SGN April 26, 2013 - Section 1

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Celebrating 40 Years!

Issue 17 Volume 41

FRIDAY April 26, 2013 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & newsstands

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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

ENDA reintroduced in Congress

Sponsors hope for vote this year on long-delayed bill Stacie Ledden

Openly Gay Representative Jared Polis (D-Colorado) reintroduced the bill in Congress.

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer ENDA, the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, was reintroduced in Congress on April 25. The bill would add protections for LGBT employees to federal civil rights legislation. While some states, including Washington, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, most do not. Some states only protect sexual orientation, or only protect state employees, and 19 states have no protections whatsoever. Meanwhile, research done by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School “consistently shows that LGBT people continue to face high rates of discrimination in the workplace and that state and federal protections could consequently have a significant and positive impact for LGBT workers without overly burdening employers.” The new bill was introduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), taking the place of retired Congressman

Barney Frank as the measure’s prime sponsor. The Senate version will be introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). In addition to Merkley, ENDA will have four other Senate sponsors: openly Lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), HELP Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA), and two Republicans, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine. TRANSGENDER CHANGES The new bill is similar to the one considered by the two previous Congresses, but there have been a few changes. One of the key differences relates to the rights of Transgender workers in so-called “shared facilities,” one of the most contentious issues in the bill’s previous incarnation. As a concession to Transphobia, the previous version of ENDA allowed an employer to deny Transgender employees access to dressing facilities in which they might be seen unclothed, as long as the see enda page 9

End of an era, goodbye Feds terminate

The Grill on Broadway will close on Sunday HIV vaccine study j seattle

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Whenever a business closes after 22 years of operating in the same neighborhood – especially a neighborhood as vibrant and close-knit as Seattle’s Capitol Hill – the news is taken hard. Such is the case with The Grill on Broadway. On April 23, The Grill on Broadway owner, Matthew Walsh, announced that the Capitol Hill LGBT icon would close its doors for good this Sunday, April 28. It is expected that 35 people will lose their jobs. Here is the official statement: Dear Friends, What you’ve read, or may soon read, is true. After 22 years, we’re closing the doors at The Grill on Broadway this Sunday night the 28th. In spite of what it may seem, we’re a very small business. We don’t have endless financial resources to keep us afloat like a chain restaurant or large corporation could. We spent our life savings to bring the restaurant back from what it had become and it’s heartbreaking that we cannot con-

The Grill on Broadway

HVTN 505 judged ineffective after fouryear trial, Seattle project affected

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced on April 25 that it is terminating the HVTN 505 clinical trial, an HIV vaccine study conducted locally by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Instisee GRILL page 19 tutes of Health, will stop adminis-

tering injections in its HVTN 505 clinical trial of an investigational HIV vaccine regimen because an independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) found during a scheduled interim review that the vaccine regimen did not prevent HIV infection nor reduce viral load (the amount of HIV in the blood) among vaccine recipients who became infected with HIV,” NIAID said in a statement. see hiv page 19

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