION

continued from cover community leaders from the U.S. and Taiwan. Over the course of the trip, delegates will have the opportunity to meet with members of LGBT communities, business leaders, mayors, and government officials.

“Our hopes are always to promote LGBT equality by putting a face to who we are and meeting members of LGBT communities from around the world and other cultures,” says Louise Chernin, GSBA’s President & CEO. “How can we, as an LGBT business movement, support and understand the challenges and the victories experienced by members of the LGBT community in another country? Is there a way for business to be a catalyst for breaking down barriers? And, because we are a business organization, we are excited to explore opportunities with our counterparts in Taiwan.”

“The idea for this historic mission

4 Seattle Gay News

came from Felicity Wang, President of the Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce,” says Chernin. “She knows GSBA is committed to LGBT equality and civil rights. So, she thought it would be wonderful to connect us with businesses, community, and civic leaders in one of the most open countries in Asia.”

“Taiwan has the most beautiful scenery and friendly people,” says Felicity Wang.

“And, when it comes to LGBT rights in Asia, Taiwan is a world apart. Being the most progressive country and holding the largest Pride Parade in Asia, Taiwan definitely is a must-visit for those who are supporters of LGBT equality!”

In addition a full itinerary of meetings and visits to cultural attractions, the mission participants will have the opportunity to march in Asia’s largest Pride parade – and Taiwan’s first since its Constitutional Court ruled in favor of same sex marriage.

During the GSBA Pride Business Luncheon held on June 14, Vincent Yao, Director General of the Taipei Economic and

August 11, 2017

The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) presented the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) with a $10,000 Chamber Development Grant and its Excellence in Communication award at its 2017 International Business & Leadership Conference in Las Vegas on August 3.

The Chamber Development Grant recognizes GSBA’s impactful programming that fosters the development, growth, and sustainability of certified LGBT Business Enterprises (LGBTBE). The grant is funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and administered by the NGLCC. “The LGBTBE Certification Expansion & Education program has become a vital resource to small businesses as they grow and engage in strategic planning,” says Louise Chernin, President & CEO of GSBA. “The program furthers our chamber’s mission of supporting our members through business growth, education, and advocacy. We are thrilled to receive this generous grant from Wells Fargo and NGLCC which will allow us to expand and enrich our program.”

This year’s Excellence in Communication award recognizes the success of GSBA’s work on the Washington Businesses Won’t Discriminate campaign that opposed the state initiatives (1515 and 1552) mod-

eled after North Carolina’s 2016 House Bill 2 (HB2) – the most anti-LGBT legislation in the United States.

“Knowing that the business voice is both powerful and unexpected on social issues, GSBA built a strong coalition of business – local and national, small and large – to amplify the voice of and for the LGBT community,” says Matt Landers, Public Policy & Communications Manager, GSBA. “Working in concert with partners at national organizations such as Freedom for All Americans, Transgender Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, and Lambda Legal, and with business groups around the state such as the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Inland Northwest Business Alliance, the campaign organized one of the largest and most effective business coalitions in defense of LGBT civil right laws in the country.”

“I am extremely proud of the work that the Greater Seattle Business Association has done to benefit the LGBT community,” said Justin Nelson, NGLCC Co-Founder & President. “This chamber is truly an outstanding example for the rest of our 47 local affiliate chambers across the nation.”

Learn more about Greater Seattle Business Association at www.theGSBA.org.

Cultural Office in Seattle, stated, “As the freest country in Asia, ranked by Freedom House and Journalists Without Borders, Taiwan is making great strides for LGBT rights. Our constitutional court recently ruled in favor of same sex marriage. This ruling has paved the way for Taiwan to possibly become the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. As the beacon for LGBT rights in Asia, our LGBT community needs your support and to hear your experiences in order to make equality and inclusivity a reality across our continent.”

To register or to learn more about the LGBT Cultural and Trade Mission to Taiwan and Hong Kong, visit the GSBA website at www.theGSBA.org

Itinerary: Hong Kong, Kaohsiung (Seattle’s sister city), Taichung (Tacoma’s sister city), Tainan (Snohomish County’s sister county), and Taipei.

Dates: October 26 - November 4, 2017 Registration: $2,950.00 includes round-trip airfare, ground transportation, eight nights of 4-star hotel accommodations, admission to all attractions, travel insurance within Taiwan, and most meals.

Deposit due August 25, 2017.

Courtesy of the GSBA

About the GSBA Established in 1981, the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA) is the world’s largest LGBT and allied chamber of commerce. GSBA represents over 1,200 small business, corporate, and nonprofit members who share GSBA’s values of promoting equality and diversity in the workplace.

GSBA proudly serves as a connector across the region, bringing the community together through business while advocating for civil rights and small business, promoting LGBT tourism with its Travel Gay Seattle initiative, and investing in the next generation of leaders through the GSBA Scholarship Fund. For more information, visit www.theGSBA.org.

Courtesy of the GSBA

Celebrating 43 Years!

ACLU-WA defends the right of transgender people to serve in the military

Victories for LGBT service members can’t and won’t be undone by a tweet from President Trump The ACLU stands ready to defend against any and all attempts to roll back the rules that protect transgender Americans’ ability to serve in our military openly. Historic LGBT victories can’t and won’t be undone by a tweet from President Trump.

Existing military rules and regulations allow transgender people to serve their country. Until those rules are changed, transgender people can serve openly. If we

see plans from the Department of Defense to implement these pronouncements by the president, we will take the legal action necessary to protect the rights of trans Americans to serve in our military.

“There is no basis for turning transgender people away from our military, and the ACLU is examining all of our options on how to fight this. For any transgender service member affected by the recent an-

nouncement: Please get in touch with us, because we want to hear from you,” said ACLU-WA legal director Emily Chiang.

Our nation’s armed forces have always included LGBT people, and the ACLU of Washington has been a leader in the fight for their right to serve their country – and to do so openly. In a landmark case filed in 1981, the ACLU of Washington represented Sgt. Perry Watkins in a lawsuit against the

Army, who dismissed him for being gay after President Ronald Reagan decided that no homosexuals could serve in the military (Watkins v. United States Army). In 1989, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that, as a matter of basic fairness, the Army could not discharge Sgt. Watkins since the military had known he was gay when they drafted him in 1968 and had allowed him to serve for years.

In another historic case filed in 2006, the ACLU-WA represented Major Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse whom the Air Force dismissed for being gay under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (Witt v. U.S. Air Force). Four years later, a federal court found that Major Witt’s sexual orientation did not negatively impact unit morale or cohesion and had no adverse effects on military readiness and ordered the Air Force to reinstate her. The ruling paved the way for Congress in 2011 to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” putting an end to a policy of discrimination by the government that stood for 17 years.

Multiple studies show that allowing transgender people to fight for their country has zero cost or impact on military readiness. President Trump is trying to score cheap political points by targeting military personnel who have put their lives on the line for their country.

The same is true for the denigrating and false assertions Trump has made about the 15,500 transgender people serving in the military today. Transgender people are finally free to serve their country in the military, and to do so openly, with dignity and respect. Should President Trump attempt to trample these hard-won rights, we’ll see him in court, again.

ACLU marchers in Seattle – Photo courtesy of ACLU-WA

Courtesy of ACLU-WA

You’re invited to Radical Women's anniversary gala!

Bread, roses and feminist leadership

Walking the Talk for 50 Years Celebrate Women’s Rights Day and mark the golden jubilee of a multi-racial revolutionary feminist group that’s as kickass now as when formed in 1967. Hear about RW’s intersectional activism and be part of the stepped-up resistance today! *Toasts from local rabblerousers *Summer Delights Banquet

*Silent auction

*Music

*Historical video & photos

Saturday, August 26, 6:30 pm New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle On the #7 busline. Six blocks from the Columbia City light rail station.

Door donation $3–10. Banquet (with vegan option) $15.

For more info: 206-722-6057 • RWseattle@mindspring.com • www.facebook.com/rwseattle Call three days in advance to arrange childcare or work exchange.

If you cannot attend, please consider making a donation to kick off Radical Women’s next 50 years! Make checks payable to Radical Women (note “50th anniversary”) and mail to address above. Or donate online at www.radicalwomen.org/Seattle

Visit us online www.sgn.org

August 11, 2017

Seattle Gay News 5

LAWSUIT

continued from cover with whom they serve and fight.”

This undermining of trans service members’ expectation of continued military service amounts to a violation of the right to equal protection and due process under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs have also been injured

by Trump’s new policy barring them from military service, their attorneys say in court documents.

“Execution of the president’s directive will result in an end to service by openly transgender service members and has already resulted in immediate, concrete injury to plaintiffs by unsettling and destabilizing plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of continued service,” the complaint charges.

Trump’s stated intention to ban trans people from serving in the US armed forces also violates the legal doctrine of estoppel, the lawsuits says.

Estoppel means that government officials may not make assertions contradictory to a previously held policy or position.

Trump’s ban on trans military service violates estoppel because the Obama administration assured trans people that they would be allowed to serve last year, plaintiffs say.

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service is unconstitutional, and asks the court for an injunction stopping it from going into effect.

Each of the five anonymous plaintiffs serves in a branch of the US armed forces.

One is a US Army soldier who has previously been deployed to Afghanistan and expects deployment soon to Iraq. Another is an active duty airman who has served in the US Air Force for almost 20 years and has undertaken multiple tours of duty abroad, including two in Iraq.

All say they prefer to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution.

Trump speaking to US military personnel in May 2017 – Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

“Last year, the Department of Defense announced that transgender people could serve openly,” one plaintiff said.

“I was very relieved and came out as transgender to my commanding officers, who were supportive. My experience has been positive and I am prouder than ever to continue to serve. I am married and have three children, and the military has been my life. But now, I’m worried about my family’s future.”

The named defendants in the lawsuit are Trump, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, the secretaries for each of the military services and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, who oversees the US Coast Guard.

Spokespersons for the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Blade they could not comment on litigation. A White

House spokesperson referred the Washington Blade to the Justice Department, but the Justice Department declined to comment until they’d been served with the complaint in the case.

“When we are served with the complaint, we will review it and defend the administration’s position,” the Justice Department’s spokesperson said.

Shannon Minter, Legal Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in a statement that the harm of Trump’s proposal to ban transgender military service is already clear.

“Trump’s directive to exclude transgender people from military service has created a tidal wave of harms that have already been felt throughout our armed services,” Minter said.

“Transgender service members have been blindsided by this shift and are scrambling to deal with what it means for their

Employees fulfill orders at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Hebron, Kentucky – Photo by Amanda Rossmann

AMAZON

continued from cover A lawyer working with the couple said the case is notable because Amazon, one of the nation’s largest corporations, has been publicly supportive of LGBT rights.

In fact, Schawe-Lane said, she wanted a job with Amazon in part because of the company’s reputation as LGBT-friendly.

“I thought we would be safe and ac-

6 Seattle Gay News

cepted,” Schawe-Lane said in a telephone interview with Fox News. “Instead it was like a bad dream. Every day, I’d wish it was ‘Candid Camera’ and someone would pop out and say it was all a joke.”

According to their complaint, the couple were targets of threats, slurs, and sexual harassment by several colleagues at the Amazon shipping facility where they worked. At one point, they said, the brake line of their car was cut while it was parked in a supposedly secured company lot in Hebron, Ken-

August 11, 2017

tucky.

When the couple complained to management, their supervisors retaliated against them rather than acting to halt the abuse, they charge.

According to their lawsuit, the abuses suffered by the plaintiffs violated provisions of the US and Kentucky civil rights acts, state and federal labor law, and also the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Plaintiffs’ attorneys said the ADA comes into play in this case because

futures and their families. The president’s mistreatment of these dedicated troops will serve only to weaken and demoralize our armed forces.”

Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project, said in a statement that the service of each of trans service member is valuable and the nation would be hurt by banning them from the service.

“The Commander in Chief has said that transgender service members – people who have served our nation with honor and distinction – are no longer welcome to serve,” Levi said.

“This unjustifiable reversal of policy is devastating to these soldiers and harmful to our country. These plaintiffs put their lives on the line every day for all of us. We can’t afford to lose a single one of them.”

Schawe-Lane’s status as a trans woman was perceived by her employer as a disability.

Two months before resigning, the couple filed discrimination charges with the U.S. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), the federal agency charged with protecting workers from on-the-job discrimination. The EEOC declared earlier this year that evidence substantiated some of the couple’s allegations and said they had grounds for a lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages – in other words, money to pay the couple for lost wages and additional money because the company was wrong not to help them – with the amount to be determined by a jury.

The couple also seeks a court order requiring Amazon to implement workplace programs that would ensure respectful treatment of Transgender employees.

Except for their problems at Amazon, the couple said they generally feel accepted in their community and have no desire to leave Kentucky. Both said they are undergoing treatment related to the workplace traumas they experienced, however, and have been advised by their doctors that they are not ready to take new jobs.

The plaintiffs’ case will be handled by Kentucky lawyers on behalf of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, a national transgender-rights organization.

The fund’s Executive Director, Jillian Weiss, noted that Amazon has intervened in other court cases in support of transgender rights, and that the company’s Amazon Studios produced the acclaimed television series “Transparent” with a protagonist who transitions from male to female.

“We have a company that touts its transgender friendliness,” Weiss said.

“Yet in Kentucky, when a transgender person comes and says, ‘Look, I’m being harassed,’ they get no help.”

Celebrating 43 Years!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

August 11, 2017

Seattle Gay News 7

A diverse and beautiful crowd filled Everett’s American Legion Memorial Park – Photos courtesy of SnoHomo Pride

SnoHomo Pride a warm, casual “down home” celebration

by Adair Gearhardt Special to the SGN By most accounts, July 23rd brought a morning like any other in Snohomish County: a chilly stillness with the sun easing up over the horizon to burn off the dew that clung heavily to...well, everything.

However, in American Legion Memorial Park (Everett, Wa), there was barely a thought given to the promise of impending warmth. It was 8am and there was a lot to do: people scurried frantically to wire speakers, pop-up canopies, hang decorations, and chug caffeine. For Phoenix Benner, Beth Johnson, and Adair Gearhart, the dream they’d spent months cultivating was about to become a reality.

Phoenix, having recently moved north from Seattle, had been driven to do something about the noticeable lack of LGBT+ representation in his new surroundings.

He then recruited Beth, Adair, Tony, and Joanie to help him meet this need so desperately felt by Snohomish County. Adair, upon realizing that “even Spokane has a

pride celebration,” was eager to help round up entertainment. Tony and Joanie brought in their PFLAG and non-profit expertise to get resource tables set up while Beth offered to gathered volunteers to help the event run smoothly.

Though there was certainly some chaos, set up went off without a major hitch and the show was ready to start promptly at 11am. Emcee David Bayless strode onto the stage in a combination of top hat, buttondown shirt, and dress jacket paired with fishnets and heels. He looked fabulous. He first introduced Rich Welch, a Tulalip tribal member, to give a blessing for the day that ended up being joined by a bald eagle soaring overhead. Everyone took that to mean that things were going to go well that day.

After Rich, David introduced mayor pro tem, Judy Tuohy, to deliver a proclamation that July 23rd, 2017 would be recognized as SnoHomo Pride day. Following her, Kai, a local 11-year-old trans gender boy representing The Connection (http://theconnectiontm.bigcartel.com), came up to share his story. It was beautifully articulated, moving several in the audience to tears.

Up next? Drag Militia from Bellingham, followed by music from David Johnson, Jessice Drugge, the Saxodies, later followed by the Trinity Episcopal Church choir, 2 Drag King sets by Dapper Down Productions, a burlesque performance by Madame Ceci Cloutier, and a closing performance by Mr. Gay Bellingham 2017, Schoen Wood.

Tucked in amongst the musical performances were guest speakers Congressman Rick Larsen, Ned DeSalvo, GLOBE youth, and Alessandra Durham, a representative from the office of Snohomish County Executive David Somers.

In addition to the celebratory afternoon of stage performances and speakers, were a number of tables providing information about local non-profit organizations, free face painting by Emerald City Arts, and free balloon animals by Beyond Belief Entertainment.

One of the comments that seemed to come up most among attendees was that SnoHomo Pride had a great energy with a “down home” type feel. With only approximately 300 guests throughout the day,

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it was wildly different from Seattle Pride, which is to be expected given the vast difference in location and budget.

However, the SnoHomo Pride crew feels that it was a great success for Snohomish County’s first year. Bearing in mind some of the feedback they’ve already gotten, they definitely look forward to doing it again next year: bigger, better, and representing an even larger group of wonderful individuals. There is even some talk of putting the touchy subject of the name up for a vote.

Tables: AIDS Outreach Project, Camp Ten Trees, Cocoon House, CCC, Everett Clinic, Snohomish Gay Men’s Task Force, Gender Justice League, GLOBE, GSBA, HSDC, Jet City Roller Girls, Lifelong, PFLAG Everett, QBASS, Resist Everett, SGN, Snohomish County Human Rights Commission, St. Philips Episcopal, Trinity Episcopal, YMCA. Sponsors: Panache Clothing, Everett Community SPARKS Neighborhood Fund, Pride Foundation, AIDS Project Snohomish County, Everett/Snohomish PFLAG.

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Celebrating 43 Years!

Van City Pride 2017: A Rainbow of Characters

by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer It had been 5 years since I had visited our neighbors up north in Vancouver, BC for Pride and this time I wanted to bring my fiancé Brian for the parade. Even though there were no Justin (Trudeau) sightings, the mood of this parade was still miles from any Pride you would see in the US of A. Van City Pride is still way less corporate, and it even had some Seattlebased companies marching like Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nordstrom. The parade is all about community and support from the government. It was also nice to see Seattle’s Rainbow City Band marching and also Van City’s legendary queen JoanE as announcer.

All photos by MK Scott and Brian Matt

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August 11, 2017

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Celebrating 43 Years!

#BreakfastClubBoycott trends after comedian alleges he would murder if he found out a sexual partner was transgender

Comedian Lil Duval appeared on The Breakfast Club on July 28 – Photo by Amber Ferguson

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On July 28, stand-up comedian Lil Duval joked on The Breakfast Club, a hip-hop and variety radio talk show, that he’d kill a female sexual partner if he found out she was transgender. Backlash for both Duval and The Breakfast Club was immediate. By the end of the day, #BreakfastClubBoycott was trending and people from around the country, many of them fans of the extremely popular radio broadcast, made their voices heard by taking to Facebook and other social media outlets to shame the show’s cast for allowing such a thing to be said on air at a time when members of the transgender community continue to face violence and murder at an alarming rate.

The conversation started about six minutes into the episode, when Breakfast Club host Angela Yee brought up President Donald Trump’s proposal to ban transgender individuals from U.S. military service. Why this question was posed to a comedian has many people scratching their head … Duval, who is a straight Black man, is in no place to speak for or about the transgender community. In retrospect, this was always going to go bad. With questions like that, the interview and Duval’s reputation were doomed from the start.

Charlemagne Tha God, the lead host of the program, took the questioning further by then asking Duval what he would do if he found out that a sexual partner he was interested in was transgender. After first declining to answer, for reasons known only to him, he then says, “I’m just doing my thing. Shout out to all the trannies out there.”

Although sometimes there is still debate over the term “tranny,” many consider it to be an offensive slur for the transgender community, it has fallen out of favor and it is no longer widely used to describe a transgender person. Nobody on The Breakfast Club seemed to know that and the conversation turned worse.

“This might sound messed up, but I don’t care, she dying,” the comedian said.

Charlemagne Tha God responded, “That’s a hate crime, you can’t do that.”

But Duval continued to defend his statement.

“You manipulated me to believe this thing. My mind, I’m gay now,” Duval said, adding, “There should be some kind of repercussions for that if you do that to some-

body. Until then, I’m going to have my own repercussions.”

At one point, Duval appeared to backtrack, accusing the hosts of trying to “flip” his words.

“I didn’t say I’m going to kill transgenders (sic),” he said. “I said, if one did that to me, and they didn’t tell me, I’m going to be so mad I’m probably going to want to kill them.”

Several hashtags launched on Twitter, including #BoycottBreakfastClub and #TransFolksAreNotJokes, and Duval’s name became a trending topic on the platform over the weekend.

Several transgender public figures have commented on the exchange, including “Orange Is the New Black” star Laverne Cox. “Some folks think it’s okay to joke about wanting to kill us,” Cox wrote in a series of tweets on July 30. “We have free speech but that speech has consequences and trans folks are experiencing the negative consequences with our lives. It hurts my spirit cause this isn’t funny. Our lives matter. Trans murder isn’t a joke.”

Transgender rights activist Janet Mock wrote an essay for Allure, published July 31, to address the comments along with her own guest spot on a July 18 episode of Breakfast Club, where she joined the hosts to discuss her new memoir, Surpassing Certainty.

“I hoped I could make listeners aware of the lived realities of their trans sisters, and let them know that we deserve to be seen, heard, and acknowledged without the threat of harassment, exclusion, and violence,” Mock writes about her appearance on the show. “Until cis people – especially heteronormative men – are able to interrogate their own toxic masculinity and realize their own gender performance is literally killing trans women, cis men will continue to persecute trans women and blame them for their own deaths.”

Mock and her book were referenced during Charlamagne’s discussion with Duval.

“Tell me she ain’t pretty, come on now,” Charlamagne said of Mock during Duval’s appearance.

“Nope, that n—- doing his thing…ain’t finna get me,” Duval responded.

After receiving criticism over his comments on the show, Duval doubled down on his statement saying he did nothing wrong.

“I said that because (the hosts) were saying,

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taking away someone’s power of choice, and that’s what you did. When you take away somebody’s power of choice, it should be criminal … I don’t got no problem with transgender, I ain’t got no problem with gay people. I got a problem with somebody trying to take something from me … That’s psychological damage.”

You could look at that statement and agree, I think, that deception of any kind coming from a person you are going to be, or perhaps already have been, intimate with, is a terrible thing. But what Duval has failed to recognize (and I don’t think he is alone in his way of thinking about the question of disclosure) is that while it is acceptable to feel offended, angry, sad or any number of emotions upon finding out you were lied to or deceived, killing or assaulting someone is not. Plain and simple.

A Care2 petition demanding that iHeartRadio drop the show The Breakfast Club was created last week. The petition claims that the show has a “long history of peddling ignorant, homophobic, transphobic, sexist content.”

The petition also notes that Lil Duval’s comments come the same week that Dwanya Hickerson pled guilty to stabbing and killing transgender Mississippi nurse Dee Whigham last summer. Whigham, then 25, was found in a hotel with 115 stab wounds, the majority covering her face. Her throat was also slashed three times.

“Transwomen like myself face the threat of violence every single day we step out into the public, just as a consequence for living our truth,” Sarah Rose, Care2’s LGBTQ Issues Advocate and the author of the petition, said in a statement. “The Breakfast Club’s dialogue is another unfortunate and sick example of humor made at the expense of a subjugated, derided minority that our media is all too happy to applaud. My hope is that this Care2 petition sends a clear message: advertisers and businesses should not stand for advocating violence and hate crimes.”

On its Monday show, the cast of Breakfast Club defended their actions, saying that they had chastised Lil Duval for his comments, and that they should not be held responsible for his comments.

“I think it’s clear, if you listen to the whole entire interview, you can hear that none of us were like, ‘Yes, Lil Duval, that’s what you should do,’” Yee said.

“We condemned it!” interjected Charlamagne.

“I understand the hurt for that commu-

nity, with things that have been happening, so I’m not going to take away from how they feel about it. But I just want to make sure it’s expressed that we have never, in any way – we didn’t say those comments, and we didn’t agree with them,” added Yee. The hosts and several of their callers also said that the show has been very LGBTQ-friendly over its run, and pointed to the fact that the show hosted Janet Mock (which sounds an awful lot like, “I can’t be racist. I have black friends.”).

Sadly, the attacks and loss of life endured by the transgender community (with most of the murdered representing transgender woman of color in particular) continues to grow and not shrink. TeeTee Dangerfield, a 32-year-old transgender woman, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds Monday in College Park, Georgia.

She is the 16th known transgender person to be killed in the United States in 2017.

Police found Dangerfield inside of her car at the South Hampton Estates apartment early Sunday morning, according to media reports. She was immediately taken by a team from the College Park Fire Rescue to Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

There are currently no suspects in the shooting, and the police are unsure whether Dangerfield’s transgender identity was a motivating factor. But they also said they are not ruling out that fact either.

Monica Roberts of TransGriot.com wrote Monday that she was “sick of [her] trans sisters dying.”

“She is the 16th trans woman of color murdered in the United States this year, the 14th African American trans woman killed in 2017, and most infuriating to me, was under age 40,” Roberts wrote.

Transgender individuals face disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination.

According to The National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 Transgender Survey Report, “46 percent of respondents were verbally harassed and 9 percent were physically attacked because of being transgender.”

The survey also found that 10 percent of respondents reported being sexually assaulted during the prior year, and 47 percent said they were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime.

2016 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States with 27 killings, almost all of them trans women of color.

Writer and transwoman Janet Mock joined the widespread outcry – Photo courtesy of HBO

August 11, 2017

Seattle Gay News 11

Finland celebrates becoming the final Nordic country to legalize gay marriage – Photo by Lehtikuva Lehtikuva/Reuters

PEW

continued from cover From the report: A growing number of governments around the world are considering whether to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriages. So far, two-dozen countries have enacted national laws allowing gays and lesbians to marry, mostly in Europe and the Americas. In Mexico, some jurisdictions allow same-sex couples to wed, while others do not.

COUNTRIES THAT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE MALTA (2017) Malta’s parliament almost unanimously voted to legalize same-sex marriage in July 2017, despite opposition from the Catholic Church on the small Mediterranean island.

GERMANY (2017) On June 30, 2017, Germany became the 15th European country to enact legislation allowing same-sex couples to wed. The 393-226 vote in the nation’s Bundestag (or Parliament) came just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel surprised many by saying that members of her ruling Christian Democratic Union should be able to vote their conscience on the issue even though the party formally opposes gay marriage.

UNITED STATES (2015) Eleven years after same-sex marriage was first made legal in Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees it throughout the country.

The 5-4 decision rests in part on the court’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and states that limiting marriage only to heterosexual couples violates the amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. Before the ruling, 36 states and the District of Columbia had legalized samesex marriage. See a timeline highlighting changes in state policies from 1995-2015.

GREENLAND (2015) Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, was not subject to Denmark’s same-sex marriage law, which was enacted in 2012. However, legislators in Greenland passed a bill in May 2015 to legalize samesex marriage on the world’s biggest island.

IRELAND (2015) On May 22, 2015, Catholic-majority

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Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular referendum. More than six-in-ten Irish voters (62%) voted “yes” to amend the Constitution of Ireland to say that “marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

While some Catholic Church leaders opposed the change, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin wrote a commentary in The Irish Times newspaper before the referendum, saying that he would not tell people how to vote and that he had “no wish to stuff my religious views down other people’s throats.” Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny supported the “yes” campaign.

FINLAND (2015) Same-sex marriage will become legal in Finland starting in 2017. The Finnish Parliament approved a bill legalizing same-sex unions in November 2014, and Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, signed the measure into law in February 2015. The bill started out as a “citizens’ initiative” – a public petition with a reported 167,000 signatures.

Finland becomes the last of the five Nordic countries to legalize same-sex marriage, joining Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

LUXEMBOURG (2014) On June 18, Luxembourg’s parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, overwhelmingly approved legislation that will allow gay and lesbian couples to wed and to adopt children. The bill, which took effect in early 2015, was championed by the country’s Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, who is openly gay.

The changes are part of a larger rewrite of the tiny country’s marriage laws – the first major overhaul since 1804. In addition to allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt, the legislation sets the legal age of marriage at 18 and eliminates the existing requirement that couples who want to marry must first submit to a medical exam.

SCOTLAND (2014) On Feb. 4, 2014, the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.

In addition to allowing same-sex couples to wed, the measure gives churches and other religious groups the option of deciding whether or not they want to conduct such marriages. The two largest churches in Scotland – the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church – oppose same-

August 11, 2017

sex marriage and lobbied against the bill.

The law took effect and same-sex couples began marrying in Scotland in December 2014.

ENGLAND AND WALES (2013) On July 17, 2013, Queen Elizabeth II gave her “royal assent” to a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in England and Wales.

The day before, the measure had won final passage in the British Parliament after months of debate. The law only applies to England and Wales because Scotland and Northern Ireland are semi-autonomous and have separate legislative bodies to decide many domestic issues, including the definition of marriage. While Northern Ireland’s legislature in April 2014 voted down a measure that would have legalized same-sex marriage, the Scottish Parliament passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in February 2014.

The new law in England and Wales, which was a priority for British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry beginning March 29, 2014. However, the law prohibits same-sex weddings within the Church of England, which continues to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

BRAZIL (2013) On May 14, 2013, Brazil’s National Council of Justice ruled that same-sex couples should not be denied marriage licenses, allowing same-sex marriages to begin nationwide. (Previously, about half of Brazil’s 27 jurisdictions had allowed samesex marriage.)

The conservative Social Christian Party has appealed the Council of Justice’s decision to the Supreme Court, and Brazil’s legislature may still weigh in on the issue, leaving some uncertainty surrounding the future of same-sex marriage in the world’s fifth-largest country.

FRANCE (2013) On May 18, French President Francois Hollande signed into law a measure legalizing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to grant gays and lesbians the right to wed. Although the bill had passed the National Assembly and the Senate in April, Hollande’s signature had to wait until a court challenge brought by the conservative opposition party, the UMP, was resolved. On May 17, France’s highest court, the Constitutional Council, ruled that the bill was constitutional.

In May 2012, Hollande was elected and his Socialist Party won majorities in both houses of France’s legislature. True to their campaign promises, Hollande and the Socialists have pushed through a law that not only legalizes same-sex marriage but also gives gay and lesbian couples the right to adopt children – a provision that has drawn especially strong criticism from French Catholic leaders.

While recent polls show that a majority of French adults support the law, opposition to the change has been intense. Since the beginning of 2013, several anti-gay marriage protests with occasionally volatile crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands have taken place in Paris and elsewhere.

NEW ZEALAND (2013) On April 17, the New Zealand Parliament gave final approval to a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage, making the Pacific island nation the 13th country in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to allow gays and lesbians to wed.

The measure won approval by a 77-44 margin in the country’s unicameral legislature, including support from Prime Minister John Key, and was signed by the country’s governor-general (a process known as royal assent) on April 19. The law took effect in August 2013.

In 2005, New Zealand enacted legislation allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. The 2013 measure not only legalizes same-sex marriage but also allows for gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.

URUGUAY (2013) On April 10, the lower house of Uruguay’s Congress passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, a week after the country’s Senate did so. President José Mujica signed the bill into law on May 3, making Uruguay the second Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage, following Argentina. Civil unions have been permitted in Uruguay since 2008, and gay and lesbian couples were given adoption rights in 2009.

Uruguay is among the most secular countries in Latin America. A Pew Research Center study on the global religious landscape as of 2010 found that roughly four-in-ten Uruguayans are unaffiliated with a particular religion. About 58 percent of Uruguayans are Christian; in the Latin America-Caribbean region as a whole, 90 percent of the population is Christian.

Celebrating 43 Years!

DENMARK (2012) In June 2012, Denmark’s legislature passed a bill legalizing gay marriage. The measure was enacted into law a few days later when Queen Margrethe II gave her royal assent to the bill.

In 1989, Denmark became the first country to allow same-sex couples to register as domestic partners. And in 2010, the country enacted a law allowing gay couples in registered partnerships the right to adopt children.

With the legalization of gay marriage, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (which is the state church), is required to allow same-sex couples to marry in churches. However, no member of the church’s clergy is required to perform the wedding of a gay or lesbian couple. In addition, the law leaves it up to other religious groups to determine whether or not to allow same-sex weddings in its churches.

ARGENTINA (2010) In July 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize samesex marriage. In spite of vigorous opposition from the Catholic Church and evangelical Protestant churches, the measure passed both houses of the Argentine legislature and was signed into law by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The law grants same-sex couples who marry all the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children.

In the decade before the enactment of the same-sex marriage law, a number of local jurisdictions, including the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, had enacted laws allowing gays and lesbians to enter into civil unions.

PORTUGAL (2010) In June 2010, Portugal became the eighth country to legalize same-sex marriage. Its parliament had passed the measure legalizing gay marriage earlier in 2010. But following its passage, Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, asked the Constitutional Court to review the measure.

In April 2010, the Constitutional Court declared the law to be constitutionally valid. It was signed by Silva in May of that year and took effect one month later. Portugal’s gay marriage law does not give married samesex couples the right to adopt children.

ICELAND (2010) A measure legalizing same-sex marriage passed the Icelandic legislature in June 2010. Public opinion polls prior to the vote indicated broad support for the measure, and no members of the country’s legislature voted against it. Iceland had allowed same-sex couples to register as domestic partners since 1996. A decade later, the parliament passed a measure allowing gay couples to adopt children.

After the new law took effect in late

Catholic activists protest against legalizing same-sex marriage in Guadalajara, Mexico – Photo by Hector Guerrero/AFP

June 2010, the country’s prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, wed her longtime partner, Jonina Leosdottir, becoming one of the first to marry under the statute.

SWEDEN (2009) In April 2009, the Swedish parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to legalize same-sex marriage. Gay couples in Sweden had been allowed to register for civil unions since 1995.

The 2009 law allows gays and lesbians to marry in both religious and civil ceremonies, but it does not require clergy to officiate at such ceremonies. The Lutheran-affiliated Church of Sweden, to which roughly three-quarters of all Swedes belong, has offered blessings for same-sex partnerships since January 2007. In October 2009, the church’s governing board voted to allow its clergy to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies.

NORWAY (2008) Since January 2009, gay couples in Norway legally have been able to marry, adopt children and undergo artificial insemination. The new law, which was passed in 2008, replaced a 1993 law permitting civil unions. It passed despite resistance from members of the Christian Democratic Party and the Progress Party, as well as a public controversy over state funding for fertility treatments for lesbian couples.

The largest religious group in the country, the Lutheran-affiliated Church of Norway, initially voted to prohibit its pastors from conducting same-sex weddings. But the Church of Norway changed course and began sanctioning same-sex weddings in early 2017.

SOUTH AFRICA (2006) The South African parliament legalized same-sex marriage in November 2006, one year after the country’s highest court ruled that the previous marriage laws violated the South African constitution’s guarantee of equal rights. The new law allows for religious institutions and civil officers to refuse to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies, a provision that critics claim violates the rights of same-sex couples under the constitution.

The new measure passed by a margin of greater than five-to-one, with support coming from both the governing African National Congress as well as the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.

However, the traditional monarch of the Zulu people, who account for about onefifth of the country’s population, maintains that homosexuality is morally wrong.

SPAIN (2005) A closely divided Spanish parliament legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, guaranteeing identical rights to all married couples regardless of sexual orientation.

The new measure added language to the existing marriage statute, which now reads, “Marriage will have the same requirements and results when the two people entering into the contract are of the same sex or of different sexes.”

Vatican officials, as well as the Catholic Spanish Bishops Conference, strongly criticized the law, and large crowds demonstrated in Madrid for and against the measure.

After the law went into effect, the country’s constitutional court rejected challenges from two municipal court judges who had refused marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The high court ruled that the lower court judges lacked legal standing to bring the suits.

CANADA (2005) Same-sex couples in Canada gained most of the legal benefits of marriage in 1999 when the federal and provincial governments extended common law marriages to gay and lesbian couples. Through a series of court cases beginning in 2003, same-sex marriage gradually became legal in nine of the country’s 13 provinces and territories.

In 2005, the Canadian Parliament passed legislation making same-sex marriage legal nationwide. In 2006, lawmakers defeated an effort by the ruling Conservative Party of Canada to reconsider the issue, leaving the law unchanged.

Two women kiss in front of demonstrators protesting against same-sex marriage and adoption by gay and lesbian couples in France – Photo by Julien Gerard/APF

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BELGIUM (2003) Beginning in 1998, the Belgian parliament offered limited rights to same-sex couples through registered partnerships.

Same-sex couples could register with a city clerk and formally assume joint responsibility for a household. Five years later, in January 2003, the Belgian parliament legalized same-sex marriage, giving gay and lesbian couples the same tax and inheritance rights as heterosexual couples.

August 11, 2017

Support for the law came from both the Flemish-speaking North and the Frenchspeaking South, and the law generated surprisingly little controversy across the country. The long-dominant Christian Democratic Party, traditionally allied with the Catholic Church, was out of power when the parliament passed the measure.

The 2003 law allowed the marriages of Belgian same-sex couples and recognized as married those from other countries where same-sex marriage was legal. Those provisions were broadened in 2004 to allow any same-sex couple to marry as long as one member of the couple had lived in Belgium for at least three months. In 2006, the parliament also granted same-sex partners the right to adopt children.

THE NETHERLANDS (2000) In December 2000, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize samesex marriage when the Dutch parliament passed, by a three-to-one margin, a landmark bill allowing the practice. The legislation gave same-sex couples the right to marry, divorce and adopt children. The legislation altered a single sentence in the existing civil marriage statute, which now reads, “A marriage can be contracted by two people of different or the same sex.”

The only opposition in parliament came from the Christian Democratic Party, which at the time was not part of the governing coalition. After the law went into effect, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, which then represented about 12% of the country’s population, announced that individual congregations could decide whether to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies. Although Muslim and conservative Christian groups continue to oppose the law, same-sex marriage is widely accepted by the Dutch public.

COUNTRIES WHERE GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL IN SOME JURISDICTIONS MEXICO (2009) In 2015, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a ruling making it much easier for gay and lesbian couples to wed. The decision gave same-sex couples the right to seek a court injunction against state laws banning gay marriage; although it did not technically legalize same-sex unions nationwide, it was a major step in that direction. Mexico’s Supreme Court also issued a ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in 2010, saying that same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City were valid and that they must be accepted throughout the country (Mexico City had legalized gay marriage in December 2009). Since 2011, the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo also has allowed gay marriages. In 2014, the congress of the northern state of Coahuila approved samesex marriage, and in 2015, neighboring Chihuahua followed suit.

Seattle Gay News 13

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Celebrating 43 Years!

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Seattle Gay News 15