Celebrating 46 Years! Issue 37 Volume 48
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Seattle Gay News S E AT T L E ’S L GB T Q
N E W S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T W E E K LY
by Chris Rojas SGN Contributing Writer
Police break up Labor Day march for Black Lives with show of force Protest outside Seattle Police Officers Guild building leads to 22 arrests, multiple injuries
LGBTQ Americans hit hardest by COVID economic collapse, HRC study says LGBT Americans are the hardest hit by the country’s economic collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) says. “As some communities start to go back to work…we’re seeing that LGBTQ people,
especially LGBTQ people of color and transgender people, are being left behind,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “The data continues to reinforce what we already know – that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is not over because the pandemic is not over,
see COVID IMPACT page 7
A Labor Day demonstration in Seattle Sept. 7 in support of Black Lives drew hundreds of people who marched from the International District Light Rail Station to the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) building in the 2900 block of 4th Ave. S. The police swarmed the protesters after 6pm with a large contingent of officers and vehicles before making 22 arrests and deploying blast balls and pepper spray.
see LABOR DAY page 12 Photo by Chris Rojas
Protest volunteer medics claim abuse by SPD, delays in critical medical care “SPD’s recent pattern of withholding and delaying emergency medical care is an act of violence against the whole community,” says Elise, R.N.
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
by Renee Raketty SGN Staff Writer
Photo by Renee Raketty
by Renee Raketty SGN Staff Writer The presence of volunteer medics at Black Lives Matter demonstrations and in the former Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) became known after several high profile incidents and protester injuries were reported in the press. During
those early days, volunteer medic teams and unaffiliated independent street medics treated everything from pepper spray reactions to laceration burns and contusions from police munitions. Today, Darkmed and the Pink Umbrella Medical Collective (PUMC) are two of the most recognized groups providing care at the protests.
see MEDIC ABUSE page 15