SGN October 16, 2020 - Section 2

Seattle Gay News

2020 Visions Issue 42, Volume 48, October 16, 2020

Arts & Entertainment

ELECTION & POLITICS « SPECIAL ISSUE U.S. REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL – PAGE 13 « GOV. JAY INSLEE – PAGE 16 « AND MORE!

A conversation with Mayor Jenny Durkan

by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan won’t be up for reelection until next year, but she did get some great news last week when the Washington State Supreme Court threw out the effort to recall her. With that in mind, I had many questions for the mayor, including the police assault on our very own Renee Raketty and the homophobic and gendered attack on Durkan’s home last month. I had a chance to chat with Mayor Durkan over the phone earlier this week.

see DURKAN page 5 Jenny Durkan and George Bakan celebrate an historic night at her election party on November 7, 2017 – Photo by Nate Gowdy

My notorious RBG moment

WINTERS’ WATCH 2020

1977, when LGBTQ+ became a political force in Washington state Ruth Bader Ginsburg at her confirmation hearing – Photo by R. Michael Jenkins / Courtesy of Library of Congress

by Mark Segal Philadelphia Gay News In the 1990’s, the U.S. Senate was attempting in every possible way to censor this new thing called the Internet. They soon came up with an idea to stop informa-

tion that might be objectionable to a particular community, an idea which would have allowed a district attorney in, say, Alabama, to prosecute any web site it found objectionable. The penalty was six months in jail

see RBG page 6

The Dorian Group of Trustees – Image courtesy of Roger L. Winters

by Roger L. Winters SGN Contributing Writer Forty-three years ago, legislation in Olympia in the spring, followed by a voter registration drive and candidate ratings for City offices in the fall election, made 1977

the year LGBTQ+ activists became a political force in our city and state.

In 1977, celebrity beauty queen Anita Bryant led a campaign to repeal ordinances outlawing discrimination against homosex-

see WINTERS’ WATCH page 15

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“All Americans must be given equal rights and opportunities, regardless of who they love or how they identify.

I remain committed to fighting for the equality of all people and disavowing hatred.

I’m proud to be a longtime ally of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as for those with intersectional identities.”

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Politics

DURKAN

continued from cover MK Scott: Well, let’s start off with some good news. Last week, the state Supreme Court voted to throw out the recall effort. I just wanted to get your reaction to that.

Mayor Durkan: I think it was a great thing for the court to do, and obviously I was pleased with the decision, but the most important part of it is that it allows me over the coming months to focus on how we meet these challenges and bring people together, and not do it in the midst of an expensive and divisive political campaign.

MKS: One of our reporters was flashbanged near the CHOP area, and the police ruled that there was no evidence for that, even though there is a video out there showing that the police officer actually threw it in her direction and she was the only one standing there.

Durkan: I have not seen the video of that case. And obviously anybody who is serving in a press capacity, we want to make sure that [their] First Amendment rights are protected…to make sure that we did as we could to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters and also protect the First Amendment rights of journalists covering those protests, because those are also important. We’ve seen incidents where journalists have been caught up in activity and have been impacted by the police tactics in each of those cases. I think it’s really important that we have accountability and that there be a thorough investigation. I don’t know.

And …I have not reviewed the file that you referred to over the decision. But I will say this: I asked the Office of Police Accountability, the Office of the Inspector General, and the CPC [Community Police Commission] to make recommendations on crowd control techniques and how we can improve them. They obviously fell short of what we want of our police in Seattle, but the circumstances are difficult.

And I [have] talked to mayors across the country, and almost every jurisdiction was facing some of the same challenges… how to protect First Amendment rights of protesters while also making sure those who might be embedded in a protest be, you know, stopped from taking improper actions.

So I don’t know this individual case, but I will tell you that I think it…shows the importance of having a strong civilian oversight. The Office of Police Accountability looks at individual cases, but the Office of the Inspector General looks at the totality of things and recommends new policies and training. The OIG, as we call it, just delivered a long report, as did the OPM [Office of Personnel Management], the CPC, on changes they’d like to see on crowd management. And we’re looking to see how we can implement those quickly with the approval of the court, because the court says that it needs to have final say.

MKS: Yeah, in fact, I was thinking that perhaps maybe it wasn’t just the fact that Renee is press, but also because Renee is transgender, and there are a lot of bad apples out there. So we’re thinking that that could possibly be it as well.

Durkan: Our trans community is facing enormous pressures on every front, when they were before the protests, and those have only increased. If you look at many of the metrics, whether it’s health metrics [or] employment metrics, really our trans community needs more protections...

And I’m committed to working to see how we can do that, not just in policing but [in] employment and health care.

MKS: Of course, knowing you and what George [Bakan] always used to say about you is the fact that you were like a major activist back in the day. And so I can completely understand that it may be difficult [to be] on the other side. Because you believe….[there’s a right to] protest, but at

Photo by Elaine Thompson / AP

the same time, you’re also in charge of the police department. So I’m sure that must be a difficult position to find yourself in.

Durkan: So I think we still do have an obligation to make sure I protect the civil liberties of all people, and [I’m] particularly mindful of protecting the civil liberties of those communities who have been most disenfranchised over the years, first and foremost, of course, in these times, the Black community as well as other communities of color and Indigenous communities.

But LGBTQ [people] have had a lot of tough battles to get to where we are today.

The number of things that have changed [for the better] in the last decades is important, but [they’re] easily lost if we don’t continue to fight for [them]. And I know that, because I have been in a relationship for 25 years and had two kids at a time when it was very uncommon for gay couples to have kids.

And even while I was US attorney in the Obama administration, federal law prevented and precluded my partner from being on my health care benefits, for example, because of the Defense of Marriage Act. And also we have had Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Defense of Marriage Act, age-based employment rights, all of those continue. And we’ve seen that same language and that same type of exclusion used against the trans community for the last four years. That’s why we have to be so vigilant to protect people.

MKS: Actually speaking of that, I saw the photos of the damage and the graffiti in front of your home. I completely understand why you need to be in more of a secured location, but a lot of people have had concerns about the particular neighborhood [Windermere} that you live in, which had, I guess, a reputation of being racist and non-inclusive. So I wanted to get more of an idea about that.

Durkan: Yeah, yeah. So I’ve lived in almost every neighborhood in Seattle, including in the South End, for almost 20 years. Yeah, there are very few neighborhoods in Seattle that did not have racial covenants. And that’s true of every city

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across America. The neighborhood I’m living in no longer has. And they have been [illegal] for many decades in the city of Seattle or the state of Washington.

So my address was confidential because of the very real concerns [about] my previous employment and the death threats I’ve been receiving [and about giving] people access to me and my family. What is lost in all of this, I think, is the degree to which people are willing to [take part in it]. In a way that would minimize the fact that I’m gay. Yes, and I think that that is a step backwards, too. I am the first lesbian mayor in the history of the city of Seattle and only the second woman. In fact, the protesters were painting homophobic and sexist slurs outside my house. An unthinkable thing.

It’s just, you know, the bottom line is this: this has been the most challenging time in our city’s history.

You know, we’re facing a global epidemic, a pandemic. We have an economic crisis. We’re in the midst of a serious reckoning. And every person, every family, every small business is feeling the impacts right now. And really, the most important thing for me is to try to figure out how we get through this and actually come out the other end a more equitable and more just city. And my job is to listen to everybody and to find ways to bring it together, to get to that more just [and] equitable city.

MKS: Last question, it just came to me, that a lot of these protesters were – like with the owner of Uncle Ike’s – calling them gentrifiers. But gentrification benefited the lesbian and gay community, so are they also targeting the gay community?

Durkan: You know, it’s a really interesting phenomenon. And I think that there is some real harm done by gentrification and displacement. But if you look historically in urban areas, whether it’s New York, Washington, DC, [or] San Francisco, those parts of the city where there’s gentrification, often that was particularly gay men moving in and changing it. …You know, I used to live in DC, [where] that was the case.

So I think that there is a tension there.

But at the same time, we have to remember that our city has grown enormously. I am the first mayor in the history of the city of Seattle who was born in the city of Seattle.

That is true! When you have 150,000 people move to a city in a very short period of time, you are going to have neighborhoods change rapidly. And what happened was that the people moving in had the new wealth from the new economy, and the first people that were displaced [were] the communities of color, where properties were less expensive.…The Central District was about 75% black. Today it’s less than 40%.

That’s a huge impact on people, families, and history. And it has caused an enormous amount of pain. So I think there’s that we have to make sure that we’re not looking at backlash against gay communities [who] because of economics are the first to move into a neighborhood, but at the same time [we] have to be looking at the families that are dispersed.

MKS: So it’s kind of more like a straight gentrification coming up in Capitol Hill, pushing the gays out.

Durkan: Exactly right. And the other thing is…when I was coming out and coming of age here, because of the discrimination against gays, having…a community was even more important than it is today.

And knowing you could be safe and at home was a critically important resource for you, [to] be accepted [at] bars – where you saw people who were like you [being] put out of them – walking down the street with your partner, all of those things.

You felt safer, but there were more people around for building those communities, [a] kind of a natural gravitational pull. But it’s an important part of establishing identity.

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MK Scott is a Seattle-based public affairs writer. See more of his work at uniteseattlemag.com.

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Politics

MARK MY WORDS

This election is your Stonewall moment

by Mark Segal Philadelphia Gay News You might be like most people right now who are just sitting back believing that the lead in the polls that Biden/Harris have at this point is impossible for Trump to come back from. That would be wrong.

Just look at 2016 when all of us thought that it was in the bag for Hillary Clinton, when all of us thought Trump could never, ever get elected. Were you one of the 102 million people who did not vote?

Let’s get to the heart of the issue. Are you registered to vote right now and do you have a plan to vote? If you do not have both of those points in order now, you are helping to elect Donald Trump again, and you are helping elect the most anti-LGBTQ President in our time.

Now is the time to act. Not tomorrow, not, in October, NOW. Any election can change on a dime or a day. So it only takes one issue to change the projection of this election and put Trump in the driver’s seat again. And that would be a travesty for all Americans, and especially the LGBTQ community.

But, another important question that sometimes gets lost is: why should you vote for Biden/Harris? Biden and Harris make up one of the most pro-LGBTQ tickets in modern history. There is absolutely no comparison between Biden and Trump or Harris and Pence. One ticket will help our community, one ticket will harm it as they have done the past four years.

There is no President in the history of this country who has tried to damage our community more than Trump. He has literally dismantled LGBT rights given under previous administrations including in healthcare and the military. Vote like your health insurance depends on it. Vote like your job depends on it. Vote like your spouse depends on it. Vote like your life depends on it. Because if you are LGBTQ, all of those things matter.

The work and progress we have all done since Stonewall depends on your vote. The nondiscrimination laws we have worked for depend on your vote. The ability for us to get married and love whomever we love depends on your vote. The ability for us to serve in the military depends on your vote.

The ability for us to live our lives with dignity and respect, yes, depends on your vote.

This November, vote like you’re at Stonewall and there is no other option but to fight back.

RBG

continued from cover and a $50,000 fine per incident. To further make it palatable to their base, the Senate said the legislation was designed to protect children. They titled it the Children’s Online Protection Act, COPA for short.

For example, if the district attorney in Alabama objected to PGN publishing news on HIV/AIDS, it could prosecute under this new law, even though PGN is not an Alabama newspaper.

This was an infringement on First Amendment rights, and for us in the LGBT community it was a danger to our very lives. Not only did LGBT media use our web sites to spread information about HIV/

Photo courtesy of Mark Segal

AIDS to places where it was not available due to those community standards, but we covered myriad other topics about LGBT health and education that benefited our community. LGBT media literally was in a fight to save lives through the articles and information we printed or put online. The U.S. Senate labeled that pornography, and COPA was enacted into law.

The ACLU sued the Department of Justice and the President of the United States to overturn that law, and PGN was the only LGBT media that agreed to join the case.

After much interrogation and various court hearings, we finally found our way to the Supreme Court. As the publisher of PGN, one of the 5 plaintiffs in the case, I was required to be there for the Supreme Court hearing which would decide if we’d

be heading to jail or if the First Amendment still existed in the U.S. I remember a few big things from that day. I remembered how solemn it was to walk into the Supreme Court, take our front row seats as plaintiffs, and stand as the justices came in. I remembered when Justice Clarence Thomas just seemed to fall asleep. I remember when our attorney was called. During questioning, very few questions were asked, with the exception of a new member of the court.

That new justice’s question was, and I paraphrase: If this law stands, that would mean that publications like Philadelphia Gay News would not be allowed to publish medical and educational information about HIV/AIDS. That question was from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

As we walked out, our attorney was elated that Justice Ginsberg had indeed read PGN’s HIV/AIDS articles that the ACLU had included in their briefs before the court.

When I heard of her passing last Friday [last month] that memory came back so vividly, and like many Americans, my sorrow was on how that one ruling, like others throughout her tenure on the bench, touched each and every one of us. Thank you, Justice Ginsberg, for being The Notorious RBG. Courtesy of Mark Segal and Philadelphia Gay News

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Politics

The U.S. Supreme Court v. LGBT Americans

by Victoria A. Brownworth Philadelphia Gay News June 30, 1986 was a broiling hot day in Washington, D.C. when the U.S. Supreme Court released the decision in Bowers v.

Hardwick, a landmark sodomy decision.

The press was huddled under the small bank of trees near the side entrance, waiting for the copies to be handed out. The fate of millions of lesbian and gay Americans lay in the hands of the high court.

The controversial case involved consensual sex between Michael Hardwick and a companion in the privacy of his own home.

An Atlanta police officer, Keith Torick, was serving an invalid warrant for a ticket when he entered Hardwick’s apartment, burst into his bedroom, and found him engaged in oral sex. Torick arrested Hardwick and the companion, charging them with sodomy. At the time, the charge carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Hardwick sued the state of Georgia, asserting that as a non-celibate gay man, his rights were infringed upon by the existing sodomy laws. A federal appeals court found in Hardwick’s favor and Michael Bowers, Georgia attorney general, took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court found 5-4 for Bowers. Justice Byron White wrote the majority opinion upholding the sodomy laws. White said the Constitution did not support “a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy.”

Chief Justice Warren Burger issued a virulently homophobic concurring opinion in which he asserted that homosexual sodomy was an “infamous crime against nature,” worse than rape, and “a crime not fit to be named.” Burger wrote, “To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.”

Justice Lewis Powell also wrote a concurrence. Later Powell would say he should have voted the other way, but did not realize the import of the case at the time. Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor voted with the majority.

Justice Harry Blackmun’s dissent accused the Court of an “almost obsessive focus on homosexual activity” and an “overall refusal to consider the broad principles that have informed our treatment of privacy in specific cases.”

Blackmun wrote of Burger’s religious commentary, “That certain, but by no means all, religious groups condemn the behavior at issue gives the State no license to impose their judgments on the entire citizenry. The legitimacy of secular legislation depends, instead, on whether the State can advance some justification for its law beyond its conformity to religious doctrine.”

Blackmun was joined in his dissent by William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and John Paul Stevens. Stevens also wrote a dissent in the case.

When the decision was handed out to the press, Blackmun, then 78, made the unprecedented move of coming out to speak about how wrong he felt the decision was. Blackmun had authored the landmark Roe v. Wade case and his dissent was predicated on what he argued in both cases: a fundamental right to privacy.

Seventeen years later, in 2003, the court heard arguments in Lawrence v. Texas. Like Hardwick, the case centered on another consensual relationship, this time at odds with a Texas law that classified consensual, adult homosexual intercourse as illegal sodomy.

John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner argued that Texas violated the privacy and liberty of adults to engage in private intimate conduct under the 14th Amendment.

In a 6-3 decision, a very different court than had voted on Hardwick declared that the court had gotten it wrong in 1986. Only

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three justices remained from the original ruling: Rehnquist, O’Connor and Stevens.

Finding for the majority were Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter, O’Connor and Stevens. The dissents were Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

Writing for the majority, Kennedy declared “The petitioners [Lawrence and Garner] are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”

O’Connor voted with the majority, but in a dissent, argued against overturning Hardwick, asserting that the Texas state law violated the equal protection clause because it criminalized male-male but not male-female sodomy and that should be the court’s rationale in finding for Lawrence and Garner against Texas.

In his angry dissent, Scalia wrote “Today’s opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct. ... [T]he Court has taken sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as neutral observer, that the democratic rules of engagement are observed.”

Both Scalia and O’Connor argued that the breadth of Kennedy’s opinion opened the door to same-sex marriage. And a decade later, Scalia was proven correct: Kennedy wrote the opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Scalia’s comments in Lawrence v.

Texas were again invoked by conservatives unhappy with the court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which granted LGBT people protections against employment discrimination. But that 6-3 decision, written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, is predicated upon previous cases the court has rendered on gay rights, as well as previous employment discrimination cases such as Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services.

Scalia himself wrote the unanimous opinion in Oncale in 1998. That case, which concerned the sexual harassment of an oil rig worker, determined that a male can be discriminated against by members of the same sex under Title VII. Oncale found that any discrimination based on sex is actionable if it places the victim in an

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objectively disadvantageous working condition, regardless of the gender of the victim or the person doing the harassing.

The court continues to move forward – albeit slowly – on LGBT rights issues. But as was the case in Hardwick, religion continues to infringe on LGBT rights. The court has found in favor of business owners claiming religious freedom to not serve lesbian and gay clientele in several recent cases. And in Bostock, Gorsuch notes that religious employers may challenge the ruling.

But since Hardwick was overturned, in Lawrence, Obergefell, Bostock and laterally, Oncale, even conservative justices – notably Kennedy, who retired in 2018, and Gorsuch – have found there is a constitutional basis for LGBT rights.

Whether that will change in the next few months is now a question. The case law of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court’s most liberal justice for the past quarter century, set a foundation for gender-based legal arguments that have been the predicate for much of ensuing LGBT rights cases. But Ginsburg’s sudden death in September 2020 opened a seat on the Supreme Court.

Eight days after Ginsburg’s death, President Trump announced his nominee to replace Ginsburg: Amy Coney Barrett, a judge he appointed in 2017 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a religious ideologue whose association with an extremist sect of the Catholic Church was raised in her 2017 confirmation hearings. Coney Barrett is a professor of constitutional law at Notre Dame University where she received her law degree, graduating first in her class and summa cum laude in 1997. Coney Barrett clerked for Scalia, whose views on originalism – and vitriolic opposition to LGBTQ civil rights – she shares.

Coney Barrett has demonstrated bias against LGBTQ rights in her words, texts and recent rulings. She defended the Supreme Court’s dissenters in Obergefell v. Hodges, asserting that the court had no business deciding the case and that it belonged in the hands of voters.

Coney Barrett’s originalism stance is also highlighted in her transphobic responses to other cases. She has said that Title IX protections under the 1964 Civil Rights Act do not extend to trans people, asserting it is “a strain on the text” to reach that interpretation.

She would have opposed Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia.

Equally concerning is her misgendering of trans people, including referring to trans

women as “physiological males,” while also questioning how there can even be a case for transgender rights.

On November 4, 2020, the Supreme Court will hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case that could allow private agencies that receive taxpayer-funding to provide government services, such as foster care providers, food banks, homeless shelters, and more, to deny services to people who are LGBTQ. The nexus of the case stems from the discovery by the City of Philadelphia in March 2018 that two agencies the city hired to provide foster care services to children in the city’s care would not, based on their religious objections, accept same-sex couples as foster parents. The non-compliance with the city’s non-discrimination ordinance led to the lawsuit due before the court.

Fulton is a lawsuit that Coney Barrett may very well decide, or a case that will be decided by a 4-4 court. At the heart of the case is whether or not religious groups have a right to cite religious freedom as their rationale for anti-LGBTQ bias. In recent years the court has found frequently for businesses that refuse services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religious beliefs.

In the 2018 case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the court found 7-2 for the bakery that refused a gay male couple’s request for a wedding cake. The dissent was written by Ginsburg, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor concurring.

Opposition to LGBTQ equality and municipal and state laws barring discrimination have sent religious groups to seek remedies in the courts for what the ACLU has called a “far-reaching constitutional license to discriminate in the name of religion.”

Over 1,000 people have joined amicus briefs in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, including multiple child welfare groups, religious organizations, former foster youth, and nearly half of states and dozens of cities and mayors. A vote against LGBTQ people in Fulton could have staggering consequences for American social safety net programs for many vulnerable groups.

If LGBTQ people thought the landmark employment discrimination case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. set the court on a new trajectory, Fulton, the confirmation of Coney Barrett and the impending shift to a 6-3 conservative court suggests a whole new battle for LGBTQ civil rights may have just begun.

Courtesy of Mark Segal and Philadelphia Gay News

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Politics

Finding inspiration with Pramila Jayapal

by Sarah Toce Unite Seattle Magazine Pramila Jayapal’s measure of cohesiveness and inclusion comes straight from the gut. The Democratic congresswoman from Washington State’s 7th District has experienced and witnessed inequality throughout her life and career in one aspect or another – as a person of color, a woman, the mother of a child who identifies as gender-nonconforming, and the daughter of parents who wanted a better life for her than was possible back in their hometown of Chennai, India. She came to America with nothing – and it changed everything.

When asked how she felt about the current temperature of the nation, Jayapal said, “Well, I think we are fighting for our democracy. We’re fighting for the soul of our democracy, but we’re also fighting for the legitimacy of what makes a democracy.

And that is everything from the freedom of the press…to basic voting rights, to regard for the Constitution, to humanity…”

She went on: “I think one of the things that gets lost with all the different battles we’re in is how people feel. And I think what we are really trying to do is inspire people to have hope, to believe that we really can make a difference and that we can push the kinds of bold ideas that lift everybody up regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ZIP code, or any other factor… Everyone should have the opportunity to live a life of dignity and respect.”

The 54-year-old congresswoman serves as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). Established in 1991, the CPC “reflects the diversity and strength of the American people and seeks to give voice to the needs and aspirations of all Americans and to build a more just and humane society,” according to the caucus’s website. [https://progressives.house.gov/] “It’s really an honor to have a caucus that represents 40% of the Democratic caucus,” Jayapal said. “And I always think about us progressives and I count Seattleites in this piece. …I think of us progressives as being the first people with the best and most just ideas. And that’s how we’ve made $15 minimum wage a reality. That’s how we’re going to make Medicare for All and universal health care a reality, because we’re willing to say yes, it’s not easy, yes, we need to build a movement. But the ultimate goal has to be for people to see our common responsibility to each other and to lift each other up.…There is nothing without intersectionality. There is nothing. And so that’s really been my focus.”

That focus includes pushing beyond the limitations that are a by-product of the Trump White House. As Jayapal said, “We can’t just be an opposition party [to] Donald Trump, which we [also] have to do. We have to be a proposition party that lays out a vision and reminds people that democracy requires – and justice requires – that people engage, that they don’t give up hope and step away, but that they actually come toward that vision of who we can be.

“Because it’s not like we just support democracy when it’s easy. We have to support it when it’s really hard. And I think that’s why it’s so important for people to understand that their individual participation matters to building a collective that brings equity and justice to everybody – their paychecks, their lives, their housing, their needs, their relationships. That is really what’s at the core of this.”

She added, “What is interesting is that if you look at the bills that the Democratic majority has passed in our first year of having the majority in the House, it is the things that we would do if we had power in the Senate and [had] the presidency. And that’s why 2020 is so important, because

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal – Photo by Nate Gowdy

I think we actually do have a consensus and it’s not just progressives; it’s also independents. And even some Republicans, depending on the issue…”

For example, Jayapal continued, “everybody believes we should pay people what they’re worth or at least give people enough to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. Everybody understands that people should not be discriminated against. The Equality Act, the $15 minimum wage, the Dream [and] Promise Act, you know, not building a wall on the southern border but actually advocating for humane immigration reform, strengthening workers’ rights on the job, whether it’s…through my Domestic Workers Bill of Rights or strengthening labor unions through the PRO [Protecting the Right to Organize] Act, which we’re getting ready to pass on the House floor – these are the ways in which we have to go into 2020 with a vision.”

Jayapal, a senior whip of the Democratic caucus, serves on the House’s Budget and Judiciary Committees (on the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security and Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law), as well as the Education and Labor Committee (on

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the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections).

She stands behind her commitment to ensuring a better life for all. In addition to co-chairing the CPC, Jayapal cochairs the Medicare for All caucus and the Women’s Working Group on Immigration.

She is also a member of the following caucuses: Agriculture Research, Artificial Intelligence, Bipartisan Congressional Refugee, Career and Technical Education, Congressional Antitrust, Congressional Asian Pacific American, Congressional Hispanic, Congressional Soccer, Congressional Zoo and Aquarium, Deadliest Cancers, Diabetes, Estuary, House Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Hunger, LGBT Equality, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, Native American, New Americans, Organic, Outdoor Recreation, Primary Care, Pro-Choice, Puget Sound, Small Brewers, and Women’s Issues.

“We can’t just be an opposition party opposing Donald Trump, which we have to do,” she reminds. “We have to be a proposition party that lays out a vision and reminds people that democracy requires and justice requires that people engage, that they don’t

give up hope and step away, but that they actually come toward that vision of who we can be because it’s not like we just support democracy when it’s easy. We have to support it when it’s really hard. And I think that’s why it’s so important for people to understand that their individual participation matters to building a collective that brings equity and justice to everybody – their paychecks, their lives, their housing, their needs, their relationships. That is really what’s at the core of this.”

At the core, Jayapal is a leader and an inspiration to so many – because she shows up and doesn’t give up. She sees the difficulties and she continues forward, vowing to encourage growth and opportunity for us all. She invests and reinvests in the goodness that is America, and serves as inspiration for why we should all do the same.

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[EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal was conducted earlier this year in mid-January before the COVID-19 outbreak and was the cover story of Unite Seattle Magazine’s spring issue that came out in April 2020.

Reprinted with permission.]

Vote!

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WINTERS’ WATCH continued from cover

uals. Her “Save Our Children” campaigns were wildly successful in Dade County, Florida (Miami); St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; and Eugene, Oregon.

Pitched as referenda on the acceptability of homosexuality, these votes were very homophobic, scaring us nationwide.

Here, in 1977, Jim Gaylord, a Washington state teacher, was fired by the Tacoma School District for answering “Yes” when asked if he was a homosexual. The case went to the State Supreme Court, which ruled his firing was legal, citing the Catholic Dictionary, among other “legal sources,” in saying so. (Today’s State Supreme Court is quite different.)

In the spring of 1977, a bill was introduced in the Washington state legislature for the first time to add “sexual orientation” to the State Law Against Discrimination in Washington state. In the State Senate, Senator Pete Francis (D-Sea) held a hearing on the bill. Testimony by Rev. Wally Lanchester of the Seattle Metropolitan Community Church and former University of Washington football star David Kopay made it clear that we were serious about fighting for our rights by changing state law. The bill died immediately. It was signed into law 29 years later, in 2006. The Dorian Group (TDG) was the driving force behind this bill from its initial introduction until TDG gave way to other statewide LGBTQ+ rights groups in the mid-1980s.

During the summer of 1977, SEAMEC (Seattle Municipal Elections Committee for Gays and Lesbians) was born. Co-Chairs Kathleen Boyle and James Hughes, M.D., led the Steering Committee. Randy Henson was named Office Manager, moving into the Smith Tower office of The Dorian Group (TDG), my workplace as Office Manager.

Randy recruited volunteers, coordinated fundraising, and set up a table for registering voters in front of Bailey-Coy Bookstore on Broadway. The 3,000 new voters registered thanks to SEAMEC made politicians, left and right, sit up and take notice.

Ginny Lambert and I volunteered to co-chair a Candidate Evaluation Committee. With the late attorney Lamar Faulkner, activist Karen Bosley, the late historian and activist Tim Mayhew, attorney John Forderhase, Sandy Kucera, Greg Kucera, Greg Steeve, the late Dr. Ed Estes, and Dan Haslett, we brainstormed questions, scheduled and held interviews in two private homes – one on Harvard Ave. E. near E. Roy St. (where candidates were questioned while sitting in front of a giant marijuana bush), another a living room in a home on 24th Ave. E. Those interviews and recommended ratings were reported to the Steering Committee which issued the first official SEAMEC report on where candidates stood on our concerns and issues.

Most candidates were willing to be interviewed. Our list of 40-some questions was challenging and many were hard pressed to come up with good answers.

Some candidates were truly impressive.

They would be friends and supporters of our community throughout their careers and we would be loyal supporters for them.

Thanks to SEAMEC many activists got to know many politicians on a first-name basis.

I wrote Charles Royer, who won as Mayor in 1977, a lengthy memo on politicking in the gay community. He beat Paul Schell, who would later serve as Mayor. I also got to know Randy Revelle, who would serve on the City and County Councils and ultimately as County Executive, and it was thanks to SEAMEC I got to know Norm Rice, Greg Nickels, and others. SEAMEC activists were responsible for taking their favorite candidates on bar tours, to give them the chance to meet our constituents in person.

Many of the activists in SEAMEC and TDG would get to know candidates well

Images courtesy of Roger L. Winters

thanks to our process. After initially agreeing to be neutral until after SEAMEC’s ratings were published, many became volunteers and donors in the campaigns of candidates we had gotten to know from the in-person interviews.

In 1978 Seattle stopped the anti-homosexual campaigns by the religious right with a decisive victory over homophobia thanks to broad-based support from leaders who had gotten to know us in Olympia and Seattle City Hall.

SEAMEC, now known as the Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee (VOTESEAMEC.ORG) is staffed completely by volunteers. I co-chaired the SEAMEC Steering Committee until the early ‘80s. This year, after about 40 years of involvement with other “projects,” I rejoined the SEAMEC Steering Committee. I never forgot SEAMEC, because I always vote. In every election, be it national, state, or local, all other things being equal, I look to the SEAMEC election report as I decide how to vote. I make it a point to vote for every office and measure on the ballot.

The Steering Committee of SEAMEC in 2020 is about to report on candidates for President/Vice President, Congress, Governor, Lieutenant Governor and other State offices, as well as for State Senate and State House of Representatives from Seattle area districts. The work this year has been long and hard. I had hoped we might recruit volunteer interviewers and new Steering Committee members at a big community meeting in March, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 situation.

The six women and men who constitute the Steering Committee developed pre-primary questionnaires, getting in touch with candidates, deciding on ratings and endorsements, so we could publish a Primary Election Report in time to let SEAMEC’s “constituency” know about candidates with time to spare before ballots were due. See the Primary Report at https://voteseamec.org/ latest. Notice the number of races and the detailed information provided. A somewhat simpler report appears in this week’s SGN for the November election.

Thanks to Zoom and technology generally, SEAMEC this year was able to conduct intimate face-to-face interviews with many finalist candidates. Scheduling and question development were still timeconsuming chores, but interviews held online had the advantages of no one having to search for parking or rush to get to the

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meeting room on time.

I’m grateful for and proud of the community members who contributed significant time and resources to the 2020 process. Apart from acknowledgement in the published reports, they receive little recognition in the community. They are unpaid volunteers devoted to providing an unbiased rating of candidates solely on their actions, record, knowledge and values relating to the needs and concerns of LGBTQ+ voters and their allies. Some have given decades of service; others provide editing, publishing, and technical skills. There has been no Executive Director with a substantial budget, no large fund-raising program, no staff to ensure the work continues year after year.

The 2020 Steering Committee is constituted by Que Estevia, Herb Krohn, Deborah Rustin, Jeff Phillips, Norm Zigler, and me.

Other volunteers contributed significantly to the work for the 2020 elections. Look for their names in the final Candidate Ratings.

If you know them personally, express your appreciation for their hard work.

The Seattle Gay News has publicized SEAMEC ratings and endorsements throughout the past 43 years. By printing or including a copy of each SEAMEC Election Report in each issue, SGN let people learn about of SEAMEC’s information on candidates. As SGN’s readership grew, so did the scope of our candidate rating.

When George Bakan took over SGN, he took the extra step of paying the rent for SEAMEC’s Capitol Hill office. That arrangement kept SEAMEC going for many years. A great many meetings and candidate interviews were held in that office. When SGN was no longer able to pay the rent, George continued to encourage SEAMEC’s work and gave it plenty of attention in the newspaper. George Bakan and I were co-conspirators and collaborators who readily disagreed. George’s support for SEAMEC was strong and unwavering. SEAMEC has honored George by dedicating its Report to his memory.

I believe SEAMEC is a perfect example of grass-roots politics. I am proud of having helped it get started and prouder still that it keeps working in our interests. Some criticize its limited focus on LGBTQ+ issues and concerns. There are other candidate reports that many LGBTQ+ voters prefer.

SEAMEC’s reports are informative, non-partisan, and fair, regardless of the political affiliation or beliefs of the voter. I

hope young activists will take a closer look and get involved in SEAMEC’s work. It affords many practical lessons about working with a diverse group of people united in the need for good information.

I have grandiose ideas about what SEAMEC might do, if there were enough people and resources to do it. SEAMEC remains focused on offices in King County and nearby. What if the methods and procedures used to inform those voters were also available to volunteers in other parts of our state? A SEAMEC election report published in Spokane, Yakima, or Wenatchee might focus on more conservative candidates and a somewhat less Democratic populace than is found in King County.

Voters in those areas should also be able to cast their ballots after being informed about candidates’ actions, beliefs, knowledge, and values as they relate to LGBTQ+ concerns.

Continuing to build our shared political influence is as important today as it was in 1977. At the least, we must make sure SEAMEC continues to function. It would delight me to see SEAMEC expand and serve a wider range of our state’s electorate.

• SEAMEC needs new blood. Become a member, sign up as a volunteer, consider joining the Steering Committee, make a donation (a regular ongoing donation is great). Make sure that SEAMEC will be ready to issue election reports in 2021 and beyond.

• More LGBTQ+ voters and their allies need to see SEAMEC’s reports. When you see it reported at the SEAMEC Web Site or in the Seattle Gay News, share the Report widely, talk about it with friends, give it close attention, use it as you decide how to vote in all the races on your ballot.

• Donate money (it’s not tax deductible) to help make sure SEAMEC keeps going. Go to VOTESEAMEC.ORG and use whatever method of donating suits you. Do it now!

The political climate of 1977 was more threatening and overtly homophobic than today’s, but we face threats and real enemies who want us back in the subordinate, unequal, degraded status they believe we deserve. We have achieved a great deal in the past four or five decades. Let’s keep building our political and social clout now that you know how it got going for real in 1977.

What are you going to do to keep our political influence alive?

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A chat with pandemic hero Gov. Jay Inslee

by Sarah Toce Unite Seattle Magazine Though he stands at an impressive 6’2”, 69-year-old Gov. Jay Robert Inslee appears to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Yet he somehow finds a way to remain calm, cool, and collected under the pandemic-size pressure.

Maybe it’s the simplicity of the morning coffee routine he shares with his wife of nearly 48 years, Trudi.

Every day at either 6:00 or 6:30 a.m., Jay and Trudi convene over coffee to discuss their schedules. “It’s really a nice thing to have,” said the governor. And then the day begins.

“Typically, we’ll have meetings with a variety of people [and] business groups around the state,” he continued. “Most days I probably have a press conference of some nature. And then [we work] with our policy people, typically for an hour or two, looking at various policies. The pitches come really fast, so we’re making decisions very quickly.”

These decisions are responsible for helping to curtail the spread of COVID-19, a pandemic the likes of which haven’t been seen on this Earth since the Black Plague of the 14th century, smallpox, or HIV, and for which there is currently no known vaccine.

As of 3:30 p.m. on June 18, 2020, COVID-19 had taken the lives of 1,245 Washingtonians, and the total number of people hospitalized in the state with a confirmed case of COVID-19 stood at 3,959.

[NOTE: As of October 12, 2020 the number of people who have died from COVID19 in Washington state stands at 2,292 and the total number of people hospitalized in the state with confirmed cases of COVID19 stands at 7,786.] Various regions in the state have progressed to different stages of reopening, but some, like King County, have barely moved at all. This is in large part due to lack of testing. [NOTE: More recently, however, King County has slowly been reopening again and a considerable amount of testing is now available in King County.]

To this proud grandfather of three, numbers matter – he’s a science guy who believes in math and factual data. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in economics before earning

Gov. Jay Inslee – Photo by Nate Gowdy

his law degree at Willamette University. He became the leading environmental candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign before bowing out and endorsing the current presumptive nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, earlier this year.

When pressed to consider a time in his life that helped prepared him for this moment we’re currently going through, he became introspective.

“That’s an interesting question,” the Governor said. “There is a theme here…

For 20 years I’ve tried to ask people to look at the science of climate change. Now, as far as how to deal with crisis, I’ve been in public life for decades. I actually think that’s been helpful.”

Gov. Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who has been in public life for 35 years. He worked as a prosecutor and attorney, raising three sons with Trudi in Selah, a small town near Yakima, before representing the 14th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. He continued serving communities in the Yakima Valley when he was elected to Congress in 1992 for one term. In 1998, he was elected to Congress again, this time from the 1st Congressional District, and he served until 2012, when he was elected governor. He was reelected in 2016 .with 54% of the vote, a wider margin than in 2012.

Despite repeated public opposition from President Trump, the governor is protecting his state his way, with zero apologies.

“It’s very challenging, because the president doesn’t adhere to the facts,” he said.

“So that makes [this pandemic recovery] more difficult. There’s a host of people within the federal government who are willing to work [with science] and factcheck. We work well with [those people].

Obviously it’s been more difficult with the president. Really delayed response.”

Before heading into another meeting, he offered a message to our readers.

“I appreciate what [your readers] are doing,” he said. “Everyone has risen to some challenge somewhere in their personal life, and I just want to thank them.

There are a lot of reasons to be proud of the response to this [pandemic].”

As for getting too comfortable in those masks that seem to fog up while wearing glasses (yes, it happens to him, too), he said, “Don’t get too used to these masks. This is not our new normal. We will get through this.”

And get through this we will. Thank you, Governor!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview with Governor Jay Inslee was conducted earlier this year on May 12 and is the cover story of Unite Seattle Magazine’s fall issue that came out this month. Reprinted with permission.]

Vice presidential debate, the fourth nationally televised forum of the general election, fails to include LGBTQ issues (October 8, 2020) – In the vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, no LGBTQspecific issues were raised to the candidates, Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. It’s the fourth straight nationally televised forum of the general election to fail to include LGBTQ issues.

Vice President Pence has yet to be directly asked about his role in the Trump administration’s record of anti-LGBTQ policy and rhetoric, 181 attacks and counting since the day Donald Trump and [he] took office, as tracked by GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project. GLAAD also tracks Pence’s history of anti-LGBTQ policy and rhetoric [at] www.glaad.org/tap/mike-pence.

GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis responded to the debate, here and on Twitter: “This is the fourth missed chance in a nationally televised forum of the general election to address any LGBTQ issues. VP Pence should have been called to account for his role in the administration’s 181 attacks against the LGBTQ community. LGBTQ

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GLAAD monitored and live-tweeted the debate, noting the lack of LGBTQ questions and that an insect lingering on Vice President Pence’s head got more attention: “Unfortunately, a fly got more air time during the VP Debate than LGBTQ issues did,” GLAAD tweeted.

GLAAD has been reaching out to debate and town hall moderators to offer resources and data about where LGBTQ voters stand and the issues important to the community.

We will be monitoring the next debate, scheduled between President Trump and former Vice President Biden on October 15th.

Photo by Morry Gash / AP

voters may cast the deciding votes in this election, and we need to be a part of the conversation. The moderators must include us. The candidates must acknowledge us.

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LGBTQ people deserve to know where the candidates stand on issues of life and death to us. We will continue to demand to be seen and heard.”

GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.

Courtesy of GLAAD

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Adopt a Dog Today!

We have adoption events every weekend!

There are so many dogs that need, and deserve, our help.

10,080 dogs saved out of death row!

Adopt Foster Volunteer Transport Donate Check out our upcoming adoption events at: gingerspetrescue.org/events

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Vaughn Frick who drew "The Swamp" worked for the Seattle Gay News from 1978 through the early 1990's in several capacities, most notoriously as cartoonist. Vaughn was also co-chair for the 1987 Seattle's GLBTQ parade. Today Vaughn lives in Portland, Oregon, where for Pride month he was named a "Queer Hero for 2020" by the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific N.W. for his cartoons and graphics which were used to help defeat a statewide anti-GLBTQ measure. This strip is dedicated to the life and work of George Bakan, best editor ever.

HRC releases Congressional Scorecard for the 116th Congress WASHINGTON, DC (October 8, 2020) – Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization – released its Congressional Scorecard measuring support for LGBTQ equality in the 116th Congress.

Members of Congress were scored based on a range of key indicators of support – from votes in the House [for] pro-equality legislation like the Equality Act to votes in the Senate to confirm anti-LGBTQ Trump-Pence cabinet officials and judicial nominees, as well as co-sponsorships in both chambers on pieces of legislation that significantly impact LGBTQ people and their families.

“While Donald Trump and Mike Pence have spent the past four years unleashing relentless attacks on the LGBTQ community, the last two years have seen the development of a critical backstop with the proequality majority in the US House of Representatives,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “Today the HRC released its Congressional Scorecard for the 116th Congress, an important tool to understand your elected officials’ records on issues that impact the LGBTQ community and society’s most marginalized. We hope it is a valuable resource in holding your elected officials accountable in our shared work toward meaningful, positive change.”

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For the 116th Congress, a record number of 228 members of Congress earned a perfect 100 score: 227 Democrats and one Independent in the House and Senate. In comparison, zero Republicans earned perfect scores. There was an increase for the average score among House Democrats in comparison to the 115th Congress.

The pro-equality majority in the House resulted in the opportunity for representatives to vote on a number of crucial measures, including the Equality Act, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, the American Dream and Promise Act, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, and an amendment to end the ban on transgender military service. The House also defeated anti-equality amendments and voted to impeach President Trump.

Senate leadership, however, refused to

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advance substantive pro-equality measures, and instead spent the last two years focused on confirming Trump administration officials and judicial nominations, including William Barr to be attorney general, as well as anti-equality judicial appointments of Matthew Kacsmaryk, Steven Menashi, Lawrence VanDyke, and Justin Walker. The Senate also failed to advance meaningful police reform and voted to not hold President Trump accountable for his actions interfering in the 2020 presidential election.

In addition to these crucial votes, the congressional scorecard tracks co-sponsorship of pro-equality legislation, including the Equality Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, Do No Harm Act, Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, Safe Schools Improvement Act, Every Child Deserves a Family Act, FAMILY Act, and International Human Rights Defense Act. The HRC Congressional Scorecard is a snapshot of the most significant actions in the current Congress related to LGBTQ issues. It reflects votes and co-sponsorships but does not measure all actions individual members of Congress take, either positive or negative.

Key facts: • 228 members of Congress earned perfect scores (227 Democrats, 1 Independent, 0 Republicans).

• 197 members of Congress earned a zero score.

• 196 members of the House received a perfect 100 score, while 150 received zero scores.

• The average score for representatives is 55.7 • Average score for Democratic representatives is 98.3 • Average score for Republican representatives is 4.2 • 32 members of the Senate received a perfect 100 score, while 47 received zero scores.

• The average score for senators is 46.2 • Average score for Democratic senators is 96 • Average score for Republican senators is 1.6 The HRC Scorecard for the 116th Congress is available online at www.hrc.org/ scorecard.

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

Courtesy of the HRC

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