SGN January 21, 2011 - Section 1

Issue 03 Volume 39

Celebrating 38 Years!

FRIDAY January 21, 2011 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands

GAY CITY p. 16

LILY TOMLIN p. 25

UNDERTOW p. 28

Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Remembering Bayard Rustin

Community makes Tree of Life fundraiser a success SGN and participating bars raise money for YSPP

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor During the month of December, the Seattle Gay News in conjunction with the Youth Suicide Prevention Program (YSPP) conducted a fundraising program, the Tree of Life, to raise money to further assist YSPP in their critical role of preventing LGBT teen suicide. The program was installed at 10 participating Capitol Hill (and some off-the-Hill) bars, restaurants, and businesses.

Seattle Gay News is pleased to report that the community response to the Tree of Life program was tremendous, and the fundraising effort raised over $5,000!

The top three fundraisers were Lady Chablis of R Place with $1,650; Mike Roney of the Comet Tavern with $677; and Dan of The Cuff with $675.

Participating businesses included Attic, Comet Tavern, The Cuff, see tree of life page 20

Lady Chablis of R Place was the number-one Tree of Life fundraiser, with $1,650 raised.

Gibbs: DOMA repeal “inordinately challenging”

Joe Mabel

UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg

Councilmember Harrell announces six LGBT Commission appointees

Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell

Nate Gowdy

Al Ravenna

associates and one of the least known.

Like most of King’s inner circle, Rustin was African American. Unlike most of them, he was openly Gay – even in the 1950s – and a socialist.

The 1963 March on Wa s h i n g t o n for Jobs and Freedom is now so closely associated with King’s “I Bayard Rustin in 1964 Have a Dream”

by Mike Andrew speech that most Americans asSGN Staff Writer sume King was the principal organizer of the march.

As we look back at another MarIn fact, it was Rustin, working tin Luther King Day march and with African American union leadrally and remember Dr. King’s er and fellow socialist A. Philip eloquent calls to social justice, we might also remember Bayard Rustin, one of Dr. King’s closest see rustin page 20

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Last week, Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell announced the appointment of six new members to the Seattle LGBT Commission.

Harrell ensures that the Office for Civil Rights actively enforces the rules prohibiting bigotry in all of its forms (including attacks against the LGBT community) and makes sure the concerns of the LGBT Commission are disseminated to the full Council, mayor, and the greater community so that the awareness of LGBT issues are known to all. “These appointments will help strengthen the rights of the LGBT community and defeat bigotry,” he said.

Harrell said that one of his jobs is to make sure the LGBT Commission is properly staffed and that “its members are genuinely committed to LGBT issues.”

This year, Brad Hoover (cochair), Vy Chu, Lincoln Rose,

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

in this Congress.

Gibbs made the remarks in an exchange with the Washington White House Press Secretary Blade. He also said that while Robert Gibbs said on January 18 President Barack Obama supports that given Republican control of DOMA repeal, the administration the House, it would be “inordinately challenging” to repeal the see gibbs page 21 see commission page 21 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

proud to Be Different

We are conveniently located on-site at Lifelong AIDS Alliance below the Thrift Store.

Call us at 206.568.2486

ARIZONA DISABILITY LAW AND REP. GIFFORDS Any attempt by Arizona to apply its statute on disability of elected officials to U.S. Representative Gabriella Giffords for the purpose of removing her from office would be patently unconstitutional. So says the United States Supreme Court. In U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S.779, 115 S.Ct. 1842, 131 L.Ed.2d 881 (1995), the Court overturned Arkansas’s term limits law for members of Congress. They ruled the Constitution already has specific qualifications to be a member of Congress, and neither voters or state legislators can add to those qualifications.

Attorneys for Congresswoman Giffords should file for a restraining order in Federal District Court in Phoenix, blocking enforcement of that Arizona law. Both the governor and attorney general of Arizona took oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States. That would include U.S. Supreme

Two employees assaulted at Wildrose Court decisions.

Steven L. Kendall REMEMBERING BUZZ FLOWERS I was moved by Anthony Callaway’s letter [Goodbye, Buzz, January 7, 2011]. I have read Buzz Flowers’ letters in the SGN for years. I did not know the man. (Chances are I probably did, being a Gay man in Seattle for as long as he lived here).

His letters sometimes had a point. Many of them were just chatty visiting. Nothing wrong with that!

Thank you, Anthony, for letting us know why we won’t get to see your dad’s letters anymore.

Thank you, Seattle Gay News, for printing Buzz’s letters.

We’ve lost a friend. So long, Buzz.

John Gessner

Iran sentences Gay men to death by stoning

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Two young Iranian men have been sentenced to death by stoning for having sex with each other.

According to the International Committee Against Stoning (ICAS), the two men – identified only as Ayub, 20 years old, and Mosleh, 21 – are currently being held in prison in the Iranian city of Orumieh.

They are scheduled to be stoned to death on January 21 in their hometown of Piranshahr.

The report originated in a Kurdish newspaper. Orumieh and Piranshahr are in Iranian Kurdistan.

Gay blogger Paul Canning, writing for the British website Pink News, says that the report “has since been confirmed by other sources.”

The IGLHRC says that it cannot confirm the details, however, and they have cautioned journalists to be cautious in reporting the details.

Gay blogs Towleroad and Joe My God took down their posts on the case after being contacted by the IGLHRC. The original newspaper report claimed that the boys raped an unnamed third boy.

The Iranian government does not acknowledge having LGBT citizens, and often charges Gay people with rape, even when the sexual contact was consensual.

According to ICAS, Ayub and Mosleh filmed themselves having sex and then uploaded the video to their cell phones.

“Pictures of President Ahmadinejad were incorporated into the film and loaded onto their mobile telephones,” ICAS added. “In addition, headshots of [Ayatollah] Khamenei pasted over a donkey were also found on the mobiles.”

The videos were reportedly found on the men’s phones by government agents, who then arrested them.

The addition of images of Ahmedinejad and Khamenei to a sex tape suggests that the two were political opponents of the Iranian regime and may have attracted the attention of police agents for that reason.

In a statement issued on January 16, ICAS called for demonstrations against the execution in Iran, and asked foreign supporters to generate international pressure on the Iranian government.

“We urge the young people of Piranshahr to hasten to the aid of Ayub and Mosleh and declare that they will not permit this tragedy to occur in Piranshar,” ICAS said in its statement.

“We must gather and collectively declare that we will not permit the Islamic Regime to murder and stone the youth of Iran in fear2

Seattle Gay News

mongering acts.

“We call on people everywhere to spread the news of the inhuman and medieval act against Ayub and Mosleh and do whatever they can to save them.”

ICAS previously organized the international campaign to prevent the stoning of Sakineh Ashtiani for adultery. She was sentenced to be executed in September 2010, but Iranian officials say her sentence has been suspended pending further investigation.

Stoning is an especially gruesome form of execution. In Iran, men who are to be stoned to death are buried in the ground up to their waists, and then struck with stones large enough to cause physical injury, but not so large that they would cause immediate death.

Soheila Vahdati, a human rights activist who has worked with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Iranian Queer Organisation, said, “They don’t differentiate between rape and homosexual acts. As well, there is a culture of shame.

The families won’t defend their loved ones from this brutal punishment.”

“We are very concerned even though we haven’t got all the details,” she added.

“We’ll try to save their lives but unfortunately Iran has quickly executed people in the past.”

Iranian judges may order execution by stoning under a 1983 law prohibiting acts considered to be offensive to God. Some senior Shia clerics have spoken out against stoning on the grounds that it is not mentioned as a punishment in the Quran.

According to Pink News, the Association of British Muslims has condemned the sentence and says it does not see anything in the Quran to justify such punishment.

Last month Human Rights Watch issued a comprehensive report on the repression of LGBT Iranians. It said that those charged with same-sex offences stand little chance of receiving a fair trial.

The IGLHRC, while noting they could not confirm key facts of the case, called on Iran to halt all executions.

“IGLHRC condemns the use of capital punishment in all instances, including this one, regardless of the alleged acts with which the individuals have been accused or convicted,” the group said in a statement issued on January 19.

“Likewise, IGLHRC condemns all forms of sexual violence and rape. We call on the government of Iran to immediately annul any execution order related to this case, to end the practice of death by stoning, and to repeal the criminalization of same-sex activity.”

January 21, 2011

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Fire Department were called to the Wildrose bar on January 19 after two men assaulted two employees and a passerby at the popular Lesbian bar.

According to the SPD police report filed by the responding officer, law enforcement was dispatched to the bar after an employee had been assaulted and the suspects fled on foot.

The officer on scene said that when he arrived, the owner of the bar was in the back of the tavern with the victims, one of whom is the bar’s cook.

According to the report, “Two unknown males entered the exterior side door into the kitchen area of the bar. … Suspect 1 walked into the kitchen and said, ‘I don’t like your eyes.’ Both suspects were confronted by employees about being in the restricted area, and told to leave because it is not a public area.”

Both suspects refused to leave, and that is when things turned violent.

According to SPD, “Suspect 1 approached one victim and began to motion toward her as if he was going to punch her. The suspect then did strike the victim in the mouth with a closed fist. … The suspect then grabbed the victim’s head and slammed it into a freezer, put his arm around her neck, and took her down.”

A witness reports that the second suspect also struck another victim, but police were unable to confirm because the first victim said she could not remember because

she “was being strangled and could not breathe.”

“Suspect 1 then let go of the victim he was choking and punched her on the right cheek,” the report alleges.

SPD confirms that, after the last blow, the two men ran out of the kitchen door they had come through.

According to Wildrose management, a passerby who was walking her dog was shoved by one of the fleeing men.

Suspect 1 ran eastbound on E. Pike St. and then southbound on 12th Ave. Suspect 2 left northbound on 11th Ave. Officers arrived and began to search the area for the suspects, but could not locate them. The Seattle Fire Department responded to the scene to assist the victims, who did not need to go to the hospital.

Wildrose management said they did not want to release the names of the victims and asked that we respect their privacy. The owner did, however, want us to print that the two men had not been in the bar that night, as rumors of the incident were getting out of hand on Thursday morning.

The owner said that all are welcome at Wildrose as long as they treat other patrons with respect.

Suspect 1 was described as a black male in his 30s, about 5’11, 280 lbs, and was wearing a black leather jacket. Suspect 2 is described as a black male, 6’, slim, and was wearing a grey stocking cap, dark jacket, and jeans.

If you have information about the whereabouts of the two suspects and are not in direct danger, please call the police non-emergency line at (206) 625-5011.

Karen Jean Lemieux 1945-2010

Karen passed away at home in her apartment due to complications from multiple myeloma, which she was diagnosed with in March of 2009. She is survived by her daughter Zoë Lemieux (of Karen Jassy and Zoë) and her two sisters, Sharon Armstrong of Bremerton, WA, and Kristine Lemieux of Kirkland, WA, as well as her stepmother, Mickey Lemieux, and stepbrother and sister, Bud and Cathy, of the greater Seattle area.

She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Her family moved to Portland, Oregon, and then to Bellevue, Washington. She attended Holy Names Academy on Capitol Hill in Seattle and Bellevue High School. She then worked as a dental assistant and went on to study at the

Colorado Women’s College and Kansas State University where she studied psychology. From there, she traveled to Boston, MA, and taught developmentally delayed youth at the Kennedy Shriver Center. She lived in Moses Lake, WA, for a while and then decided to become a carpenter. She was a member of the Seattle Carpenters Union and loved being a carpenter. She did this work for about 13 years until an injury required her to retire. She helped build the West Seattle Bridge, Jackson Street Bus Tunnel, Renton Sewer System, ATT in Bellevue, to name a few. Prior to finding out that she had cancer, she worked for about a decade at the Wild Rose Tavern doing maintenance. At the time of her death, she was enrolled in a correspondence course in electronics.

She was a devoted parent who loved her friends, animals, nature, bike and motorcycle riding, learning about things spiritual, and tinkering at fixing things.

She was a complex and interesting person who is dear to our hearts.

There will be a mass in her honor at noon on Saturday, January 29 at the Immaculate Conception Church on 18th and Spring in the Central District. Following mass, there will be a memorial in the church hall. Please feel free to join us as we move through this transition by celebrating her life.

Celebrating 38 Years!

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January 21, 2011

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January 21, 2011

Celebrating 38 Years!

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January 21, 2011

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January 21, 2011

Celebrating 38 Years!

INTERNATIONAL

NEWS

by Rex Wockner SGN Contributing Writer PortugalGay.pt

ris took the Irish government before the European Court of Human Rights and forced the nation to decriminalize sex between men.

Gay Portuguese journalist killed in NYC Well-known openly Gay Portuguese journalist Carlos Castro, 65, was killed in his New York City hotel room January 7.

Reports said he was tortured at length, poked in the eye with a corkscrew, and castrated at the InterContinental Times Square hotel.

Castro’s traveling companion, 20-year-old model Renato Seabra, reportedly confessed to the attack, told police he isn’t Gay anymore, and said he casPortuguese journalist Carlos Castro trated Castro to get rid of homosexual demons.

Gay senator leads Seabra has been charged with second-deIrish president race A poll has found that openly Gay Irish gree murder.

Correspondent João Paulo from PortugalSenator David Norris leads the pack seekGay.pt said Castro “was a very well-known ing to be the nation’s next president.

The Red C poll conducted in early Janu- journalist here in Portugal and a dear friend ary found that Norris, 66, is favored by 27 of mine.”

“Despite what we have seen in the U.S. percent of voters, followed by Member of the European Parliament Mairead McGuin- news, he was not seen as a Gay activist in ness at 13 percent, former Prime Minister Portugal, but he was a Gay man who was Bertie Ahern at 12 percent, Dáil member also a part-time activist, especially on the Michael D. Higgins at 11 percent, and MEP HIV fight,” Paulo said.

For 18 years, Castro had organized the Brian Crowley and charity executive Fergus annual “Gala dos Travestis” event to supFinlay at 10 percent.

The poll found that 13 percent of respon- port Associação Abraço, Portugal’s leading dents support none of the candidates and HIV/AIDS charity, Paulo said. five percent do not plan to vote.

McDonald’s Wi-Fi In a famous 1988 Gay rights case, Nor-

NATIONAL

NEWS

Justice Dept. appeals rulings that struck down DOMA HRC to Obama: Support same-sex marriage now The Human Rights Campaign called on President Barack Obama January 13 to abandon his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Obama has said he supports civil unions for Gays but thinks marriage is for straight couples. But he also has said his thinking on the issue is “evolving” and “it’s pretty clear where the trendlines are going.”

As such, “it’s time for him to help lead the American public toward full equality for all Americans,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “We ask him to fully recognize the dignity of LGBT Americans and their families by supporting marriage equality.”

Solmonese’s exhortation came as the Justice Department appealed two federal court rulings from last July that struck down as unconstitutional the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that prevents the federal government from recognizing states’ same-sex marriages.

The section states: “In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

(The other section, which gives states cover to refuse to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages, was not targeted in the lawsuits.)

The administration has said it has a duty to defend U.S. laws – including those such

by Rex Wockner SGN Contributing Writer as DOMA that the president opposes. HRC disputed that claim and urged the Justice Department to “at the very least ... acknowledge that [DOMA] is unconstitutional.”

In its appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the government argues: “DOMA is rationally related to legitimate governmental interests. Congress passed DOMA in 1996, at a time when states and their citizens were just beginning to address the issue of marriage rights for same-sex couples. Since that time, some states have enacted statutes or issued court decisions that permit same-sex couples to marry, and other states have promulgated statutes or constitutional amendments that define marriage as between a man and a woman. Other states do not allow same-sex couples to marry under their own laws, but nonetheless recognize same-sex marriages from other states. DOMA, which implicates over 1,000 federal laws, reflects Congress’s reasonable response to this still-evolving debate among the states regarding same-sex marriage. The Constitution permitted Congress to enact DOMA as a means to preserve the status quo, ensure consistency in the distribution of federal marriage-based benefits, and respect policy developments in the states without implicating other states or the United States, pending the resolution of the debate taking place in the states over whether to permit same-sex marriage.”

In striking down DOMA, the federal District Court in Boston ruled that it violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by treating married Gay couples differently from married straight couples without any rational basis for doing so, violates the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by intruding in areas of exclusive state authority, and violates the Spending Clause in Article

Visit us online www.sgn.org

blocking Gay news in New Zealand McDonald’s has come under fire in New Zealand for blocking access to Gay websites on the free Wi-Fi available at restaurants.

The banned sites included GayNZ, PFLAG, and Rainbow Youth.

The company responded that it uses filtering software to be sure pages viewed at its locations are “child-friendly.”

Following media coverage, the chain unblocked Rainbow Youth and PFLAG but refused to budge on GayNZ.com, saying some of the advertisements placed on the site by third parties are not “friendly” to children or families.

GayNZ was a finalist last year in the Qantas Media Awards in the investigative-journalism category.

with two of them being set on fire, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

The victims include Alexis Alvarado Hernández, 23, who was stoned and set alight in the city of Comayagüela; Oscar Martínez Salgado, 45, who was stabbed and set on fire in her Tegucigalpa home; and “Cheo,” who was found stabbed to death on a Tegucigalpa street.

IGLHRC said that since the 2009 coup d’état, there have been at least 31 murders of Honduran LGBT people.

Canada bans broadcast of old Dire Straits song The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council on January 12 banned the old Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” from the airwaves because the lyrics contain the word “faggot.”

The council said broadcasting the word violates both the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and its Equitable Portrayal Code.

The song says: “The little faggot with the earring and the makeup. Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair. That little faggot’s got his own jet airplane. That little faggot, he’s a millionaire.”

CBSC determined: “Like other racially driven words in the English language, ‘faggot’ is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so. The Panel finds that it has fallen into the category of unacceptable designations on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability.”

Canadian Officials can’t refuse to marry Gays Marriage commissioners in Canada’s Saskatchewan province cannot refuse to marry same-sex couples, the Court of Appeal ruled January 10.

The top court ruled in advance on a proposed law that would have let commissioners opt out of performing Gay marriages for religious reasons.

The court said: “It is not difficult for most people to imagine the personal hurt involved in a situation where an individual is told by a governmental officer, ‘I won’t help you because you are black (or Asian or First Nations) but someone else will,’ or ‘I won’t help you because you are Jewish (or Muslim or Buddhist) but someone else will.’ Being told, ‘I won’t help you because you are Gay/ Lesbian but someone else will’ is no different.”

The legislation was proposed after a comNepal to count missioner who did not want to marry Gays Transgender residents had exhausted legal options in appealing A new “third gender” category is being rulings against him. added to Nepal’s census forms in order to count Transgender people. The move folTransgenders killed lows a similar decision in neighboring Inin Honduras dia.

Several Transgender people have been killed in Honduras within the past month, With assistance from Bill Kelley 1 of the Constitution by forcing Massachusetts to discriminate against its married Gay citizens in order to receive certain types of federal funding.

The government’s appeal disputes all three determinations.

In 1996, when Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, he told the Chicago Gay newspaper Windy City Times that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage, but since that time he has expressed support only for civil unions for same-sex couples. Very recently, however, he has suggested that his feelings on the matter may be in flux.

In December, he told The Advocate: “My attitudes are evolving on this. I have always firmly believed in having a robust civil union that provides the rights and benefits under the law that marriage does. I’ve wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married Gay or Lesbian couples. And squaring that circle is something that I have not done yet, but I’m continually asking myself this question, and I do think that – I will make this observation, that I notice there is a big generational difference. When you talk to people who are in their 20s, they don’t understand what the holdup is on this, regardless of their own sexual orientation.”

He made similar remarks to Gay blogger Joe Sudbay last October.

Log Cabin refuses to back off DADT case The Log Cabin Republicans are refusing to pause their federal case against the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military Gay ban even though Congress has authorized the military to repeal the policy.

The ban was struck down as unconstitutional last October by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside, California.

The Obama administration, however, appealed the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and obtained a stay of Phillips’ injunction that had halted the ban’s enforcement worldwide.

Now the administration wants the court to put the appeal on hold while the Pentagon

January 21, 2011

moves on implementing DADT repeal – a process that could take months.

But Log Cabin isn’t interested in delaying the proceedings.

“Log Cabin Republicans are acutely aware President Obama and his administration desperately want our case to just go away.

That is not going to happen,” said LCR Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper. “The Obama administration’s continued defense of this failed and unconstitutional policy is a mystery. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was rejected

by Congress, by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and most notably by the American people. It is time for the president to stand by his commitment and end this policy of discrimination.”

LCR attorney Dan Woods expressed defiance.

“Despite what the government has led the American people to believe, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has not been repealed and will likely remain the law of the land until the end of 2011,” Woods said. “In the meantime, openly Gay individuals are not free to enlist in our armed forces, current service members must continue to live a lie, and the government continues to investigate and discharge service members. What’s more, the government is trying to delay the briefing and argument on its appeal from the judgment and injunction obtained by Log Cabin Republicans.”

“The government asked us to agree to the delay and we were willing to do so on one condition: that the government halt all pending investigations and discharges during the period of delay,” Woods said. “The government refused, and its attorneys said that investigations and discharges will continue.

For these reasons, Log Cabin Republicans’ case is still alive and kicking. Our filing today [January 10] opposes the government’s motion to delay the appeal and asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the alternative, to stay all investigations and discharges in the event it is prepared to grant the government’s request for delay.”

With assistance from Bill Kelley

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2011

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Editor In Chief George Bakan Associate Editor Shaun Knittel Editorial Assistant Nick Ardizzone Production William Creswell Calender Editors Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Travel Editor George Bakan Advertising Manager Marty Weisbrod Advertising Department Maggie Bloodstone Executive Assistant Mike Andrew Staff Writers George Bakan, Albert S. Rodriguez, Nick Ardizzone, Shaun Knittel, Miryam Gordon, Tim Peter Contributing Writers

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

Opinions expressed in bylined articles, columns, and letters are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or management of this paper.

Seattle Gay News welcomes unsolicited material, including letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit or reject material. All rights revert to authors upon publication.

We assume no liability for loss or damage of materials, solicited or not. We invite feedback, please write.

And please play safe.

It is our policy that no money shall be refunded if you choose to cancel your subscription or ad. However, credit towards any size ad will be given for the balance owed. No exceptions.

Gay stamp of approval

by Leslie Robinson SGN Contributing Writer I’ve kept a secret for years. Now it’s time for me to come out – as a stamp collector.

I’m throwing off my shame. I’m a nerd and I’m proud!

My orientation, philatelically speaking, is toward general collecting. I amass all kinds of postage stamps. Other collectors prefer to go the topical route, acquiring stamps on specific subjects, like birds, soccer or Norwegian breakdancing.

Just yesterday I had an epiphany. I should develop a topical collection: Gay stamps!

I’ve never heard of anyone specializing in that before. It’s time, and I’m just the nerd to do it.

I suspect my late grandfather, who started me on stamp collecting when I was small, would suggest a different theme. Emphatically. In German.

But I’ve made up my mind. I’m going Gay – again.

For one thing, I already own some of the American stamps that count as Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual. Like the 1991 Cole Porter stamp, which I’m pleased to report I have

three of. In 1993, the U.S. Postal Service released an AIDS awareness stamp with a red ribbon, and since people still wrote letters back then, I have six of them.

I possess one Margaret Mead and one Tennessee Williams. Both look a touch annoyed. I also have a single Willa Cather from 1973, when I didn’t know she was Gay, or I was Gay, or anybody was Gay. I hope historians come to agreement about Abraham Lincoln’s Gayness, because I’ve got a ton of him.

It’s now clear that I have major holes to fill. I can’t claim to own a decent Queer collection without the stamps of George Washington Carver, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Josephine Baker, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, or Walt Whitman. Appalling gaps. Time to start swapping my straights for Gays.

In fact, I thought I had the 1940 Whitman stamp. Someone’s been pilfering my poofters.

While I do own the American Raymond Burr stamp – it’s actually an homage to the TV show in which he starred, Perry Mason – I don’t possess his Canadian stamp. I need Della to get on that.

A person doesn’t have to be Gay to belong in my thematic collection. It would be a poor Queer collection indeed without Judy Garland and Dinah Shore. Thankfully, I already possess both the all-time Gay icon and the accidental originator of a yearly Lesbian bacchanal. Needless to say, the 2009 Dinah Shore stamp doesn’t celebrate the Lesbian debauch. The post office might’ve solved its money woes if it had.

All these folks honored with stamps stood out in science, the arts, politics and so forth.

They weren’t honored for being Bisexual, Lesbian, or Gay – more likely in spite of it.

But the word is that’s going to change, and once again Harvey Milk leads the way. According to a recent Bay Area Reporter filing, the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), which evaluates possible subjects for U.S. stamps, contacted Milk’s family and the Harvey Milk National Stamp Campaign. It appears a Harvey Milk stamp will be issued in the next few years.

Milk meets one requirement: He’s dead.

Mr. Twinkies-For-Brains saw to that.

Last year then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the CSAC to back Milk, writing, “The United States Postal Service has yet to honor an LGBT American hero with a stamp.”

And what a boon it would be to a certain Lesbian’s topical stamp collection, she could’ve added.

If the CSAC is at last thinking more broadly, I also have a suggestion for the panel: Put me on it. Who better than a Lesbian philatelist to help choose future LGBT commemorative stamps?

Even my grandfather would agree with that. Emphatically. In German.

Leslie Robinson swaps stamps, not partners. E-mail her at lesarobinson@gmail. com, and visit her blog at www.generalgayety.com.

In Loving Memory Of

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

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Seattle Gay News

January 21, 2011

Celebrating 38 Years!

NORTHWEST

NEWS

compiled by Rick McKinnon SGN Staff Writer

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ’S CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO, A FIRE IN MY BELLY, SHOWING IN SEATTLE David Wojnarowicz’s controversial video, A Fire in My Belly, that was part of a show of Gay and Lesbian related art at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery recently, until it was removed from the exhibition in response to a deluge of unfavorable calls and emails from the Catholic League and its partisans, is being shown with other less controversial works by Wojnarowicz at the Greg Kucera Gallery (212 Third Ave. S.) and the Henry Art Gallery (15th Ave. NE & NE 41st St.) through February 13. The Seattle Art Museum, (First Ave. & Union St.) presents other works by Wojnarowicz through January 30.

The video can also be seen online by Googling “David Wojnarowicz,” including http://vsthepomegranate.blogspot. com/2010/12/fire-in-my-belly-by-davidwojnarowicz.html

scientist-artist dialogues give us a better chance of communicating this vision – and through the arts we can avoid the barriers people might have to learning something new.”

Forecast works will range from documenting nature or science, to science informing and/or inspiring art, to co-equal science/arts collaboration. In addition to being an exhibit that is exciting, interesting, and attracts new audiences, Forecast is designed to engage scientists, artists, and the general public in cross-disciplinary dialogue on innovative ways to communicate and understand weather and climate issues. www.box. net/shared/rgz4mos84j GAY CITY WRITING WORKSHOP On Mondays from January 24 through March 7 at Gay City Health Project (511 E. Pike), Gay City Arts presents Smudgy Notebook, the Gay City Writing Workshop Series. For this winter session, Gay City will focus on basic writing techniques such as point of view, setting, character development, allegory/ fable/ metaphor, poetry and short story form/structure, and others. The goal is to foster an understanding of writing on a literary level. Each week we will have an informal discussion concerning a specific writing technique or tool, and focus our attention on developing and/or honing our skills in that area. This Queer-friendly course is open to women, Trans-folk, and men, and is designed to accommodate beginners and more advanced writers. Cost is $50; need-based scholarships are available; January 24 is FREE. For more info, please contact Kevin at (206) 850-1575 or Susan at (206) 388-1707 or susan@gaycity.org.

ALLYSHIP SEEKING VOLUNTEERS Allyship is an organization that does multi-issue organizing in the social justice community as out Queers and connects social justice issues within LGBTQ communities. For several years Allyship has been sponsoring a discussion series called “Queerly Classed,” as well as mobilizing for marches and actions, and building relationships in the labor, feminist, immigrant rights, housing and health care movements.

This year Allyship will be creating campaigns around health care, workers’ rights and Queer youth and is looking for volunteers to help with campaign research, social media, and outreach. For more information, including a description of tasks and time commitment for volunteer positions of SEATTLE GAY & LESBIAN researcher, social media assistant, and outBOOK CLUB AT DUNSHEE HOUSE reach assistant, email ladyking6k@yahoo.

The Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club com or allyship@yahoo.com. meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Dunshee House (303 17th Ave. E. at E. Thomas KNIGHTS OF MANTRA St.). All GLBTQ folks in the community are BEGGARS’ FEAST – welcome to participate in this FREE book SOMETHING MEDIEVAL club.

On Saturday, January 22 at 6 p.m. at RusThe book for January is Hindoo Holiday, sian Hall (704 19th Ave. E.), the Jet Chap- also by J.R. Ackerley – his true-life travel ter of the Knights of Mantra will hold their adventure about the few months he was 2011 Beggars’ Feast – Something Medieval. hired as the private secretary to an eccentric Price includes five-course meal and dessert. Maharajah in a little principality of India Games, stocks, spanking stools, great food, who has a penchant for beautiful boys. It’s entertainment, and special surprises. $30 in a novel by a Gay author with Gay content advance, $35 at the door.

– but not about Gay love or Gay sex. Think For tickets, contact a Knights of Mantra about your Gay friends – Gay people exist member. most of the time OUTSIDE of the bedroom, and what happens otherwise is often just FORECAST: COMMUNICATING hinted at – well, that’s the kind of Gay writWEATHER AND CLIMATE – ing this is.

ARTS & SCIENCE EXHIBIT AT It’s a Gay man’s perceptions of a MahaWASHINGTON STATE rajah who obsesses over handsome lowerCONVENTION CENTER caste youths. Ackerley’s acerbic wit demolFrom Monday, January 24, through Satur- ishes several haughty British ladies also day, April 9, EcoArts Connections presents visiting the Palace, and the bits of dialogue an arts and science based exhibit, Forecast: scattered throughout are often hilarious. It’s Communicating Weather and Climate, at the travel writing at its best – an utterly personal Washington State Convention Center, 800 plunge into a colorful world very different Pike St. (North and South Gallerias). Com- from our own. missioned by the American Meteorological And now, a special message for Gay Society for their 91st AMS annual meeting book lovers: at the WSCC (January 24-27), the exhibit I’ve now read the first 150 pages of our features the work of 36 regionally, nation- February book, and I’m making myself stop ally, and internationally recognized artists long enough to send this e-mail. I’ve disbased in Washington state whose work has covered a new hero. He writes like a Gay been inspired and/or informed by weather Iris Murdoch, with gorgeous sentences, hiand climate. larious stinging satire, and flawed fascinatEight scientists from four states and two ing characters. I’m talking about a big Gay countries collaborated with the artists for novel with hot sex scenes, catty comments, the exhibition. relentless realism and hilarious perceptions, “I can say from personal experience that the novel that surprised the English-speakworking with an artist, you discover the ing world by running away with one of the commonality between the sciences and the most honored annual literary prizes on this arts. The creative process is similar: both planet, the 2004 Booker. can end up looking at our world in way that I’m talking about Alan Hollinghurst’s The no one has before, and both are compelled to Line of Beauty. Originally I hesitated over communicate that insight to others,” com- this book because (1) I thought it might be ments Peggy LeMone, 2010 AMS President too literary and difficult, and (2) because it’s and Senior Scientist Emerita at the National long, 438 pages of small print. Well, (1) as Center for Atmospheric Research. “These soon as you hit Chapter 2 and the elaborate,

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delightful sex encounter, you’ll keep reading effortlessly, and (2) at this point, 150 pages into the story, the book can’t be long enough, I’m having so much fun reading it.

I’ve noticed that the University Book Store has a hefty pile of this book at a discounted price of $6.98. My advice to you is: snag one of them immediately, and since this book is a bit longer than our usual selection, get cracking on it. You won’t want to rush such a delightful experience. Believe me, my mouth muscles are tired from smiling so much. Give yourself time to enjoy it.

And I hear there’s an excellent British three-hour miniseries adaptation of The Line of Beauty. I’ll bet they have it at Scarecrow Video! We’d have to spread it over two meetings, so February might not be quite long enough for all this – our Hollinghurst festival may lap over into March, but who cares? I get the feeling there’s going to be LOTS to discuss.

Hope to see some of you this coming Wednesday and the rest of this month in our ongoing discussion of J. R. Ackerley, this time reading his very funny Hindoo Holiday.

But if you’ve fallen behind in our two Ackerley memoirs, if you’ve been absent from our club for a while, The Line of Beauty might be the perfect opportunity to dive into a big, entertaining, stimulating Gay novel and give yourself enough time to read it, so you can discuss it with us at Dunshee House, any and every Wednesday evening in February at 6 p.m.

For more information, e-mail nickdimartin@earthlink.net or contact Dunshee House at 206-322-2437.

AN EVENING AT LE FAUX DUNSHEE HOUSE FUNDRAISING EVENT On Friday, January 28 at 10 p.m. at Julia’s on Broadway (300 Broadway E.), join the cast of Seattle’s longest-running celebrity impersonation show, Le Faux, in supporting the community through services provided at Dunshee House. Proceeds from ticket sales on Friday, January 28 will go directly to benefit Dunshee House. The show begins at 10 p.m. Tickets are available at http://www. brownpapertickets.com/event/113129. Dinner is also available prior to the show.

For reservations call (206) 334.0513.

DIVERSE HARMONY PRESENTS WINTER CONCERT On Saturday, January 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Seattle First Baptist Church, 1111 Harvard Ave., Diverse Harmony, presents their winter concert, “Lose Yourself.”

Experience the youth of Diverse Harmony as they shed their own notions of identity to discover what really makes us all tick. By “losing ourselves” in the moment of selfexpression we come closer to who we truly are. Tickets are $15 at the door (cash or check only); youth 21 and under FREE. Diverse Harmony provides a safe, affirming environment for youth where everyone is accepted for who they are. “We use the passion and the power of music to inspire the celebration of differences in our homes, community and the world.” www.diverseharmony.org.

SEATTLE CENTER FESTÁL: TET FESTIVAL On Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Seattle Center Festál presents Tet Festival in the Center House. The Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival offers entertainment, exploration and insights into the culture of Vietnam.

Craft bookmarks, create an apricot blossom boutonniere and express your inner artist through painting workshops. Revisit thousands of years of the Vietnamese history at this festive New Year celebration as you immerse in the dance, traditional music performance, visual and martial arts of Vietnam.

Seattle Center Festál: Tet Festival is produced by Seattle Center in partnership with Tet in Seattle. For a full event schedule, visit www.tetinseattle.org and for more information on this cultural series and other Seattle Center programming, click on www.seattlecenter.com.

January 21, 2011

HIV VACCINE TRIALS UNIT/ FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER PRESENTS FREE PUBLIC SCREENING OF HIV/AIDS DOCUMENTARY On Wednesday, February 2, the HIV Vaccine Trials Unit of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Thomas Clinical Research Building, 1100 Fairview Ave. N. (Pelton Auditorium), presents a free public screening of The Other City – a documentary about a side of Washington, DC, that visitors rarely see. The nation’s capitol has an HIV/AIDS rate that is not only the highest in the U.S., but rivals that of some African countries.

The event begins with a reception and lab tours from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., opening remarks at 6 p.m., screening from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., community discussion from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Candice Wiggins, a guard for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and former All American basketball player for Stanford University, will provide opening remarks. Wiggins lost her father, former Major League Baseball player Alan Wiggins, to AIDS when she was 4 years old and today is outspoken about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

Seating is limited. For free tickets, information about transportation and directions, please contact James at 206-667-1979 or info@seattlevaccines.org.

The screening is sponsored by the HIV Vaccine Trials Unit of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in collaboration with the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival.

CORNISH DANCE THEATRE PRESENTS A TRIBUTE TO MERCE CUNNINGHAM Cornish Dance Theatre will present a series of free public events in February, March and April to honor the legacy of modern dance choreographer Merce Cunningham.

The Merce Cunningham minEvent will be a dance of uninterrupted excerpts drawn from three Cunningham masterworks: Roaratorio (1983), Fabrications (1987) and Enter (1992) to music by John Cage performed by the Cornish Music Departments’s Indeterminacy Ensemble. The minEvent performance will run 20 minutes.

The minEvent will be performed on Friday, February 4, and Saturday, February 5, at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., at ACT Theatre, Bullitt Cabaret, 700 Union St., on Saturday, February 5, at 10 a.m., at the Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St. On Friday, March 4, at 12:15 p.m., at Cornish College Main Gallery, 1st Floor, 1000 Lenora St., an interdisciplinary conversation with Seattle artists Catherine Cabeen, Tonya Lockyer and Jarrad Powell will look at the legacies of Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Yves Klein.

The minEvent will be performed again on Thursday, April 7, and Thursday, April 21, at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., at Seattle Art Museum, 3rd Ave. & University St. (free with museum admission).

For more information, visit www.cornish. edu/merce/ NOTE: The Merce Cunningham Dance Company will make a stop in Seattle on its final Legacy Tour, appearing at the Paramount Theatre on October 24. When Cunningham died in 2009, plans were initiated for a final farewell tour by his company. It will be the last opportunity to see the choreographer’s works performed by dancers he personally trained.

ROSEHEDGE HOUSE PRESENTS “LOVE WITHOUT BOUNDARIES” On Sunday, February 13, doors at 6 p.m., join Rosehedge House for “Love Without Boundaries” at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel, Madison Ballroom, 515 Madison St. Enjoy a romantic champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception, gourmet dinner, silent auction and Valentine’s Day dance with proceeds to benefit Rosehedge House, with emcee Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist David Horsey and the Dina Blade Jazz Quartet.

Tickets: $150 individual at party size table; $350 for private party seating for two.

For more information, visit www.rosehedge.org.

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Gay parents find the Senator Joe Lieberman will not seek reelection South more welcoming Goodbye, Joe

courtesy the advocate

ers to call for the invasion of Iraq after September 11. He has remained an uncritical supporter of the war ever since.

He also supported the PATRIOT Act and other measures to curtail civil liberties in the wake of September 11.

Although he ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in 2000, his enthusiasm for the war in Iraq alienated other Democrats, and anti-war businessman Ned Lamont beat him in the Democratic primary in 2006.

Lieberman won the race anyway, running as an independent. In 2008 he endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain against Barack Obama.

In 2009, Lieberman threatened to filibuster President Obama’s healthcare bill in order to eliminate the public option from the legislation.

On LGBT issues, he had a mixed record. He supported DADT repeal and ENDA, but opposed marriage equality because of his religious views.

Lieberman voted for DOMA in 1996 and also supported a bill to ban HIV-positive people from entering the U.S. Lieberman told AP reporters last month that he was considering running for another term, but most observers believed it would be a tough race.

His 2006 loss to Lamont was considered an upset, but his ratings among Democrats have slipped even further since then, largely because of his support for the Iraq war and John McCain.

Few people believed he would ever win another Democratic primary.

Although he played an important role in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last month, Lieberman has generally been on the conservative side of American politics.

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Senator Joe Lieberman announced on January 19 that he would not seek reelection when his current term is up in 2012.

“The reason I have decided not to run for re-election in 2012 is best expressed in the wise words from Ecclesiastes: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven,’” Lieberman told a press conference in Stamford, Connecticut.

“At the end of this term, I will have served 24 years in the U.S. Senate and 40 years in elective office.

For me, it is time for another season and another purpose under Heaven,” he said Lieberman has represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate since 1989.

Although he played an important role in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last month, Lieberman has generally been on the conservative side of American politics.

Lieberman was one of the first U.S. lead-

The longer you live in progressive Seattle, the easier it becomes for you to forget that in most parts of the country, LGBT families do not feel safe, do not have anything resembling equal rights, and may feel unwelcome. Often times, when one thinks of a “welcoming” city, images of San Francisco, New York, and Seattle come to mind. But, according to an analysis of the U.S. Census data, childrearing is more common among same-sex couples in the South than in any other region of the country, defying the mainstream stereotype of Gay people as affluent, white, and living in major cities.

The New York Times reports on the pattern identified by demographer Gary Gates of the University of California, evidenced by the fact that Jacksonville, Florida is home to one of the biggest populations of Gay parents in the country.

Other locations for LGBT childrearing – compared to the West Coast, New York, and New England – include Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

According to the Times, “Black or Latino Gay couples are twice as likely as whites to be raising children, according to Mr. Gates, who used data from a Census Bureau sampling known as the American Community Survey. They are also more likely than their white counterparts to be struggling economically.”

One theory, according to Gates, is that the pattern could be related to the number of Gay people who have children in heterosexual relationships before coming out, and the expanding number of minority women of childbearing age.

The Times reports that the Census Bureau estimated there were 581,000 same-sex couples in the U.S. in 2009. Single LGBT persons were not counted.

Gay City goes to Olympia to save stop-smoking programs

Senator Joe Lieberman

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

The Washington state capitol in Olympia

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer On January 26, Gay City Health Project will join a number of other community organizations in Olympia who are trying to save state funding for tobacco cessation programs.

According to Gay City Community Organizer Lark Ballinger, stop-smoking programs will take a devastating hit in the latest round of state budget reductions.

“We’re looking at a $3 million cut in total tobacco spending,” Ballinger told SGN. “$2.1 million of that would go to local health departments and community organizations, and the rest – $900,000 – would go for media awareness.”

While reductions were expected because of the state’s budget crisis, they are coming much sooner than anticipated, Ballinger said.

“We’re seeing budget reductions at the beginning of the year that we weren’t expecting till June,” he said.

That means that community stop-smoking programs suddenly find themselves up to six months short of funding.

“Some things will be left,” Ballinger says. “The quitline will remain in place, but smoking cessation [programs] will be reduced.”

“That’s for this biennium, through June 30,” Ballinger adds. “After June 30, and through 2013 – no word yet.”

The problem, Ballinger says, is that “the reductions impact groups that have the least resources – the LGBT community, communities of color, poor folks.”

For that reason, Ballinger says, Gay City is working with a number of community or-

ganizations from the American Cancer Society to organizations based in communities of color.

“There will be a big Queer contingent from Snohomish to Tacoma,” he adds. “Gay City, the Rainbow Center in Tacoma, AIDS Housing Tacoma….”

The objective is to “educate legislators on the benefits of tobacco cessation programs.

A lot of work has been done, but a lot of work still needs to be done,” Ballinger says.

Ballinger is optimistic that some of the funding scheduled to be cut can be restored, but he declined to name any legislators that Gay City expects to be especially helpful.

“Legislators right now are occupied with trying to find money for all the basics. I don’t presume to know who’s going to be on our side and who’s not,” he told SGN. The implications of reducing the tobacco budget go far beyond the immediate health benefits of quitting smoking, Ballinger says.

Ironically, reducing funding for stop-smoking programs may make the state’s budget problems even worse.

“It drives up healthcare costs,” Ballinger points out. “For EIP patients – people who need HIV treatments – the premiums skyrocket if you’re still smoking.”

Washington’s Early Intervention Program (EIP) covers health services and medications for HIV-positive people who have low to moderate income and who are not already on Medicaid or covered through Veterans Affairs.

It also helps enrollees pay their insurance premiums. Enrollees who have to pay higher premiums because they smoke will not only be impacted themselves, but may cost the state more money in the long run.

Celebrating 38 Years!

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Under new federal rules, nearly all hospitals this week are extending visitation rights to the partners of same-sex couples.

The change in policy is due to the Obama administration’s continuing efforts to expand the rights of LGBT Americans.

The federal regulations, however, only apply to hospitals that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. The rules state that such healthcare institutions may not prohibit visitation rights based on sexual orientation. This is a major shift in policy for LGBT couples. In the past, hospital officials often barred visitors not related to an incapacitated patient by blood or marriage.

In addition, many hospitals would not allow same-sex partners to designate each other as eligible to make major medical decisions for them if they are injured or seriously ill.

All that changed on Tuesday, when the new regulations went into effect. Now, any hospital found to be violating the new rules risks losing federal funding.

Gay rights advocates hailed the changes.

“Of all the things same-sex couples have to worry about, of all the discrimination and pressure we face, not being able to see our partner or spouse shouldn’t be one of them,” Rea Carey, executive director of the national

Gay and Lesbian Task Force told The Washington Post. “This new policy will have a positive impact on same-sex couples and our families throughout the nation.”

President Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to draft the new regulations last year after learning of two Lesbians who were unable to be with their samesex partners before they died.

One of those women, Seattle’s Charlene Strong, has gone on to become a national spokesperson on the subject and tirelessly lobbied state and federal governments to lift the visitation ban.

The move came weeks before the White House brokered a deal with Congressional Democrats that set in motion legislation ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The bill, which passed in December, gave the LGBT community another significant legislative victory.

Gay rights advocates are now turning their attention to several other policy changes, including the use of more gender-neutral language on federal forms, assurances that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide proper assistant to Gay and Lesbian people and their children during disaster relief efforts, and a nondiscriminatory policy for the Transportation Security Administration that addresses the treatment of Transgender air passengers.

“Of all the things samesex couples have to worry about, of all the discrimination and pressure we face, not being able to see our partner or spouse shouldn’t be one of them.”

Facebook co-founder engaged to Gay-rights advocate file photo

Hospital visitation rights for same-sex partners now required by federal rules

Chris Hughes

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor

approve Gay marriage so we can get married here,” Eldridge told guests, according to The New York Post. “We’re going to get married Chris Hughes, the 27-year-old Facebook in the next year or two for sure – we’re hopco-founder who was Mark Zuckerberg’s ing as soon as possible.” former Harvard roommate and is said to be Hughes reportedly proposed to Eldridge worth more than $500 million, is engaged to while they were stuck in Thailand over the his long-time boyfriend and Gay rights ad- New Year holiday because of a flight delay. vocate Sean Eldridge.

“We were in Thailand in a hotel room in The couple, who have been together for the north. We were delayed after two days five years, say they plan to get married in in the snowstorm and Chris got down on one New York State as soon as it is legal to do so. knee and proposed,” said Eldridge. “It was The two men made the announcement at a very traditional and very sweet.”

Freedom to Marry event held at their SoHo President Obama once called Hughes “my apartment – which included such guests as internet man,” prompting Hughes’ mother Ivanka Trump, Simon Doonan, New York to cry, and the tech genius attended a state state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, dinner at the White House with his fiancé and Jonathan Adler. last year. The internet entrepreneur recently Eldridge is the political director of Free- launched Jumo.com, a social networking dom to Marry. site that helps individuals find community “As you know, we can’t get married in organizations and causes that are important New York, so there is more of an urgency to to them.

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U.S. Embassy in Honduras concerned about LGBT murders eric nils

manding action against the killers.

Holding banners that called for an end to hate crimes and graphic images of the murdered Transgender women that had been featured on the covers of local tabloids, activists charged that the prosecutor had done little to stem the violence.

According to La Prensa, activists called attention to the murder of well-known LGBT rights activist Walter Trochez on December 13, 2009. His murder is still unsolved more than a year later.

According to La Tribuna newspaper, Public Prosecutor Sandra Ponce stepped out of her office and expressed concern about these crimes: “The Prosecutor’s Office is giving priority to every case, independently of whether it’s our responsibility to pursue state officials who commit human rights violations

while on duty; nevertheless, taking note that there might be an element of discrimination and homophobia in these killings, we have put them under investigation,” she said in her statement to the activists.

Honduran activists said they knew of 31 Transgender women who had been murdered since June 28, 2009.

June 28, 2009 is the date of the coup that overthrew democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.

It was widely believed that government agents were responsible for the Trochez murder. Trochez was a Zelaya supporter.

The current president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, was elected in November 2009 and took office in January 2010.

According to Human Rights Watch, eight journalists and 10 Zelaya supporters have been murdered since Lobo took office.

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Cuarta, news of Alejandra’s historic surgery did not reach the general public until a year after it happened, when some newspapers finally caught wind of it.

Even at her death, Alejandra was not recognized by many Chilean LGBT activists.

La Nación says that when they reached out to the Chilean LGBT rights organization MOVILH for a comment on Alejandra’s death, no one at the organization recognized her name.

Speaking to La Nación reporters, Lemebel blamed the lack of recognition on institutional Transphobia in the Chilean LGBT movement.

Lemebel wrote an ode to Alejandra, published by El Nortero newspaper on January 10, in which he tries to restore her name to the historical record. In it, he highlights what it meant for someone in the early 1970s to have the courage to have gender reassignment surgery.

Blabbeando compares her to Puerto Rican-born U.S. activist Sylvia Rivera.

“Please help me welcome Marcia Alejandra to the same pantheon as that of Sylvia Rivera’s,” Blabbeando’s Andres Duque writes.

Trans pioneer Marcia Alejandra dies The U.S. Embassy in Honduras

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, issued a statement on January 19 expressing concern over several recent murders of LGBT Hondurans.

“The U.S. Embassy notes with concern the five killings that have been committed against members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community since December 18, with the latest being in San Pedro Sula January 17,” the statement says.

“The protection of Honduran law extends to all its citizens regardless of sexual orientation and the Lobo Administration has repeatedly expressed its commitment to defend the rights of all Honduran citizens.

“It is in this regard that we call upon Honduran law enforcement authorities to vigorously investigate these crimes, bring to

justice the perpetrators, and take all necessary steps to protect LGBT persons, who are among the most vulnerable to violence and abuse in Honduras.”

Most of the murders were of Transgender women.

UNAIDS had also issued a statement condemning the killings on January 17.

“UNAIDS urges the government of Honduras to take every step to investigate these killings thoroughly,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe. “All forms of discrimination, including Transphobia, block access to HIV prevention programs and impact the quality of care for people living with HIV.” The IGLHRC issued an action alert on January 10, to protest the initial series of three murders in two weeks.

On January 13, a number of Honduran LGBT rights advocates protested outside the national Public Prosecutor’s office, de-

Marcia Alejandra, the first documented Transgender woman in Latin America, has died according to reports in the Chilean newspaper La Nación.

Her death was reported by her friend, Queer activist Pedro Lemebel, on January 13.

“With her departure, this country loses – perhaps – a part of its memory,” Lemebel told La Nación.

“Marcia was never acknowledged as the great mold-breaker of her era,” he added.

La Nación’s report was translated into English by Andres Duque on his Blabbeando blog.

Alejandra had gender reassignment surgery in Chile in March 1973.

Dr. Antonio Salas Vieyra, who performed the surgery, went on to worldwide acclaim.

He is currently the president of the Chilean Sexuality and Sexual Education Association.

Alejandra, on the other hand, lived modestly, making a living as a hairdresser.

According to the Chilean newspaper La

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Minneapolis named “Gayest” travel city

Seattle takes ninth, Vancouver, WA places sixth

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor According to a travel piece published in the Gay glossy The Advocate, Minneapolis, Minnesota is the “Gayest” city in America.

Seattle came in at number nine on the list, and – are you ready for this? – Vancouver, Washington came in sixth.

What?

If you think that is crazy (and I suspect you do), then check out number 11: San Francisco.

Now, before we collectively organize a march on The Advocate’s offices demanding a recount, let’s take a look at how in the hell the editors came up with such an odd list.

For each city, The Advocate added up numbers for Gay.com profiles, listed officiates for Gay weddings within a 50-mile radius, openly Gay elected officials, performances by Lesbian sisters musical duo Tegan and Sara over the past five years, Lesbian bars, Gay and Gay-friendly religious congregations, and entries in YellowPages.com with “Gay” in the business name or description.

The total for all factors was then divided by the city’s population.

I don’t think I’m alone is thinking that The Advocate’s surveying methods wouldn’t pass muster in an introductory statistics class.

Still, my fellow LGBT Washingtonians, we have cause to celebrate as the Evergreen State got two cities on the list.

Here’s what Advocate writer Mike Albo

said about Vancouver: “One gets the sense that a lot of those groovy Gay and Lesbian Portlanders are mellowing out and coming here to settle down. Friendly, low-key, neighborhoody Vancouver is right across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, and has bars such as the Northbank (106 W. Sixth St.) with affordable happy hours and uncrowded pool tables. The city of around 165,000 has six Gay-friendly churches, and its Skyview High School has a student-led Gay-straight alliance.”

The Emerald City got a fair write-up from Albo, who said, “Seattle has always had a creative, fun Gay scene, making this cosmopolitan city the shining Gay star of the Pacific Northwest. … Gay life here continues to be artsy, funky, lively and multifarious.”

So what makes Minneapolis (according to The Advocate) the nation’s Queerest burg?

“Over the past decade, Minneapolis has become the Gay magnet city of the Midwest. It makes sense: People here are nononsense, practical, and don’t deal well with hypocrites. This is where the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America took a historic leap forward and voted to accept Gay and Lesbian pastors, including the Reverend Mary Albing, the denomination’s first openly Lesbian pastor,” writes Albo. “And Minnesota senator Al Franken introduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act to protect LGBT youth from school bullies.”

Well, I say congratulations to the City of Lakes, Minneapolis; being names the Gayest City in America sure beats the title of “Murderopolis” that they had a few years ago.

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Seattle Gay News 19

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Deluxe Bar & Grill, Elite, Hopvine, Moe Bar, Neighbours, Purr, and R Place.

Throughout the course of the business day, participating locations solicited customers to purchase a paper Tree of Life. The green trees were $1 and the gold trees were $5 or more. Whenever a customer purchased a Tree of Life, they were permitted to write their name on it and the tree was displayed in the establishment throughout the month of December.

Each week, a dedicated representative stopped by to collect the week’s donations, and the supply of trees was replenished. The community showed a great deal of support, with many bar and restaurant patrons purchasing more than one Tree of Life.

The below statistics – gathered in 2009 – are a testament of the critical ongoing need to further reach out to LGBT youth to prevent future tragedies.

• 84.6% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed, and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.

• 63.7% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 27.2% reported being physically harassed, and 12.5% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their gender expression.

• 72.4% heard homophobic remarks, such

as “faggot” or “dyke,” frequently or often at school.

• 61.1% reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation, and 39.9% felt unsafe because of their gender expression.

• 29.1% of LGBT students missed a class at least once, and 30% missed at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns, compared to only 8% and 6.7%, respectively, of a national sample of secondary school students.

The money raised will go directly to YSPP so they can continue to save lives of LGBTQ teens.

“The Youth Suicide Prevention Program is humbled and amazed at the support provided to our organization and, specifically, to the OUTLoud Project during the Tree of Life campaign,” said Heather Carter, OUTLoud project manager. “It truly feels incredible to see the community come together to support our work to lower suicide rates among LGBTQ youth and to address the issues of bullying and bias-based harassment and the negative mental health outcomes those experiences have on the targets, the bullies, and the bystanders.”

“This money couldn’t come at a better time for our organization and for this project,” she said. “The money will go to support the project manager’s position and the programs offered through OUTLoud. Without these dollars, YSPP would be looking at reducing services provided through this project.”

Great job, LGBT Seattle!

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Randolph, who brought more than 300,000 people to D.C. to hear King.

Rustin, Randolph, and white pacifist organizer A. J. Muste first conceived of a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces during World War II. They cancelled the march after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies.

They never abandoned the idea, however, and revived it in 1963 to force the reluctant Kennedy administration to support African American civil rights struggles.

The idea of a mass march on the center of the U.S. government was not Rustin’s only contribution to the strategy and tactics of the civil rights movement.

Rustin and George Houser of CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) organized the first of the “freedom rides” in 1947. This was the Journey of Reconciliation to test the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia banning racial discrimination in interstate travel.

Rustin served 22 days on a chain gang in North Carolina on charges arising from the Journey of Reconciliation.

In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn nonviolence techniques directly from the leaders of the Gandhian movement. Ghandi, sadly, had been assassinated earlier in the year.

In 1956, Rustin was asked to advise Dr. King on non-violent tactics during the Montgomery bus boycott – King’s first major campaign against segregation.

The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

At that point, Rustin was forced to confront homophobia and red-baiting from within the civil rights movement.

In 1953, Rustin had been arrested in Pasadena, California on charges of vagrancy and “lewd conduct.” He then pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of “sex perversion “ – as consensual Gay sex acts were officially called in California at the time – and served 60 days in jail.

This was the first time that his sexual orientation had come to public attention, although he had been and remained open about his sexuality.

Many African American leaders objected to having an openly Gay man in the SCLC leadership. They also feared Rustin’s leftwing political history.

Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1912. He moved to Harlem in 1932 to study at CCNY. There he got involved in the movement to free the Scottsboro Boys – nine young African

American men accused of raping two white women in Alabama.

The Communist Party USA was one of the leading forces in the Scottsboro Boys campaign, and one of the few mainly white organizations to advocate racial equality, so Rustin joined the Young Communist League in 1936.

He became disillusioned with the CPUSA after the Communists put civil rights and union organizing on the back burner during World War II. Rustin then began to work with non-communist socialists like Randolph and Muste.

Nevertheless, he was labeled a “red” at a time when Americans hated and feared the Soviet Union and communism.

Segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond denounced Rustin as a “Communist, draftdodger, and homosexual.”

Many African American civil rights leaders echoed these attacks on Rustin.

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was a member of the SCLC’s board, forced Rustin to resign from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss his conviction for “sex perversion” on the floor of Congress.

While King was supportive, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins prevented Rustin from receiving any public credit whatsoever for his role in planning the 1963 March.

After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin began to seek closer ties with the Democratic Party and its labor activist base.

Rustin founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute and wrote a regular column for the AFL-CIO newspaper. He wrote an influential article, From Protest to Politics, urging civil rights activists to turn to electoral campaigns to cement their gains.

This put him at odds with the growing Black Power movement, and many younger activists denounced him as a “sellout.”

Rustin always rejected Black Power identity politics, although he liked to point out that he always wore an “Afro” style haircut.

In the 1970s, he became more interested in the Gay Liberation movement.

In 1986, Rustin gave an influential speech titled “The New Niggers Are Gays.”

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change,” he said. “Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are Gays….

“It is in this sense that Gay people are the new barometer for social change. … The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: Gay people.”

Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendix. He was survived by his partner of 10 years, Walter Naegle, who continues as conservator of Rustin’s papers and estate.

Rustin is the subject of the popular documentary film Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin. It premiered on PBS in 2003.

Legal Services www.sgn.org www.sgn.org 20 Seattle Gay News

January 21, 2011

Celebrating 38 Years!

gibbs

commission

is obligated to defend DOMA against two lawsuits in progress.

“We can’t declare the law unconstitutional. … Obviously, if you look at what was written, the president enumerates in there … our belief on this law as we balance the obligation that we have to represent the federal government; the president believes, as you said, that this is a law that should not exist and should be repealed, but at the same time we have to represent the viewpoint of the federal government,” Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs said that the administration is happy with the work they have done for the LGBT community.

“I think we are enormously proud of, and grateful for, the progress we have been able to make,” he said. “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ … will be thought of as an achievement not just for this administration, but for all those involved – a monumental achievement in bringing equality and justice back. … Obviously we didn’t get everything we wanted to get done done, but we are proud of what we did get done.”

Gibbs also said that he was not aware of any plans for President Obama to mention DOMA or marriage equality in the State of the Union address next week.

Dane Boog, Eleazar Juarez-Diaz (co-chair), and Tiffany Nelson will join existing members Adeeba NaaSira, Joel Ballezza, Lillie Cridland, and Christopher Peguero to make up the 2011 Seattle LGBT Commission.

For more information on the commissioners or to read their biographies, visit www. seattle.gov/LGBT/commissioners.htm.

The Seattle LGBT Commission consists of 15 representative citizens of Seattle appointed by the mayor and City Council to serve in an advisory capacity to the mayor, City Council, Seattle Office for Civil Rights, and other Seattle City departments.

The mayor appoints seven commissioners, and seven appointments are made by the City Council. The Commission appoints the 15th member. Commissioners are appointed to a two-year term of office and serve without pay.

According to Harrell, important LGBT Commission work this year includes: • Continued outreach and relationship building with the Council and mayor’s office.

• Departmental inclusion of LGBT training alongside RSJI training.

• Determine and advocate for legislation the LGBT community would like to see passed in 2011.

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• Continued presence at the Seattle Police Department’s LGBT Advisory Council.

• Youth Safety: Compile bullying and harassment data from surveys; engage community partners with data and identify possible solutions and opportunities for collaboration; develop anti-bullying events and materials for 2011-2012 school year.

• Develop outreach plan to engage diverse communities on LGBT issues.

• Complete analysis of “Snapshot Seattle” needs-assessment survey of LGBT community.

Last year, the Seattle LGBT Commission launched a new website and online survey to assess the needs of Seattle’s LGBT community. The 10-minute survey asked participants a series of questions evaluating their experiences and thoughts about living, working, and playing in Seattle. The survey included questions about housing, education, health, public safety, and community involvement. The survey was anonymous and the data is currently being assessed and prepared for a final report.

The data collected in the survey is completely anonymous. All results will be shared with the public and partner organizations so that everyone can benefit from the data collected and to encourage collaboration on addressing the issues raised. The survey was developed in collaboration with community organizations and is being promoted widely by the Commission, City officials, and nonprofit organizations.

According to Harrell, the report will be used by the Commission, City departments, nonprofit organizations, and several businesses and associations to address the issues raised in the survey.

“The survey is an important first step as City officials, the LGBT Commission, and nonprofit and community organizations address the needs of the LGBTQ community in Seattle,” said Harrell. “The survey results will give us a snapshot of our community today. It will help us identify ways to make improvements.”

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January 21, 2011

Seattle Gay News 21

22 Seattle Gay News

January 21, 2011

Celebrating 38 Years!

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January 21, 2011

Seattle Gay News 23