SGN July 20, 2012 - Section 1

Issue 29 Volume 40

Celebrating 39 Years!

AIDS QUILT p. 4

SEAMEC RATINGS p. 14

EUROPEAN UNION p. 18

Seattle Gay News

FRIDAY July 20, 2012 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & newsstands

SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Abbey of St. Joan White House honors turns sweet 16

Seattle activists

(l to r) Novice Sister Helen Genitals, CJ Lebert (Rosehedge Development & Marketing Coordinator), Cherie Schumacher (Rosehedge Volunteer Program Director), Sister Dominé Trix, and Sister Katie Kizum

Abbey’s 16th anniversary. For their super-sweet 16, the Sisters gave away more than $12,000 in The Abbey of St. Joan, Seattle’s grants to Washington charities chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual supportive of the LGBT commuIndulgence, gathered at Piecora’s see sisters page 20 Pizza on July 14 to celebrate the

by James Whitely SGN Staff Writer

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

courtesy Aleksa manila

james whitely / seattle gay news

Seattle’s Sisters celebrate anniversary by giving $12k in charity grants Suicide prevention educator, Heather Carter, filmmaker, Dru Dinero, & SGN’s Shaun Knittel in DC to receive award Three local activists were among a group of individuals and organizations honored by the White House this week as “Champions of Change” in the LGBT community.

OUTLoud program director Heather Carter, filmmaker Dru Dinero, and SGN Associate Editor Shaun Knittel received awards at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on July 19.

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. A different sector is highlighted each week, and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they do to serve see white house page 20

(l to r) Shaun Knittel, Aleksa Manila, Heather Carter, and Dru Dinero

FDA approves Truvada for Texas shooting victim leaves hospital pre-exposure prophylaxis Kristene Chapa helps police On July 16, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the anti-retroviral drug Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for use by HIV-negative individuals to lower their risk of infection. It is the first drug ever approved for such use.

Truvada can now be prescribed to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of contracting HIV, such as those who engage in sex with infected partners. Taken daily, Truvada is to be used for preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in combination with safer sex practices such as risk reduction counseling and regular HIV testing.

“Today’s approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. “Every year, about 50,000 U.S. adults and adolescents are diagnosed with HIV infection, despite the availability of prevention methods and strategies to educate, test, and care for people living with the disease. see truvada page 19

update suspect sketch

morial Hospital on July 16. Police also released a new suspect sketch based on information she gave them.

Chapa was shot in the head in the attack, and will now enter a rehab facility. Her girlfriend, Mollie Olgin, was shot in the neck and died at the scene.

Chapa’s brother, Hilario Chapa, told NBC Latino radio that doctors were still evaluating his sister and are Texas Rangers released this refined sketch of the working on a suspect in the shooting of Mollie Olgin and Kristene timetable for her Chapa on June 22 in a park in Portland, Texas. therapy.

by Mike Andrew “She’s doing awesome,” he said.

SGN Staff Writer “One of the last days at the hospital her friends were able to come Kristene Chapa, one of the vic- and see her and she lit up. tims of a June 22 shooting near “She’s in neurological rehab, Corpus Christi, Texas, was dissee texas page 20 charged from Christus Spohn MeTEXAS RANGERS

file photo

Truvada has been approved by the FDA.

by James Whitely SGN Staff Writer

e t o v o t R e t s i g e R

www.myvote.wa.gov

 Broadway 

Farmers Market 2

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July 20, 2012

Broadway & E. Pine at Seattle Central Community College Sundays, 11am - 3pm, April 22 - Dec 23.

Celebrating 39 Years!

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July 20, 2012

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Remember their names!

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

Rev. Barbara Allen, Eric Andrews-Katz, Madelyn Arnold, Maggie Bloodstone, Beau Burriola, Jessica Davis, Ron Anders, Jessica Price, Milton W. Hamlin, Scott Wittet, Nevin Jefferson, Jason A. Miller, Liz Meyer, Rod Parke, Don Paulson, Scott Rice, Leslie Robinson, Richard Kennedy, Rex Wockner

Classifieds Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Photographers

Nate Gowdy, Joseph P. Herron, Shaun Knittel, James Whitely National Advertising Rep. Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Website Designer Barry Thorsness/Digital Team Works Seattle Gay News is published weekly by Frogs and Ink, Inc. © 2012, Frogs and Ink, Inc., all rights reserved. Reprints by permission.

Publication of names, photographs or likenesses of any person, organization, event or business in this publication cannot be taken as any indication of the sexual orientation of the person, organization, event or business.

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Seattle Gay News welcomes unsolicited material, including letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit or reject material. All rights revert to authors upon publication.

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Paul Kawata

by Paul Kawata Special to the SGN The first time Cleve Jones shared with me his vision for making memorial quilts, I said to him, “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

I’m thankful that Cleve didn’t listen to me, because his quilts turned into the Names Project, a powerful memorial for our epidemic. The AIDS Memorial Quilt became a symbol of our movement’s collective grief. It brought us together to celebrate and remember our friends and family members who left us way too soon.

In 1987, the Quilt was unfolded on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the first time. My staff and I volunteered to be

Gratitude – and a correction Thanks for the article “City of Seattle files brief against DOMA” (July 13, front page).

Unfortunately my name was misreported as “Ken Vincent.” I am Chris Vincent. (There is a Ken Vincent, a former resident of Seattle and well-known radio announcer, who has long been an activist for social justice and LGBT rights.)

The article reported the City of Seattle filing an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act in Golinski v. OPM. This

In Loving Memory Of

Steve Foiles, Scott Roger Alpert, Cookie Andrews-Hunt, James Leland Moore, Randy Peters, Lee Richeson, Shaun Shelton, Jim Tully, James Arnold

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Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

much anger, too much fear. I came to D.C. in 1985 to fight the epidemic. I promised my family that I would return soon. Two years later, we seemed no closer to the end, and more and more friends were dying.

Every time the Quilt came back to D.C., I would volunteer and read names. This summer it will be here for the last time. They tell me it’s just too big. This final display of the Quilt is timed to coincide with the International AIDS Conference. Please stop by the mall and experience this important piece of our history, this memorial to our friends and family members, this extraordinary legacy of love and loss. Better yet, consider volunteering to be on an unfolding team. It’s life-affirming and transformative. From my perspective, the best time to view the AIDS Memorial Quilt is first thing in the morning, as it’s unfolded.

From July 21 to 25, 35,200 panels will be displayed on the National Mall – 8,800 different panels will rotate in and out every day. It’s not cheap to bring it to D.C. Please make a donation at http://quilt2012.org, or purchase some of their merchandise. Typically executive directors don’t try to raise money for other organizations, but that’s how important this project is to me and to our movement.

I will be on the mall this July. If I am doing my “ugly cry,” please stop and give me a hug. I miss so many friends – sometimes it’s just too much to remember all the names.

That’s why it’s so important to discuss the possibility of ending this epidemic. For as much as I honor and appreciate the Quilt, I look forward to the day when there are no new names to be read and no new panels to be made.

on an unfolding team. We had no idea what to expect.

Volunteers were required to attend a training session to learn how to unfold the Quilt.

At the time, I wondered what the hell I needed to learn about unfolding fabric. As I experienced the training, I came to understand the huge responsibility the Names Project felt for these panels.

They were more then fabric – the panels were a representation of our loved ones.

It was very cool the first morning we walked onto the mall. We were all dressed in white. Carefully and silently, we unfolded sections as we had been instructed. They had a specific way to unfold that reminded me of origami.

As we flicked them up into the air, they blossomed like beautiful flowers. After all the panels were unfolded, we formed a circle around the Quilt and stood in silence as the names on the individual panels were read aloud.

Seeing all those names that first time was overwhelming. There was an eerie silence that was broken only by sobbing, as people stood over the panels of their loved ones and the names continued to be read in the background. There were so many names, and so many panels.

Paul Kawata is the executive director of When I saw my friend Sally Fisher, one of the grief counselors, I broke down sobbing. the National Minority AIDS Council (www.

It was just too much. Too much loss, too nmac.org). windy city media group

Editor In Chief George Bakan Associate Editor Shaun Knittel Production William Creswell Calendar Editors Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Travel Editor George Bakan Advertising Manager Marty Weisbrod Advertising Department Maggie Bloodstone Executive Assistant Mike Andrew Staff Writers

news is of timely importance as we gain momentum to repeal DOMA at the federal level and to Approve Referendum 74 in November, which will grant marriage equality in Washington State.

My husband and I were pleased and proud to be invited by Mayor Mike McGinn to speak about our own situation at the July 10 news conference. Gay couples need to be able to marry in all 50 states and to have our marriages recognized by the federal government.

Sincerely, Chris Vincent (and Ken Molsberry)

Celebrating 39 Years!

Jen DeLeo

Magic Hype = go-go

Local dancers, businesses see boost in interest, sales after Magic Mike released in theaters

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor There are some things about life that are intrinsically Gay. Male strippers are on that list.

Magic Mike, otherwise known as “the movie where Channing Tatum got naked,” is a new film about a group of male strippers. And would you believe it if I told you that Gay men are heading to theaters in droves to see Mr. Pouty Lips play the title character? Yes, of course you would. You have already seen it … twice. But seriously, the reviews are in and who cares about what the movie is actually about – Channing Tatum is still to die for!

Let’s be honest, the reason so many Gay men are flocking to see the film that theaters end up looking like improvised Gay bars is because it’s about male strippers. You know – men who take their clothes off.

The New York Times reports that Magic Mike is drawing the Gay male audience like no other film since Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Sure, Magic Mike isn’t about two men in love (there’s no “I can’t quit you” stuff here). But who cares? Sometimes (or always, if you are Gay), you just want to see a movie about sexy muscled men without pants.

The movie cost Warner Brothers $7 million to release and has performed stronger than expected, which means – and which Tatum, who once worked as a stripper in real life, has confirmed – there’s a sequel in the works.

Before I go off about “why can’t people just get over the fact that Gay men don’t mind watching a movie about straight male strippers and the women they love” because “we love the male strippers, screw the storyline,” I will give Warner Brothers Pictures an editorial pat on the back for some good old-fashioned Gay marketing. Tatum appeared on the cover of Out, a glossy Gay magazine, the movie trailer got posted on Gay blogs, and the film was promoted at Pride events across the country.

So yeah, as I was saying, you had us at “male strippers and Channing Tatum,” Warner Brothers.

Gay moviegoers don’t care if there is a Gay plot in this movie – where, in an odd role-reversal, Gay actor Matt Bomer plays it straight (as a stripper) – because hot guys taking off their clothes is the Gay plot. That is not a bad thing. And, did I miss something? When did Gay male culture become so sexless? I mean, really.

I came up as Gay in the 1990s when saying you went to a bathhouse wasn’t taboo and just because you were dating a guy didn’t mean you had to rush out and adopt a kid, buy a Subaru, and look at properties off the Hill because the Gayborhood is just “too noisy at night.” Forgive me if I think it’s silly for Gay men to downplay the sexplay that exists in all parts of our community. If “no one” goes to bathhouses, why are two of them still in business? And how would you explain the fact that Dog House Leather, Castle, and The Crypt adult novelty stores all still operate and make a profit when they are located less than one mile from each other? Naked men. Sex. That’s how.

The beautiful truth that Magic Mike’s ticket sales and the demographic credited with buying the bulk of them – Gay men – reveal is that male strippers, or go-go boys or whatever you want to call them, capture our attention and imagination. And the men who do this work right here in Seattle will tell you that when they are doing their thing, it’s all eyes on them.

“I think go-go boys are an essential part

of Gay dance clubs,” Floyd Lovelady told SGN. “Almost everyone, whether they want to admit it or not, likes to see some skin when they go to a club.”

Lovelady manages the popular Gay club R Place, which consistently features more go-go dancers than any other Gay club on the Hill. And business is booming.

According to Lovelady, it’s not rocket science; it’s a fact that “go-go boys get a party going.” However, Lovelady does admit that it is easy to find hot guys in Seattle who are willing to strip down and dance. Due to the in-house themed shows like the ASS Contest (Amateur Strip Show) and Wet Underwear, Lovelady said, “I’ve been lucky enough to have found some hot go-go boys from right here in Seattle.”

If the crowd likes a contestant, Lovelady will approach him after the show to see if he’s interested in working.

“Word of mouth has spread the news that we hire go-go boys,” said Lovelady. “If someone is interested, I ask him to come and compete in one of our shows to see if he can move, and if the audience responds well.”

“Not every guy with a good body can move,” he told SGN, adding, “It takes more than just flexing.”

And a dance background doesn’t always guarantee a job.

“I have a lot of respect for boys who are willing to try it,” Lovelady said, referring to the go-go boy profession. “It’s not easy to dance all night. Make no mistake about it, these guys are athletes.”

Currently, R Place reports having about 10 dancers Lovelady could rotate in. “And I have others waiting for their chance,” he said.

Corey Wood is one of Lovelady’s dancers. He’s been on the job for less than two months and doesn’t go by a stage name. “I do it because I like the money,” Wood told SGN. “I had this habit of taking off my shirt whenever I would go out to dance. Eventually I thought, ‘Why not get paid to take it one step further and dance in my underwear?’”

Echoing what Lovelady said about the physical demands go-go dancing requires, Wood said, “I have a lot of fun dancing. Plus it’s an amazing workout and helps to keep me in shape.”

Some people hold tight to the sentiment that they would be uncomfortable if they felt objectified. Well, needless to say, those people do not usually end up becoming gogo dancers. Wood told SGN that even as a newbie to the go-go scene, he rarely runs into a disrespectful customer.

“There are times when a person might try to get a little too grabby,” he said, “and even that isn’t a huge deal because you are already in your underwear so it’s bound to happen.”

So far on the job, Wood says he’s learned that “a go-go boy has the most fun when he feeds off of everyone else’s energy.”

“So whenever you are at a club that has go-go boys, make sure you and all of your friends are dancing their asses off,” he said.

Nobody wants to watch a go-go boy with no go, go. Age, for the most part, doesn’t play into the picture until quite some time down the road, say most of the older (25plus) go-go boys I spoke with.

Joey Amato, president of OUTreach Public Relations, used to be a go-go dancer.

Earlier this year, at age 31, Amato says he was asked to dance for a bar and actually took them up on the offer. “I was proud of the fact that I had the courage and endurance to dance well and still be considered attractive to many of the bar patrons while dancing next to boys 10 years younger than me,”

Male dancers are a big draw at Seattle’s Gay nightclubs

he said. “I viewed it as an accomplishment, while some people questioned if it would hurt my professional standing in the community.”

Needless to say, “Facebook friend requests were high the next day,” Amato laughed.

Go-go dancers in Washington State do not run into as many issues as a dancer in California might, due to the state liquor laws concerning nudity. Amato told SGN that in some parts of the country, “bar patrons and some people in general believe that ‘go-go boy’ and ‘prostitute’ are one in the same.”

According to Amato, the main difference is the location of where the boys are dancing. “For example, I was asked to dance in a fairly upscale bar in Tennessee,” he explained. “We were not allowed to give private lap dances to anyone, regardless of how much they offered.”

“However, if we were go-go dancing in a strip club, there is a level of prostitution that is expected from the dancers,” said Amato, adding, “even if it’s just a private lap dance.”

To stay out of trouble, and to keep it respectful, Amato says customers need to understand that the location of the go-go dancers dictates the boundaries they need to adhere to.

Gaysha Starr, a well-known Seattle drag entertainer for nearly 20 years, has booked and performed with countless go-go dancers over the years. She says that some of the stigma associated with being a dancer is gone as many of the successful guys on the dance circuit use social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to promote themselves.

“Social media gives dancers direct access to their fans,” Gaysha Starr told SGN. “As an example, before hiring a dancer, I find them on Facebook to get a good look at the photos they’ve posted and check out their fan base.”

“The system works,” she said. “I’ve booked some of Neighbours Seattle’s hottest and most talked-about go-go dancers from their Facebook page.”

Gaysha told SGN that, although Magic Mike is full of Channing Tatum hotness, it takes more than just good looks and a hard body to be successful at club bookings. “The dancers have to be friendly, don’t mind having their pictures being taken with endless club goers, and possess ‘star quality,’” she said, adding, “Some of the most memorable dancers at Neighbours were able to make each person they met feel like the only person in the room.”

In January 2006, Jacob Rodvelt-Gamlieli got his start in the biz at Silverado in Portland, and says that even though most dancers at the venue are strippers, he’s never gone nude onstage.

“I was interested in a bartender that worked there,” he admits, “so I knew that if he saw me go-go dancing I would catch his attention.”

But what caught Rodvelt-Gamlieli’s attention was how much fun he was having as a dancer – so he kept doing it at Neighbours Seattle and R Place, and at parties in New York City and Vancouver, B.C. Most go-go dancers do not want to be called strippers,” he told SGN, adding, “Strippers take their clothes off on stage to arouse the audience and are usually the main attraction.”

Instead, Rodvelt-Gamlieli said, “Go-go’s dance to entertain people and liven the atmosphere as just one component in the overall party.”

Still, Gay club-goers are thrilled to see gogo dancers or male strippers, or some version thereof, whenever we go out. We are also just as equally thrilled to see the same content in movies where the lead characters – or, in Magic Mike’s case, strippers – are Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, and Matt Bomer.

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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July 20, 2012

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nick ardizzone / seattle gay news

ERW and SEAMEC announce candidate endorsements Groups give nod to all incumbents who voted for marriage equality

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer This week, ERW (Equal Rights Washington) and the Seattle Metropolitan Election Committee (SEAMEC) announced their endorsements for the state’s primary election.

Ballots will be mailed to voters on July 20 and must be returned by August 7, either by mail or in person.

ERW is an advocacy group that has been working for LGBT rights since 2004. It successfully lobbied for the Anderson-Murray Civil Rights Act of 2006, a series of domestic partnership bills, and the Marriage Equality Act of 2012.

SEAMEC has been interviewing, researching, and rating political candidates on LGBT issues since 1977.

As might be expected, both ERW and SEAMEC are endorsing the Approve Referendum 74 campaign to keep the state’s Marriage Equality Act, but that question will be on the general election ballot in November, not on the primary ballot.

This year, both organizations cooperated to send a joint questionnaire to candidates, and both have endorsed every incumbent who voted for the Marriage Equality Act – regardless of party affiliation.

ERW spokesperson Josh Friedes said the blanket endorsement reflected ERW’s policy of supporting lawmakers who vote for pro-LGBT bills.

“We have been clear for many years that if people support our key piece of legislation, we will endorse them,” Friedes told SGN. “It’s very important to thank our longtime friends, and to honor those who’ve recently come around to support equal rights.”

For SEAMEC, however, the step was unusual.

“With the passing of the historic Marriage Equality Act in the state legislature

this year, SEAMEC has taken the unprecedented step of endorsing every legislative candidate who voted for marriage equality,” SEAMEC said in a letter to its supporters.

Friedes said ERW was especially pleased to endorse some Republican candidates as well as Democrats representing more conservative districts, because they had taken political risks to vote for marriage.

“We’re aware that their votes came with political challenges – challenges in their districts and with their party,” he noted.

Friedes believes that the biggest challenge for supporters of LGBT rights will be retaining control of the state Senate.

“All eyes are on the Senate,” he told SGN. “Not that we lose sight of the House, but it looks like the hardest task will be keeping the Senate.”

Friedes went on to list a few races ERW believes are especially critical.

“Tim Probst is challenging Don Benton [for the 17th District Senate seat],” he said.

“That will be very exciting if he’s successful. Benton has an awful record.

“There’s an open [Senate] seat in the 27th, and we’re endorsing Jeannie Darneille.

“Senator Mary Margaret Haugen is in some trouble” in her 10th district Senate race, Friedes said, adding that Haugen’s Republican opponent, current State Rep. Barbara Bailey, “has a terrible record on LGBT rights.”

“Steve Litzow [41st District, Senate] has voted for all the major LGBT bills. Litzow and [Maureen] Walsh [16th District, House] prove that equality is consistent with Republican values – that you can be Republican and vote for LGBT rights, and still get elected.”

Both ERW and SEAMEC are endorsing Democrat Jay Inslee for governor.

“It’s hard to imagine a more clear-cut

ERW Director of Marriage Equality Josh Friedes

choice,” Friedes observed. “We need to ral- ples have a right to marry. ly behind Inslee. He’s the equality candidate ERW is also endorsing Steve Gonzalez for and his opponent is not.”

Supreme Court Position 8.

Neither organization endorsed a candi- For Supreme Court Position 9, an open date in the race for attorney general, how- seat following the retirement of Justice Tom ever.

Chambers, ERW is endorsing “anybody but “[Bob] Ferguson has a long history of Richard Sanders.” support for our community,” Friedes ex- When Sanders previously served on the plained. “[Reagan] Dunn supported the Supreme Court (1995-2010) he was known County Council resolution [making mar- as an uncompromising enemy of LGBT riage equality one of the county’s legislative rights. In 2006, Sanders wrote a particularly priorities] and he’s taken a lot of heat for it offensive concurring opinion in Andersen – a lot of heat. arguing against marriage equality.

“We had a lot of conversation on our In a race where SEAMEC made no enboard about races like this – not that we dorsement, ERW supports Craig Pridemore have a divided board – but I hope this will for State Auditor. be a harbinger of the way things will be in “He’s been incredible as a Senator!” Friethe future. I hope we’ll see a situation where des exclaimed. “Troy Kelly also supports candidates of both parties support equal LGBT rights, but Mark Miloscia had a very rights.” poor record as a state rep.”

For the state Supreme Court, ERW and ERW’s complete endorsements can be SEAMEC endorsed Susan Owens – who found at www.progressivevotersguide.com. joined the minority in Andersen v. King SEAMEC’s endorsements can be found in County to argue that Gay and Lesbian cou- this week’s SGN and at www.seamec.org.

Approve R-74 action center holds grand opening

by James Whitely SGN Staff Writer

nate gowdy / seattle gay news

On July 19, Washington United for Marriage, the coalition working to Approve Referendum 74 and uphold Washington’s bipartisan marriage law, held a grand opening ceremony for the campaign’s high-visibility “action center” on East Pike Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The center, which is serving as a major location for the campaign’s “persuasion” phonebanking, is housed in the newly expanded space of Gay City Health Project and Kaladi Brothers Coffee.

Persuasion phone-banking, simply stated, means having conversations with undecided voters about the freedom to marry in

Washington.

Washington United for Marriage data shows that two-thirds of people who have had a conversation about marriage equality support it, which is why the campaign is stepping up its phone-banking efforts.

The data come from a survey conducted by independent pollster Alison Peters last year. Over the course of the poll, Peters found that simply talking about same-sex marriage with someone greatly increased their chance of supporting it. Although this may seem obvious to some, it’s the numbers backing it up that make it impressive.

Peters found that 34% of voters who had never had a conversation about same-sex marriage supported it, compared to 56% of voters who had had such a conversation with a straight person. Additionally, 69% of voters who had a conversation about samesex marriage with a Gay or Lesbian person supported the freedom to marry.

“I think that it’s a really heavy statistic,” Maggie Thompson, the campaign’s field director for western King County, told SGN. “It’s evidence these conversations can really swing voters.”

UFCW 21, a Washington union, has been and will continue to house most of the local phone bank volunteers in SoDo, but the action center offers a place for those on the Hill to stay on the Hill.

The Approve R-74 Action Center is now open.

“For people who live and work in this area, it’s difficult to get to our SoDo phone banks by 5:30,” said Thompson. “We’re hoping that [it’s] really going to get volunteers coming.”

The campaign opened the action center on July 3. The idea was that an office in a centralized location on Capitol Hill, Seattle’s Gayborhood, would give campaign supporters easy access to volunteer opportunities.

After two weeks of phone-banking at the action center, Thompson says the campaign has made a fundamental change in its pitch.

Rather than saying “marriage equality,” the campaign has found that “freedom to marry” seems to resonate more with undecided voters.

Washington United for Marriage is still looking for more volunteers to come into the Capitol Hill action center for persuasion phone banks.

The center is located at 517 E. Pike St. Phone banks run Monday through Thursday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. All are encouraged to sign up or just drop in. An open house will be held this weekend during the Capitol Hill Block Party.

Rich Full-Bodied Cafes Savory Homestyle Soups & Sandwiches 6

Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Celebrating 39 Years!

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed its controversial anti-Gay policies in a statement to media on July 17.

According to BSA spokesperson Deron Smith, an 11-member special committee formed in secret by top Scout leaders in 2010 “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts.”

Smith added that the committee, comprising professional Scout executives and adult volunteers, was unanimous in its conclusion.

Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca said the organization’s anti-Gay policy represented the views of most Scout families.

“The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers, and at the appropriate time and in the right setting,” Mazzuca said.

“We fully understand that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society.”

The decision was an embarrassment to at least two prominent BSA board members who said they wanted a more inclusive policy. AT&T chair Randall Stephenson, who has been selected to take over as BSA president in 2014, and Ernst & Young CEO James Turley both support a change in the group’s longstanding anti-Gay rules.

“My experience has led me to believe that an inclusive environment is important throughout our society and I am proud to be a leader on this issue,” Turley said in June.

“I support the meaningful work of the Boy Scouts in preparing young people for adventure, leadership, learning, and service.

However, the membership policy is not one I would personally endorse.”

In a statement, the BSA executive com-

mittee acknowledged dissent among board members.

“Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to achieve the life-changing benefits to youth through Scouting. While not all board members may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization.”

Zach Wahls, a former Eagle Scout and son of an Iowa Lesbian couple who has emerged as a leading spokesperson for LGBT rights, said he was disappointed in the BSA leadership.

“What is most disappointing about today’s announcement is the secretive nature surrounding how this conclusion was reached,” Wahls wrote to BuzzFeed blog.

“The very first value of the Scout Law is that a Scout is trustworthy. There is absolutely nothing trustworthy about unelected and unnamed committee members who are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.”

Wahls said that the religious values that the Scouts claim to uphold should favor inclusion.

“In the Boy Scouts, I learned about the importance of religious respect. I learned and grew alongside Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus,” he said. “Regardless of your thoughts on homosexuality, surely we can agree that Gay people who serve our troops and communities deserve our respect and gratitude.”

Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio Lesbian ousted from her position as her son’s Cub Scout den mother, posted a petition on Change. org urging the BSA to change its policy. She wrote to BuzzFeed that “a secret committee of 11 people can’t ignore the hundreds of thousands of people around the country – including thousands of Eagle Scouts, Scout families, and former Scouts – that want the

No ‘loyalty oaths’ for Seattle Catholics Archdiocese says Virginia church policy won’t apply here courtesy the record

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Three Sunday-school teachers in the Roman Catholic diocese of Arlington, Virginia, resigned July 12 rather than sign a “loyalty oath” promising to believe everything their bishops tell them.

“The Arlington ‘profession of faith’ asks teachers to commit to ‘believe everything’ the bishops characterize as divinely revealed, and Arlington’s top doctrine official said it would include things like the bishops’ recent campaign against a White House mandate that most employers offer contraception coverage,” The Washington Post

Mel Evans/Associated Press

Boy Scouts reaffirm anti-Gay policies

Robert Mazzuca, the chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America, contends that most Scout families support the organization’s ban on Gays.

ban on Gay Scouts and Scout leaders removed.”

Tyrrell told reporters she is on her way to Dallas to deliver more than 300,000 petitions to the BSA headquarters.

“This campaign doesn’t stop, and we will continue to show the Boy Scouts that discrimination and intolerance have no place in Scouting,” she said.

Smith told the Associated Press that BSA officials would accept Tyrrell’s petition but did not plan to discuss the policy further.

Not all LGBT rights advocates were as optimistic as Tyrrell about the prospects for change in BSA policies. Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, which tracks anti-Gay religious activity, blamed the Christian right.

The Boy Scouts, he said, “are influenced heavily by the Latter Day Saints church and Southern Baptists. Until the influence of these groups wanes, a new policy is doubtful, if not wishful thinking.”

“This is a missed opportunity of colossal proportions,” HRC president Chad Griffin said.

“With the country moving toward inclusion, the leaders of the Boy Scouts of Amerreported.

According to the Post, Arlington is one of a small but growing number of dioceses that demand fidelity oaths from church workers and volunteers.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle does not require loyalty oaths, his spokesperson said.

“Teachers in our system sign no such oaths,” Greg Magnoni, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Seattle, said in an e-mail to Seattle online columnist Joel Connelly.

Another Catholic diocese, in Baker, Oregon, issued a long list of doctrines it requires lay church workers to believe, including “the sinfulness of contraception, the evil of extramarital sexual relationships, the unacceptability of homosexual relationships, [and] the wrongness of cohabitation before marriage.”

Bishop Robert Vasa, former bishop of Baker and now reassigned to Santa Rosa, California, said it is appropriate to require church workers and volunteers to believe in church doctrines.

“As chief shepherd of the Church of Eastern Oregon, I need an assurance that those who serve in official capacities hold interior dispositions consistent with Church teachings,” he said in a statement.

Vasa is a canon lawyer, meaning he is an expert in church law.

In Oakland, California, controversy has broken out between Bishop Salvatore Cordileone and the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry.

The pro-LGBT group’s leaders have been asked to sign a pledge of “adherence to the fullness of Catholic teaching” and to promise they will “strive to clearly present

ica have instead sent a message to young people that only some of them are valued.

These adults could have taught the next generation of leaders the value of respect, yet they’ve chosen to teach division and intolerance.”

“Clinging to a policy of exclusion and intolerance is hardly a good lesson for our young people,” NGLTF Deputy Executive Director Darlene Nipper said in a statement.

“Once again, officials of the Boy Scouts of America have turned their backs on a chance to demonstrate fairness, exercise sound judgment, and serve as a role model for valuing others, free of bias and prejudice. This is deeply disappointing. Discrimination is never the right policy, period.”

On the other hand, the Family Research Council, an anti-Gay group, congratulated the BSA on its decision.

“They deserve a major pat on the back,” the FRC said in a statement. “They have defied the winds of political correctness and have said ‘no’ to a culture that wants us to accept as normative a pattern of sexual behavior which clearly violates God’s intended design for men and women.”

Catholic doctrine on homosexuality in its fullness.” They have refused to do so.

One of the Arlington teachers who quit is Rosemarie Zagarri, a professor of history at George Mason University. She said she felt that she was being asked to go against her own conscience.

“Although I fully understand the authoritative role of the Catholic hierarchy in defining the teachings of the faith, in my view only a person who is willing to abandon her own reason and judgment, or who is willing to go against the dictates of her own conscience, can agree to sign such a document,” she wrote to Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde.

Pope Pius X, now venerated as a saint, ordered all bishops, priests, and teachers of theology to sign an “Oath Against Modernism” in 1910, in an attempt to counter the trend toward a less literal, more critical approach to scripture that was then starting to take hold in seminaries. The oath was scrapped in 1967, after the Second Vatican Council opened its “dialogue with the contemporary world.”

Come meet Tim and Matt and join the family.

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

206-838-6027 or 206-898-4306

Visit us online www.sgn.org

July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News

7

edie windsor / bless bless productions

Expedited ruling sought in DOMA challenge ACLU urges Supreme Court to review 83-year-old Lesbian’s case

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer “Today, we asked the United States Supreme Court to review the ACLU’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act on behalf of Edie Windsor,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement issued July 16.

Windsor sued the government in 2010, claiming that the death of her partner of more than 40 years forced her to pay more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes that she would not have had to pay had the two been a straight married couple.

She and her partner, Thea Spyer, were legally married in Canada in 2007, after living together for four decades. The couple lived in New York, which accorded legal recognition to their out-of-country marriage. Because of DOMA, however, the federal government did not recognize their union, and held Windsor liable for federal estate taxes when Spyer died.

On June 6, Federal District Judge Barbara Jones ruled that Windsor had been deprived of her constitutional right to equal protection because there is no “rational basis” to deprive Lesbian and Gay couples of the rights enjoyed by opposite-sex married couples.

On June 13, Jones’s ruling was appealed

by BLAG (the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group), the group formed by Republican House Speaker John Boehner to defend

DOMA in court after the Obama administration declined to do so.

Normally, the case – known as Windsor v. United States – would next be heard by a panel of judges from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ACLU petition asking the Supreme Court to take the case would bypass the Second Circuit.

“Asking for Supreme Court review now, even before the federal appeals court decides Edie’s case, is unusual,” the ACLU acknowledged in its statement.

“In the vast majority of cases, the Supreme Court won’t take a case until there is a federal appellate decision, but in rare circumstances, it can reach down into lower courts and pluck cases for earlier review.”

Roberta Kaplan, Windsor’s lawyer, said the July 16 petition to speed the lawsuit’s movement through the courts was due in part to her client’s age and health.

“Edie and Thea were together for more than four decades and truly lived the words ‘in sickness and in health, until death do us part,’” Kaplan said in a Huffington Post interview.

“Edie, who just turned 83, suffers from a chronic heart condition. The constitutional injury inflicted on Edie should be remedied within her lifetime.”

Windsor and the ACLU are not alone in asking the Supreme Court to review DOMA. On July 3, the U.S. Department of Justice petitioned the Supreme Court to by-

Thea Spyer (l) and Edie Windsor

pass the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and routinely granted to opposite sex-couples hear Golinski v. OPM, another case chal- but denied to same-sex couples. lenging DOMA. “There are now over 130,000 married In Golinski, a suit brought by Lambda same-sex couples in the United States,” the Legal, a federal employee is challenging ACLU says. “DOMA harms each of those DOMA on the grounds that the law prevents couples in a wide variety of ways, since it her from enrolling her same-sex spouse in a treats them as unmarried in each of the 1,138 long-term care plan offered by a public em- different contexts in which federal statutes ployee retirement program. determine protections or obligations based In a third case – Gill v. OPM, brought by on marriage.”

GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and The Supreme Court is not legally required Defenders) – the First Circuit has already to hear any of the DOMA cases. It accepts a upheld a lower court’s ruling that DOMA is case for review only when at least four of the unconstitutional, and BLAG has appealed nine justices vote to do so. Most appeals to to the Supreme Court. Like the Golinski the Supreme Court are rejected without becase, Gill involves federal benefits that are ing heard.

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor More than 30,000 petitions have been delivered to Congress by Freedom to Marry and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) seeking legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), citing the inequalities it has forced upon Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan and her wife, Karen.

Morgan, who is battling incurable stagefour breast cancer, recently returned from a deployment to the Middle East. Should she not survive the battle for her health, Karen would not receive the survivor benefits she would need to care for the couple’s fiveyear-old daughter, Casey Elena.

“In 2008, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy to save my life,” Morgan said July 18. “In 2010 – declared cancer-free by my oncologist – I was deployed to Kuwait for one year in support of Operation New Dawn. I faithfully fulfilled my duty and returned home to my wife and our then-four-year-old daughter.

But last September, we learned the awful truth that my cancer has returned. It is metastatic and incurable. We don’t know how long I have.”

SLDN and Freedom to Marry also announced meetings at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to deliver the petition signed by 30,000 supporters of the Respect for Marriage Act, via the “Freedom to Serve,

8

Seattle Gay News

Freedom to Marry” campaign. The video and petition delivery are the latest initiatives of the national campaign by the two organizations highlighting the stories of military families harmed by DOMA. “Many people think that our troops are serving freely and fairly alongside each other as a result of the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but that is not the case,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry. “There is still a federal ban on treating married servicemembers as what they are – married. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act continues to discriminate against Gay and Lesbian servicemembers and their families, including the Morgans, by denying them the critical safety net of protections and responsibilities that come only with marriage. It is time to do what’s right by our military families, end federal marriage discrimination, and give all married servicemembers the same fairness, dignity, and respect.”

The Morgans are plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by SLDN in October 2011 challenging DOMA and three other federal statutes that prevent the military from providing equal recognition and support to same-sex military spouses. Currently, the Morgans do not receive the same protections as their straight married peers, and Karen would not be entitled to survivor’s benefits upon Morgan’s death.

Morgan drew national support in February when she visited the Capitol to meet with the staff of Speaker of the House John

July 20, 2012

courtesy think progress

Cancer-stricken soldier fights for her life, family’s equality

Charlie Morgan (l) and her wife Karen

Boehner (R-Ohio), tell her personal story, and share how the Speaker’s ongoing defense of DOMA via the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group harms her family.

There, she detailed her battle with cancer and asked the Speaker to drop his support of DOMA. Boehner has ignored her pleas and continues to defend the discriminatory law in court.

“It’s unfathomable to me how anyone could look at the Morgan family and not be moved by this wonderful family and see how they’re being treated unfairly,” said Army veteran and SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis. “Here’s a servicemember who has risked her life for our nation overseas and now is fighting for her life here at home. She shouldn’t be forced also to fight for her family to be recognized, respected, and provided the same support as any of her peers would receive. It’s time to end the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act and treat all servicemembers as first-class Americans.”

Because of the “Gay exception” created

by DOMA, America’s legally married Gay

and Lesbian couples are denied more than 1,100 federal protections, benefits, and responsibilities, including access to military insurance programs, Social Security survivor benefits, equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws, and the opportunity to take leave to care for a spouse.

Freedom to Marry’s federal program works to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and make the case for marriage to government officials, opinion leaders, and political operatives in Washington, D.C. Freedom to Marry jointly leads the Respect for Marriage Coalition, a diverse group of nearly 75 organizations working together to repeal DOMA. Since the introduction of the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress, the number of co-sponsors has increased from 18 to 32 in the Senate – including every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee – and from 108 to 151 in the House of Representatives.

For more information on Freedom to Serve, Freedom to Marry, visit www. freedomtomarry.org/serve.

Celebrating 39 Years!

NORTHWEST

GAY CITY HOSTS “MEET THE AUTHOR” EVENT On Thursday, July 26, at 6:30 p.m., the Michael C. Weidemann LGBT Library at Gay City (517 E. Pike St.) welcomes Rick compiled by Rick McKinnon Reed for their July “Meet the Author” event.

SGN Staff Writer A Seattle resident, Reed’s books include Caregiver, The Blue Moon Cafe, and Tales “PORTRAITS OF PRIDE 2012” On Saturday, July 21, at 7:30 p.m., at New from the Sexual Underground. FREE. www.

Gay City (517 E. Pike St.) hosts “Portraits Freeway Hall (5018 Rainier Ave. S.), Mike gaycity.org. of Pride 2012” – an art show featuring origi- Fuqua, a rank-and-file member of Internanal work by local LGBT community artists tional Longshore and Warehouse Union BELLEVUE ARTS MUSEUM – thru July 22. www.gaycity.org.

Local 21, will be joined by Calvin Borders ARTSFAIR & of the Seattle Port Trucker Association BELLEVUE DODGEBALL SEATTLE and Annaliza Torres, a member of Office FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS TOURNAMENT TO BENEFIT and Professional Employees International JULY 27-29 MARRIAGE EQUALITY Union and the Occupy Seattle Port SolidarOn Friday and Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-9:30 On Saturday, July 21, from noon-6 p.m., ity Committee to examine the lessons of the p.m.; Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., the Bela 6-on-6 outdoor dodgeball tournament will strikes and work stoppages that swept docks levue Arts Museum hosts their annual be held at Cal Anderson Park, at the tennis in Longview and Seattle last winter and ARTSfair at Bellevue Square (NE 8th Ave. courts (Nagle Pl. & E. Pine St.) during the spring and to look at what’s next. $3 door & Bellevue Way NE). From jewelry and Capitol Hill Block Party. At 6 p.m., awards donation, $9 optional dinner donation, with wearables to paintings and ceramics, BAM will be presented to winners and a social sliding scale available for students, stikers, ARTSfair is one of the largest, most prestiwill begin. The social, with food provided, and the unemployed. Wheelchair acces- gious art festivals in the Pacific Northwest will last until 8 p.m., when a second, less sible. featuring over 300 juried artist booths, performal tournament will begin. The registraformance art, live music, arts demonstration price is $16 for individuals or $100 for KITSAP PRIDE IN BREMERTON tions and delicious food. The Bellevue Festeams. See www.dodgeballseattle.com/venOn Sunday, July 22, Kitsap Pride holds tival of the Arts is held across the street in ues/the-block-party-throwdown/ for details their annual celebration at Evergreen Park front of Cost Plus and there are also arts and on registration and rules.All proceeds from (1400 Park Ave., Bremerton) beginning at crafts vendors situated along a walkway and the event will go to support marriage equal- noon. This year’s theme is “Pride Links Us in a plaza east of Bellevue Square. www. ity in Washington State.

Together.” www.kitsappride.org. bellevuearts.org; www.bellevuefest.org.

NEWS

OASIS YOUTH CENTER “PROUD OUTLOUD!” BENEFIT IN TACOMA On Saturday, July 21, dinner 4:30-7 p.m., dessert 7-9 p.m., enjoy an evening of dinners, dessert, and performance celebrating LGBTQ youth in Tacoma.

Attend one of many celebratory dinners hosted at the homes of Oasis friends. Dinners range in price from $50 to $125 and include dessert tickets. The evening continues with dessert and youth performances at Tacoma’s Pantages Theatre, 901 Broadway.

Dessert only tickets are $25.

Please RSVP at 253-671-2838 or oasis@ oasisyouthcenter.org and help support Oasis, Tacoma’s LGBTQ youth center. www. oasisyouthcenter.org.

FREEDOM SOCIALIST PARTY – LABOR DISCUSSION ON WATERFRONT WORKERS

2012 QUEERLY CLASSED DISCUSSION SERIES – LGBTQ ADULTS LEARNING TO BE ALLIES TO HOMELESS YOUTH On Wednesday, July 25, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Southside Commons (3518 S. Edmunds St.), come to a discussion on how LGBTQ adults can become allies to homeless youth. Sponsored by LGBTQ Allyship, organizing for social and economic justice. www.LGBTQallyship.org.

SEATTLE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY – FREE SUMMER CONCERT AT VOLUNTEER PARK On Wednesday, July 25, at 7 p.m., Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2012 Summer Festival presents a FREE concert at Volunteer Park (14th Ave. E. & E. Prospect St.). www.seattlechambermusic.org.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

RADICAL WOMEN SOUTH END BOOK SALE On Saturday, July 28, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, July 29, noon-4 p.m., stock up on some great reading – novels, suspense, fantasy, history, sci-fi, ethnic and women’s studies, plus movies, music and more – at New Freeway Hall (5018 Rainier Ave. S.).

For more information and to donate books – 206-722-6057; RWseattle@mindspring. com.

“JOCKSTRAPS & GLITTER” On Saturday, July 28, kick-off at 2 p.m., join the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Abbey of St. Joan, and the Seattle Quake Rugby Football Club for “Jockstraps & Glitter” at Bobby Morris Playfield/Cal Anderson Park (11th Ave. E. & E. Olive St., just north of E. Pine St.). Hosted by drag comedienne Lily Armani. A post-game Victory Celebration will be held at Purr (1518 11th Ave.)

BINET SEATTLE PICNIC On Saturday, July 28, from 3-7 p.m., at Seward Park, Picnic Shelter #1 (5895 Lake Washington Blvd. S.), BiNet Seattle invites you to join the Bisexual community for their 13th Annual Picnic. They’ll provide burgers, sausages, vegetarian burgers, and plates. you bring a non-alcoholic beverage and something to share, such as a salad THREE DOLLAR BILL CINEMA or dessert. This is a family-friendly event.

OUTDOOR MOVIE SERIES – Bring your kids and your partners and enjoy “ROAD TRIP” the sun and the shade. Please RSVP at http:// Celebrate summer nights with four ir- socialzr.punchbowl.com/parties/4263809restible on-screen adventures at Cal An- binet-seattle-picnic. derson Park (11th Ave. & E. Olive St., just north of E. Pine St.) Movies start at sunset IMPERIAL COURT OF SEATTLE – (approximately 8:30 p.m.) and admission is KING & QUEEN OF THE SEAS FREE. The movies: On Saturday, July 28, door at 5 p.m., pagPee-Wee’s Big Adventures (July 27) eant at 6 p.m., at R Place (619 E. Pine St.) Elvis in Viva Las Vegas (August 3) the Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle The Wizard of Oz (August 10) presents “Wet and Wild” – the 2012 King The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the and Queen of the Seas Pageant. Contestants Desert (August 17) in the pageant will compete in Theme Wear, Bring lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on. Swim Suit, Evening Wear, and a Question Hot popcorn, cold drinks, candy and other and Answer segment. Winners will be seconcessions will be for sale and a limited lected by audience vote. $7 donation at the number of lawn chairs will be available for door. (Contestant applications accepted rent. Donations to Three Dollar Bill Cinema until 5:30 p.m. day of show. Contact Madiwill be happily accepted. Come early to en- son Lane-Weston for more information and joy music with 12HR NOTICE DJs and the contest rules – madisonlaneweston@yahoo.

Shopping Cart Soundsystem. www.three- com. dollarbillcinema.org.

July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News

9

10 Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Celebrating 39 Years!

Visit us online www.sgn.org

July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News 11

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July 20, 2012

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Celebrating 39 Years!

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July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News 13

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14 Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Celebrating 39 Years!

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Seattle Gay News 15

NEWS

GAY RIGHTS GROUP FACES CHARGE OF INSULTING MUGABE Media reports from Zimbabwe say Chesterfield Samba, head of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), recently was called by police for questioning.

Samba’s organization will be charged under Section 33 of the Criminal Law Act, which makes it illegal to insult President Robert Mugabe or undermine the office of president.

Mugabe is famously homophobic and has made many outrageous anti-Gay statements over the years.

The government claims that in 2010, GALZ displayed in its office a letter by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown that criticized Mugabe and may have breached the law.

The same year, two other GALZ members, Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, were arrested but never prosecuted on charges of being in possession of “indecent material.” It appeared the material in question was Brown’s letter.

by Scott Wittet SGN Contributing Writer recently demanded more action and discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity as part as universal human rights standards, and as a way to combat hate crimes.

The joint statement came as a reminder about recommendations from the first global panel discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity, which was held by the UN Human Rights Council on March 7.

Since then, the matter has not been discussed, and the joint statement by South Africa and Brazil stated this must change: “We should not inadvertently undermine the promotion and protection of human rights by remaining silent.”

The joint statement comes at an important time, as different countries and stakeholders from all regions consider next steps and follow-up initiatives in the wake of the panel.

Strong pro-LGBT statements were also delivered by Norway, the Council of Europe, and civil society, including a joint statement by ILGA-Europe, COC Netherlands, ARC, and other organizations.

LESBIANS FEEL ENDANGERED IN SOUTH AFRICA TOWNSHIPS Though homosexuality is not illegal in South Africa, Lesbians in townships around Cape Town say they fear for their lives following a spate of violent attacks.

One woman told the Cape Argus newspaper she had been warned by a neighbor that a group of men from the area were plotting to harm her and other Lesbians.

“We are now so scared that we are considering carrying weapons so we can defend ourselves.”

“They think we want to take over their clothes and girlfriends. We are not trying to be them … we will never be men, we are girls,” said the woman.

The brutal murder of 22-year-old openly Lesbian Phumeza Nkolonzi several weeks ago sent shockwaves through Cape Town’s LGBT community.

Nkolonzi was shot three times by an unknown man who kicked down the door to her home and shot her in front of her 70-year-old grandmother and six-year-old niece, without a word. The gunman is still at large.

Members of Lesbian and Gay lobby group Free Gender say they don’t know who will be attacked next.

“We are now scared to walk around the township. You can feel the tension in the air around here. Phumeza’s murder has shown that we are not safe even in our homes … it’s like we are walking around in a war zone – we don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said 29-year-old Ndwane.

Two years ago, Ndwane was attacked and beaten until she collapsed and lost consciousness while walking with a group of friends.

“They started swearing at us, calling us ‘fucking Lesbians’ and ‘tomboys.’ We ignored them and walked past them. One of them came towards me and punched me in the face. I tried to fight back … he hit me again and again. That incident left me traumatized and made me realize the extreme hate harbored by some men towards Lesbians and Gays … I’m lucky I survived, it could have been worse.”

Activist and Free Gender founder Funeka Soldaat said hate crimes against the LGBT community were on the rise in townships.

Soldaat added that having religious leaders such as the Rev. Oscar Bougardt preaching to communities that “Gays and Lesbians should burn in Hell” is making things worse.

“We are trying to spread awareness and SOUTH AFRICA, BRAZIL DEMAND tolerance in communities and churches and UN ACTION ON GAY RIGHTS Pink News reports that the United Nations we have this man who is respected by many ambassadors for South Africa and Brazil as a man of God saying we should be killed.

EU PARLIAMENTARIAN STANDS UP FOR AFRICAN LESBIAN RIGHTS A British member of the European Parliament is calling on the body to take a stand against the brutal persecution of Lesbians in Africa, according to ILGA. Marina Yannakoudakis, a Conservative spokesperson on women’s rights in the EP, submitted a resolution that calls on the 38 countries in Africa where homosexuality is illegal to repeal their Gay bans.

It also denounces hatred and violence on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Yannakoudakis initially tabled the motion earlier this year when the first women ever to be charged with homosexuality in Cameroon were due to be brought before a court on March 8, which is International Women’s Day. The Cameroon government also opposed an EU-funded aid project to provide assistance and guidance to sexual minorities.

“Recent developments in Cameroon made me realize that we needed to stand up for the rights of LGBTI people in Africa,” Yannakoudakis said.

“Lesbian women are particularly at threat from violence and rape when their sexual orientation is revealed, and I and other members of the European Parliament’s women’s rights committee have been concerned by the worsening situation.”

She says she was moved to take action after a woman in her London constituency who fled Uganda told of how she was violently abused because she is a Lesbian.

“When her father discovered she was Gay, he beat her and then denounced her to the police,” Yannakoudakis explained.

“She spent over a year in a cell where she was tortured and raped almost every day.

She fell pregnant and gave birth alone in her cell. The baby was stillborn and Theresa had to leave [the body] in the corner of her cell for days.

“Theresa escaped and arrived in London in 2006, but she has permanent hearing loss from the beatings. I have been told that this is very typical of Lesbians who flee persecution from some African countries.”

Yannakoudakis added that she hopes her resolution will bring about “real change” in countries that routinely persecute LGBT people.

16 Seattle Gay News

EPA

INTERNATIONAL

July 20, 2012

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe

It’s perpetuating hate crimes,” said Soldaat.

“Even more worrying is [President Jacob Zuma’s] silence on the matter … how many more have to die before this issue is taken seriously?”

In addition to his condemnation of Gays, Bougardt has also said South African Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will “burn in Hell” for supporting the LGBT community.

INDIAN COURT NIXES TRANS WOMAN’S ELECTION ­The election of Trans women, known locally as hijras, to local government positions has been ruled illegal by courts due to a lack of clarity on the candidates’ gender, according to the Deccan Herald newspaper.

In 2009 Kamla Bua, a hijra, won the mayoral contest in the Indian town of Sagar by a margin of 43,000 votes. That seat was reserved for women belonging to what is known in India as “scheduled castes,” or SCs. Quota systems for SC persons are designed to compensate for millennia of oppression by dominant Hindu castes in India.

But Bua’s nearest rival candidate challenged the election outcome in 2011, saying that as a hijra, Bua was ineligible to run for a seat reserved for women.

After hearing arguments from both sides, a state court nullified the Bua’s election on the grounds that Bua had failed to prove that she is a woman or that she belongs to the SC category.

Professor Ayub Khan, who has written extensively about hijras in politics, says the question is significant in view of the fact that voters gave a decisive mandate to Bua to run the affairs of a municipal body.

He believes their will should be honored.

“People knew that they were voting for a hijra, so there is no point in nullifying the polls,” he said.

Hijras were given voting rights in 1994 and the issue of categorizing themselves as men or women was left to each individual.

Bua’s attorneys say the state court’s decision will be appealed.

PETITION CONDEMNS TURKISH ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ An online petition has been launched to lobby Turkey’s president to address the “honor killings” of Gay and Transgender people in his country.

President Abdullah Gül is being petitioned to act against the “systematic violence and discrimination faced by Turkey’s LGBT community,” the organizer said.

The Care2 petition’s sponsor, Omar Kuddus, told Pink News he was prompted to act by the news of the killing of a Trans woman.

Earlier this week, Seçil Anne, a sex worker, was found dead at her home in Antalya, in southwest Turkey.

Kuddus said, “The onslaught of violence against Transsexual women in Turkey has shown no sign of abating with the tragic news of yet another murder this week.

“Sexual identity and homophobia in modern-day Turkey and the systematic violence and discrimination faced by Turkey’s LGBT community must be brought to the forefront.”

The highest-profile “honor killing” in Turkey was that of Ahmet Yildiz in 2008. Yildiz was shot after his family found out about a relationship he was having with another man. It was alleged that his father, who has been a fugitive ever since, was responsible.

The petition says: “The Turkish government is gradually opening up on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues. But LGBT rights are still not part of Turkish law, and there is even less in terms of anti-discriminatory legislation.”

It ends by calling on President Gül to “express his disapproval for the murder, ensure that the criminal is suitably punished, establish laws condemning hate crime, homophobia and honor killings, provide extra protection for victims of hate crimes, and establish laws to prevent violence against Gay and Transgender citizens.”

LGBT communities and vibrant Gay scenes have been developing across Turkey in the last two decades. Turkey has also become a refuge for LGBTs from neighboring countries, most notably Iran and Iraq.

Celebrating 39 Years!

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander Transgender and gender-nonconforming people face high levels of discrimination, according to an analysis released July 19.

Titled Injustice at Every Turn: A Look at Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (API) Respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, the report is a supplement to the comprehensive national study released last year, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. That study revealed widespread discrimination experienced by Transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

Both reports were authored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA).

A key finding of the full report was that even given the high levels of discrimination against all Transgender people in the U.S., people of color experienced heightened levels of discrimination and had worse outcomes than the sample overall. API Transgender people faced a combination of anti-Transgender bias and structural and interpersonal racism.

“From employment discrimination to education to health care disparities, Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander Transgender people are suffering at high rates due to bigotry, racism, and Transphobia,” said Anjali

Chaudhry, NQAPIA board member. “This is unacceptable. NQAPIA is committed to bringing visibility to these inequities and to creating a world where Transgender and gender-nonconforming people can go about their daily lives without fear of discrimination, harassment, or violence.”

The new supplemental analysis was released at the 2012 NQAPIA Conference, which kicked off July 19 in Washington, D.C. Among the findings: * API Transgender people had a high unemployment rate at 12%, nearly twice the rate of the general population at the time the survey was fielded (7%). * API Transgender people often live in extreme poverty, with 18% reporting an annual household income of less than $10,000.

This is higher than the rate for Transgender people of all races (15%), six times the rate for the general API population (3%), and over four times the rate for the general U.S. population (4%). * API respondents who attended school as Transgender people reported alarming rates of harassment (65%), physical assault (39%), and sexual assault (19%) in grades K-12. Eleven percent reported their harassment was so severe that it led them to leave school. Six percent were also expelled due to bias. * Nearly 5% of API Transgender people reported being HIV-positive and an additional 10% reported that they did not know their status. * Forty-four percent of API Transgender and gender-nonconforming people have experienced significant family acceptance.

Those respondents who were accepted by their families were much less likely to face

Big Brothers Big Sisters launches LGBT initiative

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound has launched an effort to recruit members of the LGBT communities in the Puget Sound region to become volunteer mentors and share their time and experiences with children and young people in the community.

“We also have a commitment to reaching out to LGBT families and LGBT children and youth to let them know caring adult mentors are available for any child who needs and wants one,” said BBBSPS officials in a statement released to the media last week.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound partners with actively involved community members to match caring adults with children, “both of whom benefit from our oneto-one mentoring programs,” say officials.

courtesy new york daily news

Discrimination against API Transgenders at high level, new analysis finds

Pauline Park is an outspoken advocate for Transgender rights and chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA)

discrimination.

“The numbers make clear the way that racism, anti-immigrant, and anti-Transgender bias all work together, often with devastating results in the lives of API Transgender people,” said Darlene Nipper, the NGLTF’s deputy executive director. “This report is a critical call to action. We must ensure that we continue to work toward an LGBT movement that prioritizes immigration, racial, and economic justice.”

“These findings underscore the importance of recognizing that API Transgender people are a significant and too-often marginalized part of both the API and LGBT

communities, and one that faces substantial and sometimes unique challenges,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“And the broader racial justice analysis has too often excluded APIs. This research contributes to our long-held belief that policy makers must understand and act on the deep disparities that exist within people-of-color communities.”

Injustice at Every Turn is available in English, traditional Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog, Tamil, and Vietnamese. Both the original report and the follow-up can be downloaded at www.thetaskforce.org.

Big Sisters have a direct and measurable impact on children’s lives. Little Brothers and Sisters are more confident in their school performance, better able to get along with their families, 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs, 27% less likely to begin using alcohol, and 52% less likely to skip school.

According to information provided to SGN by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound, “LGBT identities are not only accepted but seen as an asset to reflecting the full range of identities that BBBSPS is trying to represent in their Bigs and Littles.”

BBBSPS says it is committed to providing activities and opportunities for LGBT Bigs and Littles. In fact, the agency recently sponsored a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival movie, tabled at the Seattle AIDS Walk and

Rainbow Families pumpkin-patch event, and talked with over a dozen LGBT organizations and groups in the area.

“Please consider volunteering to become a mentor,” said officials, adding, “You can make a big difference in the life of a child by committing a few hours a month to just hang out with a young person.”

If you’re interested in becoming a Big Brother or Sister, or if you know a young person who might benefit from the program, contact Jordan Lane at jordan.lane@ bbbsps.org or Pamela Shields at pamela. shields@bbbsps.org. For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound and the LGBT Initiative, visit the agency’s website, www.bbbsps.org.

Here’s how it works: Bigs (adult volunteers) and Littles (children ages 7-17) meet a few times a month in school or elsewhere in the community to share fun activities and a little part of their lives.

“I have wanted to volunteer as a mentor for a long time but I wasn’t sure how an organization, child, or family would handle my sexual orientation, let alone my gender identity,” Big Brother Chris said. “When I was told that there was a Little who was questioning his gender identity, it seemed like a perfect fit.

“I can tell that my Little Brother Shawn feels himself around me and I know that he knows he can express his gender identity in whatever way feels most comfortable for him when we are together, as do I,” said Chris.

National research has shown that the positive relationships fostered by Big Brothers

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Seattle Gay News 17

No membership unless you Netherlands OKs support LGBT rights, EU says asylum for LGBT Iraqis The European Commission said on July 13 that respect for LGBT rights is a legal criterion for membership in the European Union.

The commission, which is the EU’s executive body, cited the 1993 Copenhagen criteria for EU eligibility and Article 2 of the EU Treaty, which prohibit discrimination against “minorities.”

It also cited Articles 10 and 19 of the EU Treaty and Article 21 of the European Charter on Fundamental Rights, all of which explicitly forbid discrimination on grounds of “sexual orientation.”

“Rights of LGBT people thus form an integral part of both the Copenhagen political criteria for accession and the EU legal framework on combating discrimination,” the commission said. “They are closely monitored by the EU commission, which reports annually on the progress made by enlargement countries with regard to the situation of the LGBT community.”

The commission’s note on LGBT rights was sent to the news website EUobserver in response to a question arising from a May 21 riot in Yerevan, Armenia. Armenia is not an EU member, but the country has a partnership agreement with the EU dating from 1999.

A small pro-Gay rally in Yerevan was besieged by counter-demonstrators who shouted slogans referring to Gay people as a disease and a threat to children. That night one of Yerevan’s few Gay bars was vandalized.

Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, an ecumenical officer of the Armenian Catholic Church, defended the anti-Gay protesters.

“It’s not in our culture to accept homosexuals. I mean, we don’t reject the person, but we reject the sin and this is our freedom as Armenians. Our culture does not accept this,” he told EUobserver in a recent interview.

Manukyan added that Armenia upholds

basic human rights, but Gay rights are a “secondary” issue where difference of opinion should be permitted.

“We have our cultural differences which should be respected ... These are questions on which you don’t have consensus also in Europe. Europe is not just Western Europe.

For instance, Poland is a strong Christian country, or Romania or Bulgaria, or Serbia – Armenia is closer to these countries in its understanding,” the bishop explained.

In some cases, EU entrants have negotiated opt-outs from EU laws, or transition periods for implementing culturally sensitive ones. The European Commission’s statement now seems to foreclose that possibility, at least in the area of LGBT rights.

Ulrike Lunacek, an openly Lesbian Austrian member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the parliament’s LGBT rights group, said the statement may block the membership of countries whose laws are hostile to LGBT rights.

“Accession of a country will not be possible if certain LGBTI rights are not put into law and into practice. Non-discrimination in the field of employment, for instance, has become part of the [conditions for accession],” she said.

“Protection of Pride marches has become a recurrent monitoring theme in the commission’s progress reports on enlargement countries,” Lunacek added.

She said that EU institutions should work with culturally conservative countries on the EU’s fringe rather than putting up barriers, however.

“That is what the EU also stands for: cooperation instead of confrontation, openness instead of fear ... And that is another good thing,” said Lunacek.

Croatia has been approved for EU membership in July 2013.

The current candidates for EU admittance are Iceland – which has a good record on LGBT rights – and Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey – which do not. Albania has applied but has not been officially recognized as a candidate nation.

VALERIE KUYPERS

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Dutch Immigration Minister Geert Leers

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer In a reversal of policy, the government of the Netherlands announced on July 16 that it would grant asylum to LGBT immigrants from Iraq.

Dutch Immigration Minister Geert Leers said Iraq is no longer a safe place for LGBT people, and the Iraqi government has failed to take measures to protect them. Leers had temporarily halted deportations of LGBT

Iraqis in June following an alert issued by the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry report was highly critical of the treatment of LGBT people in Iraq, saying that in some areas of the country they are deliberately targeted by armed militias.

Koen van Dijk of the Dutch Gay rights organization COC said the announcement was an important victory for Iraqis who had fled the country because of their sexual orientation. According to van Dijk, Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world for LGBT people.

“Research has shown that 750 people have been murdered for this reason since 2003,” he said.

“There are systematic campaigns. Organized militias publicly declare that they’re hunting down people who exhibit ‘deviant’ behavior and should be killed according to Islamic law.”

Under new immigration rules announced

by Leers, people who claim asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation must prove they are LGBT before asylum will be grant-

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18 Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Celebrating 39 Years!

ed. Van Dijk said it remains unclear how refugees’ sexual orientation will be confirmed, and he predicted that the new rules would lead to difficulties. “[E]specially because people will have to prove something they’ve taught themselves to disguise out of fear for their entire life,” he said. “It will be a very tricky situation and the immigration officials carrying out the interviews will need special training.”

In March, the Dutch parliament had asked Leers to investigate the situation of LGBT residents of Iraq, following a series of reports about the murder of Gays.

In April, Leers touched off a huge controversy when he told three African asylum applicants to, in effect, go home and stay in the closet. The men – from Senegal, Uganda, and Sierra Leone – had applied for asylum on the grounds that they faced serious threats to their safety in their own countries.

Leers told them they should return, “be extremely circumspect in [their] behavior,” and “hide [their] homosexuality.”

The three appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court, which halted deportation proceedings. The case is now pending before the European Court in Luxembourg.

Under U.S. law, people may qualify for asylum if they can demonstrate past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution based on membership in a particular social group. In 1994, the scope of the law was expanded to specifically include LGBT people.

LGBT people applying for asylum in the U.S. must also prove their sexual orientation and must demonstrate actual persecution, or the risk thereof, because of it. For example, applicants may present affidavits from same-sex partners, or police and medical reports of abuse.

Legal experts say meeting the burden of proof may be difficult for people from places like Saudi Arabia or Iran where same-sex relations are punishable by death, because it is dangerous to be openly Gay or report an anti-Gay hate crime. It can be equally difficult for applicants from Western countries that are believed to be sexually tolerant.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received about 38,000 asylum applications between October 2009 and September 2010, but the agency does not track how many cite being LGBT as a reason.

this country.”

“Today’s decision by the FDA heralds a new era in HIV prevention – one with great promise for expanded access to HIV testing and prevention counseling and support,” said Neil Giuliano, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “The approval paves the way for increased work with the federal government and Gilead Sciences [the drug’s manufacturer] to ensure they realize the incredible impact they can now have to get Truvada to the communities that stand to benefit most, especially Gay men and people of color.”

As a part of the approval, the FDA stated that Truvada’s boxed warning must alert health care professionals and uninfected individuals that Truvada for PrEP must be used only by individuals who are confirmed to be HIV-negative. The drug is contraindicated for PrEP in individuals whose HIV status is unknown or positive, and the FDA strongly discourages such use. Consequently, the FDA recommends that patients be tested for HIV before receiving the drug, and then at three-month intervals for the duration of its use.

Truvada’s safety and efficacy for PrEP were demonstrated in two large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

One three-year trial evaluated Truvada in 2,499 HIV-negative men and Trans women who have sex with men who show evidence of high-risk behavior for HIV infection, such as inconsistent or no condom use during sex with a partner of positive or unknown HIV status; a high number of sex partners; and/or exchange of sex for commodities. Results showed Truvada was 42% more effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection than the placebo.

“This approval is a major milestone in our 30-year fight against AIDS,” said Dr. Robert M. Grant of the University of California at San Francisco, lead investigator of the MSM/TWSM trial. “The use of PrEP alongside routine HIV testing gives us a tremendous opportunity to reduce the rate of new HIV infections in this country and around the world.”

Another trial was conducted with 4,758 heterosexual sero-discordant couples (in which one partner is HIV-positive and the other isn’t). Results showed Truvada reduced the risk of infection by 75 percent.

“The data clearly demonstrate that Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis is effeccontinued from cover tive at reducing the risk of HIV infection New treatments as well as prevention meth- acquired through sexual exposure,” said Dr. ods are needed to fight the HIV epidemic in Connie Celum of the University of Wash-

truvada

ington, lead investigator of the heterosexual trial. “It is exciting to consider the potential impact of this new HIV prevention tool, which could contribute to significantly reducing new HIV infections as part of a combination HIV prevention strategy.

“Although the implementation of PrEP will bring challenges, they can be anticipated and systems developed to address these challenges. In particular, systems to provide comprehensive education and support to health care providers and people who use PrEP will be required to ensure appropriate and effective use of this potentially groundbreaking new HIV prevention intervention,” Celum added.

“The groundbreaking decision by the FDA has widespread implications for efforts to stop the spread of HIV both here in the United States and beyond our borders,” said James Loduca, vice president of public affairs for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Now the hard work begins to ensure that health care providers, clinics, and our community know how and when to use Truvada – and to ensure that price and delivery systems are never a barrier to access for anyone who stands to benefit from it.”

However, not everyone is cheering the FDA’s decision.

“The FDA’s approval of Gilead’s Truvada as a form of HIV prevention today, without any requirement for HIV testing, is completely reckless and a move that will ultimately set back years of HIV prevention efforts,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

“From the beginning we believe there was a rush to judgment by government officials and others in favor of such approval, despite decidedly mixed studies offered in support.

And while FDA recommends a negative HIV test prior to use of Truvada as PrEP and states that use by people with an ‘unknown or HIV-positive status’ is ‘contraindicated,’ it in no way actually requires HIV testing in any manner – just strengthening of the boxed warning on Gilead’s packaging. The FDA’s move today is negligence bordering the equivalence of malpractice, which will sadly result in new infections, drug resistance, and serious side effects among many, many people.”

The most common side effects associated with Truvada include abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, nausea, and weight loss.

Serious adverse side effects are uncommon.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation also said Truvada’s use as a preventive measure could give patients a false sense of security and reduce the use of condoms, the most re-

liable form of protection against HIV. FDA scientists said Monday said there was no indication from the trials that users were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.

“What we found was that condom use increased over time and sexually transmitted infections either remained at baseline levels or decreased,” said Dr. Debra Birnkrant, the FDA’s director of antiviral products. “So in essence, we don’t have any strong evidence that condoms were not used or there was a decrease in condom use.”

Gilead Sciences has marketed Truvada since 2004 as a treatment for people who are already infected with HIV. Until now, Truvada has most commonly been used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV infection in adults and children over 12. However, because Truvada is used to manage HIV, some doctors already prescribe it as a preventive measure.

The FDA approval will allow Gilead to formally market the drug for that use, which could dramatically increase prescribing.

Truvada is expected to cost at least $13,900 a year for treatment in the U.S., according to Gilead Sciences.

“Today’s decision is the culmination of almost 20 years of research involving investigators, academic and medical institutions, funding agencies, and nearly 20,000 trial participants around the world, and Gilead is proud to have been a partner in this effort,” said Dr. Norbert Bischofberger, Gilead’s executive vice president of research and development, and also the company’s chief scientific officer.

“This advancement in the field of HIV prevention was made possible due to the leadership and commitment of the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the United States and worldwide.”

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Seattle Gay News 19

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continued from cover getting her speech and her way of thinking better. She also is in physical therapy to help strengthen her left side, and mental therapy as well.”

Hilario told reporters he dreaded telling Kristene the news their family had been holding back – that Mollie was dead.

“She didn’t know about Mollie for the longest time, but we finally decided to tell her,” he says, adding that law enforcement officials were present to help with the delicate situation, along with the Olgin family.

“With that support group we passed the info to my little sister. She was brokenhearted, very upset,” Hilario said.

“They told us you have to let her cry. I didn’t want to tell her not to cry. But Mollie’s father [Mario] is a very good man, considering he lost his daughter. He comes to visit her and when he does she gets emotional but he is supporting her. He wants to

go visit her in rehab.”

The shooting occurred on June 22 at Violet Andrews Park in Portland, Texas, a suburb of Corpus Christi. Although Chapa survived, she was unable to speak with police until early this month, when she supplied information that enabled police to issue a sketch and description of a suspect.

Portland police released a statement on July 14 to update the status of the investigation. In their statement, they reveled for the first time that Chapa was the “eyewitness” who previously had helped with the initial sketch.

As her condition improved, police said, she indicated a desire to revisit the drawing.

The same forensic artist worked with her again on July 13, resulting in the updated sketch.

“It is unusual to go back and refine a suspect drawing,” said Portland Police Chief Randy Wright.

“But in this case, our eyewitness sustained a brain injury that initially affected her ability to communicate effectively. The

good news is she has made exceptional progress. Her sight and speech have improved and she can now interact with the artist much better.”

Police have previously said they have no evidence to indicate the attack was a hate crime but have not ruled it out.

sisters

continued from cover

of the projects that applied.”

Every year, the Abbey of St. Joan gives away the thousands of dollars they’ve raised throughout the year. The funds are released to the community on the anniversary of the Abbey’s founding.

The Abbey was founded 16 years ago at Seattle’s Madison Beach on Bastille Day, in honor of their Patron Saint, Joan of Arc. There, five sisters baptized themselves in the water and established the order. Today, the Abbey of St. Joan consists of more than 70 sisters.

“We’ve had an incredible growth in membership,” said Sister Glo. “When I started almost a decade ago, there were about 12 [of us].”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an order of 21st-century nuns dedicated to the “promulgation of universal joy and the expiation of stigmatic guilt.” They work to raise money for AIDS charities, fight for Queer rights and visibility, do safer-sex outreach, and strive diligently to never take themselves so seriously that they forget to have fun. The Sisters welcome all races, creeds, genders, and sexual orientations.

For more information on Seattle’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, visit www.theabbey.org.

nity from their yearly grant fund.

“It’s an incredible honor to be in the position to hand out grant money,” said Sister Glo Euro N’Wei, the Abbey’s Grants Chairnun. “All year long we raise funds from our community and then give it back. It brings such joy to the organizations and the folks they serve!”

This year, the Abbey of St. Joan gave out 10 grants totaling $12,225. Local beneficiaries included Rosehedge/Multifaith Works, POZ Seattle, and the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance.

“We adore the Sisters. They’ve actually been incredibly supportive of our organization throughout the years,” said Elizabeth List, development director of Rosehedge/ Multifaith Works. “With the help of the Sisters, we’re able to support men and women living in isolation because of an illness.”

Rosehedge/Multifaith Works received a grant of $2,000 from the Abbey. continued from cover Our Sisters’ grants don’t just go to Seattle charities, however. Many of this year’s and strengthen their communities.

The three Seattle-area honorees were part beneficiaries are located in other cities, including the Rainbow Center (Tacoma), of a group of LGBT activists who submitVista Youth Center (Kennewick), Stonewall ted videos highlighting their work in local Youth (Olympia), SnoGLOBE Equality Al- communities during the LGBT Pride Month liance and the GLOBE youth program (Ev- Video Challenge.

A White House press release called them erett), and the BABES Network, a YWCA program that provides social and emotional “ordinary people who are doing extraorsupport to women living with HIV through- dinary things across the country to ensure safety, dignity, and equality for the Lesbian, out the Northwest.

“While our day-to-day work is fairly con- Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) centrated in Seattle, with occasional road community.”

Carter’s work with the Youth Suicide Pretrips ranging from Bellingham to Olympia to the Tri-Cities, our granting program pro- vention Project (YSPP) was the subject of vides an opportunity to support those orga- the video, which was produced, scripted, nizations in places that don’t have as much and narrated by Knittel and was shot and edQueer infrastructure as Seattle,” said Sister ited by Dinero.

Glo. “It’s important to show that the Sisters’ “When I first learned of the video contest love is not bound by the borders of the city, I immediately thought of entering a submisbut extends beyond. I think it helps them to sion to highlight Heather Carter, because know that (a) they are not alone, and (b) that her actions embody the title Champion of we in the big city are also watching out for Change,” Knittel said.

Carter was hired by YSPP in 2007 to crethem.”

Additionally, the Sisters donated a DVD/ ate an LGBT-specific suicide prevention VCR, signed by all the sisters, to Youth- program, which ultimately became OUTCare’s Isis House, a shelter for LGBT home- Loud. She organized a menu of trainings for teachers and staff in Washington state less youth.

“All our grant recipients are always very schools, addressing risk and prevention facgrateful for the support,” Sister Glo told tors for LGBTQ youth at risk for bullying SGN. “I only wish we could have funded all and bias-based harassment.

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www.sgn.org 20 Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Celebrating 39 Years!

“And she did it all on a shoestring budget,” Knittel added. “Even when the money wasn’t there, she found a way to make it work. The bottom line is that the important work Carter has done saves lives. The LGBTQ and allied youth in Washington state are in good hands with Heather Carter at the helm.”

Carter, Knittel says, is the “star” of the video, which Dinero filmed and edited in 24 hours.

“Dru Dinero is a wonderful example of a straight ally. In fact, he is the definition of the term,” Knittel told SGN. “In just under one year as a Seattle resident, Dinero, 22, has produced video product for some of the LGBTQ community’s largest organizations, like Seattle Out & Proud and Washington United for Marriage, the campaign to Approve Referendum 74.

He is vocal in his support for our community and asks the other people in his life to be the same.”

Dinero told SGN the award was a “boost” for his activism, and that he came away from the visit with a sense of “reassurance and hope.”

“A common tone rang in all of the speakers during the Champions of Change

event,” he told SGN afterward.

That tone, he said, is “a clear understanding of the progressive agenda, and an assertiveness that this administration will do everything in its power to push and achieve the goals that will liberate all citizens, and truly be a blessing for America.

“The word ‘inspiration’ is not enough to describe the feeling one gets when touring the halls of the White House. The word ‘pride’ is not enough to describe the feeling of being invited to the White House. The word ‘hope’ is not enough to describe the feeling one gets when looking around in a room full of White House invitees and realizing it’s a group of minorities.

“This trip to the White House is very timely for this group of individuals. With the current battle in Washington state for marriage equality, this boost of morale, from the main nerve of change in the land, is exactly what was needed.”

After they submitted their video entry, Carter, Dinero, and Knittel heard nothing from the White House for over two months and assumed they were out of the running.

Then, last week, they were notified they were among the winners.

“I was absolutely thrilled to hear that we

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had won,” Knittel said. “I know I speak for the three of us when I say we will be proud to represent Seattle and Washington state at the White House.”

Working with at-risk LGBT youth has special meaning for Knittel, because of his own experiences as a young Gay man.

“I came out as Gay when I was 16 and nearly ended up on the streets because of it,” he recalled.

“The year was 1996 and things were different then. It might sound naive by today’s standards but there was no GSA at my school, no LGBT community center for me to go to, and I’d never knowingly met another Gay person. I felt alone and I was angry, and at moments desperate for proof that I was not alone.”

A U.S. Navy veteran, Knittel is now OutServe’s online news editor and media advisor for OutMilitary.com in addition to being associate editor of SGN. Knittel said his trip to the capital was particularly significant since he had been there before, under much different circumstances.

“While this will not be my first time in Washington D.C.,” Knittel said, “it marks the first time I will be in the nation’s capital as an out Gay journalist and LGBT community leader, and not the closeted young sailor serving in silence under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ It’s going to be a big moment for me.”

The Seattle honorees also acknowledged local supporters who helped raise money for OUTLoud and YSPP, including local entertainer-activists Julian Gaspay, Gaysha Starr, Aleksa Manila, and Lady Chablis.

R Place manager Floyd Lovelady, Neighbours manager Steve Tracy, and Purr owner Barbie Humphrey provided venues for fundraising events. Joe Torres, producer of the annual LEO Party, was recognized for securing a $5,000 donation from Snoqualmie Casino.

The honorees also thanked SGN publisher George Bakan, “who donated time, money, and heart to the OUTLoud-SGN community fundraising collaboration from the beginning. Simply put, many of these fundraisers would not have been possible without his generosity, advice, and drive to help save the lives of LGBTQ youth in Washington state.”

Other Champions of Change honored on July 19 were J.J. Kahle, a teacher and Gay-Straight Alliance advisor at the Blake School in Minneapolis; SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders) volunteer George Stewart; CenterLink, a support system for LGBT community centers; MAP (the Military Acceptance Project), which promotes acceptance of all service members, veterans, and their families through enlightenment, empowerment, and service; and the Redwood String Ensemble at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

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July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News 21

carmen rivera

London hosts World Pride Festival

by Carmen Rivera Special to the SGN

A reveler during the World Pride Festival in London

22 Seattle Gay News

July 20, 2012

Like any major city, London has a Pride Weekend celebration every year. However, what made this year so special was that the city hosted the World Pride Festival, which is organized by InterPride (the International Association of Pride Organizers) and which coincided with the 19th annual Europride.

For me, this is an incredible year to live in England. Pride Weekend fell right between the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (celebrating the 60th year of her reign) and the 2012 Olympics!

To be in London that weekend was immense. I came in on the train from Liverpool on July 6, the day before the parade, and the city was booming even more than usual. The rainbow flags were up around Trafalgar Square, where the main festival was held, as well as the surrounding areas of the city.

It was an excellent weekend of celebration, even with the last-minute changes.

The parade was originally meant to start at 1 p.m. and end at 3, but was pushed up to start at 11 a.m. Also, all floats were taken out of the parade, supposedly for budgetary reasons. Instead, each group marched on foot. Despite this, the energy of the parade and the people did not falter in the slightest. My friend and I sat near the end of the parade route, but the drag queens were still going strong when they reached us, doing full strut in their stilettos!

When we first arrived to claim our spot, I was surprised to see a group of picketers with signs bearing supposedly anti-Gay Bible verses. I had never seen that at Seattle’s Pride event, and my friend was rather

insulted by their presence. But the police ensured that they stayed in line, and they did not take away from our celebration. Once everyone began gathering, the Bible thumpers were quickly drowned out by cheers of joy and positive affirmations of the Gay community. As LGBTQ youth ran around giving everyone free hugs, I quickly forgot about the protest.

The parade began later than its rescheduled starting time, and did not reach us until around 12:30 p.m. As can be expected in England, it rained at times – but again, this didn’t stop the cheering or keep the parade from going strong. There were dozens of stewards around working calmly with police to keep the crowd off the parade route and make sure all went according to plan.

Around 3 p.m., the parade ended and everyone made their way to Trafalgar Square, where entertainers from all over Europe came to sing and celebrate. It was awesome, even with the clouds overhead. I am still surprised at how confident and comfortable I feel in the Gay community and especially at Pride events. Everyone was drinking, buzzing, dancing, and happily celebrating our community. My favorite part was when the host of the festival stated that World Pride is more than a celebration – it is a political statement encouraging those still in the closet to come out and be proud.

Up to now, World Pride has happened every six years, but this is changing. The first one was held in Rome in 2000, and the second took place in Jerusalem in 2006. Another World Pride is being planned for Toronto in 2014 to mark the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. After that, the event will be held every five years.

Celebrating 39 Years!

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July 20, 2012

Seattle Gay News 23