Celebrating 38 Years!
Issue 12 Volume 39
FRIDAY March 25, 2011 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands
EQUALITY PICS p. 10
IRON CURTAIN p. 29
holocaust EXHIBIT p. 25
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Capitol Hill Alano Family Acceptance Project Club hit by arson builds healthy futures for youth courtesy Family Acceptance project
Aaron Emde
The hand-lettered sign on the door of Capitol Hill Alano Club read, in big block letters, “CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO FIRE.” A police officer driving by the building at 1900 E. Madison at 2:40 a.m. on March 22 saw smoke pouring out of a second floor win-
Part one of a two-part series exploring the link between family acceptance of LGBT children and preventing homelessness and suicide.
dow. He called the fire department. “After the fire scene was stabilized by SFD, investigators informed officers that they had discovered burglary tools and signs of arson inside the building,” according to the SPD Blotter blog. According to Seattle’s Fire Department, firefighters put out the
Caitlin Ryan, director of the California-based Family Acceptance Project (FAP) believes that the best way to keep LGBT teens off the streets and away from thoughts of suicide lies within family. According to Caitlin, FAP is the only community research, intervention, education, and policy initiative that works to decrease major health and related risks for LGBT youth – such as suicide, substance abuse, HIV and homelessness – by focusing on the youth’s family. “We use a research-based, culturally grounded approach to help ethnically, socially, and religiously diverse families decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT children,” FAP officials state on the organization’s website,
see chac page 21
see FAP page 20
The damaged offices of the Capitol Hill Alano Club
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
U.S. calls on U.N. to act on LGBT Gay soldier killed in Afghanistan rights, Vatican is outraged The Obama administration has issued a call for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council to address discrimination and violence against LGBT people. The U.S. declaration was made at the Human Rights Council’s headquarters in Geneva on March 22. Two days later, the U.S. statement was condemned by the Vatican. The U.S. declaration expresses “concern at continued evidence in every region of acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity” and calls on counties “to take steps to end acts of violence, criminal sanctions, and related human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” In addition to the U.S., 85 countries signed the statement. According to the U.S. State Department, Columbia and Slovenia also took a leading role in assembling this coalition.
file photo
file photo
United Nations
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
Responsible journalists around the world will tell you that there is no place for glorifying death in print. Is one loss of life more important than another? The simple answer is no. But every now and then, a story comes along where a loss of life see U.N. page 19 helps to point out a fact. On these
rare occasions, the story must be told. The death of Army Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt is that story. On February 27, in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan, Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt, 31, was killed during an attack on his unit by insurgents with an IED. He was a proud member of the 3rd Platoon see soldier page 20