Issue 18 Volume 39
Celebrating 38 Years!
FRIDAY May 6, 2011 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands
syphIlis p. 5
OUTGAMES p. 9
deportation vaCATED p. 20
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Transgender woman Seattle’s LGBT Commission assaulted on C. Hill challenges city policy of by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
see transgender page 19
Trans health care exclusion
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
seattle.gov
Kira Crowley just moved to Seattle from Phoenix. She was in town less than a week when she was assaulted on Capitol Hill. “I was just walking down the street, carrying my bag,” she told SGN, “when this man comes up and says, ‘Faggot, faggot, there’s a faggot, we should kill people like you.’ “I just smiled at him since I was still wearing the wig,” Crowley said, indicating her blond wig. “Then he punched me.” “There was no reason. We didn’t interact. There was no contact beforehand,” she adds. “He might have been drunk or he might have been crazy. He was mumbling things.” Crowley says she did not seek medical attention, but her left
cheek is sore and puffy where she was hit, “and my left ear doesn’t hear very well.” The incident happened on May 3 at Bellevue Ave. and Pine St., at about 1:30 p.m. Crowley says she then flagged down a passing police car. Her impression of Seattle police was “very favorable,” she says. “I was so impressed,” she told SGN. “They actually understood all the terms and stuff. I was like ‘Wow!’” According to the police report, the suspect then attempted to flee on a Metro bus, but was caught by police, questioned at the scene, and subsequently released. Police say the suspect “appeared intoxicated and disoriented.” He told the officer he first kissed
The Seattle LGBT Commission – which advises the mayor, City Council, and several departments about sexual minority issues as well as recommending policies and legislation – will meet with Council Member Bruce Harrell on May 12 to address an issue that Commission members believe needs to be resolved. In a March 23 letter to Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee chair Harrell (given to the Seattle Gay News by the commission), LGBT Commission members said, “On behalf of the LGBT Commission, Commission for People with Disabilities, Human Rights Commission, Women’s Commission, and the Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Board, we are writing to inform you about current Transgender exclusions in see commission page 20
Seattle City Council Member Bruce Harrell
LGBT organizations to Obama: FOX Houston asks, Stop deporting LGBT spouses! “Is TV Too Gay?” courtesy towleroad
yiftah elazar
of other LGBT organizations – including Stop the Deportations, All Out, Courage Campaign, Garden State Equality, Immigration Equality Action Fund, Marriage Equality USA, Out4Immigration, Princeton Equality Project, and Queer Rising – to make clear that these deportations of LGBT spouses must stop immediately. On May 5, a rally outside the Newark Federal Courthouse took place as Josh Vandiver of Colorado and Henry Velandia of Venezuela face deportation hearings before the court. “Despite legally marrying in Connecticut in August 2010, Vandiver (a Ph.D. student at Princeton University) and Velandia (a salsa dancer, instructor, and founder of a Princeton-based dance studio) are facing a nightmare scenario: being ripped apart from one another at the hands of the U.S. government,” said GetEQUAL officials in a May 5 statement. “Due to DOMA, the federal government doesn’t recJosh Vandiver and Henry Velandia ognize same-sex marriages, which by Shaun Knittel tion hearings under the stark real- discriminates against same-sex SGN Associate Editor ity of the Defense of Marriage Act couples. As a result, Josh cannot sponsor Henry for a green card un(DOMA). On May 6, LGBT organizations In the shadow of the Statue of like all straight married couples in from across the country are set Liberty in New York, GetEQUAL to rally behind a Gay bi-national officials issued a statement saycouple who are facing deporta- ing they are working with a host see deporting page 20
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On April 26, KRIV-26, the FOX affiliate in Houston, Texas, gave voice to one of the country’s most vocal anti-Gay activists during a debate on its news program entitled, “Is TV Too Gay?” The focus was that night’s episode of the hugely popular show Glee, which featured a theme of self-acceptance and celebration of diversity inspired by the Lady Gaga hit song “Born This Way.”
Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), was all over KRIV-26 faster than you could say “homophobic prick.” According to GLAAD officials, the debate began on the wrong foot by even suggesting that television programs with positive portrayals of Gay characters could negatively impact teens. As the show progressed, said Barrios, it only got see fox page 20