Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 33 Volume 43
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Seattle Gay News
SPD seeks person of interest in last week’s fire at Neighbours
SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Homelessness continues to plague LGBTQ community in Seattle; youth in particular Finding solutions & how you can help
SPD needs your help identifying this person of interest – courtesy Neighbours
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor On Friday, August 7, around 11:15 a.m. in broad daylight, a man seen in footage taken by Neighbours Nightclub security cameras walks into the alcove where the famed back alley entrance to Seattle’s largest Gay
dance club is, and nearly three minutes later walks back out. Smoke can then be seen by Shaun Knittel coming out of the alcove and it becomes SGN Associate Editor clear that a fire has been set. Unlike the arson which occurred at Neighbours on New Year’s Eve 2014, in Living on the streets is not easy. It is sick which a man doused a stairwell that leads to with danger. You can’t trust anyone and you see neighbours page 4 learn that really quickly. You also learn that
there is a network, made up by other youth, that exists, and in some cases (that is, if you are accepted as being a part of it), that network can become your lifeline. But, here again, you will find the danger element because that network and the perception of see homelessness page 5
Louisiana KKK flyers Mexican Supreme Court feature anti-Gay threats strikes down same-sex couple adoption ban
KKK flyers distributed in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – www.wwl.com
ports from the scene. “Stop Aids: Support Gay Bashing,” one flier distributed in Mandeville, Louisiana, said. “Homosexual men and their sexual Ku Klux Klan flyers distributed in St. acts are disgusting and inhuman.” Tammany Parish, Louisiana, combine antiThe flier also advocated banning “nonGay hate speech with the Klan’s more typi- white immigration,” and called on the U.S. cal racist appeals, according to TV news reby Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
see kkk page 11
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Mexican Supreme Court ruled on August 11 that a law in the state of Campeche barring same-sex couples from adopting children is unconstitutional. The vote was 9-1. Presiding judge Luis Maria Aguilar Morales said they were looking after the inter-
ests of children, according to Latin American TV network TeleSUR. “I see no problem for a child to be adopted in a society of co-existence, which has precisely this purpose. Are we going to prefer to have children in the street, which according to statistics exceed 100,000? We attend, of course, and perhaps with the same intensity or more, to the interests of the see adoption page 12
2 Seattle Gay News
August 14, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Stonewall has unfortunately been made into a Hollywood movie; fiction trumping fact
Jeremy Irvine stars as Danny Winter in Stonewall – Philippe Bosse/Roadside Attractions
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Like many of you, when I heard that the Stonewall Riots, considered by many to be the start of the modern LGBTQ equality movement, was going to have its day on the big screen – as a legit Hollywood movie instead of a low-budget film school project – I was pleased. I mean, look at what the award-winning film Milk did for LGBTQ visibility in terms of the mainstream when it sold out theaters across the country. Only, unlike Milk, which took cues and advice from longtime Harvey Milk confidant and supporter Cleve Jones, the trailer for Stonewall, directed by Roland Emmerich, in theaters September 25, has outraged many in the LGBTQ community who say that the film is not at all accurate – particularly because its creators leave out the Transgender and gender nonconforming people of color who started the riots at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. That’s a pretty damn big thing for Hollywood to leave out. How in the world could anyone make a movie about the LGBTQ community – Stonewall in particular – and leave out the people of color and Transgender folks who made it all possible? Well, somehow they have and by doing so, Stonewall may get stonewalled before it even hits theaters this fall. Let’s be clear: Young, poor, Transgender women of color were the leaders of Stonewall, not white men. It is true, there were Gay white men at the Stonewall Inn that night in June 1969, but they were not at the forefront of the incidents that helped shape out movement like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson were. There isn’t anybody alive who would contest that fact. Sarah Prager, founder and director at Quist, an LGBTQ history app and website, has been critical of the film’s whitewashing. In a Huffington Post article Prager writes, “Historical fiction doesn’t have to copy every detail from reality, but what Ronald Emmerich has done goes beyond creative license. It robs the LGBTQ community of our history. It is denying huge parts of our community seeing themselves represented
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on screen as they should. Just as TV shows have turned us into stereotypes and sidekicks, the projected image harms us all.” Rev. Irene Monroe, according to Gay Star News, was at the Stonewall riots and claims, “…it didn’t look anything like this film.” “The Stonewall Riot of 27 to 29 June 1969 in Greenwich Village started on the backs of working class African American and Latino LGBTIs who patronized that bar,” said Monroe. “Those brown and black LGBTI people are not only absent from the photos of that night, but have been bleached from its written history – and now, if the trailer is anything to go by, from the new Stonewall film.” “Many LGBTI African-Americans and Latinos argue one of the reasons for the gulf between whites and themselves is about how the dominant queer community rewrote and continues to control the narrative of Stonewall,” continued Monroe. So what is all the outrage about? Well, in the trailer, the film’s creators claim the movie to be a “true story,” and then tells the audience that a young, white, Gay man was the first to throw a brick and start the Stonewall Riots when we know that, in reality, hundreds of eye witness accounts and documented evidence have said the riots were started by black drag queens and Transgender women. Basically, some white boy from the Midwest named Danny, is portrayed in the film as the catalyst for it all. It’s absurd to say the least. Quick history lesson: The two people most credited with sparking the riots were Marsha P. Johnson, a black Transwoman who performed as a drag queen, and Silvia Rivera, Puerto Rican Transgender woman. Johnson was the one who officially started the riots according to witnesses in David Carter’s historical account: Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. She went to the Stonewall Inn that night for her 25th birthday and was a focus of much of the celebrations that evening. Like many Transgender women at the time, she performed as a drag queen. Rivera was a 17-year-old Puerto Rican drag queen
and Trans activist who, on the night of the riot, was persuaded by a friend to go to the Stonewall Inn that evening. According to eyewitness accounts, she was in the crowd that gathered outside of the bar. She is believed to have yelled: “It’s the revolution!” She is cited with being one of the first bystanders to throw a bottle. Other players included Allyson Allante, who was just 14 when she was arrested, as well as Diane Kearney, Zazu Nova, Miss Peaches and more. None of them were white, Gay, or named Danny; as the film Stonewall alleges. The trailer has outraged some in the community so much that the GSA Network is asking for people to boycott the film: https://unite.gsanetwork.org/petitions/ boycott-2015-stonewall-movie. GSA Network officials have a message for “all considering watching the newest whitewashed version of queer history.” “It is time that black and brown Transwomyn and drag queens are recognized for their efforts in the riots throughout the nation,” say officials. “Do not throw money at the capitalistic industry that fails to recognize true s/heroes. Do not support a film that erases our history. Do not watch Stonewall.” There’s a lesson to be learned here and that is that the LGBTQ community is not cool with our history being rewritten in order to meet the standards of the mainstream. In fact, we detest it. This is a good thing. I feel that what the makers of Stonewall the movie have done is just reckless and aside from the fact that there is real damage done whenever whitewashing happens, it is almost comical that they thought nobody would notice. While it may be true that Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera aren’t as well-known as let’s say RuPaul or even Caitlyn Jenner, the truth is enough of us know of Johnson and Rivera and what they did. As sort of a silver lining, due to all the media and backlash over the mishandling of this film, many others will now know about these two Transgender pioneers, too.
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Seattle Gay News 3
All-gender restrooms are on the way Mayor to sign bill August 14
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
neighbours continued from cover
the upstairs mezzanine with gasoline and lit it on fire during one of the busiest nights of the year, potentially wanting to kill nearly
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced he would sign a new all-gender restroom ordinance on August 14. The legislation was passed unanimously by the City Council on August 10. The new ordinance applies both to Cityowned buildings and parks, and to privately-owned businesses that provide “public accommodation” – hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and retail stores, for example. The measure requires existing and future single-stall restrooms to be designated as all-gender facilities. The facilities must have signage making it clear that they are not gender exclusive and allow use by any person regardless of sex or gender identity, rather than just “men” or “women.” The new rules will be enforced by the Seattle Office of Civil Rights.
“The action taken today by the City Council will make Seattle a more welcoming place for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation,” Murray said in a statement. “No one should live in fear when they use basic accommodations most of us take for granted. That’s why we sent this legislation to the Seattle City Council. I applaud the Council for taking this important step to provide respect and safety for members of the transgender community.” The all-gender restroom legislation was one of the measures recommended by the Mayor’s LGBT Hate Crimes Task Force. “Enacting this civil rights legislation that requires all single-stall restrooms as all-gender restrooms should not be understated,” said City Council member Bruce
Harrell, chair of the Public Safety, Civil Rights, and Technology committee. “This is an inclusive and progressive measure that ensures all individuals have equal access to take care of their health needs. Let’s be defined by our compassion and inclusiveness.” Soon-to-be-retired City Council member Jean Godden was also a strong supporter of the legislation. “Everyone, regardless of gender, deserves the ability to meet their most basic needs. All-gender single occupancy bathrooms are practical and help ensure everyone has equal access to a quality life,” Godden said. “This small step represents acceptance and freedom for many. I’m proud Seattleites are as dedicated as I am to pursuing equality and eliminating inequity wherever it exists.”
800 people, this fire was started when nobody was in the building, the business was closed and during the day. And what is even more curious is that the man in the video knows he is being filmed, yet he does not cover his face or make an attempt to not be
seen by cameras. His movements are almost cocky. The Seattle Fire Department arrived about 10 minutes after the blaze began to find that the fire had already been extinguished by the nightclub’s sprinkler system. Nobody was harmed and according to Steve Tracy, Neighbours general manager, only $300 worth of damage had been done because the man started the fire on an exterior door that has Plexiglas windows so the fire did not spread quickly and was easily put out by just one sprinkler. Tracy directed his team to fix the damaged door and replace the carpet and within an hour or two, there was no trace left that anything had ever happened – something important to Tracy as he says it is important for LGBTQ businesses, if they are attacked, to show resilience and to let their customers know it is safe to come back. Tracy hired extra security for the night and SPD made sure there were extra patrols around the nightclub Fri-
day and Saturday night. By the looks of the more than 600 people that came by on each night of the weekend, customers weren’t deterred in the least. On Saturday, in cooperation with the nightclub, SPD released video footage of the man. Detectives are seeking the identity of the man, who they call a person of interest, in connection with the Neighbours arson. Police are asking anyone who recognizes the man, or who may have seen him near the club, to call detectives at (206) 6848980. One week has passed with no positive ID of the man as of print time for SGN Thursday night.
Neighbours Nightclub – kirotv.com
IF YOU WORK, READ THIS: New website to track
Seattle labor law enforcement by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and the City’s newly created Office of Labor Standards (OLS) have announced new website updates that will allow the public to track enforcement of Seattle’s minimum wage, paid sick leave, wage theft, and job assistance ordinances. The new online dashboard compiles data collected by OLS and presents the information in a digestible format. It will be updated monthly by OLS. Information displayed for the public will include employee and employer inquiries; new, open, and closed investigations; employees receiving remedies; and the total amount of remedies recovered for employees. The information will be available at www.seattle.gov/laborstandards. Employers and employees with questions about Seattle labor laws can also get information from the site, and workers can file complaints via email. “The dashboard demonstrates the work we are doing to enforce Seattle’s labor standards, makes our work accessible and transparent to the public, and helps us better track our progress,” said OLS Director
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Dylan Orr. “We hope this inspires employers to contact us with questions about their obligations, and workers to contact us with questions about their rights and to report violations.” Orr was appointed to head OLS after spending five years with the U.S. Department of Labor as the first openly Transgender presidential appointee in U.S. history. “The public needs to be able to see how the new Office of Labor Standards is working effectively to ensure workers are paid and treated fairly under Seattle’s strong labor laws,” Murray said. “This new tool allows employers and workers to access readily-available data to show the progress we’re making with enforcing our labor standards and historic minimum wage increase, and where we still need to improve.” “This dashboard helps bring to light that employees are being denied wages in Seattle. I’m heartened to know that workers have access to these statistics and that there’s a City agency dedicated to investigating and remedying the situation,” City Council member Nick Licata said. Licata was a strong backer of Seattle’s $15 per hour minimum wage, and introduced legislation creating OLS to enforce
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local labor laws. “This new online tool transforms the way the city provides labor enforcement data to the public,” said Councilmember Bruce Harrell. “Providing information in real-time and transparently ensures that we hold everyone accountable in order to pro-
tect our workers.” As of June 2015, the dashboard shows that City has responded to over 3,500 employer and 800 employee questions about Seattle’s labor standards. Since the beginning of the year, OLS has opened 72 new investigations and closed 47 cases.
Office of Labor Standards Director Dylan Orr – king5.com
Celebrating 41 Years!
homelessness continued from cover
some who operate within it is a dark one. What you “need” some of the youth will tell you is narcotics. What you “need” are weapons to protect yourself from anyone that wants to do you harm. And what you “need” is to learn where to go to pick up a John so you can make what little money you can to spend it on drugs to forget about what you had to do to get the money in the first place. It’s a sick cycle and it is one that plays out in every major city across this United States. And you can bet it plays out right here in our city because we know that on any given night, The King County Committee to End Homelessness estimates that 1,000 youth and young adults are homeless on any given night in King County, many of them, 40% at least, identify as LGBTQ. I don’t talk about it much because I know that I may get treated differently if somebody were to find out about it. I don’t want to be looked at with pity or told that I am a success story or that I am “one of the lucky ones.” Luck has nothing to do with it, nobody needs pity, and to me my success as a Gay man in his mid-30s has little to do with the fact that when I was 16-years-old I left home, under no protest, to free myself from having to live one more day in a racist, violent, anti-LGBTQ, one-parent home with an annual income well below the poverty line. According to www.TeenFeed.org, family crisis is the most prevalent reason youth and young adults identify for becoming homeless. I’ve always had a good sense of self preservation and I knew that I had to get away from home, otherwise the absolute ignorance of it all – the lessons in how to hate, who to hate and what to hate – might start to make sense to me and I wanted nothing to do with that. At age 13, I could already read better than my father and thus began a dynamic between the two of us that quite frankly presented the brutal truth that I, a boy, was academically smarter than he, my 43-year-old dad. I thought he was a fool, among other things, and none of them were positive. Hell, I knew he was angry and I knew he was abusive. One example of abuse happened when I was 12-years-old. Images of the Los Angeles riots, sparked by the not guilty verdict of the four officers accused of violating the civil rights of Rodney King, flashed across the TV screen. The year was 1992. My father was – as he always seemed to be – mad and was yelling racist things at the TV as if trying to reconcile somehow violence with more violence. This confused my young mind. I remember thinking, “Why does he think that killing someone or hurting someone will fix this terrible thing that is happening.” So I asked him. And so I was beaten. Needless to say I stopped asking questions after that … about anything. Many homeless kids come from a broken home. I was no exception. In the winter of 1995 my parents had, finally, called it quits. I don’t really remember a time where they were happy. There’s
flashes of them smiling at each other from when I was so little I can’t remember if those visions are real or just a projection of how I’d like to think of “the way things were.” At any rate they did what many from
Or, at least, gave me some time to breathe so I could build one. I grew up in the desert. Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada. Even as I write this I have a twinkle in my eye as Vegas will always have a place in my heart. It
that generation of post WWII babies did – stay together for way too long even when they knew their marriage was never going to work. My mother, a tall and slender German immigrant working at a pizzeria while going to school to become an interior designer fell for the bad boy – my father, a card-carrying biker with long black hair, blue eyes and a leather jacket. The year was 1972. After a few weeks of cheap dates and much to the detest of her father (who classically was standing on the porch with a shotgun threatening to shoot my dad if he took his daughter away on a motorcycle) my mother dropped out of college, disobeyed her father’s wishes, hopped on the back of my dad’s Harley and rode from Iowa to Nevada. Somewhere along the road, he threw a ring on the table at a diner and said, “Are you going to marry me or what?” She said yes. They would have five kids together, two abortions, and one divorce. My mother became a bitter alcoholic whose moods shifted from being the victim to an angry and sometimes violent person who used to bake us cupcakes but now couldn’t make dinner without it burning because she was too drunk to remember that something was in the oven. I heard that some kids, when their parents’ divorce, think it was because of something they did. I could never understand that. When my parents split up (they were too broke to pay for a divorce because liquor, cigarettes and guns aren’t cheap) the only thing I felt was relief. The war that would play out almost nightly in our twobedroom trailer, shared by seven people, was finally over. She took the “little ones,” my three youngest siblings, two brothers and a baby sister, and moved to Florida to stay with relatives. I did not grow up in Seattle. I moved here in 2009 after receiving an honorable discharge from the United States Navy after nearly 10 years of service. If I really had to say it, even though I was forced to serve in silence under the now defunct “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy barring Gays and Lesbians from openly Gay service, I would say that it was the Navy that saved my life.
represents the absolute worst of our society and the absolute best. Las Vegas is every damn bit as bad as you have heard it is. But it can also be the poor man’s paradise. Cheap eats, cheap entertainment, plenty of work if you are willing and you can be down in the gutter one day and back on top the next. Rarely does anything survive in the desert. I am one among the cactus, the lizards, and the red dirt. I survived the desert and I am proud of that. But on March 26, 1996, just one day after my 16th birthday, I did not yet know or fully understand what it would take to survive when nobody else thinks you could and everyone expects you to fall into the pit of crime and drugs and eventually – death. I will never forget that year. And I will never forget how I got away so I could live. According to recent data, up to 60% of homeless youth have experienced physical abuse in their homes before ending up on the streets. I told my dad I was Gay. I did it on purpose knowing he would throw me out. Surprisingly, he did not hit me. To this day that confuses me. I used to catch a beating for letting the phone ring past three rings or accidentally spilling milk at the dinner table when I was 5 years old. But not on the day that I said those three words: I AM GAY. He said, “You know what this means, don’t you?” And I said, “Yes.” He would not allow me to get my things so my older sister said she would look after them (sometimes delivering to me clothes as I slept in the back of a partly demolished car in a junkyard for months) and my dad’s girlfriend at the time, pretending to say goodbye, slipped $40 into my pocket, having felt sorry for me. I walked out the door, having to tell myself the whole time to not cry or run, and I never looked back. According to a 2002 study, Seattle’s LGBTQ homeless youth experience more frequent departure from home, greater vulnerability to victimization, and greater use of highly addictive substances when compared with their heterosexual counterparts (American Journal of Public Health, May
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2002). In addition, 20-40% of homeless youth experience sexual abuse, compared to 1-3% of the general youth population. In Vegas, on Tropicana Avenue, just past the famous Las Vegas Strip and right before you reach The Orleans Casino and Hotel is the Adult Super Store – that all of us homeless kids referred to as ASS. Simply hang out in the parking lot and sometimes in as little as 5 minutes, you could pick up a guy and make some money. I never liked it so I did not hustle for very long. A lot of the youth I knew through this part of the ugly reality that is homelessness at a young age were terribly addicted to drugs like heroin or crack and had several STDs and over half were infected with HIV/AIDS. I never stuck a needle in my arm and I didn’t have an affinity for crack, but I was no angel either. I got high. On what exactly, is not important. What is important is for you to understand that this is a reality for many kids from the streets. And you know what? They know, just like I knew, that the straights and the squares of the world look at them as dirty, drug addicted, pariahs of society and that does not help the situation in the least. The divide that exists between society and homeless youth is one that is deep. Studies have found high rates of mental health problems among homeless youth; mental health issues manifest both as a cause and a consequence of homelessness. Nobody wants those “bad kids” around because they steal, rape and rob people. Well, let me tell you a good piece of reality. It is the homeless youth who are robbed, raped and their lives are literally stolen from them. If more people would change their perspective on the issue, we could raise the millions of dollars it will take to build homes for them, staffed with rehabilitation professionals and counselors. Instead, what it seems like we have now is a collective understanding that 40% of all homeless youth are LGBTQ and we shake our heads and say, “This is unacceptable” while doing nothing about it. RESOURCES FOR LGBTQ HOMELESS YOUTH Social Outreach Seattle (SOSea), the organization of which I am founder and president, has committed to reaching out to LGBTQ homeless youth throughout the year. We do this by supporting the organizations who already have resources in place but could use some relief or donations. My approach with the SOSea Board of Directors is to remind them that our FROM THE HEART LGBTQ Homeless Youth/ Adult Outreach Program must have the fundamental understanding that homeless people – regardless of age or sexual orientation – need three things: 1) they need to be fed; 2) they need to be dry and warm in the fall and winter and hydrated and cool in the spring and summer; and 3) they need shelter. At the basic level it equates to food, water, clothing and shelter. We can help out with the food and water and clothing. The shelter part is a beast. see homelessness page 6
Seattle Gay News 5
homelessness
tive Project Planner, carrie.hennen@kingcounty.gov or call (206) 263-1230.
Whether it be red tape of bureaucracy saying you can’t feed homeless people or you can’t have a tiny home in your backyard or to the fact that many of the youth (and even more so in the adult population) do suffer from mental illness, PTSD, and drug or alcohol addiction. They can be dangerous, violent or commit crimes to feed their addictions. However, we as a community, seem to have given up on them. We raised crazy amounts of money – over $10 million – for marriage equality in this state. Yet, I can’t find any evidence anywhere to support the claim that we, as an LGBTQ community, have even raised $1 million for homeless youth. While SOSea has helped to call attention to the issue we cannot be the ones driving the conversation because we are not a fully funded organization with a paid staff and furthermore, there are organizations working on the problem who need more resources to really make a dent. That’s a great start if you ask me. We should not keep reinventing the wheel or launching new nonprofits when the existing ones struggle for money and support. When you sit down to write a check or make a cash donation, please consider the following organizations that are doing some tremendous work:
WHAT YOU CAN DO Each organization has a specific list of items they are looking for by way of in-kind donations (not cash, but items like clothing or household goods). You can easily find each list on the websites of YouthCare, PSKS and Lambert House. However there are some items that continually come up that Seattle Gay News would like you to know about so you can help out:
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Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets (PSKS) 1609 19th Ave #100 Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 726-8500 http://www.psks.org/ PSKS provides support and services to Seattle area homeless youth and young adults – many of whom are LGBTQ. Their efforts are targeted at providing stepping-stones to transition youths from the streets to self-sufficiency and productive roles in community. You can support the PSKS community by either volunteering, donating or by increasing awareness of these important issues. “Many of our clients are squatters, have animal companions and/or children, are suffering from addiction or have other circumstances that make it tough to find indoor shelter. Most of our youth don’t follow the linear flow of shelter to transitional housing to secure housing. Often they are living under bridges, in cars or tents in the woods until they can secure their own housing. Our approach to basic needs is one of harm reduction – making human safety, health and security a priority whether they are living in an abandoned building or still struggling with substance abuse,” say PSKS officials. PSKS is a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations can be made at www.psks.org. Lambert House 1818 15th Ave on Capitol Hill in Seattle (between E Howell & E Denny Way) (206) 322-2515 http://www.lamberthouse.org/ Lambert House is a center for LGBTQ youth that empowers youth through the development of leadership, social and life skills. Lambert House is not a shelter. “Every day, approximately 25 youth visit us,” say Lambert House officials. “The dropin center has a full kitchen, living room with a pool table, a stereo for tunes, a library with queer books, TV, games, and people to talk with about anything.” Youth can join a support group, join an activity, talk to a counselor, use the computer lab, get dinner, shoot pool, play games and many other activities. You do not have to be homeless to utilize Lambert House. All LGBTQ youth are welcome.
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Lambert house is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization registered with the Washington Secretary of State. Contributions are tax deductible and their Federal Tax ID number is 94-3036815. YouthCare YouthCare Administrative Offices 2500 NE 54th Street Seattle, WA 98105 (206) 694-4500 YouthCare’s James W. Ray Orion Center 1828 Yale Avenue Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 622-5555 http://www.youthcare.org/ YouthCare’s ISIS House is a unique transitional living program specifically designed to meet the needs of LGBTQ homeless youth and straight allies. It’s one of a few housing programs like it in the nation, and the only one in Washington state. At ISIS, young people find, sometimes for the first time, a place where their identity isn’t merely tolerated, it’s celebrated. “At YouthCare, we meet many young people who have faced rejection for their identities or have been kicked out for coming out as Gay or Transgender to their parents or guardians,” say YouthCare officials. “All of YouthCare’s programs offer supportive environments for youth to be who they are, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.” KING COUNTY HOMELESS YOUTH & YOUNG ADULT INITIATIVE The Homeless Youth and Young Adult (YYA) Initiative is King County’s community-wide response to prevent and end home-
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lessness among young people. The Initiative is led by the King County Committee to End Homelessness, advised by agency and government leaders, supported by private philanthropy and the public sector, and grounded in the voices and input of homeless and formerly homeless young people. The YYA Comprehensive Plan Refresh, endorsed by the YYA Advisory Group and Youth Advocates Ending Homelessness in May 2015, outlines a community strategy in the areas of (1) making homelessness rare and brief, (2) making homelessness onetime, (3) supporting YYA of color, (4) supporting LGBTQ YYA and (5) improving access to housing and matching housing with YYA needs. The Comprehensive Plan Refresh outlines priority activities, system activities, and measures of success for the next two years. King County launched a system of “Coordinated Engagement” for homeless youth and young adults in 2013. Coordinated Engagement directs young people’s access to housing by coordinating their applications, applying a common strengths-based assessment, and placing them in programs that have worked for other young people like them. Young adults ages 17.5-24 (without children) who are homeless or about to lose their housing can receive an assessment at locations throughout King County. For information regarding Youth Housing Connection, call (206) 328-5796 or email yhc@cehkc.org. As of April 2015, YHC transitioned from being operated by Catholic Community Services to management by the SeattleKing County Continuum of Care. For information regarding the Youth and Young Adult Initiative contact Megan Gibbard, Homeless YYA Initiative Project Manager at megan.gibbard@kingcounty. gov or call (206) 263-2974 and Carrie Whitaker Hennen, Homeless YYA Initia-
• Men’s and women’s underwear: It’s something simple that you don’t really think too much about but the fact of the matter is, for homeless youth, it is a big deal. Buying a pack of new underwear and donating it to one of the organizations that serve the LGBTQ homeless youth population makes a difference. • Warm clothing: Seattle can have some brutal, wet winter days and nights. Imagine having no place to live and no jacket to keep you warm. Service organizations ask that you consider donating sleeping bags, blankets, coats, thermal/wool socks, hats, gloves and scarves. • Food: Grocery store gift cards, canned food, dried pasta/rice, cereal, granola bars, peanut butter and jelly. • Hygiene products: Service organizations are always in need of personal hygiene products. Consider, especially tampons because many organizations report that they are in need of them but they are rarely donated. • Kitchen utensils: Every day, young people who have made it off the streets work hard to achieve stability and self-sufficiency. Whether they are learning independent living skills or moving into their first apartment, it is important to ensure they have the essential supplies they need to make a house a home. Donate small kitchen appliances, utensils, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. You can also continue to put pressure on elected officials to make sure that organizations that help homeless youth and adults are fully funded. Mayor Ed Murray has said he is committed to helping to end homelessness and the City Council has voted on several initiatives that aid the homeless population. But there is still a lot more to be done and so it is important to hold officials accountable to ensure that what is left to do actually gets done. Ending homelessness, especially youth homelessness, should be a priority. Asking LGBTQ youth to take a back seat to the host of many issues we still face as a community is wrong. Any society or community worth a damn takes care of its young people. We can do a better job. Get involved by volunteering at an organization, make a cash or in kind donation when you can, and continue to show support for the organizations that work so hard on this complex and systemic problem. My story is still being written. I closed the chapter on my life as a homeless youth years ago. I managed to avoid drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and being killed by adapting to the streets and taking friends up on the offer to sleep on the floor in their room, looked for legitimate work and no matter how difficult it may have been, I never dropped out of school and graduated on time in 1998. I know, and you should know, that my story is not the norm. Many of the kids I was on the streets with became LGBTQ homeless adults. Many of the kids I was on the streets with desperately needed mental health professionals and never got to meet with them. The fact of the matter is many of the kids I was on the streets with are dead. The LGBTQ community knows the numbers, the statistics and the problem. Now it is up to all of us to refocus our attention and work together to end this terrible epidemic.
Celebrating 41 Years!
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Lesbian and Gay legislators get high marks from unions
Laurie Jinkins (D-27), Joan McBride (D-48), Jim Moeller (D-49), and Brady Walkinshaw (D-43) – photos compiled from wikipedia.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Washington’s Lesbian and Gay state legislators got high marks from the state’s labor unions in a summary of the 2015 legislative sessions just released by the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC). All four Lesbian and Gay House members – Laurie Jinkins (D-27), Joan McBride (D-48), Jim Moeller (D-49), and Brady Walkinshaw (D-43) – received 100% ratings from the WSLC for their votes on 10 bills affecting workers, wages, and gender equity. The two Gay Senators, Marko Liias (D21) and Jamie Pedersen (D-43), got less than perfect but still very respectable 80%
scores. The WSLC objected when Liias voted Yes on a bill to take money from an environmental stewardship account to pay for unrelated projects, and also sponsored a measure to relax state restrictions on payday lenders. Pedersen voted to post state employees’ collective bargaining agreements online, and also voted for a bill to base public school teachers’ work evaluations on student test scores. Several Seattle-area straight-but-allied House members also scored 100% with the WSLC: House Speaker Frank Chopp (D43), who shepherded progressive legislation through the House only to see it die in the Republican-controlled state Senate, Steve
Bergquist (D-11), Reuven Carlyle (D-36), Eileen Cody (D-34), Jessyn Farrell (D46), Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34), Mia Gregerson (D-33), Zack Hudgins (D-11), Ruth Kagi (D-32), Luis Moscoso (D-1), Tina Orwall (D-33), Eric Pettigrew (D-37), Gerry Pollet (D-46), Cindy Ryu (D-32), Sharon TomikoSantos (D-37), Derrick Stanford (D-1), and Gael Tarleton (D-36). On the Senate side, newly elected Senator Pramila Jayapal (D-37) got a 100% rating, as did Maralyn Chase (D-32), Bob Hasegawa (D-11), Rosemary McAuliffe (D1), and Democratic leader Sharon Nelson (D-34). The state House as a whole got a good review from the state’s unions for passing what the WSLC called its “Shared Pros-
perity Agenda.” The package of measures included raising the state minimum wage to $12 per hour and establishing paid sick leave for all workers in Washington. Four additional bills addressed the problem of wage theft by increasing penalties for employers and protecting workers who complain about their bosses. While the legislative package was passed by the House, where Democrats had control, the bills never even got to the floor in the Republican-controlled Senate. Six Republican senators earned Zero ratings from the WSLC for their obstruction of pro-labor measures.
Conservative Republican introduces Florida LGBT rights bill by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Florida state Representative Holly Raschein is a Republican and a Southern Baptist, but she is also the prime sponsor of a bill to extend civil rights protections to LGBT Floridians. Her Florida Competitive Workforce Act would add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the list of “impermissible grounds for discrimination” along with race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap or marital status. “At my core, I feel this is the right thing to do,” Raschein told the Miami Herald. “I can be just as conservative as I want to be and still believe in eliminating discrimination of LGBT people.” The measure will be sponsored in the Florida Senate by Democrat Joseph Abruzzo. “You can get married in the state of Flor-
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continued from cover to “deport mud people,” WWL-TV reported. St. Tammany Parish is a suburban area northeast of New Orleans. Mandeville is a town of some 11,500 people across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. According to WWL-TV, similar fliers have been found in other communities throughout the South this summer. Some
ida if you are an LGBT person, but you can still get fired. Why would I be sponsoring a bill and putting myself out there if there wasn’t a need?” Raschein said. “I’ve got friends, gay colleagues, gay acquaintances. I wouldn’t want to see them discriminated against.” Raschein represents a South Florida district, which includes Key West, a popular destination for Gay tourists. “Holly took the lead on this, which is just great,” said Mark Ebenhoch of Key West, a spokesperson for Love Is Love, a group formed when Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones successfully sued in 2014 to get married in Florida. Similar LGBT rights bills have been proposed in previous legislative sessions, but were killed in committee by Republican opposition. Raschein said she will work with other conservative Republican lawmakers to make the proposal more palatable to them,
including possible exemptions for “any religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society” in the area of employment or public accommodations. “I’m really thankful to my [Republican] leadership,” she said. “It’s been a very open process and they’ve allowed me to work on this issue. The Speaker, the majority office, they’ve been very open to me. I’m really hopeful for this year.” Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBT rights group, has been advocating similar legal protections for many years, and has lined up support from major businesses including Darden Restaurants, Florida Blue, Miami Heat, Walt Disney World Resort, and Winn Dixie. “Florida Businesses for a Competitive Workforce is a coalition of 34 large employers, including Fortune 500 companies, and more than 400 local businesses that support the measure,” Equality Florida said in a press release. “Florida has made gains
at the local level protecting LGBT people from discrimination. Currently, 10 Florida counties and 22 municipalities have local ordinances that protect LGBT people from discrimination. More than half of all Floridians live in those communities. But with 57 counties still offering no protections, Florida must pass the Competitive Workforce Act.” Keith Blackburn, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, said protections for LGBT workers is “way overdue.” “Recent surveys show that 80 percent of the general population believe it is illegal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Blackburn said. “Our chamber has recently joined forces with Equality Florida to encourage our member businesses to sign a pledge of nondiscrimination.”
community leaders said that it was part of a recruiting effort. “I’m extremely hurt by it,” one woman told WWL-TV. “As a member of the gay community… I think it shows the ignorance of society still.” Covington resident Katrina Whimper told the TV station she was surprised to find Klan fliers in her neighborhood. Covington is St. Tammany’s parish seat. “It just really caught me off-guard because I never thought in this neighborhood,
or now these days or whatever, that that would be something we would walk out and find,” Whimper said. St. Tammy Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said there wasn’t much his department could do about the anti-Gay fliers in Mandeville. “There’s no doubt they’re trying to deliver a hateful message, and we take it very serious,” Strain explained. “But at this point, we have to talk to our victim. We have to determine a lot of things including how it got there, when it got there, when she dis-
covered it.” The FBI said that it was monitoring the situation. The FBI could intervene in the case if requested by parish officials, or if it sees evidence of a hate crime as defined by the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act passed in 2009. The law covers crimes that are motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
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You must marry same-sex couples, ethics panel tells Ohio judges
The Supreme Court of Ohio Judicial Center – www.dispatch.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Ohio judges must marry same-sex couples, the ethics panel of the state’s Supreme Court ruled on August 10. If they refuse to do so – even if their refusal is based on
personal religious beliefs – they will be in violation of their oaths of office and Ohio ethics codes, the panel said. “Public confidence in the independence of the judiciary is undermined when a judge allows his or her beliefs concerning the societal or religious acceptance or validity of same-sex marriage to affect the
performance of a judicial function or duty,” the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct said in its ruling. The board stopped short of saying that judges who refuse to perform same-sex marriages would violate state law, however. The board said it was not empowered to determine whether state law makes it mandatory for municipal, probate, and county court judges to perform civil marriages. A small number of Ohio judges have declined to marry Lesbian and Gay couples, or have refused to marry anyone at all since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage. The ethics panel issued its ruling in response to requests for guidance on the issue. Mark Schweikert, executive director of
Norwegian government adoption proposes sweeping new Transgender law
continued from cover
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The government of Norway has proposed new legislation that will allow Transgender residents to change their gender markers by simple self-declaration. Even children as young as seven will be covered by the measure, Reuters news service reports. If passed, Norway will join only five other countries – Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, and Malta – in recognizing self-declaration as the sole requirement for determining gender. Previously, Norwegian residents had to undergo genital surgery and be sterilized before their legal documents would be changed to reflect their gender. “Today’s rules in this area are unacceptable and have been unchanged for almost 60 years,” Health Minister Bent Hoie said in a statement. “The proposal is historic in that it will no longer be the health service but the individual who decides if he or she has changed sex,” he said. Under the proposal, children as young as seven may declare their own gender, provided their parents approve. Sixteen-yearolds may declare their own gender even without parental approval. Only legal adults
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eighteen and over may opt for surgery, however. Someone who declares their gender may later reverse their decision if they find they regret it. Richard Köhler, of the Transgender Europe lobby group, welcomed the Norwegian proposal but said the “gold standard” was no formal lower limit, as in nations including Malta. “Generally it is very good to allow very young transpersons to have their gender identity respected,” he said, adding that many Trans children are bullied at school. Amnesty International estimates up to 1.5 million residents of Europe are Transgender, but many countries still impose burdensome requirements on residents seeking to change the gender markers on their legal documents. Sweden dropped its sterilization requirement in 2013, and as of 2014 the country allows people to change their gender on official identity papers without the need for hormone therapy or surgery although they still need to obtain a medical statement. There are still some 20 European countries where surgery is a requirement, including much of Eastern Europe.
August 14, 2015
child,” Aguilar said. The only judge to vote to uphold the ban, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, said adoption laws should prioritize children, not the couples who want to adopt them. The challenge to the 2013 Campeche law was filed by the state’s human rights commission, which argued it violated constitutional rights to non-discrimination and to form families. Like its June ruling that state laws banning same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, the court’s decision on adoption does not automatically invalidate the law being challenged. It does, however, give same-sex couples the legal basis to sue for injunctions allowing them to adopt. Lesbian and Gay marriages were first legalized in Mexico’s capital, Mexico City, in 2009, and same-sex adoptions have been
the Ohio Judicial Conference, said, “My experience is that there haven’t been too many instances where it’s been an issue. It’s just a few [judges]. In most communities, it’s not a problem.” He added, “The opinion appears to be pretty detailed and clear. It’s indicative of the confusion that they (judges) asked for guidance.” The ethics board’s opinion is advisory and legally non-binding, so judges may choose to ignore it and see if legal consequences follow. However, the ethics panel said that refusing to perform same-sex marriages may create a new set of ethical problems, including challenges to a judge’s performance of other duties. “For example, if a judge who has declined to perform same-sex marriages is later assigned to hear a misdemeanor domestic violence charge involving a samesex couple, the judge’s ability to follow the law and impartially apply the domestic violence laws could reasonably be questioned,” the board said. According to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, “the Ohio Supreme Court has no figures on how many municipal, probate and county court judges perform weddings. Mayors, ministers and others also are authorized to perform weddings under state law.”
allowed there since 2010. Mexico City’s marriage law was subsequently upheld by Mexico’s Supreme Court. In addition, same-sex marriage rights are fully recognized in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guerrero, and Quintana Roo. In principle, marriages performed in any of those jurisdictions must be recognized throughout the country. However, the issue has been contentious in the country, where 80% of the people identify as Roman Catholic. The Catholic Church opposes both marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples, but church officials say they will not refuse to baptize children adopted by same-sex couples. A 2013 survey found that 52% of Mexicans supported same-sex marriage rights, but only 24% backed the adoption of children by Lesbian or Gay couples.
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