No more silencing migrant voices: ICE protest sparks concerns within the movement
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A large ICE-related protest that started in Cal Anderson Park and traveled down to the Federal Building on June 11 was for the most part a joyous event that featured an eclectic mix of attendees, but a former elected official announcing her candidacy prompted concerns about the silencing of migrant voices.
Organized by the Seattle chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), the Cal Anderson portion of the event featured a band that displayed the Mexican flag on stands at the front and invited audience members to express their feelings through the mic, with the band creating tunes to accompany each word.
“Why the fuck is it so hard walking through the streets of Seattle and being Trans? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, do you know?” sang one woman.
Former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant spoke to the hundreds of people in attendance about the labor movement, saying it should be calling for strikes in major cities across the nation, which drew loud cheers from the crowd.
“Nothing will defeat Trump’s agenda like millions of workers shutting down the profit machine of the bosses — this is the only language they understand,” Sawant said.
Continued disappointment for Trans Americans at Seattle passport office
BY MADISON JONES
SGN STAFF WRITER
Transgender applicants and their families experienced familiar disappointment in Seattle on Wednesday, June 18 at the US passport office on Fifth Avenue. The day before, it was announced that US District Judge Julia Kobick had widened an injunction temporarily blocking President
Trump’s executive order preventing Transgender Americans from changing the sex marker on their passports.
Several people reported feeling optimistic they would finally be able to
Emergency No War on Iran protest recounts historical violence, destruction, and the need for liberation
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On June 18, Iranian Grassroots Voices organized a No War on Iran protest at Cal Anderson Park to support of the people of Iran and stand against overseas aggression, wars and imperialism, dictatorship and fascism, and Zionism and genocide. The intimate gathering brought attention to the potential of Trump waging war alongside Israel, fascism, and how US mainstream media presents conflicts to viewers.
About 40 people were present at the beginning of the protest; some chanted “No more war!” while a person on a nearby bench drummed a plastic container with a “Solidarity Forever” sticker on it. People proudly held Iranian and a few American
flags; many wore keffiyehs, a traditional Palestinian headdress.
“The death toll has now reached hundreds, and the smoke of war has risen from all over Tehran and other cities in Iran,” said an Iranian man over a microphone. “Israel, which has been killing the people of Gaza for months and forcing the survivors to die of famine and starvation, has now extended its war-mongering and aggression to the people of Iran with this plan for a new Middle East.”
He also read a statement by the Iranian Writers’ Association:
AP / JENNY KANE
HANNAH SAUNDERS
HANNAH SAUNDERS
(2020 - 2023)
It is with profound sorrow that we share the passing of Roxy Doll, a beloved drag luminary and the heart of Neighbours Nightclub. She fell ill on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, and lay down to rest. She was later found unresponsive. Despite swift lifesaving measures, Roxy slipped away from this existence.
We at the SGN are stunned and heartbroken. Roxy wasn’t just a performer — she was Neighbours. She embodied the true spirit of inclusion, joy, and resilience. For years, she poured her passion into the nightclub, especially through the pandemic cleanup and restoration efforts. She breathed life back into our beloved space, Seattle’s oldest currently operating LGBTQIA+ nightclub. Rest peacefully, Roxy Doll. We love you. We miss you. And, your memory will live on in the hearts of Seattle’s LGBTQIA+ community.
This is a developing story. The SGN will bring coverage of her passing online at SGN.org and in the pages of the SGN in the coming months.
ROXY DOLL VIA INSTAGRAM
Seattle’s No Kings attendance sparks outrage and demand for help as migrants and families are detained while nationwide political threats grow
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Donald Trump’s military parade on his 79th birthday on June 14 — which had a vastly smaller attendance than he expected and an obnoxiously squeaky tank wheel — was overshadowed by over 2,100 protests against his administration nationwide. A statement from the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped organize the event, said over five million people took part in the protests across the US. But down in Tukwila, one father was stolen from his family that same day, just before Father’s Day, with community members urging people to turn out at the location the day before.
While over 50,000 marched from Cal Anderson Park to the Seattle Center, a legal aid worker was assisting two detained people, warning one, Edipo Menezes, of the risks if he entered the Department of Homeland Security building to do a checkin. But he did — and never returned.
“Today in Tukwila, our undocumented and immigrant community needed you. We are vulnerable to ICE raids, deportation, and police violence. We asked you to come through. We needed your bodies, your voices, your protection,” the legal aid worker wrote on the Instagram account @ LoveIsTransformativeWA.
“But instead, while we were asking for backup, thousands of you were at a protest party in Seattle. 50,000 of you showed up there. Having more people power and even a hundred more people could’ve prevented ICE from kidnapping people. Could’ve helped protect someone’s father. Someone’s husband. Someone’s life.”
The Burner reported on how people were requested to show up to the facility just the day before. The ICE enforcement center is closed on the weekends, its business hours being Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Tukwila Police Department and agents from the Department of Homeland Security carried out violence against protesters outside the building by firing tear gas canisters that emitted a bright green color and by shooting rubber bullets. There was also pushing and aggressive detainment of protesters.
The legal aid’s post went on to explain how they watched agents drive Menezes away, leaving them heartbroken, noting how “it was a deep, painful violation of human dignity.”
“Our people are getting taken. We’re being disappeared. And we need you now — not when it feels good, but when it’s life or death,” they said.
No Kings
At taxpayers’ expense — $40 million — Trump’s military parade was officially meant to recognize the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army. Over 6,000 soldiers marched out of step as 128 Army tanks rolled toward the White House. Trump projected over 200,000 in attendance but reports state that there were about 10,000.
Meanwhile, Cal Anderson Park’s No Kings protesters took an oath with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-7) that included the following: “To resist together. To defeat the pretender king. To win for justice. To win for democracy. To win for ‘we the people.’”
Rep. Jayapal added how America doesn’t have “kings or crowns, and the people will never back down,” and the crowd cheered. She then asked them to sing it with her, which some did.
A university student named Jacob also hopped up to the podium, announcing that too much is at stake, like the immigration and education systems, and democracy as a whole. Jacob said he is proud to be the son of a Filipino immigrant woman who never took education for granted.
“She used to say, “Education is the key to success that will open many doors in your life. It is a power that no one can take away,’” Jacob said. “Under Trump’s America, they’re trying to lock this door to success and throw away the key [for] young people across the country.”
Not long after, protesters marched with signs that said, “Immigrant parents with their wings cut, still teach their children to fly,” “You stole my father,” and “I protest, so you’re not next!” Those going about
their Saturday activities stopped to take footage of the mass turnout.
Spotted at the Seattle Center gathering was a giant red hat that said “MAKE AMERIKKKA GREAT AGAIN,” but its stringy covering made it distinct. Handcrafted by José Camacho, who is originally from Mexico but resides in Burien, was a piñata that he stuffed with bags of candy he brought in his backpack. On one of the patios, he asked who wanted to hit it and offered up a stick. Multiple people jumped in, smacking the hat into smithereens, and once the candy flew out, everyone rushed in with glee to pick it up.
But the assassination of a Minnesota state legislator, her husband, and her dog — and the attempted assassination of another and his wife — cast a shadow over the sunny Seattle day.
During her speech, Rep. Jayapal teared up as she asked the audience to take a moment to honor Democratic leader and former House speaker Melissa Hortman, who was attacked in her home.
That morning, a man named Vance Boelter, posing as a police officer in a Ford SUV modified to appear like a police vehicle, knocked on Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman’s door. Boelter allegedly shot Sen. Hoffman nine times while his wife Yvette was shot eight times, according to ABC News — though both remarkably survived. Afterward, the shooter headed to Rep. Hortman’s home and allegedly shot and killed her and her husband Mark, and shot Gilbert, their golden retriever, who was a
trained service dog and was later put down. Minnesota midterms are in 2026, and all Senate seats are up for grabs. As of April 29, the Senate had a total of 67 legislators: 33 conservatives and 34 liberals. If Sen. Hoffman had died, it would have left an empty seat.
As of March 17, there are 134 representatives: 67 conservatives and 67 liberals. The murder of Rep. Hortman forces a special election to fill her seat before the next legislative session, which starts in February of next year. This could lead to flipping the party majority of the House, giving conservatives more power.
“We are not a country that settles our differences at gunpoint. We have demonstrated again and again in our state that it is possible to peacefully disagree, that our state is strengthened by civil public debate,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement. “We must stand united against all forms of violence — and I call on everyone to join me in that commitment.”
The new Gestapo
Having a heart-shattering history of being taken over by an authoritarian regime, countries across Europe joined in the No Kings protests, like one outside of the US Embassy in London, and others in Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin, some of the nations hit hardest by the Nazis in World War II.
Many stateside are drawing parallels to Nazi Germany. In Seattle, one protester held a sign with a picture of Adolf Hitler; underneath it said, “Stealing from you,” while another held a sign of a swastika with a slash through it.
Since Trump’s return to office for his second term, and given his recent orders for ICE agents to ramp up kidnappings of migrants and undocumented people, many have referred to ICE as Nazis and Gestapo agents.
During the Nazi era, the Gestapo’s main responsibility was forcibly taking Jews, Queers, and people with disabilities to ghettos, concentration camps, and killing centers. The brutal Gestapo, or the German Secret State Police, conducted surveillance, raided houses, used informants, and tortured those they persecuted during interrogations, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“Gestapo agents had the power to determine people’s fates. Individual agents could choose to be lenient. They could let people go, dismiss cases, or issue warnings and fines,” the museum website states. “But Gestapo agents could also choose to
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be ruthless. They could detain someone in prison indefinitely or condemn someone to a concentration camp. The only monitoring of these decisions came from within the Gestapo itself.”
On June 17, Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents while at an immigration court, where he was escorting a man out of the building. In an interview with MSNBC, he said ICE agents had been hanging around in the courthouse, while cases are dismissed or people are stripped of their protected status. This leads to agents hovering near elevators to catch people while leaving, he said.
Lander emphasized how the man he was with showed up to his court date on time, expecting to receive a hearing on his asylum case. Lander never saw a warrant for his arrest when masked ICE agents in plain clothes confronted them, he said.
“They were huddled around the elevator banks in masks without identifying information,” Lander said. “What a terrifying — like, these are Gestapo tactics. And that’s why I thought it was important to show up and bear witness for folks who are having their due process denied, but also because it’s an urgent time. Trump is coming for our cities and for the rule of law, and we’ve got to find ways to stand up.”
Lander is accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer and impeding their work. Both men were arrested, but Lander was released a few hours later. He said he has no idea where the other man is other than in custody at an ICE facility, and that he’s worried for thousands of other immigrant asylum seekers, as this wasn’t a oneoff.
The day after Trump’s birthday and the No Kings protests, June 15, Trump posted on Truth Social, applauding ICE for its work regarding the “largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History,” but he claimed that ICE agents are met with violence every day. He said the nation’s big-
gest cities — Los Angeles, Chicago, New York — where “millions upon millions reside,” must be targeted.
“These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” Trump wrote. “These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities.”
He also specifically called out Trans people in this post.
“There is something wrong with them [Democrats]. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role…
North Beacon Hill’s Queer-owned Plantbaby seeks to increase Seattle’s houseplant sustainability
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS
SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Have you heard of North Beacon Hill’s Queer-owned and sustainable nursery, Plantbaby? Founder Jay Galligher launched it in the summer of 2021 to increase the number of sustainable alternatives when it comes to plant shopping. All of its plants are rescued, grown, or propagated locally and are proudly peat-free. And for Seattle residents who have turned their homes into an overcrowded jungle sanctuary, there is an option to sell your plants.
As a technical digital health worker who was building wellness mobile apps and seeking a change before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Galligher leaned into his interest of living sustainably as a society. He returned to school for an MBA in managing for sustainability, and while in that program, discovered that most human consumption isn’t sustainable.
“The operations and infrastructures that we’ve optimized since the Industrial Revolution are heavily entrenched. I thought surely plants are sustainable, right? Nope,” Galligher told the SGN. “In my research, I found that the largest problem with getting plants more sustainable is the horticulture industry’s use of peat moss, despite that there are alternatives growers can use, such as coco coir,” a natural byproduct of harvesting coconuts.
Galligher explained how Plantbaby made the decision to locally rescue, grow, and propagate plants rather than importing or shipping within the state.
“We need help spreading the word about the horticulture industry’s use of peat moss and its harmful effects,” Galligher said.
“Start demanding that your plants are made in a peat-free fashion. We also want you to know about us and that we’ve got plants for you right now that are healthy, grown here, and peat-free.”
According to Oregon State University (OSU), the harvesting of peat moss takes place primarily in Canada and Russia and comes from bog and fen plants from across the globe. Linda Brewer, a soil scientist at the Department of Horticulture in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, said these plants extract carbon from the air, where it has been trapped for 10-12,000 years.
“As it’s harvested, the carbon is released back into the atmosphere, contributing to a warming climate. Harvesting peat moss also destroys a native habitat essential to the survival of many birds, reptiles, insects, and small mammals,” according to OSU.
Galligher said some peat-free mixes that can be used for houseplants include Rosy soil, Mother soil, and Oh Happy Plants soil. Plantbaby’s focus on sustainability has led to an increased demand for pop-ups, which is currently exceeding the shop’s supply of peat-free plants.
“If you like to propagate your plants or are moving and want to ensure your plants go to a good home, look us up and we’ll make you an offer and/or take them in as a donation anytime,” Galligher said. “If anyone’s a larger-scale grower (greenhouse level) and wants to partner with us to go peat-free, we’d like to talk to you.”
Community involvement
Creating a more sustainable world can-
“To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE!”
3.5% principle
Fascism is knocking on our doors, if it is not already here. But can the 3.5% rule put a halt to what’s happening, even though Trump and his cronies are defying laws and judicial orders?
A movement called 50501 has local chapters that have been putting on these antiTrump protests, including one in Seattle, which organized April’s “Hands Off” protest, in addition to the No Kings one.
The official No Kings website posted a note about what organizers think comes next:
“As ICE raids escalate and Trump doubles down on authoritarian tactics — including politicizing the military — we’re meeting the moment with action. The road ahead isn’t just about one protest or one day. It’s about building a movement powerful
enough to win against authoritarian forces dead set on destroying our democracy.
“We’re inspired by the 3.5% principle: it only takes 3.5% of the population engaging in sustained, strategic protest against authoritarianism to achieve a significant political change. Everything we do from here on out is grounded in three core commitments: staying in the fight, taking concrete action today, and investing in the long-term.”
The US has a population of about 341 million people, according to the US Census Bureau, meaning approximately 12 million would represent 3.5% of the population. With the No Kings protest turnout estimated at five million people, it must more than double to reach that benchmark.
Prioritizing voices of the impacted Menezes was snatched from his family the day before Father’s Day. La Resistencia Northwest, the grassroots undocumentedled movement, has been outspoken about the rise in deportation flights and horrid conditions at the Northwest Detention Center, like refusing yard time, allowing diabetics and those with cancer to go without medications, and mass overcrowding.
Those at risk of being or who are impacted by ICE, their families, and community members continue to speak out and rapidly mobilize, but more is needed, they say.
“We need to stop showing up only when it’s trendy,” Menezes’s legal aid wrote. “We need people who are ready to move when it’s hard and scary and not on the news. We need people to learn skills & practice these skills — how to de-arrest, how to hold a line, how to deal with tear gas/mace/rubber bullets, how to protect one another when the police & ICE come for us. We need people trained in movement security, legal observation, jail support, and direct action — not just chants and signs.”
not be done solely by one business — it takes an entire movement of people and growers. So Plantbaby will be appearing at events across the city, like the Fremont Sunday Market, and at Seattle parks.
“We have some private events happening at Seattle apartment buildings, such as the Arlo or Hilite in the Columbia City area, where we’ll be having either pop-up sales and/or doing our ‘Plant Doc Sessions,’ where we go on-site and provide expert plant services on care, diagnosis, or just general consultation for residents,” Galligher added.
Plantbaby was present at Seattle’s Pride in the Park event earlier this June, where staff collected donations and had a section where people could pay what they wanted or could, with net proceeds benefiting the Trevor Project.
“We were able to raise about $256, which was quadruple-matched by a corporate donor through Sunday, June 8, making our final donation amount $1,024,” Galligher said.
People seeking to sell plants can visit Plantbaby’s website at https://plantbaby. io or via Instagram and TikTok @plantbabypnw. Additionally, growers can list their plants online or visit pop-ups to clear out any plants.
“We take plants, planters, or nursery containers from the community anytime they have a need to clear stuff, and we’ll reuse or rehome them. Our goal is to minimize plant and plant accessory waste,” Galligher mentioned.
As for his favorite Plantbaby offerings, Galligher likes hoyas due to their thick, waxy leaves and blooms.
“Next, I’d have to say anything variegated in color, such as an Alocasia frydek or a Philodendron Brasil,” Galligher said. “If you like a more challenging plant, alocasias could be up your alley. If you like easy to grow, go for a philodendron or even a hoya.”
National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to close LGBTQIA+-focused services, will likely
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS
SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On Tuesday, June 17, a crisis counselor alerted the SGN that the nationwide 988 crisis hotline would be removing its LGBTQIA+-focused services on July 17. Queer youth face disproportionately higher rates of mental health challenges and suicidal ideation and attempts compared to their peers, and often are subjected to bullying, threats and acts of physical harm, discrimination, and conversion therapy as a result of their identities. Eliminating the 988 crisis line’s service for Queer youth will likely lead to an increase in mental health challenges and possibly death for some.
Tia Dole, PhD, the chief 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline officer at Vibrant Emotional Health, sent out a staff email on Tuesday announcing the shuttering of this service, known as the “Press 3” option.
“The Press 3 option was established as a pilot program in Fiscal Year 2022 under a government agreement with a third party,” Dole said. “The Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus included a Congressional directive for $29.7 million to fund the specialized services. Federal funding in FY24 for the Press 3 services increased to $33 million. As of June 2025, more than $33 million in funds have been spent to support the subnetworks, fully expending the monies allocated for 988 Lifeline LGB+ subnetwork services.”
The 2022 transition from a 10-digit telephone number to “988” for suicide and crisis prevention was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and rolled out by Vibrant.
The Trump administration claimed that the Queer-centered service line has “run out of congressionally directed funding,” according to the New York Times, although President Trump has continued to target the LGBTQIA+ community and has slashed funding for lifesaving programs,
including its 2026 budget proposal to cut funding for 988’s LGBTQIA+ youth and young adult services.
“Everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises, or any other kind of emotional distress. Anyone who calls the Lifeline will continue to receive compassion and help,” Dole claimed.
The crisis counselor source who leaked Dole’s email to the SGN said a staff meet-
ing was held just two hours prior to it being sent out, in which they were informed that all 988 contracted crisis line organizations are now subject to a hiring freeze. These organizations include Volunteers of America Western Washington, Crisis Connections, and Frontier Behavioral Health.
Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, issued a statement in response that partially included the following:
“This is devastating, to say the least. Suicide prevention is about people, not politics. The administration’s decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based ser-
vice that has effectively supported a highrisk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible. The fact that this news comes to us halfway through Pride Month is callous — as is the administration’s choice to remove the ‘T’ from the acronym ‘LGBTQ+’ in their announcement. Transgender people can never, and will never, be erased.
“Congress can still act to reverse this fatal decision. We are asking everyone to join the overwhelming public support for evidence-based crisis services, and urge Congress to act.”
But as she began to announce her candidacy for Congress from Washington’s 9th District, two migrants who were patiently waiting to speak jumped in and said their people cannot even vote. Things swiftly got heated, with Sawant clinging onto the mic.
Super Familia (@Superfamilia_KC on Instagram), which is an undocumented-led group that’s trying to prevent kidnappings and forced disappearances of their people, created a post following the Sawant incident:
“On Wednesday, June 11, the Seattle chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) hosted a rally at Cal Anderson in ‘solidarity’ with migrants against ICE. During the rally, autonomous undocumented migrants waited to speak on the mic, only to be talked over and forcefully pushed aside by PSL co-opters. All to allow an ‘independent’ politician to speak about her running campaign.
“When migrants intervened, they were pushed, shoved, and grabbed by PSL ‘protesters’ — causing distress, bodily harm, and outrage as comrades were forced to kettle around undocumented migrants to protect them from ‘anti-ICE activists.’
“If you’re so ‘anti-ICE,’ why are you using force to erase Indigenous voices from speaking their truth?
“PSL Seattle has a history of silencing Indigenous voices of the resistance and replacing it with political propaganda in their ‘protests’ — enacting lateral violence through colonial tactics of the suppression and erasure of Indigenous people and their reclamation to land, rights, and autonomy. Is this what liberation looks like?”
A representative of the Tacoma chapter of the Black Panther Party, another speaker at the event, passed the microphone to the two migrants when it was her turn to speak.
“Did you cross a fucking imaginary border imposed by a settler colonial government genociding your people?” one of the migrants asked those who prevented them from getting on the microphone.
“And these politicians want to speak for us?” they continued. “Get behind us. Earn our trust, because this is a movement led by undocumented people and migrants. We are not immigrants — we are migrants! We are in our ancestral homelands, displaced by a fascist government displacing people worldwide! Wake up, together we are unstoppable.”
ICE activity in the region
A member of La Resistencia Northwest, a grassroots and undocumented-led movement that seeks to end all deportations and detentions of immigrants, explained the inhumane conditions that detainees in Washington are experiencing. She noted how they have been refused yard time for over two months, and asked why, if there aren’t enough personnel to take people outside, they continue to kidnap and detain them.
Hygienic conditions are terrible, she said, as people are sleeping piled on top of each other, and 24 share one bathroom. Furthermore, they cannot speak out or com-
plain, because then they are immediately placed in solitary confinement or removed to another detention facility in another state as a form of retaliation. People who have still won their cases and can be freed are also still being held in the Northwest Detention Center, located in Tacoma.
“There are people being harassed and sexually abused by the very same medical personnel,” she added.
The La Resistencia Northwest member said there are currently three deportation flights taking place each week when previously it was just once per week. People who refuse to board these planes are wrapped up in vests, and detainees don’t have the right to free calls.
“Free them all!” she exclaimed.
Mom crosses border eight months pregnant
Another woman, a community organizer for renter protections, spoke about her mother crossing the border while she was eight months pregnant, having migrated to the US because the Drug Enforcement Administration had destabilized the Indigenous communities of Sinaloa, Mexico, due to cannabis plants.
“And now these pinches gringos are getting fucking rich off marijuana stores while our people are displaced? While Black and Brown youth have lost life to life sentences for marijuana charges?” she said. “Shame to the fucking sellouts who forgot their parents’ sacrifice crossing to this fucking country, and now they’re fucking ICE agents — and now they’re working with border patrol.”
Her call to action was for people to be mindful of their neighbors who may be undocumented, and who may need repairs or the translation of documents that are threatening to displace them. This was
something she saw during Trump’s previous administration: renters requesting maintenance and being kidnapped and disappeared.
“I do not want these fucking landlords to abuse their power and intimidate undocumented, Latine, Palestinian, any migrant into living in deplorable conditions or ending up homeless because they’re fucking using this time to abuse their power,” she said.
The speaker expressed how it is natural for humans and animals to migrate. To the migrant, undocumented, and refugee community she said:
“You are worthy of a life of dignity… worthy of a life of joy and of rights and of peace. As a privileged-ass motherfucker, because my mother crossed this imaginary border pregnant with me, I will use my privilege to work with my Black and Brown youth and communities.”
As the sun went down
“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” was one of the chants echoing in the streets, as the marchers headed toward the Federal Building, where they surrounded the block, with most on First Avenue, outside of the main entrance.
Some grabbed chalk to write things like “Fuck ICE,” one of the most common messages. Others took to spray painting, tagging around the building, where scooters and bikes were strewn along garage entrances from the previous day of protesters working to prevent ICE agents from leaving the facility with Seattle residents. People chanted, celebrated, and danced, and some even hopped on top of the bus stop shelter.
But as the sun began to set, PSL organizers dipped out and the situation escalated. Some had previously blocked off the intersection of First Avenue and Marion Street with a chain-link fence, signs from nearby restaurants, and a dumpster, among other objects. Someone lit a US flag on fire, later tossing it into the dumpster.
Overall, cops laid off of the protesters, although as people marched closer to the Federal Building, they began blocking off roads with their SUVs. One officer at Western Avenue and Madison Street was directing traffic with a lit-up stick.
It was when someone threw a firework into the dumpster that Seattle police began to suit up and enter formation on their bikes. This firework caused sparks to fire back into the crowd as black smoke rose into the sky.
Dumpster fires can be dangerous or even life-threatening, as their contents aren’t always known and may include flammable or combustible items, like lithium batteries. Toxic odors from the burning rubbish and plastic covering of the dumpster are unsafe
to breathe, and the fire itself could spread if not properly contained.
As police were preparing for action, the crowd marched up Marion Street, meeting a line of bike cops head-on. Protesters had few gaps at that point, and people were still spread out along the block. Not long after, a person threw a firework that landed in the line of police officers, and the SPD responded by charging forward, shooting pepper blasts into the crowd and tackling some.
They were able to split up the protesters into smaller groups, and the SGN was stuck on the corner of Second and Marion, reporting, as more action burst out farther down the street.
Officers arrested several people, but it is not known how many they put into paddy wagons. A protester asked the SPD’s Brandon James Michael, a Police Outreach Engagement Team (POET) member, how many people were arrested; he said he didn’t know but that he personally saw two.
The SGN asked Officer David Gordon how many people were arrested, and he said he did not know and walked away.
King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office update
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) sent out an email citing eight arrests in total from that evening, with two having been sent to the office for first-appearance hearings.
“The two reports sent to the KCPAO do not indicate there were any injuries to the officers. One case involves a push; the other describes a punch, though it’s not clear where the punch landed or if it caused pain,” according to the email.
In a detective’s narrative report, he noted how a dispersal order was provided to hundreds of protesters at 10 p.m.
“A line of fully uniformed officers began moving the protesters back. At approximately 2203 [10:03 p.m.] the defendant punched Ofc. Howard with a closed fist and threw a water bottle at him while Ofc. Howard was performing his official duties at the time of the assault,” according to the report.
The detective wrote another narrative report about this period of time, when the officers were moving protesters back.
“At approximately 2203 the defendant, using his hands and shoulders, pushed into Sgt. Newsome, assaulting him while Sgt. Newsome was performing his official duties at the time of the assault,” according to the report.
The KCPAO requested additional details from the SPD.
To catch up on footage, visit @SeattleGayNews_ on Instagram and TikTok.
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“The war between a fascist regime rooted in occupation and genocide — and a government that relies on the bloodshed of its opponents and freedom fighters — not only destroys the lives of the people but also haunts and perhaps sets back years of struggle for freedom and equality.”
The statement brought up fears that the progress made through the 2022 Iranian freedom movement, which resulted from other previous uprisings, may disappear because of the war with Israel and mass destruction throughout the country.
“Israel, which thanks to its leaders, considers any living thing as a legitimate target right now, with the help of mainstream media in [the] United States pushing back against the public wave against the genocide in Gaza,” he added.
The world watches on as US legacy media slices the voices from both sides, he said, noting how the Islamic Republic relies on the ideas of its founder, killing its opponents.
A quick recap of Iran’s history with the US US relations with Iran are complex and disturbing: In 1953 US and British intelligence agencies assisted the Iranian military in the overthrow of the then prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, after he nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company that was owned by the British, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi asserted his power and kept his position through the support of the US until being overthrown in the Iranian Revolution (1978–79). The CFR states that the support of Pahlavi by foreign governments displeased many Iranians.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was established after the revolution, and it has had two supreme leaders (Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and now Ali Khamenei), who created an oppressive regime.
For decades, US relations in the Middle East have been fixated on Iran’s primary lucrative natural resource: oil. Under immense pressure from the US and the United Kingdom, Pahlavi signed the Consortium Agreement of 1954, which gave 40% ownership of Iran’s nationalized oil industry to US, French, and British oil companies, for 25 years.
To regain control, Iran, alongside four other countries, created the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC), resulting in a spike in profits in the 1970s. But, the US government grew concerned after the oil embargo of 1973, and has a history of demonizing the Iranian government after the revolution, with former President George W. Bush calling the country part of the “axis of evil” in the early 2000s.
Another US and Middle East war?
During the No War on Iran protest, people held signs with pictures of Iranian people — families, mothers, and children — who were killed by Israeli missiles. For example, 40-year-old mother Tabassom Pak was a on her way to visit her child in Tehran when she was killed.
“The people of Iran are under fire,” another speaker said. “They are attacked by Israeli aggressions by the US-manufactured missiles, by the silence of the socalled international community, and by betrayals of those who put profits before people.”
Earlier this month, Israel launched targeted attacks on Iran’s government, military, and nuclear facilities. Iran responded by firing hundreds of missiles and drones, killing 28 and injuring over 3,000, many in civilian areas. One missile hit a hospital, injuring several people. Iran claims it was unintentional. In return, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would fight back with full force.
Karoline Leavitt, White House spokeswoman, read a statement from President Trump: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place within Iran in the near future, I will make my decision
whether or not to go [to war] within the next two weeks.”
As it happens, the next day, Trump ordered several nuclear sites in Iran to be bombed.
At No War on Iran, the second speaker continued by stating that mainstream media in the US is attempting to sell tales of fiction: that Israel’s invasion is targeted, with only military and nuclear bases being impacted.
But during the event, one person in the crowd yelled out, “Who’s got an Israeli flag? I’ll light it [on fire],” which created a widely felt discomfort.
Decolonize Anarchism posted on social media the day after and reviewed the unsettling events. Part of the post was dedicated to “campists,” or people who are divided into major and opposing political groups. The post noted how Iranians have dealt with extremism, and that extremists have no place in the collective struggle of the people.
Queerness in Iran and the 2022 Freedom Movement
“Tafkhis” is a form of nonpenetrative Gay sex that is less punishable under Sharia (Islamic) law (the foundation of the legal system in the Islamic Republic of Iran), according to Decolonize Anarchism; “liwat” is the more general term for Gay sex, which may include penetration, with the punishment ranging from 100 lashes to execution. “Musahaqah “ is a term for Lesbian sex that is punishable by 100 lashes. LGBTQIA+ people in Iran are often arrested, which can lead to the death penalty, and like anywhere else, there’s violence against Queers that includes harassment, assault, the denial of basic human rights, and murder.
Alireza Fazeli Monfared was a 20-yearold Gay man who was captured and murdered by his family members in May 2021 because of his sexual orientation. Monfared was just a few days away from boarding a flight to exit Iran and seek asylum in
“Campists…have the audacity to show up at a spontaneous antiwar rally organized by Iranians, only to parrot support for the Islamic Republic — a fascist regime that executes, imprisons, tortures, and guns down its own people in the streets? How dare you!” the post stated.
Shame on people who root for Iranian missile attacks while friends and family members are bombed, the post said, and that it’s shameful to enjoy footage of these attacks while claiming it as an act of solidarity.
“This is voyeuristic sadism dressed up as a resistance. Shame on you…How dare you disrupt spaces we carve out for care, resistance, and collective safety?” the post said. “Shame on those who hijack our narratives, occupy our spaces, and beat the drums of war. From Palestine to Iran — every oppressive regime will fall. Long live the popular resistance of the oppressed, under fire and occupation.”
Outraged, waves of women took to the streets of Iran after Amini’s funeral where they ripped off their hijabs, with some even setting them on fire, and demanded change.
During one of the “Women Life Freedom” protests in September 2022, Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old Queer activist, disappeared and was found murdered days later. A video recording shows Shakarami standing atop a dumpster in Tehran, lighting fire to a hijab. The morality police were sent out to confirm she was one of the protest’s leaders. Although she escaped, she was later detained. She was taken to an overcrowded temporary police camp and a detention center, but her captors were turned away from both. Shakarami was then murdered by “multiple injuries by caused blows with a hard object,” according to the BBC.
After her murder, a well-known LGBTQIA+ figure in the community dedicated their Lesbian Visibility Award to Shakarami for being a young Queer person who had her life tragically taken from her while fighting for freedom and human rights.
After Shakarami’s murder, her aunt accused the Queer community of forcing its identity onto her and said that Shakarami was straight.
From the US to Iran, Queers have been at the forefront of human rights movements. They know what familial suppression of gender identity and sexuality feels like — and that telling falsehoods about those who have died has contributed to the erasure of the experiences and histories of LGBTQIA+ people.
LGBTQIA+ people always have and will always exist everywhere in the world, with the women’s and Queer rights movements being intrinsically linked. Iranian Queers have been at the forefront of the country’s protests against the Islamic Republic in recent years.
Looking back on the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in the US and overseas in Iran this Pride Month — and toward the future — the iconic words of Marsha P. Johnson, a pioneer of the Queer rights movement stateside and a Black Trans woman activist, ring loudly: “[There is] no Pride for some of us without liberation for all of us!”
Update: Without congressional approval, on June 21, President Trump bombed three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, joining Israel’s war. Trump announced the completion of this “very successful attack” on social media platform Truth Social, where he added that “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
Later that evening, with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth standing behind him, Trump delivered an address to the nation. He claimed Iran’s the three sites had been “obliterated” and that “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.”He said if Iran did not do so, that the US would take out Iranian targets “within minutes.”
a different country after a family member outed him.
The 2022 “Woman Life Freedom” uprising in Iran came after officials harshly ramped up the enforcement of draconian veiling laws for girls and women, sometimes using violence or imposing the death penalty.
That year, Iran’s “morality” police violently arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for not wearing a hijab properly; she later died in custody. A report from the United Nations states that Amini was taken to the Vozara detention center for a “reeducation class,” where she collapsed to the ground and was taken to hospital 30 minutes later.
The UN’s fact-finding group said it “established the existence of evidence of trauma to Ms. Amini’s body, inflicted while in the custody of the morality police,” and that the physical violence she experienced at the hands of these officers led to her death.
Trump again took to Truth Social to state, “ANY RETALIATION BY IRAN AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT.”
On June 23, Iran targeted a US air base in Qatar with missiles in response, after a warning to avoid casualties.
Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but after it came into effect, Israel and Iran traded brief and relatively minor attacks. As of June 25, the ceasefire appears to remain in effect.
Meanwhile, Trump’s actions have created a distraction: Congress is attempting pass the Big Bad Budget bill before July 4, which will adversely affect millions of Americans if enacted, due to the slashing of social service funding; men in full face masks and uniforms who refuse to identify themselves continue to disappear people into detention facilities; and one Minnesota state legislator, her husband, and their dog were assassinated while another and his wife recover from bullet wounds from the same attacker.
HANNAH SAUNDERS
HANNAH SAUNDERS
obtain this critical US travel document on Wednesday, and have it accurately reflect their gender identity. However, the result was only more heartbreak and frustration, as government officials continued to turn them away. The ACLU has since released a statement advising Transgender people to wait for State Department officials to receive guidance before applying for their passports again.
Advocate mother
A single mother and her 17-year-old Trans son from Kitsap County were among those at the passport office on Wednesday. Since February, the two have been caught up in Trump’s anti-LGBTQIA+ agenda, trying to replace a lost passport before the son’s high school summer trip to Nicaragua. (The mother requested to share the story of what she and her child have gone through to the SGN anonymously.)
The mother reported having been led astray over these last few months by the State Department. According to her, she has struggled to provide sufficient documentation, despite her son having been issued a passport with a male marker with no difficulty under President Biden. She admitted still being new to the Transgender experience, unaware of the difficult legal barriers her son would need to overcome.
After spending hundreds of dollars in application fees, and two incorrect passports later, she came away from the passport office Wednesday feeling distraught, stating, “They’re clearly doing all of this just to spite a demographic of people, because they [Trans people] do not align with their beliefs.”
Despite the gender incongruence with his passport, and being offered to skip the trip, the son will still go ahead, his mother said, having gone on the same school-led trip the previous year. And, according to his mother, his experience in high school
has been generally very supportive, even receiving a congratulatory call from staff after his legal name change went through. While recalling again the disappointing events at the passport office, she broke into tears. “I get really upset, because what are Trans people doing to anyone?” she said. “They just want to live their life, and they’re not hurting anyone. Like my child is such a gentle soul. It’s just wrong.”
That day, she did, however, feel comforted in meeting others who were in the same precarious situation as her son. And these events did not break her resolve to advocate for her child, as well as protest the other injustices perpetrated under Trump, stating plainly: “He’s just a cruel, awful, narcissistic, evil person.”
Others in limbo
Maayan Kline is a 31-year-old software engineer who also came that morning, intending on correcting the passport given to her. However, she had a hunch, after arriving, that the passport office was not going to be able to help so soon after the ruling.
Kline said she transitioned — changing her passport and other documentation — nearly 10 years ago. After the 2024 election, she noticed that her passport had only a year left before expiring, so she applied, hoping it would be processed before Trump’s anti-Trans policies would go into effect.
She was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that the State Department sent her a new passport with a reverted sex marker. She lamented, “[The passport] was just nonconsensually changed. They didn’t say anything… It was just real snake-type, sketchy behavior.”
Kline reported that her application has been put on hold, while officials wait for State Department guidance.
While at the passport office, she was approached by the mother and son, who overheard the conversation she had with the official at the desk. Reflecting on their interaction, Klein said, “Her advocacy for
her child was really inspiring.”
And finally, SGN Publisher Renee Raketty was also present that day. She shares a very similar fate to the others, with
ous people, including those interviewed above, she wrote in a statement: “The SGN will continue to follow this developing story — one that impacts not just individual travelers but the fundamental rights of
Photo credit: Shanna Paxton Photography
Mariners introduce new Pride tradition: A traveling rainbow baseball
BY CALVIN JAY EMERSON
“It sounds silly to say, but I think I was just literally looking at a baseball,” said Keri Ziegler, the creative director of the Seattle Mariners, when asked what inspired the team’s new LGBTQ+ tradition. “I was fiddling with it as I was thinking, and I just imagined the red stitches as a rainbow. I thought of how powerful that could be as a symbol.”
The Pride Ball, thrown as part of a ceremonial first pitch on June 4 at T-Mobile Park, represents the culmination of a yearslong passion project for Ziegler. She pitched the idea, pushed it through countless conversations and meetings, and even painted the colorful thread herself, since there were no off-the-shelf ones that matched what she was looking for.
Every Major League ball is stitched by hand, so in order to create a unique-looking baseball that met the standards of an average athlete, Ziegler chose to collabo-
rate with local craftsman Jerry Thornton, whose embroidery company STT Sports creates jerseys for the Seahawks, Mariners, and Huskies.
“Thornton had never stitched a ball before, but he was up to the challenge when I brought this concept to him” said Ziegler.
“He said, ‘…Let’s figure it out together.’ He learned how to stitch a baseball just for this project, so those were his hands doing it when we captured that process.”
In the video introducing the Pride Ball to the world [https://youtu.be/EhUaJoteimc], we watch as Thornton carefully embroiders an existing ball with Ziegler’s rainbow thread. As he goes through his process, a script written by Ziegler flashes across the screen, as she reflects on MLB’s journey toward genuine inclusivity, speaking from a place of pragmatism and honesty.
“From LGBTQ+ players in the minor leagues and LGBTQ+ executives in the
New allies form around Hilary Knight, as PWHL Seattle shapes its inaugural roster.
BY CALVIN JAY EMERSON
Now with a superstar to rally around, PWHL Seattle — the eighth and newest team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League — has added 11 new players to its roster, providing fans with their first glimpse into the team’s future on the ice. After the general manager, Meghan Turner, signed four-time Olympic medalist Hilary Knight to a one-year contract on June 4, the front office had two avenues through which they could build around her. To start, they had the ability to sign five unprotected players as free agents. Knight was the first, and Turner quickly found her other four.
Alex Carpenter is a journeyman forward who’s played all across the globe. With both Team USA and the now-defunct Boston Pride, she has spent a lot of time alongside Knight on the offense. Following a strong shooting season of 11 goals and 8 assists, she’ll now reunite with her former co-star in Seattle.
As for defense, the team has acquired a
front offices, to every Pride night and parade crew, every action pulls our communities closer together,” it says. “That’s more important than ever, because there is work to do. We’ve yet to see an out LGBTQ+ player on a big league roster, but that day will come, and when everyone can be who they are and love who they love, out loud, everyone wins.”
Before starting her marketing career, Ziegler grew up traveling between Seattle and Vancouver. She’s a genuine product of the Pacific Northwest, so she’s fully aware of how uniquely progressive her region can be compared to the rest of the country.
Mariners fans don’t just come from within our city limits. They’re from all over Washington and beyond, in places that aren’t always as accepting as Seattle. Doing right by those fans, to make them feel recognized and respected by the team they love, was top of mind for Ziegler while writing.
“I know I’m putting something into the world that’s really personal to me, through the platform of the Mariners,” said Ziegler. “I had to say something that would make an impact on me, if I were a fan.”
This desire — to have the Pride Ball make a meaningful connection with as many fans as it can — also inspired collaboration with other teams. The ball will go on a nationwide tour, visiting the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, and Baltimore Orioles before finally returning home.
“The ball itself is this symbol of representation and community, so as we ship it between ballparks, it gains more meaning with every place that it goes,” said Ziegler. “Since we’re talking about baseball as a sport, not just Seattle, why not give other folks the opportunity to share this message? We’re all in this together, and we’re stronger together than we are individually.”
star goalkeeper. Corinne Schroeder, lovingly called “Shutdown Schroeder” by her New York fans, has made a name for herself in keeping her opponents scoreless. Across her PWHL career, she has shut down a record-high five teams and racked up a thousand saves.
After signing free agents, Turner’s second option for growing the team’s roster was an expansion draft on June 9. The front office could, once again, bring in any players who were left unprotected by the six existing teams. PWHL Vancouver won the first pick in a lottery drawing, so with the second, Seattle selected Aneta Tejralová from the Ottawa Charge.
Tejralová, a veteran defender from the Czech Republic, is at her best when she can catch you off guard. She’ll reliably defend the goal for most of the game, yet once she sees an opportunity to strike, she’ll turn into an offensive player on a dime and blitz her opponents with unexpected intensity. With their sixth pick, Seattle brought in
Jessie Eldridge from the New York Sirens.
In a team already stacked with offensive talent, Eldridge brings her unique ability to play up close and personal. Rather than dramatic shots from afar, she’ll often score by tapping the puck into the corner of the net, often while she’s right up in the goalkeeper’s face.
In the aftermath of the draft, once the dust had settled, many commentators came to the same conclusion: from the first game they play, PWHL Seattle will be downright scary offensively.
Most expansion teams don’t make the playoffs in their first season. That’s because, in leagues with 30+ teams, talent is often spread thin. When star players do
arise, you have to be competitive against established teams with bigger wallets.
The PWHL, however, is a three-year old league with only seven other teams. Turner took advantage of this reality, building a power-heavy roster that simultaneously strips the existing teams of their strength and depths. That’s how, with only half their team set, Seattle’s already in the contender conversation among niche publications like The Hockey News
“I think this is a ‘win now’ team,” said Turner during a recent “Jocks in Jills” podcast. “I just met with the team we already have. I want [to win]. I know they want it. They’re hungry for it. I would love to get one under the belt, as soon as we can.”
BEN VAN HOUTEN
COURTESY PWHL SEATTLE
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Seattle Queer Art Fest raises over $700 for gender-affirming care at latest Pride Month event
BY EVE KUCHARSKI
Note: The author of this story knows the organizer of this event personally.
It was in 2021 when Xander Schulte realized that top surgery was gender-affirming care that they needed, and after many calls and hours of research, they learned it would cost them $10,000. A friend suggested a fundraising event, so Schulte focused on creating an arts festival with live music.
The duo tag-teamed the organization of the event, and soon after, Queer Art Fest was born, described by Schulte as a community-run mutual aid fundraiser where proceeds and donations go directly to those who need help funding their gender-affirming health care. The first person to benefit from the event was Schulte.
“We ended up raising $3,000 for me, which was amazing, and I actually ended up using that money to get a good insurance plan that eventually covered [my top surgery] in full,” they told the SGN
Four years later, Queer Art Fest has been hosting regular events, with the most recent one being held in Pioneer Square on June 7, which featured local Queer artists and vendors and included live music, tattoos, boba, and a raffle, Schulte said.
“We [had] a small collection of goods from Doll Parts Collective, which is a really cool vintage shop in West Seattle. And we also [had class slots for] Sip N’ Fuse, which is a glass-fusing class,” Schulte added.
Proceeds from Queer Art Fest are helping to fund gender-affirming care, and over $700 was raised earlier this month. Schulte
emphasized that the care funded by the events extends beyond the cost of specific medical procedures.
“Whether that’s the literal funding for the surgery, for the first down payment of the surgery, or for covering recovering cost care — the special pillow, the special creams, or even time off from work — that’s where the funding is going,” Schulte explained.
The most recent event is helping fund the care of multiple anonymous recipients who have booked surgeries and need help with both initial and recovery care costs. Schulte said that they were motivated by the fact that they saw no streamlined way for Queer people to access gender-affirming care.
“It is so freaking difficult, and everyone has to figure out their own way to get it,” they said. “And I’ve had so many friends have a plethora of experiences that are completely different from mine to get what they need.”
Schulte hopes that Queer Art Fest events can serve as a partial reprieve from the often very emotionally and mentally taxing process of self-advocating for genderaffirming care for those who are seeking it.
“Especially in Western medicine, you’re having to explain to people why you need hormones or surgery or all these things,” they said. “And you have to convince doctors and therapists and psychiatrists that you’re Trans enough to get what you need.”
One day, Schulte hopes to see the Queer Art Fest reach nonprofit status, but until then and especially in light of recent federal decisions that have resulted in conse-
quences like the halting of care at Seattle Children’s Hospital earlier this year, Schulte said that continuing to host Queer Art Fest is crucial.
“Especially with hospitals canceling gender-affirming surgeries in Washington state and transphobia completely going off the rails in this country, I think something that is really driving me to do this is that it’s
another place for the Queer community to lift up people who need help,” Schulte said. “It’s not easy to get the money you need when you’re struggling with something that the system that we live in actively fights against.”
For more information, visit www.instagram.com/queer.art.fest.
Comedy diva Molina Molina finds strong footing after stumbling onto the scene
BY LINDSEY ANDERSON SGN STAFF WRITER
Note: Molina Molina is a friend of the author.
At just 29 years old, Molina Molina is one of Seattle’s most recognizable comedy divas. The comedian, writer, and producer can often be seen on stages around
Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, showing off her incredible acting skills with her “straight-sona” or sharing outlandish and true stories about her many celebrity encounters. Molina admitted that, despite her knack for performance, she never considered a future in comedy until she
stumbled onto a class advertised by fellow Seattle comedian Stephanie Nam.
“I never really thought of myself as a funny person, but I liked writing, and I think comedy was the first real outlet for my writing,” she told the SGN
A self-described “comedy nerd,” Molina was inspired to try stand-up by some of her favorite podcasts, created by Brooklynbased comedians Las Culturistas and Seek Treatment.
“There was something aspirational about the lives they shared with listeners: being young and creative and ambitious authentic selves,” Molina explained. “I spent a lot of my life doing what others expected me to do, and it wasn’t until listening to them that I saw how fulfilling it can be to follow your desires.”
In a scene bursting with talented young Queer performers, it’s Molina’s on-stage persona that often sets her apart from the crowd.
“A common thread with this persona is that she is delusional or dishonest about who she is,” she said. “This girl is in denial or doesn’t want to reveal her failures and shortcomings, so she tries to present a version of herself that is overconfident and successful that everyone can see right through, and that’s what makes it funny.”
Molina often draws from her own experiences but exaggerates her stories to an absurdist degree. She said that portraying a character as a stand-up comedian can be tricky.
“That can be hard to convey when you’re playing a character in a medium where everyone else is usually speaking as themselves, so I’m still working on refining that skill,” she said.
Ultimately, Molina hopes to develop her character-based stand-up into a solo show.
As a producer, Molina has curated several shows featuring all LGBTQIA+ cast members and femme lineups, including “Good for Her” and “Who Is This Diva.”
“As someone who loves attending comedy shows, I always think about making the
shows I want to see,” she said. “As an audience member, I want to walk into a show and feel safe and see performers that aren’t just cis, straight, white men.”
As a producer, Molina said she finds it hard to market inclusive comedy shows.
“There’s such a weight to being labeled as a comic who is a ‘Queer woman of color,’ especially in a post-Nanette era of Queer comedy,” Molina said. “It’s hard to be silly and stupid when you worry that people expect some sort of social commentary.”
Molina got candid when asked what it means to her to make the SGN 30 Under 30 list.
“Well, thank God, since this is my last year of being under 30,” she said. “The other day, a coworker asked how old I was, and I said, ‘I’m in my twenties.’ [I’m] trying to be better about my anxiety about getting older, because I just need to accept that I am a victim of the passage of time. Everyone thinks that because I’m a woman, I’m scared of getting older because of wrinkles, but really, it’s about my mental and bodily decline! So, when people respond to my anxiety by telling me that laugh lines mean I lived a happy life, that’s not remotely comforting.
“Sorry, that didn’t answer the question. It feels rewarding.”
While her twenties have been about expanding as a comedian, writer, and producer, Molina hopes the next ten years will be a period of growth toward her ultimate goal: writing and producing television.
“What I aspire to is to be a television writer and producer, which is a dream that I’ve had since I was a kid [when I] would spend my time watching hours of sitcoms every night,” she said. “I try to follow my instincts artistically, and right now, my gut is making me want to lean in more as a filmmaker.”
Molina is currently in her Saturn Return.
You can follow Molina on TikTok, Instagram, and Threads at @molinasquared
COURTESY MOLINA MOLINA
Less alone: Sorry, Baby filmmaker Eva Victor finds healing in friendship, found family, and a well-made sandwich
BY SARA MICHELLE FETTERS SGN STAFF WRITER
Watching Sorry, Baby was a form of cinematic catharsis I didn’t know I needed until the film was long over and I was sitting alone in the theater, staring at a blank screen. Director, writer, and star Eva Victor has crafted a personal journey through a hellacious experience no one should endure and yet so many sadly do: typically in silence, and without any form of traditional justice afterward. They must heal from this trauma on their own, worried the outside world will look at them differently if the truth of what happened were made public or, heaven forbid, authoritatively spoken aloud.
Told over four years, the film begins with two best friends, Agnes (Victor) and Lydie (Naomi Ackie), reuniting for a weekend holiday at the former’s home — before it suddenly backtracks to when they were college roommates working on their theses. During a meeting with her advisor, Agnes is sexually assaulted, and the trauma of that moment understandably consumes almost every facet of her life thereafter.
Victor is unrelenting and pulls zero punches. But she also doesn’t comfort the audience with easy answers, finds humor in some unexpectedly bleak places, and dynamically showcases how the power of friendship and found family can help heal even the most destructive of wounds. It’s an astonishingly powerful work, overflowing with genuine emotion and unambiguous empathy. As feature-length directorial debuts go, calling this one extraordinary would undersell Victor’s achievement considerably.
I had the pleasure to sit down with the talented filmmaker hours before Sorry, Baby had its Pacific Northwest premiere as the closing night feature of the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival. Our 20-minute conversation could have gone on for another 20 hours as far as I was concerned. Here are the edited transcripts:
Sara Michelle Fetters: When you’re making a film that is obviously this personal, how do you disconnect yourself from the directing and the acting? How do you make sure to invest yourself emotionally into the performance you’re giving but stay objective enough to handle everything behind the camera? After all, you’re in every single scene!
Eva Victor: There are a few scenes I’m not in, but those didn’t make it into the movie. In the edit, we realized that you kind of need Agnes everywhere. You can’t take a break from her story. It has to be one straight line of emotional truth.
To do both, it takes a lot of preparation. I always said, if the movie was going to be bad, it wasn’t going to be because I was not prepared. It would be bad because I didn’t innately have what it took to be a director. Once you start production, time is ticking. I storyboarded the whole movie. I worked with an acting coach for like five months before we started shooting. Did rounds and rounds of shot listing with my director of photography [Mia Cioffi Henry]. I gave myself the gift that I would be prepared enough beforehand that if something magic happened, I wouldn’t be caught offguard or be afraid that I wasn’t prepared enough to capture it, because I wouldn’t have already taken care of all of the basics. Honestly? It was a very emotional thing. Very meaningful. When you’re writing about this sort of thing, it’s an experience that’s so devastating and bizarre. You’re reckoning with the fact that someone is
going to decide where your body is going to go without your permission, and that breaks all of the ideas you have of the rules of the world. But, by directing myself as an actor, this was such a special thing. I was choosing where to put my body in every moment. No one else was telling me what to do with myself. There is something meta in that, and it was really important to me, especially as it concerns this topic.
In a big-picture way, it was special to take on both roles. In retrospect, I do think I would have been upset had someone else been telling me what to do. I’m glad I did it.
SMF: How do you regroup, though? In the courtroom scene, when you’re facing down the prosecutor; in a later moment with John Carroll Lynch; the tracking shot where you leave the professor’s house in shattered silence: As an actor, you put yourself through such an emotional tumult. How do you back away from that, regroup, and, as a director, call cut and let everyone know you’re going to shoot it all again?
EV: Yes! That’s the question, right?
When you prepare for so long, there is a real excitement to do it for real. It’s like sports. There’s all this adrenaline to get out there and perform, to say the words. There is this catharsis and this strange joy when you actually do it, even when what you’re dealing with is so emotionally horrifying. It was interesting. Some scenes I thought would be the most emotional to shoot ended up feeling a lot less than that. Others that I thought wouldn’t be so bad took a lot out of me. Like, the journey scene from the house was crazy emotional to shoot. I was totally safe the whole time — we had such an outstanding crew, but I was struck by how my character was feeling more exposed than I imagined it was going to be. I actually wrote that scene to be more comedic, but when we shot it, I immediately understood how important it was for Agnes. In the edit, I knew we needed to surround her with the appropriate ambiance because she was feeling so exposed.
The most emotional part for me was during the edit. It was an experience of watching someone go through this, and I was having a difficult time divorcing the fact that it was me on the screen and not the character. I was having a tough time processing that this horrible thing was happening to this person, because I kept seeing that it was me. After a while, I did finally get disassociated from myself and then I could really see the movie. But it was a bit of an up-and-down getting that down.
SMF: Talking about that edit, you’ve structured your film in a way that challenges the audience to pay attention. You start near the end, rewind to the beginning, and then finish with the climax. How do you keep the audience onboard and yet also stay true to what this story is and how it must be told so Agnes’s journey can be fully captured?
EV: The one thing about the edit of this film is that there were no stones left unturned. The script was basically written in the way everything is structured now, but we also tried every conceivable combination when we were attempting to put it all together. The edit was like this great puzzle in experimentation, in discovering where everything goes right and everything goes wrong. What was interesting was that we learned that if you do not have those 20
minutes of outright friendship and joy right up front, 75% of the way through the film, audiences care significantly less about what happens to both Agnes and Lydie. We did tons of trying! We tried so many combinations. But what I learned was that, if you don’t start with the friendship, if you don’t take the appropriate time with their friendship, the film does not work. The film is about the friendship! It is about healing and finding joy. You need to center that friendship, center the joy, and center the love because then, when you go back in time, you already care about the two of them, and I also think it makes the challenging bits hit so much harder.
Look, as a society, I think we have a real fear of people who have survived this type of trauma. Subconsciously, I think we decide to flatten them. We don’t want them to become real people, because then they cannot become real in the same way we are. We put them in a box filled with tragedy and that’s the end of it. So, it was important to me to give Agnes a fighting chance to be a whole person and to have the audience fall in love with both her and Lydie and feel their affection for one another. This would make it so that by the time you see what happens to [Agnes], you would not be able to dismiss her. You couldn’t put her in that tragedy box, because she could be you. You relate to Agnes. She’s smart, and funny, and silly, and she’s wonderful. She’s just like us.
SMF: This isn’t about me, so I don’t want to go into that but, as a trauma survivor, I think the greatest thing about this film is that it made me feel whole. I felt seen. The crazy thing is that you accomplish this without offering closure or any easy answers. Instead, you give Agnes her room to heal. Nothing more. Certainly nothing less. That, to me at least, seems to be the most important element.
EV: Thank you for saying that. My idea was to keep the focus on these four years. On this particular time. I think, right after when something like this happens, everyone around you is initially scared for you and they want to be there, but then they have to go back to their own lives. Time doesn’t stop, but it moves in a different way for people like Agnes. I needed the film to be about the degrees of healing that can happen during this time, but it also needed to feel true.
Agnes becomes selfish, but not in a bad way — it’s what she has to do to survive. Then, by the end of the movie, she’s willing to watch someone else’s baby for 20 minutes. That’s not a huge thing, but it is for her. It’s Agnes starting to see outside of herself. I don’t know when you’re supposed to get over something like this, or if you’re even supposed to get over it at all. It’s a part of you, and things like this change people forever. So, this is one glimpse into a moment
of healing. That was the degree of transformation that I wanted to show because healing isn’t linear, it isn’t easy, and I do not know when, if ever, it stops.
SMF: Speaking of Lydie, can we chat for a moment about Naomi Ackie?
EV: Yes. Let’s. She can do anything. When we read together, I’d already seen her in Lady Macbeth, The End of the F***ing World, and the Whitney Houston biography [Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody], and she was incredible. I was so excited when she said yes. Then she went off and made Mickey 17 and Blink Twice before coming back to make this. Then all those movies came out and I was like, are you f-ing kidding me? Naomi can do anything! She’s crazy. Just phenomenal. Naomi’s one of the best actors — maybe the best actor — of our generation. I love her.
SMF: The friendship between Lydie and Agnes is so pure. My two favorite moments are early on, when the characters are in their dorm room and she tells you to get your feet off the wall, and then right near the end, that look she has in her eyes when you say you will watch the baby so she and her wife can go for a walk.
EV: I had chills watching her. The movie would not be possible without her performance in it. It was almost like casting a romantic lead. I always said when I was casting that Agnes was the moon and Lydie was the sun, so when Naomi came in, I immediately knew our sun had arrived. There was this moment in our read together when Lydie says, “I want to make a really good person,” and when Naomi said it, it was so powerful. There was this hush in the room. In every moment, Naomi is just so truthful. It’s a total gift to work with an actor like that.
SMF: Silly question but, is Sorry, Baby a clandestine Manchester by the Sea spin-off? I mean, we don’t get closure on what happens next with Lucas Hedges’s character in that.
EV: [laughs] Ha! Well, I hope not, as that movie is so much more depressing than ours.
Seriously, though, I think that is a compliment. Manchester is a beautiful film, and Lucas is incredible in it. To be mentioned in the same sentence is kind of incredible. The way it looks, how it was shot with all those blues and grays, that was honestly an inspiration for how Mia and I approached this.
Lucas is really one of the funniest guys. He’s so fun to be around. I’m so excited for him. I tell you: he’s going to write something soon that’s just going to blow every-
COURTESY EVA VICTOR
one away. He’s the best.
SMF: Another thing, this picture is so delightfully Queer, but never in ways that seem forced or inauthentic.
EV: I was excited to have all of these things happen for Lydie, but also, how much happens for her over these four years highlights how little happens to Agnes. It feels like this fairytale shit for her. But then when we meet her partner, she’s like just so normal. Almost boringly normal. But still cool, you know?
When I wrote this, it was like five years ago, and I was just at the beginning of my own gender experience, so I’m truly touched that this person from so long ago wrote in all these neat moments. Like that court scene where Agnes is filling out the jury duty form and draws a line between the M and F boxes. I mean, how did I write that in 2021? How did I know? It’s such a snapshot of a time in my life that made its way into the movie.
Funny story: There was someone who was trying to get me to cut that scene out. I was like, “No f-ing way! That’s a huge f-ing part of the movie! I’m never cutting it!” Then, when we showed it, all these people told me how much they loved that moment.
I think, with a trauma like this, it forces you to rebuild who you are from the beginning. You question all of the rules that you think exist, and then you realize none of those rules are true, especially when someone can just grab you and do whatever they want to your body without your consent. So, what rules? We live in a world with all of these pretend rules. So, that moment, it’s like this beautiful thing. Why should Agnes fill in those boxes?
SMF: While no one anywhere should ever experience anything like what Agnes does, in some strange way, an experience like this does give you permission to put up a middle finger to conformity.
EV: It does. It’s like, no one is going to take care of me, so I have to take care of myself. I have to figure out who I am. Time is moving slower. I have to look at everything and see what I want to keep, what I want to change, and what I need to get rid of.
SMF: How cool is it to have someone like John Carroll Lynch show up for one scene and blow the doors off?
EV: So cool. You have no idea. He called me after he said yes and wanted to talk about how much the script meant to him. I couldn’t believe it. I was so moved that someone of his age and experience was so moved. I was so grateful. There are no
parental figures in the film, and his presence gives Agnes a dad for the day. It was a really important moment even though it was only one scene.
You’ll love this, but it was written that he made sandwiches for the both of them and, he was like, I wouldn’t do that. I’d only make a sandwich for her. I was hesitant and was like, are you sure? John was insistent. He started talking about Fargo and how he only made breakfast for Frances McDormand and that he didn’t make breakfast for himself too. It was similar here. His character would be worried about Agnes and would want to comfort her in the way he knew how, by making her that sandwich. And it works so much better. He’s so smart.
SMF: What has this whole experience been like for you? Making the film, showing it at Sundance, here in Seattle for SIFF, other festivals? Having A24 release it with all its marketing muscle and cachet? The overwhelmingly positive reactions from critics and audiences alike?
EV: It’s weird to realize that everyone in the audience has in either a direct or an indirect way a relationship with this topic. But I also feel a lot less alone. It’s been wonderful.
COURTESY A24
Navy veteran and author Megan Maki sailed the breadth of the Earth, to find herself
BY ANDREW HAMLIN
Megan L. Maki served on cruisers and an aircraft carrier during her 20 years in the US Navy. She traveled the world, taking part in Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Desert Fox, Southern Watch, and Enduring Freedom, and she upheld democracy in Haiti. But she kept a secret: each time she looked in the mirror, she saw a man looking back at her.
“I figured out I was a girl about the age of four but lacked the language to understand it,” Maki told the SGN
Alongside her partner Sofia, Maki is the coauthor of the Fighting Tomcats and Hunter/Killer, series of military thriller novels. She said she was four when her mother caught her wearing a dress.
“After experiencing corporal punishment and feeling the shame from my mom, I climbed into the closet,” Maki explained. “Still, in the sanctuary of my mind, I was a girl. I would ‘borrow’ my sister’s clothes. Sometimes I would use plain cloth [as] a skirt. These things happened deep in the forest around the house where I lived.”
That was in Naselle, a small town near
the mouth of the Columbia River in southern Washington. As a teenager, Maki enlisted in the Navy after the lumber company closed.
“By that point, I had read the entire Horatio Hornblower series and thought, with a naivete that is shocking to me today, that I could enlist, become an officer, and live the heroic life of Horatio Hornblower on the high seas,” Maki said.
Two decades of active duty also meant 20 years of sweating over the very real and horrific possibility of being outed under President Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prevented Queer servicemembers from serving openly in the military (it was repealed under President Barack Obama in 2010).
“For most of my service, I had no idea that there was a language and a community for people like me. I also became very evangelical, trying to pray it away. That didn’t work,” Maki said.
An online search in 2011 for “Transgender Christian” led Maki to the Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church
Pink Umbrellas Love Rainydaze:
Short stories from Seattle’s gritty, Gay ’90s grunge scene
BY ANDREW HAMLIN
Booze. Drugs. Sweat. Blood. Chaos. Madness. And through all of it, music. That’s the ’90s grunge essence of Pink Umbrellas Love Rainydaze, Seattle author Zola McDaniel’s new book of short stories of life in the day-to-day trenches, with alliances, attitudes, and even identities rapidly in flux: life the way she lived it.
“I knew a lot of people in bands who were Gay, or Bi, or Transitioning into a new way of being,” McDaniel told the SGN, adding how she discovered her own Queer identity at an early age. “Most had to keep it on the DL. There was pressure from fans, family, and record companies to have a certain kind of ‘checkable-box’ image. Not to mention how dangerous it can be to be out. I wrote this for them. The characters are composite, because outing people is bad karma.”
McDaniel grew up near Seattle’s Mount Baker Park. At Roosevelt High School, she said she felt like a ghost.
“I cut class more than I attended in 1977. I hung out with kids under the Ravenna Park Bridge and went to the Rocky Horror
(MCC), long noted for its Queer-friendliness.
“Have you ever picked up a baby bird, like a chicken or duck? They are terrified and shaking. That was me, walking into MCC,” Maki said. “I met love, grace, and kindness. I was hugged. People got my pronouns right. There was no judgment. There was agape love. For the first three years, I was in the closet everywhere but at church.
Once I transitioned, I felt so much freer.”
A longtime leader at church, Maki will be fully ordained in the coming years.
“Now, I wish I could say I embraced the
call,” she said. “I didn’t. I doubted. I argued with God. I denied anything of the sort, then I finally gave in.”
What’s her advice for Queer or Transgender people in this age of Trump run amok?
“Surround yourself with love,” she replied. “If you can, excise away those who bring hate or unhelpful anger into your life. If you lack the love you need, find a community. Find a Metropolitan Community Church, a United Church of Christ, a social group, a meet-up, some kind of community.”
Picture Show at the Neptune Theatre every weekend for a year,” she recalled.
One inspiration for McDaniel’s wild tales was the late, brave Wilum Pugmire, who was a goth, a queen, and a punk during a time when those things weren’t cool and could get your ass kicked for it.
“Wilum and I became acquainted through a story I wrote about Trans human rights, and the difficulties Trans people were facing ‘actualizing,’” McDaniels said.
“I interviewed my roommate, who was enduring a yearlong trial period before she would be allowed to undergo surgery. It was ridiculous how the international medical community adhered to the ‘Benjamin Standards of Care’ and forced adults to live in drag for a year before being ‘allowed’ to have surgery.”
Wilum saw the article, wrote McDaniels a letter, and they later met up. She said she always admired his brave fashion choices, wit, and encyclopedic knowledge.
“He was a punk poet. He was openly Jewish and Mormon, and a punk,” McDaniel said.
She’s grateful for the help of two more seasoned authors: the late Charles R. Cross, who edited Seattle’s Rocket music magazine and wrote rock biographies, and who helped McDaniel edit her manuscript in 2024 then passed away prior to finishing; and Gillian G. Gaar, a longtime local rock scribe.
McDaniel hopes readers close the book for a final time with the feeling of unity.
“The measure of a true Seattleite isn’t the amount of time they’ve spent here, or where they live now,” McDaniel said. “It’s not written in stone — or on a headstone. A true Seattle person loves the city and is kind to strangers. A true Seattleite understands compassion and inclusion to be the unspoken membership dues of our pay-itforwarding community.”
Evan Wolfson on the 10-year legacy of marriage equality — and what comes next
BY MK SCOTT
A decade ago, on June 25, marriage equality became the law of the land with the landmark Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges. But given the current political climate and Project 2025’s goal of promoting nuclear families, many fear that decision could be overturned.
Now both Jim Obergefell and Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson have contributed to the a new coffee table book, LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality, which has over 360 pages of wedding photos and stories curated by photographer Frankie Frankeny and writer John Casey.
“There are other communities and values in more immediate danger. If we stand in solidarity and keep moving forward, we’ll secure our own rights too,” Wolfson said. “…If you’re worried — about marriage, about immigrants, anti-Semitism, the economy, women’s rights, trans rights, democracy — then the answer is to get to work. Worry doesn’t protect us. Action does.
“It’s hard to undo a right. It can happen — look at Dobbs overturning Roe v. Wade — but it’s rare. And even if the Supreme Court were to roll back Obergefell, we put a fallback in place: the Respect for Marriage Act.”
That bipartisan legislation signed by
President Biden on the White House lawn requires that any marriage performed legally in one state must be recognized in all 50 states and by the federal government. Even if Obergefell were to fall, couples could still marry in states where it remains protected and be recognized nationally. The Respect for Marriage Act passed with support from Republicans, including some who once voted for the socalled Defense of Marriage Act.
“I understand the fear. But fear alone won’t protect us. We all need to do the work — each in our own way,” Wolfson noted, reflecting on the broader threats to democracy.
“None of us is 100% safe from the assaults and corruption of this current regime. That’s why we must reclaim political power — by electing better lawmakers, reforming the courts, and reaffirming the rule of law, democracy, and pluralism.”
While this issue affects all, Queer people — especially Trans people — are among those most targeted, and divideand-conquer politics and the demonization of people have historically been used to climb the ladder of power, Wolfson said.
“The trans conversation is at an earlier stage than that for gay people, which makes it more vulnerable. Republicans are exploiting that. And yes, some mis-
Sapphics fall in love but destinies collide in the upcoming YA novel Coffeeshop in
an Alternate Universe
BY HANNAH SAUNDERS
SGN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
steps in our activism have made things harder. But we can course-correct,” he added.
He noted how Frankey’s wedding book reminds people of the challenges the LGBTQIA+ community has overcome, like the HIV/AIDS crisis, discrimination in the Reagan-era, and legal persecution.
“This is our generation’s call to action. We have to respond. And if we do it together — with solidarity and purpose — we will protect the people and values we love,” Wolfson said.
CB Lee’s upcoming young adult novel, Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe, follows Brenda, a nerdy overachiever set on saving the world through science. After meeting Kat in a magical coffeeshop, they soon fall in love, with their destinies colliding. Brenda is a type A overachiever who has little to no chill, while Kat carries an overbearing prophecy that’s defining her destiny — which she’s been trying to run from so as to carve out her own agency.
The book hits the shelves on July 1, and Lee will host a reading at Third Place Books in Ravenna on July 18.
“That idea came from a daydream — just standing in a coffee shop and [wondering] what if this was a gateway to another universe?” Lee told the SGN. “I pulled from my family history and knowing that this is the type of business my grandpa had, and what it would have looked like for a generation of Chinese Americans whose families immigrated over during the gold rush.”
The novel takes place in modern-day Los Angeles but travels back in time to the early 1900s. Lee explained how she conducted much research and thought-mapping to create the alternate universe of where Kat lives in LA — the one without cars but instead a streetcar system that died out from the burst of automotive production.
“A lot of that research was really fun to do and to see when I’m building this alternate world, it’s like they don’t have cars because they have magic,” Lee said.
Lee, who is based out of LA, published her first book in 2015. She said she first thought of this novel idea in 2017 during an emerging LGBTQ writers retreat: she pitched the idea to her mentor, who loved it, and wrote the first two chapters during that time.
She’s been working on Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe on and off while completing other projects, like a Minecraft novel and A Good Kiss, which tells the background story of Star Wars character Chase Wilsorr. By 2018, editor Holly West had picked up the coffeeshop novel. After writing about half of the book, Lee gave birth to her daughter and took some time off.
“I actually finished writing the book last year, in 2024, taking that draft I started before I was pregnant and finishing it and getting it to the final stage,” Lee said.
Representation for youth
When first launching her writing career, Lee wanted to create novels she didn’t have as a teenager. She explained how she didn’t read much Queer fiction as it wasn’t as accessible or available, and that romance novels were limited. Her intention is to bring Queer stories to teenagers who don’t always see themselves represented in historical fiction, noting how “we’ve always been here and existed.”
“That’s powerful — seeing the representation in the past and the future,” Lee said. “I also wanted it to be fun.”
The magic of Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe” doesn’t stop when characters walk through the shop’s doors: there are also pirates and superpowers in this sweet, fun, cozy, and Queer story. Lee’s research included Cheng I Sao (or Zheng Yi Sao), a Chinese prostitute who married a pirate, but after his passing, she far exceeded what her husband was capable of, commanding over 1,800 pirate ships and about 80,000 men.
“That novel process was so entrenched in research and writing this very emotional story, and Coffeeshop feels like I get to write this very sweet and fluffy novel, but it’s also very much about defying expectations too,” Lee said.
Lee wants readers to feel butterflies and emotions, and to fall in love with another world after becoming immersed.
“I want every young person to feel validated, to celebrate themselves, and [know] that they deserve joy and happiness however and wherever they find it,” Lee said.
At 7 p.m. on July 18, Lee will host a free book reading at Third Place Books in Ravenna to talk about her new novel, alongside local author Julia Ember. For more information, visit https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cb-lee.
