SGN July 8, 2022

ISSUE 27

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

“NOT DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE NATION’S HISTORY AND TRADITION” We are living in a post-Roe world

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer After over 49 years of legal precedent and numerous failed attempts to challenge and overturn it, Roe v. Wade has fallen, in a decision called Dobbs v. Jackson.

The Supreme Court as composed October 27, 2020 to June 30, 2022 – Photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

Red states skim money from COVID relief funds Money to go toward tax cuts for businesses Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee – Photo by Mark Humphrey / AP

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Republican governors are seeking to use federal COVID relief funds to cover state tax cuts, instead of for the intended purpose of providing relief to businesses that lost customers due to health restrictions, and state agencies overwhelmed by people seeking assistance.

Congress approved a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package in March 2021. Of that money, some $350 billion was available for distribution to states. While Congress stipulated very few restrictions on how the money could be used, but they were clear that is was never to be used to reduce state taxes.

see RED STATES page 20

see POST-ROE WORLD page 15

We are all stardust in The Infinite The Infinite installation view – Photo by Melissa Taylor

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer A virtual reality (VR) exhibit of cosmic proportions opened at the Tacoma Armory last month. The award-winning The Infinite is an immersive look at the International Space Station (ISS), bringing visitors aboard to explore the corridors and exterior of the orbital research facility from the comfort of terra firma.

(Don’t be fooled by the advertisements; the exhibit is not in SeaTac; it’s in Tacoma proper, at the Tacoma Armory. I made the long yet comfortable trek on the 594 bus.)

I’m not gonna lie. Space is pretty Gay, and they didn’t downplay that at all at this exhibit.

As if nodding to the void’s vast ambivalence toward gender, the VR headsets transformed

see THE INFINITE page 5

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C E L E B R AT I N G 4 8 Y E A R S!

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In this Issue

LOCAL NEWS 4 A&E 5 FILM 6 FOOD 8 BOOKS 9 NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS 15 J U LY 8 , 2 0 2 2

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Local News

Abortion rights safe in Seattle, authorities say City, county, state promise no cooperation with out-of-state prosecutions

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer King County Executive Dow Constantine became the latest official in Washington state to promise that abortion rights would remain safe in their jurisdiction.

In a July 5 executive order, Constantine instructed the King County Sheriff’s Office and other executive departments not to cooperate with out-of-state prosecutors trying to track down abortion providers or patients.

Abortion is legal under Washington state law, but officials here fear that officials from other states may try to prosecute their citizens who travel to Washington to get legal abortions.

For example, in Idaho, a law going into effect this month would ban abortions except in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the mother. Healthcare providers would face felony charges punishable by up to five years in prison for violations.

Constantine’s order cites a “moral and policy imperative not to assist states” who might seek to prosecute people seeking abortions, and to prevent “other outside organizations and individuals seeking to infringe the rights of persons who obtain health care in King County.”

Constantine said the order sends “a message that we will not allow these backward, dangerous, and spiteful policies to further degrade people’s privacy and liberty.”

Photo courtesy of Washington State Office of the Governor

“Access to reproductive health care is a right in King County and Washington State and the King County Sheriff’s Office will work to uphold access to that right in line with our laws and this new order,” King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall said.

The King County Council has also approved $500,000 in emergency funding for the Northwest Abortion Access Fund to provide abortion care, travel, and lodg-

ing expenses for people traveling to King County from other states seeking abortions.

Gov. Jay Inslee issued a similar order to state authorities. In a June 25 speech, the governor said he would instruct the Washington State Patrol not to cooperate with law enforcement officials from other states who may seek to prosecute violations of their states’ abortion laws as people travel to Washington seeking abortions.

Inslee also said he would support legislation to make that a statewide policy, binding other Washington law enforcement agencies to the same prohibition. He also promised to work with the state legislature to increase health care resources, starting with $1 million, to deal with an expected increase in people coming to the state for abortion care.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell promised that the Seattle Police Department will not help enforce abortion laws in other states in a June 27 press conference. Harrell also committed $250,000 of city funding for the Northwest Abortion Access Fund.

“The city of Seattle will not engage in punitive and reactionary efforts to enforce this aggressive assault on our constituents’ bodies,” Harrell said. “The Seattle Police Department... will not participate in enforcing the criminal laws of other states that are inconsistent with Washington laws and, most importantly, our values.”

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has introduced legislation to make Seattle an “abortion rights sanctuary.” If passed, the legislation would prevent Seattle police from arresting patients, doctors, or other care providers for warrants related to anti-abortion laws in other states.

Sawant also promised to bring budget legislation to make abortion free in Seattle for people traveling from states with antiabortion laws, as well as for Seattle residents.

Local activists rescue dogs from international meat trade

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer The year is 2022, and in some parts of the world, people are still eating dogs. Some might argue that the act alone is barbaric; dogs, they might say, hold a special place in relation to humans. Others — whether vegetarians, vegans, or omnivores — might roll their eyes at the idea of canine exceptionalism, and ask why dogs are more deserving of our empathy than cows, chickens, or other animals.

Most can probably agree, though, that unnecessary suffering isn’t a good thing for any animal. Yet the production and sale of dog meat persists in parts of Asia, even in the face of laws and regulations that ban the practice, and in ways that go beyond inhumane.

Humane Society International (HSI) estimates that 30 million dogs are killed for their meat across Asia each year, and HSI volunteers have harrowing stories of what that looks like. They tell of dogs packed onto trucks, visibly diseased, injured, and malnourished, and of slaughters by electrocution, beating, hanging, or boiling. If the dogs aren’t born into the meat trade, they might be taken off the street, or even stolen from homes, according to accounts.

Readers hearing about this for the first time might wonder why the practice continues. For answers, I reached out to SēN Rescue Sanctuary, a nonprofit based in Elma, Wash., that works with HSI and two other rescue groups to save dogs from slaughter in South Korea.

SēN founder Sally Newberry said of dog farms, “I don’t care that they eat [the dogs]. I care that [the dogs] are tortured. They think more the dog is tortured, the more hormones will be in the meat.”

In some folk medicine traditions, Newberry went on, eating the hormone-rich meat is supposed to be good for men’s libido, and help people stay cool in hot weather. “But studies have shown that that isn’t true at all.”

Newberry’s tone was matter-of-fact. Her parents ran their own rescue nonprofit when she was growing up, so sordid details like these have been a part of her reality since she

was a child. In the nine years she has kept SēN running, she has rescued, rehabilitated, and rehomed over 900 dogs from the dogmeat trade in South Korea.

That is a staggering number considering the preparations needed. SēN usually transports one dog at a time. Rescues are rehabilitated, vaccinated, and treated for injuries, which can involve surgery. Then they need to be transported to the US, cleared with customs, and handed off to their new owners.

“I’ve had some people wait months before they see their dog,” Newberry said.

But every step is important; these rescues aren’t just strays from the pound; they’re dogs with a past of unspeakable abuse and neglect.

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Photo courtesy of SēN Rescue Sanctuary

SēN stays open seven days a week to answer calls from rescuers about how to treat a dog with such a background. Carlos Jimenez is one such rescuer. He visited Seattle during this year’s Pride weekend to pick up a SēN rescue and add it to his and his wife Anela’s pack. Jimenez has adopted from a few organizations, and he seemed to favor SēN’s practices the most.

One rescue he worked with transported dogs “like livestock,” Jimenez said, with the crates stacked on top of each other in trucks.

“And I’ve driven livestock before. Not even cows are treated that bad.”

The same nonprofit allegedly charged Jimenez and his wife $6,000, almost twice as much as the original fee, and a little under

12 times what SēN charges. So for adopters, it’s worth it to carefully consider one’s choice of nonprofit, since not all of them operate with the same care.

On a lighter note, the practice of eating dog meat has greatly diminished in many Asian countries over the last decade alone.

In countries where the sale of dog meat isn’t already illegal, campaigns and proposals are rising to change that.

“There are so many of these meat farms.

That won’t change overnight,” Newberry said, but she was hopeful about the future.

“Younger generations can make the biggest difference.”

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Arts & Entertainment

(Top, bottom right) The Infinite installation views – Photo by Melissa Taylor, (Bottom left) Space explorers view of ISS – Photo by Felix Paul Studios, from Space Explorers – The ISS Experience produced by Felix Paul Studios in association with Time Studios

THE INFINITE continued from cover

me and other visitors into ghostly, androgynous figures filled with stars. Sparkles drifted from my hands as I moved them, though I took care not to whack any of my nebulous neighbors. I was impressed at how well the headset could “read” the articulation of each of my fingers.

A voice emanated from another starry form, this one towering as tall as the room, briefing me on how to explore and what to expect. Walking around was strange at first, since I could see the floor (more stars) but not my feet. Soon I grew used to it, more or less, and I could feel my way through a transparent, full-scale model of the ISS. Globes with faint pictures were scattered around the station, and touching one would expand the picture into a panoramic, 3-D video of the spot. The nodes outside the station were often quiet, letting visitors pause and take in the view of Earth from orbit, which felt more expansive than in any photo. Nodes inside played commentary from the astronauts on board, set to a related slice of their lives up there.

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Even if none of the astronauts were openly Queer (the only known Queer astronaut so far is the late Sally Ride, who was Bi), hearing them speak so dreamily of life, humanity, and the cosmos, with an ambient, postrock soundtrack, was enough to set my Demi heart aflutter. These were daring dreamers, drifting 254 miles above the Earth, watching over all of us from afar. What could be more romantic? One of them even waved at the camera during a space walk, the first ever to be recorded for VR. Mind you, the mood was somewhat soured by the sight of a docked SpaceX rocket, if only because it evoked in me the thought of a certain tech billionaire. But other than that, I had only a few complaints.

As a wearer of glasses, adjusting the headset to focus properly was difficult, and wearing the device eventually got painful for both my eyes and the bridge of my nose.

I also encountered a bug that left me standing in black nothingness for a few minutes, after the ISS had drifted away for what was supposed to be a transition to another chapter. It was a simple fix for the technician present, though.

After the VR experience was over, I walked through the exhibit titled The

Universe within the Universe by Ryoji Ikeda. It felt somewhat shoehorned; it was “data-driven art,” projected onto a ceiling and reflected in a mirror on the floor. The visuals were mesmerizing, but occasionally bright lights would strobe, and highpitched tones would try to bore their way into my head. Those frequencies probably correspond to some property of nature, perhaps particle physics, but it was a jarring chaser to a piece about the beauty and wonder of the universe. For the sake of my senses and my sanity, I didn’t stay in that room for long.

Stimulating the imagination was The Infinite’s purpose, as stated by the promotional posters outside. NASA recognizes the value of art, the posters said, as a way to inspire people to support scientific progress and space programs, if not go to space themselves. To me, a literature major, it felt like a backhanded compliment from STEM to the humanities — still STEM-centric, but certainly better than not valuing art at all.

And I didn’t find myself inspired to go to space myself, at least not right away. Maybe I’ve seen too many other productions that explore not the wonder of space but the horror. Franchises like Aliens and Dead Space

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come to mind. Moreover, the inside of ISS was a clutter of cables, consoles, cabinets, and other devices; it made me feel far better about the state of my bedroom, but given that each bit of clutter was essential for surviving in space, a visit of my own didn’t seem much closer.

I did find myself more strongly considering the purchase of a VR headset. Maybe the next generation of scientists will be otherwise inclined, but from at least one kid present, I didn’t hear “I want to be an astronaut.” I heard “We should do that again!”

Like VR, space travel won’t be widely popular until it’s cheaper and more comfortable. But for now, you can experience a bit of both at The Infinite. Since you can go as a group, it would make for a great date, and certainly a fun family experience.

The Infinite will be open at the Tacoma Armory through September. You can find out more by visiting https://theinfiniteseattle.com. Tickets for adults can be booked online for $24, with discounts for children, students, military personnel, disabled people, and the elderly.

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Film

Goofy Minions sequel is a despicably good time

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU Theaters The banana-yellow Minions from the Despicable Me movies are amusing. They make me laugh. Their gonzo irreverence does offer a great deal of comedic value, and it is easy to see why kiddos all around the world have fallen in love with them.

But if 2015’s stand-alone animated adventure Minions taught us one thing, it’s that these pint-sized whippersnappers were typically better utilized in measured outbursts of destructively whacky adrenaline and not as the main attraction. Their antics got old, making spending close to 90 minutes with them and them alone a decidedly difficult endeavor from an audience standpoint.

After watching Minions: The Rise of Gru, though, I’m starting to rethink those previous statements. I’m shocked by how good a time I had watching this sequel, which channeled everything from Animaniacs to Pinky and the Brain to classic Road Runner Looney Tunes shorts. While it’s hardly an animated classic, it turns out to have been a terrific idea to somewhat lighten the tone and play up the inherent silliness fueling the lunacy.

Probably the smartest thing director Kyle Balda, co-directors Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val, and writers Matthew Fogel and Brian Lynch do is bring together the Minions with their Despicable Me employer Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) while he’s still an elementary school student dreaming of supervillain stardom. The film shows the wannabe bad guy learning how to communicate and work with his blobby companions; their future adult relationship finds its definition here.

The plot is absurd — and that’s as it should be. Gru’s pursuit of being one of the world’s greatest supervillains leads him to audition for the Vicious 6. Current members Belle

Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Jean-Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), Stronghold (Danny Trejo), and Nun-Chuck (Lucy Lawless) are in need of a newcomer on their team after having ousted their former leader Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). When Gru is given the cold shoulder, he gets back at the baddies by stealing an ancient medallion that’s the key to them achieving enormous power.

It gets goofier from there, and trying to dig too deeply into the plot dynamics is an

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Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

obvious waste of time. The big takeaways are that Gru will join up with his idol Wild Knuckles to fend off the Vicious 6 and plucky Minions Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto (all voiced by Pierre Coffin). Believing his beloved “mini-boss” has been kidnapped, he will learn kung fu from lethal acupuncturist Master Chow (Michelle Yeoh). That’s all you need to know.

That’s more than enough craziness for one movie, and Minions: The Rise of Gru gets as much mileage out of it as it can. There is a

plethora of absurd sight gags, and while the verbal jokes are kept to a minimum, several of those pinch up against the funny bone nicely. The late 1970s setting is surprisingly effective, and many of the music choices induce an unexpected chuckle. Most importantly, kids are going to love this sequel, but what’s surprising is that their parents might find themselves giggling somewhat right along with their youngsters.

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Thor ’s return is a thunderous bore unworthy of attention

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER Theaters Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) is at a crossroads. After helping save the universe from Thanos, the former Asgardian king is out traveling the cosmos with the Guardians of the Galaxy, righting wrongs and restoring order with the aid of his axe Stormbreaker.

But is that all there is? Will Thor find true happiness? Does he even want to?

After receiving a desperate message from Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), the God of Thunder sets off with trusted compatriot Korg (Taika Waititi) to learn what the trouble is. What they uncover is bone-chilling: a villain calling himself Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) is out to destroy all gods everywhere. Wielding the corrosive power of the deadly Necrosword and commanding creatures born from darkness, he has almost everything he needs to do just that.

If only Thor: Love and Thunder’s primary plot stopped right there. I also wish returning director Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) took things more seriously.

Instead, much in his idiosyncratic, genrebending style, he mixes melodrama, fantasy, romantic comedy, slapstick, and action into an aggressively noisy assault on the senses. Call it Flash Gordon meets All That Heaven Allows meets Krull, with a side of vintage Monty Python seasoned with 1990s–early 2000s Adam Sandler comedy for good measure.

Suffice it to say, this sequel is a mess.

Even the return of Natalie Portman isn’t enough to right the ship. She’s back as scientist Jane Foster and now a superpowered goddess in her own right. Thor’s previously destroyed hammer Mjolnir has reconstituted itself and given Jane the strength to use its magic — the reasons why are best left discovered by watching the film.

Portman has a handful of lovely, heartfelt moments. She’s arguably the second best thing the sequel has to offer, and unlike her

last franchise appearance in Thor: The Dark World, the Academy Award–winning actor looks like she’s actually having a good time being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not just stopping by to pick up a massive paycheck. But Jane’s arc needs time to develop, and Waititi and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Unpregnant) refuse to give it space to breathe, making the emotional impact of her subplot frustratingly negligible.

What’s the best thing in the film? That’s Bale, and it’s not up for debate. His Gorr is legitimately terrifying, especially when he malevolently toys with a cadre of kidnapped intergalactic children that Thor, Jane, Korg, and current Asgardian king Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) have sworn on their own lives to rescue. Bale oozes menace with every slithery movement, with the actor delivering his choicest bits of dialogue with such gleeful relish that he comes remarkably close to redeeming the sequel all by himself.

This does not happen, though. Unlike Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi fails to successfully balance all the wild shifts in tone. Many of

Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Love and Thunder – Photos courtesy of Marvel

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the funny bits do not land, not because the cast is not up to the challenge — Hemsworth continues to be a skilled comedian who has no problem being the butt of a joke — but because none of what they’re asked to do is natural or motivated by character. It’s all sitcom theatrics, just glib one-liners and smug facial expressions masquerading as something deeper.

It gets worse. Waititi isn’t afraid of color, and he has proven over his career to be anything but aesthetically unadventurous. But there is no depth to the images, and many times, it looks like the actors are standing atop a stage performing for a live studio audience and not in a massive Marvel production.

What’s most obnoxious about this is that Waititi has imaginative sights he’s longing to showcase. He also has an impressive team of technicians, including production designer Nigel Phelps (World War Z), costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo (Jojo Rabbit), and chief makeup artist Matteo Silvi (The Last Duel), assisting him on that front.

But everything looks flat. There is no pop to the images, and no matter how immersive the sound design or how the volume is turned up to 11 on each of the classic Guns N’ Roses selections, it all means nothing when the picture itself looks like drab, motion-smoothed molasses.

There is an exception, and that’s a brief foray into a B&W netherworld where Gorr rules supreme and momentary pops of color are the only way to weaken his stranglehold upon this strange realm of demons and darkness. Thing is, this momentary sequence of successfully executed visual ingenuity only augments how rushed, poorly assembled, and even downright ugly much of the remainder of the film is. It sticks out for the wrong reasons, and that’s too bad.

I loved seeing Portman handle Mjolnir.

Russell Crowe hams it up marvelously as Zeus. Hemsworth is still aces as Thor, and Thompson makes a strong case that Valkyrie should be better utilized in the MCU than she has been up to this point. As for Bale, he soars above them all, and while I’m sure his appearance will end up being a one-off, it would be wise of Marvel to figure out a way to entice him to return, as Gorr is one heck of a villain who deserves a better film to strut his stuff in.

Not that it matters. Even with so much working in its favor, Thor: Love and Thunder is my least favorite film in the MCU, and — even given my relative indifference to The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 — it’s not even close. Waititi drops the hammer, making this fourth adventure with the God of Thunder a disastrous bore unworthy of any more of my attention.

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Food

You are what you eat: Gay foods and drinks and where to get ’em

Relish Market

Sun Daze

Kinky’s Dessert Bar

Reinberger Nut Butter

Curio Spice

Future Gin

KEHO

Cool Cats

Maxine’s Heavenly

Courtesy photos

by Mikey Rox Special to the SGN Looking for more ways to support your Queer community post-Pride? Pack your pantries with these swishy snacks and swills created by and for LGBTQ+ friends, family, and foodies.

Peppery Love hot sauces If sampling locally made foodstuffs is your weekend (bacon) jam, pay a visit to Brentwood, Maryland’s miXt Food Hall, home to lesbian-owned Relish Market, to stock up on proprietor Stephanie Freeman’s signature Peppery Love hot sauces, like Stinger, a tart-and-spicy blend of citrus and ginger to tingle your tastebuds. Turn your mouth-burner down with one of Relish’s handcrafted bottled teas; flavors include hibiscus, lavender-Thai basil, and honey mint. RelishMarket.com SunDaze fermented cocktails Keep the basic-bitch hard seltzers on ice this hot-boy summer and crack open SunDaze canned fermented cocktails, a trio of ready-to-drink, 6% ABV Valencia orange juice blends that contain a healthy dose of vitamin C plus antioxidants and probiotics in classic, botanical, and spicy varieties.

DrinkSunDaze.com

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Dicky Waffles Kinky’s Dessert Bar, New York City’s first (extremely) adult bakery, has a noprudes policy when it comes to its XXXrated confections, like blush-worthy Dicky Waffles, crisp phallic-shaped cakes filled with an array of homemade creams and finished off with finger-licking glazes.

Anatomically correct Va-JayJay versions also are available, along with “Fuck Me” graphic cookies and cupcakes with pierced nipple toppings. Might need a Marlboro after scarfing these down! KinkysDessertBar.com Reinberger Nut Butters Some products naturally lean into a Gay-ish aesthetic, like Reinberger’s Nut Butters, created by namesake co-founders Luke Rein, who identifies as Bisexual, and Joseph Berger — a team of Olympictrained rowers who sought to fill a hole (in the spreadable nut market) for a plant-based source of vital nutrients and energy-providing protein. Our favorite? Traveler’s Treat, a trail mix/peanut butter hybrid packed with bits of raisin, banana, and coconut. ReinbergerNB.com Everything Rainbow Spice Being LGBTQ+ is just like being straight — except fun to be around. That’s the idea behind Curio Spice Co.’s Everything Rainbow Spice; it’s the everything seasoning you

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know and love, but zhuzhed up with sass and pizazz. There’s sumac for tartness, maras chile flakes for umami heat, turmeric for earthiness, and blue cornflower for a floral, honeyed touch. In Gay man’s terms, it’s like you cut open a rainbow bagel and a purse fell out. CurioSpice.com Future Gin Longtime friends (and proud Queer women) Amy Atwood, Mary Bartlett, Freya Estreller, and Natasha Case turned the distilling game on its head with Future Gin, their version of the classic spirit with a California twist. Meyer lemon, honeysuckle, and grape leaf — from the ladies’ Golden State gardens, to be sure — are distilled alongside traditional botanicals to produce a gin that’s altogether characteristic and beachy bright.

We’ll tink to that. FutureGin.com KEHO snack bites Tearing the grocery aisle apart for meatless keto options? Tekla Back answers your prayers with her savory KEHO snacks made with dehydrated plants and spices in globe-spanning flavors like Thai Me Over, Curry in a Hurry, Pizza to Go, and Tex-Mex Moment. Coincidentally, Back is having a moment of her own: Rolling Stone magazine recently featured her in the article, “13 Lesbian and Queer Women-Owned Brands to Support During Pride (and All Year Long).” KEHO.life

Cool Cat wine spritzers We’re not saying your Queer counterparts are trying to get you drunk and take you home (with consent, of course), but it’s not not what we’re saying, what with the abundance of LGBTQ-created alcohol options on this list, like Cool Cat wine spritzers from founder Rocco Venneri.

Named Best Spritzer of 2021 by Liquor. com, this frosty pussy squad is available in original (elderflower-mint-lime), citrus, berry, and grapefruit. DrinkCoolCat.com Maxine’s Heavenly cookies Packed with oats and “sweetened by nature,” Maxine’s Heavenly homemadestyle cookies — the half-baked brainchild of a predominantly LGBTQ-led team — replace refined sugar with a coconut substitute and dates for a naturally low-glycemic treat at only three to eight grams of sugar per serving. Ten out of 10, highly recommend the brand’s chocolate chip and Cinnamon Speculoos Crunch crispy bundles.

All the gluttony without much guilt. MaxinesHeavenly.com Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than a hundred outlets across the world. Connect with Mikey on Instagram @mikeyroxtravels.

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Books

Open Books provides a cozy space for poetry lovers

Photos by Lindsey Anderson

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer W. Somerset Maugham once said, when referencing the great literary art form, “The crown of literature is poetry.” Indeed, if poetry is the crown of literature, then the grand palace of bookstores is Open Books: A Poem Emporium.

Poems galore!

Located in the heart of Pioneer Square, Open Books is one of Seattle’s most unique bookstores in that it only sells poetry or books by poets. According to the owner and manager, Billie Swift, the expansive poetry collection makes it unique compared to other indie stops.

Despite “Poem Emporium” being a part of the business’s name, Swift says she often encounters customers who are shocked to discover that Open Books only sells poetry.

“People will come in and sort of go, ‘Wait, wait, are you all poetry?’ and you sort of just have to go, ‘Yeah,’ and they can’t believe that something that is all poetry can exist … looking at how many books are in the space, just… the abundance of poetry… that’s always really fun,” Swift said with a laugh.

“My favorite is people who are maybe like, ‘Oh, well, okay then,’ and [then] trying to, if given the opportunity, help them find a book that will move them,” she continued.

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Connecting with customers Swift loves to recommend books to her customers. Unlike regular booksellers, however, she has found that doing so allows her to connect with people on a deeper level.

“My favorite thing is when somebody comes in and they are just like, ‘I was wondering, do you have any young Queer poets?’ and then we just start pulling. And that category is so broad too, so there are questions after that, and it just becomes a wonderful conversation,” she added.

While Swift carries many works by Queer poets, the store does not have a specific LGBTQ+ section. Instead, she says the books are dispersed throughout.

“It’s just A to Z by author’s last names,” Swift said as she gave me a tour, “but then we also have all our new books on the table and facing out. That’s our effort to give a book a little bit more of a chance before it melts into the shelves.

“Then we have anthologies organized by geography and… by some sort of organizing principle,” she continued as she made her way to the front of the store.

Swift said she loves recommending anthologies to new readers, because it gives them a chance to sample many different poets and styles. “When somebody comes in and they’re looking for something particular,” she said, “sometimes it’s nice to

direct people to anthologies, because that’s a nice way to take in a lot of different poets’ names. People can… do that for themselves, but I also love to pull books for people and stack them up on the back table.”

A passion for poetry Open Books carries many different types of poetic literature. “We have some rare and collectible [material], and then we have discounted books, prose, and poetics,” Swift said, “so that would be like fiction, nonfiction, poetry books, [and] books written by poets. And then we’ve got some kids’ books and some YA, and we have some local poets.”

The store also carries books dedicated to visual poetry. “These are books that are… doing something more than just words on the page,” Swift explained. Those books, along with special collections from local poets, can be found at the front.

Poetry is Swift’s passion, and she loves to share her joy for the written word with intrigued customers who find their way into the store. Over the last five years, she has helped customers find the right pieces that will move them.

“The thing that I have loved in my time here is the fact that we don’t ever sell on the poet or one book. I have… been surprised by how people will come in and go right to the new books… [but] someone is just as

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likely to go into the stacks and find a book we’ve had for a couple of years,” she said with a smile.

Swift has been the owner of Open Books since 2016, but it was a part of Seattle’s community long before then. “When I took over, it had been around for more than 20 years, and now we’ve been around for more than 25,” she said.

“I have always loved books, and I have always been surrounded by books, I love poetry, and I would go to this bookstore.

When we moved back into Seattle in 2006, I made a beeline for …Open Books, and had been a customer there. And then when I heard the owners were retiring, I just couldn’t stand the idea of [it] going away.”

When Swift took over, Open Books looked different than it does today. “We’re in a new spot. We used to be up in Wallingford, and we just moved in here a few months ago,” Swift explained.

“I love being here. It’s so great. All the buildings around here are so wonderful. I had so much fun at the old store, and there were many things about that place that I really and truly loved, but the busy street we were on was not one of them. So… the quiet of this neighborhood… — the fact that it is a busier neighborhood, but it’s also somehow not as loud — is nice.” see OPEN BOOKS page 10

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Books

Sun, sand, surf, soil erosion... Last Resort has it all

by Terri Schlichenmeyer Special to the SGN THE LAST RESORT: CHRONICLE OF PARADISE, PROFIT, AND PERIL AT THE BEACH SARAH STODOLA © 2022 Ecco $27.99 352 pages

Image courtesy of Ecco

Some 13 years ago, nursing the wounds from an abrupt breakup, author Sarah Stodola headed for what turned out to be the balm her soul needed: a semi-secluded beach on a peninsula in Thailand. She swam in warm waters near white sand that was often nearly empty. She drank island beers with new friends. She came home, refreshed, and looking with a new eye at why we love to go on vacation at the beach.

It wasn’t always like that.

A few hundred years ago — the Greeks and Romans notwithstanding — most Euro-

peans feared the ocean, perhaps understanding it as a mighty force rather than a relaxing froth. Seafaring explorers changed that, and by the latter half of the 1500s, wealthy Europeans flocked to “spa towns” as a retreat. Eighteenth-century doctors recommended that their patients bathe in the sea, and cabanas and resorts on an ocean shore became the place to be.

It still is, says Stodola. You can be pampered and primped on any of these beaches on which to play: Monte Carlo, a getaway that started because of a broke prince’s shrewd wife; Hawaii, the shores of which require constant work; Fiji, which exists, in part, thanks to a former US Air Force base; Nicaragua, which struggles to attract visitors; and Tulum, in which the resorts are not hooked up to the power grid or the sewer systems.

These places promise guests the sun, fun, and sand they want, but they also have one other thing in common: like so many other resorts around the world, says Stodola, they could “be gone in a few decades.”

So you’re thinkin’ of sinkin’ a chunk of money into resorts, now that travel is possible again? You might want to read The Last Resort first, and think on that idea.

It’s a fact that Stodola’s descriptions of the many beaches she visited as research for this book make you want to drop whatever you’re doing and head to the airport.

But pay close attention to what else she says about the sand and sun.

Stodola takes readers past the palm trees and marble floors, onto a back veranda to look at what’s gone wrong with the environment around the beach resorts we love to visit, why near-constant maintenance is required today, and why things aren’t getting any better. It’s like bending down to sniff a lush island flower, only to find that it’s artificial.

With an appeal to globetrotters, armchair travelers, and environmentalists, The Last Resort is also full of warnings for businesspeople flush with cash. If you need to know more about your next investment or getaway hot spot, this book’s got it in the bag.

Photos by Lindsey Anderson

A room of one’s own Open Books seems to fit right into Pioneer Square, surrounded by old brick buildings and iconic pieces of Seattle history. “It just feels like, when I walk into the store… this is where [it] is meant to be,” Swift said.

Aside from orchestrating Open Books’ move to Pioneer Square, Swift has also dedicated her time to make sure it emanates a comfy and inviting energy. “A lot of people who walk in say it’s very cozy. I’m still getting the lay of the land, but people describe it as cozy, and hopefully abundant in its offerings,” Swift said.

“It’s very welcoming, hopefully, full of good seating. I wanted to make sure that there were good chairs for people to sit in.”

Swift also wanted to make sure that Open Books could be an environment where com-

munity members can foster and grow their creativity. In the new location, Swift has set up two open spaces where artists can come and create. “That’s what I’m so excited about with this space: being able to offer this room here and a room in the back,” Swift said.

“We’re renting this space out for people who want to use it as a studio, but also anyone who wants to do some project and wants a space to escape into and rent. I would love people to contact the store, because offering space for people to do their work [is] one of the great benefits to where we are,” she continued.

The workspace fits right in with the cozy atmosphere, complete with a conference table, a big comfy chair, and even an antique record player. “In the back, we’re looking forward to creating opportunities for people to come and print zines, pamphlets… chat books,” she added.

“Right now, it’s difficult because COVID sucks, but hopefully, at some point, there will be a little bit more of that, and people

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OPEN BOOKS continued from page 10

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will be able to come together to make art and address all of this.”

While the world is definitely in a difficult place, Swift believes that art is one of the solutions. She hopes to help Seattle continue finding and creating art through her shop.

Poetry: nourishment for the soul Swift also believes poetry can be a form of healing for those feeling weighed down by all the overwhelming events of the 2020s.

“I think poetry has the same benefits as a lot of art, which is that it allows people to escape into or from whatever they’re experiencing,” Swift said. “I think poetry does that very well. …I think how poetry works in terms of using language and time… the act of solitude and the encounter with the poem can help unlock that escape into or from one’s own experiences.”

Swift also noted that poetry is a unique art form in that there are numerous ways of interacting with it. “There are also so many ways

of engaging with poetry. Some people only engage with poetry by listening to it or attending readings, or as some kind of spoken or auditory experience. It’s not necessarily just the page experience. The construction of the poem is so dependent on the rhythm that you can experience something without your brain fully comprehending it. You’re still understanding what’s happening, because there’s some rhythmic pulse that is being captured that is branded in all these things.”

No matter what type of poetry you prefer, Open Books has hundreds of options for you.

If you’re searching to heal, feel, or escape into a world of your own, Swift is ready and waiting to recommend just what your soul needs.

Open Books: A Poem Emporium is located at 108 Cherry St. and online at openpoetrybooks.com.

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National News

Photo by Jose Luis Magana / AP

POST-ROE WORLD continued from cover

The 1973 case, which ruled that American women have a constitutional right to bodily autonomy and medical privacy, as interpreted by the 14th Amendment, has been overturned by the most conservative court in recent years.

Thirteen states have trigger laws that were already on the books, ready for Roe to be overturned. These laws have already now gone into effect, preventing thousands, including a ten-year-old rape victim in Ohio, from accessing an abortion.

Women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC people have begun panicking, and many have taken to the streets in protest. With emotions running high, many are confused about what this decision means and what the future of the United States will look like.

Breaking with precedent While the Supreme Court of the United States interprets the Constitution through numerous rulings each session, it’s not every day the nine justices overturn such a pivotal and historic case. Despite the rarity of such a landmark decision being overturned, 2022 is not the first time the court has reconsidered Roe. In 1992 the court heard the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Twenty years after Roe, state laws in Pennsylvania were put in place to deter women in the state from seeking an abortion. Among these regulations was a 24-hour waiting period, required reading on alternatives to abortion, and mandatory notification and consent from a woman’s husband.

Much like in Dobbs v. Jackson, the state laws stood in contradiction to the original ruling in Roe v. Wade, and their defend-

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ers made the argument that Roe had been wrongly decided and should be overturned.

However, the Supreme Court upheld the notion of stare decisis, which is Latin for “the decision stands,” a legal principle often used for a case that has already been ruled, in which a court acknowledges an earlier decision and respects the reasons given for it.

This, was not the case in Dobbs, however, and both Roe and Casey were overturned.

The decision of the court was written and delivered by Justice Samuel Alito, who was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005.

An early draft of the decision was leaked nearly two months earlier, but despite backlash from pro-choice advocates, much of the draft remained unchanged in the end.

Strict constructionism Alito’s primary reasoning for overturning Roe was that “the Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion.” Like many conservative justices, Alito formed his argument based on strict constructionism, a philosophy that argues that the Constitution should be interpreted exactly as it was written. Using this approach, Alito argued that previous interpretations that held abortion to be a form of bodily autonomy protected under the “liberty” clause of several amendments were too large of a stretch.

Alito wrote, “The Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion, and therefore those who claim that it protects such a right must show that the right is somehow implicit in the constitutional text.”

While the court correctly points out that abortion cannot be found in the original text of the Constitution, pro-choice advocates are quick to remind both that no rights for women can be found in the original document, and it wouldn’t be until 1920

that the 19th Amendment would provide women with representation in the form of suffrage (the right to vote).

“Several constitutional provisions have been offered as potential homes for an implicit constitutional right. Roe held that the abortion right is a part of a right to privacy that springs from the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments,” Alito conceded before continuing.

He acknowledged that some may argue that laws banning abortion are a form of sex-based discrimination, which the court previously found unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. However, he ultimately decided that just because the procedure only affects “women,” the outlawing of it does not constitute discrimination.

“Others have suggested that support can be found in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, but that theory is squarely foreclosed by the Court’s precedents, which establish that a state’s regulation of abortion is not a sex-based classification and is thus not subject to the heightened scrutiny that applies to such classifications.”

“The ‘goal of preventing abortion,’ does not constitute ‘invidiously discriminatory animus’ against women,” Alito added.

“History and culture” One of the main arguments the court made in the Dobbs ruling was that for a right to be inferred, though not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it must have strong ties to the history and culture of America. Of course, this argument is full of flaws, as American history and culture have been riddled with atrocities such as slavery, genocide, and unlawful internment based on race.

“Our decisions have held that the Due Process Clause protects two categories of substantive rights,” wrote Justice Alito.

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“The first consists of rights guaranteed by the first eight Amendments. Those Amendments originally applied only to the Federal Government… but this Court has held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment ‘incorporates’ the great majority of those rights and thus makes them equally applicable to the states…

“The second category — which is the one in question here — comprises a select list of fundamental rights that are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.

“In deciding whether a right falls into either of these categories, the Court has long asked whether the right is ‘deeply rooted in [our] history and tradition’ and whether it is essential to our Nation’s ‘scheme of ordered liberty,’” Alito continued.

After delving through history with a selective fine-toothed comb, the majority determined that “The Court finds that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.”

“Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion,” Alito wrote. “No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right. Until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single state.”

Again, the evidence the court found was correct: no state constitutions mentioned any specific rights to different healthcare procedures, whether abortion, amputation, or chemotherapy. While many would argue that this is because a right to make personal decisions regarding an individual’s healthcare falls under the guise of “liberty,” which all Americans are supposedly granted, Alito stated that this is not the case.

see POST-ROE WORLD page 16

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National News

Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / AP

POST-ROE WORLD continued from page 15

“Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of our Nation’s concept of ordered liberty, we must ask what the Fourteenth Amendment means by the term ‘liberty.’ When we engage in that inquiry in the present case, the clear answer is that the Fourteenth Amendment does not protect the right to an abortion.”

Furthermore, the assertion that abortion was illegal in some form in nearly every state could still be correctly made even after Roe, as every state, including Washington, had enacted limitations to late-term abortions.

The justices did not just stop with an analysis of the 20th century, however. They continued their journey through history, going back far beyond the Constitution, before the Revolutionary War, and even before the horse that would one day become George Washington’s teeth was born.

“At common law, abortion was criminal in at least some stages of pregnancy and was regarded as unlawful and could have very serious consequences at all stages,” Alito wrote, referencing a set of old English laws that existed far before the Constitution was conceived.

While the court did not reference any laws from the same period that existed on American soil, such as laws of sovereign Native American tribes that did acknowledge and allow for abortion, it did reference the same doctrine that determined all women to be the property of their husbands and called on witches to be burned at the stake.

To reiterate his finding that abortion has been illegal in certain parts of the United States since far before the country’s independence, Alito proceeded to list every single law against abortion from the 17th century to the present day.

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Is abortion body autonomy?

In Alito’s final analysis, he asserted that arguments around whether or not abortion can be considered a right to bodily autonomy are a stretch.

“Finally, the Court considers whether a right to obtain an abortion is a part of a broader entrenched right that is supported by other precedents,” he wrote. “The Court concludes [that] the right to obtain an abortion cannot be justified as a component of such a right. Attempts to justify abortion through appeals to the broader right to autonomy and to define one’s ‘concept of existence’ prove too much.”

According to Alito, if one is to make the argument that body autonomy includes making the personal decision to get an abortion, then other illegal acts that physically affect the body could also be interpreted as legal, even though such arguments have yet to be made. “Those criteria, at a high level of generality, could license fundamental rights to illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like,” he wrote.

Clarence Thomas concurs One aspect of Roe’s ruling that has caused many to worry is that the case drew upon the 14th Amendment, and many decisions before and after Roe have used its framework to make similar arguments, that a right to privacy is fundamental under the Constitution. Ever since the draft opinion was leaked, people have wondered if overturning Roe will open the court up to overturn these other cases.

Aware of this, Alito included a final section covering the court’s tracks and seemingly protecting other rights similarly interpreted under the 14th Amendment.

“The Solicitor General suggests that overruling Roe and Casey would threaten the protection of other rights under the Due Process Clause,” he acknowledged. “The

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Court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

Despite Alito’s reassurance to the American people that the court will not go further than overturning Roe, fellow justice Clarence Thomas stated something very different in his concurrence.

“I join the opinion of the Court because it correctly holds that there is no constitutional right to abortion. Respondents invoke one source for that right: the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that no State shall ‘deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

While Thomas echoed Alito and Kavanaugh (who also wrote a concurrence), he quickly made clear that he did not agree with all they had to say. “I write separately to emphasize a second, more fundamental reason why there is no abortion guarantee lurking in the Due Process Clause,” he said.

“As I have previously explained, ‘substantive due process is an oxymoron that ‘lack[s] any basis in the Constitution,’” he said, quoting himself, something he happened to do a lot in his concurring statement. “The resolution of this case is thus straightforward.

Because the Due Process Clause does not secure any substantive rights, it does not secure a right to abortion.”

Thomas condemned the court for the assurance that the Dobbs decision would only impact abortion, writing, “The Court today declines to disturb substantive due process jurisprudence generally or the doctrine’s application in other, specific contexts. Cases like Griswold v. Connecticut…, Lawrence v. Texas…, and Obergefell v. Hodges… are not at issue… Thus, I agree that ‘[n]othing in [the Court’s] opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion’…

“For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.

Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”

Thomas’ concurrence has caused many to question whether or not the court could overturn some of the other cases he had mentioned, including those dealing with the right to contraception, sodomy, and same-sex marriage, respectively.

Of course, for the court to overturn any of these cases, it would first have to take up a case that challenges the precedent set by them. Currently, there are none that appear to do so, but many conservative lawmakers are feeling emboldened to enact laws that, if challenged, could potentially overturn any of these cases.

Is birth control next?

The concern that other privacy-based cases, like the right to birth control, could be overturned similarly to Roe was a main theme in the dissent, issued by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. “So, one of two things must be true. Either the majority does not believe in its reasoning. Or if it does, all rights that have no history stretching back to the mid-19th century are insecure.” The dissent notes that if a right to abortion is not considered to be a staple of American history and culture, neither is the right to contraception.

Idaho may be going in that direction.

Idaho Rep. Brent Crane has proposed a state ban on certain types of contraception, including Plan B and IUDs. Because Plan B is technically a form of emergency contraception and not an “abortion pill,” a ban on the medication could constitute a “contraception ban” and ultimately challenge Griswold in the high court.

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Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / AP

The SGN reached out to Rep. Crane, but he refused to comment on the issue. We did reach his fellow representative, Colin Nash, however, who said, “Contraception is a fundamental right that the Supreme Court has upheld for more than 60 years that has broad support among Idahoans, even those who may be opposed to abortion. It has no connection to the recent case, and it would be widely unpopular.”

Nash, among other Democrats in the state, said that he is working to fight against Idaho’s trigger laws and defend other constitutional rights, like the right to use contraception.

“As far as what Democrats are doing, we will stand opposed to the trigger law and believe that [Idahoans deserve] a constitutional right that they have enjoyed for 50 years, and [we] believe that we can find ways to improve the lives of women and children through means that don’t strip away fundamental rights.”

At the federal level, the President has also responded to concerns that Dobbs could trigger more than just abortion bans.

On Friday, July 1, he told the Health and Human Services Department to ensure that contraception and the oral abortion pill would remain available “to the fullest extent possible.”

What does Roe mean for LGBTQ+ rights?

The decision to overturn Roe has also not only led to conservatives contemplating a ban on birth control but also prompted many to strengthen anti-LGBTQ+ laws. On July 3, just days after the Dobbs decision was announced, Alabama lawmakers argued in favor of the state banning gender-affirming medical treatment for Trans youth.

Citing Dobbs, the state of Alabama has asked a federal appeals court to lift the

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injunction that was placed on an earlier law, which made it a felony to provide children with puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones. The law, which was signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivy, sentences parents and doctors to a minimum of ten years in prison if they provide gender-affirming medication to children.

The brief submitted by the attorney general’s office echoed the language of the Supreme Court’s decision, arguing that transition treatments are not “deeply rooted in our history or traditions.”

Southern states aren’t just gunning for Trans rights, however. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced in an interview with NewsNation that he would defend a currently unconstitutional state law against Gay sex if the Supreme Court reversed its 2003 ruling in Lawrence v.

Texas, one of the cases Justice Thomas requested be reevaluated.

Aside from proposed attacks on Queer rights, Texas is also one of the states to enact the strictest trigger laws. “There’s a trigger law that was already set up called the Heartbeat Act that makes it illegal to have an abortion after six weeks (believed to be the time where a baby develops a heartbeat),” said former Texas resident and Washington-based nurse Katie.

“This law also allows citizens to sue abortion clinics, as well as anyone who helps the birthing person receive an abortion. I just moved here from Texas, and while I feel thankful that Washington is a state that has not and doesn’t intend to ban abortions, I’m scared for my friends and family,” she continued.

Many, like Katie, are considering fleeing conservative states out of fear of getting pregnant or risking losing more rights.

“Many of my friends are considering moving out of Texas,” she said. “I’m also very scared of what SCOTUS is going to go after next. Right now, people are grieving the loss of their rights while also fearing that more rights will be taken away.”

Next time on: The Supreme Court attacks our rights More SCOTUS-led attacks, this time on the LGBTQ+ community, are likely. As the court’s year comes to a close, it has already announced several cases the justices plan to hear in the fall. Among them is a case that touches on the legality of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

The case of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis centers around Lorie Smith. Although Smith has yet to officially become a graphic designer, she launched a website advertising her services to create wedding websites for couples in Colorado. However, Smith wanted to include a notice on her website that she would not serve LGBTQ+ people.

Smith’s lawyer argues that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, which states that licensed businesses must “work with all people regardless of sexual orientation,” violates her First Amendment rights to free speech and religion.

So far, Smith has lost her case in both the lower court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, with the latter ruling that “Colorado must protect the interests of marginalized groups under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.” With the court’s current lineup still stacked with conservative viewpoints, and another recent ruling in favor of a Washington public school teacher’s First Amendment right to religion, it seems likely the court will rule for Smith.

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“This decision does a disservice to schools and the young citizens they serve as well as to our Nation’s long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state,” wrote Justice Sotomayor in her dissent in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the school prayer case.

With the court moving away from the separation of church and state and toward a ruling that could legalize discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, members of the community fear what could happen if laws such as Texas’s anti-sodomy are revived.

Texas, it seems, will be leading the charge. “Gov. Abbott has already introduced multiple bills attacking LGBTQ youth. The main focus of his attacks right now is on the Trans community of Texas,” Katie said of her former home state. “Many of my Queer friends both in Washington and Texas are scared of our rights being taken away.”

“These bills include prosecuting parents that help their child transition for child abuse and making it illegal to provide safe transition-related healthcare,” she continued. “There’s also a bill that prevents Trans youth from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity. While these anti-LGBTQ bills are dead, the introduction of the bills alone creates a scary view of the future for the LGBTQ community of Texas.”

As the emergence of trigger laws has shown, some laws are never truly dead.

While it will still take overturning several influential cases to see the end of Gay marriage and contraception, the possibilities are on the horizon, and the overturning of Roe is enabling lawmakers to take steps toward this bleak future.

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Episode 28: Rachel Silberman Happy (?) 4th of July! Lindsey & Ash talk about Pride, 4th of July memories, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Our special guest this week is Rachel Silberman of Luxjoy & Comfort! Check out her stuff at www.luxjoyandcomfort.com

BI-WEEKLY! FIND US WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO PODCASTS!

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National News

The next COVID: Everything you need to know about monkeypox

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer While some across the world are still grappling with PTSD from the global COVID-19 pandemic, a new outbreak quickly is gaining traction and bringing fear into the hearts of many.

As of now, the risk of monkeypox in the United States is believed to be very low. As the world deals with this new outbreak, the CDC is working closely with other countries that have seen clusters of monkeypox pop up, tracking potential cases, and conducting diagnostic testing.

Misinformation is running rampant, so here’s everything you need to know about monkeypox.

History Unlike COVID-19, monkeypox is a disease people have known about for decades.

According to the CDC, “Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958, when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research.”

While the disease is referred to as “monkeypox,” scientists have not confirmed that it is necessarily linked to monkeys and say it is just as likely to spread from rodents.

After its initial discovery, monkeypox still had not infected a human being. It wasn’t until 1970 — nearly 12 years later — that the disease first reached a person. Since then, nearly all reported cases have been found in people who either live in or visited central or western African countries.

The current global outbreak is the largest spread of monkeypox scientists have ever seen. They believe this can be pinpointed back to a family in London who came down with the disease after a single family member traveled to Nigeria, where there is currently experiencing an outbreak.

Global cases have shown that monkeypox has now reached Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the US, and Canada. Scientists believe the spread is the result of community transmission.

What is monkeypox? How is it treated?

All the talk about “global spread” and “community transmission” has many worried that monkeypox could be the next COVID-19, but scientists reassure us that this is not the case. For starters, a vaccine is already available.

A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968 – Image courtesy of CDC / Handout via Reuters

Unlike COVID-19 or the flu, monkeypox is not known to have complex, multiplying strains, which means that a single set of vaccinations is likely to prevent contracting the disease for a lifetime. Also, like with smallpox or chickenpox, exposure to the disease should allow the body to become immune to it over time.

The Department of Public Health already has a plan of attack for monkeypox. “We’d like to do what we did with smallpox to eradicate it: ring vaccination. If you see a case and then you vaccinate the people around that case, you can stop the spread of the disease. Unlike many other diseases, you can vaccinate somebody after they’ve been exposed, and it will stop or at least lessen the severity of the disease.”

The DPH has already approved three different vaccines to prevent monkeypox.

“One vaccine is licensed for monkeypox as well as smallpox and is a two-shot vaccine:

one shot initially and another shot four weeks later. The other [two] are one-time vaccinations,” the DPH website said.

For someone already experiencing symptoms of monkeypox, the vaccine can still be effective. “The Jynneos vaccine is effective in preventing monkeypox disease up to four days after exposure and may reduce the severity of symptoms if given up to 14 days after exposure,” the Kaiser Family Foundation reported.

Are you at risk for monkeypox?

Despite growing concern over the spread of monkeypox, the CDC is still only recommending vaccination against the disease for those at heightened risk. This includes people who have come in close contact with someone who tested positive for monkeypox, men who have sex with other men, and Trans women who have had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was known to be monkeypox or

see MONKEYPOX page 20

Image courtesy of CDC

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in an area where monkeypox is spreading.

Currently, healthcare workers, laboratory staffers, first responders, and certain members of the military are most likely to be exposed.

While the CDC reports that monkeypox has spread most quickly among men who have sex with men, doctors believe these numbers are likely because LGBTQ+ people are more attuned to watch out for signs of STD, like syphilis, which monkeypox often mirrors.

“It could also be that because monkeypox can look initially like the rash from syphilis, people who are particularly attuned to and watching for signs of syphilis would seek medical attention sooner than other people,” read a report by the CDC. Monkeypox is also not a disease that strictly links to Gay men. As of June 27, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported 10 cases among women.

While transmission of monkeypox requires much more intimate contact than the transmission of a disease like COVID19, it is not an STD. This is because it can be spread through nonsexual acts of intimacy.

“If someone were coughing in your face, spit or drooled on you, probably also kissing — it spreads through those kinds of contacts, rather than just being in a room with somebody. But it does also persist on clothing and bed linens, for example,” according to the Johns Hopkins Institute of Public Health.

No accounts of monkeypox spreading through aerosols, like COVID-19 does, have been documented so far. The CDC says that asymptomatic people cannot spread monkeypox.

The CDC is now warning against going to raves or other parties where people come in close contact with each other and wear little clothing. This also includes saunas and sex clubs. It also recommends always washing sex toys and bedding after intercourse.

It also notes that condoms and dental dams can help reduce the risk of contracting monkeypox but do not prevent all transmission, because they only protect the surfaces of the skin that are covered by them.

The monkeypox virus can enter broken skin and penetrate mucous membranes or open orifices (such as the eyes, nose, mouth, genitalia, and anus).

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National News

National news highlights

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Married same-sex couples prepare for rollbacks Reuters reported July 1 on the surge of same-sex couples moving to secure their medical, parental, and estate statuses in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

“That has a lot of people scared and, I think, rightfully so,” said Birmingham attorney Sydney Duncan, whose inbox was filled with emails from concerned couples just hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Dawn Betts-Green and wife Anna Green prepared by visiting a legal clinic for same-sex families, to start the process of creating a will. “That way, if they blast us back to the Dark Ages again, we have legal protections for our relationship,” said Betts-Green, Robbin Reed of Minneapolis felt especially vulnerable. As a white woman married to a Black, Trans man, a decision against same-sex marriage or interracial unions would uproot everything she loves, including her three-month-old child.

“I have no expectation that anything about my marriage is safe,” Reed said.

Meanwhile, senior counsel Cathryn Oakley of the Human Rights Campaign has assured same-sex couples that any rollback is years away. “This is definitely a scary moment and people are nervous,” she said, “but peoples’ marriages are still safe.”

Gay teen shoots Gay teen, hate crime charge possible NBC News reported on July 1 that 19-year-old Jakari Webb of Florida fatally shot Telan Mann, also 19, out of fear of being outed as Gay through a social media post, according to Daytona Beach police.

Police said the two men had been talking over social media since February, and planned to meet for the first time on June 23, which is when the shooting occurred. Mann’s family issued a statement thanking police for their “hard work and dedication,” which has Webb being held without bail at the Volusia County jail.

Webb faces three charges, including first-degree murder, resisting an officer, and a probation violation. The executive director of the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 7th District has said his office will be “evaluating for additional charges,” referring to a possible hate crime charge.

“Anything is possible at this point,” he said.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – Photo by Steve Cannon / AP

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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — one of the key negotiators in the deal-making process — said at the time that Congress refused to be on the hook for reductions in state tax revenues, since that could leave major budget holes once federal aid ran dry.

Now, however, governors in several Republican-led states are signing budgets that expect to use federal COVID relief funds to cover tax cuts. And that could be a violation of federal law.

For example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 — recently signed a $109.9 billion state budget bill that includes pay raises for state workers and law enforcement.

In addition, DeSantis’s budget includes $200 million worth of tax cuts on fuel, a scheme he plans to pay for with federal

MONKEYPOX continued from page 19

Symptoms Monkeypox is considered a mild disease and has a less than 1% mortality rate. All who have died of the disease have been people living in developing nations who lack access to advanced medical care.

Scientists do warn, however, that despite monkeypox being mild, it can still become serious, or even deadly, for immunocompromised people, pregnant people, newborns, young children, and those with skin conditions such as eczema.

Monkeypox has been described as a milder version of smallpox. Symptoms typically develop within 21 days of exposure and can include fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, rash, and headaches.

The most notable symptom of monkeypox

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COVID funds.

In another example, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a new version of his state’s budget that offered sales tax relief paid for by $100 million from the state general funds.

The money was available partly because the state previously secured more than $700 million in “reversions,” a technical term for money transferred from key state agencies back to its general coffers.

Some of the savings were made possible because those same agencies had received federal stimulus aid, the local officials said.

In contrast, federal COVID relief money in Washington state has gone primarily to direct economic relief, with large sums also going to testing services and schools and childcare facilities.

Republican-controlled states have gone to federal court to challenge the Biden administration’s oversight on COVID relief spending, claiming that once their states receive the money, it’s theirs to do with as they please.

Twenty-one state attorneys general have filed suits to overturn the Biden administration’s policy, and they are backed by powerful groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, whose corporate members have lobbied conservative-leaning states to reduce their tax bills.

In one case brought by Alabama and West Virginia with the support of 11 other states, Republican officials argued that the federal government had no right to dictate how they spend their money, balance their budgets, or set tax policy.

They said federal stimulus money had forced them to make an “untenable choice” between relinquishing “control” of their taxing powers or surrendering “massive and much-needed aid.”

In nearly every case, these legal efforts have prevailed, preventing the Treasury Department from exercising control over federal funds, while opening the door for states to pursue their own tax cuts.

is the rash, which will start with red spots that eventually develop into pus-filled bumps that can resemble pimples or blisters. Those who have experienced monkeypox describe the rash as painful.

Typical outbreaks in West Africa often see the pox appear on the palms of hands and soles of feet, but the new global outbreak has reported more lesions around the genitalia and mouth — similar to herpes.

The pox eventually opens into sores and then scabs over. People with monkeypox are considered most infectious when the sores open up and remain infectious until they scab over and fall off.

Healthcare professionals warn that anyone who believes they have symptoms of monkeypox, including oral, genital, or anal lesions, should go to their nearest sexual health clinic for testing. Unlike with COVID19, a person who tests positive for monkeypox does not need to isolate away from others in

their own home. As the disease is usually spread through close and intimate contact, washing hands, bedding, and clothes, and keeping one’s distance from others in public places should be enough to help stop the spread.

Monkeypox is considered a zoonotic disease, which means, like COVID-19, there is a chance it can spread to wild and domestic animals that come in contact with it. However, the CDC does not believe this strain to be a risk to pets, though it still recommends avoiding contact with pets if you test positive for monkeypox until symptoms subside.

The world has changed tremendously since 2020, and how we handle and approach global disease outbreaks has shifted before our eyes. While monkeypox does not pose a severe threat in the same way COVID-19 has, doctors, scientists, and everyday people are approaching the situation with hypervigilance to prevent another global catastrophe.

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International News

Czech-US solidarity: Prague protests against SCOTUS abortion ruling

International news highlights

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

Alois Carnier and Peter Leu – Photo by Arnd Wiegmann

First same-sex couples wed in Switzerland Reuters reported on July 1 that Alois Carnier, 57, and Peter Leu, 67, are the first same-sex couple to take their vows in Switzerland, one of the last countries in Western Europe to legalize marriage equality after voters approved the “Marriage for All” initiative last September.

“The ceremony was really very important to me, because this has been 20 years in the making,” said Carnier, who has been in a registered partnership with Leu since 2014, and fought for decades in Gay rights campaigns.

Aline, 45, and Laure, 45, also tied the knot after 21 years together. Like Leu and Carnier, they had a civil partnership. They also have a four-yearold son.

“In every sense, this is a new stage (for us),” said Laure, who declined to give her family name.

Geneva Mayor Marie BarbeyChappuis attended the ceremony, and said of the event, “It was a very moving and much-awaited moment, which sends a strong message to society... to be free to love.”

Some of the key rights of marriage for same-sex couples now include acess to regular adoption, sperm donation, and an easier path to citizenship for foreign spouses.

Photos by Georgia Skerritt

by Georgia Skerritt SGN Intern Around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 30, over 200 people gathered in Prague’s city center in response to the US Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had previously protected the right to abortion at the federal level.

The protest began at náměstí Jana Palacha (Jan Palach Square), between the banks of the Vltava River and the historic Jewish quarter.

With signs in hand and slathered in sunscreen, the crowd first listened to speakers from the social reform group Konsent, which works to prevent and dispel myths about sexual violence by creating educational workshops for bars, clubs, universities, parents, and teachers.

Since 2021, Konsent has been working with Amnesty International, the Czech Women’s Lobby, and Women in Law to change legislative definitions of rape and sexual assault in the Czech Republic’s criminal code.

After speeches to the crowd, Konsent representatives led protesters across the Manes Bridge and through the Mala Strana (Lesser Town) neighborhood, eventually arriving outside the US embassy. The march through one of Prague’s most commercialized neighborhoods garnered attention from dozens of tourists, blocked traffic, and stalled public transportation. As the march continued, leaders and protesters began a call-andresponse of chants in Czech, calling out “Práva žen jsou lidská práva” (Women’s rights are human’s rights) and “Patriarchát do odpadků” (Patriarchy to the garbage).

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Natalie, a recent college graduate and native Czech resident, was drawn to the protest to show support to Americans both in the US and living abroad as expats. “I didn’t want to watch this happen to so many people and not do anything,” she explained.

“If there’s nothing else that we can do here in the Czech Republic, then this is what we’re gonna do!”

As they continued, people conversed in several languages, and held signs written in both Czech and English. While the protest focused on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the status of abortion in the United States, it quickly became clear that, for those from the Czech Republic — and for anyone not from the US — this issue also strikes a personal chord.

“If we’re talking specifically about Czech women being here, I think it’s the fear that the Czech [Republic] has become quite westernized, and therefore we’re kind of worried that we might follow the United States with similar legislation changes in the future,” Natalie continued, touching on a growing agitation among many Czech residents.

As much as Natalie was drawn to protest in solidarity with American citizens, she, like many other Czechs, also came to fight for her own rights.

“This is also, like, us showing the government that we’re noticing. We just want them to know that we’re holding onto these rights tooth and nail, and we’re not gonna let go,” she concluded.

Gretchen, a preschool teacher in Prague originally from Wisconsin, summed up an

experience most American expats share: “I felt kind of helpless being so far away from home.” Many US citizens abroad describe such feelings of hopelessness and discouragement when watching from overseas as issues like this unfold in their home country. “I’m still trying to figure out the best way to contribute from here,” she added.

As American expats and Czech residents alike marched to fight or prevent these changes in the law, the issue also resonated with Queer protesters, who now fear that other LGBTQIA+ issues and rights could be targeted next.

Leah, a 19-year-old Czech student who identifies as Queer, discussed her concerns about what this decision might mean for the future. “When the far right sees that things are going how they want, they’re only going to want more. They’re not going to stop here.

They’re going to go for Gay marriage and Trans rights, and women’s rights in general,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”

After occupying space outside the US embassy for over an hour, protesters made sure to leave their signs out for display before returning home. By 7:30 p.m., Tržiště Street was lined with remnants of the day’s events, temporarily preserving the passion and devotion of those involved.

Protests died down completely by the end of the night, but for people across the globe — in the US, the Czech Republic, or anywhere else — the fight isn’t over yet.

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Polish court quashes last “LGBT-free zones” Reuters reported on June 28 that a Polish appeals court has ruled that the country’s “LGBT-free zones,” which have cropped up in four municipalities since 2019, must be dissolved.

Human rights advocates and activists celebrated the decision as a victory.

The zones intended to ban what local authorities said was the promotion of homosexuality and other nonheterosexual identities. The European Commission responded with legal challenges and condemnation. Nine other such zones were scrapped in Poland’s lower courts.

“Today’s decision... is a great victory for democracy, human rights, and respect for people,” Poland’s Campaign Against Homophobia declared on social media. The group recently introduced a clause in its partnership agreement with Poland that would prevent municipalities with “LGBTfree zones” from receiving funds from the bloc’s 2021–27 budget.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Michal Wojcik of the conservative United Poland party had his own opinion. “If councilors decide that they want to support our traditions and identity, it is their sovereign right.

Nobody should limit this,” he wrote to Reuters in a text message.

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