SGN June 25, 2021 - Pride - Section 3

ISSUE 26

C E L E B R AT I N G

VOLUME 49

47 YEARS

F R I D AY

IN

JUNE 25, 2021

PRINT S E AT T L E ’ S L G B T Q I A + N E W S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T W E E K LY S I N C E 19 74

US CATHOLIC BISHOPS DEFY VATICAN

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Vote to move ahead with ban on Communion for pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ Catholics

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has voted to move ahead with controversial new orders barring office holders who support reproductive choice and marriage equality from receiving Holy Communion.

U.S. President Joe Biden – Photo by Brian Snyder / Reuters

see BISHOPS page 29

Director Josh Ruben balances scares and laughs in Werewolves Within Josh Ruben – Photo by Meredith Adelaide

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer The rollicking, freewheeling ensemble horror-comedy Werewolves Within is certain to go down as one of 2021’s most entertaining surprises.

Based on the popular Ubisoft video game, directed by Josh Ruben, and writ-

ten by Mishna Wolff, the film is an inspired riff on Agatha Christie mystery tropes, wrapped in a tasty shell made up of the blended remnants of classic favorites like Clue, Tremors, Arachnophobia, and Knives Out. It’s flat-out terrific, and honestly that’s all that needs to be said.

see JOSH RUBEN page 14

TCM celebrates legendary documentary filmmakers on June 28 SGN interviews Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein, and Dave Karger

Rob Epstein (left) and Jeffrey Friedman – Photo courtesy of Telling Pictures

by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer

And now, 20-plus years later, I got the chance to interview them.

When I first saw The Celluloid Closet in the late ’90s, I was blown away. It was a perfect documentary from start to finish, directed by a team of Gay directors, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein. I so much wanted to meet them!

(Editor’s note: The interview with Friedman and Epstein is followed by an interview with Hollywood insider Dave Karger.)

see TCM page 21

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Publisher Angela Cragin Editors SGN Staff Copy Editor SGN Staff • Richard Isaac Associate Editor A.V. Eichenbaum Advertising Maggie Bloodstone, Advertising Manager National Advertising Rep. Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Staff Writers Mike Andrew • Sara Michelle Fetters Contributing Writers Lindsey Anderson • Janice Athill Josephine Baird • Alice Bloch Maggie Bloodstone Kylin Brown • Sharon Cumberland Miryam Gordon • Carter Hemion Daniel Lindsley • Paige McGlauflin Jesse Monteagudo Tom Orr • Rod Parke • Tim Peter Jessica Price • Renee Raketty • Scott Rice Hannah Saunders • MK Scott • Mark Segal Gaysha Starr • Sarah Toce • Ed Walsh Social Media Manager MK Scott Cartoonist Ken Campbell Photographers Nate Gowdy • Renee Raketty Chris Rojas • MK Scott Production Mike Pham Website Designer Barry Thorsness / Digital Team Works SGN is published by Angela Cragin. © 2021. All Rights Reserved. Reprints by permission.

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LOCAL NEWS 5 A&E • FILM • BOOKS 11 OP-ED 27 NATIONAL NEWS 28 INTERNATIONAL NEWS 29 June 25, 2021

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This Week in SGN History

2011

This Week in SGN History: 10 Years ago

by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer

Over 47 years, the Seattle Gay News has covered thousands of stories that still resonate today. This week we look back at Vol. 39, Issue 25, published on June 24, 2011.

Happy Pride 2011 The grand marshal for 2011 was the icoºnic Armistead Maupin, who told our very own Miryam Gordon” When the invitation came to participate in Seattle Pride, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m happy I’m speaking at both places, because the library appearance can be more intimate and leisurely.

Pride will be more festive, and it’s two different types of speaking — talking to a large crowd in a park and in an auditorium — and I enjoy both types.’

Both GLSEN and the Seattle Storm were honored as leaders of the parade, as was the Pridefest director, Egan Orion.

And last but not least, our very own publisher and leader, George Bakan, was once again — for the final time — a grand marshal. George had served in that capacity several times over the years, when the parade was on Broadway.

Printing company refuses Gay bar flyer Happy 10th anniversary to Diesel!

Before even opening the bar, owners Mike Reis and Mark Hurst approached Allied Print Media in Kent, which refused the job, claiming it was against their moral code. SGN Associate Editor Shaun Knittel reported: The flyer is simple enough. The words “Get pumped!” could be considered suggestive, but let’s face it — it is a flyer for a Gay bar, after all. The only profanity is “Bad Ass Bartenders” and “No Bullshit Drinks” — again, quite tame by today’s standards. The graphic, a cartoon gas station attendant leaning against a gas pump, is the least suggestive part of the flyer.

“The flyer is really non-offensive,” Reis said. “There is absolutely nothing sexually suggestive. We put a lot of thought into this. Part of our planning is that we wanted to choose something that would be recognizable and have some class. The Diesel diamond shape and gas pump being looked at as sexually suggestive is preposterous.”

In a KING-5 interview, Delaney (he refuses to give his last name for fear of public backlash), the owner of the printing company located in Kent, said, “I personally feel a personal conviction to not violate the personal moral code I have. It’s got profanity on it. My kids come to work, they see stuff that daddy’s printing.”

Delaney said that Sarah Wheeler, the part-time employee who sent the email to Reis, was not authorized to do so. “I feel like my name and my business name is getting dragged through the mud… I would like to apologize to the owners of the establishment. I meant you no harm, those are not my views,” said Delaney.

Update: Allied Print Media is still in business as Diesel celebrates its 10th anniversary this summer.

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Capitol Hill business targeted Some things never change, a Capitol Hill Business targeted by a hate group. SGN Associate Editor Shaun Knittel reported: Justin Brotman, founder, and proprietor of the swanky vitamin and juice bar Healeo (1520 15th Ave.), received a hateful email on June 16 that shocked the businessman, a straight ally of the LGBT community. “I received the email last Thursday afternoon immediately after associating myself with a Seattle Out And Proud executive Jarod Owen,” Brotman told the Seattle Gay News. “I don’t feel the timing was coincidental, as Jarod is a visible member of the LGBT community and works with an organization that is openly hated by anti-Gay groups.”

The email, which referred to Brotman as a “fag loving Healeo owner,” read, “You and any other business taking those flags will pay a dear price. God himself will judge you, however I will hurt your life before he can. Healeo will now be tormented through review sites, and I will do what it takes to get you shut down through the city of Seattle. I can get around Yelp filters and the same with Google. You will have so many bad reviews nobody will ever come.”

The bigot then delivered Brotman an ultimatum: “I will give you until Saturday to remove any fag flags from your store and then will commence taking you down.”

The email ended in a predictable fashion: “God hates fags and he hates you.”

Initiative filed to legalize cannabis SGN Contributing Writer Rahul K. Gairola reported: On June 22, a panel of diverse state leaders hosted a press conference at the Central Seattle Public Library to sponsor the legalization, taxation, and regulation of cannabis in the state of Washington.

New Approach Washington, a newly formed political action committee, filed an initiative on Wednesday to authorize the Washington State Liquor Control Board to produce and distribute marijuana to state residents 21 and over, as it already does with hard liquor. The revenue generated would go into the state’s general fund, as well as local budgets.

State Sen. Ed Murray (D-43rd), though absent from the panel, exclusively told the SGN, “It is a common-sense proposal.

I support it, but more importantly, it has support across the political spectrum.”

The campaign has until December 30 to gather 241,153 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Once the signatures are filed, the legislature will consider the initiative during the 2012 session. If the legislature takes no action, the proposal will be put to state voters in the November 2012 general election/ Update: On November 6, 2012, I-502 (cannabis legalization) was approved by

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a vote of 55.7% to 44.3%, The state also legalized marriage equality on the same day.

Glitter bomb Glittering was all the rage in 2011 when Gay activists targeted anti-LGBT politicians with a glitter bomb (certainly not as messy as a pie in the face). Shaun Knittel reported: The glitterati have struck three different times. The first incident occurred on May 17, as Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, were covered with glitter at a book signing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nick Espinosa, the activist behind the glitter stunt, yelled at the former House speaker, “Stop the hate. Stop the antiGay politics.”

On June 16, the glitter brigade struck again, this time zeroing in on former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at a personal appearance in San Francisco, California. Like Gingrich, Pawlenty was glittered while at a book signing event. Two activists from CodePunk were the culprits, and as they were being led away, the pair berated Pawlenty for his conservative views on abortion and LGBT rights.

The most recent incident occurred on June 18, when Rachel Lang threw glitter at GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann in Minneapolis. Bachmann glittered after she finished a speech at a conservative conference.

Update: Since then, there have been over 19 incidents from fall 2011 to July 2019. Some of the targets included Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul.

Even Lindsey Lohan and Dan Savage were targeted. With Lohan it was for no apparent reason. With Savage, it happen three times after being labeled, “transphobic.” Regarding the final incident in January 2012 in Vancouver, BC, “The group said the bombing was in response to ‘ableism, ageism, classism, misogyny, racism, rape-apologism, serophobia, sizeism, transphobia and, oh yeah, that column.’” So there!

Protest and counter-protest On June 19, hundreds of LGBT counter-protesters and allies showed up at Volunteer Park on the corner of 15th and E. Galer to meet the Westboro Baptist Church in a face-off of love vs. hate. The upbeat crowd came bearing signs (every bit as ridiculous as the WBC’s, but much funnier), rainbow flags, and a whole lot of positive energy.

The protesters chanted and waited for the WBC contingent to show. They did not. A WBC no-show is an absolute victory as they were not able to spread their hate at the annual Seattle Out And Proud Pride Picnic.

The triumphant crowd disbanded and went to enjoy the picnic, participate in

the WBC counter-protest at the Seattle Slut Walk, or enjoy the rest of their Sunday. WBC got the message loud and clear: You are not welcome in Seattle.”

AIDS at 30 One of our special sections was on the 30th anniversary of AIDS. The front page was an SGN cover of one of our first stories on AIDS, from November 18, 1982. In the special section, SGN Contributing Writer Michael Raitt wrote: Until there is a cure, HIV/AIDS will continue to be a part of our community, and we can take pride in how we support and love the men and women who have HIV/AIDS. We can take pride in knowing we are still a loving, compassionate community that is collectively strong and stands against what is fundamentally wrong, and fights a long, hard battle for what is right!

The urgency and anger about HIV/ AIDS is no longer there, yet the need is just as great as it was 30 years ago. Let us not forget. Let us continue to embrace, support, fight, and love well. Let us live what we are most proud of: the qualities that emerged when we stood up during a time of crisis”.

SGN Staff Writer Mike Andrew interviewed 26-year HIV/AIDS survivor Rick Hatley on what it was like when he was diagnosed in 1985: Hatley remembers the generalized fear of the early days of the AIDS epidemic. “I had these really weird bumps on my arms,” he said. “All my friends I knew from the street were dying. So my sis said, ‘Get those bumps checked out.’ I was absolutely one of the first [to be diagnosed],” he recalls. “They didn’t even call it AIDS then. They called it something else — I don’t remember what it was.”

In the media, the term GRID (gayrelated immune deficiency) was the common name for the disease in the early ’80s. It was also called the 4H disease, after the most at-risk populations: Haitians, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and heroin users.

[Hatley was] asked about what has changed in 30 years. “Isn’t that somethin’,” he said. “I’m surprised at the changes. You know, we paved the way for a lot of what the Seattle Gay scene became.”

In other news; Victor Cruz crowned Seattle’s 2011 Pride Idol GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios resigned after only 21 months on the job after he interfered with the AT&T and T-Mobile merger by sending a letter of support to the Federal Trade Commission.

NY State legalizes same-sex marriage

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Local News

Preserving the legacy: UW archives the SGN’s history for future generations

Photo courtesy of UW Library

by Carter Hemion SGN Contributing Writer The University of Washington’s archival team is hard at work cataloguing and saving innumerable Seattle Gay News issues from previous decades. These will be preserved in collections and made available on microfilm for future researchers. Jessica Albano, the university’s news librarian, has worked hard on this project, with feedback and support from SGN publisher Angela Cragin.

The effort was inspired by Marcellus Turner, the former chief librarian for the

Seattle Public Library. After SGN publisher George Bakan passed away, Turner wanted to ensure that the paper’s history be archived and available for the future, so he reached out to the SGN and the UW Library to start the process. Since then, it has transformed into a larger project involving stakeholders from across the state.

At the UW Library, Albano works with staff and volunteers to archive the papers.

The team includes participants from the Seattle Public Library, MOHAI, the Washington State Library, the Seattle Municipal Archives, and HistoryLink, each taking on

Photo courtesy of Angela Cragin

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roles to preserve the SGN’s legacy.

Said Albano, “Some of us are there every meeting, and some of us come and go with the agenda,” but the turnout has created a successful ad hoc group. For example, when Bakan’s storage unit of newspapers was threatened, the Seattle Municipal Archives housed crates of issues. And as the papers are organized, the Washington-based encyclopedia HistoryLink has been collecting information to add to its knowledge base.

The next step is putting every issue on microfilm. This is a reliable and long-term

means of preserving images of each page for current and future researchers. After putting the SGN’s archive in this form, Newspaper.com will make possible the digitization of issues so that they can be viewed and searched online in the Washington Digital Newspaper Collection, a project of the Washington State Library. Albano hopes that once these issues are fully archived, microfilmed, and digitized, they will be used to craft stories about the SGN’s legacy.

see SGN ARCHIVE page 6

Photo courtesy of UW Library

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SGN ARCHIVE continued from page 5

Documenting history “I think it’s important to preserve and document all aspects of a community and not just the dominant majority in the community, which in terms of newspaper history was usually a white male story for a really long time,” Albano said. She recalls that newspapers like the SGN, as well as those run by women and people of color, have often been left out of community narratives.

Albano also noted that messages of solidarity between marginalized communities stood out to her while archiving old issues, like “promoting building partnerships with people of color… just as minority groups.”

Documenting the SGN’s history also preserves information that informs our understanding of Seattle’s Queer community, including the changing arts scene and maps of businesses, as well as hate crimes and prejudice, particularly through the paper’s weekly updates detailing the history of HIV/AIDS. Albano said that the hate crimes against Gay people related to AIDS can be viewed parallel to those today against the Asian American community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the SGN’s well-documented history gives us an opportunity to learn from that.

Photos courtesy of UW Library

Local pride: Exotic art and textiles at Ancient Grounds He started out his merchant days in Pike Place Market, selling handcrafted jewelry to tourists. “I started making a living as a jeweler and metalsmith here in Seattle in 1973, down at [the market],” Crawford said.

While jewelry crafting paid the bills, fine arts collection was always his passion. “I suppose as a kid I was fascinated by tribal art. Regardless of how foreign or strange it was, a good piece of tribal art spoke to me, it had spirit,” he explained.

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer If you have ever gone to Seattle Pride, chances are you have seen a participant or two decked out in finely colored kimonos parading down the street. These long, loose robes with wide sleeves and tied with a sash have become all the rage among Seattle’s LGBTQ community, all thanks to Roland Crawford, one of Seattle’s finest dealers of Japanese and tribal art.

On any given day, Crawford can be found in his downtown store, Ancient Grounds.

It’s Seattle’s largest dealer of tribal art, with each one-of-a-kind item coming directly from one of Crawford’s missions.

While each piece tells a unique history of a place far away, perhaps the most entic-

Photo by Lindsey Anderson

ing history to be told comes from Crawford himself.

“I was here for nine years in the mid’70s to early ’80s, and again now. I’ve been here for 23 years,” Crawford told me as he explained his personal connection to Seattle.

Alaska and New York “Metalsmithing and silversmithing allowed me to learn about details and form and content,” he added, “so from Seattle I moved to Juneau, Alaska, where I opened the first shop [there] to deal in tribal and ethnographic art of strictly native produc-

tion, which I pursued for 20 years.

“I opened a second gallery in the Upper West Side of New York City, so I operated the Manhattan gallery fall, winter, spring, and the Juneau shop in the summer, and commuted between both for about ten years.”

During his time working in Alaska and New York, Crawford learned even more about the cultures he was dealing with, and found himself enamored of new exotic places as well. “Being in New York also exposed me to other art forms, and I became similarly attracted to the art of Papua New Guinea, and then the arts of the island of Borneo.

Now, today, here in this shop, I deal a little bit in Pacific Northwest Coast Indian art, but mostly tribal art from Japan and Borneo.”

see ANCIENT GROUNDS page 11

Pride and prejudice? Capitol Hill Pride bans police the SPD. He told Rantz, “I was shocked. I was incredibly surprised, because the SPD and the LGBTQ+ community have enjoyed a phenomenal relationship in the last 18 years that I’ve been with the department.”

He also said that this move by Capitol Hill Pride “brought up painful memories of living in the closet.”

The decision to ban police at the event was confusing to some SPD officers because of the Safe Place Program, which was created by a Gay SPD officer. The program was created for people who have experienced a hate crime: local businesses give them a safe place to go to after an incident, where they can call 911 for help.

According to Rantz, the ban “sends the message that LGBTQ activists are happy to engage in the same kind of hateful discrimination they used to condemn.”

by Josephine Baird SGN Contributing Writer With Pride events ramping up in the Seattle area, local activists have been answering questions like: Where will people park? Where will porta-potties be placed? And how will we ensure safety?

This year, the organization behind Capitol Hill Pride believes that safety means banning police from attending the Pride march and rally.

(Since Seattle Pride, organizers of the downtown march, is again going virtual for the weekend’s events, it doesn’t have to make that decision this year.)

According to a press release issued by Capitol Hill Pride on May 21, “[For] the safety and courtesy [sic] of the LGBTQ and diversity community as well as the general public, our responsibility is to present a safe event and [create] an atmosphere free of fear or harm for members of the community. As such, Capitol Hill Pride is announcing a ban of police at the event and will continue to request police to stay at the perimeters.”

The banning of police has found support among “Defund the Police” activists, who feel that having police at the event will do more harm than good. But those who “Back the Blue” are upset by this seemingly exclu-

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Photo by Nate Gowdy

sive move by a community known for its inclusivity.

One group of people who are unhappy with the ban are LGBTQ+ officers at the

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Seattle Police Department. According to an article written by Jason Rantz for MyNorthwest.com, one such officer is Sgt. Doug Raguso, an openly Gay member of

While the LGBTQ+ community has a legacy of inclusivity, one might wonder if this sends the right message, or the wrong one. In the past, safety and inclusivity were somewhat synonymous, but in this case, some might see them as mutually exclusive.

What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Send a letter to the editor at sgnpressflash@gmail.com.

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ANCIENT GROUNDS continued from page 6

Back to Seattle But the culture he always missed was Seattle. Having moved back here just before the turn of the century, Crawford began a brave new expedition: coffee. While he had begun his craft the same year Starbucks entered the Pike Place scene, Crawford now recognized that coffee was the trade to be in, and in the mid ’90s he opened Ancient Grounds.

“I thought, well, everybody was doing coffee, so I thought I would do coffee as well,” Crawford explained.

Ancient Grounds began as a service station. “I poured 120,000 shots over the next ten years,” he said.

Soon, it began to grow into more than just coffee. “I got seriously into Japanese textiles about 15 years ago,” Crawford explained. “I attended a famous tribal arts show, San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts. They could see, in the early 2000s, that the market for tribal art was diminishing. New collectors were not as interested in tribal art as previous collectors were, but they realized everybody was interested in textiles. Because what are the three things every human being needs? They need food, shelter, and clothing.

“So, I thought, okay, I should get into marketing one of those things, and I don’t want to be a restaurant curator, and I don’t want to deal in real estate, so I guess I’ll invest in clothing. And what are the best textiles in the world? Obviously they’re Japanese. They’re extraordinary to find.”

Photo by Lindsey Anderson

Kimonos and haori jackets galore Since then, Crawford has made many trips to Japan to curate his unique collection of kimonos and haori jackets, and, according to him, he has the largest selection of amazing quality at the most affordable prices in the country.

“I have haori jackets starting at $30 that are all finely woven, beautifully colored; some [have] intricate tie-dye designs,” he said. Haori jackets, a shorter overcoat style that can be worn over just about anything, are some of his best sellers. These also come in an array of colors, making them perfect for Pride.

And for folks worried about cultural appropriation, Crawford informed me it

is not an issue. “The culture of Japan has always been known for borrowing design concepts, their writing, their systems of government; they borrow these things from other cultures, mostly the Chinese, then remake them into their own invention,” Crawford said, explaining that most Japanese folks are proud to see others appreciating their culture.

Textile production Part of cultural appreciation comes from an understanding of history, Crawford told me as he explained some of the rich history behind his textiles. “The Japanese textile manufacturing industry has been pretty active for the last 500 years, produc-

ing fine silks and building a culture around the production of textiles.

Japanese homes, particularly in the southern region, would be built intentionally with an attic structure above the living quarters, where every house would raise silkworms, thereby producing cocoons that they would process into textiles. In the northern part, where it was too cold to raise moths, those cultures would grow cotton or hemp and process those fibers into extraordinary textiles as well.”

As for the other pieces Crawford sells, especially works from Borneo, the money goes right back into the community that is producing the art. “The locals are anxious for people like me to come into their neighborhoods and buy things, and their economy pretty much depends on it. Especially in Borneo. The only way that folks can make money is catering to tourists and buyers like me.”

With tourism in sharp decline over the last year, supporting a store like Ancient Grounds in turn helps to support a community thousands of miles away.

So, whether you’re interested in a brightly colored kimono or haori jacket for Pride, or just fascinated by some of the amazing and historical art pieces curated

by Crawford, make a stop at Ancient Grounds. You’ll surely learn something, and might just be lucky enough to hear a story from one of Seattle’s most interesting people.

Ancient Grounds is located at 1220 First Ave. in downtown Seattle.

Arts & Entertainment

The venue redefining nightlife: Supernova plans an immersive nightclub opening presenting, LGBTQIA+, and/or BIPOC, and it is designed to welcome people of all identities. Levine envisions a space with “cornerstones of intersectional community building and inclusion.” With these goals, he wants to help uplift performers.

Levine says he considers every staff member to be “a theatrical cast member, and we encourage every patron to be a theatrical cast member themselves. The idea is that we’re all working together to create this show, and this show is freedom and self-expression.”

by Carter Hemion SGN Contributing Writer This July, Zac Levine will open nightclub Supernova with a theatrical twist. He ran the “Stayin’ Alive” disco parties for several years, which will now find a permanent home at the new club. Supernova is also the new home for BeautyBoiz, a live-arts company that elevates QTPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists. More broadly, every night that the club is open, the plan is for live entertainment in a captivating scene.

Immersive interior Supernova intends to be a hub for escapism and promote “uninhibited freedom,” according to Levine. “When patrons come in, I want them to be transported to a different reality,” he said.

While guests can enter the ground floor from the street, Supernova’s mezzanine is accessed via a colorful staircase then a colorful hallway, followed by an infinitymirror hallway (with lights and sounds that guests can change). Finally, one enters the mezzanine through the door of a 1972 soda machine.

Once inside, the immersive art continues, with a VW bus bar, spiral dancefloor, walls of mirrors, and art installations. Even Supernova’s bathroom stalls, each all-gender inclusive, were painted by a woman or person of color to create an art experience.

Levine added that there will also be bubbles, confetti, snow, fog, and lasers, among other special features.

Performers and talent Levine excitedly listed the talent in store, and the plans for more to come. He named

Photo courtesy of Supernova

drag queens Queen Moscow, Angela Visalia, Sativa Queen, Queen Irene, Rocket Talksalot, Jane Don’t, Kalvin Killer Bunny, Issa Man, Charlie Foxtail, Monday Morning, and others, saying “Shoot, we just have so many, and it continues to grow.”

The venue will also host lip-syncs, as well as jugglers, live musicians, DJs, and more.

Supernova works closely with BeautyBoiz, who will share the space. As an arts production group, they will develop their own talents and facilitate their own hiring while at Supernova.

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Staff and goals Levine centers inclusivity and theatricality in his approach to running Supernova.

Levine emphasizes that at Supernova, “everyone is welcome as long as there’s no bigotry or intolerance, because that’s the only thing we do not tolerate.” He also says Supernova is not “just a gay club, it’s not a straight club, it’s a yes club, [and] it’s for everybody.”

The club aims to reverse the power structure in which straight, cisgender, white men tend to be prioritized, by staffing itself with a diverse group of people.

Most of the staff are women or femme-

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Opening weekend events When Supernova opens, the venue will likely host Friday and Saturday nights for its first two months before expanding into more frequent and daily use.

On Friday, July 2, the club will host an event called “Thank God It’s Friday,” with DJs playing funky house, gospel house, Chicago Detroit house, and vocal house music; it will also feature circus performers as part of the immersive entertainment.

On Saturday, July 3, “Stayin’ Alive” returns, bringing disco from the past and present back to SoDo. It will feature Universal People, made up of performers from Seattle’s funk band Marmalade, together with magicians, drag queens, circus performers, and other live performances.

On Sunday, July 4, BeautyBoiz will lead their own event, “BeautyBoiz REVIVAL,” which will include drag and vogue performances with “very queer-focused energy.”

Supernova can be found at 110 S. Horton in the SoDo district, and online at www.supernovaseattle.com.

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Film

Inspired Werewolves Within is a hysterically thrilling supernatural whodunit

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer WEREWOLVES WITHIN Now in theaters / PVOD on July 2 Immediately after watching director Josh Ruben’s horror-comedy Werewolves Within, I mused that it was like someone had dropped The Beast Must Die, Clue, Arachnophobia, and Knives Out in a blender, and the resulting milkshake was poured for me and me alone.

That’s selfish, though, mainly because this supremely entertaining motion picture is pretty much flawless, and I hope everyone gives it a look. To put it even more bluntly, this is going to go down as one of my favorite films of 2021.

Friendly forest ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) has arrived at his new post in the secluded township of Beaverton hours ahead of a major snowstorm. He makes quick friends with postal worker Cecily Moore (Milana Vayntrub) and finds a place to stay at the local inn run by Jeanine Sherman (Catherine Curtin). Others lodgers include developer Sam Parker (Wayne Duvall), who is trying to convince the locals to approve his oil pipeline, and environmental scientist Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), who is urging them to vote it down.

With the majority of Beaverton’s residents heading out of town to avoid that snowstorm, those deciding to stick it out find themselves facing an unexpected obstacle far more dangerous than freezing temperatures, downed powerlines, an internet outage, and no cell service. There is a beast among them, an animal straddling the line between human and canine. One might even call it a lycanthrope, but as that’s nothing more than a mythological creature, that couldn’t possibly be the case. Or could it?

JOSH RUBEN continued from cover

The basic premise involves a group of disparate characters forced to band together after a snowstorm isolates their tiny community from the rest of the world. Huddled together at the local inn, they quickly realize one of the members of their impromptu party isn’t what they initially appear to be.

They are, in fact, a lycanthrope, and like a cat toying with its food, this supernatural creature is just as excited about seeing them tear one another apart out of fear and jealously as they are in making most of them late-night snacks to enjoy sitting in the moonlight.

I touched base with the talented Ruben over Zoom to talk about his follow-up to last year’s wondrous Scare Me. Here are some edited excerpts from our lively conversation: Sara Michelle Fetters: You debut, Scare Me, is about people trapped in an isolated place by snow. Now you go off and direct somebody else’s script about a group of people trapped in an isolated space by snow. What’s going on? What is it with you and snow?

Josh Ruben: I don’t know. I guess I just have a terrible sense of timing. I don’t know why I can’t shoot in the Hudson Valley in the fall or in the spring. I just have to do it when everybody needs to stuff little heat packets into their gloves and boots. [laughs] It is purely coincidence. I’ve made two sort-of blizzard quarantine movies. One came out near the beginning of this whole 16 months of madness and one at the end.

So that’s kind of crazy.

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Werewolves Within – Photo courtesy of IFC Films

The remainder of the stacked ensemble includes the likes of Michaela Watkins, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Cheyenne Jackson, Glenn Fleshler, Harvey Guillén, and Michael Chernus, and all of them are excellent. Everyone is playing eccentrically to type or goofily against it, each performing their part in this mystery to perfection, yet never in a manner that overshadows any of their co-stars. The group works in exquisite tandem, all of which allows for a rat-a-tat-tat rhythm that’s one part 1930s-style screwball farce and two parts Agatha Christie meets Stephen King whodunit wackiness.

Based on the popular Ubisoft video game, Mishna Wolff’s rambunctious screenplay is terrific. Not only does the writer layer in a handful of solid scares and effective suspense sequences but she also crafts a mystery that’s worth taking to the time and effort to try and solve. Red herrings are

everywhere — which does not mean there still aren’t ample clues littered throughout leading to the correct conclusion. While I can’t say the answer to the werewolf’s identity took me by surprise, the climactic reveal is so well thought out and intelligently realized that its effectiveness is undeniable.

Ruben, much like he did with his wonderful 2020 debut Scare Me, confidently balances big laughs with spine-tingling thrills and chills, never allowing one element to overwhelm the other as his rambunctious rollercoaster ride builds momentum. What he’s accomplished is rather similar to Joe Dante’s 1981 classic The Howling, in that he utilizes his remote setting as an additional character, yet at the same time never loses focus on the human drama at the center of all the throat-ripping madness.

As mentioned, the entire cast is worthy of as much praise as can be tossed their

But, yeah, I do think it can be chalked up to the fact they’re shadow mystery films that take place in the Hudson Valley in the woods. And then you add snow. Snow is sort of dreadful in many ways; it’s a terrifying element. Deadly but so beautiful.

SMF: I am not someone that has been all that hard on a lot of video game films. I’ve enjoyed many of them. But there is a danger when you go off and adapt one; there’s a stigma that’s attached in some circles.

Especially after the success of Scare Me, you still go off and make a movie based on a video game. Was there trepidation on your part in tackling this?

Or were you so impressed with Mishna Wolff’s script you were like, “I’m not even going to try to deal with those connotations. We’re going full speed ahead”?

JR: Yes to both. Yes and yes. I mean when [reps from] Vanishing Angle [production company] came to a test screening of Scare Me, they were the ones to ask if I’d be willing to throw my hat in the ring and direct this video game adaptation. My shoulders kind of went up. There were alarm bells.

Then, of course, I opened Mishna’s script, and it feels like something between Arachnophobia and Fargo. I couldn’t believe it. I just saw all this comedic potential. It was so visual, so funny.

The next challenge became roping in folks like actors Michael Churnus and Sam Richardson. They were also questioning the source material. Like, wait, this is a video game movie, and it’s called Werewolves Within? And you’re kind of a newcomer? Why would I make this movie?

As soon as I described my intentions, that I wanted to make Fargo as if it were an Amblin film, their shoulders dropped and

everyone got excited.

SMF: I love that you bring up Arachnophobia, because immediately after watching I mentioned to someone that the film was like some sort of insane combination of The Beast Must Die, Arachnophobia, Knives Out, and Clue, all thrown in a blender and made specifically for me.

JR: I love that! There was a test screening we had where someone mentioned Tremors, and I absolutely lost my mind. I was like, wow, that makes me so happy.

SMF: In the case of, say, Arachnophobia and Tremors, they do a fantastic job of balancing the humor, the character development, and the horror aspects.

That can’t be easy. What was your thought process while you’re working through all of this, especially with this talented of a cast? How did you balance these elements and make them feel organic and real?

JR: The main thing is not getting caught trying to be funny. You want actors who are comedically adept. You want to make sure that the ones who are comedians, the ones that come up through the improv world, that they don’t play the scares funny. And that the actors who come from the theater world or from the independent film world, that they don’t play dramatic scenes funny.

Everything is a balance. You want everyone to play everything for real within the confines of the boundary these sort of quirky characters come from. You want them to be able to kind of do whatever they want.

That’s the biggest thing.

Everything else becomes about style. In the edit, you add this kind of sweeping sort of John Williams score, courtesy of our

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way. That said, the bulk of the heavy lifting is handled by Richardson and Vayntrub, and they are more than up to the challenge.

The former is a sensational frontman, playing things straight even as he gives smalltown community rah-rah speeches straight out of a Frank Capra melodrama. Richardson has a manner that makes everything he does come across as idiosyncratically genuine, and as heroes go, Finn is a down-to-earth everyman who is easy to root for.

But the revelation here is Vayntrub. For those who only know her from her AT&T commercials, you’re in for a treat. This is a triumphant performance, a wondrous turn overflowing in comedic inspiration, the actress layering in unexpected emotional modulations that make Cecily far more than the kooky backwoods cherub she initially appears to be. She’s equal parts angel and devil, and as the counterpoint to Richardson’s plucky go-get-’em do-gooder, Vayntrub is a bedeviling ingénue who’s the ideal yin to his yang.

I don’t want to reveal too much. This is a mystery, after all, and going in depth on any one facet could ruin the many tricks Ruben and Wolff have littered throughout for audiences to unwittingly experience. I will say that the score by composer Anna Drubich (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) is aces, and that the visual and makeup effects during the climax are outstanding.

I’ll also say that film’s production design, set decoration, and art direction are out of this world.

Most of all, Werewolves Within is just monstrously entertaining. I loved every single second of it, and having watched this laugh-filled thriller twice already, I cannot wait to sit down for a third viewing inside a theater with an unsuspecting audience on opening weekend. wonderful composer Anna Drubich. You get kind of a pay-stub editing style that heavily informed our editor Brett Bachman.

Honestly? My biggest concern, aside from finding that balance, was wanting it to make sure that it was smart and that audiences could appreciate what we’re doing. I wanted younger audiences to appreciate it the way that maybe we appreciated Monster Squad when we were kids. But I also wanted it to be done in a way adults could appreciate the way that they did something like Knives Out. SMF: I’m glad you bring that up, because I think why I love this movie so much is, yes, it’s funny, and yes, the performances are endearing and great across the board, but the mystery works.

That to me is the key of the whole thing.

The mystery has to work. How much time did you and Mishna spend on making sure you had a solid mystery?

JR: You’d have to ask Mishna about how much she worked on that during the writing process, because it was really fun to read that very first draft before I got in there myself and started on the director’s rewrite.

It was tough at every turn, though, especially when we’re doing our page-by-page with the producers. Once Ubisoft, Vanishing Angle, and I sat down and started going through the script, there was a lot of conversation about maintaining the mystery.

Should we reveal that? Should this person be in the background of X scene? When you go back and rewatch it, could we implicate X character or Y character?

You can rewatch the film and see some of the conscious choices we made. You can see where not everyone is present in each

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F9 is a furiously frenetic family feud

by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN Staff Writer F9 Theaters F9 begins with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) living on a secluded farm, raising the son he never knew he had until recently, alongside his beloved Letty (Michelle Rodriguez). Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) then arrive announced with a message from Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell): his plane has crashed in the middle of war-torn nowhere, and it also appears cybercriminal Cipher (Charlize Theron) has escaped.

Dom figures out that the shadowy figure behind this international mystery is his estranged younger brother Jakob (John Cena), who’s working for Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen), the son of a billionaire dictator.

Jakob wants to get his hands on a secret hightech device split into three parts that will give him total control of the planet’s cybernetic infrastructure, including nuclear missile sites.

Wait, there’s more! Mia (Jordana Brewster) is back in the crime-fighting fold now that she knows Jakob is in the picture, fast-driving thief Queenie (Helen Mirren) has valuable information — and some parental advice — for Dom, Shad (Lucas Black) and Twinkie (Shad Moss) have given up drift racing in Tokyo to build rockets, and government agent Stasiak (Shea Whigham) gives everyone a free ride to London.

Oh. Yeah. Han (Sung Kang) isn’t dead,

John Cena and Charlize Theron in F9 – Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

and the young woman (Anna Sawai) he’s spent the past few years secretly being a surrogate father to is the key to Jakob and Otto’s plan for world cybernetic domination.

Got all that?

The Fast & Furious films are just as outlandish and as insane as ever. Featuring an

obnoxiously convoluted plot, a purposefully melodramatic backstory (including flashbacks), and a seemingly never-ending series of crazy, CGI-augmented stunts that are literally out of this world, there’s precious little for this franchise to do next.

Granted, with a reported two more install-

JOSH RUBEN continued from page 14

scene, so you can spot where you might buy that certain characters could have been doing some of the nefarious activities.

It was certainly difficult and scary, but I did as much prep as I possibly could. But there is this wonderful thing about doing something like this with a team. It doesn’t drive me crazy to have multiple notes or to take feedback, because it’s that’s grace and beauty of having great collaborators. Everyone’s there to make sure that the film is going to be the smartest it possibly can be. I certainly couldn’t have done this on my own.

SMF: You have this mystery. You have this comedy. But then you decide to make it even more difficult on yourself and start layering in concepts relating to gender, to identity, to masculinity, to femininity, to sexuality, to gentrification, to the environment, to economic equality.

To me, it feels like those pieces are some of the ones you are the most interested in, because you get to make a lot of points in a subtle way, none of which feel didactic. You’re not hammering the viewer over the head with any of them.

JR: I hope not. That’s always kind of the big thing, right? I do think ultimately you’re playing on a somewhat satirical level, but we’ve also got a responsibility as filmmakers, right?

Certainly, for me, being a 37-year-old Caucasian man, these are the kind of films that I want to do. Where there is something you’re saying, and you’re not making something just for the sake of making it. Worstcase scenario, you are casting as diversely as possible, so even if you’re a bit too vague on the themes or with the dialogue, there can always be a subtext at the very least with your casting decisions.

One example? Originally Dr. Ellis was written for a Richard Jenkins type. I had also just seen and fallen in love with Rebecca Henderson. I said, there’s no reason why Dr. Ellis needs to be an older white man. Why don’t we make it this gay woman to play this character? I haven’t seen this. A kind of Sigourney Weaver type. And she’s an abso-

Milana Vayntrub (l), Josh Ruben (center), and Sam Richardson on the set of Werewolves Within – Photo courtesy of IFC Films

lute hit. People love Rebecca in this movie.

But everybody gets their moment. The entire cast.

Anyway, it’s just something I want to continue to do, and do better as I continue to make stuff. Ideally I do stuff that doesn’t center on anything like identity, and that just becomes part of the mixture organically. It adds texture.

It’s like the casting of Sam Richardson.

Why shouldn’t Sam be Finn? This is a movie about outsiders — but a Black forest ranger in a small, predominantly white town, with very few conversations [about] what he looks like other than an early shitty comment? You kind of get it. You know what’s up. And Sam’s just brilliant. So that helps, too.

SMF: How much freedom do you give your cast to make these characters their own? How do you allow them to come back to you with ideas or concepts as to what they feel that these characters would do in these situations?

JR: Everything is communication. John Badham wrote a whole book about this — it’s brilliant — John Badham on Directing. And the whole thing is having a plan and making a decision, and not showing people that you’re

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some pushover who doesn’t have a plan. But you’re still communicating with these human beings. They’re a piece of this puzzle.

Not only was it a phone calls with every actor — meeting with them to say, this is what I see and this is what I want — but it was also: What do you think? How do you like to be talked to? How do you like to be directed?

How do you like to work? Do you want line readings? Do you want to just sort of go to your own corner and then kind of come back and show me what you’ve crafted?

So everything is about communication. Within the parameters of that, when the actors feel your trusting hands and are comfortable when the parameters are presented, they don’t feel boxed in. They feel like they have freedom. I hope the cast felt like they had immense freedom, but freedom in the context of those conversations.

SMF: Feeding off that, I think the majority of audiences are going to be shocked by Milana Vayntrub in this movie. The freedom you gave her to just go for broke, it’s glorious. Does it give you any sort of special joy to be showcasing her in a way never seen before by people only familiar with her AT&T commercials?

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ments to go, it’s a solid guess that producerstar Diesel and returning director Justin Lin are going to do their darndest to prove me wrong. Still, while I’m more than willing to ride or die with a whole heck of a lot, my

see F9 page 22 JR: Immense joy. Immense. It’s massive.

Because myself and everyone in the comedy community who knows her, we know she’s a comedic genius and a versatile talent who can keep up with the best of them. She can certainly keep up with all of the boys. Just as smart, just as sharp, just as good a fart joke.

Knowing her for the better part of the decade and knowing what she’s been through, I’m thrilled by her performance here.

But they’re all exciting! It’s just as exciting with actors like Rebecca [Henderson] and Cheyenne [Jackson] and Michael [Churnus] and Glenn [Fleshler]. Glenn gets to put on a wig and a beard and thinks he looks like Jason Momoa’s brother. He doesn’t think he’s the guy people recognize from Joker or True Detective.

SMF: You brought up that Scare Me sort of brought us into the pandemic and gave us something of a “comfort watch” while we were all in the early or middle stages of our isolation. Now we have this movie coming at the end of the pandemic (hopefully the end of it), where we get to come out of those shells. Now that audiences get to have that communal experience again, what do you hope they take away from Werewolves Within? What do you want them to be talking about as they exit that theater?

JR: I hope that it feels like a healing ride.

I hope that it continues to heal them, that they’d bring friends, and that they just disappear inside the movie. I want them to go on this 90-some-odd-minutes thrill-ride and laugh-ride that it is.

Phil Noble said something really kind to me. He said, “I think you’re kind of at the beginning of a new wave of horror films that are fun again.” I’d love to be a part of that. I’d love to think that.

I hope that people can go to this film and forget the… trauma of the past 15 months or the past four years or whatever might be sitting in their recent or not-so-recent past. I want them to have a great time, and to have that great time with their friends and their family. That’s all I want.

Werewolves Within is currently in theatres, and will be on PVOD (premium video on demand) on July 2.

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Film

Rob Epstein (left) and Jeffrey Friedman – Photo courtesy of Telling Pictures

TCM

continued from cover MK Scott: I’m excited to talk to you…

You two are one of the first documentary filmmakers to make it in the mainstream, and now TCM is giving you your own night to share some of your best work. What was your feeling when they had first approached you on that?

Rob Epstein: Excited, thrilled, honored.

It’s great. I think all but one of these films have never been on TCM before. And it’s really a wonderful treat to have them collate it, curate it, and present it as an evening of our films. And we had the opportunity [to work] with TCM a number of years ago on a film called And the Oscar Goes To. MK Scott: I saw that. That was fabulous. It was a really, really good piece.

Jeffrey Friedman: Thanks. It’s fun to be working with them on this side as well.

MK Scott: For nearly 35 years you have brought to the screen a variety of stories, from Harvey Milk and the Holocaust to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and finally, one of my favorites, The Celluloid Closet.

Which one impacted you the most?

JF: That’s like asking if you have a favorite child, right? Like most parents do have a favorite child, they just never admit it. (laugh) …Now there’s so much distance between us and most of these films… it’s like being reacquainted with, you know, an old friend, a family member that you’ve had a long history with and hadn’t seen for a while. So I just tend to get just completely absorbed in the film and the experience of making the film.

RE: Thinking of them all together playing in the course of a night, or the retrospective that we’ve had, I’m more impressed by how many films we’ve made. You know, we’ve been at this for a long time, and each one of these films took years to make. And all of our energy and creativity and, you know, just our lives were immersed in these subjects. So seeing them collected this way impresses me just with how long we’ve been at this.

MK Scott: Speaking of The Celluloid Closet, you got a chance to interview a lot of major, major people, from Gore Vidal to Quentin Crisp to Shirley MacLaine.

Was there any interview that intimidated you at all?

RE: Gore Vidal was pretty intimidating.

JE: Arthur Laurents was pretty intimidating. Shirley MacLaine was intimidating until she got to the set. Then she was a total pussycat, Well, you see why people are stars when they [have] such charismatic magnetism.

MK Scott: Probably one of the most serious films I had ever seen was Paragraph 175. I thought it was a beautiful, beautiful film. Were there any particular stories from that that touched you the most?

RE: They were all touching. You know, those were personal stories of these men who had gone through this horrendous period, the Nazi era, and were victimized by the Nazis.

Most of them had never talked about it.

One in particular, Heinz F., had really never told his story to anybody until he gave an interview for our film. And there were people who just found it too painful.

There’s one person in there, near the beginning of the film, who just says he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. Because it was just such a painful period in his life. He wants to forget about it and move on at age

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93 or something.

So, yeah, I mean, I found them all touching. They were beautiful, they’re beautiful men. It was very special to hear their stories.

JF: One of the most touching moments in the making of that film was actually at the premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, when two of the men met for the first time — two of the surviving men — one of whom was German and the other was French. And the French guy had said that he never expected to set foot on German soil again. And there they were on stage, holding hands to a standing ovation at the Berlin Film Festival. That was a very moving moment.

MK Scott: How have documentaries changed in the last 30-plus years?

JF: Oh, in so many ways. I think the genre lines are getting a lot blurrier… peo-

ple are using aspects of dramatic filmmaking, and animation. I think the vocabulary of the documentary has certainly broadened, and that’s changed the form. …When I started out, with Word Is Out, those films were more premeditated…. I think the form just continues to evolve.

MK Scott: I once interviewed Jeffrey Schwartz, and I know you know him from when you were in the Vito documentary.

RE: Right. He worked on The Celluloid Closet.

MK Scott: And actually his style is actually very similar to yours. So I’m sure he was very influenced by you.

JF: Well, he actually… when he graduated college, he came to San Francisco to intern with us, and that’s how he ended up being assistant editor on The Celluloid Closet.

MK Scott: Oh my gosh. And then like two, three years ago, [in] State of Pride, you talked to different kinds of people in the community, but they were all in the Deep South, or they were in small towns.

And I thought that was actually pretty moving as well.

RE: Yeah, that was a commissioned film with YouTube. We worked with Raymond Braun on that. And it was interesting to see how much has changed and how much hasn’t… how some of the struggles that people are going through back when we were coming out, young people are still going through in different parts of the country.

MK Scott: So now you have a Grammy [for Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice], you have two Oscars, you have an Emmy. All you need now is a Tony, and then you’re an EGOT. JF: Yes. We’ll have to figure out which of our films would work as a musical theater adaptation.

MK Scott: My last question. Would you ever consider doing a sequel to The Celluloid Closet, but focusing on films from the last 25 years?

JF: Well, Jeffrey Schwartz is actually developing an idea. We’ve been working with him, supporting him in developing an idea that would be along those lines.

RE: Hopefully that will happen one day.

A little chat with a Hollywood Insider I also had a chance to chat with Hollywood insider Dave Karger, one of my favorite entertainment journalists, whom I have interviewed three times. You have seen him around Oscar time on Access Hollywood or the Today show, or as one of the hosts of Tuner Classic Movies. Talking to Karger was like catching up with an old friend.

MK Scott: Okay, so TCM is doing a special night with Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Was this your idea?

Dave Karger: I can take partial credit for this.

So the TCM programmers wanted to do a night of LGBTQ-themed documentaries.

And they sent me the list of movies that they were planning on airing, and it was Harvey Milk, Common Threads, and Word Is Out. I was looking over the list, and I said, these are all Rob Epstein and/or Jeffrey Friedman movies. We should get them to co-host with me. So the talent department said, Oh, that’s an interesting idea. So they got onboard and were able to get Rob and Jeffrey onboard.

I really pushed for programming to include The Celluloid Closet, because that’s a film that I watched right when I started my career. I had just started at Entertainment Weekly. [It] came out in early 1996 in theaters [and] I remember… just being so affected by it. It just caused me to look at films in such a different way.

So it’s a movie that we’ve never shown on TCM before, but it’s such a natural fit for our TCM audience. So I’m so glad that we’re showing that one too, and it was a

Dave Karger – Photo courtesy of Turner Classics Movies

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Film

F9

continued from page 19 patience for this series and all its larger-thanlife permutations is wearing noticeably thin.

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to care about any of this, and if Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6 put Dominic Toretto and clan back on solid ground, F9 comes close to speeding the series right off the side of a cliff.

Not that a cliff is much of an obstacle for this crew. But the metaphor still stands. There is a lot of movie in this movie, and almost all of it is as brain-dead as the central plot itself

proves to be. Not that I expect subtlety from these car-filled adventures, even if it would be nice if I didn’t feel like watching them was transforming me into a monosyllabic dimwit with each passing second.

I do still love this cast, and I appreciate that Lin allows a few of the characters, most notably Roman, to ruminate on how far they’ve all come from their days stealing DVD players on California highways and going undercover in Florida to con a low-level drug dealer. Now we’re stopping worldwide Armageddon and bringing down satellites courtesy of a soupedup Pontiac Fiero.

There are also a handful of undeniably

spectacular action sequences, not the least of which is that opening jungle search for Mr. Nobody, which quickly descends into explosive vehicular madness, culminating in a plane armed with a powerful magnet and a unique bridge jump that’s a slingshot of inventive psychosis. Han’s reintroduction is handled nicely, and a brawny set piece inside an underground bunker is a bruising bout of fisticuffs that almost equals the epic Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham smackdown from Fate of the Furious.

Fans know what to expect from these films, and I doubt they will leave the theater disappointed. There are explosions. There are cool

have an Oscar, but Rob has two.

MKS: Well, Rob did say that he’s perfectly fine being an EGO. DK: (laugh) Well, if you watch – that’s very funny – if you watch our interview on…

Monday the 28th, you’ll see in the back corner of the frame is an Oscar and a Grammy that they’ve won, that Rob has won.

MKS: Amazing. Of course, as an Oscar insider, I’m sure you were a big fan of their TCM documentary, And the Oscar Goes To. DK: You know, it’s so great that we have this history with them.

And it’s fun because, you know, I think they even remarked on the fact that they were a little bit less comfortable being on that side of the interview. Usually they’re the ones doing the interviewing... But even with their discomfort they still did a fantastic job of answering all of my questions.

And they had great memories for all of the wonderful films they’ve worked on.

MKS: What do you think Rob and Jeff’s legacy is for documentary filmmaking?

DK: I think it’s twofold. I think on one hand they were groundbreaking as far as bringing LBGTQ-themed films to the attention of the Academy and thereby to, you know, the larger film-going public, with things like Harvey Milk and Common Threads.

But then I think they’ve never been people to rest on their laurels, literally. They’re always looking for something new and provocative to explore. And I think they will go down in history as two of the preeminent documentarians and perhaps the most acclaimed gay documentarians.

MKS: Absolutely. I mentioned to them that Jeffrey Schwartz, whom I interviewed when he did the Divine documentary, has a very similar style, which I realized before they mentioned that Jeffrey was actually an assistant editor for Celluloid Closet.

TCM

continued from page 21 thrill to have Rob and Jeffrey on the network with me for the whole night.

MKS: In a few words, what do you think of The Celluloid Closet?

DK I think The Celluloid Closet is one of the most purely entertaining documentaries that I’ve ever seen. And because of just the way they pace the movies and edit the movie, plus Lily Tomlin’s very wry narration, I think it’s a must-see for any movie fan, particularly a classic movie fan, because it helps you understand what the Hays production code really did to films for the 35 years that it was in effect. And it helps you see, you know, how far we’ve come as far as LGBTQ representation [where] film is concerned.

MKS: I could not agree more. I told them when I spoke to them yesterday [that] everything about it was just so perfect, with Lily Tomlin’s narration as well as K.D. Lang’s rendition of Secret Love.

DK: Don’t you love that at the end, to hear that Doris Day? MKS: Very much. Regarding Paragraph 175, what do you think of that film?

DK: That was so eye-opening. I had never seen that one until just a couple of weeks ago, when I was preparing to talk to them. And it’s a very different film for them, because it’s an international story.

Most of the films that they do [deal] with more domestic issues.

And just in talking to them, [it was interesting to learn] about Klaus Müller, the Nazi-era historian who we see interviewing all of these survivors in the film. This man approached Rob and Jeffrey to get them onboard to direct a documentary in relation to the work that he was doing. It just speaks to how groundbreaking and influential and in demand these two filmmakers are, that people were coming out of the woodwork trying to get them onboard to do documentaries with them.

So it’s a fascinating film. It’s heartbreaking to hear from some of these survivors who are just unable to talk to anyone about what they had experienced during the Nazi era as gay men. It’s very sad. But absolutely worth your time.

MKS: What did you think of The Times of Harvey Milk?

DK: That’s a film that we’ve shown several times on TCM. And I’ve even introduced it before.

Here’s the weird story behind this, for me, very personally: That was the first movie that I can personally recall seeing win an Oscar. I was 11 years old. I don’t know why I was watching the Oscars in 1985, but I was, and I remember seeing a movie called The Times of Harvey Milk win for Best Documentary.

Of course I didn’t know who Harvey Milk was. I didn’t realize the significance of an LGBTQ-themed movie winning an Oscar, because that had essentially never happened before.

I think it’s such a brilliantly made documentary, because it tells the fascinating story of Harvey Milk and his shocking death, but it also puts him in a larger con-

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cars. There are some decent jokes. Many of the performances are solid. The word “family” is uttered repeatedly, so those playing a drinking game every time the word is stated can anticipate being suitably hammered long before the midway point.

But all this is starting to grow a little stale as far as I’m concerned. F9 takes the saga to a place that’s out of this world, and even that wasn’t enough to maintain my interest for all 145 minutes. The tank for this series is starting to run empty, and I’m not sure Lin and Diesel are going to be able to generate enough fresh ideas to pay for a refill.

DK: Well, there you go. So they’re obviously even helping to foster a whole next generation of wonderful filmmakers.

The Celluloid Closet poster – Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

text of what was going on in the early ’80s in San Francisco, [and also] all over the country, with the gay movement.

It’s a hard movie to watch at times, but’s exceptionally well done and so deserving of the Oscar win.

MKS: And I think it actually set the stage for Lance Black to put together the screenplay for Milk.

DK: I think you can make the argument that without that documentary, there would have been no narrative films directed by Gus Van Sant and starring John Patton. I think one really did lead to the other.

MKS: I completely agree. And also, I had forgot that they had directed Howl, about Allen Ginsberg.

DK: Yeah, it’s interesting, I mean Rob and Jeffrey are probably best known for their LBGTQ-themed documentaries, but they’ve also branched out into these other worlds with narrative film. They co-directed the Allen Ginsberg film Howl, they directed a [biopic] about Linda Lovelace, and then they’ve also done non-LBGTQ themed

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[films] too. They had a really fascinating short documentary called End Game about end-of-life care. And one of my favorite things they’ve ever done, just from a year and a half ago, is a great documentary about Linda Ronstadt called The Sound of My Voice, which won a Grammy. So they’re just such impressive guys and everything they do just seems to be exceptional.

MKS: Well, I just told them that if they ever decide that, okay, we’re going to do something on Broadway, then they could win a Tony and actually be an EGOT. DK: Oh, my god, wouldn’t that be great?

That’s right. They’ve got the Emmy, they’ve got the Oscar. Well, technically — and it’s kind of dorky — but technically Jeffrey does not have an Oscar. Rob has two, but Jeffrey was not technically eligible to personally win the Oscar. When Common Threads did win, Jeffrey was onstage with Rob, but only Rob and the producer of the film won the Oscar. I think the rules were such that only one director and one producer could win. So sadly, Jeffrey does not

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will be celebrating Pride Month with a special night of programming on Monday, June 28, hosted by Dave Karger and featuring the LGBTQ-centric documentaries of Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, including both the Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (a TCM premiere.) (bold indicates a TCM premiere) 8:00 p.m. Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989) 9:30 p.m. The Celluloid Closet (1995) 1:30 p.m. Paragraph 175 (2000) 1:15 a.m. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).

3:00 a.m. Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977) 5:15 a.m. Before Stonewall (1985) MK Scott is a Seattle-based entertainment writer and editor/publisher of Unite Seattle magazine.

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Books

Elliott Bay Book Company: A dream come true

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer To call the Elliott Bay Book Company a shop is an understatement; it is a palace, the Garden of Eden for Seattle’s book lovers.

And it was a dream job for current manager, bookseller, and head of the extensive Queer section A.J. Robles.

“It’s both a really amazing place to be as a customer and as a staffer,” Robles told me as they took me through the amazingly thorough LGBTQ+ section. Massive bookshelves jut out from a wall in the center of the store, showcasing everything from theory to novels.

Robles makes sure to stock the display with new and timeless LGBTQ literature for all customers, from Picking Up Speed to Devotions, the latter having been a bestseller for the last two months. The store has also seen an explosion of interest in Audre Lorde and her theory on race and sexuality.

Even before working there, Robles thought of Elliott Bay as the cultural center of the block. “I frequented the section that I now get to design,” Robles said — a true fairytale story, like one that could be found on any shelf in the store.

Elliott Bay is proud of its history with the LGBTQ community. Many staffers are Queer, and store owner Peter Aaron has been an ally and advocate for many years, even before the book emporium moved to Capitol Hill in 2010. “Peter came out in favor of marriage equality long before we legalized it as a state,” Robles informed me.

The store has also always been big on stocking Queer stories. “We feature Queer books and Queer authors all year round,” Robles said, pointing out that for Pride Month, the store is focusing its window display on Trans stories and authors: it’s eyecatching, filled with a gradient of colors and patterns, and heavily features the linguistic art of BIPOC Queer and Trans authors.

“You’re definitely getting an experience that is curated by other Queer people, and we are very mindful of our presence in the neighborhood.”

While Elliott Bay may be the largest

independent bookstore in Seattle, Robles wanted to let me know that they all have heart and character, and supporting independent bookstores, in a way, is supporting Seattle. “All of our indies have such different and wonderful things to offer. We have a very connected relationship with all the other bookstores in Seattle.”

When asked what makes Elliott Bay Book Company special, Robles told me it was the community.

“Location is not everything, but it is not insignificant,” Robles said. “We are lucky to be in such a beautiful spot in such a beautiful neighborhood.” The culture of Capitol Hill has definitely influenced Elliott Bay, with its tall shelves full of diverse authors and stories. “It is this beacon in Capitol Hill.”

Community also finds its place at Elliott

Photos by Lindsey Anderson

Bay in the book clubs frequent the store, and readers of all backgrounds and ages are welcome to peruse the shelves.

Whatever type of book it is you’re looking for, it can be found at Elliott Bay, and if Queer literature is wat you want, prepare to get lost in a maze of gorgeous displays prepared by Robles, the book lover whose dreams came true.

If you’re in the Capitol Hill area, a stop at Elliott Bay Book Company will surely brighten your day!

Elliott Bay Book Company is at 1521 10th Ave., between Pike and Pine, on Capitol Hill. More information can be found at www.elliottbaybook.com.

Where You Are Is Not Who You Are: A rags-to-riches memoir of a Black female CEO

by Terri Schlichenmeyer Special to the SGN WHERE YOU ARE IS NOT WHO YOU ARE URSULA M. BURNS © 2021 Amistad $27.99 / $34.99 Canada 240 pages Start small, plan big.

You don’t have to have much for the former, just a little love and a place to launch.

The latter, though, that takes some work.

You have to see the goal, hold your confidence tight, and know yourself well.

And then, as in the new memoir Where You Are Is Not Who You Are by Ursula M. Burns, the former CEO of Xerox (and the first Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company), you step up and fly.

If you only get a few pages in, you might reconsider your plans to finish this book.

Burns jumps almost immediately to the latter part of her career, in a dizzying chunk that’s exhausting to read. Name-dropping features heavily, it lasts way too long, and it feels forced.

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Image courtesy of Amistad

If you persist, though, you’ll be happy when she settles in to share her rags-toriches tale that has the feel of a TV movie.

It rambles a little, but that is still appealing. Burns writes of poverty and determination, of resourcefulness and the love of family, before sliding into the story of her career again, in a very readable fashion.

When she was a child growing up in a New York tenement, Burns never thought about how much her mother sacrificed for her and her siblings. The family had food, shelter, and clothing, as well as a TV and schooling. It wasn’t until Burns was almost grown that she realized what a feat this was: her single, Panamanian-born mother kept the family going on $4,400 a year.

Somehow, despite the lack of income, Burns was able to attend a Manhattan Catholic school, where she excelled in her studies and learned that being vocal could make a difference in how things were run. This outspokenness did indeed make change, but it also led to a certain amount of chiding when she was an adult.

Upon graduation, Burns had her pick of several major colleges, but she chose Brooklyn Polytech, after having decided

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upon a career based on potential income.

It was heavily steeped in math, a skill she was good at though her more privileged classmates were better. But it only took a few months before she caught up and began tutoring others.

Burns loved school and she was grateful for the help she got from New York’s Higher Education Opportunity Program, which provided support, both careerwise and economically.

At the end of her junior year in college, she accepted an internship position at Xerox, and the company supported her while she got her master’s degree. Upon graduation, she took the full-time job they offered, a position that allowed her eventually to make history...

This is one of those books in which you need to prepare yourself to pick and choose what you read. Be ready to skim or skip parts. Do that, and you’ll be fine; otherwise, reading Where You Are Is Not Who You Are could be a big task.

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Books

Electric City : Henry Ford’s Alabama utopia

by Terri Schlichenmeyer Special to the SGN ELECTRIC CITY: THE LOST HISTORY OF FORD AND EDISON’S AMERICAN UTOPIA THOMAS HAGER © 2021 Abrams Press $28.00 / $35.00 Canada 296 pages “I want that!” Three words you’ve been saying, out loud or quietly to yourself, ever since you’ve been able to talk.

Because, of course, you want things: treats, toys, and other accoutrements of humanness. You want them, and you won’t take no for an answer — even if, as in the new historical nonfiction book Electric City

by Thomas Hager, there are big hurdles.

If you can imagine a jagged, goofy smile from east to west across the top of Alabama, then you can envision the Tennessee River. It’s an area filled with welcome vistas, but in the late 1700s, when settlers began showing interest in living along this loop of the Tennessee, they were met

Op-Ed

Image courtesy of Abrams

by unwelcoming natives. After Andrew Jackson expelled them from the area, called Muscle Shoals, after the mussels found in

its waters, he allowed development there.

Fifty years later, Thomas Edison had stunned the world with electricity and the possibilities it offered, and developers wanted in on that. Two of them, Frank Washburn and J.W. Worthington, landed government support to build large dams across the Tennessee River — as electricity generators and to make nitrogen fertilizer for American farmers. Crews worked feverishly on the project until the end of World War I, when officials realized that new, better technology had already made it obsolete.

Muscle Shoals, as a project, was done.

Towns that had sprung up to house factory workers disappeared, and the government was stuck with buildings for which it had no use.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, Henry Ford began construction on new facilities for Model T manufacturing. Officials noticed, and Ford was invited to view the Muscle Shoals compound, for which he shrewdly made a bid.

It was a weak one, though, complete with half-promises and vague assurances, but Ford dug in his heels, convinced he’d win. Repeatedly given the chance to change

his bid, he stood firm. Ford was a take-it-orleave-it kind of guy.

And certain government officials were inclined toward the latter...

Tell your average toddler no, and you’d best be prepared to do battle in a dozen ways. They won’t go down quietly — and neither did Henry Ford. Some may admire him for his perseverance, or for his vision, or, after reading Electric City, you might call it folly.

Or hubris, as Hager shows in his account of Ford’s many attempts to prevail and the political contention that thwarted him and the utopia he envisioned. Hager tells of government officials and the public taking sides — and readers will, too, perhaps paralleling modern opinions on wealth and privilege.

Hager writes tantalizingly of an earlytwentieth-century President (Henry) Ford, leaving us to imagine a big what-if, and then he brings readers current.

So did Ford deserve to get his way? And was Edison, who seems to be a peripheral character in Electric City, really as supportive as he appeared at first? Find out by reading this fascinating, sweeping slice of Americana.

Pride and parenting: Dwyane Wade’s unrelenting support for his Transgender daughter

by Janice Athill SGN Contributing Writer During my interview with Brian Broome, author of Punch Me Up to the Gods, the statement he made that stood out to me the most was “Learn who your child is before you give them the arms to reinforce them against a racist America.”

This goes deeper than just preparing Black children for the world around them. It is about parents holding themselves responsible for giving their children the type of love and support they need. Every child is different, and only they can tell you who they are and what type of support they need.

For over three years now, one embodiment of this pure, unconditional love has been retired NBA star Dwyane Wade. He has stood by his daughter Zaya as she came out as a Transgender girl, and he’s urged parents to support their children at pivotal moments like this.

Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union took Zaya’s coming out very seriously. And while they are allowing her to lead them down this new road, they are also doing their own research, making sure properly supporting Zaya is their top priority.

Wade has received a mixture of praise and harsh backlash for his decision to support his now 14-year-old child. In the latter group have been rappers, fans, and former R & B stars, who have offered their unsolicited, toxic opinions on the situation, chastising his parenting, attacking his manhood, and making vulgar comments on aspects of transitioning that have not been mentioned publicly by anyone directly involved with Zaya.

“All the people who got something to say about my kids, I thank you,” said Wade in response to Boosie (a rapper) and J-Boog (former member of B2K) who publicly said negative things about Zaya’s transition and recent recognition, “because you’re allowing the conversation to keep going forward, because you what? You might not have the answer today, I don’t have all the answers, but we’re

Zaya and Dwyane Wade – Photo courtesy of Dwyane Wade / Instagram

growing from all these conversations. So, I thank everybody for even hating and starting these conversations, because those conversations are starting other conversations that we need to have and that’s happening out there.”

Wade has stated that his daughter has known her gender identity since she was three years old, and he himself realized early in her childhood that he had to check himself. The offhand comments he had heard in men’s locker rooms would no longer be acceptable. In a moment of self-

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reflection, Wade realized that his previous perceptions and choices of terminology would have to change.

The understanding that Transgender children are killing themselves shook him.

Unwilling to risk his child’s life, Wade has shown Zaya tremendous support, which has allowed her to flourish.

This past March, Michelle Obama chose to honor Zaya during Women’s History Month. “I am just so proud of you, you know, being just an amazing role model and

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embracing your truth,” Michelle Obama said to her during their conversation. Zaya blushed and gushed over her idol in what was a heartwarming display of support for a Transgender girl of color.

This generated a lot of controversy: social media raged with men proclaiming that a “boy” would never be a role model for their daughter, while women battled feeling simultaneously slighted and pleased with progress.

It is understandable why some people feel the way they do about Zaya being honored as a courageous young lady. The thing is, though, while they may not want their daughters to look at someone assigned male at birth as a female role model, Zaya is a role model for other little girls like herself, girls who are still too afraid of the world’s judgment to be themselves.

No one can deny that many young women deserve to be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments and contributions to society. However, Zaya is also an undeniably brave and outstanding person.

Zaya has been born into a rare circumstance which will define who she grows up to be. The product of a family with the means and compassion to defy social norms, Zaya is one of few Black members of the LGBTQ community, and even fewer Black children, who will know how it feels to genuinely be free.

She will have to deal with hecklers, haters and close-minded individuals who will refuse to understand her, but the support received from her father, stepmother, and siblings will mitigate those negative opinions. Zaya will never have to search for acceptance from strangers, because it will have been given freely and openly by the people she loves.

Wade’s inspiring display of support is parenting at its finest, making him the MVP. Despite what any naysayer may believe there should definitely be a place with Dwyane Wade’s name in the Parenting Hall of Fame.

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National News

National news highlights

Pride weekend at Stonewall Inn: pour-out of Anheuser Busch beers Brewing giant accused of donating to anti-LGBTQ legislators

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer Supreme Court ruling Reuters reported on June 17 that the US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Catholic adoption group that refused to work with Gay foster parents. The justices decided, 9-0, that Philadelphia’s refusal to work with Catholic Social Services violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion.

Justice Dept. weighs in on anti-Trans laws Reuters reported June 17 on the US Justice Department’s statement condemning Republican efforts to curb Trans rights with state laws.

Lawyers from the Justice Department have urged a West Virginia judge to strike down the law banning Transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports in schools. Department lawyers sent a similar statement to a judge in Arkansas, who is overseeing a trial about the state’s ban on genderaffirming care for minors.

Photo courtesy of The Stonewall Inn

Gender-confirmation surgery for Trans service members The Associated Press reported on June 17 that the US Department of Veterans Affairs is making moves to provide gender-confirmation surgery to Transgender service members. Secretary Denis McDonough described the development as a matter of saving the lives of service members, and a kind of reconciliation in light of the US military’s treatment of LGBTQ people in the past.

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by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The historic Stonewall Inn, symbolic birthplace of the modern LGBT rights movement, will make history yet again this coming Pride weekend with a “pour-out” of Anheuser Busch beers.

Anheuser Busch products will be banned from the bar for at least the remainder of Pride Month.

The bar’s owners and activists from the community already participated in a public demonstration in front of the Inn on June 23, dumping Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA, and Stella Artois into the gutter.

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LGBTQ activists say the brewing giant has donated to political candidates who support anti-Transgender legislation.

According to data from the Keep Your Pride campaign, since 2015 Anheuser Busch has made 48 separate donations totaling $35,350 to 29 anti-LGBTQ legislators behind recent bills attacking Trans youth.

In response to the Stonewall Inn announcement, Anheuser-Busch released the following statement: “We support candidates for public office whose policy positions and objectives support investments in our communities, job creation, and industry growth. Together,

with our brands, we have a clear role to play in bringing real change and creating an inclusive and equitable world where we cherish and celebrate one another.”

Through its nonprofit arm, The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, the bar recently launched the Safe Spaces program, which identifies and certifies entertainment venues, food and beverage locations, stores, businesses, and other public venues as Safe Spaces for LGBTQ people.

Under its criteria for certification, businesses that donate to anti-LGBTQ lawmakers would not qualify for designation as a Safe Space.

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Pope Francis met then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Vatican in 2016 – Photo by Vatican Media / Reuters

BISHOPS

continued from cover By a vote of 168 to 55, the bishops decided to order their doctrine committee to draft a document and submit it to their next meeting in November. If two-thirds of the bishops there approve it, it would then be issued as guidance to parish priests throughout the US. Who is allowed to receive Communion is important to Catholics, because Holy Communion is the central sacrament of the Catholic faith, representing unity with Christ and the Church.

The move is clearly aimed at Democratic politicians like President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are devout

Catholics but also support choice and marriage equality as matters of public policy.

The issue was pressed by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, a long-time foe of Pelosi and the city’s LGBTQ community.

In voting to go ahead with drafting the document, the USCCB defied an explicit warning from the Vatican, telling them that the Church should be inclusive and not turn people away from sacraments.

Although the vote for moving ahead was overwhelming, some bishops worried that their colleagues were politicizing the sacraments.

“The Eucharist itself will be a tool in vicious partisan turmoil,” San Diego Archbishop Robert McElroy told the Washington Post.

International news highlights

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

Equality Parade in Warsaw – Photo by Kacper Pempel / Reuters

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“It will be impossible to prevent its weaponization, even if everyone wants to do so.

Once we legitimize public-policy-based exclusion... we’ll invite all political animosity into the heart of the Eucharistic celebration.”

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, DC, has made clear that Biden is welcome to receive Communion at any church in his archdiocese. During the bishops’ debate, Gregory argued against issuing a new Communion document.

“The choice before us at this moment is either we pursue a path of strengthening unity among ourselves or settle for creating a document that will not bring unity but may very well further damage it,” Gregory said.

On the other hand, some bishops said that Biden forced their hand on issue, and that their credibility was on the line if they

Hungary: New anti-LGBTQ policies Reuters reported June 18 on how Hungary’s LGBTQ community has been responding to a number of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-LGBTQ policies, which include bans on gender changes in government documents, and on the “display and promotion” of homosexuality and gender change among minors in both schools and media. A mass rally gathered on June 14 to protest the measures, and the European Commission has opened an inquiry on the matter.

didn’t move forward with a document reaffirming core Catholic values.

“It’s not the bishops who have brought us to this point — it’s some of our public officials,” said noted conservative Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City.

“This is a Catholic president doing the most aggressive things we’ve ever seen on life at its most innocent.”

Biden, a devout Catholic who attends Mass weekly, says he personally opposes abortion but doesn’t think he should impose that position on American women.

Asked about the Catholic bishops’ vote and whether he could be denied Communion, Biden replied, “That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Poland: March for equality Reuters reported June 19 on a march in Poland, which brought thousands to the streets of central Warsaw to demand equality for LGBT people and an end to anti-LGBT discrimination by clergy, politicians, and others. Reporter Alan Charlish put the march in context by noting Poland’s status as predominantly Catholic, which has been central to the conflict between the nation’s progressive liberals and religious conservatives.

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