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Issue 10 Volume 41
Celebrating 40 Years!
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
SGN exclusive interview
Ed Murray welcomes HRC endorsement Washington State Sen. Ed Murray says he is more than “happy” and “appreciative” to get the endorsement of HRC in his run for mayor of Seattle. Speaking to SGN by phone from Olympia, where he is the Senate minority leader (Democrats still comprise a majority of senators but have lost formal control of the chamber), Murray said he was “personally moved” by HRC’s endorsement. “HRC has usually focused on national issues,” he noted. “It can’t be an easy decision to change that and get into local politics.” The huge LGBT rights organization announced its support for Murray on February 28. Besides Murray, the only other mayoral candidate HRC is backing is Christine Quinn, a Lesbian who is favored to succeed Michael Bloomberg as mayor of New York. LARGE STATE MEMBERSHIP
Murray added that he looked
forward to support from HRC’s estimated 65,000 members in Washington. “I have to admit I wasn’t aware of the size of their membership in this state! We’ll want to get all of them involved in the campaign,” he said. Murray confessed he was “a little embarrassed” by HRC’s glowing description of him as a “historical figure” in the LGBT movement. “I know I’ve been part of the history of our movement in this state,” Murray told SGN, “along with others, not just me. When we’ve finally won and we look back, yes, I’ll be part of that history.” In his 18 years in the state legislature, first as a representative and later as a senator from Seattle’s 43rd District, Murray has earned a reputation as a strategic thinker willing to commit to multi-year campaigns to pass legislation. In 2006 Murray won passage of the Anderson-Murray Civil Rights Act, named for him and his predecessor, the late Cal Anderson, ban-
ning discrimination against LGBT Washingtonians. Murray was also the driving force behind a series of domestic partnership bills, leading up to the Marriage Equality Act passed last year. TAKING THE LONG VIEW “I do try and look at the longterm,” Murray said, “and bring people together with a common vision of how to go forward. It sounds trite, but that’s really the way you achieve things.” Asked about his long-term plans if he is elected Mayor, Murray ticked off a list of issues. “Right now we have a crisis in our police department,” he said, referring to a harshly critical Justice Department report on Seattle police and the subsequent infighting between Mayor Mike McGinn and City Attorney Pete Holmes over how to reform SPD. “I want this city to have a model urban police department, one that other cities look to as an example. “We also have to get a handle on our aging infrastructure,” Murray see murray page 5 Joe Mabel/Century Ballroom
Century Ballroom interior
Doin’ the tax man twist Century Ballroom fights ‘dance tax’ with community’s help by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The other day, I got the opportunity to do a lot of things. None of those things were taxed. But, should you find yourself at a nightclub, just as many of us in the Seattle LGBT community often do, and the opportunity to dance presents itself, just know that the establishment that allows such a thing is being taxed because of it. Is it just me, or does this feel like a bad remake of Footloose? If only it were a joke. And believe me, venue owners like Cen-
tury Ballroom’s Hallie Kuperman are not laughing. Century Ballroom’s “Sweet Sixteen” anniversary celebration was a bittersweet event – instead of celebrating a whopping 16 years as one of Seattle’s premiere dance venues, Kuperman and company asked attendees to treat the night as a fundraiser, to help pay a large past-due “dance tax.” Kuperman, who is Lesbian, has turned to her social-dance customers and other members of the local community to help her raise $92,000. She maintains she did not know she was supposed to col-
Ed Murray for Mayor
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
lect a sales tax on the cover charge at her dances. It’s pretty stupid, really. Imagine going to your favorite dance venue and instead of forking over the normal $5 or $10, you are asked for $11.35. Under state law, tickets or cover charges for movies, concerts, and plays are exempt from sales tax. But if a business offers customers “the opportunity to dance,” the tax must be collected. No other state does this – it’s not a common practice whatsoever. And let’s just call it like it is – sad that this tax exists in the first place. Kuperman is not alone. Several Seattle nightclubs have also been hit with large bills after audits by the state Department of Revenue (DoR) revealed they weren’t paying the tax either. see DANCE TAX page 5
Senator Ed Murray (l) with longtime partner Michael Shiosaki
Baby born with HIV is cured, researchers say by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A baby born with HIV appears to have been cured by prompt treatment with a strong infusion of antiretroviral drugs, doctors told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) on March 3. The child, born to an HIV-positive mother in Mississippi, is now two-and-a-half years old and shows no sign of HIV infection. Only traces of HIV genetic material remain in the child’s body, doctors said. “You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told the Associated Press. GAME-CHANGER?
If the apparent cure can be replicated, it may indicate a path forward for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in African countries where many babies are born with the virus. In the case at hand, the mother came to a rural Mississippi emergency room in advanced labor. She had had no prenatal care and her HIV infection had not been di-
agnosed until she arrived at the ER seeking help. In such cases, doctors typically give the newborn low-dose medication in hopes of preventing HIV from taking root. But the small hospital didn’t have the proper kind, and sent the infant to the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The baby was then referred to pediatric HIV specialist Dr. Hannah Gay, who gave the baby higher treatment-level doses. “I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Gay said in an interview. The child responded well through age 18 months, when the family failed to return for treatment, researchers said. When they returned several months later standard HIV tests detected no virus in the child’s blood. VIRUS COULDN’T HIDE
Gay’s initial high-level dosage of antiretrovirals apparently eliminated HIV in the baby’s blood before it could form hideouts in the body. Those so-called reservoirs of dormant cells usually rapidly re-infect anyone who stops medication, said Dr. Deborah Persaud see baby page 7
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