SGN May 6, 2022

ISSUE 18

C E L E B R AT I N G

VOLUME 50

48 YEARS

F R I D AY

IN

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PRINT S E AT T L E ’ S L G B T Q I A + N E W S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T W E E K LY S I N C E 19 74

SEATTLE RESPONDS TO “EGREGIOUS ATTACK” ON BODILY AUTONOMY

by A.V. Eichenbaum SGN Managing Editor Seattleites took to the streets in droves Tuesday, May 3 to protest a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion arguing that landmark abortion rights and bodily autonomy cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey be repealed. Over 3,000 people marched downtown from Westlake Plaza, answering the call to action from Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the Socialist Alternative party on Twitter.

see ABORTION RIGHTS page 4

Photo courtesy of Refuse Fascism

“The people are not being listened to”

Nicolaus Sleister on his run for US Senate

Missouri joins nationwide assault on Trans rights

Nicolaus Sleister – Photo courtesy of Citizens for Nicolaus Sleister

by Nick Rapp SGN Contributing Writer The Senate is full of career politicians with largely unchallenged incumbency. It is no small task to attempt to replace them.

Pierce County local Nicolaus Sleister does not have a background in politics but is planning to run for US Senate. He dis-

contented with the corporate status quo of campaign influence and contradictory stakes. Though he works in corporate security, he aspires to garner political influence via community funding.

Over a Zoom call, I chatted with him about his platform, goals, and burgeoning political aspirations.

see SLEISTER page 5

Photo courtesy of ACLU

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer Missouri is the latest state to enter the fight against Trans rights, having introduced new anti-Trans bills in the Republican-led House of Representatives and voting to advance more to the Senate. The bills target Trans youth, in particular.

Denying medical care to Trans youth The first bill, HB 2649 (also referred to as the “Missouri Save Adolescents From Experimentation, or SAFE, Act), which has been introduced in the House and is expected to be voted on soon, bans all state and federally funded health care workers from performing “gender transition procedures” on anyone

see MISSOURI page 19

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Local News

portray the three separate May 3 rallies as one in order to stoke fear in their readers.

ABORTION RIGHTS continued from cover

“DEFEND Roe v. Wade!” tweeted Sawant on May 2, “Abortion rights were won in the first place only through defiant mass protests by ordinary women, working people. Now’s the time for socialists, the labor movement, the left to call for immediate mass protests, workplace actions against this egregious attack.”

Speakers at the rally in Westlake Plaza actively called out the establishment political left, in stark contrast to the gathering of elected officials that took place the same day at Kerry Park. “Biden already put out his statement. He says we should wait until November and then vote for more pro-choice candidates,” said Kaylin Nicholson, an organizer with the Socialist Alternative Party.

“Are we going to wait until November?”

“No!” the crowd responded.

Among the speakers was Democratic Socialist congressional candidate Stephanie Gallardo, who started her impassioned speech with, “I also just want to recognize the inherent conflict, being a person who is running for an elected position, when I know the answer to this issue is not electoralism.”

“How was Roe v. Wade won in the first place?” spoke Sawant toward the end of the rally. “It was not won by some benevolence or wisdom of the justice system. Like all victories for the working class under capitalism, it was wrenched from the hands of the powerful by mass movements.”

At the Kerry Park rally earlier in the day, Governor Jay Inslee and other local elected democrats decried the leaked Supreme Court opinion as “extreme” and promised that abortions would remain legal in Washington state as it has been since 1970, before Roe v. Wade was passed.

“Washington state is a pro-choice state, and we are gonna fight like hell to keep Washington a pro-choice state.” said Inslee to those gathered that afternoon.

Photo courtesy of Refuse Fascism

Congressmember Pramila Jayapal was also among those who spoke at the Kerry Park event. “If this opinion comes to pass, it will be the most horrific and unprecedented rollback of women’s rights in our history,” she said. “There is a straight line from upending abortion rights to getting rid of access to contraception to banning gay marriage, and our low-income communities, our black and brown communities, our

LGBTQ communities will be the ones who pay the steepest price.”

On the Hill, a group of Black Bloc Anarchists took up post at the corner of 11th near Cal Anderson Park. They stood – faces covered and flares in hand – behind a sign that read “Burn Our Rights, we Burn URState” and chanted slogans at passersby. The Anarchists gained a lot of attention from alt-right media affiliates like Breitbart, who chose to

What comes next While the overall response from Seattle’s left and left-leaning factions varies, the message is the same. Abortion rights are here to stay, at least in Washington state.

Rallies, protests, and walkouts are being planned as follows: • May 8 to May 15 – Mother’s Day Strike.

Activists across the country are calling for mothers to “break the economy over the course of one week by abstaining from work, shopping, entertaining; and on the home front, running a household that would fall apart without your care.” For more information and a list of direct actions, go to mothersdaystrike.com • May 13 – Students are calling for a walkout to defend Roe v. Wade in solidarity with young people across the nation.

• May 14, 11 am – Kshama Sawant is hosting a gathering at Cal Anderson Park in conjunction with Planned Parenthood’s day of action. https://www.facebook.com/ events/527636502138024 for more details.

• May 14, 1 pm – Refuse Fascism Seattle kicks off their week of protest with a protest at Seattle Central College Plaza.

Attendees are encouraged to wear green bandanas. For more information, check out #green4abortion or go to https:// actionnetwork.org/groups/refuse-fascismseattle • DSA holds a mutual aid event every Friday at University Playground Park. 4:30pm.

To get involved, contact Rosa Hayes through the DSA slack The events listed above are only a few ways readers can get involved with their community in the next few weeks. If you have a community event that you would like to add to the SGN’s radar, please contact us at sgnpressflash@gmail.com

The rocky road to sweet safety What's the scoop on QFC Broadway's ice cream lockdown?

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer Capitol Hill may not be the gayborhood it once was, but it’s still near and dear to the hearts of many Queer people today. Blame Amazon, blame the tech bros, or blame entropy itself for the diffusion of queerness into other parts of King County — there’s a more pressing problem on the Hill right now, and it goes beyond the Queer community. It concerns everyone. Yet coverage, it seems, has been sparse.

Since at least mid-April this year, the QFC on Broadway has been keeping its ice cream locked up. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog published a story on the issue on April 20, citing baffled customers on Twitter and pointing out a trend of ramped-up security measures at the Broadway branch.

The chain’s parent company, Kroger, didn’t respond to the Blog for comment, and I didn’t bother to check with them either. This timeless brand of hard-hitting, ironclad journalism couldn’t be wasted on a labyrinth of corporate bureaucracy.

To better inform our readers, I put on my investigator hat and went straight to the scene to see exactly what was going on.

Was QFC a Dreyer’s defender, a HäagenDazs hostage taker, or perhaps both?

I arrived at the joint on a busy Saturday evening, having taken the long bus ride from West Seattle. The first thing I noticed was the security guards. The front of the store had two or three men with short hair and dark, bulky uniforms.

They patrolled back and forth, or simply stood by and eyed passing patrons. The patches on their uniforms said something like “Theft Prevention,” and I wondered at the possible cost of hiring and equipping this

crew. Maybe they had always been in-house but never stationed so overtly until now.

The same went for the cameras and livefeed screens reminding shoppers that they were under surveillance. Compared to the checkout at the Safeway back in West Seattle, the place was like a transnational border crossing. Just how much ice cream had been smuggled out of the place anyway?

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Photo by A.V. Eichenbaum

Searching the frozen goods section didn’t take long. Turns out, not all the ice cream was locked up. Any container larger than a quart was left unguarded. It was the pints that were protected, with a locked latch at the top of each door.

A red intercom box with a silver button was affixed to one door, with a sign instructing shoppers to press it for assistance. I pressed

the button. An LED lit up green. I prepared myself for a wait spanning entire minutes, but before I could even fidget, a man hailed me from down the aisle.

He was another security guard, in a different uniform than the ones at the front: a blue button-up, black dress pants, and a more relaxed disposition. He asked me if I was trying to get ice cream, and told me that most of the locks had been broken by would-be thieves.

He didn’t flinch when I showed him my press pass, nor when I said I was there to cover the ice cream lockdown, but he wouldn’t give me his name. According to his account, theft at the store had gotten so bad that higher-ups beyond the store’s management had arranged for the current measures.

It wasn’t just the ice cream being nabbed, either. He said beer, candy, and other sweets were also threatened. As for why the thieves would only steal pints rather than the larger containers, he chalked that up to a lack of intelligence. I brushed that notion aside and reasoned that a pint is much easier to hide on one’s person.

I never got a clear answer on who the thieves were, but the guard said many were repeat offenders, who sometimes argued that it was within their rights to take the ice cream pro bono.

I thanked the man for the information, albeit taken with a grain of salt given his position, and left the QFC with a box of wasabi peas (which I did pay for, before anyone asks). I still wonder if all that imposing security is actually saving QFC money, but at this rate, by Christmas we’ll all need a burro, a Sherpa, and an official summons from the Queen of England just to purchase enough Neapolitan ice cream to last the week.

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Local News

SLEISTER

continued from cover Nick Rapp: When did you first get involved with politics? What was your political awakening?

Nicolaus Sleister: My political awakening was when George Floyd was killed. I kept thinking about my husband and my son and the kind of the things that my husband’s already gone through here in Washington — being targeted by some of the county sheriff’s deputies and stuff like that out here [in Pierce County]…

I had just missed the filing date [for the county board]. …I think it was just kind of a sign that I missed that because… my motherin-law… was like, “Why don’t you run for the Senate? These are the things that you’re wanting to work toward. You can impact more by being in the Senate.” I started looking into that and realized that Patty Murray hasn’t had a challenger — or a strong challenger — in 30 years. And in those 30 years, she’s done some questionable things.

I’ve watched the presidential campaigns. I was very involved with that, but [in terms of] learning exactly what I wanted to run on the platform, I knew I wanted to run on racial justice and police reform. But what else was there? I added in Gay marriage, because that was one thing that impacted me and my husband. …We were impacted on two different sides: the side of the Supreme Court ruling and then also Obama removing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

And I realized that a lot of people were impacted, from the time the Defense of Marriage Act was signed all the way to when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. But just like we’ve seen with abortion, they are willing to change that, especially with the conservative justices. And right now, we don’t have a law in place that protects our community.

NR: Who are some of the politicians that inspire you?

NS: I was a huge fan of Pete Buttigieg. I really liked his policies, his way of thinking, his speaking, and his qualifications.

He was one of the people that inspired me most. At the time we were [living] in Indiana, [Buttigieg’s campaign] was ramping up. And from there it was just watching him going from mayor to presidential candidate, which I would never have done. I jumped in with no political experience to the US Senate, but the presidency is a whole different thing. So, I applaud him on that. But he was the biggest push, along with Amy Klobuchar… and Elizabeth Warren.

I am for Medicare for all. I want to cancel student debt. There’s a whole bunch of things that I’m realizing are impacting more and more people, especially now. And once I started diving in, once I got running, it really opened my eyes to how many inequities and inequalities are in our communities and [their] impact [on] the people here in Washington that are being ignored.

NR: Your platform is strongly rooted in ending corporate politics. What does that look like to you?

NS: So, the end of corporate politics is getting corporations completely out of politics. So that means changing campaign finance laws to where they cannot donate at all: they can’t create PACs… their executive officers can’t donate to political campaigns. Because right now, you’ve got CEOs and corporations putting in millions of dollars into campaigns and influencing our policies… you’ve got multiple pharmaceutical companies donating to Patty [Murray], you’ve got the Koch brothers donating to Tiffany Smiley. I’m waiting on the FEC filings to come out for this last quarter.

I’m curious, now that we’re ramping up into this campaign season, how much money has actually been pushed by these corporations and [Big] Pharma. We’re not going to get Medicare for all or the Green New Deal with these companies continuously putting money into politics.

Not only that, it’s about the people. And right now, the people are not being listened

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Nicolaus Sleister – Photo courtesy of Citizens for Nicolaus Sleister

to — nobody’s being heard over corporations. I mean, we’ve got Facebook, Tesla, Amazon, Boeing — all these giant corporations are just throwing money into our politics, and they’re not even paying their fair share in taxes. So why should they even have a voice in our politics if they’re not going to contribute to the growth of the country?

NR: How do you think having a younger crowd would influence the Senate?

NS: Just take the Build Back Better plan, for example. The plan is to build roads and bridges and infrastructure. But we’re looking at it in terms of what we have right this second, not what we could have. And to me, infrastructure and climate change go hand in hand, because if we don’t use environmentally friendly products to build our roads, if we do what we did last time and then just let it degrade as we have, we’ll continue to go through the same cycles. We’ll have wildfires that are caused by our infrastructure. The Sumner Grade fire down here that evacuated part of Sumner and Bonnie Lake — that was caused by a transformer that blew, that was on the ground.

So, if we work on building our infrastructure in a better way, in a more environmentally friendly way, in a safer way for our environment and our people — we can do that.

But with our current stance, they’re thinking of the solutions of yesterday and not the solutions of tomorrow. And the younger generation is looking toward the future.

NR: I know police accountability is a big-ticket item you’re pushing for. What do you think are the most important changes to the training and reforming of police forces in the US that are needed?

NS: The biggest… is, one, making sure that we have the right people getting these jobs. And that is making sure that we do testing and training [for] anti-bias and [with] polygraphs. We can’t stop everything [bad]. I’m not going to say we will, but I think we can dramatically reduce it, and we can teach many who may just be ignorant on how to actually be a human being and not a power figure — to see the entire community as a whole. So: training and testing and more thorough background checks.

But also, we need to increase the training of police officers to two years at a minimum. We’re not going to hand a doctor a scalpel after two months of training and say, “Here you go.” And we shouldn’t be handing a police officer gun or a badge two months after training and say, “Here you go.” Even if it’s six months, that’s not long enough. We’re putting our lives in the hands of our surgeons, and we’re holding them accountable. We should be holding the police accountable as well.

NR: You’ve mentioned that there should be some reallocation of funds. What would your ideal reallocation look like?

NS: Reallocation of funds is pushing money toward our communities to invest in their actual development. For example, a study came out last year that took place in Seattle and Portland that showed that the areas that were historically redlined were, during the heat wave last year, still much hotter because of the lack of parks, greenery, and natural shade that is provided and the amount of pavement that we have around them.

So, investing in our communities to make them more accessible for children and our

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communities to actually play in. Also, investing in these will help lower temperatures [and] save people’s lives, because here in Washington, [air conditioning] is not a common thing in a household, it’s not standard.

We also need to invest in community programs… even sports and other things, to help drive our communities in a positive way rather than saturating them with police. I feel that saturating a community with police is only going to increase crime, because now you’re insinuating that most people in this community or these communities are criminals, and 99% of them are not.

NR: Do you have any upcoming campaign events that you’re excited about?

NS: We’re working on campaign events, but I’ve been out in the community the last couple of weekends trying to gather signatures [to get] on the ballot. I need 2,500 signatures. It’s a little difficult right now, but we’re getting there. We have alternate plans to find ways to get on the ballot.

And I host a town hall every other Saturday at 4:00 p.m. My goal there is for people to have an opportunity to come online, so they don’t have to go anywhere, and they have access to ask me questions. I’m an open book. I’m willing to answer questions. I’m willing to learn from the community, especially what issues are impacting them… I also have times on Sundays that individuals can book on my website for a one-on-one for 25 minutes.

I’m going [with] the approach that I believe in, which is that people come first, and the people should be listened to.

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Food

Taco Bell launches Drag Queen Brunch tour empower Queer youth before they’re in crisis,” said Brian Wenke, executive director of the It Gets Better Project. “We are beyond excited to partner with Taco Bell and the Taco Bell Foundation to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community through the Drag Brunch experience and to collaborate on programming designed to engage LGBTQ+ youth around their career aspirations and future potential.”

At the risk of sounding glib, this journalist’s heart is torn between anticapitalist sentiment, hope for the Queer community, and wishing Taco Bell would bring back Diablo sauce.

by A.V. Eichenbaum SGN Managing Editor To the amazement and confusion of LGBTQ+ fast-food fans nationwide, Taco Bell’s multicity drag tour kicked off in the Taco Bell Cantina in Las Vegas on May 1.

Billed as an “immersive fan experience” and hosted by Kay Sedia, each brunch event will spotlight the It Gets Better Project. A grant from the Taco Bell Foundation to the organization was also announced, but no dollar amount has been disclosed to the public.

Sedia, a drag performer and Tupperware salesperson, also appeared on an episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County before her foray into the wild world of quickservice restaurant (QSR) philanthropy.

“The TACO is out of the bag!!!” announced Sedia on Instagram. “I’m going on tour with @tacobell!! I’m so excited to host TACO BELL CANTINAS first ever Drag Brunch in five cities across the US!! Morning breakfast is about to get even sexier!”

What?

If you’re like me, you’re feeling a mix of delight and mystification. Where did the idea come from? Who decided to really think outside the bun and truly Live Más?

Turns out, the answer is in the question. In 2020, Taco Bell Corp. formed the Live Más Pride Employee Resource Group, a division of the company consisting of over a hundred members.

According to a press release, the Live Más Pride ERG’s mission is to make an impact by “creating opportunities and

Photo courtesy of Kay Sedia and Taco Bell Corporation

engagements that elevate the voices, stories, and experiences of its community both internally and externally.” Its goal with the Taco Bell Drag Brunch experience is to “foster positive environments for the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies.”

If that’s not enough to get skeptics on board, Taco Bell announced in the same press release that its Fire Tier Rewards members — who had early access to tickets — will also have early access to the return of Mexican pizza.

Is this rainbow capitalism? The case can

be made that nothing a large corporation does is completely genuine.

However, the case can also be made that, in a tumultuous time for equal rights, having a brand beloved by Americans regardless of class or creed tour the country to benefit an LGBTQ+ nonprofit organization is bold and necessary within the current system, to garner support for the community.

“What started nearly twelve years ago as an effort to provide hope and encouragement to young LGBTQ+ people has become a global movement to uplift and

The tour Sorry, Seattle, but the Taco Bell Drag Brunch won’t be making a stop near us any time soon. If you’re 18 or older, you can make reservations online for events in Chicago (May 22), Nashville (May 29), NYC (June 12), and Fort Lauderdale (June 26) while tickets are still available.

The menu reportedly will include mimosas, coffee, and a $5 breakfast box. If you’re willing to make a road trip, it sounds like quite the… something. Taco Bell is known in the QSR community for constantly generating wild ideas and outreach fresher than its food, and this seems like the natural next step for the brand. Let’s hope this turns out to be something that lasts longer than one of its new menu items, so we can all experience this strange pairing one day.

For more information about the It Gets Better Project, visit itgetsbetter.org or find it @ItGetsBetter on social media.

First-ever Seattle Boba Fest brings businesses together for National Bubble Tea Day

by Kylin Brown SGN Contributing Writer Thanks to the University District Partnership, 18 businesses along the Ave saw a boom in business last Saturday thanks to the celebration of National Bubble Tea Day at the first-ever Seattle Boba Fest. Festivities included special deals at the cafés and teahouses, information to learn about the drink, and a photo booth.

Learning experience Boba Fest served as the perfect excuse for bubble tea fanatics to indulge in exciting one-time offerings du jour, but it also gave first-timers and boba skeptics the opportunity to learn about the Taiwanese style of tea.

While boba is a favorite topping for bubble tea, the term is somewhat colloquially used for the drink itself. These pearls of tapioca, brown sugar, and water have a smooth-chewy texture that slows the drinker to a pace of pure enjoyment.

Though the pearls sink to the bottom of the drink, boba straws are just wide enough to get a bite with every sip.

Boba’s texture can be intimidating for first-timers who are unfamiliar with solids in their liquids, but the University District Partnership offered introductory information and a choose-your-own adventure to newcomers via a “How to Boba” guide.

Under the title, it read: “New to boba?

Have no fear! Whether you try one of the featured teas in this guide or want to choose your own adventure, ordering boba is fun and easy — the possibilities are endless!”

Volunteers and staff offered the guide at the Partnership’s tent, while additional signage and balloons directed visitors along, reminiscent of the U District light rail opening’s food walk last October.

Seattle’s University District is becoming a go-to neighborhood for boba regulars, as it is now home to about two dozen cafés

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Photo courtesy of U District Partnership

offering or even specializing in the drink.

While even more locations exist in the Chinatown-International District, the Partnership saw an opportunity to boost business at its own boba shops in honor of the fourth National Boba Day. In the business of bubbles From the base of the Ave (University Way NE) at 42nd Street to the final participating café just north of 52nd Street, a total of 18 businesses provided original recipes and offered deals from noon to 6:00 p.m. Even after the event’s scheduled end, lines persisted outside of Don’t Yell at Me tea house, Oasis Tea Zone, and others.

At Oasis, the special was a unique take I had to get my hands on: mango lemonade with popping boba. Oasis specializes in mango flavor, and I swear by it. Popping boba was something I had never tried,

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though, so in the spirit of the occasion, I went for it.

While normal boba is ultra-chewy, popping boba is a mouthwide event, like champagne mixed with Gushers. The caviar-like pearls delightfully popped easily between one’s teeth, exploding into an even more mango-flavored liquid.

Other shops offered equally fun specials that featured ingredients like lychee (at Boba Gem Tea House) or cheese foam topping (at Don’t Yell at Me), as well as specialty teas like hojicha at Meraki Tea Bar, and flavors like ube (purple yam), as seen at Brooklyn Avenue NE’s Sip House. Meanwhile, Sweet Alchemy Ice Creamery and Cold Plate infused boba pearls into its dessert menus.

Some of these ingredients added to the adventure or, depending on the visitor, maybe too much unfamiliarity. That’s why

the University District Partnership, in collaboration with The Stranger, included detailed instructions on how to order a custom boba drink that fits your preferences.

You can always do this at a boba café.

Guests of the participating businesses of the day ranged from professional boba-top poppers — the drink is commonly sealed off with plastic, which you can do yourself at the Ave’s self-serve café, Boba Up! — to definite skeptics, most of whom seemed dragged along by a boba-loving friend or two.

With the option to craft your own boba drink, from base tea to milk to flavors and toppings, these first-timers were able to find some comfort in the endeavor.

“I just always thought that these black little balls were… so scary. Now that I’m here, I think I could get used to it someday,” said Deborah Barbeau, a first-year student at the UW. She gestured to a friend, saying, “This one made me buy it.”

Weary or unbothered, droves of students and visitors perused the University District all afternoon with a variety of brightly colored bubble teas. People were all grins at the photo booth and beyond, enjoying a “friend date” like Deborah or maybe flying solo on their bubble-filled journey.

As stated in the University District’s “How to Boba” guide, the options for a customized boba experience are endless.

Check out the website for more information on the businesses that participated, or take your own U District boba tour for a refreshing and potentially adventurous tea time.

Find the University District Partnership at udistrictpartnership.org, and for a limited time, find more info on this event at udistrictseattle.com/bobafest. Add yourself to the U District mailing list via the latter link for updates on future events.

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Arts & Entertainment

Reboot Theatre Company makes a fierce comeback with Cabaret

Heather Refvem and Vincent Milay as Sally and Cliff – Photo by Colin Madison Photography

by Hannah Saunders SGN Contributing Writer Queer- and Transgender-led Reboot Theatre Company has made a fierce comeback with the musical Cabaret, now taking place at the Theatre Off Jackson.

The organization originally announced the production back in 2019, but three weeks into rehearsal — in March of 2020 — everything shutdown due to the pandemic.

Cabaret is a Broadway classic, with music

by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The musical features a live band and is set in Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub, a center of culture and sex in the twilight days of Weimar Germany.

Director Jasmine Joshua noted that Cabaret was originally chosen to show the slow creep of fascism ahead of the 2020 presidential election, and that the diversity of the cast is reflective of that of Weimar Berlin.

Joshua’s focus for the reboot of Cabaret was to examine how privilege intersects with activism: at what point did one notice something was wrong and what could be done about it, and what do people with differing privileges and varying levels of social capital do when faced with white supremacism?

The performance If you’ve never been before, the Theatre Off Jackson is a very intimate setting, which actors of Cabaret use to their advantage by traveling up and down the aisles that spill through the audience to the stage.

Sexuality also spilled throughout the performance through revealing clothing, such as titty tassels that swung around vigorously (and majestically) during dance numbers. The attire of the Kit Kat Dancers consisted of silk, feathers, and garters. Costume designers Fantasia Rose and Katrina Hess did an excellent job helping audience

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Natalie Moe, June Apollo Johns, and Viviana Garza – Photo by Colin Madison Photography

members to travel back to 1930s Germany through the characters’ clothing.

June Apollo Johns, in the important role of the Emcee, interacted with the audience during scenes where the actor would traditionally ignore the audience, which I found to be utterly charming and delightful.

I was also blown away by the musical numbers, 20 in total. The Kit Kat Dancers kicked high, and all cast members used the space of the stage fully — there was never a gap during dance numbers. The tone and vocal range of the singers left me stunned.

I particularly enjoyed listening to Heather Refvem, who plays Sally Bowles, sing.

We’ve all heard of smooth criminals, but have you heard of smooth transitions, let

(top) Marlee Squires, Natalie Moe, James Stanford, Viviana Garza; (center) Heather Refvem, Kevin Tanner; (below) Alexei Cifrese – Photo by Colin Madison Photography

alone seen one happen before your eyes?

The transitions from scene to scene in this production occur so naturally that I almost couldn’t believe my own eyes. Actors would generally begin a scene transition near the end of a musical number, so rearranging the stage was incorporated into the song — how cool!

Having lived in Austria, where the national language is German, I was impressed by the pronunciation of German words and phrases interspersed throughout the musical. I also enjoyed listening to and comprehending a language I used to speak every day. But if you are unfamiliar with German, the actors do their part to clarify phrases through their actions, or by also

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relaying the phrase or word in English.

I also found myself laughing out loud when a gorilla dressed in a hot pink tutu appeared on stage and went on pointe, as is done in ballet. Again, I could not believe my eyes.

Reboot Theatre Company’s first production in three years, Cabaret, is not one you want to miss, because… “What good is sitting alone in your room?”

Cabaret runs through May 14. Ticket prices range from $5 to $27. For more information, visit reboottheatre.org.

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Arts & Entertainment

Yeehaws and Stonewall: Queer Country’s a certified hit

by Terri Schlichenmeyer Special to the SGN QUEER COUNTRY SHANA GOLDIN-PERSCHBACHER © 2002 University of Illinois Press $110 hardcover; $24.95 paperback 288 pages

Image courtesy of University of Illinois Press

Usually, when one thinks about country music, rural living comes to mind: cowboys, Christianity, conservatism, heartbreak, and honky-tonks. Stereotypically, few of those things have seemed LGBT-inclusive, so Queer listeners might feel unwelcome — were it not for today’s boundary-breakers and “Queer country,” which, says author Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, is becoming more of a music category with fans.

Goldin-Perschbacher is quick to say that “Queer country” is not a genre on its own.

Some out musicians might more closely identify themselves with Americana or folk music; k.d. lang’s music is more “coun-

trypolitan,” but with humor; and you can attend Queer bluegrass festivals if you want. None of this defines the various artists: in many ways, Gay, Lesbian, and Trans artists have really had no other options than to embrace all labels.

Then there’s the issue of how to do Queer country. Goldin-Perschbacher refers often to Patrick Haggerty, who recorded the album Lavender Country in Seattle shortly after Stonewall; at that time, he was especially determined that his album be honest and sincere in its reflection of Gay life — things that continue to concern Queer artists who use irony, drag, and camp in their work.

And there’s also that struggle to go mainstream. Goldin-Perschbacher writes about how k.d. lang’s career progressed. You’ll read about Chely Wright and Lil Nas X and how they used nontraditional ways to rise to stardom, as well as the many artists who do what seems best for them, and count LGBTQ listeners and cis audience members alike among their fans.

There really is no way Queer Country could ever be considered a “beach read.” This isn’t the relaxed, rangy kind of book you want to sunbathe with. Instead, Goldin-Perschbacher speaks to the academic, rather than the casual listener, with language that seems to fit better in school than in sand. The analyses border on the high-brow just a bit, with some repetition to underscore various points.

Even so, this is an important work. In writing about this almost-hidden branch of country music, Goldin-Perschbacher also tells of the efforts she’s made to help some artists gain a wider audience. This lends more of an insider feel; the extensive interviews with artists and excerpts from other works let readers know that they should keep their eyes (and ears!) open.

If you tackle this book, give yourself some time to absorb it. It’s not for everyone, but C&W listeners and “Queer country” fans may find it necessary.

Zines dispersed, cops pied at Pipsqueak fair

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer Expecting a group of very punk rock individuals, I dressed for Saturday’s anarchist zine fair in a straw hat, fishing vest, and the biggest glasses I had. A thriftstore button-up meant for someone much broader than I, together with green jogging pants with wool socks and running shoes, completed the look. I was ready to stick out like a sore thumb.

The event was hosted by the Pipsqueak Gallery, a general-purpose gathering space for revolutionary-minded individuals, on the corner of 16th and East Spruce. It’s part of a larger building, residential by the looks of it, and old too, with stained brickwork and peeling paint. In other words, it was exactly the place one would expect to find such an event.

The sidewalk, the stoop, and the gallery itself were all busy when I arrived. A loose row of darkly dressed and well-pierced folks were hanging out on the building’s steps. Others in generally brighter attire seemed to prefer sitting in circles on the patches of grass beside the road, in the afternoon sun — that is, wherever there was space. Most of the grass was taken up by carnival games, like balloon darts, portrait sketches, and the evergreen classic “pie-a-cop.”

And there were zines, of course. Tables both indoors and out were quilted corner to corner with neat, stapled booklets, on subjects ranging from divination to Sapphic poetry to self-defense during mass protests.

Most were free with optional donations, and some — the ones built to last, with covers and proper spines — were $14 at most.

At least one table’s donations went to a refugee kitchen in Tijuana called El Comedor (which has a Patreon for those interested).

I was told by a Pipsqueak regular at one of the tables that the event was the first zine fair at the place. Many of the people present had interacted with each other online before, and tabled at other zine-friendly events. But since the larger anarchist book fair has been canceled for the second year in a row for pandemic reasons, this occasion was also the first time some had met in person.

Many attendees also didn’t want their faces in pictures, nor their names published, but they were happy to talk about the content. The zines were sourced from blogs like Tumblr and other online outlets, for the most part. Queer themes were present at every table in some measure.

Queer Fire, for example, dealt with the George Jackson Brigade, a local urban guerilla group active in the 1970s, composed of

veteran activists of the Black, women’s, and Gay rights movements. First Protocols of Queer Goetia was a free guide to interacting with Queer spirits, as part of a broader theme of Queer mysticism in books from Contagion Press.

Of all the theory, poetry, and other thoughts swirling in that atmosphere, one call to action was particularly immediate.

The Seattle chapter of Black and Pink, a prison-abolition and LGBTQ+ support organization, was looking for pen pals for

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Photos courtesy of Pipsqueak / Instagram

Photos by Daniel Lindsley

incarcerated Queer people and those living with HIV/AIDS. There was a binder of guidelines for anyone who wanted to start writing letters immediately.

One of the people tabling for Black and Pink said a vigil was to be held at King County Jail that night, for the five inmates who had died in custody there since the year began. The same person said that May Day was bound to have some anarchist events as well.

I left the event with a vestful of anar-

chist literature, including the first edition of Pipsqueak’s own new zine, fresh off the printer.

As it has since 2011, the gallery will be hosting events like art exhibitions, antispace symposiums, gunshot wound treatment classes, and other anti-authoritarian gatherings in the future.

To stay up to date with Pipsqueak, follow it on Instagram @pipsqueak.seattle.

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Amazon Prime’s Queer hit The Wilds returns for season 2

The Wilds – Photo courtesy of Amazon

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer On Wednesday, May 4, the highly anticipated second season of the hit teen drama The Wilds will return to Amazon Prime.

The series follows the story of “the Unsinkable Eight,” a diverse group of teenage girls stranded on a remote island following an apparent plane crash. At first look, the show seems like an all-female Lost or another adaptation of Lord of the Flies. However, as the first season progresses, viewers soon learn there is more going on than meets the eye.

The girls have not ended up on the remote island by chance: everything was a setup.

“The Unsinkable Eight” are unwitting participants in a radical feminist sociological experiment to determine whether or not women are more fit to run society. They were drugged and placed on the island by Gretchen Klein, the mastermind behind the experiment, who is keeping tabs on their every move.

Which is harder: Teenage coming-of-age or a deserted island?

The story comes from writer and creator Sarah Streicher, who said she came up with the plot after experiencing a devastating breakup.

“It began with a heartbreak. I got my heart trampled by a person who I shall not name, and the experience really made me feel like a teenager again,” she said. “It was a reminder of how close that person is to your surface, always and continually, and I wanted to explore that... kind of see how it ticks and really celebrate it.

“I decided to marry the idea of the teenage coming-of-age experience and a deserted island and ask the question: Which is more difficult to weather The series has a nonlinear progression.

Each episode starts with narration by one of the girls “post-rescue” in an underground bunker. As the series progresses, audiences get a better look at the lives each girl left behind and the toll the island has taken on them. Every detail in the show is international, giving The Wilds the feel of a mystery thriller.

The Wilds grips audiences from the first scene, and each episode ends on a bigger cliff-hanger than the last. By the end of the first season, all but two of the girls have been seen alive in the bunker, leaving fans to wonder about the fate of certain characters.

Online, fans have come up with different theories as to what may be in store in the next season.

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Authentic characters While the plot sucks viewers in, many have found the incredibly developed main characters to be the heart and soul of the program. The charm of “the Unsinkable Eight” is twofold: As a writer, Streicher made sure to thoroughly develop the characters, pulling traits from real people she admires. To cast the perfect actors in the leading roles, the production team searched for girls all over the world until they found the perfect people to fill Streicher’s high expectations.

“I had, in my mind, quite a pretty realized idea of who these characters were. I had spent a lot of time developing them, and part of my process is to mine the people that I’ve known or grown up with, and graft their personalities and shapes and quirks onto the characters. So, I came in with a pretty clear idea,” Streicher said.

Part of her intention when writing the characters was to include girls with diverse looks. “We were all pretty deliberate and firm about making sure that the body type diversity and racial diversity that was on the page was also reflected in the people that we found,” Streicher continued. “So, it was really lucky and fantastic and so rewarding to see it come together.”

“Shoni” sets sail It’s 2022, and no hit teen show is complete without good “ships” — and The Wilds is no exception. Fan-favorite couple “Shoni” (Shelby + Toni) became canon toward the end of the first season after tension-filled episodes between the enemies-to-lovers.

In the show’s depiction of the characters, fans can see two different sides to Queer coming-of-age. From the beginning, the audience knew Toni as a fierce, openly Queer self-advocate, an athlete, and loyal friend. Her backstory focuses on her last romantic relationship and the ways her fiery spirit led to its demise.

Through this, we see how self-actualization became vital to her survival. A foster kid bouncing around the system, she was already used to rejection and no longer sought approval from others. She did not see her sexuality as anything more than a part of herself and wasn’t afraid to lash out at those who were not willing to accept her for it.

On the other side of the spectrum, fans meet Shelby. A Southern pageant princess and the pastor’s eldest daughter, Shelby wears a mask of sorts for most of the first season, appearing optimistic despite the darkness she tries to hide within. When fans finally get to see her backstory, they find out that she grew up in an environment where people don’t say “Gay.” She covers up her homosexuality with Christian charm and subtle hatred.

When the two finally come together after giving up hope that they will be rescued,, it is only after they become more authentic versions of themselves, apart from the expectations of the societies they have left behind.

Telling BIPOC stories without racializing trauma The show is a masterpiece in highlighting diverse characters. More than half of “the Unsinkable Eight” are strong women of color, and while their races and ethnicities certainly play a role in their backstories, they are never central to their trauma.

Instead, the writers focus on issues like eating disorders, neurodivergence, divorce, breakups, and sexual assault.

“The plot and characters are so relatable.

I love how it covers all the major problems that every teenager goes through,” The Wilds fan P told the SGN. “I relate to Toni and Rachel the most. They have kept the plot of the show as raw as possible, and this is what makes the show so special. Writing about eight main characters with eight different personalities is a hard job, and the writers have done that successfully.”

The show does something revolutionary in focusing on minority characters facing these specific struggles. While none of the issues are new to the coming-of-age genre, past depictions typically saw them as “white girl problems.”

When other teen dramas, like Euphoria, provide on-screen representation, they often descend into the pitfalls of racialized tragedy. The Wilds avoids this trope and gives its characters plenty of depictions of joy and excellence, while also focusing on real teenage issues that impact kids of all races and ethnicities.

Found family The Wilds has become a beacon for many Queer fans, not only for the romantic arc between characters Toni and Shelby but also for the overarching theme of “found family.” Coming from different backgrounds, states, and traumatic experiences, the girls find refuge in each other.

The family trope that develops among the characters gains strength in their darkest moments, when the girls fight but come back together.

For Queer people, “found family” is more than just a media cliché. The experience of leaving home and people behind and dealing with trauma is common for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Often Queer people find each other and form support networks, depending on the love, guidance, and acceptance of others in a rich and tight community.

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Boys, boys, boys Because of the mystery element to the show, creators have been pretty tight-lipped about what they reveal about the upcoming season. While teasers seem to show some big spoilers, fans are not convinced they are entirely accurate.

One thing the creators have been open to admitting is the addition of a “boy” island.

Mirroring the Dawn of Eve experiment, this island has been dubbed “the Twilight of Adam” and will feature eight new male cast members. LGBTQ+ fans are excited to see more Queer representation with the introduction of Ivan, who is described as “unapologetically himself” and was shown in another trailer confronting another boy on the island over subtle homophobic comments.

The introduction of the new male characters had some fans initially disappointed; they worried that boys would distract from the overtly feminist message of the show.

However, it seems the incorporation of strong male dynamics will only reinforce the ideas Streicher introduced audiences to.

“I am okay with the addition of the boys.

Being an experiment, it was obvious there was going to be a boys’ island to compare to the girls’. I trust Sarah’s writing,” P said.

Theory vs. lived experience A theme of the show tends to be comparing Klein’s liberal feminist theory with the modern lived experiences of the diverse group of teenage girls on the island.

Klein, as a character, seems reminiscent of white, J.K Rowling–style feminists, as she believes the simple answer to gender inequality is to replace men in high positions of power with women.

In contrast, the girls on the island bring their own lived experiences and intersecting identities to the table to show that there are more complex layers to gender oppression than Klein is willing to account for.

Fans are now hoping to see added layers to the debunking of her feminist theory by watching how the boys’ island interacts and deals with the topics of race, sexuality, and toxic masculinity.

Fans of The Wilds are excitedly awaiting the second season, hoping for more romance, more friendship, and more answers to the cliffhangers from season 1.

While no one can predict what will happen next on the show, audiences can’t wait to see the new directions Streicher will be taking “the Unsinkable Eight” in.

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Books

Redefining Realness a bold and honest account of Trans girlhood

blamed herself for her mother’s neglect, just as she had blamed herself for becoming a victim of sexual abuse.

“On the road toward self-revelation, we make little compromises to appease those we love, those who are invested in us, those who have dreams for us,” she writes. “I didn’t have the words to define what I saw or who I was, but I recognized myself and often chose to dismiss her with the one question that pushed me to put the mask back on: Who will ever love you if you tell the truth?”

The answer to this question came to her in the form of Wendi, the only openly Trans girl at Mock’s middle school. Wendi immediately saw through Janet’s disguise, and the two became fast friends. Seeing Wendi live her truth so boldly and openly gave Mock the support she needed to take steps toward revealing herself to the world.

Wendi introduced Janet to fashion and makeup. She brought her with her to every doctor’s appointment once she started taking HRT, and even provided her with underthe-counter pills until she was ready to come out to her mother.

With Wendi by her side, Mock found community among Hawaii’s Trans women.

“I was fortunate to meet someone just like me at such a young age,” she recalled of her friendship with Wendi, which has lasted well into adulthood.

Image courtesy of Atria

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer SGN Book Club explores LGBTQIA+ literature, new and old, from the fresh perspective of a Gen Z book enthusiast.

This week SGN’s book club is reading the groundbreaking first memoir from LGBTQ+-rights activist and icon Janet Mock, Redefining Realness. First published in 2014, this honest, raw, and triumphant look at Mock’s coming of age — interspersed with true stories, introductions to Trans concepts and slang for cis readers, and hints at activism — has it all.

Mock begins her memoir with an introduction detailing her public coming out and describing why she felt her story could help other young Trans girls. Despite hearing countless messages from girls that her story inspired them, she admits that the Marie Claire article that introduced her as a Trans woman to the world was not her story.

The article perpetuated the idea that she was exceptional, flawless, and the rare Trans girl to make it out. She fit the profile of what mainstream cis, white, straight people were willing to accept a Trans woman as: beautiful, feminine, and passing.

“Being exceptional isn’t revolutionary, it’s lonely. It separates you from your community,” Mock wrote. “It promotes the delusion that because I ‘made it,’ that level of success is easily accessible to all young trans women. Let’s be clear: It is not.”

Taking her story into her own hands, Mock decided to share her true coming of age — the messiness, the heartbreak, and the beauty she lived through as a young Trans girl growing up in Oakland and Hawaii.

The first section starts with Mock on a first date in New York in 2009. She describes the charm of the man she is quickly falling for, but behind all the excitement and joy of new love, she holds her identity close to her chest, worried about how the straight cis man will respond when she finally tells him she is Transgender.

Janet Mock – Photo by Aaron Tredwell

had Janet and shortly after, her younger brother, Chad. The family of four, accompanied by an older half-sister, Cori, moved to Oakland after her father finished his stint in the Navy. There, Mock recalls some of her earliest memories: being taken to her father’s mistress’s house while he cheated.

Heartbroken by the infidelity of her husband, Mock’s mother left him, taking Janet with her back to Hawaii but leaving her younger brother in California with their dad. Mock admits she did not miss her brother much, as she was thrilled to finally have all her mother’s attention.

This, however, didn’t last. Eventually, her mother found another boyfriend. After getting pregnant again, she decided to move in and start a family with him and send Janet away to California, forgetting about her and Chad, just as she had with her first two daughters.

Childhood in paradise She immediately jumps back 30 years, to Honolulu, remembering an innocent youth set against the idyllic backdrop of paradise.

She describes her family: her older halfsisters, her mother, and her grandmother.

Despite living in a female-dominated environment, Mock recalls early memories of physical punishment for crossing the invisible gender line.

As these stories continue, readers get a better glimpse into her unstable home life.

Her mother was a girlfriend first, often neglecting the children she already had at home to please and serve whatever man had charmed his way into her life.

Mock describes the early years of her childhood when one of those men was still her father. After her parents married, they

Oakland masculinity In Oakland once again, Mock recalls the constant battles she faced with her father, who attempted to force masculinity upon her. “My femininity was heavily policed because it was seen as inferior to masculinity,” Mock writes. “My father, though he didn’t have the words, couldn’t understand why I would choose to be feminine when masculinity was privileged.”

Her deviance in this regard led her to often feel like an outcast in her new family dynamic, in which her brother and father bonded over sports, the masculine Holy Grail. With nobody in her life who truly understood her, Mock became vulnerable to the prying eyes of others. “I later learned [what] predators have in their arsenal of affections: They can make an isolated, outcast child feel special.”

The “special treatment” Mock refers to came from her father’s girlfriend’s teenage son, Derek. While he had originally paid her little mind, once Derek realized he could manipulate her, he took advantage of her sexually.

As she reflects on the abuse she suffered, Mock notes that her treatment as “other” by her father and brother may have inadvertently contributed to her vulnerability.

“Being or feeling different, child sexual abuse research states, can result in social isolation and exclusion, which in turn

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leads to a child being more vulnerable to the instigation and continuation of abuse,” she writes. As a child, Mock believed she was “asking for” her abuse by being feminine and different from her brother, but as an adult, she realizes that she was entirely a victim, taken advantage by a boy who wanted to exert his power over her.

Texas, family, and Black womanhood While Mock’s life in Oakland with her father and brother was lonely and constantly filled with reminders that she did not fit the masculine ideal her father had for his children, everything changed when she turned 10 and the family moved to Texas.

For the first time, Mock was surrounded by her father’s family — aunts, cousins, and her grandmother — and she got a taste of what womanhood could look like.

“My grandmother and my two aunts were an exhibition in resilience and resourcefulness and black womanhood,” she writes.

“They rarely talked about the unfairness of the world with the words I use now with my social justice friends, words like intersectionality and equality, oppression, and discrimination. They didn’t discuss those things because they were too busy living it, navigating it, surviving it.”

Not only was her extended family a source for learning the intricacies of Black womanhood, but they also welcomed her into their circle. They allowed her to help cook, gossip, and even wear her female cousin’s clothes from time to time. The women in Mock’s life saw her for who she was and enabled her to explore her identity.

Unfortunately, her father still attempted to police Mock’s gender expression up until the day things changed for her once again.

She was 11 years old when her mother finally called back, after years of absence, requesting that her two children return to her in Hawaii.

Soon after, she boarded a plane with her brother and set off for a new life hundreds of miles away.

A girl from Hawaii Mock saw her return to Hawaii as a way to reinvent herself. Unlike before, she decided to keep her hair short, wear only boys’ clothes, and try to keep up with her brothers.

“If I did these things, then Mom would never send me away again,” she remembered. She

“Passing” and solidarity Being able to access HRT at a younger age, before certain effects of puberty can become permanent, was important for Mock. As she reflects on the importance of “passing” to her younger self, she notes that “passing” is “based on an assumption that trans people are passing as something we are not. It’s rooted in the idea that we are not really who we say we are, that we are holding a secret, that we are living false lives.”

Placing more validity on Trans women who can “pass” is entirely transphobic and undermines the experiences of all Trans people. This way of thinking also privileges the select few fortunate enough to have early access to medication as more “authentic” than other Trans women.

While she knows it was wrong, Mock recalls the superiority complex she experienced once she was able to “pass,” often ignoring her other Trans friends when out in public and feeding her self-worth with objectifying comments from men. “Objectification and sexism masked as desirability were a bittersweet part of my dream fulfilled,” she recalls.

Mock let her privilege block her from solidarity with her other Trans sisters. She recalls looking down on those who relied on sex work to fund their transition journeys. Her perspectives shifted, however, when her home life became so tumultuous that she felt she had no other options than to follow in their footsteps.

Reflecting on her teenage experience as a sex worker, Mock writes, “My experience… is not that of the trafficked young girl or the fierce sex-positive woman who proudly chooses sex work as her occupation. My experience mirrors that of the vulnerable girl with few resources who was groomed from childhood, who was told that this was the only way, who wasn’t comfortable enough in her body to truly gain any kind of pleasure from it, who rented pieces of herself.”

Mock’s memoir is the story of a remarkable woman who grew up against staggering odds to become an advocate for those she once saw herself above. Her story is one of triumph, love, friendship, and overcoming. Filled with references to great works of feminist literature, she leaves readers with a takeaway from theorist Simone de Beauvoir: “One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” This is a story of womanhood shaping and forming. Mock’s story is a testament to the triumph of womanhood and a must-read for any feminist coming of age today.

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Episode 23: Dr. Kevin Wang This episode is full of highs and lows!

Ash and Lindsey discuss Biden's visit to Seattle and the bleak reality of the ongoing climate crisis! The laughs just don't stop! Our special guest this week is Dr. Kevin Wang, returning to talk about COVID and more.

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Film

Raimi and Olsen put a personal stamp on the MCU’s Multiverse of Madness

Elizabeth Olsen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Theaters Since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, there have been plenty of celebrated filmmakers who have taken the reins of an entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe only to find their distinctive style significantly hamstrung by the demands of the sprawling, interconnected storylines crafted by Marvel Studios. There have been others who have notably managed to put their idiosyncratic mark on the material even while having to work under predetermined narrative restraints, but they have been few and far between.

Don’t get me wrong. Most MCU efforts are still divertingly entertaining even with their flaws, and I honestly think the last one that I gave a mostly poor review of was 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. Even somewhat middling 2021 entries like Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had more positives than negatives; both were just decent enough that, even though neither stands on their own, this isn’t as problematic as it should be.

The issue — one many have been silently grumbling about since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier — is that few of these motion pictures have been allowed to stand on their own. They all have to spend far too much time setting up events and characters that have nothing to do with their own narratives. They are obsessed with what comes next, and so at a certain point, watching a Marvel movie began to feel more like homework for a forthcoming quiz than it did a goofy, special effects-filled slice of superheroic pop entertainment.

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All of which got me to sit up in shock when the studio turned over Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to a director like Sam Raimi. He’s handled Marvel characters before, of course. His Spider-Man trilogy is a massive, worldwide success that likely set the foundation for the MCU as we know it today.

But those pictures, most notably 2004’s phenomenal Spider-Man 2, had personality.

They were self-contained even when they planted the seed for events to be explored in greater detail in future stories. Raimi knew how to work inside the studio system yet still managed to maintain his rebellious Evil Dead-meets-Darkman identity, and this includes the overstuffed Spider-Man 3.

For those thinking this new incarnation of Marvel would neuter the director’s distinctive anything-goes style and bury his exploitation horror-comedy roots in quick-dry cement, think again. It doesn’t happen immediately, but when it matters most, Raimi unleashes all of the crazy, comedically vaudevillian, bloodsoaked, visually audacious tricks fans expect from him, and this sequel comes alive like no other MCU entry in recent memory.

What’s interesting is that the director accomplishes this inside a film that’s beholden to one television show (WandaVision) and at least three other MCU epics (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Avengers: Endgame, and Doctor Strange) for it to even exist in the first place. Yet, as convoluted and messy as the screenplay by Michael Waldron (Loki) is, Raimi handles things in such a way that a viewer does not need to have watched any of those to understand what is happening here. He shuffles through laborious pieces of exposition with shocking rapidity, highlighting key pieces of information while discarding the superfluous bits that don’t have much bearing on the events central to his main characters and their collective ideal.

And what are those travails? Doctor Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and current Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) face off against an unexpected adversary when a visitor from the expansive multiverse, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), literally drops into the streets of New York and needs them to save her.

She’s being chased by a powerful force who wants to steal her abilities to travel through the multiverse for themselves, and they’re willing to rip through anyone — and any alternate realm — standing in the way of achieving their goal.

This leads to a universe-hopping adventure in which Doctor Strange and America are thrust into various alternate realities, the former encountering versions of himself, his friends, and his loved ones in the process. He gets to see firsthand what the dangers of messing with time are. He also experiences the physical and psychological toll of dabbling with the mystical dark arts, the evil magical spells hidden in an ancient book forbidden for good reason.

Other than showcasing a colorful visual palette that’s somewhat abnormal for the MCU, the first act of this sequel isn’t exactly earthshaking. But it’s all a ruse. It’s as if Raimi is setting the viewer up, cleverly giving the audience something purposefully familiar before cagily pulling the rug out from underneath them. Once Doctor Strange and America get thrust into far corners of the multiverse, all bets are off.

By the time he’s forced into a corner and has to unleash a plan so gruesomely bold it could wake the dead, it’s clear Raimi has full control, and the folks behind the scenes at Marvel are only along for the ride.

I’m not going into the plot because part of the fun of the malevolent nuttiness of the climax is in seeing how everything plays out free of spoilers. Yes, there are some notable

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cameos. More importantly, as this is a journey into the multiverse, there are crossover possibilities between Marvel properties that haven’t been feasible for a multitude of legal and studio-mandated reasons until now.

Make of that what you will.

I do have to talk about Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), however. Her character, fresh off the events of WandaVision, is the key cog in the plot. The good news? Olsen is spectacular. This is an award-worthy performance. Explosive. Emotional. Threedimensional. The actress is masterful; the complexity of what she does is well beyond anything I anticipated. Olsen elevates the material every time she’s up on the screen, and a pivotal moment where she gets to portray two different versions of Wanda at the same time is simply stunning.

But there’s a flip side to this coin. Marvel has done a disservice to the character. Even since her debut in Age of Ultron, Wanda’s arc has been nothing but trauma, pain, grief, loss, and then more trauma. While it appeared WandaVision was going to allow the hero time to finally overcome all that’s happened to her and emerge forever changed and personally triumphant, Waldron’s script throws that off a cliff double the size of the one on planet Vormir. Worse, her struggles are utilized to ease the internalized misfortunes of the sequel’s male lead.

This is a problem, and the only reason Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is able to overcome it is thanks to Olsen’s magnificence and Raimi’s superlative handling of the material during the third act. Together, they put a personal stamp on the proceedings that’s worth celebrating, making this second solo adventure for the master of the mystic arts not just worthwhile but arguably the first entry in the MCU since Black Panther that could even remotely be considered essential.

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2022 TRANSLATIONS: SEATTLE TRANS FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW:

A conversation with TRANSlations programmer StormMiguel Florez

Framing Agnes – Photo courtesy of Three Dollar Bill Cinema

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer It’s no secret that I’m a big cheerleader for the TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival. Back when the event first began, I had the honor of helping program a few of these, even presenting a couple of the selections and headlining some post-film Q&As. Now celebrating its 17th anniversary, TRANSlations has thankfully become a Seattle staple and a highlight of the local cinematic calendar. Beginning yesterday and running through Sunday, May 8, this year it’s a hybrid presentation: a handful of live, in-person screenings are taking place at the NW Film Forum on May 7 coupled with a plethora of virtual screenings and events worth getting excited about throughout the weekend.

It’s a lot to take in. I had quick conversation with first-time TRANSlations programmer StormMiguel Florez to chat about this year’s festival. The following are the edited transcripts chronicling are all-toobrief conversation: Sara Michelle Fetters: TRANSlations is back! It’s the Seattle film festival that’s nearest and dearest to my heart. It’s a hybrid version this time around. What were the complications as far as programming was concerned?

StormMiguel Florez: I am excited for you to check out this year’s amazing lineup!

Honestly, there haven’t really been any complications. We’ve had two years of virtual screenings, and getting back to one day in person and three days virtual has been pretty straightforward. It’s like old hat now for so many of us to plan things virtually.

SMF: What have you learned over the past couple years of programming this festival during a pandemic? How have things for you and the Three Dollar Bill team evolved during this time?

SF: This is my first festival on the Three Dollar Bill Cinema team, but I worked for a long time with the San Francisco Trans Film Festival, and have been attending festivals virtually with my own film and helping to run and host various virtual events.

What I’ve learned is that it is totally possible to create memorable and exciting virtual events. I’m really hoping that most festivals continue with a hybrid model long after we come out of this pandemic. It’s something that disability-justice communi-

ties have been doing and telling others to do since long before the pandemic, and we can really see now that there is no reason not to make events — especially film festivals — available virtually, even as live, in-person events are happening.

SMF: You’re coming hot on the heels of the Seattle International Film Festival, which has moved from its traditional spot in mid-to-late May to the later weeks of April. Did this change how you programmed TRANSlations? Is there any worry about “festival fatigue”?

SF: We’re not worried about festival fatigue. While there may be some crossover from SIFF’s audience to ours and vice versa, TRANSlations is very much a community festival, where Trans, Nonbinary, gendernonconforming people, and our allies come

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StormMiguel Florez – Photo courtesy of Three Dollar Bill Cinema

together to connect and celebrate.

We are screening Framing Agnes and Finlandia virtually May 5 thru 8 and in person at Northwest Film Forum on May 7. Those two films screened at SIFF, and we’re hoping that [people] who saw them there are as excited about them as we are and encourage [those] who haven’t seen them yet to catch them at TRANSlations.

SMF: Talk to me about the different passholder options of this year’s festival, as you have a few of them.

SF: We have five of them: Our Hybrid Pass grants a person access to all VIRTUAL and IN-PERSON screenings. Our In-Person Only pass grants you access to our one day of IN-PERSON screenings.

Our Virtual ONLY pass grants you access to all VIRTUAL screenings.

We also offer a Household Virtual Only pass for those who know they will be watching the virtual festival with more than one person. This is for folks who can afford to pay a little extra to cover the cost of [others] joining them.

And finally, we have our Access Virtual Only pass. This pass is for low-income audience members to enjoy all our virtual festival has to offer.

SMF: Your primary in-person event is the “Translations Mxxtape” on May 7 at the Northwest Film Forum, starting at noon and going for the entire day. Tell people what that is about and what they can expect.

SF: Mxxtape is one of four in-person screenings on May 7. That day we’ll show our three centerpiece feature films,

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Finlandia – Photo courtesy of Three Dollar Bill Cinema

Finlandia, Framing Agnes, and CAER (CAUGHT), plus our specially curated inperson shorts program called Mxxtape.

SMF: The virtual program is incredibly diverse. How difficult was it for you and the team to make these selections?

SF: The team, which includes a volunteer screening committee and Three Dollar Bill Cinema staff, spends a couple months watching, reviewing, and discussing films.

It is actually a very fun process, especially when we watch films together over Zoom and get to discuss them immediately.

For me, the hardest part is the deep desire to screen more feature films made

by Trans and Nonbinary filmmakers, and the stark reality that most of our submitted feature films are from cis or non-Trans filmmakers. It highlights the sad truth that Trans and Nonbinary people are not getting the access and funding to tell our own stories, especially for narrative features.

SMF: By Hook or by Crook is your archival presentation. Why this film?

Why now?

SF: This is a film near and dear to my heart. By Hook or by Crook, directed by and starring Harry Dodge and Silas Howard, was released in 2001, so it’s been out for just over 20 years. It was the first feature film I ever saw made by and about Trans people, and it still is one of only a handful of feature narratives I’ve ever seen made by Trans filmmakers. I saw it in a room full of Queer and Trans folks in San Francisco in the early 2000s at an old arthouse theater called the Red Vic. We realized that we just missed presenting a 20th anniversary screening, but we didn’t want that to keep us from presenting and celebrating this very important film in Trans cinema.

SMF: Let’s talk about the virtual forums and events, including the return of “This Ends at Prom.” You have a variety of them, from the educational to the instructive to the just plain fun. Tell me more about these.

SF: “This Ends at Prom” is a weekly podcast analyzing the staying power of womanhood featured in coming-of-age and teen-girl movies from the Queer, feminist cisgender, and Transgender perspectives of wives BJ Colangelo and Harmony Colangelo. This year they’ll be returning on Sunday, May 8, for a live podcast to discuss the 2019 teen comedy Alice Junior.

We’re also bringing back our daily virtual “Tea Time” on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. This was started last year for folks who are not necessarily night people but still want to participate in the festival. This year it’s “Tea Time with the Duchess,” hosted by Ava Davis, aka the Duchess of Grant Park. We’ll have guests each day, including TRANSlations 2022 filmmakers; our former festival director, Sam Berliner; and special Sunday Tea Time guests, Ser Anzoategui, who played Eddy in the Starz series Vida, and filmmaker Lilly Wachowski.

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CAER – Photo courtesy of Three Dollar Bill Cinema

By Hook or By Crook – Photo courtesy of Three Dollar Bill Cinema

Our final virtual event will be a free game night Sunday evening at 5:30 p.m. where [people] can come be social, play a variety of fun games, and wind down after an exciting festival weekend.

SMF: Where does TRANSlations go from here? How does it continue to evolve?

SF: As I mentioned before, I’d love for TRANSlations to remain a hybrid festival.

I’d love to see TRANSlations continue to support and grow emerging Trans and Nonbinary filmmakers so that more of us are at

the helm telling our own stories. I’d love to see festivals working in tandem with filmmakers to budget for closed captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, and audio description for blind and low-vision viewers. This can allow for TRANSlations and many other film festivals to be more accessible to more people. That is the evolution I want to see happen.

SMF: Any last thoughts or advice for those looking forward to attending the festival in person, virtually, or both?

SF: Yes! Film festivals can get over-

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whelming, with so many films and events to attend. If you can, check out our festival guide in advance and decide which films and events you want to attend ahead of time.

Our festival film guide for both in-person and virtual events can be found at threedollarbillcinema.org/translations-2022.

Also, for the safety of our guests, staff, and volunteers, masks and proof of vaccination will be required at our in-person screenings at Northwest Film Forum.

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National News

Photo courtesy of PROMO Missouri

MISSOURI

continued from cover under the age of 18, regardless of parental support or permission. The bill also prevents any state-funded facilities from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors or referring them for gender-affirming care outside of the state.

The SAFE Act also proposes changes to state and federal health care plans starting January 1, 2023. The bill aims to prevent all public health plans from covering medical expenses related to gender transition for anyone under 18, including hormone blockers.

Missouri is the fifth state to introduce a SAFE Act since the beginning of 2021, but this particular variant of the popular bill is the most restrictive.

Republican Rep. Suzie Pollock introduced the bill. She defended it to the committee, saying, “These drugs can sterilize children and never allow them to experience an orgasm. Do you want to do that to a child? Do you want to strip them of that?

If they go all the way through it, they are never content. People who are fully Trans don’t have normal sexual function. You are stealing that from children. My main goal is to protect children.”

Banning Trans girls from school sports Aside from the SAFE Act, Missouri is also voting on legislation that will impact school-aged Trans youth. The House voted to amend HB 1973, which bans Trans athletes from competing for the teams that match their gender identity.

The law states, “Students participating in sex-separated interscholastic athletic contests [are] eligible only to participate in athletic contests organized for the same biological sex that is on the student’s birth certificate.” Opponents of the amendment have noted that the Missouri State High School

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Activities Association already has rules prohibiting Trans athletes from competing for the team that matches their gender identity.

The section of the bill focusing on Trans athletes is a tack-on to the original bill, which originally focused on different aspects related to mental health. The bill included limits to Medicaid coverage for those in mental health facilities and, ironically enough, attempted to curb teen suicide rates by requiring the three-digit suicide prevention number, 988, to be printed on all student IDs. In response to the attack on Trans students added into the otherwise nonLGBTQ+ bill, Rep. LaDonna Appelbaum of St. Louis reminded the legislative body that members of the LGBTQ+ community are four times more likely to commit suicide and that oppressive legislation does not help with this statistic.

Unfortunately, SB 1978 isn’t the only Missouri legislation to sneak anti-Trans language into an otherwise unrelated bill.

HB 2140, also voted on in the state House of Representatives last week, focuses on voter laws. However, amidst the over 25 proposed changes to those laws sits one sneaky subsection that bans Trans women from competing in girls’ sports.

Section 23 of the bill states that it “authorizes any school district to adopt specified provisions prohibiting students of the male sex from participating in athletic activities reserved exclusively for females if such provisions are approved by a vote of the residents of the school district.”

The double standard of anti-Trans sports legislation While many of Missouri’s proposed laws and existing policies on youth athletics are undeniably transphobic, they are also sexist.

Lawmakers who defend the bills, like state Rep. Chuck Basye, who said, “This isn’t about hate, this is about fairness,” refuse to see Trans girls as real girls. These Republi-

cans often refer to them as “biological boys” and ban them from girls’ sports, but they do not propose the same restrictions on Trans boys. They not only allow them to participate in boys’ sports but often propose banning them from competing in girls’ sports.

“There’s lots of examples in our society that males are biologically superior than females,” Basye continued, as he defended the recent anti-Trans bills. Another Republican representative, Ron Copeland, added that he is okay with “biological women” playing male sports due to the “biological differences.” Republican senators, it seems, are okay with Trans athletes, as long as they are set up to lose to their cis competitors.

Despite the popular argument coming from Missouri legislators that these laws will “protect their daughters,” Democratic Rep. Peter Merideth pointed out that antiTrans legislation is not the way to protect children. “I’ve got three daughters. I want to protect my three daughters. This stuff is not how we do it,” he said to the committee.

“This is not about protecting our daughters.

It’s about ignorance and fear. It’s about bullying the most vulnerable group of kids in our state to score political points.”

While these bills have passed the House of Representatives, they still need to be voted on by the Senate before becoming law. While slightly more liberal, the state Senate still has a conservative majority.

The Senate was scheduled hear SB 781 on Monday, May 2. This bill, referred to as the “Save Women’s Sports Act” is being reintroduced after failing to be passed in 2021. The bill protects schools from federal backlash for prohibiting Trans girls in sports and punishes those who allow Trans girls to participate in sports programs by taking away all state funding.

The fight for MONA Along with this wave of anti-Trans bills, Missouri does not currently have any state protections against discrimination against

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LGBTQ+ people. It is still legal in the state for people to be denied housing, service, and even fired due to their sexuality or gender identity. For the last 24 years, legislators on both sides of the aisle have attempted to pass the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act (MONA), to no avail.

Rep. Tom Hannigan, an openly Gay member of the state’s Republican Party, was a primary advocate for MONA during his six years in the legislature. Unfortunately, Hannigan passed away last year due to a stroke. To honor his memory, Hannigan’s Republican colleague and officemate, Rep. Shamed Dogan, filed MONA this year.

“It’s something that was a calling of Tom’s,” Dogan said. “[It was] just something that he wanted to see, because it would help not just him, not just people like him, but just everybody in Missouri.”

Shira Berkowitz, a public policy administrator for the Missouri-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group PROMO, admits that MONA has not passed in the last 24 years because the law includes protections for Trans and Nonbinary people. While a proposed law only protecting against sexual orientation–based discrimination may be more successful in passing through the legislature, LGBTQ+ advocates like Hannigan and Berkowitz have been unwilling to compromise on the bill.

Rep. Rasheen Aldridge Jr. also filed a version of MONA this year, making sure to include protections for Trans people in his bill. “I’m a proud Gay, Black, disabled man,” he said. “No one should have to take their life just because they want to love somebody that may look like them, or may identify the same as them.”

“This is something that needs to happen, something that we should be doing to protect people, because these individuals are our cousins, or our brothers, or our sisters,” he said to the House of Representatives on April 26. “Some are out, but there’s a lot of them that are not out, and we should protect all those individuals.”

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National News

National news highlights

SCOTUS set to blow up Roe v. Wade Will marriage equality be collateral damage?

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

Photo by Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Alabama: DOJ condemns state’s ban on Trans youth care Reuters reported on May 2 that the US Justice Department has filed a complaint against a law in Alabama that makes gender-affirming treatments for Transgender youth a felony, with up to 10 years in prison for providing voluntary medical treatments like hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgery.

The department said that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, and it asked the court to issue an order to prevent the law from going into effect.

ACLU of Alabama Legal Director Tish Gotell Faulks weighed in on the issue in a press release. “Transgender youth are a part of Alabama, and they deserve the same privacy, access to treatment, and data-driven health care from trained medical professionals as any other Alabamian.”

Meanwhile, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey cited Christian doctrine to support her decision to sign the bill.

Boston: Supreme Court rules against city for blocking Christian flag LGBTQ Nation reported on May 2 that the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the City of Boston violated Christians’ constitutional rights by refusing to fly the Christian flag in front of City Hall. The court said that allowing the rainbow flag, along with other symbols for different events, created a “forum” to which a Christian group was denied access.

“When the government encourages diverse expression — say, by creating a forum for debate — the First Amendment prevents it from discriminating against speakers based on their viewpoint,” wrote Justice Stephen Breyer in the court’s opinion. “The city’s lack of meaningful involvement in the selection of flags or the crafting of their messages leads us to classify the flag raising as private, not government, speech — though nothing prevents Boston from changing its policies going forward.”

The decision comes four years after a US district judge shot down the claims of anti-LGBTQ legal organization Liberty Counsel, saying that an event raising the Christian flag would “convey government endorsement of a particular religion by displaying the Christian flag alongside that of the United States...”

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Associate Justice Samuel Alito – Photo by Erin Schaff / Pool via Reuters

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A US Supreme Court document published by Politico on May 2 shows that there is a majority of five high court justices ready to strike down Roe v. Wade, the historic Supreme Court decision legalizing the choice to have an abortion.

The document, labeled “1st Draft” and dated February 10, was written by Justice Samuel Alito, one of the most right-wing of the court’s dominant conservative side.

Alito says that Roe was wrongly decided back in 1973 and should be overruled.

The ruling would come in a case involving a new Mississippi law that limits abortion to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Alito’s opinion goes far beyond upholding the law and seeks to eliminate the right of reproductive choice altogether.

Politico says it obtained the draft opinion “from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case, along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document.” After initially refusing comment on Politico’s revelation, Chief Justice John Roberts admitted on May 3 that the document was “real,” but cautioned that it was not a final draft.

According to Alito’s draft, Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett concur with his views. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan were reportedly preparing dissents supporting the Roe precedent. Breyer has announced his retirement but remains on the court for the rest of its current term, expected to run to July this year.

Chief Justice Roberts apparently disagrees with Alito’s opinion — at least in part — and some reporters have speculated that he is working behind the scenes to delete some of Alito’s sweeping language and create a narrower ruling that guts Roe v. Wade but doesn’t entirely overrule it.

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What happens now?

The high court usually announces its most difficult rulings in late June or early July, just before breaking for summer vacation. That means there is still a month or more for the justices to haggle over language, for Roberts to try to tone down Alito’s far-right rhetoric, and for the three pro-choice justices to try to limit the court’s opinion as much as possible.

If they do not succeed, and the high court’s final opinion looks like Alito’s first draft, all federal protections for reproductive choice will be ended.

Thirteen states currently have antiabortion laws on the books — some of them leftovers from the 1930s. They are currently unenforceable because the Roe decision trumps state law. If Roe goes away, they will immediately become enforceable again, terminating any right to reproductive choice.

Several other states are set to pass laws banning abortions — including very restrictive measures with no exceptions for rape, incest, or life of the mother. Again, without Roe in place, these laws will be enforceable.

In all, 26 states are said to be ready to ban abortion.

But there’s even more. If Republicans gain control of the US House and Senate in the midterm elections, they could move to pass federal legislation that bans abortion nationwide. The only protections for women’s rights would then be a Senate filibuster or a veto by President Biden.

Worse than it looks While Alito’s draft looks very bad for America’s women, it is even worse than it looks at first glance.

In his draft, Alito implicitly challenges the doctrine of “substantive due process” enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. Substantive due process means that the Constitution protects the basic rights of Americans — including rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution — from government interference.

That means that even if the framers of the Constitution didn’t explicitly say that women have a right to control their own reproduction, or that same-sex couples have a right to marry, the government can’t lawfully interfere with those rights.

The 14th Amendment also “federalizes” the Bill of Rights, by saying that states can’t limit the rights that US citizens are entitled to. This was the constitutional basis for Brown v. Board, Lawrence v. Texas, Roe v.

Wade, and a host of other decisions guaranteeing civil rights.

And that’s why the right-wing has always hated the 14th Amendment.

What’s on the chopping block?

In his draft opinion, Alito says that the right to reproductive choice is not a real right, since it’s not enumerated in the Constitution, and not enshrined in US history.

He goes on to mention a number of key court decisions establishing what he considers fake rights: Loving v. Virginia (the right to marry someone of a different race); Griswold v. Connecticut (the right to obtain contraceptives); Skinner v. Oklahoma (the right to be protected from forced sterilization); Lawrence v. Texas (the right to have sex with someone of the same sex); and Obergefell v.

Hodges (the right to same-sex marriage).

Alito explicitly says that his opinion in the Mississippi case should not be automatically applied to other similar cases like those cited. But — and this is a big but — he and his fellow right-wing justices also promised the Senate Judiciary Committee that they would respect judicial precedent in Roe if they were confirmed to the high court.

In fact, many anti-choice supporters of Alito’s opinion interviewed by the media since the draft was leaked have stated explicitly that their next target after reproductive choice is marriage equality. Alito’s legal reasoning in this case certainly will give them a lot of ammunition.

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International News

Greek court convicts two killers of Gay activist

International news highlights

Cops let off the hook

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

Steve Johnson, brother of the victim, hugs his wife at the Supreme Court in Sydney – Photo by Rick Rycroft / AP

Sydney: Man confesses to killing American in ’80s hate crime NBC News reported on May 2 that a man has confessed to killing American mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988 by pushing him off a cliff, in what prosecutors are calling a Gay hate crime. Scott White, 51, pleaded guilty in January to Johnson’s murder and will be sentenced by Judge Helen Wilson on May 4, possibly to life in prison.

White said in an interview that he had lied to police when he said he had tried to grab Johnson and prevent his fatal fall, which was dismissed by police as a suicide at first. A coroner ruled in 2017 that Johnson’s fall was neither an accident nor suicide, and that he “fell from a clifftop as a result of actual or threatened violence by unidentified persons who attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual.

White’s former wife Helen White told the court that he had “bragged” to their children about beating Gay men at the clifftop, which is well-known for Gay meetups. Helen White read a newspaper report about Johnson’s death in 2008, and asked her husband if he was responsible, to which he replied, “It’s not my fault. The dumb [expletive] ran off the cliff.”

Zak Kostopoulos – Photo by Morikis Grigoris

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A Greek court has convicted two of the killers of Gay activist Zak Kostopoulos of “causing fatal bodily harm.” Four police officers charged in the killing were acquitted due to a split decision of the judges.

The May 3 decision came more than two years after Kostopoulos’s death. The trial had been postponed several times due to the COVID pandemic.

Kostopoulos was a well-known and wellloved figure in Athens’ LGBTQ community: a famous drag queen who performed under the name “Zakie Oh,” the president of OLKE (the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece), and a spokesperson for HIV-positive people in Greece.

On September 21, 2018, he entered a jewelry shop in central Athens. No one knows why he went into the shop, but the owner assaulted him, calling out that Kostopoulos was robbing him.

The owner was joined by another man, who owned a nearby real estate office. They beat Kostopoulos inside the shop, and again in the street after Kostopoulos broke through a display window in an effort to escape.

Security cameras show other bystanders throwing chairs from a streetside café at Kostopoulos. Eventually police arrived, and cameras show four of them beating Kostopoulos as he lay injured on the ground.

The police then handcuffed him, threw him in a police van, and took him to a local

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Photo of the scene – Photo courtesy of Zakie Oh Justice Watch

police station, where he died in custody.

The jewelry shop owner was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which was commuted to house arrest due to his age — 77 at the time of conviction. The real estate broker will serve his full 10-year sentence in prison.

The four police officers will go free, since the judges could not agree on a conviction.

Protests broke out in courtroom when the finding was announced, leading the presiding judge to threaten attendees with arrest. Among those in the courtroom to hear the verdict were Kostopoulos’s family and Magda Fyssa, the mother of rapper

Pavlos Fyssas, who was murdered by neoNazis in 2013.

Kostopoulos was born in the US to a Greek-immigrant family who returned to Greece when he was 7. He was buried in the town of Kirra, where he grew up. Since his murder, Athens’ LGBTQ community holds an annual march to commemorate his life.

Left-wing members of the Athens City Council proposed renaming the street where he was killed “Zak Kostopoulos Street” in his honor. The proposal did not pass, but a counterproposal established a monument against intolerance, racism, and hate.

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Romania: Rights groups speak against “Gay propaganda” ban Reuters reported on April 29 that Romanian human rights groups have condemned a bill approved by the country’s Senate that would ban “Gay propaganda” in schools. The groups argue it would invite discrimination against the LGBT community, as it did in Hungary and Russia, and they urged the parliament’s lower house to reject the bill.

LGBT rights group ACCEPT said, “Censorship in Budapest’s education system must not be enforced in Bucharest. Romania must avoid the illiberal drift promoted by Hungary through such measures, which were received harshly by the European Union.”

Rights group MozaiQ said, “We urge the lower house to show responsibility and decency and reject any legal proposals which aim to demonize and marginalize the LGBT community.

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we believe adopting such a bill in Romania would... fuel Russian propaganda and Moscow’s disinformation campaigns.”

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