SGN Oct 30, 2009 - Section 1

Issue 44 Volume 37

Celebrating 36 Years!

FRIDAY October 30, 2009 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands

local gsa p. 5

don’t ask, don’t tell p. 16

ani difranco p. 33

Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

james whitely

Approve Ref. 71: the Final Push

Referendum 71 supporters getting out the vote with visibility on the Madison St. I-5 overpass Thursday evening

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer On November 3 the nation will know the fate of the more than 6,000 registered same-sex domestic partnerships in Washington State. Registered voters will have had the chance to vote to approve or reject Referendum 71. Beginning in mid-October, Washingtonians were asked whether or not they want to keep the domestic partnership law, which grants the same rights and responsibilities for registered same-sex domestic partners and some seniors as married

couples. If voters decide to approve Referendum 71, then more than 12,000 people in Washington State registered in domestic partnerships will keep the essential protections the current law provides.

When it comes to Referendum 71, time has always been a factor.

Although the General Election deadline quickly approaches, there is still time to fill out your ballot, if you have not already done so, and mail it to election officials. If you have already cast your vote, there is still time for you to join Washington Families Standing Together (WAFST), the LGBT advocacy

group conducting the Approve Referendum 71 Campaign, in reminding everyone you know to vote. There is still time for all of us to remind co-workers, friends and family to approve Referendum 71.

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT This week, a new WAFST Referendum 71 was released. Although the result is encouraging – 53% say they will vote to approve, while 36% say they will reject the referendum – WAFST said the message is crystal clear: everybody must vote.

“If supportive voters cast their

ballots, we will win,” Approve 71 Campaign Manager Josh Friedes said. “Basic legal protections for thousands of committed couples hinge on this simple act. Vote now!”

WAFST and the Approve Referendum 71 Campaign won an important victory in federal court on October 27 when Federal District Court Judge Ronald Leighton turned down an effort by the campaign to reject Referendum 71 to gut Washington’s campaign finance laws, which prohibit anyone from donating more than $5,000 to a campaign 21 days before the

General Election deadline.

The suit, filed by Family PAC, a political action committee formed to challenge the law and accept money from out-of-state interests.

Family PAC has the same board of directors and address as the Family Policy Institute of Washington, and its only contributor is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), who filed an identical lawsuit in Maine the same day Family PAC filed their suit in Washington.

“The State has a real and vital

can be more predictive of probable outcomes than stand-alone polls.

The Survey USA poll, commissioned by KING 5 TV and released Tuesday, October 27, shows 50% saying they will vote to approve R-71 and keep the new domestic partnership law, 43% saying they will reject it, and 7% undecided.

The poll was based on a sample of 561 likely or actual voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2%.

A previous Survey USA poll released October 6 showed 45% approving R-71, 42% rejecting it,

see r-71 page 17

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Obama signs historic New polling: R-71 pulling ahead Constantine, Mallahan, No on I-1033 also leading Hate Crimes Act

(l to r) Louvon Harris, Judy Shepard, Betty Byrd Boatner and President Barack Obama during a White House reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

by Lisa Keen Keen News Service Saying “no one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love,” President Obama on Wednesday announced his signing of the long-sought federal hate crimes prevention law.

The legislation, formally known as the Matthew Shepard and James

Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, was included as an amendment within the National Defense Authorization Act. President Obama signed the defense-spending bill Wednesday afternoon, with defense department officials and members of Congress in attendance. He then hosted a reception at the White House to draw special see hate crimes page 18

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Three polls released in the past week give supporters of Washington State’s new domestic partnership law reason for cautious optimism.

Survey USA, the Washington Poll, and a Washington Families Standing Together poll conducted

by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner all agree that Washington voters are trending toward approving Referendum 71.

Survey USA shows R-71 winning by seven points, Washington Poll by 19 points, and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner by 17 points.

Polls may show widely different results because pollsters construct their samples based on different assumptions about who is likely to vote, because they use different methods to collect data, and because sample sizes may differ.

Several different polls giving similar results can be more predictive of the probable outcome of an election than one single poll.

Comparing consecutive polls by the same polling organization can also be useful in establishing trends in public opinion, and that

see r-71 polls page 20

"I support Bob Rosenberger because of his decades of experience as an appraiser in the Assessor's office. He believes everyone should be treated equally under the law, and he supports marriage equality.

Bob Rosenberger will be a reliable friend to the LGBT community."

Derek Stanford Endorsed by: Sen. Joe McDermott • Brendan Patrick • State Treasurer Jim McIntire • Former King County Assessor Scott Noble • Former King County Assessor Ruthe Ridder • King Count Council Member Larry Gossett • King County Council Member Reagan Dunn • Seattle King County Association of Realtors • Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound Paid for by Bob Rosenberger for Assessor 9686 54th Ave S Seattle WA. 98118

www.bobrosenberger.com

we are

together

ALL

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PrOUd to be

different AND we are proud to have presented the 2009 Seattle AIDS Walk.

THANK YOU, everyone.

* Here’s something different. try our MOMSPak.

Proud to be your community Pharmacy We are conveniently located on-site at Lifelong AIDS Alliance below the Thrift Store.

Call us at 206.568.2486

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Visit us online www.sgn.org

October 30, 2009

Seattle Gay News

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Seattle Gay News FOUNDED 1973

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2009

Deadlines Classifieds - Thursday at noon Calendar - Tuesday 6pm Display Ads: Space Reservation - Monday 5pm Ad copy (non-camera ready) - Tues. 5pm Ad copy (camera ready) - Wed. 5pm Letters to the Editor - Tuesday 5pm Obituaries - Call the SGN office All others - Tuesday 5pm

Editor In Chief George Bakan Associate Editor Tom Flint (retired) Editorial Assistant Nick Ardizzone Production William Creswell Calender Editors Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Travel Editor George Bakan Advertising Manager Marty Weisbrod Advertising Department Maggie Bloodstone Executive Assistant Mike Andrew Staff Writers George Bakan, Albert S. Rodriguez, Rajket Dirzhud-Rashid, Nick Ardizzone, Shaun Knittel Miryam Gordon, Tim Peter Contributing Writers

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

Classifieds Mike Andrew and Rick McKinnon Photographers Nick Ardizzone, Joseph P. Herron, Shaun Knittel, Rajket Dirzhud-Rashid

My sister’s wedding

by Jennifer Vanasco SGN Contributing Writer It’s sometimes tough to measure progress, personal or political. Our lives are lived slowly, day by day, and so change can seem incremental. Or impossible.

But a lot of difference can be made in a decade.

About 10 years ago, I went to my dad’s second wedding and wrote about it here.

It was the first time since high school that I had seen many of the family friends and neighbors who I grew up with, and so it was an evening of perpetual coming out.

Gray-haired friends of my dad would ask, “Are you married?”

And I’d say, “I’m partnered with a woman. I’m a Lesbian.”

There would be a short pause. They’d start to say something. Then a longer pause.

Then they’d say something like, “Excuse me, I need to say hello to Mrs. Smith, I just spotted her,” or, “Would you like something from the bar?” or, in one memorable case, a woman who I like very much said – with the best of intentions – “I work in a school with developmentally disabled kids, so I know

National Advertising Rep. Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863

what’s it’s like to be special and different.”

I looked at her and paused. Started to say something. Paused again.

“Can I get you something from the bar?”

I said.

Things are so different now.

Last week, I went to my sister’s very elegant wedding. It was attended by many of the same people, most of whom I hadn’t seen since my dad’s shindig.

This time, my current partner was invited.

And this time, things were very different.

“It’s wonderful to meet you!” these evenmore-graying friends of my dad said. They kissed her on the cheek. They made party small talk. They took me aside to tell me how great Jenny is, how funny, how much they like her, how perfect we are together.

When they left, they made a point of saying goodbye to Jenny, too; of asking us both to dinner; of hoping they saw us both again soon.

Jenny and I slow danced together. We held hands. A year into our relationship, we are obviously in love and we didn’t try to hide that or mute it.

We were out Lesbians at my sister’s wedding and no one cared.

And that is exactly how it should be.

Marriage in Massachusetts, Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut has legitimated Gay and Lesbian couples in a way nothing else could. It even affects couples like Jenny and me, who can’t get married in our home state of New York (though our Governor says we should expect marriage by the end of November).

People are getting accustomed to the idea that Gays and Lesbians get married, that we call each other husbands and wives. And with social change, familiarity breeds acceptance, not contempt.

That is why the marriage debate itself has been useful – even when it fails, in places like California – because it has meant that hundreds of ordinary Gay and Lesbian couples have been showcased in the media and on the streets. We are no longer a mysterious minority with strange and secret rituals. We are couples. We are families.

Yes, my dad’s friends had 10 years to get used to the idea that I was a Lesbian. But they wouldn’t have changed their minds if society hadn’t rapidly changed.

Jenny and I are planning to get married when our marriage can be legally performed in New York. We’re planning on a small wedding, so we don’t know if we’ll invite any of my dad’s friends.

But the difference now, is that we feel like we could.

And if we invited them, we think they’d come.

Jennifer Vanasco is an award-winning, syndicated columnist. Follow her at Twitter. com/JenniferVanasco; e-mail her at Jennifer.Vanasco@gmail.com.

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

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Seattle Gay News

October 30, 2009

Celebrating 36 Years!

HALLOWEEN BLUES

THANKS, SGN

DON’T DRAG US DOWN It is amazing to me that the cabal that wants to deny equal human rights to people in a relationship of the same gender would like to drag them down to their idea of equality, with their 51% divorce rate, horrible domestic violence, and parents guilty of neglect and abuse of children.

Why shouldn’t Gay couples acquire the same legal and social rights as others? It takes nothing away from a “marriage” of “straight” couples.

Thank you for your part in making the Capitol Hill Community Council’s Mayoral Candidate Forum a success! The poster you created on such short notice was perfect for our event and we are certain that your announcement of the forum in your paper reached people who would have otherwise not known about it. We are truly fortunate to have such a generous community partner in the SGN and hope to move forward together in the spirit of collaboration.

Jen Power and Hung Chhuor, Capitol Hill Community Council

Leonard Larson

Local high school GSA sees increase in membership

by James Whitely SGN Contributing Writer Sarah Brandenstein is no stranger to the workings of how to effectively organize for LGBT rights, education and community on a high school campus. From coming out as a freshman to being approached by the seniors for help in starting her high school’s GSA back when she was a sophomore, she has an invigorating passion for organizing that seems to get noticed by those around her.

A senior now, president of her Woodinville High School GSA and one of last year’s honorees for the Washington State Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network’s “Most Inspirational GSA Member” award, Brandenstein has left an indelible mark on her high school that won’t be soon forgotten as she passes on the torch to a younger student upon graduation this year.

The Woodinville High School GSA has seen a large increase in membership already, even though it’s still early in the school year.

Going from having five active members for the past two years, the GSA now has 23-24 active members that regularly attend weekly meetings.

With the increased support from not only the staff, but the student body as well, the GSA members of Woodinville High School have been able to organize for the Seattle AIDS Walk and LGBT Equality Weekend, as well as work on organizing social events with other GSAs in the area – all on top of their own on-campus organizing.

But it wasn’t always this easy. The beginnings were, as Brandenstein puts it, “rocky.”

“The GSA started two years ago when I was a sophomore. It grew out of Falcons Against Discrimination Everywhere. … I was one of the leaders in that, and two seniors asked me if I would help them make a GSA,” Brandenstein told SGN. So they began putting flyers up around their school. “By the end of the first day, every single one had been torn down or written on,” said Brandenstein. “We didn’t have many students coming [to meetings]. We had five members, two of which were Gay.”

Membership was stagnant for both years.

“A lot of the Gay kids, even if they were out, didn’t want to be in GSA … and straight people didn’t want to be thought of as Gay,” Brandenstein told SGN. The GSA didn’t really have a lot of support from the staff, either. “Our first year, they didn’t let us do the day of silence,” said Brandenstein. “Last year, we held a conference with the administration. We gave them a presentation on the day of silence asking for their support. They let us have it, and about 40 kids participated.”

This year, the GSA seems to have full support from the administration, and a recent meeting drew 34 students. On top of trying to organize getting an American Civil Liberties Union speaker to come to her school, Brandenstein is working with the GSA president from Inglemoor High School to better integrate local GSAs and plan social and educational events with other GSAs in the area.

They are planning a spring social, which would entail brainstorming, workshops, and bringing in local speakers from the community.

Brandenstein is the only student who’s been in the GSA at Woodinville High for all three years of its existence.

“I came out in ninth grade. I’m probably a Lesbian, but I’m not sure yet. I didn’t know any other Gay kids at all then. I really wanted to start a GSA at my junior high, but they told me to wait until high school,” Brandenstein told SGN.

Visit us online www.sgn.org

On Halloween, without a doubt, it has always been fun to watch the variety of costumed revelers in our community showing their creativity and talent at this special time.

When a friend suggested I dress up for Halloween, I hemmed and hawed about the situation, but decided to do the bit completely on my own without help of any kind whatsoever. Deciding what costume to wear took a lot of time, considering I knew nada about dressing up. I finally decided on being a glamorous motion-picture star dressed for the Academy Awards.

A local costume company provided an elegant evening dress, wig, and shoes. The local drug store provided makeup, pantyhose, and a small purse. I was ready for the transformation from man to voluptuous female motion-picture star. As I didn’t know one thing about women’s clothing, I had to learn

the transformation by doing the change over without help from anyone.

It took me two hours to make the transformation. When I was finished, I looked like a cross between Elvira and Rin Tin Tin. By the time I was ready, I was exhausted. I didn’t have any ideas how long it would take to complete the new personality. Hopefully, other people knew the tricks of the trade.

When I made my initial appearance at a local bar, people smiled at me and nothing else. What had I done wrong?

It was a night to forget and I left the scene early to go home. The next day I discovered my wig had caused festers on my scalp. The shoes created blisters on my feet, the makeup made my face itch, and the dress chafed my body because it was to small.

Next year I’ll be content to just look rather than to participate and let other people celebrate the special time.

Buzz Flowers Callaway

Todd Albert Alley 1968 - 2009 Todd, who passed away suddenly on October 18, is and will be deeply missed by family, friends and co-workers. A resident of Burien, Todd worked at Basic Plumbing in facilities.

Todd was very intelligent, and exuded a joy for life. He was a loyal friend, a hard worker and a clever wit. Todd enjoyed challenging conversations and reveled in designing an ingenious solution to a carpentry or mechanical problem.

Todd is survived by his family and friends, whose lives he greatly enriched.

Friends will gather at Basic Plumbing in a celebration of Todd’s life on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.

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Over 22 years experience 206-755-5723 Visit our website at web.mac.com/tedobey Scotty was born on November 6, 1962 in Denver, Colorado. He grew up and graduated from high school in the foothills of Denver. After high school, Scotty moved to Dallas, Texas and began his career in hospitality as the Captain of Fine Dining at the Westin Hotel. After four years, he set sail as the steward on a private yacht cruising between Galveston, the Bahamas and Virgin Islands.

In 1984, Scott moved to what would become his favorite place – Hawaii. He served over 900 passengers as a waiter, bartender and bellman on seven-day cruises with American Hawaiian Cruises aboard the S.S. Constitution. Time on shore was spent with friends relaxing at the famous hotspot Hulas. Scotty left his heart in Hawaii and returned as often as he could.

Scott, together with his partner of 18 years Alex Conrad, remodeled homes and businesses around Seattle and worked for over 10 years at the prestigious Pacific Galleries downtown. Scotty started working at C.C. Attle’s as a bartender in 2004 and quickly worked his way up to manager and then bought the bar in 2009.

Scotty’s other love was floral and landscape design. His creative talents beautified weddings and events across the country, and here in Seattle for Schwartz Brothers and other businesses. At the family farm back in Colorado, Scotty still took care of all the landscaping and went back every spring to take care of the plantings.

Scott made the world an easier place through his selfless service to others as a steward, waiter, bartender, brother, son, uncle, and friend. He made the world a more beautiful place through his breathtaking landscape and floral designs. But most importantly he made the world a better place for the countless people his life touched, moved and sustained by just being who he was. He will be greatly missed.

Scott leaves behind his parents, Robert and Karen Reichert, his sisters, Terri, Sherri and Michelle, sister-in-law Marty Conrad, mother-in-law Mary Ellen Brown, and a large extended family.

October 30, 2009

Seattle Gay News

5

The Lutheran church counts 74 percent of Swedes as members, though only 2 percent go to church regularly.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Sweden on May 1. Gay couples also can marry in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, South Africa, and four U.S. states.

INTERNATIONAL

NEWS

by Rex Wockner SGN Contributing Writer GayRussia.ru

Russian Lesbian activists marry in Toronto Two Moscow Lesbian activists who were turned down for a marriage license in Russia got married in Toronto October 23.

Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shipitko honeymooned in Niagara Falls, then returned home with their lawyer, Gay activist Nikolai Alekseev, to demand that Russia recognize the Canadian marriage.

According to Alekseev, Russian law requires recognition of all foreign marriages except in cases of bigamy or incest. Homosexual unions are not among those prohibited, he said.

“It’s sort of a loophole in the law,” Alekseev said.

Should Russia refuse to recognize the marriage, Alekseev and the couple will file a case with the European Court of Human Rights, he said.

“Even though it is not my marriage, this is a day I will hardly forget,” Alekseev said in Toronto. “Many in Russia, including in the LGBT community, think that same-sex marriage is impossible but the fight for marriage Irina Fedotova (l) and Irina Shipitko were got married in Toronto October 23 equality in Russia today is an investment in then returned home to demand that Russia recognize the Canadian marriage. a democratic and free future of the country.

Irish hurler comes out is thought to be the world’s fastest-moving We know that we will get it one day and this Irish hurling star goalkeeper Donal Óg field team sport. For a detailed explanation, is the reason why we have to start now. I saCusack, 32, has come out as Gay in a new see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling. lute the courage of Irina and Irina who are autobiography, becoming the first Gaelic showing today that there are no barriers to Athletic Association player to do so.

Church of Sweden love. They give a great message of hope.”

“I get more out of men,” he wrote. “I just will marry do. Always have. I know I am different but same-sex couples IGLHRC targets Guangzhou just in this way. Whatever you may feel The Church of Sweden will marry samePublic Security Bureau about me or who I am, I’ve always been at sex couples, the general synod decided OcThe International Gay and Lesbian Hupeace with it.” tober 22 in a 176-62 vote. man Rights Commission has set its sights on Hurling is an ancient team sport played Individual pastors will be permitted to opt the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau in with sticks and a ball on a field with goals. It out of performing Gay weddings.

China over its harassment of Gay men.

IGLHRC expressed “dismay at the repeated acts of arbitrary detention and harassment of the police towards HIV prevention outreach workers and men suspected of being Gay.” In one incident, in August, the police tried to eject around 100 Gay men from Renmin Gongyuan People’s Park, claiming they were harassing straight people and committing petty crimes. In an unusual move, the Gays resisted and the police eventually left.

“The raids and patterns of harassment in Guangzhou discriminate against individuals by targeting them on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation,” IGLHRC said. “They also threaten access to the limited space that the Gay and Bisexual men of Guangzhou can access. Social spaces, such as public parks, are sites in which ... LGBT people build community and promote HIV education and prevention. These venues are particularly important since private space is less accessible to many Chinese Gay men and Lesbians, many of whom live with family.”

ILGHRC launched a letter-writing campaign to police chief Wu Sha. For details, see tinyurl.com/gayguang.

ILGA-Europe to meet in Malta The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (aka ILGA-Europe) is holding its 13th annual conference in Malta from October 29 to Nov. 1 with the theme “Overcoming Religious and Cultural Barriers to LGBT Equality.”

Thirty workshops will tackle such matters as European policy, hate crimes, asylum and Transgender rights.

Participants will include officials from the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Scottish and Dutch governments. For more information, see ilga-europe.org.

With assistance from Bill Kelley

NEWS

Mainers split on November 3 marriage vote Maine voters are split 48 percent to 48 percent on Question 1, the measure on the November 3 ballot that would use the state’s “people’s veto” to stop the new law that legalized same-sex marriage from taking effect.

The remainder of those questioned in a new Public Policy Polling survey said they were undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.9 percent.

Seventy-four percent of Republicans plan to vote yes, which would block same-sex marriage. Only 25 percent of Democrats said they will vote yes. Fifty percent of independents oppose Question 1 and 44 percent support it.

Older voters support the measure 54 percent to 40 percent, and there is a 10-point gender gap: 53 percent of men but only 43 percent of women plan to block Gay couples from marrying.

The poll also found a race gap. Forty-nine percent of whites support same-sex marriage, with 47 percent opposed. Nonwhites, however, support depriving Gays of marriage by a margin of 55 percent to 35 percent. According to census.gov, Maine is 96.4 percent white. Ninety-three percent of the 1,130 people polled were white.

“The fate of Question 1 is going to be decided by which side does a better job of mobilizing their supporters to get out and vote,” said Public Polling President Dean Debnam. “Voters in the state know where they stand on the issue and now it’s just an issue of who shows up.”

Meanwhile, the TV ad war continues. The anti-Gay-marriage side has continued to hammer away with the same campaign that worked with Proposition 8 in California, warning voters that if same-sex marriage is legal, schoolchildren will be subjected to inappropriate lessons on Gay topics.

6

Seattle Gay News

Mike Tidmus

NATIONAL

by Rex Wockner SGN Contributing Writer State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron asked state Attorney General Janet Mills to look into that claim and, on October 15, Mills reported: “I have scoured Maine laws relating to the education of its children for any references to marriage in the public school curricula. I have found none.”

The pro-Gay-marriage side’s TV ads reflect a degree of awareness of what went wrong for the Gay side in the California Prop 8 battle.

Unlike in California, the Gay side’s TV ads in Maine portray Gay people and Gay families. The Gay side’s Maine campaign also is responding to the charges in the antiGay side’s ads much more quickly than the No on 8 campaign did in California.

Nonetheless, in the blogosphere and on campaign-related mailing lists, there are routine expressions of concern over whether the Gay side’s ads are “hard-hitting” enough to neutralize the opponents’ tactics. There also is concern that the anti-Gay side is driving the discourse, with the Gay side placed in the position of responding to charges rather than proactively presenting its own case.

But NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality Campaign Manager Jesse Connolly says he believes the Gay campaign is on the right track.

“We feel really confident about where this campaign is headed,” he told The Rachel Maddow Show on October 20. “We feel that the combination of our field effort that’s been going on for the past year and the paid media that we’ve been pushing will really sort of make sure that Maine voters understand just how critical it is to vote no this November 3rd.”

Same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont, and it becomes legal in New Hampshire in January. If Question 1 fails, it will become legal

October 30, 2009

San Diego counterprotest of picketers from Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church

in Maine immediately. Same-sex marriage was legal for four and one-half months in California in 2008 until voters amended the state constitution to re-ban it. Gay couples also can marry in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, South Africa and Sweden.

Around 400 counterprotest Phelpses in San Diego Around 400 people staged a counterprotest against six picketers from Kansas’ antiGay Westboro Baptist Church on October 16 outside San Diego High School.

Local blogger Mike Tidmus said the counterprotesters carried “flags, bullhorns and colorful signs and banners with positive, upbeat and occasionally humorous slogans.”

Westboro demonstrator Shirley PhelpsRoper told The San Diego Union-Tribune that President Barack Obama “is the Antichrist.”

“He uses the White House as a bully pulpit to push fags and Jews,” she said.

HUD launches Gay projects U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced a series of proposals October 21 to ensure that HUD’s housing programs do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and

that must end,” Donovan said. “President Obama and I are determined that a qualified individual and family will not be denied housing choice based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Following a public-comment period, HUD’s new rules will: • Clarify that the term “family” as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of the publichousing and Housing Choice Voucher programs includes otherwise-eligible GLBT individuals and couples.

• Require grantees and those who participate in the department’s programs to comply with local and state nondiscrimination laws that cover sexual orientation or gender identity.

• Specify that any Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage loan must be based on the creditworthiness of a borrower and not on unrelated factors or characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity.

HUD also announced it will commission the first-ever national study of anti-GLBT discrimination in the rental and sale of housing.

“There are state and local studies that have shown this sort of bias,” the agency said. “It is believed that LGBT individuals and families may remain silent [about it] because in many local jurisdictions, they may have little or no legal recourse.”

With assistance from Bill Kelley

Celebrating 36 Years!

NORTHWEST

NEWS

compiled by Rick McKinnon SGN Staff Writer

OCTOBER IS GLBT HISTORY MONTH Equality Forum has launched the GLBT History Month 2009 website, www.glbtHistoryMonth.com. Throughout the month of October, a GLBT icon will be posted daily, with a video, biography, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources – all provided for FREE. The icons with resources for 2006, 2007 and 2008 are archived on the site. www.equalityforum.com.

tivities for children and adults, print making, sugar skulls, face painting, paper skeletons, traditional music and dance, pan de muerto, and a procession on Saturday evening. For more information and a complete schedule of activities, visit www.tallermexicano.org.

MEN OF ALL COLORS & CULTURES TOGETHER HOST A POTLUCK HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY On Saturday, October 31, starting at 7 p.m., Men of All Colors & Cultures Together (MACCT) will host a Potluck Halloween Costume Party. For more information and Seattle location, contact MACCT at 206923-8313 or email macctseattle@yahoo. com. www.macctsea.org.

“TVLAND WITH RAINBOW CITY BAND” On Friday, October 30, at 8 p.m., join Rainbow City Band at Broadway Performance Hall, Broadway & E. Pine St., as they tour the tunes of television from decades past and present – the music from sit“UNDERGROUND HALLOWEEN” coms and dramas that glowed in our living TO BENEFIT LAMBERT HOUSE room each week. Come out for an evening On Saturday, October 31, from 8 p.m. - 2 of entertainment and even a Brady Bunch sing-along! General admission is $15. www. a.m., join 200 costumed revelers at the Howard Building, 614 1st Ave., in the Pioneer rainbowcityband.com.

Square Underground, for a spooky party to raise money for Lambert House, Greater “NUNS GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT” Seattle’s Community Center for GLBTQ TO BENEFIT LAMBERT HOUSE On Friday, October 30, the Sisters of the Youth, ages 11-22. Enjoy a hosted bar! A Mother House of Washington State, present fixed price of $20 at the door includes enter“Nuns Go Bump in the Night,” a costumed tainment by the 13th Grade, local DJs, and benefit for Lambert House, from 8 p.m. - all your drinks for the night. Imagine a Halmidnight, at Café Metropolitain, 1701 E. loween party in the Seattle Underground.

Olive Way. Come in your Halloween best LISA MILLS and participate in the costume contest where COMEDY HYPNOSIS SHOW prizes, including a $100 gift certificate to On Sunday, November 1, the Wildrose Ruth’s Chris Steak House, will be awarded for different categories of costume. Sug- Tavern, 11th Ave. & E. Pike St., will host gested donation of $3 at the door and plenty Lisa Mills, former lead singer for the band of Jell-o shots, drink specials and magnifi- Swamp Mama Johnson and a Wildrose bartending alumnus, for a hilarious evening cent food to eat. of interactive comedy. Laugh your head off, alter your reality, enhance your natural “BUMP” HALLOWEEN PARTY – abilities, and have a great time! You know A BENEFIT FOR GAY CITY, you’ve always wanted to try it ... or get your SEATTLE WOMEN’S CHORUS & SEATTLE MEN’S CHORUS friend to try it.... Show starts at 7 p.m. sharp “BUMP,” the Northwest’s hottest Hal- – don’t be late! Come early for a seat and a loween party, will be held on Friday, Octo- treat. Come on out and BE A STAR! ber 30, from 9 p.m. - 2 a.m., at the ShowPUBLIC ACCESS TV box at the Market, 1416 1st Ave. The event DEBATE ON REF. 71 will feature performances by Pure Cirkus, a On Monday, November 2, at 8 p.m., Hour kinky circus spectacle of freaks, geeks and fire, plus an amazing light show and wicked Forum presents a televised debate on Refdance party with DJ Kyler and DJ Joe King. erendum 71 on PSA TV 77 in South King Plus The 3 Ring Lounge – a substance-free County or watch online at www.pugetsounspace hosted by SHIFT! Costume con- daccess.org. test with a $1,000 grand prize plus a prize TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3 drawing for a one-week Hawaiian vacaIS ELECTION DAY – tion. Tickets: $35 advance/$45 at the door; PLEASE VOTE VIP – $60/$70; Platinum VIP – $125/$150; TO APPROVE REF. 71 with group discounts. Tickets are available Ballots for the General Election must be online at www.gaycity.org and at the door.

Enjoy FREE shuttle service to and from postmarked no later than Tuesday, Novemthe BUMP from the following Capitol ber 3. If you mail your ballot, make sure you Hill bars: The Elite, Julia’s on Broadway, deposit your ballot in a mailbox on in time Martins Off Madison, R Place, and Rose- for the last mail pick-up at that mailbox so bud Restaurant & Bar. Shuttles begin that your ballot is postmarked on Tuesday. pick ups at 9 p.m. and run until 2:30 a.m. You can also deposit you ballot in person at The shuttle will also stop at Chapel (site several neighborhood community service of the Afterhours Party) and Steamworks centers up until 8 p.m. (See the information sheet that accompanied your ballot.) The starting at 1 a.m.

PLEASE DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. Approve Ref. 71 Campaign encourages you The Official BUMP Afterhours Party will to mail in your ballot before the Tuesday be held at Chapel, 1600 Melrose Ave. Tick- deadline, if possible. ets $12 at the door with discounts for VIP and Platinum VIP ticket holders.

SMASH THE CHURCH, SMASH THE STATE: DIA DE MUERTOS/ THE EARLY YEARS DAY OF THE DEAD CELEBRATION OF GAY LIBERATION Saturday, October 31, from noon - 8 p.m., Starting Tuesday, November 3, at 6:30 and Sunday, November 1, from noon - 6 p.m., Radical Women and the Freedom Sop.m., in the Center House at Seattle Center. cialist Party hosts a free seven-week discusThis year the celebration will be honoring sion series on a new anthology, Smash the the life of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Zapata (1879 - 1919) on the 130th anniver- Gay Liberation, at Kaladi Brothers Coffee, sary of his life and 90th anniversary of his 511 E. Pike St. “The book represents a snapdeath. All are invited to participate in the shot of that moment when Queers weren’t community altar dedicated to Zapata, with obsessed with tying the knot or picking up flowers, photos, poems, etc. for him or for a rifle to go off and fight ‘terrorists.’ Revloved ones that you want to remember on olution was in the air,” says editor Tommi this Dia de Muertos.

Avicolli Mecca. These essays by dykes, The free program includes altars and of- drag queens, Transsexuals, and Queers of rendas, a monumental sand painting, art and color, who built the radical movement of photography exhibits, lectures, crafts dem- sexual minorities in the 1960s and ‘70s, proonstrations, short films and animations, ac- vide often overlooked insights into modern

Visit us online www.sgn.org

highlights Yiddish art songs by Lazar Weiner, and chamber music by three murdered Holocaust-era composers: Czech composer Pavel Haas, and the less-known murdered Hungarian composers Sándor Vándor and László Weiner. Tickets are $36 and can be SEATTLE GAY & LESBIAN BOOK CLUB AT DUNSHEE HOUSE purchased by phone at 206-365-7770; by The Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club fax at 206-985-6924; online at www.musimeets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Dun- cofremembrance.org and at the door. shee House, 303 17th Ave. E. at E. Thomas LT. DANIEL CHOI St. The club is pleased to announce the folTO SPEAK IN TACOMA lowing titles to be discussed in their ongoing ON HIS FIGHT AGAINST reading and discussion series: November – “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL” The Gifts of the Body by Rebecca Brown; In March, this year, Lt. Daniel Choi, a December – Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. All GLBTQ folks in the community West Point graduate and Iraq veteran fluent are welcome to participate in this free book in Arabic, announced that he was Gay on club. The reading list is chosen and the dis- The Rachel Maddow Show. Less than one cussion facilitated by Nick DiMartino, pub- month later, the U.S. Army declared it would lished novelist and playwright, currently a initiate discharge proceedings against him book reviewer for ShelfAwareness.com, for violating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Choi and a 30-year employee of University Book vowed to fight the discharge. Since then he Store. For more information, email nickdi- has appeared on The Colbert Report, Andermartin@earthlink.net or contact Dunshee son Cooper 360, ABC News, and elsewhere, seeking a change to the controversial Army House at 206-322-2437. policy.

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, a day before VeterCOPING WITH ans Day, Lt. Daniel Choi will give a talk at CHRONIC CONDITIONS – University of Puget Sound titled “Truth and A FREE SIX-WEEK WORKSHOP This 6-week workshop for people suf- Consequences: One Man’s Fight to Openly fering from arthritis, diabetes, depression, Serve His Country.” The free lecture, startchronic pain, and other chronic conditions ing at 7 p.m., is open to the public and will is proven to help you learn to control your be held in Rasmussen Rotunda in Wheelock symptoms and live well. Workshop will be Student Center.

Choi served for a decade under “Don’t held every Thursday, November 5 - December 17, 1-3:30 p.m., at Southeast Seattle Se- Ask, Don’t Tell,” a policy that requires Gay nior Center, 4655 S. Holly St. Preregistra- American soldiers to hide their sexual orition is required. Call Jean at 206-722-0317 entation and forces others to tolerate the deception. Choi helped form Knights Out, ext 202 to pre-register. an organization of West Point alumni advocating for the rights of Gays and Lesbian SEATTLE OUT & PROUD to serve openly in the military. He says the CO-HOSTS SAM REMIX On Friday, November 6, from 6 p.m. Army policy is opposed to all he learned at - midnight, join Seattle Out and Proud West Point about honesty and integrity, and (SOaP), organizers of Seattle’s annual that it leads to feelings of isolation among Pride Parade, at the Seattle Art Museum, soliders fighting in dangerous circumstanc1300 First Ave. at University St., for a great es. line-up of music, performances and special Choi was born in Orange County, Calif. A guests. As a “Friend of SOaP,” you’ll get first-generation American, his parents emithe $5 SAM member rate. To get the dis- grated from Korea and founded a church. counted rate, please mention SOaP when He resides in New York, and has become a purchasing tickets. The first 100 guests at full-time activist for the LGBT community.

Remix on the night of the event get in free The event is sponsored by Diversity at the door. This is an 18+ ages event. www. Theme Year and ASUPS Lectures. www. seattleartmuseum.org. pugetsound.edu.

Queer history and useful lessons for today’s Generation Q activists. For more information, 206-722-2453 or www.socialism.com/ seattle. Wheelchair accessible.

WASHINGTON WOMEN IN THE TRADES 3RD ANNUAL DREAM BIG DINNER WITH THE LAURA LOVE BAND On Saturday, November 7, Washington Women in the Trades is delighted to present Laura Love with a full-band, playing a dance show for the first time in Seattle since Ballard Seafood Fest 2004!

Yes, you may have seen her in an intimate acoustic sit-down performance, but it’s time to strap on those struttin’ shoes, ‘cause this one’s gonna be like old times, with that funky trademark bass and all out yodel.

Band members Rod Cook, Jen Todd and Chris Leighton will help Laura celebrate her new release, The Sweeter the Juice, an earthy collection of songs with Orville Johnson.

Showtime is 9:30 p.m. at the Lake City Elks Club, 14540 Bothell Way NE, an incredible cool, hep-cat hall that screams Sinatra, martinis and bouffant hair.

Dinner & show doors at 6 p.m. Dinner & show tickets at $60/single; $500 table of 8. www.wawomenintrades.com. Show ONLY doors at 9 p.m. Show ONLY tickets: $20/ adv; $30/door. www.brownpapertickets. com or www.wawomenintrades.com.

MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE CONCERT FEATURES WORK COMMEMORATING ACTS OF JEWISH HEROISM DURING THE HOLOCAUST On Monday, November 9, Music of Remembrance presents their fall concert, “Cantillations,” commemorating the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht. The concert will be held at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, 3rd Ave. & Union St., at 7:30 p.m. The program features two contemporary works: acclaimed American composer Paul Schoenfield’s inspiring Sparks of Glory, and Cantillations

by Israeli-born Ofer Ben-Amots. It also

October 30, 2009

BENT MENTOR SHOWCASE WITH LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASHINHA On Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14, Bent hosts a showcase of LGBTIQ spoken word at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), 2700 24th Ave. E., doors at 7 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $15-$30. www.brownpapertickets.com/85356 and at the door. A writing workshop will also be held Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., at Lifelong AIDS Alliance, 1002 E. Seneca St. www.bentwriting.com.

HARMONY HILL RETREAT CENTER WILL HOST FREE 3-DAY CANCER RETREAT FOR SEXUAL MINORITY WOMEN DECEMBER 4-6 Harmony Hill’s cancer retreats are weekend residential programs that help those facing cancer, and their loved ones, cope with the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges of cancer. The Sexual Minority Women Cancer Retreat is designed specifically to meet the needs of Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender women in an environment that is safe and supportive.

Harmony Hill’s 12-acre facility on Hood Canal, in Union, WA, offers a tranquil retreat environment of gardens, nature trails, labyrinths, and spectacular mountain and water views. Participants enjoy whole-food meals grown in Harmony Hill’s gardens or from local farmers.

Space is limited to 20 participants and is filled on a first-come first-served basis.

Those placed on the waiting list will be notified as space becomes available. Cancer participants may have one companion/support person attend with them. All Harmony Hill Cancer Retreats are offered at no cost to participants. For more details and to register, visit www.harmonyhill.org.

Seattle Gay News

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8

Seattle Gay News

October 30, 2009

Celebrating 36 Years!

Groups push for “.gay” internet suffix

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer

Two for-profit groups say there could soon be a “.gay” internet suffix. The Dot Gay Alliance (dotgay.org), a New York City-based company, and Dotgay (dotgay.com) out of Latvia, are pushing for the internet suffix to become a reality.

In other words, there could be a Capitolhill.gay or a Seattlegaynews.gay one day.

Although the two groups are open to the possibility of cooperating, they’ve yet to join forces. Instead, both groups say they are starting the application process with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to create a domain like .com, .org and .net. ICANN coordinates the internet naming system. The application process costs upwards of $400,000.

Since the beginning of the internet, the domain-registry has been a profitable business. Each year, registered internet sites pay an annual fee. Neither group is nonprofit, but say they will funnel profits towards supporting Gay causes.

“This could be a significant source of

funding for organizations fighting, doing very good, important works,” said Joe Dolce, founder and executive director of the Dot Gay Alliance.

Dolce, a longtime Gay activist, got the idea for a .gay domain when he was working with an internet-domain consulting service that helped create a .eco domain. He said he was intrigued when former Vice President Al Gore said he would support .eco only if half the proceeds from the registration went to environmental groups. Dolce says he thought that model could be applied to Gay causes as well.

According to Dolce, the plan is for 51 percent of the proceeds from .gay domain registration to go to Gay causes.

“It’s a very novel way that doesn’t involve putting your hand out, doesn’t involve another benefit or charity function,” Dolce said.

So why .gay instead of .lgbt?

“Gay is an internationally recognized word, while the LGBT acronym differs across different languages,” said Dolce, “Gay is a nice three-letter word, which fits internet naming convention.”

Navy chief petty officer to face punishment in hazing

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer The former leader of a bomb-sniffing dog unit in Bahrain, Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, has been removed from his current position and forced to retire after the Navy reviewed allegations of sexual harassment against a Gay sailor.

Additionally, the Navy announced Toussaint would receive a letter of censure and be subject to retirement pay-grade determinations, which, depending on severity, could greatly affect his retirement pay.

Last month, SGN reported the Navy decided to review its investigation of more than 90 hazing incidents that took place between 2004 and 2006 in a Military Working Dog Division at Naval Security Force, Bahrain.

Joseph Rocha said he left the Navy in 2007 by telling his commander he was Gay because he no longer wanted to endure the hazing. By telling his command of his sexuality, he was in direct violation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s policy prohibiting Gays and Lesbians to serve in the armed forces. He was discharged thereafter.

According Rocha, he was tied to a chair

Kent man sentenced for homosexual immigration fraud

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer Steven Mahoney, a man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality when they applied for asylum, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week.

Mahoney’s ex-wife Helena received a sixmonth prison sentence for her role in the fraud case. Both are naturalized U.S. citizens from Russia.

Mahoney, a man who described himself as “an expert in immigration affairs,” ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent. For nine years, the company advised immigrants who were looking for a way to stay in the U.S. to claim they were homosexual and say they would face potential persecution in their home countries unless granted asylum.

In April, Mahoney pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and admitted to filing as many as 99 false immigration applications.

“This type of behavior will not be tolerated,” said U.S. District Judge John Coughenour. He said the sentences should send a message to the community.

According to the indictment in the case, Mahoney also advised others to claim discrimination over religious beliefs. He was

paid up to $4,000 for each false application he filed.

In one instance, involving an individual identified as A.K., Mahoney is accused of advising him to say on immigration applications that he was Gay and that the militia in his country had attempted to rape his wife because of his sexual orientation. Mahoney’s wife Helena is said to have helped the man obtain “documents about the Gay community to assist A.K. in preparing for his asylum interview,” the indictment said.

G.V., another immigrant, reportedly submitted documents to immigration officials saying he was afraid he would be maimed if he returned to his homeland. In truth, the indictment said G.V. “was not afraid of such maiming.”

In seeking prison time, federal prosecutors said persecution of Gays and Jews in Eastern Europe is real.

“By advising immigrants to falsely claim that they were Gay or Jewish, the Mahoneys diminished the chances of those who genuinely seek asylum for those reasons,” prosecutions said in a news release.

It’s unclear whether or not any of the immigrants mentioned in the indictment were granted asylum status and allowed to stay in the U.S.

and left in a dog kennel, hosed down while in uniform and forced to simulate oral sex on another sailor. Rocha said his sexuality came into question when he refused to sleep with prostitutes when other men in his unit did. Due to the hazing he endured, a Veteran Affairs doctor diagnosed him with posttraumatic stress disorder.

After Rocha shared his story with the media, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Gary Roughead, directed the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to conduct additional interviews with Navy personnel who were in Bahrain. After reviewing the original investigation, Roughead “found that the incidents were not in keeping with Navy values and standards and violated the Navy’s long-standing prohibition against hazing.”

Rocha, now a student at the University of San Diego, said the Navy’s actions towards Toussaint send a message that “this kind of leadership is not acceptable in our military.”

“I think it’s a phenomenal step in the right direction,” Rocha said. “I think that it will have lasting implications, for sure, especially as we approach a vote on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

Visit us online www.sgn.org

October 30, 2009

Seattle Gay News

9

10 Seattle Gay News

October 30, 2009

Celebrating 36 Years!

I strongly APProVE r-71 Equality is good for all people – gay and straight. Washington’s domestic partnership law is good news for everybody.

Please join me and vote to approve R-71.

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Tim Eyman is back!

In 2006 he tried to repeal a law that would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation. Now Tim Eyman’s I-1033 will prolong the recession, cut health care and human services, and slash education spending.

Join more than 220 organizations including the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), GLBT leaders across Washington, and Vote NO on I-1033.

AARP Washington AFSCME Alliance of People with Disabilities Alzheimer’s Association, Western and Central Washington Chapter American Federation of Teachers Washington, AFL-CIO Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation Children’s Alliance Climate Solutions Community Health Network of Washington Conservation Northwest El Centro de la Raza Fuse Washington Futurewise Greater Seattle Business Association Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Group Health Cooperative Health Work Force Institute Healthy Washington Coalition Heart of America Northwest King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence King County Corrections Guild King County Democrats Latino Political Action Committee of

Washington League of Education Voters League of Women Voters of Washington Lutheran Public Policy Office Microsoft NARAL Pro-Choice Washington Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters People for Puget Sound Pierce County Democrats Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington Providence Health & Services Public School Employees of Washington Resident Councils of Washington Seattle Human Services Coalition SEIU Sierra Club, Cascade Chapter Statewide Poverty Action Network Surfrider Foundation Tacoma Professional Firefighters IAFF #31 The Lands Council The Nature Conservancy of Washington Transportation Choices Coalition Vulcan, Inc Washington Association of Community and Migrant Health Centers Washington Association of Churches

Washington Conservation Voters Washington Education Association Washington Environmental Council Washington Federation of State Employees Washington Home Care Coalition Washington Low Income Housing Association Washington Stand for Children Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO Washington State Council of Firefighters Washington State Elder Care Alliance Washington State Hospital Association Washington State Labor Council Washington State Nurses Association Washington State PTA Washington State Senior Citizens’ Lobby Washington Toxics Coalition Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition

Learn more at www.no1033.org

Paid for by No on I-1033 Committee • 603 Stewart St., #819 • Seattle, WA 98101

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The senator makes the grade

by Leslie Robinson SGN Contributing Writer People in the public eye who utter inanities about Gays keep me busy. I regularly poke into the verbal and written slams offered up by folks all around the world, from Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern (Homosexuality is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism”) to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (Pride parades are “satanic”).

As a citizen of the state of Washington, I’d like to highlight my homies now and then, but prominent Washingtonians have been largely restrained of late – and thus uncooperative.

Val Stevens changed all that. The state senator penned an anti-Gay diatribe that is world-class. She’s suddenly become übercooperative.

With Election Day near at hand, Stevens

wrote a letter that appears on the website of Protect Marriage Washington, the group that got Referendum 71 on the ballot with the aim of ditching the domestic partnership rights the legislature granted. The purpose of Stevens’ letter is to urge supporters to pony up more money.

I assume it will work, because her message is Armageddon is coming and it’s dressed in drag: “Could this be the final battle? Are the homosexuals finally going to take control of our culture and push their depraved lifestyle on our children and families?”

That’s gotta have some people reaching for their wallets, and it’s only the start of the letter. I give my fellow Evergreen Stater credit for effective writing. She mixes hyperbole, hysteria and hate into a paranoid witch’s brew – just in time for both Hallow-

een and the election.

Further on, Stevens refers again to “the final assault on our families and American culture by the homosexuals.” Clearly she has an exaggerated view of the importance of our state. I mean, I’m fond of Washington and all, but Referendum 71 is no Yorktown.

Even if the Gays win this particular vote in this particular state, we won’t be taking control of American culture. We lack the infrastructure.

Stevens bemoans the state having repealed sodomy laws in 1970, “with government turning a blind eye to a behavior commonly considered perversion – and still the case with a majority of Americans.” Apparently the Arlington Republican was AWOL from the planet in 2003, when that notoriously bawdy bunch, the United States Supreme Court, took a different view of consensual Gay sex.

But then her aim is to terrify, so she pushes several of the tried and true buttons. In addition to sodomy, she invokes NAMBLA – always a crowd-pleaser. Stevens also points to “the devastation in Scandinavian countries,” apparently referring to the discredited but often cited statistical “proof” provided by conservative pundit Stanley Kurtz that Gay marriage destroys straight marriage. I won-

der how Scandinavians feel about American social conservatives holding them up as a sociological nuclear winter.

Stevens also frets over “the objective of the feminization of the male in our society.” Wow. I wouldn’t want to be a guy in her household. One hint of sensitivity and you’re off to military school.

She worries about school children being told that homosexuality is normal, and about the free-speech rights of pastors, two of the drumbeats that have become popular with her set in the recent past. While she bemoans the fact that Gays in Washington are, “after 27 years of relentless pursuit,” a protected group, she doesn’t use the phrase “special rights.” Obviously an oversight.

Now that the Washington State senator has put herself on the world map of bigots, I look forward to her next offering. I don’t think she can top this for sheer hysteria. On the other hand, if she can tell supporters “we are on the verge of losing the battle of our lifetimes” over domestic partnership, there’s no telling, when the battle really is over same-sex marriage, what hyperbolic heights she’ll climb.

Leslie Robinson lives in Seattle. E-mail her at LesARobinson@gmail.com.

Army secretary says Army ready to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer

The Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, said the Army is prepared to lift the ban on openly Gay service if President Obama and Congress decide to end the policy known as, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT).

McHugh, a former Republican Congressman from New York, is the highest official inside the Pentagon to express such support for lifting the policy that prohibits Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual persons from serving openly in the U.S. military.

During an October 25 interview with the Army Times, McHugh said there was no reason to fear that major difficulties would result from lifting the ban. He said he would help implement the policy change when the time comes.

“The Army has a big history of taking on similar issues with predictions of doom and gloom that did not play out,” McHugh said.

In addition, McHugh suggested that the repeal might come in phases, such as allowing Gays to serve in some occupations and not others. Currently, under DADT, as long as a Gay or Lesbian service member keeps mum about their sexual orientation, they may work in any occupation they are assigned.

McHugh was a ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee and voted in favor of the policy in 1993. On Sunday, he said a lot of things have changed since then, including his views.

“I have no interest as either a member of Congress or as secretary of the Army to exclude by some categorization a group of people otherwise qualified to serve,” he said. Obama has made it very clear what his position on DADT is. He wants to find a way through this.”

“What we’re seeing is a tipping point in the opinions of both military and civilian leaders on this issue,” said Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California that has been a leader in commissioning and disseminating research in areas of gender, sexuality and the military since 1998. “The Army is the largest of the services and the most heavily involved in our wars abroad, and for Secretary McHugh to state clearly that it can handle repeal sends a strong signal to the other service secretaries that they can do the same.”

Currently, the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corp. secretaries have not released any statement in support of or against DADT. However, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and chairman of the Joint Chiefs,

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16 Seattle Gay News

October 30, 2009

Celebrating 36 Years!

Admiral Mike Mullen, have both said they would support and implement repeal if Congress and Obama deem it necessary.

Dr. Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said Secretary McHugh’s comments were enormously significant, but points out that there is no research to support the idea of letting Gay soldiers serve in some units but not others.

“The rationale for the ban applies equally across all job categories,” said Belkin. “So if it’s okay to be an openly Gay Arabic interpreter, it’s also okay to be openly Gay in the infantry or on a submarine. Since conduct rules apply across the board, there’s just no basis for applying different standards specialties.”

President Obama stated on October 10, at a Human Rights Campaign annual dinner, that his highest priority for the LGBT community was to repeal DADT. However, nearly 400 Gays and Lesbians have been discharged from the armed services since Obama and the 111th Congress took office in January.

r-71

continued from cover

interest in showing the money trail. … I do not believe it is in the public interest for the court to intervene and change the rules of the game at the last minute,” Judge Leighton said. “I do not believe there is a real emergency. The constraints imposed upon the plaintiff are self-inflicted.”

So, why the cause for alarm?

Focus on the Family Action (FOTFA), a Colorado-based conservative organization aligned with anti-Gay leader James Dobson, was able to register as an independent

expenditure campaign, allowing them to spend money on any issue they want. That means the organization is allowed to spend as much as they want whenever they want, and are only required to report what they’ve spent within 24 hours of distribution. According to news reports on FOTFA’s Public Disclosure Commission records, the group spent $91,970 in Washington this month.

On October 20, FOTFA spent $80,000 to buy radio ads encouraging voters to reject Referendum 71 – a potentially dangerous message considering the General Election is a few days away and undecided voters may be persuaded to vote to reject the state’s domestic partnership law.

Taking a page from the Proposition 8 folks, FOTFA has distributed a mailer claiming that if Referendum 71 is passed, schools will be “required to teach kids as young as kindergartners that domestic partnerships are the equivalent to marriage.” The mailer asks the questions, “Do you want your kids or grandkids to be taught about Gay partnerships?” FOTFA is asking their supporters to “Protect the innocence of Washington’s kids. Vote to reject Referendum 71.”

In speaking with public school officials, SGN was told that whether or not the domestic partnership law remains on the books, current curriculum would remain in place. In truth, there is no statement within the law that says anything about school curriculum. A vote to approve Referendum 71 is a vote to protect Washington families, and has nothing to do with what kids are taught in public schools.

“This race is still too close for comfort,” Friedes said. “Money is pouring in from out of state to fund our opponents, and they are investing heavily in radio ads. We know the best way to counteract the outrageous lies our opponents are telling is with direct conversations with voters.”

Friedes said that WAFST and the Approve Referendum 71 Campaign have said from the beginning that this election will be de-

cided by voter turnout. “There are only five days left to vote approve on Referendum 71,” he said. “Let’s put Ref. 71 over the top!”

October 28, and Purr cocktail lounge held a popular cocktail mixer for the campaign on October 29. This weekend, Friday-Saturday, tabling to approve Referendum 71 will take place at Panache, where volunteers will talk APPROVE REFERENDUM 71 to as many voters as possible.

CAMPAIGN GOING STRONG WAFST is asking for volunteers on HalWAFST, along with a large pool of eager loween. They are hoping to make “Trick or volunteers, is giving the Approve Referen- Vote” the largest “get out and vote canvass dum 71 campaign the visibility it needs with (in costume) the city has ever seen,” said more events, phone banking, neighborhood WAFST officials. On October 31, from 2-9 canvassing, and sign waving than any one p.m., beginning at the Georgetown Brewery person can attend. In addition to direct com- in Seattle, costumed ghosts and ghouls will munication with voters, the campaign has get the chance to spread the Approve Reftaken the message to the radio and TV with erendum 71 message across the city while ads appealing to voters who want to protect getting into the holiday spirit. Training will the domestic partnership law in Washington be provided for this event. The training will State. be conducted at 2:30 p.m., with canvassThe Approve Referendum 71 Campaign ing from 3-7 p.m. Then, WAFST will throw Events Coordinator Josh Castle and his a party for the volunteers inside the Old group of grassroots advocates held two Georgetown Brewery until 9 p.m.

“Sausage Fest” events at The Cuff Complex Friedes told SGN that the outpouring of and Café Metro, to create awareness, en- support has gotten better with each passing courage people to vote, and raise money for week, but he said, “This campaign isn’t over the central campaign. yet; we’ve got a few more days and we plan “These events are so much fun,” Castle to do all we can to ensure that Referendum told SGN at the October 28, Café Metro par- 71 is approved.” ty. “It’s getting down to the wire, and people “Our Facebook page has 32,000 fans and are beginning to realize they can make a dif- is growing by a hundred people an hour for ference. Our volunteer base keeps growing the last couple of days,” Friedes told SGN. and people are consistently approaching us “And our volunteer phone banks have done and asking us what can they do to help.” over 200,000 dials and will be phone bankThe answer, he says, is always to “vote to ing right through election day.” approve Referendum 71!”

For more information about upcoming Some Capitol Hill businesses have also Approve Referendum 71 events, donate gotten into the approve Referendum 71 money to the campaign, or to sign up as a groove as well. Broadway Grill held a buf- volunteer, visit WAFST online at www.apfet-style fundraiser for the campaign on provereferendum71.org.

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Seattle Gay News 17

hate crimes continued from cover

attention to the hate crimes measure. Both events took place in the East Room of the White House.

During the signing ceremony, President Obama mentioned the inclusion of the hate crimes legislation within the funding bill.

“After more than a decade of opposition and delay,” said Obama at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony, “we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are.”

He also singled out the parents of Matthew Shepard, a Gay Wyoming student killed in a brutal hate crime in 1998.

“I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come, and I’m glad that she and her husband Dennis could join us for this event,” said Obama. “I’m also honored to have the family of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought so hard for this legislation. And Vicki and Patrick, Kara – everybody who’s here – I just want you all to know how proud we are of the work that Ted did to help this day – make this day possible.”

In addition to the Shepard family, openly

Gay Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) was a guest at the signing ceremony.

During the reception, which began at 6 p.m., President Obama also recognized family members of James Byrd, who was killed in a horrific hate crime in 1998 in Texas because he was an African American.

In his remarks, President Obama singled out several administration officials and members of Congress for their help in securing passage of the measure, including Attorney General Eric Holder, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, and all three openly Gay Representatives: Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, and Jared Polis. He also thanked the chief House co-sponsor Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and the chief Senate sponsor, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).

A FIRST AND A FOLLOW-UP Rep. Baldwin issued a statement calling the hate crimes measure “the nation’s first major piece of civil rights legislation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people to become law.” It is also “the first federal law to explicitly protect Transgender Americans.”

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, also praised the measure, saying it “marks the first time that we as a nation have explicitly protected the LGBT

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By:SSCHULTZ Pub:ARTS Tag Line: Color Info: the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force were among 29 Gay advocacy groups that signed onto a statement for release following the signing. The statement said President Obama’s signing of the legislation “fulfilled a campaign promise.”

“Our deepest hope and strong belief is that this new law will save lives,” said the statement.

The statement noted that more than 1,200 hate crimes target victims because of their sexual orientation or gender identity every year.

“As a results of this legislation, if local jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to investigate or prosecute hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Justice Department can now step in,”

said the groups. “And that’s why the LGBT community never stopped working for this historic day.”

The White House did not immediately release a list of guests attending the reception, other than members of Congress and the two families. But President Obama thanked openly Gay philanthropist David Bohnett and his partner Tom Gregory for “helping host” the reception. White House LGBT press spokesperson Shin Inouye said the reception was held “in partnership” with the Bohnett Foundation and that the Foundation “paid the costs of the reception.” © 2009 Keen News Service 0001659521-01

community in the law.”

“And this law,” he said, “sends a loud message that perpetrators of hate violence against anyone will be brought to justice.”

But the Hate Crimes Prevention Act signed today follows by 19 years the Hate Crimes Statistics Act signed in 1990. That law, which was a landmark achievement at the time, required the U.S. Justice Department to count crimes based on “race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity” and to publish those statistics annually. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force played a pivotal role in securing passage of that bill, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. It was also heavily involved in passage of the prevention law.

Both the Human Rights Campaign and

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Seattle Gay News 19

R-71 opponents must follow state law, judge says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Federal Judge Ronald D. Leighton ruled on Tuesday, October 27, that anti-Gay opponents of Referendum 71 can not set aside the state’s campaign finance regulations.

The Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW) and their newly created Family PAC had filed an emergency motion to be allowed to dump large amounts of money into the Reject 71 campaign and to conceal the sources of the funds.

FPIW’s motion challenged the constitutionality of the state Public Disclosure Law, originally passed as an initiative in 1972 with a 72% Yes vote.

Specifically, FPIW asked to be allowed to receive contributions in excess of $5,000, which are illegal within three weeks of a general election.

They also asked to conceal the names, addresses, and occupations of donors. State law requires disclosure of names and addresses of donors of more than $25, and the occupation and employers of donors of more than $100.

In denying the FPIW motion, Judge Leighton said, “The State has a real and vital interest in showing the money trail. … I do not believe it is in the public interest for the court to intervene and change the rules of the game at the last minute.”

Leighton, a Bush appointee, added, “I do not believe there is a real emergency. The constraints imposed upon the plaintiff are self-inflicted.”

FPIW’s Family PAC was named as the plaintiff in the suit before Judge Leighton.

Secretary of State Sam Reed and Attorney General Rob McKenna were named as defendants along with the members of the State Public Disclosure Commission and the Snohomish County Auditor.

Washington Families Standing Together (WAFST) and its chair Anne Levinson were allowed to intervene in the suit, and filed a brief in opposition.

“The effort to invite the Court to intervene into a hotly contested political campaign at the last minute to overturn a statutory scheme that has been in place, and well settled, for years is as unsubstantiated as it is unwarranted,” the WAFST brief said.

“Plaintiff has utterly failed to present the Court with an evidentiary record to even begin to establish the claims it so insistently asserts must be adjudicated immediately.”

WAFST and Levinson went on to argue that FPIW had not shown the court that they or their supporters would suffer irreparable harm from the state’s Public Disclosure Law. “Plaintiff baldly asserts, without any evidentiary support whatsoever, that individuals contributing ‘as little as $25 have been subjected to deplorable acts…’” WAFST says.

“While plaintiff is unable to point to a single actual ‘deplorable act,’ WAFST most certainly can,” their brief says. “WAFST has received numerous threatening and offensive letters for its efforts in working to retain the domestic partnership law.”

“Our contributors have openly donated money and publicly endorsed the Approve 71 Campaign. They have put their money and their names behind our campaign,” said Approve 71 Campaign Manager Josh Friedes, in a statement issued after Judge Leighton’s ruling. “The public has a right to expect that both sides will play by the rules.”

“Voters have a right to know who is behind this attempt to repeal the domestic partnership law, trying to take away legal protections from Gay and Lesbian families,” Levinson said. “If Approve 71 had not intervened – if our opponents had their way – it would have gutted much of our state’s 35-year-old campaign disclosure law and all of the current elections could have seen an influx of anonymous, last minute contributions.”

Family PAC is a new political action committee formed specifically to challenge the state Public Disclosure Law and accept money from out of state donors. It has the same board of directors and business address as FPIW, and its only contributor is the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

NOM is also the single largest contribu-

tor to a pending ballot initiative in Maine, where they are trying to overturn Maine’s civil marriage equality law.

On the same day Family PAC filed its motion in Washington, NOM filed a nearly identical lawsuit in Maine, challenging the constitutionality of that state’s financial reporting requirements.

On Wednesday, October 28, a US District Court Judge in Maine denied the NOM motion, ruling in language very similar to Leighton’s that “Maine has a very strong interest in providing its voters with information about the source of the money that funds the campaign on either side of a ballot issue.”

FPIW was organized in 2007 in anticipation of new domestic partnership legislation, and is affiliated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Larry Stickney was FPIW executive director until resigning to head the Washington Values Alliance – the organization that originally filed R-71.

Without the last-minute contributions they had sought to dump into the Reject 71 campaign, anti-71 forces are lagging far behind in fundraising.

Protect Marriage Washington, the main anti-71 organization, has raised a little more than $236,000. Vote Reject on R-71, the organization funded mainly by FPIW, has raised an additional $205,000.

In contrast, WAFST has raised nearly $2 million to Approve R-71.

r-71 polls continued from cover

and 13% undecided. Comparison of the two polls seems to indicate that undecided voters are breaking towards the Approve side.

WOMEN, YOUNGER VOTERS, SEATTLE RESIDENTS APPROVE Women heavily support R-71, with 55% saying they will vote to approve and only 37% saying they will reject it. Support

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among women has increased from the October 6 poll.

Young voters and baby-boomers show the greatest support for domestic partnership rights, and the oldest group of voters shows the greatest opposition.

Voters between 18 and 34 say they will vote to approve R-71 by a margin of 56% to 37%. 52% of baby-boomers 50 to 64 years of age say they will approve R-71 as opposed to 43% who will reject it.

Voters 35 to 49 tend towards the Approve side by a margin of 49% to 43%. Only among voters over 65 does the Reject side come out on top, by a margin of 48% to 43%.

As expected, voters in metropolitan Seattle show the largest margin for R-71 – 55% say they will vote to approve, as opposed to 37% who will vote to reject. According to Survey USA, Metro Seattle voters are expected to make up 51% of the total statewide vote.

Another 26% of the total vote will come from Western Washington excluding Seattle. Among these voters, Approve R-71 leads 52% to 44%.

In Eastern Washington R-71 loses by a margin of 35% to approve as against 54% to reject, but these voters are expected to account for only 23% of the statewide total.

VOTE EARLY Another finding that might cheer supporters of R-71: Survey USA found that 53% of voters who want to approve R-71 have voted already.

Campaigns typically like their supporters to vote early to insure that no potential votes are lost because ballots have been postmarked after the deadline.

“Every year, thousands of ballots are not counted because people mail them after the last pick-up at the mailbox,” Approve 71 Campaign Manager Josh Friedes says. “We urge people not to hold on to their ballots.”

This year, all ballots must be postmarked on or before Tuesday, November 3, to be counted.

“FAR-REACHING SUPPORT” The Washington Poll, also released on October 27, suggested an even greater margin of victory for R-71, with 57% of the respondents saying they will vote to approve R-71 and only 38% saying they will reject it.

The poll is based on a sample of 724 likely voters, and is conducted by a University of Washington research project. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6%.

“This indicates far-reaching support for same-sex domestic partnerships, and the finding is consistent with our three previous years of polling data,” said UW Assistant Political Science Professor Matt Barreto, who leads the poll. “Referendum 71 appears headed for a large victory in Washington State.”

As in the Survey USA poll, the Washington Poll found that women respondents strongly support R-71, 62% saying they will vote to approve it, and only 33% saying they will reject it.

The Washington Poll also found that the youngest voters were the strongest supporters of the domestic partnership law, but unlike Survey USA, it found that a majority in all age categories favors R-71.

According to the Washington Poll, likely voters between 18 and 40 indicate they will approve R-71 by a margin of 64% to 32% opposed. Among voters in the age bracket 41-64, 56% say they will approve R-71, against 40% who will reject it.

However, the Washington Poll found that even among voters over 65, the Approve side wins by a margin of 52% to 42%.

Washington Poll also found that voters in the Puget Sound region were the strongest supporters of R-71, with 60% saying they would vote to approve, and only 35% saying they would reject it.

In Western Washington excluding the Puget Sound area, the Approve side garners 55% of the responses, the Reject side only 40%.

As in the Survey USA poll, voters in Eastern Washington tend to oppose R-71, with 46% saying they will approve it and 49% saying they will vote to reject it.

55% of Washington Poll respondents who favor the Approve side have already voted.

nership law is – and the many families who will be harmed if it is repealed – they will vote to approve it.”

MORE GOOD NEWS Survey USA and the Washington Poll announced additional good news for progressives: King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine now leads his opponent Susan Hutchison after trailing for most of the campaign.

According to the Washington Poll, 47% of their respondents favored Constantine, and only 34% favored Hutchison. In Seattle, polling showed a Constantine landslide – 70% of likely voters from Seattle said “we’re with Dow,” and only 21% said they would vote for Hutchison.

Survey USA’s KING 5 poll also showed I-1033, the latest Tim Eyman product, losing support as the election campaign wraps up.

Survey USA used a “split ballot” poll in which about half of the 561 respondents heard the exact ballot language, and the other half heard a summary of Eyman’s initiative. This was intended to duplicate actual voting conditions, where some voters read the ballot language very carefully, while

others rely on information summarized by the media.

Of those who heard the summary, 39% are certain to vote Yes, and 49% are certain to vote No. Of those who heard the exact ballot language, 38% are certain to vote Yes, 51% are certain to vote No. When these populations are combined, the outcome is 38% Yes, 50% No, and 12% not yet certain.

Forty percent of voters interviewed in this poll have already voted. I-1033 trails among those who have already voted and among those who have not yet voted but say they will do so before November 3.

Survey USA’s October 6 poll showed I-1033 ahead by 13 points.

The Washington Poll also showed I-1033 likely to go down to defeat, with 49% of their respondents saying they will vote No, only 40% saying Yes, and 10% undecided.

Of those who had already voted, 56% voted No and 44% Yes. Washington Poll also showed Seattle mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan increasing his lead over opponent Mike McGinn.

Among likely voters, 44% of the respondents favored Mallahan and 36% favored McGinn.

“BOTH GOOD AND CAUTIONARY NEWS” According to Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a growing number of voters want to approve Referendum 71 and many who were planning to reject it are now undecided.

Of 500 likely voters in their sample, 53% said they will vote to approve R-71 and 36% will vote to reject the measure.

A Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll released in September showed only 51% wanted to approve, as opposed to 44% who would have voted to reject R-71.

“This is both good and cautionary news,” said Approve 71 Campaign Chair Anne Levinson. “These results show that when voters understand what the domestic part-

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Seattle Gay News 21

·

APPROVE REFERENDUM 71 PROTECT THE DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP LAW

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October 30, 2009

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