SGN April 12, 2013 - Section 1

Issue 15 Volume 41

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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Choosing Seattle’s next police chief Mayoral candidates differ on timing of search

nate gowdy / seattle gay news

Seattle should not be in a rush to choose a successor for retiring Police Chief John Diaz, State Senator Ed Murray said in a statement

the next chief.”

He continued, “Given the challenges this department faces, we need to conduct a thorough national search to find the best possible replacement to bring about the cultural change that is needed. But I

file photo

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

“I am … very concerned about the timing of this announcement, coming as it does in the midst of a hotly contested mayor’s race. We must be very careful and deliberate in choosing the next chief.” released April 8. Murray, a candidate for mayor of Seattle, worried that the process of choosing a new chief would become politicized by the mayoral race.

“I am … very concerned about the timing of this announcement, coming as it does in the midst of a hotly contested mayor’s race,” Murray said. “We must be very careful and deliberate in choosing

worry that the political uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the mayor’s race will lead many toptier candidates to not apply. And if we do have a new mayor in November, that leader has to be comfortable with the next chief, or the disruption in the department will be even worse.” see chief page 5

Seattle Mayoral candidates City Councilmember Bruce Harrell (l) and State Senator Ed Murray

Immigration reform: Bipartisan Space Needle compromise bill reportedly saga continues omits LGBT protections Management meets with Seattle LGBT fairimmigration.org

migration reform bill that will be presented to the U.S. Senate by the so-called “Gang of Eight,” accordLGBT immigration rights ac- ing to the Washington Blade. tivists expect Gay and Lesbian Immigration Equality Executive families to be left out of the im- Director Rachel Tiven told activ-

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

ists in a conference call on April 8 that binational same-sex couples would not be included in the bill, which was expected to be released April 11. Details of the bill had not been made public as SGN went to press.

“We are not expecting LGBT families to be included in the Gang of Eight bill,” Tiven said. “That, in our minds, means that of course the bill is incomplete.”

The Gang of Eight are four Democratic senators and four Republicans, who are attempting to put together a bi-partisan compromise on immigration reform.

The group includes Dick Durbin (D-IL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), John by Mike Andrew McCain (R-AZ), and Lindsey Gra- SGN Staff Writer ham (R-SC).

The management of Seattle’s UNEQUAL TREATMENT iconic Space Needle met with Washington’s U.S. Senators, members of the Seattle LGBT Democrats Patty Murray and Ma- Commission on April 3, to discuss ria Cantwell, while not part of the the Needle’s long-simmering lagang, have repeatedly advocated bor dispute with its employees and for equal treatment of binational its refusal to fly the Rainbow Flag same-sex couples. Currently, op- during Pride. posite-sex spouses of U.S. citizens At the end of March, the commission and seven LGBT comsee immigration page 17 munity organizations sent letters

Commission about flag, workers’ rights

to Space Needle CEO Ron Sevart, supporting a fair labor agreement for employees at the landmark, who have now been working for almost two years without a contract.

Those organizations included PrideFest, Equal Rights Washington, LGBTQ Allyship, Entre Hermanos, Ingersoll Gender Center, SAGE, and Pride at Work AFLCIO. see space needle page 7

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Bitter tea

Rep. Louie Gohmert takes the ‘slippery-slope’ fallacy to new extremes

as gun control and Gay marriage. At first blush, it would seem the two debates are separate, without much to connect them. I mean, shooting people and marrying people are pretty different things, right? So it would take a real master of rhetoric to combine them in one astounding argument.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas, duh), member of the newly minted Tea Party Unity organization. The very same Louie Gohmert who, as a state district judge Congressman Louie Gohmert in the 1990s, ordered a

by D’Anne Witkowski Gay man convicted of car theft to get written permission from all future sex partners SGN Contributing Writer on a form that disclosed the man’s HIV-posThere are few topics that raise the blood itive status.

While discussing gun control in a recent pressure of Americans on all sides as much file photo

Mike Andrew, Miryam Gordon, Anthony Greer, Shaun Knittel, Albert Rodriguez, James Whitely

op-ed

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April 12, 2013

conference call, he pooh-poohed the idea that the number of rounds in a magazine should be limited to, say, 10, because you can kill and maim an awful lot of people in a very short amount of time when you don’t have to stop and reload.

Gohmert responded, “Well, once you make it 10, then why would you draw the line at 10? What’s wrong with nine? Or 11?

And the problem is once you draw that limit. It’s kind of like marriage, when you say it’s not a man and a woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody has a love for an animal?”

Yes, indeed it is “kind of like marriage,” if you equate vowing to spend the rest of your life with someone and being legally recognized as a family with a large-capacity magazine being emptied into the bodies of people in order to kill them. And if Gohmert doesn’t see the difference between those two things then I think he and his wife should really get some counseling, quick.

GUNS VS. GAYS Of course, Gohmert isn’t content to just make a comparison between gun control and marriage control – he’s got to bring polygamy and bestiality into it, too, to show off his command of the slippery-slope argumentative fallacy, a favorite among antiGay conservatives. Because if two women can get married then why not three men, four women, six goats, and a partridge in a pear tree? You can’t argue with – or follow, for that matter – logic like that.

Gohmert continued, “There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate traditional marriage, and it’s the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used – then it’s just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.”

Got that? Lines are hard and confusing!

And in Gohmert’s world, they are apparently all drawn in chalk in the middle of a rainstorm. He seems to be forgetting that humans draw lines all of the time and, for the most part, all hell does not break loose.

Take speed limits for example. States set the limits, we follow them, and if we don’t we can get pulled over and given a ticket. Speed limits also have changed over time, which is why Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55,” a cutting-edge lament in 1984, is but a rockand-roll relic today.

So you see? “Lines” (also known as laws) such as these are drawn and redrawn over time and the process does not involve humans having sex with animals. Unless, of course, they do things differently in Gohmert’s district.

Celebrating 40 Years!

Local news

‘No chemo!’

Daniel Porras is determined to beat oral cancer

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor In late February, SGN learned that local go-go dancer Daniel Porras had been diagnosed with oral cancer. At the time, the diagnosis was so new that the doctors at UW hadn’t even gotten back all of his blood work to tell him just how good – or bad – his prognosis is. What he did know is that he had low white blood cells, a lump on his tongue (so small no one can see it), and a mass on his esophagus.

Porras agreed to chronicle his experience with cancer, a disease that took his dad’s life when Porras was a young man, in the pages of SGN. Here is the first installment of that chronicle.

CHEMO PATIENTS’ ADVICE Most of them tell me “If you don’t need to do chemo, don’t do it. It takes the life out of you, makes you sick – it’s like you’re a walking dead person. People look at you differently, they judge you.”

I don’t mind people judging me. I’m too young to feel like “walking dead.” I have too much to live for, so much I want to do.

My doctors have told me I can do radiation for about two more months until my body will get used to it, and then from there it’s surgery and chemo. Of course I’m gonna get the surgery done early and see if chemo is the right plan for me.

Still, I just won’t do it. I am scared. I’ve seen my dad and my best friend’s dad die from cancer. I’ve seen patients everyday not as themselves, but as “walking dead.”

I am positive, I am upbeat, I can beat this ... without chemo.

KENNY FELKS REMEMBERED With greatest admiration for a man well loved, Just Plain Ruth, Larry, and I, Winnie Thurzdae, express our deepest sadness at the passing of Kenny Felks [see obituary in last week’s SGN].

Kenny was a part of Larry’s life from 1968, and mine (Olympia XV) from 1969, until we retired to Idaho in 2008. Larry and he spent an entire summer drinking together that first year and adding new friends to one of the longest lists of friends any resident of Kenny’s stature in our community could have enjoyed, and the many, many everlasting friends he made throughout our Gay and straight world. He and Crystal MURRAY’S CRITERIA Asked by SGN what qualities he would Lane expressed to me upon becoming Mr. look for in a new police chief if he were and Miss Gay Seattle that I was next for a mayor, Murray answered that the new chief crown, and of course I was. I, Olympia XV, must be willing and able to fulfill the terms owe so much of what and who I was and am, for that matter, to that outstanding couple. of the Justice Department consent decree.

Larry and I helped him through the good “I believe the appointment of the new chief is perhaps the most critically impor- years and the bad years as much as we could tant decision the next mayor will make,” he and never forgot what a wonderful selfless contribution he made to the community of told SGN. “Reforming SPD’s culture and restoring Seattle and far beyond, and what a gracious the public’s trust is no easy task. The new man he was. Whenever we came to Seattle chief must have a track record of successful- to visit we always called Kenny to let him ly implementing transformative change, and know we were at the Crescent and he of he or she must have the respect of our line course would, with cane in hand, join us. officers and must demonstrate an unwaver- Blossom Gomez (Ron to most) always told ing commitment to fulfilling the terms of the us that the only time he saw Kenny in there was when we – Larry and I – came to visit.

DOJ consent decree.

“And the next chief must also have dem- Larry and I used to go to his place in the onstrated proven skills working in an di- north end and wake Phil and he up with lots verse urban environment. With a new leader of booze in our hand, of course. We would in the mayor’s office, a national search will party all day, and I do mean all day! attract the best and brightest candidates.”

Kenny’s mother would even join in as well as did the rabbits – we even had the likes of Jan Del Rio show up on occasion, sometimes with his snake! When Kenny moved to the Columbia City area of Seattle, again Larry and I would awaken he and Jimmy and with booze in hand, and spend the day drinking and enjoying life and whomever else came through the door, and many did. His outstanding contributions to the community and to the people he touched shall last long after all of us are gone.

courtesy of Daniel Porras

There are days when it’s getting rough, and there are days when I feel I am on top of the world.

My doctors have told me I’m at stage two – the beginning of cancer. Which is amazing! It takes a load off. The lump they found in my esophagus wasn’t cancerous but needed to be removed anyway.

I honestly felt like I was getting better and better. I felt like radiation was working and I could just maybe finish it off with that for a couple of months. But last week doctors told me that while the cancer isn’t growing, it shows like it could progress in the future if I don’t start chemotherapy. They are worried that radiation might not be working as well as they hoped.

In my mind, I told myself, “No chemo!”

There isn’t a second thought about it; there is no way you can do it.

Daniel Porras

chief

continued from cover McGINN MUST DECIDE Diaz’s retirement turned the page on one set of political problems for incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn, but it opened up other difficulties.

Seattle is currently under a federal consent decree requiring the city to implement reforms in its police department. The federal Department of Justice issued a blistering report in 2011 accusing SPD of a “pattern” of excessive and unconstitutional use of force.

Seattle City Council member and former police officer Tim Burgess, also a candidate for mayor, pinned the blame on Diaz and promised to fire him if he is elected. Diaz’s departure now removes that as an issue in the campaign, but raises the question of how and when to fill the vacancy at the top of SPD. Other issues also remain. McGinn recently touched off a jurisdictional dispute with City Attorney Pete Holmes over who has final authority in implementing the reform plan. And the city’s police union has filed suit challenging the right of the independent monitor to alter the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the city.

In his April 8 statement, Murray said that Diaz should take all the blame for problems in the department.

“With respect to today’s announcement that Seattle Police Chief John Diaz is stepping down, I am concerned that this announcement not be taken as a sign that SPD’s problems are now solved,” he said.

“The problem with SPD is a failure of leadership, and that leadership begins with the mayor. We need a new mayor, one who is committed to positive reform and who

How do I tell my family and friends chemo isn’t for me?

There really isn’t a way. Just be blunt – just tell them how you feel ...

I have told a couple of family members and a few friends. I have been yelled at, screamed at, told I am being stupid and stubborn, and accused of being just worried about my hair.

I guess I am stupid, I am stubborn, and I am scared to lose my hair. But in all reality none of them live with cancer or have to see patients who go through radiation and chemo. I have created a lot of close friends from radiation that I see daily and we talk.

We talk about life, talk about chemo, talk about radiation and how they feel daily. I am blessed to have caught it early.

will work to transform the culture of our police department.”

HARRELL: MOVE FORWARD NOW While Murray and Burgess favor a deliberate, national search for a new chief, City Council member Bruce Harrell, another candidate for mayor, wants to see the position filled quickly.

“I don’t think you wait,” Harrell told the Seattle P-I in an April 8 interview. “The city would be ducking its responsibilities.

A lame-duck department delays decisions.”

Another mayoral candidate, former City Council member Peter Steinbrueck, said it would be “ill-advised to move in a hurry.

Whoever is chosen as the next Seattle chief must act with the confidence of whoever is Seattle mayor. The outcome of the election is uncertain.”

Just Plain Ruth, Larry, and Her Imperial Sovereign Majesty, Olympia XV APPLAUDS PLAN B RULING Federal District Judge Edward Korman is to be applauded for overruling politics and affirming science [in his April 5 ruling making the Plan B “morning-after pill” available over the counter for all ages].

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled minors have a constitutional right to purchase over-the-counter contraceptives. Any attempt, by states or local jurisdictions, to limit access to Plan B, to persons at least 18, will be declared unconstitutional, by the courts.

I’m unaware of any state that prohibits 11-year-olds from purchasing aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, etc. Furthermore, I believe contraceptive gels and foam are also over-thecounter products.

Steven L. Kendall Seattle

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Go 1605 12th Avenue at Pine, Seattle (In liquor store parking garage.) Seattle Storm!

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State sues anti-Gay florist Barronelle Stutzman says same-sex marriage is against her religion tri-city herald

Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington

at least one, and possibly two, civil suits challenging her right to discriminate against same-sex couples.

A Richland florist who refused to proIn March, Barronelle Stutzman, the owner vide flowers for a Gay wedding now faces of Arlene’s Flowers, turned down the reby Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

quest of longtime customer Robert Ingersoll that she provide flowers for his wedding to his boyfriend, Curt Freed. The wedding, Stutzman claimed, violated her religious beliefs and she did not want to cooperate with it.

On April 9, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a consumer protection suit against Stutzman, charging that she had violated state law.

STATE BARS DISCRIMINATION “As Attorney General, it is my job to enforce the laws of the state of Washington,” Ferguson said in a statement posted on his official website.

“Under the [Washington state] Consumer Protection Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against customers on the basis of sexual orientation. If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same-sex couples the same product or service.”

Ferguson is asking the court to bar Stutzman from future discrimination and pay $2,000 for any additional violations.

“She runs a business,” Ferguson said, “and you can’t discriminate when running your business, so it is appropriate for the attorney general to bring a consumer protection action.”

ACLU INVOLVED The next day, Ingersoll and Freed indicated they might also sue Stutzman, unless she agrees not to discriminate against Gay people in the future. The couple has retained attorneys and is also working with the ACLU on the case.

In a letter to Stutzman, the couple’s attorneys, from the Seattle firm of Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, reminded the florist that refusing goods and services to Gay customers also violates the state’s Civil Rights Law. “Your refusal to sell flowers to Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. Freed for their wedding has hurt them very deeply. It is a disturbing reminder of the history of discrimination and

disparate treatment that they and other Gay men and women have experienced over the years,” the lawyers wrote to Stutzman.

“More to the point of this letter, your conduct was a violation of Washington law.”

The legislature prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in 2006, and the lawyers state that “any person injured by an act in violation of the Washington Civil Rights Law is entitled to bring legal action.”

According to Ferguson, he sent a similar letter to Stutzman on March 28 “requesting she reconsider her position and sign an agreement indicating her intention to comply with Washington laws.”

But, Ferguson continued, “Stutzman’s attorneys responded [April 8] and said that Stutzman would challenge any state action to enforce the law.”

CITES FIRST AMENDMENT Stutzman’s lawyer, B. Craig Gourley, replied that same-sex marriage “offends” her, and that she has a right to abstain from supporting it. Gourley also claimed that Stutzman’s floral arrangements are constitutionally protected “expression,” and therefore cannot be regulated by the state.

“Florists are universally engaged in the art of designing floral arrangements as an act of expression,” he wrote.

“Different floral arrangements are created for different events and sentiments, depending on a variety of factors. The florist’s job is to create an arrangement that expresses the sentiment of the florist’s clients. It is creative expression. If the law requires a florist create an expression of appreciation for Gay ‘marriage,’ or any other matter that offends the conscious of the florist, it is compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment.

The state cannot require a florist to express appreciation for or acceptance of Gay ‘marriage’ any more than the state can require a musician to write a song about it, or an artist to paint a picture.”

So far, Gourley has not responded to the letter sent by the attorneys for Ingersoll and Freed. steve shay

Making lemonade from Michelle Shocked’s lemon Meander’s Kitchen plans cabaret benefit for Camp Ten Trees

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Last month, folksinger Michelle Shocked made anti-Gay statements while on stage during a performance in San Francisco.

“I live in fear that the world will be destroyed if Gays are allowed to marry,” Shocked told the stunned crowd.

The 51-year-old singer reportedly added: “You can go on Twitter and say ‘Michelle Shocked says God hates fags.’”

And after that unexpected onstage speech, many music venues dropped the singer, canceling her appearances in their club because they did not want their venue to be linked to her. (She has since appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, where she delivered a rambling five-minute kind-of-apology and showed up outside of a few of the clubs she was supposed to sing at, wearing a mask and strumming her guitar.)

One of the venues that told Shocked that she is not welcome is Meander’s Kitchen in West Seattle’s Morgan Junction. Instead, owner Miranda Krone decided she would turn a bad situation into a good one: on the very night Shocked had been scheduled to perform in her venue, Krone is throwing a fundraiser cabaret for Camp Ten Trees and Queer Rock Camp.

“Camp Ten Trees is an amazing organization,” Krone told SGN. “They were recom-

mended to me years ago for my daughter, as they support both LGBTQ children and also the children of LGBTQ parents. As a middle-aged Queerbo-mom, that’s near and dear to my heart.”

Queer Rock Camp is a small program in Olympia that builds a sense of community and self-empowerment, creates safe space, and offers a means of expression through music.

“They are severely underfunded right now, and I cannot think of a more succinct comment on the entire situation than supporting them,” said Krone.

MEANDER’S CARES Krone opened Meander’s Kitchen in January 2011 in West Seattle in what had been the Jade West Chinese Restaurant for nearly 20 years, and Nate & Kate’s Diner for 40 years before that.

“We had nine bar stools and one table surrounding the cook’s line,” she told SGN. “We quickly filled beyond capacity and expanded into the space next door months after opening.”

In November 2012, the business moved into what had been Papa’s Pub in White Center, with nearly 70 seats.

“We are essentially a diner, complete with regulars who line up on the coffee counter to swap sassy-ass commentary, serving primarily breakfast all hours of the day and

Miranda Krone

Rich Full-Bodied Cafes Savory Homestyle Soups & Sandwiches 6

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Celebrating 40 Years!

night, and making everything from scratch,” she said. “Biscuits, my Gram’s marionberry jam, even our own ketchup. We get our sausage from Uli’s, we use cage-free eggs, dairy with no bovine growth hormones, our smoked salmon is from Loki Seafood ... my rule of thumb is that if I wouldn’t feed it to my daughter, I won’t sell it to you.”

Krone says she’s tried to create a space that feels like home – much of the decor is actually from her home, or gifts from guests.

“My favorite description of the place remains Susan Kelleher’s quote from the Seattle Times: ‘Meander’s cares deeply, and it couldn’t care less.’”

“We’ve been called quirky, and I’ve personally been called a crazy bitch,” she laughed. “I try my best to run the place in line with my own sense of ethics, which is rather neatly embodied by our shiny new ‘BE NICE OR LEAVE’ sign.”

‘MY BUSINESS IS MY HOME’ “Being a lady who digs ladies with radical politics – that sounded amazing to me,” Krone told SGN. “Vera was in a City Council meeting that morning, so we were texting back and forth as more information about what Michelle had said came from the San Francisco venue and the news. We both wanted to be sure that this wasn’t a misinterpretation or a poorly executed attempt at irony.”

However, Krone reports, Shocked wasn’t answering phone calls or e-mails to speak to what had happened.

“Watching the transcripts and quotes hit the Internet was like watching a slow motion replay of a train wreck,” she recalled.

“Neither Vera nor I had any question about cancelling the show.”

“I’ve gotten some feedback from folks that I ‘censored’ Michelle by cancelling the show,” says Krone. “I am a private citizen who owns a business as a sole proprietor. I wonder how those same people would feel if they were asked to host an equal-rights rally in their home or business.”

“I identify myself as Queer,” she continued. “Even if I didn’t – even if I were utterly straight – I could never embrace the lie that wrapping a denial of basic human rights, and I’m not just talking marriage here, in the word ‘love’ makes it any less an act of fear, violence and hatred.”

“My business is my home,” said Krone, adding, “My guests and staff are family. No one gets to use my living room as a stage to denigrate others.”

A FUNDRAISER IS BORN Miss Cherry Tart, a friend of Krone’s, is involved with the production of the monthly fundraiser cabaret at Neighbours Seattle

USE YOUR PLATFORM Krone told SGN she believes that “activism and being a person go hand in hand.”

“If you are a person with a stage at your disposal, a platform from which to speak and to be heard, you better use it while you can,” she said.

“The first time I was with a woman in the ‘Biblical sense,’ I was 15, living in a very small town with a father who didn’t really get into talking squishy bits, and was already considered to be pretty weird,” Krone recalls. “I freaked out and joined the local church.”

She felt accepted, loved, less scared and alone, and forgiven. She said it took her a while to figure out that she didn’t need to be forgiven, but it took less time for her to figure out that she didn’t fit within the church strictures.

“I don’t know Michelle; she and I have never spoken,” said Krone. “My own personal experiences certainly color my perception of what’s going on with her, and I can’t help but feel compassion for her. I seriously wish I could sit down over a cup of coffee with the woman and ask her, ‘What the fuck? No, seriously. Tell me what the hell just happened.’”

‘GLITTER AND SUNSHINE’ In lieu of the opportunity to do that, Cherry Tart and Krone decided to produce “You Are Loved: A Big Gay Cabaret,” to benefit local LGBTQ and allied organizations. Social Outreach Seattle, a local social justice nonprofit, is also sponsoring the event.

“The logic behind it is a little inspired

by Care Bears or My Little Pony,” Krone explains. “In the face of all the cold, dark, sharp-toothed doom-y clouds, we will love your face off with rainbows, glitter, and sunshine.”

“I know that sounds goofy,” she admits, “but bear with me a moment. I am Queer; I love a lot of different people a lot of different ways. It used to be called the ‘love that dare not speak its name.’ The only way we win is by loving loud and proud, out in the sunshine, out in the streets.”

“And, as a benefit for Queer youth, we as a community and as family support the organizations that support our youth, helping to create a sense of place, community, and self, and short-circuiting the cultural influences that so often leave us feeling alone, out of place, and living with self-hatred and denial,” said Krone. “I believe that kind of action is the best possible reaction to the entire situation.”

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west seattle blog

MIXED REACTIONS Krone says as a result of her cancelling the Michele Shocked show “we did have a few people leave rather nasty comments on our Facebook page that they wouldn’t be returning because of our position – and that I was going to be burning in Hell – but we had many more write and come in to the shop to show their support.”

Krone canceled the show without hesitation. In fact, she is proud that she joined the other venue owners around the country who, in less than 24 hours, told Shocked to get lost.

“I actually started getting e-mails from people while her show in San Francisco was still happening, because of the Internet,” said Krone. “My initial reaction was along the lines of, ‘Wha ...?’ I mean, I’m 38, and still have one of her albums alongside my Tracy Chapman and Indigo Girls albums from the same era, you know?”

Krone had booked the show through Vera at Village Green Perennial Nursery, so she called her the morning after Shocked had made the anti-Gay rant. Vera had been planning on hosting the show at her nursery, but feared for April rain in an outdoor venue and offered Meander’s the chance to host the show instead.

(1509 Broadway) known as Debauchery.

“She had already been working up a small Queer burlesque show at the restaurant,” says Krone. “Sort of a sexy mashup of our Queer DIY punk ideals and a fondness for the subculture of the 1920s, and it seemed like a natural progression to bump the show into Michelle’s slot.”

“Since then, I’ve been thunderstruck by the amount of support and attention it’s gotten,” admits Krone. “A friend emailed me that the [Huffington Post] had even quoted my Facebook status, which had my 15-yearold daughter thinking that I was actually cool for an entire five minutes.”

“I’ve read subsequent interviews and the letters from Michelle, seen the Piers Morgan interview, listened to the audio from the show, and read the 1990 interview with her in Outlines Magazine,” she continues. “My personal feeling is that her statements didn’t leave much room for misinterpretation, that her apologies are disingenuous, and that she neatly sidesteps personal accountability by blaming the audience for their choice of ‘reality.’”

“She doesn’t apologize for what she said, she apologizes for saying it – she regrets the personal consequences of her actions, not the sentiment or the pain it caused,” said Krone.

Meander’s Kitchen in West Seattle

scheduled for April 26 and 27 at Meander’s Kitchen (9635 16th Ave. S.W.), doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m. You must be 21 or older to attend.

The ticket information at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/367445 reads, “Prepare to get yer socks Shocked and yer knickers dazzled by an amazing cast of characters ... Queer Burlesque, Drag, Song and Dance, Comedy, and all the Bells and Whistles, folks. You Are Loved!

And by the time you leave, you’ll feel warmed all the way down to your cockles.”

“Miss Cherry Tart Productions and I are incredibly grateful to Social Outreach Seattle, the Pride Foundation, Northwest Press, the crew at Meander’s Kitchen, Aaron & Astro, the performers, and the incredible folks who have offered support in a myriad of forms to meet a sad and painful situation at the door and flip it around into a celebration of loving and being loved,” said Krone.

The show will feature two different line-

ups: April 26 has Cinnamon Maxxine, Lily Divine, Al Lykya, Olivia LaGarce, and Adra Boo booked. And April 27 has Sarey Savy, Chocolate Saucy, Randy Andy, and special guest Mary Lambert. Both nights include James Bound, Jeffery Robert, Tiger Bombshell, and Miss Kitty Baby.

“And more to be announced,” promises Krone.

“I think the entertainers are amazing,” she added. “I think they have agreed to play an unknown venue in an often-maligned part of town to support their community and the kids – many of them are accustomed to much shmancier stages, and I can’t wait to see every single one of them strut their stuff.”

“The show has evolved from burlesque to be more of a cabaret, including song and dance, drag, and comedy,” concludes Krone. ”Honestly, I’m incredibly humbled and a bit overwhelmed by how many folks have offered their support and involvement.”

space needle

nondiscrimination protections for LGBT workers, Space Needle employees say they are worried about their job security if the Needle is allowed to give work to nonunion contractors.

The Wright family, which owns and built the Space Needle, is notoriously conservative. Jeff Wright was a major financial supporter of failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna.

In contrast, UNITE HERE is one of the country’s most democratic and LGBTfriendly unions. “UNITE HERE, a union representing over 250,000 hospitality and manufacturing workers across North America, is committed to full equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) people,” the union says on its website.

continued from cover

NO PROMISE ON OUTSOURCING According to UNITE HERE Local 8, the union that represents Space Needle employees, the final sticking point in negotiations is management’s stubborn refusal to promise they will not outsource jobs to nonunion employers. Management has also resorted to illegal intimidation and retaliation against employees, the union charges.

According to Debbie Carlsen, one of the organizers of the letter-writing effort, Sevart chose to reply only to the letter from the city’s LGBT Commission, inviting them to a meeting. Sevart, Space Needle owner Jeff Wright, Space Needle lobbyist Lynn Claudon, and City Council member Tom Rasmussen attended, along with commission members.

At the meeting, Carlsen said, LGBT Commission co-chair Sabina Neem asked Sevart point blank if he would guarantee the rights of his employees to a fair contract.

“No, I will not,” Sevart is reported to have replied. “I don’t want to be beholden to anyone.”

FLAG QUESTION UNANSWERED Space Needle management also failed to make any specific promise to fly the Rainbow Flag in June, Carlsen said.

Although most issues that would go into a SHOW INFO “You Are Loved: A Big Gay Cabaret” is labor contract have been settled, including

April 12, 2013

A HISTORY OF FIRSTS Local 8 publicly supported marriage equality as early as 2006 with an amicus brief in the Andersen case before the state Supreme Court. UNITE HERE’s national executive committee unanimously endorsed equality in 2008.

In 2007, at Seattle’s Westin Hotel, UNITE HERE Local 8 won the first hotel contract in the country to explicitly protect Transgender workers, and that language is now standard in all of its contracts. While similar language has already been approved at the Space Needle, those and similar protections are at risk if management is allowed to hire nonunion contractors who are not bound by a UNITE HERE contract.

Seattle Gay News

7

file photo

national news 54 and counting The U.S. Senate majority for marriage equality is growing weekly ing to represent their interests.”

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Fifty-four U.S. Senators now support marriage equality – 52 Democrats and two Republicans.

South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson became the latest Democrat to endorse same-sex marriage, in a statement to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader on April 8.

PRYOR IS A NO Only one Senate Democrat has come out unambiguously against equality. After telling interviewers to “put me down in the undecided category” on April 5, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas said on April 9 that he’s against it.

“I am opposed to Gay marriage,” Pryor

“This position doesn’t require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets – it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.”

“After lengthy consideration, my views have evolved sufficiently to support marriage equality legislation,” he said. “This position doesn’t require any religious denomination to alter any of its tenets – it simply forbids government from discrimination regarding who can marry whom.”

His endorsement followed that of two Democratic colleagues on April 5: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said on April 5 that she personally supports marriage equality, but that most of her constituents do not.

“My state has a very strong constitutional amendment not only against Gay marriage but against Gay partnerships,” she said. “So I’m looking at the people of Louisiana try-

announced in an e-mail to KSFM radio.

“In the interview with KFSM done on April 5, I also discussed whether Gay couples should receive benefits if they work for the federal government. On the benefits issue, I said to ‘put me down in the undecided category.’ By that I meant that, depending on what the U.S. Supreme Court decides, I will evaluate whether federal benefits should be available to Gay couples. Of course, I will consider the impact any extension of benefits would have on the federal budget.”

The only Senate Democrat who has not spoken recently about marriage equality is West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.

On the Republican side, Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rob Portman of Ohio support equality.

Steve Helber / AP

Fourth U.S. Circuit Court rejects Virginia’s attempt to revive anti-sodomy law

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has turned down an attempt by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to revive the state’s dormant law against “sodomy.” In an

order issued April 8, the court unanimously refused to reconsider a decision by a panel of three Fourth Circuit judges finding the law unconstitutional.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court struck down so-called sodomy laws in 2003 in the historic Lawrence v. Texas ruling, Virginia’s

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson

law remains on the books and Cuccinelli argued that it was still enforceable in certain types of cases, such as those involving minors.

On March 12, a Fourth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that the statute was not enforceable, overturning a district court decision upholding the conviction of a man charged with soliciting oral sex from an underage girl.

Virginia’s sodomy statute outlawed anal and oral sex regardless of the gender of the individuals involved.

UNANIMOUS REJECTION Cuccinelli then petitioned the entire Fourth Circuit to review the case. Under court rules, if no judge asks for a vote on such a petition, it is automatically denied and the panel’s decision stands. Observers were surprised that even Judge Albert Diaz, who dissented in the panel’s original ruling, did not ask for a rehearing.

“It’s a pretty resounding rejection,” said Claire Gastañaga, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, which filed a friend-ofthe-court brief urging the three-judge panel to overturn the law. “There really wasn’t any interest in doing this at all by anybody.”

Cuccinelli can appeal the Fourth Circuit’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but his office did not respond to questions about his intentions.

“We would hope that they wouldn’t [appeal],” Gastañaga said. “We would hope that they would understand what they need to do is work to get this law off the books.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if they filed a petition for cert.”

A “petition for cert,” or writ of certiorari, is the formal method of asking the Supreme Court to take the case. At least four of the nine justices on the high court must approve

certiorari for the court to agree to hear a case for consideration on the merits.

Cuccinelli argued in his Fourth Circuit brief that the Virginia case involved different legal issues than Lawrence did, and therefore it should not be bound by the 2003 ruling.

“As we stated last week, this case has nothing to do with sexual orientation or private sexual acts between consenting adults,” Cuccinelli’s spokesperson told the Washington Blade.

“It’s about using current law to protect a 17-year-old girl from a 47-year-old sexual predator. The attorney general is committed to protecting Virginia’s children from predators who attempt to exploit them and rob them of their childhood.”

OTHER LAWS COULD APPLY But the Fourth Circuit noted in its March 12 decision that the defendant could be convicted under constitutionally valid state laws against soliciting sex from a minor, rather than the unconstitutional sodomy law.

Given that the Supreme Court ruled only 10 years ago that sodomy laws represent an unconstitutional intrusion into individual privacy, it is not clear that they would accept Cuccinelli’s appeal even if he filed a petition.

However, there have been significant changes in the high court’s membership since the Lawrence decision. Three justices who voted with the majority – Stevens, Souter, and O’Connor – are no longer on the court. On the other side, Chief Justice Rehnquist was replaced by John Roberts.

Virginia State Sen. Adam Ebbin, who openly Gay, has said he is thinking about introducing a bill next year to repeal the state’s sodomy law.

Come meet Tim and Matt and join the family.

Go 1605 12th Avenue at Pine, Seattle (In liquor store parking garage.) Seattle Storm!

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Seattle Gay News

April 12, 2013

Celebrating 40 Years!

file photo

Republican lawmaker backs Illinois marriage bill NOM threatens to end Rep. Ed Sullivan’s political career

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

chair of the House Republican campaign organization, he is in a party leadership position.

Republican Rep. Ron Sandack has also said he will vote for same-sex marriage, and Sullivan said more Republicans will sign on.

“There is tremendous momentum leading up to this vote. I think we’re very close,” he said. “There’s many of my colleagues that have talked about this, that have said it’s the right thing to do.”

Republican Illinois State Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr. announced on April 7 that he would vote for the marriage equality bill pending in the state’s House.

“This issue for me … goes to the core of fairness – marriage equality for all people. I think it is in line with … what I believe, and I personally believe it is in line with what our party believes, and that’s trying to treat people with fairness,” Sullivan said.

NOM: HE’S TOAST Sullivan acknowledged that equality opThe anti-equality National Organization ponents cite their religious beliefs, but he said the bill contains strong religious pro- for Marriage (NOM) seems to share that belief, because the day after Sullivan’s antections. nouncement, NOM President Brian Brown threatened to end the careers of any RepubLESBIAN MOTHER-IN-LAW “I try to err on the side of being a public licans who voted for equality.

“Any Republican in Illinois who beservant and serving my district as opposed to potentially being a politician and just trays the cause of marriage will be casting serving that subset [opposed based on reli- a career-ending vote and will be held acgion] and those within my party who don’t countable to their constituents,” Brown pronecessarily want this to pass,” he said. “I claimed.

“We will spend whatever it takes – hunlook at this as a freedom, as a conservative view of treating people equally.” He added dreds of thousands of dollars if necessary – that his mother-in-law is in a same-sex rela- to remove them from office, just as we did three of the four turncoat Republican state tionship.

“The first reaction from people might be, senators in New York who were responsible ‘Well he might be voting for that just be- for Gay ‘marriage’ passing there. We will cause of his mother-in-law,’” Sullivan said. not hesitate to support pro-family Demo“The reality is, because my mother-in-law crats to replace them, as our record in New is Gay, I have more of an understanding and York proves.”

Illinois Republican chairman Pat Brady familiarity with same-sex couples.”

Sullivan is the second Republican to an- declared his support for marriage equality in nounce support for equality, and his state- January, and actually worked the phones to ment is particularly important because as persuade Republican state senators to vote

Rep. Ed Sullivan

for the marriage bill. Some GOP conserOn April 2 U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, a Brady vatives unsuccessfully sought to oust him ally, announced his support for same-sex because his position was at odds with the marriage, becoming the second U.S. Senate plank in the state Republican Party platform Republican to do so. opposing same-sex marriage.

No room at God’s table?

Some Catholic leaders want to deny Communion to marriage equality supporters

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A leading expert in Roman Catholic canon law and a prominent U.S. archbishop have stated that Catholics who support marriage equality should not take Communion.

Edward Peters is a Detroit attorney and seminary professor who was appointed by former Pope Benedict XVI to be the church’s top legal advisor in the United States. He is also the father of NOM Cultural Director Thomas Peters.

“Catholics who promote ‘same-sex marriage’ act contrary to” Catholic law, Peters wrote in a blog post, “and should not approach for Holy Communion.”

“They also risk having Holy Communion withheld from them [and] being rebuked and/or being sanctioned.”

Peters did not specify a particular Catholic politician or public figure in his post, but he did tell the Detroit Free Press that a person’s “public efforts to change society’s definition of marriage ... amount to committing objectively wrong actions.”

church offers the saving truth of Jesus, and I reject what the church teaches,’” Vigneron said.

“In effect, they would contradict themselves. This sort of behavior would result in publicly renouncing one’s integrity and logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.”

This view is not new for Peters, who has always taken a hard-line position against Catholics who differ from church doctrine.

In 2011, Peters said that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should not receive Communion because he was an outspoken supporter of Gay marriage. Last month, Peters likewise took on House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

“Pelosi suffers from one of the most malformed consciences in the annals of American Catholic politics, or ... she is simply hell-bent on using her Catholic identity to attack Catholic values at pretty much every opportunity,” he wrote.

The previous Archbishop of Detroit, Cardinal Adam Maida, was also willing to use his religious authority to corral unruly politicians. In the 2002 race for Governor of Michigan, when Catholic Democrat Jennifer Granholm’s support of abortion rights became an issue, Maida issued a letter saying Catholic politicians had a “special moral obligation” to oppose legal abortion.

ARCHBISHOP AGREES Detroit’s Catholic Archbishop Allen Vigneron confirmed Peters’ blog post, saying that it would be akin to “perjury” for progay Catholics to receive Communion.

“For a Catholic to receive Holy ComSOME THINK OTHERWISE munion and still deny the revelation Christ The idea that pro-equality or pro-choice entrusted to the church is to try to say two contradictory things at once: ‘I believe the Catholics disqualify themselves from the

sacrament of Communion is not universally shared among Catholic bishops, however.

“Most American bishops do not favor denying either politicians or voters Communion because of their positions on controversial issues,” said Thomas Reese, a priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. Reese said that Peters’ views are “in a minority among American canon lawyers.”

But, Reese added, “about 30 or so bishops have said that pro-choice or pro-Gay-marriage Catholics should not present themselves for Communion.”

Among Protestants, the topic is far less controversial because most Protestant churches, including deeply conservative ones, practice “open communion,” with no requirements for participation.

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Seattle Gay News 15

northwest news

KINK LINCS CONFERENCE WITH KEYNOTE SPEAKER RACE BANNON APRIL 12-14 On Friday, April 12, from 6-9:30pm, Kink LINCS invites the public to join the conference at the Crowne Plaza Main Ballroom (1113 Sixth Ave) for Race Bannon’s keynote speech and the opening program.

Race’s journey in Leather and Kinky Sex has been one of personal growth, passion, leadership, and fulfillment. Race will share his passion for Kinky sex and his experience as a practitioner, organizer, writer, educator, commentator, activist and leader with Kink LINCS attendees. Cost: $10.

Kink LINCS is a Leadership and Community Building Symposium being held in the heart of downtown Seattle. If you are part of a Leather, BDSM, Kink, Fetish, Poly, Swing or other sex positive community and are interested in developing your leadership, teamwork, communication, and/ or involvement in your specific community, Kink LINCS is the place to come together and share common ground, network with and learn from each other, as well as share experiences, techniques and knowledge with the objective of “Forging Strong Communities.” www.kinklincs. org.

la Howe invite the community to Imperial Prince and Princess Ball and Investitures 2013, “A Year of Power, Pride and Marriage Equality.” Cover $20 at the door. www.facebook.com/ISCSORE

SEATTLE OUT & PROUD – PRIDE IDOL On Sunday, April 14, doors at 6:30 p.m. with community karaoke, contest at 8 p.m., at Neighbours (1509 Broadway), join Seattle Out & Proud and your host Mama Tits for Seattle’s Pride Idol competition. Each week talented local amateur singers will compete to become Seattle Out & Proud’s 2013 Pride Idol. Registration is first come, first served – maximum 10 contestants per week; $20 registration fee; prizes to be determined. The contest will be held Sundays, April 7, 14, 21 and 28, May 5 and 12, June 2 (Wild Card) and June 9 (Final). Seattle Out & Proud organizes Seattle’s annual Pride Parade in downtown Seattle. Winner will perform at the Parade Pre-Show and on the Pride Idol Float on Sunday, June 30. Visit www.seattlepride.org for complete details and a directory of karaoke songs to choose from or bring your own music.

IMPERIAL COURT OF SEATTLE – IMPERIAL PRINCE & PRINCESS BALL AND INVESTITURES 2013 On Saturday, April 13, door at 5 p.m., ball at 6 p.m., at R Place (619 E. Pine St. at Boylston Ave.) the Imperial Court of Seattle along with Imperial Prince 38 David Link Lake and Imperial Princess 36 Donna Tel-

SAINT MARK’S CATHEDRAL – LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL On Tuesday, April 16, the 50th anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. began writing his Letter from Birmingham Jail, participants worldwide will read King’s letter in celebration. Saint Mark’s will participate in a worldwide series of public readings of the letter. Saint Mark’s will read the letter during Evening Prayer at 6:30 p.m. in McCaw Chapel on the west end of the Cathedral nave, the main worship space. Saint Mark’s is located at 1245 10th Ave. E. and everyone is invited to join in the celebration.

Dr. King’s letter was addressed to eight local clergymen, including the Episcopal Church’s Bishop, whose public letter “A Call for Unity” discouraged public demonstrations for civil rights “directed and

16 Seattle Gay News

April 12, 2013

MOISTURE FESTIVAL MARCH 21-APRIL 14 www.moisturefestival.org LANGSTON HUGHES AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL APRIL 13-21 www.langstoninstitute.org

compiled by Rick McKinnon SGN Staff Writer

FREEDOM SOCIALIST PARTY – PUBLIC FORUM ON IMMIGRATION On Friday, April 19, doors at 6:30 p.m., forum at 7 p.m., at New Freeway Hall (5018 Rainier Ave. S.), FSP hosts a public forum on immigration reform entitled “Amnesty, Equality & Workers Rights: The real immigration reform we need!” featuring a panel of labor and community organizers who will take a critical look at the impact of new federal immigration proposals. Speakers include union organizer Pedro Olguin, Chicana feminist and Arizona native Christina Lopez, and Lois Danks, coordinator of Stop The Checkpoints from the Olympic Peninsula. A $3 donation is requested ($1 for SEATTLE GAY & LESBIAN students). Snack plates available for $6. For BOOK CLUB – THE GALLERY more information or to reserve childcare, The Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club please call 206-722-2453 or email FSPsemeets every Wednesday from 6-7:15 p.m., attle@mindspring.com. A Spanish translaat Seattle Area Support Groups Community tor will be present. Wheelchair accessible.

Center (303 17th Ave. E. at E. Thomas St.).

In April, the club is reading The Gallery Q-SQUARED –

by John Horne Burns.

Q-SPRING All GLBTQ folks are welcome to parAPRIL 19-21 ticipate in this FREE book club. For more How do you want to create your life? Qinformation visit http://faculty.washington. Spring is an interactive, engaging weekend edu/swittet/SGLBookClub/. experience for Gay, Bi, Trans, and Queer/ Questioning men to explore what’s inside NORTHWEST BEARS – and live life from their Truth. Spring is the SPRING THAW XIX season of renewal and growth, so let this APRIL 18-21 event be “your spring!” The weekend rewww.springthaw.org treat will be held near Seattle on Vashon Island. Sponsored by Q-Squared Men, www.

Q-LAW 8TH ANNUAL BANQUET qsquared.org.

On Thursday, April 18, cocktails at 5:30 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., at the Hyatt at Olive OUT OF THE SILENCE 8 (8th Ave. & Olive St.), Q-Law, the GLBT is a calligraphic art exhibit bringing issues Bar Association of Washinton, holds their of bullying and hate crimes against LG8th Annual Banquet. with keynote speaker BTQ youth to light. The exhibit celebrates Washington State Attorney General Bob diversity, love and understanding. After an Ferguson. The event will also feature en- incredible run in Olympia, the exhibit has tertainment by Captain Smartypants, an en- moved to Seattle. The exhibit is currently on semble of the Seattle Men’s Chorus, and the display at William H. Gates Hall, UW Law screening of a short documentary created by School, just south of the main entrance to Q-Law celebrating marriage equality. Tick- the UW Campus (17th Ave. NE & NE 45th ets: General Admission $125; QLaw Mem- St.). For more information, visit www.pizbers $95. To RSVP, visit www.q-law.org. zaklatch.org/events/ led in part by outsiders.” Dr. King’s letter responded to their call to seek equality through local negotiations and the court system. His letter is considered a masterpiece of the civil rights movement.

Participants will host public readings from the Letter at various locations around the globe: libraries, museums, schools, universities, churches, synagogues, temples, work places, public parks, bookstores, street corners, coffee shops and anywhere people want to participate. This event is sponsored by the Birmingham Public Library. A list of worldwide readings is available at http:// www.bplonline.org/programs/1963/Letter. aspx

Celebrating 40 Years!

Anti-Gay activist guilty of child pornography file photo

homosexuality, and that homosexuality and pedophilia are linked.

ADF removed all traces of Biron from its website and Facebook page when Biron was arrested. In a CBS News report, the group even clamed that Biron never worked for them.

While it is true that Biron might not have been a formal employee of ADF, she did participate and was a member of its “Honor Corps,” according to John Aravosis at Americablog.

The Honor Corps recognizes allied attorneys who participate in 450 hours of pro bono services for the group. Those who become members receive ADF perks such as referrals, job opportunities, and access to resume postings.

In March of 2011, she was listed by the ADF as an “Allied Attorney Success Story.”

On Biron’s Facebook page, she claims she worked for Alliance Defending Freedom.

immigration

that our immigration system would continue to institutionalize bigotry in its citizenship process. I deeply hope any comprehensive immigration reform will make protecting all types of families a priority.”

“Right now, we have an opportunity to make real strides in equality for LGBT families and fixing our broken immigration system,” Smith wrote.

“The reality of current U.S. immigration law is that same-sex couples committed to spending their lives together are not recognized as ‘families’ and, as a result, could be separated from their homes, their children, their spouses, and the people they love.

I strongly support the Uniting American Families Act, which is a bill that would give legal standing to LGBT families with mixed immigration statuses. While we await the details of the ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration reform proposal, I hope that protections for same-sex couples will be included. I was pleased to see that the Senate plans to provide a full debate and amendment process for any legislation that comes from the deal, and I will continue to fight to see that equal rights and protections of LGBT people are included in any comprehensive immigration reform law.”

continued from cover

get preferential treatment in entering the country, getting a “green card,” and obtaining citizenship, but same-sex partners do not.

“A person’s immigration status shouldn’t change because of whom they love,” Murray said in an e-mail to SGN, “so I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes protections for LGBT families.”

Murray’s press secretary, Sean Coit, also noted that Murray is a co-sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), to give same-sex binational couples the same protections opposite-sex spouses enjoy.

“Senator Cantwell is a co-sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (S. 296),” her staffer Janeen Heath May told SGN, “and she is committed to supporting legisLisa Biron lation that protects the rights of all Ameriby Shaun Knittel Freedom (ADF), a “servant ministry” seek- cans regardless of sexual orientation, race, ing to transform the legal system “for reli- religion, gender, national origin, age, or disSGN Associate Editor gious liberty, the sanctity of life, and mar- ability.”

A New Hampshire lawyer who worked riage and family.”

McDERMOTT, SMITH WEIGH IN The ADF, known until recently as the Alwith an anti-Gay Christian organization has Seattle’s U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott and been found guilty of child pornography and liance Defense Fund, frequently issues omifaces a minimum sentence of 25 years after nous forewarnings about what it calls “the Adam Smith also cited UAFA in separate statements sent to SGN. homosexual agenda.” she was convicted by a jury April 11.

“While we won’t know the content of the Biron worked with Alliance Defending Freedom, a “servant Senate’s Gang of Eight immigration reform until the bill becomes public on Thursministry” seeking to transform the legal system “for religious bill day, it is my hope that any comprehensive immigration reform will contain aspects of liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family.” the Reuniting Families Act, which would make it easier for same-sex couples to sponAccording to the news website Salon, sor a foreign-born spouse for a visa,” McBLAMES GAYS FOR PEDOPHILIA Lisa Biron videotaped her 14-year-old Alliance Defending Freedom’s President Dermott said. daughter having sex with two men on sev“Same-sex families share the same comeral occasions. She was arrested in Novem- Alan Sears and Senior Director Craig Osten ber by the FBI and accused of eight felony have said that the so-called “homosexual mitments and deserve the same protections counts. In addition, the minor was also agenda” will destroy religious liberty and as any other family. There are thousands of free speech. They also believe that pedo- Gay and Lesbian binational couples waittaped having sex with Biron.

Biron worked with Alliance Defending philia on college campuses is a result of ing to be reunited and it is unconscionable

UAFA AMENDMENT POSSIBLE The latest version of UAFA was introduced in February by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

Leahy indicated he might attempt to include UAFA as an amendment to the Gang of Eight bill in committee before it reaches the Senate floor and Nadler said he would support such an amendment.

“I will fight like hell to ensure that LGBTinclusive language remains in any House and Senate conference report,” Nadler told the Blade. “The ultimate goal is, of course, not how we pass LGBT-inclusive immigration reform, but that we make certain that such a bill lands on the president’s desk.”

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April 12, 2013

Seattle Gay News 17

international news French Senate passes same-sex marriage Anti-homophobia march draws 5,000 in Paris as vote takes place

AP Photo / Remy de la Mauviniere

one allowing same-sex couples to marry – passed late Tuesday night on a 179 to 157 vote. The Senate version was the same as that passed by the National Assembly, so no further legislative action will be required.

“This article was adopted ‘in conformity’,” the French newspaper Le Monde said, “that is to say, without modification from the first reading vote in the National Assembly. This vote becomes final unless the entire bill was rejected after consideration by the Senate. It will not be subjected to a second reading in the National Assembly or the CMP” [the French equivalent of a joint conference committee in Congress].

ADOPTION RIGHTS OK’D The next day, the Senate also passed the second-most-important piece of the bill, giving same-sex spouses the right to adopt children.

According to Le Monde, “The debates were monopolized by the senators of the right-wing side, who affirmed again that the adoption of this text would open up the way for assisted medical procreation and for surrogacy with others.”

With more than 600 amendments to the law being submitted, it remains unclear when the Senate will finish work on the legislation, but the two crucial sections have now passed. For French President François Hollande, the new law is the fulfillment of his campaign pledge to equalize marriage rights in his country.

NOW IT’S OUR TURN “France is poised to become the latest country – 16 on four continents – where loving and committed Gay couples can share in the freedom to marry, and it won’t be the last this year,” the U.S. group Freedom to Marry noted in a statement.

“Like France, the United States extols liberty, equality, and fairness; it is time for our country, too, to end the denial of marriage and live up to our best values.”

Although France’s powerful Catholic Church has joined right-wing political groups to try to derail marriage equality, opinion polls suggest that around 55% to 60% of French people support equality, and about 50% approve of adoption rights for same-sex couples.

Uruguay passes marriage equality law Nation is second in Latin America to embrace same-sex marriage

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Wilfred de Bruijn was beaten unconscious near his home in central Paris, sustaining 5 fractures in his head and face, abrasions and a lost tooth.

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Five thousand people marched in Paris on April 9 to protest increasing violence against LGBT people, as the French Senate passed the government’s marriage equality bill section by section. Marchers carried signs reading “Homophobia kills” and “Our love is stronger than your hate.”

Among the marchers was Wilfred de Bruijn, a librarian who was assaulted and beaten while he and his partner were casually walking down a Paris street arm-in-arm.

He posted a Facebook photo of his bruised and bloody face, an image that has gone viral on social networking sites.

“I certainly feel there’s been an increase in homophobia,’’ de Bruijn told Associated Press.

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“What [the anti-equality people] are saying is that they’re not homophobic: Lesbians and Gays are nice people, but don’t let them get close to children – that’s very dangerous.

“It’s OK for them to live together, but not like other couples with the same protection, because it’s not really the same thing.’’

BILL READY TO SIGN The French Senate, meanwhile, completed action on the marriage bill sent to them by the National Assembly, where it passed on February 12.

According to French law, Senators must work through the bill section by section, rather than passing the whole package as the U.S. Senate might.

The most critical section of the bill – the

April 12, 2013

Uruguay’s Congress approved a marriage equality law on April 11. The country’s Senate approved its version of the bill on April 2, sending the measure back to the lower house of Congress, which had passed a preliminary bill last year.

The final version passed in the lower house by a more than two-thirds majority, sparking raucous celebrations in the visitors’ gallery. “Freedom, freedom,” shouted activists who were attending the session in Montevideo as the result was announced.

Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, supports the law and has promised to sign it.

“Same-sex couples have always existed,” said Mujica, a former left-wing guerrilla, told Russia Today in an interview earlier this year.

Uruguay becomes the second Latin American country to approve same-sex marriage, after Argentina, which passed marriage equality in 2010.

PUBLIC SUPPORT GROWING According to Ignacio Zuasnabar, director of the Uruguayan polling firm Equipos, support for same-sex marriage is increasing in Uruguay, despite persistent opposition from the Catholic Church.

“There has been more acceptance of Gay marriage in recent years as public opinion seems in favor of giving more rights to same-sex couples,” Zuasnabar told BBC News.

“Things are different with other divisive subjects, like the possible legalization of cannabis and the recent law that approved abortions, which have more polarized views or simply a majority of people that disapprove of them.”

Besides allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children, the new law also allows them to choose the order of the surnames of the children they adopt. In Spanish-speaking countries children customarily use both their parents’ surnames, with the father’s name first.

The law also increases the age of consent for sexual relations to 16, from the current 12 for females and 14 for males.

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file photo

Speaking ill of the dead Views of Margaret Thatcher’s legacy are decidedly mixed

claimed enemy of feminism.

“I owe nothing to women’s lib,” she once told an advisor. “The feminists hate me, She had the “eyes of Caligula,” the late don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I French President Francois Mitterrand said hate feminism. It is poison.” about Margaret Thatcher, “and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe.”

ONE PRO-GAY VOTE While Thatcher (1925-2013), who served In 1967, when she was merely one of as prime minister of the U.K. from 1979 to many rising stars in the Conservative Party, 1990, continues to be idolized by right-wing she voted to decriminalize Gay sex – for Republicans in the United States and even some reason, sex between women had never by the supposedly liberal U.S. media, in her been illegal in Britain. Both Labor Prime own country – and even in her own party – Minister Harold Wilson and Conservative she remains a hugely divisive figure. In the Party leader Ted Heath had declared a “free end, more Britons were repelled by her cold vote,” allowing their members to vote their blue eyes than were seduced by her bright consciences on this issue, and Thatcher red lips. joined a handful of other Tories and a majorThatcherism was Reaganism with an at- ity of Labor members to pass the bill. It was titude. While her pal Ronald Reagan was the first and last time she demonstrated an affable and pragmatic, Thatcher cultivated affinity for her country’s LGBT community. a hard edge. Where he was capable of workWhen she was prime minister, her goving all sides of an issue, and apparently of ernment approved a needle exchange propersuading himself to believe whatever gram and a safe-sex advertising campaign he happened to be saying at any particular to try to cope with the first stages of the time, she was rigid in following her ideo- AIDS epidemic, but the campaign was run logical agenda.

by Viscount Willie Whitelaw, Conservative “You can U-turn if you want,” she once Party leader in the House of Lords, because told a Conservative Party conference, “but Thatcher herself felt little sympathy for the lady’s not for turning.”

AIDS patients.

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

REJECTED HER ROOTS Although she was the daughter of a grocer, she had no sympathy for Britain’s working class or for the immigrants who came to Britain from the far corners of its former empire. During the almost 11 years Thatcher was prime minister, Britain’s rich got richer, its poor got poorer, and social inequality increased to its highest levels since World War I. She was finally forced from office in a 1990 coup engineered by her own party leaders, after her tax policies sparked riots in the working-class suburbs of London.

Those same suburbs erupted in celebratory street parties when her death was announced April 8 by the BBC. Although she smashed the “glass ceiling,” becoming Britain’s first and only woman prime minister, Thatcher was a self-pro-

SECTION 28 In 1988 she introduced local government legislation containing the infamous Section 28, the forerunner of Russia’s current “Don’t say Gay” laws. Section 28 forbade local governments, and therefore the schools under their control, from teaching “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.”

“Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be Gay,” Thatcher complained at the time.

While no penalties were specified in the law and no one was ever prosecuted for violating it, local councils, fearing they would lose government funding, removed any references to the LGBT community from school curricula.

Section 28 was eventually repealed by

Margaret Thatcher

the Scottish government in 2000, and by the House of Commons in 2003. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who introduced and passed marriage equality earlier this year, felt the need to apologize for his party’s role in passing the provision.

“Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary

woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons,” veteran LGBT activist Peter Tatchell said after her death.

“I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions.”

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health and medicine Toward a more caring community young adults, SAHM believes. The highrisk behaviors exhibited by some LGBT teens more often reflect reactions to social stigma and non-acceptance by peers and society.

“Sexual orientation and gender identity are dynamic constructs,” SAHM highlights in the paper. “Health care providers, educators, policy makers, and researchers should be cautious in assigning labels to an adolescent’s sexual orientation, because this may evolve over time. Providers should ask adocine specialist in Washington, D.C., and lescents how they self-identify and should lead author of the position paper. “This be guided by the youth’s language and selfposition statement is designed to provide concept.” practitioners, educators, and policy makers a framework for how to best provide care and develop policies which will help sexual minority youth reach their full potential as adults. As the leading organization dedicated to the health of adolescents, it is important and significant that SAHM has taken a strong stand on the unique issues affecting the adolescent LGBT population.”

The statement stresses the vital roles that these practitioners, educators, policy makers, and researchers can play in promoting Family connectedness and support are healthy development for LGBT youth. important protective factors against depression, drug use, and high-risk sexual behavMOST ARE WELL-ADJUSTED ior in LGBT adolescents. However, practiHealth care providers should understand tioners also should understand that not all that the majority of LGBT young people LGBT adolescents may be ready to disclose are healthy and well-adjusted teenagers and their sexuality to their family. SAHM recommends that when LGBT teens decide to disclose their sexuality or gender identity, providers should aim to assist families with acceptance of their LGBT teenagers.

New guidelines issued for promoting LGBT adolescents’ health

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On April 2, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) issued a new position paper designed to illustrate best practices to promote the health and wellbeing of LGBT adolescents.

“In addition to typical health issues common in adolescence, LGBT teens often face additional challenges due to the complexity of the coming-out process, as well as societal discrimination and bias against sexual and gender minorities,” said SAHM in a media release.

“While the majority of LGBT adolescents are happy and well-adjusted teenagers, many of them can find themselves victims of bullying, discrimination, and rejection from both their friends and families,” said Dr. David Reitman, an adolescent medi-

Health and Medicine believes that sexual minority adolescents should have full and appropriate legal protection from victimization under both local and federal laws.”

Because victimized LGBT youth are at increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts, providers should screen for these mental health issues and intervene as appropriate, they also assert.

In addition, SAHM says, antidiscrimination policies should be implemented to protect LGBT youth in foster-care settings.

Municipalities should disseminate policy guidelines to ensure appropriate care for LGBT youth in out-of-home venues.

“In addition to typical health issues common in adolescence, LGBT teens often face additional challenges due to the complexity of the comingout process, as well as societal discrimination and bias against sexual and gender minorities.”

THE EFFECTS OF BULLYING LGBT youth may be at increased risk of bullying and victimization by peers and adults, including teachers, coaches, and family members. Such victimization is associated with an increased risk for depression and suicide, says SAHM. “Health care providers should be comfortable discussing these issues with their LGBT patients and should take an active role in educating the schools and community on prevention efforts to prevent and stop victimization. The Society for Adolescent

GOOD AND BAD THERAPY Also highlighted were, “For youth who are struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity, affirmative therapeutic approaches can help adolescents explore their identities in a healthy manner. Reparative ‘therapy,’ which attempts to change one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, is inherently coercive and inconsistent with current standards of medical care.”

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine is a multidisciplinary organization of health professionals who are committed to advancing the health and wellbeing of adolescents. Through education, research, clinical services, and advocacy activities, members of SAHM strive to enhance public and professional awareness of adolescent health issues among families, educators, policy makers, youth-serving organizations, and students who are considering a health career, as well as other health professionals. Learn more at www.adolescenthealth.org.

Making AIDS affordable

South Africa announces $10 per month HIV meds

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer South Africa’s Minister of Health announced on April 8 that his country had acquired a supply of a one-a-day antiretroviral drug (ARV) at a record low price, enabling the government to provide it to HIV patients for only $10 per month.

The pill will be introduced this month to

HIV-positive pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, people co-infected with TB, and to new HIV patients. Patients currently being treated with other drugs will be assessed by doctors and, when appropriate, will start switching to the new meds later this year.

The drug is reported to the three-in-one combo Atripla, which retails for about $2,000 a month in the United States.

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“Before 2010, we were buying the most expensive ARVs in the world. Now we are a country where the ARVs are the cheapest in the world,” said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.

“It means we can increase the number of people on treatment,” he added.

South Africa currently has some 1.9 million people on treatment out of a total HIVpositive population of 5.6 million.

AN EASIER REGIMEN The South African National AIDS Council said that the simplicity of the one-a-day dosage would encourage patients to stay on treatment.

“This is simplifying the way patients have become used to taking ARV treatment,” said the council’s CEO, Fareed Abdullah.

“We have come a very long way since the

advent of antiretrovirals. At one point, patients used to take up to 16 pills a day,” he added.

“You’re just going to take it once, and it’s just going to be less pill burden,” HIV patient Andrew Mosani told BBC News.

“People are tired [of] taking many drugs on a day-to-day basis.”

Former South African president Thabo

Mbeki was an HIV “denier,” who believed AIDS-related symptoms could be cured with herbal remedies. But under his successor, Jacob Zuma, the country now runs the largest antiretroviral drug programs in the world. According to South African health officials, their aggressive approach has increased life expectancy for HIV-positive people to 60 years.

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