ISSUE 42
C E L E B R AT I N G
VOLUME 51
49 YEARS
F R I D AY
IN
NOVEMBER 3, 202 3
SE AT T L E & T HE PACIF IC NOR T H W E S T ’S L GB T Q I A + NE W S & EN T ER TA INMEN T SOURCE SINCE 19 74
SKAGIT DRAG LEADS WITH THE POWER OF LOVE
by Cameron Martinez SGN Contributing Writer Colorful, Halloween-themed lights enveloped the crowd of nearly 500 as they cheered for the queens at the Skagit Drag Show on October 21, which sold out the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Mount Vernon.
see SKAGIT page 6
Gina Touché – Photo by Cameron Martinez
Seattle Parks to remove Hiding and accentuating Black Lives Memorial curves dom+bomb co-owners make gender-affirming Garden in Capitol Hill styles for Spokane Photo courtesy of Black Star Farmers
by Lindsey Anderson SGN Staff Writer On October 7, 2023, signs began popping up around the Black Lives Memorial Garden (BLMG) in Cal Anderson Park, notifying the public that the plot of land known as the “Sun Bowl” would soon be undergoing a turf renovation.
The announcement sparked immediate backlash in the Seattle community, which had come together in 2020 during the George Floyd protests to start the garden. The Black Lives Memorial Garden started as a part of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Protest Zone, or CHAZ (also known as CHOP), which lasted for about three weeks.
see GARDEN page 4
dom+bomb co-founders Delena Mobley (l) and Kim Blessing – Courtesy photo
by Kali Herbst Minino SGN Contributing Writer Kim Blessing and Delena Mobley, co-owners of the fashion brand dom+bomb, became good friends while working at a public health accounting firm. They had talked about opening a business together before 2020, but the pandemic pushed the two to apply for
their business license. By 2021, they had quit their corporate jobs, and by April 2022, they launched their first line. “We had talked a lot about what business we wanted to do, and we really wanted a BIPOCand Queer-friendly space — we didn’t really want to run a bar,” Blessing said. “We’re both plus sized [and] we’ve always struggled with
see SPOKANE page 5