Issue 06 Volume 39
Celebrating 38 Years!
FRIDAY February 11, 2011 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands
PHYSIQUE MAGS p. 16
CINDERELLA BALLET p. 19
FILM NOIR p. 25
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
From hate to help
A Queer youth supporter gets the word out
by Anthony Greer SGN Contributing Writer
page grant proposal which gave Three Wings, a separate committee of the Queer Youth Space (QYS), In July of 2011, the City of Seat- $100,000 to open the kind of safe tle Neighborhood Matching Fund see queer youth page 20 Program approved a roughly 80-
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
courtesy richard tso
courtesy kyle rapiñan
SGN UPDATE: Queer Youth Space search A Seattle man’s journey to commit an act of tolerance each day It is hard to conceptualize that the man standing before me – confident, outgoing, and driven – was on the receiving end of a Gay bashing one year ago. That’s because Richard Tso refuses to be a victim. The Seattle resident is adamant about that. The “incident,” as he refers to it, spurred his interest in working for a nonprofit dedicated to making sure that these incidents do not happen to anyone else. In August of 2010, Richard was scheduled to speak at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland. As vice president of marketing for the technology company Spigit, he was doing well for himself. Before heading to dinner with a couple of potential clients from clothing and shoe company Zappos, he headed to his hotel room to drop off his laptop. “As I approached the hotel lobby elevator, I noticed a man speaking loudly and causing a scene,” Richsee tolerance page 19
Richard Tso
rainbow tourism
“From all over the world ...” Canada’s House of Whistler’s Winter Pride 2011 Commons passes
Trans protection bill
Montrealais
by David Luc Nguyen SGN Contributing Writer In grade school, we learned that bears hibernate during the winter. Hibernation is a state of inactivity, lowered body temperatures, slowed breathing, and extended periods of slumber. This week in Whistler, I learned that this is simply not true. Sexy bears and cubs joined twinks, circuit boys, Lesbians, and athletic supporters from all over the world
to descend on the former Olympic Alpine site to show their Winter Pride. Winter Pride – often called Gay and Lesbian ski week – offers an alternative to the usual party, party, party atmosphere Gay men and women have become accustomed to during pride. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of partying, but Whistler offers other events in tandem for the more athletically inclined event goers. There was a plethora of indoor and outdoor
activities to choose from, sure to appease even the most physically active, granola-eating Seattlite. SGN readers can now get to the snowy paradise much easier and faster than before. Road construction and other modes of transportation following the Winter Olympics last year changed the trip from six hours to just over four hours. Just watch out for Canadian Mounted Patrols, because
Canada’s House of Commons in the capital of Ottawa
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Transgender Canadians moved one step closer to full legal protection on February 10, when the House of Commons passed a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression. The measure is a so-called “private member’s bill,” meaning it see winter pride page 20 was put forward by an individual
– in this case MP Bill Siskay of the New Democratic Party – rather than by the government party. Canada is a parliamentary democracy in which the party that commands a majority in the House of Commons forms the government and nominates the prime minister. While the governing Conservative Party largely opposed the law, see canada page 20