Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 34 Volume 43
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Seattle Gay News
Capitol Hill murder
SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Candlelight vigil to condemn violent crime Our neighborhood belongs to us, not crime by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor CANDLELIGHT VIGIL MELROSE & E. PINE ST. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22 @ 9PM
Shots rang out on Capitol Hill and a young man is dead. A man walking home after leaving a Gay bar on the Hill heard someone behind him say, “Hey,” and when he turned around he was knocked out, cut open from the punch he did not see coming, and his phone was missing. Another Gay man and his friend were walking to the QFC nearest Union and 12th when they were approached by a young man who asked them for the time, somehow they found themselves being lunged at by the man who was now holding a giant piece of sharp glass shard, trying to slash them. They called the police and when the cops found the man, Patrons duck for cover at Li’l Woody’s next to Baltic Room during shooting – anonymous he continued yelling at them, in front of the police, that he was in a gang and that they Capitol Hill is going through tremenby Shaun Knittel would soon be dead. This is Capitol Hill dous change. Anyone that returns to Capitol SGN Associate Editor see murder page 6 now. And the worst part of it all is that aside
from carping on Facebook the resident of Capitol Hill have been too busy, too bothered, too progressive and too damned spineless to seriously address the problem. It is my goal to change that. On Saturday, August 22, at 9 p.m. in the parking lot across the street from Baltic Room, at Melrose and E. Pine St., Social Outreach Seattle (SOSea) the social justice nonprofit that operates out of Capitol Hill of which I am founder and president, will hold a candlelight vigil to condemn violent crime in the neighborhood. A young man was shot and killed there shortly after 2 a.m., August 16. Hundreds of others were caught in the crossfire. Luckily nobody else was killed or injured. Seattle Counseling Service, one of our community’s most celebrated and necessary resources, found a bullet hole in one of their windows with the bullet lodged in the ceiling. Luckily, the shooting took place when SCS had already closed for the evening. At the candlelight vigil we will publicly condemn the murder of Ramon Mitchell, see vigil page 7
HRC hosts Nancy Pelosi It’s OK to sleep on the and Suzan DelBene at park bench, DOJ says Amazon HQ in landmark ruling for homeless
Nancy Pelosi and Suzan DelBene – images taken from en.wikipedia.org
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
The Equality Act, which was introduced this month, is a comprehensive federal civil DOJ says cities may not forbid people from sleeping on park benches – rights bill protecting LGBT Americans. Pewww.corbisimages.com House Democratic leader and former losi and DelBene are both co-sponsors. Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared with ConThe Amazon gathering, billed as “Be- by Mike Andrew Cities may not enact ordinances forbidgresswoman Suzan DelBene to tout the yond Marriage: The LGBT Equality Fight SGN Staff Writer ding people to sleep in public places, the Equality Act at Seattle’s Amazon headquarsee hrc page 4 see doj page 8 ters.
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August 21, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Civil rights veteran Julian Bond dies at 75 by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Civil rights veteran Julian Bond died on August 15 at the age of 75. Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the more radical civil rights groups in the early ’60s. The group and its leaders advocated direct action against racist Southern institutions and clashed with the more moderate Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) headed by Martin Luther King Jr. Bond later ran for political office and served in the Georgia state legislature for 20 years (1967-1987). He was also founding president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (1971-1979) and chair of the NAACP (1998-2009). Bond was also an outspoken supporter of LGBT rights. “African-Americans,” Bond said in 2004, “were the only Americans who were enslaved for two centuries, but we were far from the only Americans suffering discrimination then and now.... “Sexual disposition parallels race. I was born this way. I have no choice. I wouldn’t change it if I could. Sexuality is unchangeable.” In 2006, Bond boycotted funeral services for Coretta Scott King because her children held the funeral at an anti-Gay megachurch, which, Bond said, conflicted with their mother’s long-standing support for LGBT rights. In a 2007 speech to the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Clayton State University in Georgia, Bond said flatly, “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married.” Bond’s open support for the LGBT community again pitted him against the SCLC, which supported the anti–marriage equality Prop 8 in California. Some of Bond’s choices also pitted him against former friends and allies from the
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sixties, notably John Lewis, former SNCC chair and now a congressman. In 1986 Bond and Lewis both ran for the same Congressional seat – Georgia’s 5th District, the same one Lewis still serves. Bond came first in the primary, but Lewis upset him in the runoff, winning the seat by four points. For Lewis, the race brought up old class resentment against Bond that had, perhaps, festered since their SNCC days. Lewis, the son of sharecroppers, had to work hard for
In spite of the personal resentments, Lewis and Bond were very closely aligned politically, and they healed their rift in the years after the 1986 election. “Julian Bond was one of a kind,” Lewis said in a statement after Bond’s death. “We worked together in the Civil Rights Movement, and he became one of my closest and dearest friends. He was so smart, so gifted, and so talented. He was deeply committed to making our country a better country. He never ever became bitter or hostile.
Julian Bond – The Washington Post
everything he achieved. To him it seemed that Bond, the son of a black college president, was part of a privileged elite that claimed leadership as a birthright. “Julian enjoyed being a star,” Lewis wrote in his autobiography, Walking With the Wind. “He approached his work as if it were an inconvenience. Everything had always come easily for Julian; sweating was not something he liked to do. “And yet now he wanted to be a congressman. And everyone assumed he would be a shoo-in. And that bothered me a great deal.”
We were friends, but we became more like brothers in the struggle. “We went through a difficult period during the campaign for Congress in 1986, but many years ago we emerged from that experience even closer than before. His leadership and his spirit will be deeply missed.”
August 21, 2015
Seattle Gay News 3
Calling in our allies and potential allies by Janice Van Cleve Special to the SGN My state senator, Pramila Jayapal, placed an article in The Stranger about the Black Lives Matter interruption at Westlake Park on Social Security and Medicare Day last August 8. She ended with the question “How can we call people in even as we call them out?” The answer, of course, is organization. I do not fault the tactic of interruption. I was a member of Queer Nation back in the ‘80s and ‘90s and we did lots of interrupting. ACT UP interrupted Bill Clinton at his campaign stops in 1992 to call him out on the AIDS issue. Sometimes you have to rock people’s boats to get their attention. However, civil disobedience and disruption alone maybe gets short-term media attention and then disappears. As Charles Mudede observes in his article “BLM will certainly evaporate if it is isolated from one of the major groups that’s politically open to its concerns: the progressive left.” Seizing the stage at Westlake and calling a progressive audience racist will surely isolate BLM. Back in 2008 I published an article called Progressive Cannibalism. I’ve attached it to this letter. It is as true today as it was then. We Progressives waste more time and energy attacking each other than we do defending each other from attacks by the right wing. Make no mistake: the real racists and fascists are organized, well funded, well positioned, and wield enormous influence. They will outlast, outfight, and out maneuver any progressive agenda that is not also backed up by equal organization, resources, and effort. Look what they did in Clinton’s second term. Marriage equality briefly raised its head in Hawaii in 1995 and over 30 states immediately passed laws and amendments against it. Even Clinton signed the federal Defense of Marriage Act and added Don’t Ask Don’t Tell for the military. It took patient organization, coming out, education, persuasion, and evolution to undue the damage. Without Freedom To Marry and Equality Washington, labor, Democrats, women and all the other organizations working cooperatively with pro-
gressives on the left and rational people on the right, we would never have succeeded. “Burning this to the ground,” as one of the BLM speakers said on her podcast, is no recipe for success. To rephrase Jayapal’s question, we have to call our allies and potential allies in with patience and persuasion, not name-calling. We should redirect our calling out for our real enemies. PROGRESSIVE CANNIBALISM It’s easy to be a Republican. To be a Republican you only have to do three things: be against abortion, be against taxes, and support your party over yourself. That’s it. You can snort coke, bankrupt businesses, go AWOL from your military duty, cheat at elections, lie about weapons of mass destruction, burglarize the public treasury for the rich, torture prisoners, and launch wars around the globe, anything you want – as long as you are against abortion, against taxes, and support your party over yourself. Democrats don’t have it so easy. Democrats have to support a woman’s right to choose, labor’s right to organize, and gays’ right to marry. They have to support immigrants, refugees, and even homeless people. Democrats have to promote a clean environment while at the same time creating jobs for all. They have to protect civil liberties – even for convicted criminals. They have to work with other nations instead of bombing them and they have to follow all those pesky treaties that governments sign. They even have to count all the ballots! Now you’d think that the more good things you support for more people, that you’d be very popular and win lots of elections, right? Wrong. All these sound like good things to support – especially in latte lapping liberal Seattle – but they’re not. Each one is a minefield. One wrong step, one word out of place, one perceived snub, and the whole pack of progressive cannibals leaps upon you like velosiraptors in Jurassic Park. Just look at what happened to Howard Dean four years ago. One whoop and suddenly years of public service and months of campaigning got deluged in criticism
from the liberal media. Or take President Clinton. He championed universal health care, he brought Israel and Palestine closer than they ever got before or since, he lead the biggest economic boom in history, he maintained peace and cooperated internationally, and he “felt our pain.” But one little thong and a cigar and he’s trashed. Hillary Clinton made one remark, “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done,” and black leaders jumped on her because they felt their egos ‘slighted.’ The same black leaders were silent when Obama said he would order unilateral military action in Pakistan to root out Al-Qaeda. Double standard? We don’t have to go to the national level. How about former Governor Mike Lowry? He is arguably the most progressive Democrat that ever walked the face of this earth, yet one pat on a female staffer’s bottom and progressives had his lunch. Four years ago in Seattle, two bright, energetic, young women with impeccable liberal credentials were scuttled from the city council by progressives whose many agendas were not perfectly met down to the last comma. (Of course, Seattle is the same town where some people would kill an entire monorail just because they didn’t get escalators at their station.) What’s wrong with this picture? Why can’t Democrats get it together the way Republicans do? It’s the discipline thing. Republicans put party over individual. They are willing to let their individual agendas take a back seat to party victory. Democrats, on the other hand, must see each and every one of their issues in the platform. They demand their candidates address each of their issues with knowledge and passion. They are unwilling to support each other over themselves. They flounder in in-fighting and when they do get something done, it is a patchwork of add ons. This ego driven progressivism is what causes Democrats to say they are “voting for the lesser of two evils.” Evils? A person with heart and courage gives his or her life to make this a better world, and just because
hrc
continued from cover Continues,” was organized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The Equality Act, which HRC helped draft, would provide explicit civil rights protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled in July that LGBT people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that law only applies to employment. “No one should face discrimination because of who they are or who they love,” Pelosi said at the event. “With the joy of marriage equality at our backs, we must now pass the Equality Act to ensure that every LGBT American everywhere can live, love and work free from discrimination. Congresswoman DelBene has been a tenacious champion for LGBT rights, and she is working tirelessly to continue to advance LGBT equality.”
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“Our country had a historic Pride Month, with the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on marriage equality,” DelBene said. “But even as same-sex couples enjoy the right to marry in all 50 states, there is much more work to do to end discrimination and ensure LGBT Americans have full equality under the law. In many states, people who are LGBT can still be fired, denied credit and evicted from their home simply based on who they are and who they love. This is
August 21, 2015
wrong, and I will continue to fight until all Americans have equal rights and protections.” “The time has come for full federal equality – nothing more, nothing less,” said JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs for HRC. “Everyone should have a fair chance to earn a living, provide for their families and live their lives without fear of discrimination.” The measure is meant to replace the
they fail to lead on your one issue you call them evil? Even Pat Robertson doesn’t call Dick Cheney evil although Mary Cheney is a practicing, avowed lesbian. In fact, Robertson even endorsed pro-choice drag queen Republican Guiliani last year. Why? For party victory. This is what gives Republicans so much more flexibility over Democrats. Republicans invaded Somalia to rebuild that nation, then criticized Clinton for nation building in Kosovo. Then they flip flopped again and invaded Iraq to destroy it and then rebuild it with Halliburton contractors. Pretty neat, huh? Or how about Bush the First negotiating the NAFTA deal and dropping it into Clinton’s lap to sign so the job losses can be blamed on the Democrats? Very cool. Republicans probe into people’s bedrooms but claim executive privilege when Congress subpoenas administration officials. They log old growth forests and call it forest management. They bend over for every corporation with a hard on for a tax break, yet claim to preserve the sanctity of marriage. They can do all this because the only line they have to toe is to be against abortion, against taxes, and most of all, to support their party over themselves. Now we face an election that would take a Democratic fool to lose. The occupation of Iraq has soured even Republican supporters. The so-called “surge” had less to do with reduced killings than paying off the Sunnis. The economy is in recession. People are losing their homes. Scandal and widestances in restrooms plague Republican claims of morality. Conservatives are more and more concerned about government snooping while senior Bush supporters are leaving the administration in droves. Will the progressive penchant for cannibalism snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory? Will we spend more time trashing each other than combatting reactionaries? Will we continue to weaken ourselves so much that Bill O’Reilly can still dominate the airwaves and frame the issues? (Here we are in 2015 and nothing has really changed.)
Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as the signature LGBT rights legislation in Congress, but it is not expected to advance in the Republican-controlled House. DelBene represents Washington’s 1st Congressional District, which includes the northern third of King County plus most of Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom Counties. Pelosi is from San Francisco. All parties discreetly avoided mentioning the recent blockbuster New York Times article blasting Amazon as a toxic workplace. Amazon has nondiscrimination policies in place protecting LGBT employees. “Amazon has a long history of supporting equality, and we welcome the efforts of the many bipartisan sponsors and cosponsors of the Equality Act, including Leader Pelosi and Rep. DelBene, to provide full equality for LGBT individuals,” Amazon Public Policy Director Brian Huseman said.
Celebrating 41 Years!
Seattle Big Men’s Club hosts 2015 Convergence Labor Day long weekend
by Tim Moffett SGN Staff Writer Celebrating its 34th year, Convergence is an event that brings big men and their admirers together for a week of fun and fri-
volity. The international selection committee selects a host city and venue each year. This year Seattle Big Men’s Club is honored to host 2015 Emerald City Convergence. It has been 10 years since Seattle last hosted a Convergence. The theme for this year’s event is the “Yellow Brick Road,” and the
event will feature activity and décor related to “The Wizard of Oz.” The event’s host hotel is the DoubleTree By Hilton Seattle Airport, located at 18740 International Blvd, SeaTac, WA. Damon Blumberg, organizer for Convergence, said “We are so excited that our guests will make their way down the “Yellow Brick Road” to the beautiful Pacific Northwest this year with our [usually] cooler temps and forward thinking attitudes. We have a plethora of opportunities to experience which is what makes Seattle and the surrounding area such an amazing experience.” Seattle Big Men’s Club has planned an array of great activities, excursions, and
new experiences that can only be properly hosted in Seattle. Experienced and first time Seattle visitors are encouraged to look at the event schedule to make best use of their time in the Emerald City. Damon said, “There are currently two packages available for Emerald City Convergence with prices starting at $209 for the Puget Sound Package and $339 for the Olympic Package. With our ala carte excursions we give you the control on Friday to mix and match your adventures!” For more information regarding 2015 Emerald City Convergence, please visit their website at emeraldcityconvergence. com.
Candidates honor Hyatt Hotel boycott by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
A Rotary Club candidates’ forum scheduled for September 9 at the Hyatt at Olive 8 Hotel will switch to a new date and venue after two of the Seattle City Council candidates refused to participate. Incumbent councilmember Tim Burgess and his challenger for the at-large Position 8, Jon Grant, both informed the Rotary Club that they would honor a boycott of the hotel called by workers who want to organize a union there. In response, the Rotary agreed to move the event to the Sheraton Hotel on October 7. The Sheraton is also a nonunion establishment, but it is not under boycott. Hyatt employees have been fighting for
the right to organize for more than two years. UNITE HERE Local 8, the union Hyatt employees want to represent them, called for the boycott after local Hyatt owner Richard Hedreen refused to abide by terms of a national agreement between the union and Hyatt hotels to remain neutral in union organizing drives. Workers say local Hyatt managers have used intimidation and threats of retaliation to resist unionization at the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt at Olive 8, and the only option for them to fight back is to ask consumers to boycott the hotels. Burgess has been endorsed by UNITE HERE Local 8, largely on the strength of his support for Seattle’s paid sick day ordinance, the $15 minimum wage and legislation protecting employees from wage
theft. Burgess also won the endorsement of the Martin Luther King County Labor Council and many of its affiliated unions. Grant, former executive director of the Washington State Tenants Union, has tried to position himself to the left of Burgess. He has been endorsed by the huge grocery and food processing union UFCW 21, SEIU 925 and UAW 4121.
Hyatt at Olive 8 – www.tripadvisor.com
Airport workers to get $15 per hour, State Supreme Court rules
SeaTac workers set to start receiveing $15 an hour wage – www.kirotv.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Airport workers are covered by the SeaTac minimum wage law approved by voters in 2013, the Washington State Su-
preme Court ruled on August 20. The decision came on a narrow vote of 5 to 4, but as a result, some 4,700 restaurant employees, custodians, baggage handlers and other workers at the airport will now be paid $15.24 per hour. The workers at SeaTac will also be owed
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back pay dating back to January 1, 2014, according to Dmitri Iglitzin, an attorney for SeaTac Committee for Good Jobs, the union-backed group that led the effort to pass the minimum-wage initiative. Alaska Airlines and the Port Commission challenged the minimum wage law, arguing that state law gives the port “exclusive jurisdiction” over airport operations and consequently a municipal ordinance like the minimum wage law cannot be applied to airport workers. Writing for the majority, Justice Susan Owens said the state law was ambiguous, however. “[W]e conclude that the legislature intended to give the Port of Seattle exclusive jurisdiction over the operation of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport: specifically ‘the construction, enlargement, improvement, maintenance, equipment, operation, and regulation’ of the airport,” Owens said. “Here, [the minimum wage law] has nothing to do with airport operations or the subject of aeronautics. In addition, the Port of Seattle does not show that Proposition 1 would interfere with airport operations. As a result, we conclude that Proposition 1 can
be enforced at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport without violating [state law].” “We also hold that federal labor law does not preempt [the law’s] provision protecting workers from retaliation. Consequently, we uphold [the minimum wage law] in its entirety, ” Owens concluded. Owens also dismissed arguments by airport food vendors that the minimum wage law violated the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. With only 28,000 residents, the city of SeaTac is small, but it became the center of attention when a coalition of unions and community activists put Proposition 1, the minimum wage initiative, on the ballot in 2013. The measure passed by only 77 votes, but when it went into effect in January 2014 it raised wages for all SeaTac workers, except for those at the airport. Airport workers were intended to be covered, but a state district court ruled that they were outside the jurisdiction of city ordinances. The State Supreme Court’s August 20 ruling reverses the lower court’s decision and allows airport workers to earn the same minimum wage as other SeaTac employees.
August 21, 2015
Seattle Gay News 5
murder
continued from cover Hill after having moved away, even if after just a year, returns and finds parts of the neighborhood unrecognizable. And while there has always been an element of danger, unlike many dense central city neighborhoods, the “Hill” has never been known for gun battles and murder. The LGBTQ community, which undoubtedly stakes its claim as the neighborhood’s keepers, is nonviolent. Fights inside of Gay bars are pretty rare and even when one does break out security personnel do a good job at breaking up the melee and it’s back to the dancing and the drinking. It’s not that LGBTQ people, in particular, can’t fight, it’s just that we would rather not. Call us crazy but we actually like to go out to have a good time for the sake of having a good time. Hence the term, “Have a Gay old time.” But these recent days and nights on Capitol Hill violence has come to us. And it is dangerous for sure. At 2 a.m. Sunday morning, just as bars and nightclubs across the Hill were closing down and pushing all of the customers out into the streets, more than 15 shots rang out outside Baltic Room at Pine and Melrose. The scene that witnesses describe is something out of a movie; something you would never expect to find on Capitol Hill. According to eyewitness statements, people began to duck and run in all directions, while others hit the ground or took cover wherever they could. Then, somehow, among the confusion and fear, a security guard, who was offduty but hanging out at Baltic Room, their place of employment, retrieved a gun they are permitted to carry from their vehicle parked 15 feet away from the madness, and returned fire with one shot from the south side of Pine. When it was over, Ramon Mitchell, 25, was found shot in the parking lot on Pine between Melrose and Boren. Witnesses to the shooting had begun CPR on Mitchell and officers continued to administer CPR to the victim after they arrived until the area was secure enough for Seattle Fire medic units to respond. Arriving officers had called for more help because they had over 100 people to contain, interview, and disperse, which could not be done without more officers on the scene. Police spokeswoman Officer Lauren Lovanhill said many people were standing around outside the club but there were no other victims. Bullets struck several vehicles and on Monday, employees at Seattle Counseling Service, which shares the parking lot where the shooting took place, found a bullet hole in the window of one of their conference rooms, that continued to travel upwards once it pierced the glass and had become lodged in the ceiling. Luckily, SCS was closed at the time. Mitchell was taken to Harborview Medical Center Trauma Center with life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead a short time later. Witnesses at the scene believed the young man was dead, or not going to live for very much longer, when he was found in the parking lot. According to crime data, Ramon “Monie Ratt” Mitchell was the 17th homicide in the City of Seattle for 2015. One witness, David, whose real name is unknown because he said he would not speak to media using his real name for fear
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of reprisal, said he knew Ramon and that he was a “nice person” and that he knew his friend would not make it because his injuries were “obviously critical.” “When they came out of the club, it was like, this group of guys and Monie was with them, and it was obvious they were going to fight,” David told Seattle Gay News, referring to a group of men that left Baltic Room in a confrontation with one another, “And then all of a sudden they just started shooting. I ducked out of the way until the shooting stopped. Then I saw him. They didn’t have to do him like that. He was a good person.” According a Seattle Times staffer reporter, Mitchell was the son of Ritchie “OG Ratt” Williams – a member of Seattle’s Hoover Crips who was fatally shot in 2013. It is unknown to SGN if Ramon Mitchell was gang-affiliated or not. According to court files, Mitchell was arrested in 2014 during the investigation of a South Seattle
about seven shots fired were heard near 23rd and S. Jackson about 45 minutes following the Pine St. shooting. Do the police think they were the same people or not? Seattle Police Department has not commented as of press time. Commentors to CHS Blog’s story about the violent shooting had some interesting things to say: One person, whose screen name was Babby [sic] bottle said, “I blame bottle service. That’s the surest way to draw a crowd of douche bags. I don’t know why it is allowed. If I were still a server I’d be worried, because a person who seems sober when they come in can – thanks to bottle service – get really screwed up and suddenly you’ve over-served them.” A person calling themselves Optimum commented, “For years some club areas in much larger cities (London UK for one) have implemented measures to identify and deny entry to known trouble makers not
burglary and was convicted for unlawful possession of a firearm. Mitchell was sentenced to a year in jail. Police say officers located several separate groups of shell casings within 1.5 blocks of the shooting on Sunday, indicating multiple people fired weapons. Police also recovered at least one gun at the scene and witnesses reported physical descriptions of at least two different shooters firing into the air. As of press time, SGN checked with SPD about the case and they said that the investigation is ongoing and nobody has been taken into custody. There are some confusing reports of what took place at the melee. Later Sunday morning, SPD reported that an armed man was taken into custody near the shooting and his gun was taken into evidence by the police, but it was not believed the suspect was involved in the shooting, according to radio dispatches. And then there’s this confusing tidbit: a 911 caller reported that the occupants of a vehicle pulled a gun after a hit and run at Boren and Pine around the time of the shooting. Police are also investigating a report that
just in one club but most clubs. Some areas use thumb prints from male patrons at entry. In lower British Columbia a task force works with bars, clubs, health clubs, restaurants to trespass known gang members so that they effectively have fewer and fewer places they can go out to if they participate in gang activity. Seattle, of course, would officially balk at most of this but as the city experiences growth and as part of that growth includes “entertainment districts” chalk full of bars. At what point does the collective community choose its own well-being over the appearance of tolerance of anything and anyone?” Hip hop nights, which Baltic Room’s owners, Jason Brotman, who is Gay, and Rachel Fine scheduled for their Saturday night party, can be troublesome, bar and club owners tell SGN. Baltic Room does not currently have an LGBTQ-specific programming. According to some residents on Capitol Hill, Baltic Room, which once housed such LGBTQ and nonviolent parties as ElektroPOP and Sugar Beat, has recently received a number of complaints from neighbors say-
August 21, 2015
ing the crowds that the nightclub attracted were violent and loud, and were known to stick around after the club was closed and cause problems in the neighborhood. One neighbor wrote to CHS Blog and talked about how terrible the club’s crowd had gotten, saying such unflattering things like men peeing wherever they wanted, being extra loud all hours of the morning and more. The club’s response was typical. They claim absolutely no responsibility directly to the violence and act as though it is business as usual except vaguely saying, “We are anxious to be better neighbors than we were the day before and want to work with our lower Capitol Hill area family to do so.” Here is more from their statement, “We were as shocked and saddened at last night’s events in the parking lot on the north side of Pine Street as you and the victim, as well as their friends and family are in our thoughts today.” “Baltic Room has been a part of the lower Capitol Hill neighborhood for the better part of eighteen years, in that time playing host to thousands of events, from LGBTQ weddings, to nonprofit fundraisers, to dance music events of every flavor,” the statement continues by frontloading that their club has had other programming in the past and continues, “While we obviously cannot control situations that happen outside our property, we do realize that we can affect them and have worked closely with the East Precinct police department to not only ensure the neighborhood we’ve called home all these years stays safe, but to be an active part of helping keep it that way.” According to Baltic Room, “We have asked many times for there to be closer supervision of that lot, but like you, are at the mercy for an underfunded department who, on a nightly basis, has a very busy swath of territory to cover.” “While there is no evidence at this point that the nexus of last night’s event originated at Baltic Room, generally speaking, we have worked very closely with the city, Washington State Liquor Control Board and the nightlife commission, as well as others on numerous ways to ensure that we are providing one of the safest event spaces in the city, up to and including the removal of events and promotion teams we felt were maintaining a nonchalant attitude about the safety of guests and residents of our neighborhood,” said officials at Baltic Room, without clarifying if they have dismissed the current Saturday night programming. The nightclub owners conclude by saying, “We’ll be pro-actively engaging in a dialogue with SPD about the event, what led up to it, and what our team can do to better spot and intervene in these types of tragedies outside our property, before they occur. We welcome you to be a part of that conversation. As one of the anchor businesses in the neighborhood, we take a great of pride in it and in building bridges between neighbors.” Currently, the SPD investigation is top priority. No suspects have yey been named, identified or arrested. SPD homicide detectives are asking for the public’s help to piece together what exactly went down that led to the murder of a young man in our neighborhood by asking witnesses to call SPD’s homicide/assault tip line at 206-233-5000.
Celebrating 41 Years!
vigil
Goodman asks, “Is this amount of violent crime on Capitol Hill normal, or is it on the rise? Is my neighborhood becoming an unsafe place to live, or has it always been so? If crime is on the rise in Capitol Hill, what are your theories to explain the rise? What is the city doing to try to make it better? What can I do? Are robberies really down 34%? Why hasn’t my incident been reported on seattle.gov? Can you assure me that my incident will be reported as a robbery? What checks are in place to ensure that no reported incidents are left out of the public records?” He continues, “A group of thugs left me unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk. Assault and robbery are felonies. Thank God I wasn’t one of the murdered Seattle citizens. Who is working on finding the guys who did this to me? I haven’t received any follow up phone calls from the police. Does the City Attorney’s office have a record of this? What are they planning to do if a suspect is arrested?” Goodman explains in the letter that Officer Bale gave no direction as to what his next steps should be. According to Goodman, “His lack of direction may as well be interpreted as saying, ‘There’s nothing else we’re really going to do about this because this isn’t a very serious crime to us, so just try walking around your neighborhood without feeling paranoid that you’re going to be jumped.’” Goodman then went on to ask about the emphasis patrols the mayor’s LGBTQ task
force recommended. And more. Speaking directly to City Attorney Pete Holmes, Goodman says, “You are in charge of prosecuting such criminals. What are you doing?” And Goodman asked Kshama Sawant what she is doing to help aid what he dubbed “crime crisis” on the Hill since she is running for City Council to represent him in District 3. According to Goodman, he heard back from police Chief O’Toole and the Mayor himself. But Holmes and Sawant never reached out. Goodman asked if the SPD Safe Place program could be expanded. “It’s great for a business to say that they want to be a safe place for a victim, but what can a business do if it wants to help decrease crime so that there are fewer victims?” Goodman ended his poignant letter by telling the officials to “Lead us on this.” “Stop what happened to me from being the usual thing we read about every weekend,” he said. “Do something to find the thugs who attacked me. This could happen to anyone in the city. If the thugs had left you or any of your family members to die at Boylston and Pine, would you ensure that the crime was reported? Would you make sure that the SPD found these thugs and were prosecuted?” Goodman reached out to me because he said that someone told him about my community organizing and that he should contact me. I’m glad he did. Goodman is levelheaded, did not write the letter from a place of hate or spite, and throughout the letter asked a number of times what he and others could do to help fix what is happening out there. I was glad to help. SOSea, under my direction, focuses on a tremendous amount of problems or issues the LGBTQ and allied communities face. Violence is one of those issues and we have arguably been just about the only group on the Hill that has done anything about it. We’ve tried anyway. Short from becoming police officers ourselves, I’m not quite sure how we could do more. I am the co-chair of the LGBTQ Advisory Council to SPD and a member of Mayor Murray’s LGBTQ Task Force. SOSea has worked on police reform, anti-bias crime prevention, personal safety and self-defense training and we even operate a neighborhood safety shuttle – all with no funding except for what we receive in small donations from the community. We have also organized many candlelight vigils and marches to condemn crime. We believe that “OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BELONGS TO US, NOT CRIME.” For more information about our safety initiatives go to www. SocialOutreachSeattle.com. Make a donation if you can! Also, LIKE us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SocialOutreachSeattle. After I wrote Goodman a letter outlining some of the issues in the neighborhood, he called to speak with me in depth about a few things and that’s when we began to organize the candlelight vigil for Saturday. We both agree that murder and gun violence in our neighborhood must be publicly condemned. It is the right thing to do. We cannot stand by and be a silent witness to murder.
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Seattle Gay News 7
continued from cover 25, from gun violence, condemn the recent attacks on people like Daniel Goodman, the man who is organizing this effort with SOSea, condemn nightclubs and bars and other businesses that attract customers that bring their violence into our neighborhood without any care for what happens as long as they make money, and condemn the no-accountability status that our leaders, elected or appointed, currently enjoy because either they or their followers will label you something-ist or something-phobic to serve their agenda, however wrong they might be. We will also write messages of peace and safe neighborhoods on a banner which will then be walked over to the Baltic Room at which time they will be asked to hang the banner up outside of their club. As would be expected and necessary, we will also observe a moment of silence in honor of all the victims of violent crime – past and present – and raise our candles into the night sky to condemn violence in our neighborhood. Following that, we will walk, not march, but walk on the sidewalks to the pedestrian safety zone on Broadway and E. Pike St., where we will once again, observe a moment of silence and raise our candles high as a public condemnation of violence overtaking out streets and lives. We don’t have to put up with it. We can do something about it. Please join us. CRIME CRISIS I had never heard of Danny Goodman and the same was true for him of me. He lives on the Hill, works on the Hill and despite the same for me, we just had never cross paths before. That is until Tuesday afternoon. Goodman was looking for answers. And when he got tired of just looking, because he has a tremendous amount of healthy self-respect and believes that people who are elected and paid to do a job ought to be doing just that, he started to demand answers. And he did this in a brilliant way. On Monday he self-published a letter he wrote to Mayor Ed Murray, Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole, City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and others demanding to have answers as to why crime, especially violent crime, goes on in our neighborhood and is, in fact, getting worse and more violent than ever despite what local data seems to reflect, and why they aren’t – in a sense – doing their job to keep him and others on Capitol Hill safe. Goodman wrote, “Our city is in a crisis, and I demand to know what you are doing to end it.” After leaving R Place after midnight last weekend, while walking on Boylston, 30 feet from E. Pine St. by Hot Mama’s Pizza, Goodman says he heard someone behind him say, “Hey!” When he turned around a man who he says looked to be in his early thirties was smiling at him. The man was not alone, he was with friends. Goodman says almost immediately he was punched in the face. “That’s all that I remember of the incident,” he said.
Goodman does not know how long he was out for but that “it was long enough for the blood from the gash on my forehead to trickle its way along my scalp, through my hair, and crust up on the back of my head where I was lying face up on the concrete.” When he regained consciousness, two women were hovering over him asking if he was OK. “They called the police for me, as my phone had been stolen,” he recalls in the letter. “I went to Harborview Medical and got stitches for the gash in my forehead. I was told that the hole from the inside of my gums through to the outside of my face would heal on its own.” The responding officer, SPD Officer Bale gave Goodman a business card with incident number written on it. But when Goodman went to check online and see a police report, he was unable to find it. What was odd, he said, is that many police reports from the weekend describing incidents similar to his attack were available yet his was not. “Thursday night a 24 year old man was shot to death walking his dog in the Central District,” Goodman continued in his letter. “Saturday night, there was a murder outside of the Baltic Room, blocks from where I was mugged. Considering that there were 2 murders so close to home this weekend, I’m so thankful to be alive and merely suffering from some face wounds and a stolen cell phone. But I want to know what’s going on.”
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Advocacy groups warn local officials on laws criminalizing sleeping and camping by the homeless
Seattle University School of Law’s Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, the ACLU of Washington, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and other advocacy organizations are warning local officials throughout Washington state about enforcing unconstitutional bans against sleeping and camping by individuals experiencing homelessness. The groups point to a Statement of Interest filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on August 6 explaining that cities that prosecute people who are homeless for sleeping or camping in public places, when there is insufficient shelter space, violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The brief was filed in federal district court in Idaho in the case
doj
continued from cover U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an August 13 statement of interest. The statement was filed in the case Bell v. City of Boise, in which a group of homeless people filed a federal lawsuit after being arrested for camping and sleeping on city grounds. The plaintiffs claim the sleeping and camping ban violates their Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. DOJ agreed in a strongly worded statement intervening in the case. “When adequate shelter space exists, individuals have a choice about whether or
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Bell v. City of Boise et al. In a letter (attached) today sent to city attorneys and the state organizations for cities, prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs throughout Washington, the groups warn officials that their own cities may be violating the Constitution in a similar way. “We urge you to closely review your city ordinances governing the use of public spaces that are enforced against homeless individuals and to repeal any that are constitutionally suspect in light of the authority cited by DOJ and in this letter,” the advocacy groups wrote. In order to be constitutional, according to the Department of Justice, a city’s laws must target a person’s conduct rather than their status. But when a city lacks suf-
not to sleep in public,” the DOJ statement said. “However, when adequate shelter space does not exist, there is no meaningful distinction between the status of being homeless and the conduct of sleeping in public. Sleeping is a life-sustaining activity – i.e., it must occur at some time in some place. If a person literally has nowhere else to go, then enforcement of the anti-camping ordinance against that person criminalizes her for being homeless.” While laws restricting use of public space by homeless people are common in U.S. cities, the constitutionality of such measures is still considered unsettled. By weighing in on this case, DOJ seems to be warning cities to treat their homeless resi-
August 21, 2015
ficient facilities for people experiencing homelessness, activities such as sitting, lying, or sleeping in public become necessary for those people and are indistinguishable from their status as homeless. Students in the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project surveyed municipal codes of 72 Washington cities and found that most have ordinances which outlaw necessary, life-sustaining activities for the visibly poor and homeless. Of the cities analyzed, 78% have laws that prohibit the everyday harmless activity of sleeping or camping in public places – just as Boise does. “The DOJ’s statement further legitimates our message: These laws are expen-
sive, ineffective, and misguided,” said Professor Sara Rankin, faculty director of the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project. “It is time for cities across America to confront and repeal laws that criminalize the existence of visibly poor people.” “We’ve recently seen a spate of proposals around our state seeking to restrict the rights of homeless people. The Justice Department’s brief is an important reminder that the Constitution applies to everyone, regardless of whether they have a home,” said Jennifer Shaw, deputy director of the ACLU of Washington.
dents more humanely. “It’s huge,” said Eric Tars, senior attorney for the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, which originally filed the lawsuit in cooperation with Idaho Legal Aid. “Homelessness is just becoming more visible in communities, and when homelessness becomes more visible, there’s more pressure on community leaders to do something about it,” Tars added. “And rather than actually examining what’s the best thing to do about homelessness, the knee-jerk response – as with so many other things in society – is ‘we’ll address this social issue with the criminal justice system.’” In a 2014 report, the National Law Cen-
ter on Homelessness & Poverty found that 53% of the 187 U.S. cities surveyed had laws banning people from sitting or lying down in public spaces. Of the cities surveyed, 34% had laws banning camping in public places, and 43% prohibit sleeping in vehicles. The federal government estimates that there were about 153,000 unsheltered homeless on the street in the U.S. any given night of 2014. “Homelessness never left town because somebody gave it a ticket,” Tars said. “The only way to end homelessness is to make sure everybody has access to affordable, decent housing.”
Courtesy of ACLU of Washington
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Bernie Sanders on the record: Longtime supporter of LGBT rights
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Everybody knows that Hillary Clinton made LGBT rights a marquee issue during her tenure as secretary of state. What is less well known is the fact that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s chief challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, has a pro-Gay record going back to the early ’80s – when Hillary Clinton was merely the spouse of an ambitious Southern politician. In 1983, LGBT leaders in Burlington, Vt., were planning the city’s first-ever Pride parade. They approached then-Mayor Bernie Sanders to designate June 25 as “Lesbian
Bernie Sanders – Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom
and Gay Pride Day.” In the face of stiff opposition from local Christian groups, Sanders fought for the Pride resolution before Burlington’s Board of Aldermen, the equivalent of a city council. “In our democratic society, it is the responsibility of government to safeguard civil liberties and civil rights – especially the freedom of speech and expression,” Sanders wrote in a memorandum. “In a free society, we must all be committed to the mutual respect of each others’ lifestyle.” With Sanders’ support, the measure narrowly passed by a vote of 6 to 5. Although the parade went off without a hitch, Burlington resident Maikel Carder
was attacked and beaten up a few days afterward because of the perception that he was Gay. He was, in fact, straight, but the incident allowed anti-Gay forces to blame the Pride celebration for inciting violence. Nevertheless, Sanders continued to support Burlington Pride, and in 1984, he supported a resolution recommending that all levels of government support LGBT rights. In 1985, Sanders sponsored a measure barring discrimination against LGBT residents in housing. “It is my very strong view that a society which proclaims human freedom as its goal, as the United States does, must work unceasingly to end discrimination against all people,” he wrote at the time.
“I am happy to say that this past year, in Burlington, we have made some important progress by adopting an ordinance which prohibits discrimination in housing. This law will give legal protection not only to welfare recipients, and families with children, the elderly and the handicapped – but to the gay community as well.” As a congressman in 1996, Sanders was one of only 67 House members to vote against DOMA, the law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. It was signed into law by thenPresident Bill Clinton. In 2006, he also voted against House Joint Resolution 88, which was meant not only to deny same-sex couples the right to marry but to bar them from receiving any of the benefits of marriage by way of another institution – domestic partnership, or civil union, for example. As a senator, he continued to support equality for Lesbian and Gay couples and the rights of the LGBT community in general, from 2007 to the present, voting for federal hate crimes protections and to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Sanders also strongly supported the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states. “Today the Supreme Court fulfilled the words engraved upon its building: ‘Equal justice under law,’ ” Sanders wrote after the high court’s ruling. “This decision is a victory for same-sex couples across our country as well as all those seeking to live in a nation where every citizen is afforded equal rights. For far too long our justice system has marginalized the gay community, and I am very glad the Court has finally caught up to the American people.”
Baker can’t refuse to make cakes for same-sex couples, Colorado appeals court says by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that a bakery owner cannot refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. Their decision upholds a previous ruling from the state’s Civil Rights Commission that Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips violated Colorado’s public accommodations law by turning away customers based on their sexual orientation. The case began in 2012, when David Mullins and Charlie Craig went to Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop with Craig’s mother to order a cake for their upcoming wedding reception. Phillips informed them that because of his religious beliefs, he didn’t sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples. The national ACLU and the ACLU of Colorado filed suit on behalf of Mullins and Craig in 2013. In December 2013, an administrative judge ruled that the bakery had illegally discriminated against the couple. In May 2014, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission affirmed that ruling. Phillips appealed the commission’s decision on the grounds that he had a First Amendment right to refuse to endorse same-sex marriage. He was not discriminating against Gay people, he said, he was just against letting them marry. “I clearly told them that I would make
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them birthday cakes, shower cakes, cookies and brownies,” he said. “I just don’t do cakes for same sex weddings.” The court rejected his argument out of hand, however. Gay people, the judges said, are the only ones likely to engage in same-sex marriage. “Masterpiece’s distinction, therefore, is one without a difference,” the court decision states. “But for their sexual orientation, Craig and Mullins would not have sought to enter into a same-sex marriage, and but for their intent to do so, Masterpiece would not have denied them its services.” The attorney who represented Mullins and Craig said in a statement that, “today is a proud day for equality and for upholding the law. In America, no one should be
August 21, 2015
Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips – kdvr.com
turned away from a shop or restaurant because of who they are or who they love.” “When every lesbian or gay person, every woman, every person of color, every person of every faith can walk into a store, a bank, a hospital, and know that they will get the same service as everyone else, we will have won,” said Ria Mar, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBT Project. “Until then, we continue to fight for the equal treatment we
all deserve. Today we can celebrate this big win.” Masterpiece was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, who have vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. In April 2014 the Supreme Court rejected a similar appeal from a New Mexico wedding photographer who refused to serve same-sex couples.
Celebrating 41 Years!
First Transgender White House staffer: Obama hires NCTE’s Raffi Freedman-Gurspan by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
The White House announced on August 18 that it had hired its first openly Transgender staffer. Raffi Freedman-Gurspan will work as an “outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel” in the Office of Personnel. Seattle native Dylan Orr, now director of the City’s Office of Labor Standards, was the first openly Transgender presidential appointment. In 2009 President Obama appointed him to a position in the Labor Department. Freedman-Gurspan was previously a policy advisor for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) racial and economic justice initiative. NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling hailed the appointment. “President Obama has long said he wants his Administration to look like the American people. I have understood this to
include transgender Americans,” Keisling said in a statement. “A transgender person was inevitably going to work in the White House. “That the first transgender appointee is a transgender woman of color is itself significant.” The President has promised to use federal resources to investigate race-related hate crimes and he is being urged to address violence against the Trans community as well. A petition posted on the White House website notes that “Since January 9, 2015, eight [at the time the petition was posted, now sixteen] transgender women, mostly women of color, have lost their lives due to hate and transphobia. “Eight of these beautiful lives were lost in the first two months of the year. “With such a high death toll, something must be done to raise awareness and end the senseless killings of a targeted, vulnerable community.”
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan – Raffi Freedman-Gurspan/Facebook
Three Trans women were reportedly murdered in the week just prior to Freedman-Gurspan’s appointment, bringing the total number of those killed in the U.S. this year to 16 so far. Activists say this may be a low estimate, because there is no official federal reporting of crimes targeting the
Trans community. Caitlyn Jenner has also used her blog to call attention to “the number of murders of transgender women of color” who are targets of violence.
HRC Foundation’s groundbreaking conference supporting LGBTQ youth to be held in Dallas Third annual Time To THRIVE conference is expected to attract 800-plus participants from around the nation for sessions on helping LGBTQ youth thrive in the classroom and beyond WASHINGTON DC – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, in partnership with the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Counseling Association (ACA), is proud to announce that it will be holding its nationally-acclaimed Time To THRIVE conference for educators and youth-serving professionals at the Marriott Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center outside Dallas from February 12-14, 2016. In its third year, this premier event of the HRC Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, will address safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBT and questioning youth, and bring together a wide range of youth-serving professionals to discuss best practices for working with and caring for LGBTQ youth and their families in schools, community centers, healthcare settings, and beyond. “We are thrilled to host Time To THRIVE in Dallas, where we have a strong base of LGBTQ supporters and advocates ready to help us bring our message to new audiences of teachers, counselors and others working with youth in Texas and beyond,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “As we continue to make great strides toward full equality across the country, we remain dedicated to ensuring LGBTQ youth everywhere have the opportunity to live proudly – and safely – in school and at home without fear of marginalization or discrimination.” In previous years the conference featured actress Ellen Page’s deeply inspira-
tional coming out speech that quickly went viral; special guests – including Chelsea Clinton, Lance Bass, Dolores Huerta, and Betty DeGeneres; and, in 2015, Time To THRIVE award-winners Michael Sam, the first openly-Gay NFL football player, and actor and LGBTQ activist George Takei. Highlights from the most recent conference can be found at http://timetothrive.org/ pages/media#.VbG_BpufDsZ “We are honored to bring the third annual Time to THRIVE conference to North
identity in its two largest school districts,” Pompei said. “This was accomplished with strong support from the Dallas-based Resource Center, an LGBTQ community center that is providing exemplary services to LGBTQ youth to strengthen their family and peer relationships, and address their overall well-being.” According to “Growing Up LGBT In America,” HRC Foundation’s 2012 survey of more than 10,000 LGBTQ young people, LGBTQ youth in the United States still face
Texas, a central location for youth-serving professionals across the nation who wish to attend,” said Dr. Vincent Pompei, Conference Chair and Director of HRC Foundation’s Youth Well-Being Project. “North Texas is home to more than 15,000 LGBTQ youth, and we know from experience that Dallas has great wisdom to share about improving the lives of these young people.” “We have seen heartening progress in the Dallas area, including the adoption of comprehensive anti-bullying policies that include sexual orientation and gender
unique challenges. Only half of LGBTQ youth surveyed say that they “fit in” in their community; LGBTQ youth are more than twice as likely to be verbally harassed at school; and 63 percent of LGBTQ youth say they will need to move to another part of the country to feel accepted. Held over Presidents’ Day Weekend, the conference will take place at the Marriott Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center outside Dallas. Marriott has earned a perfect score in HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates American
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workplaces based on their commitment to LGBT equality. Dallas has also earned a score of 91 out of 100 points on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Municipal Equality Index, a nationwide evaluation of LGBTQ inclusivity in municipal law. During the three-day 2015 conference, attendees from 43 states and four countries chose from more than 60 workshops presented by 40-plus organizations. Workshop topics ranged from creating safe and inclusive schools, to working with LGBTQ youth of color and immigrants, preventing homelessness, raising awareness of HIV and youth, and protecting young people from dangerous “conversion therapy.” The conference also drew experts on federal policy from the U.S. departments of education and justice. Workshop proposals for the 2016 conference are being accepted through Sept. 10 and can be submitted here. A detailed list of Time To THRIVE workshops offered in 2015 can be found at www.TimeToThrive.org. Time To THRIVE is the premier national convening of educators and youthserving professionals to build awareness and cultural competency, learn current and emerging best practices, and gather resources from leading experts and national organizations in the field. Time To THRIVE will take place over Presidents’ Day Weekend, February 12-14, 2016. To register, visit www.TimeToThrive.org. The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. www.hrc.org.
Seattle Gay News 15
Catholic LGBT coalition evicted from Philadelphia parish center by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Equally Blessed, a coalition of four LGBT Catholic groups, has been evicted by Catholic Church officials from the space they intended to use during the September World Meeting Of Families in Philadelphia. The coalition had secured space at St. John the Evangelist Parish Center, according to New Ways Ministry, one of the coalition partners, but was later told that it was no longer welcome to use the space for its planned events. “Organizers of the alternative events planned for St. John’s were told last week by its pastor that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia disapproved of their gender identity program and they would no longer be allowed to use space at St. John’s for any events that week,” New Ways Ministry head Francis DeBernardo said in an August 17 statement. Equally Blessed wanted the space at St John’s because it was close to the Philadelphia Convention Center where the Catholic Meeting of Families will be held. Since the official Catholic Church meeting did not feature any “realistic presentation about the reality of LGBT Catholics and our families,”
the coalition said, it hoped to offer alternative “educational and outreach events.” The group said it is trying to relocate its planned events to a Methodist church near the convention venue. Ken Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said that administrators from the archdiocese had looked into the group’s program and “provided guidance” but that “the final decision on use of space at St. John’s was made by the parish.” Gavin said it was expected that “any parish-sponsored activities would feature content that is in line with church teaching.” “So they literally kicked trans people out of the church? It’s an amazing thing, especially if you’re trying to show families we are a part of the human family,” Transgender attorney Julie Chovanes told the Philly. com website. She was one of the presenters at an Equally Blessed workshop scheduled at St. John’s “I still consider myself Catholic,” she added. “But apparently the church doesn’t.” Equally Blessed said its eviction from St. John’s was “yet another instance of the kind of exclusion LGBT Catholics and supporters have endured for decades. Bishops have refused to allow us to meet in our own
churches, retreat centers and colleges.” “In every instance,” it added, “we have been blessed to find gracious welcome from members of other denominations and communities.” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput is a notoriously conservative churchman. In 2004, he told the New York Times that it would be a sin for Catholics to vote for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry because Kerry was pro-choice. He has also said that Catholics who support reproductive choice, LGBT rights or divorce should not ask priests for communion. Equally Blessed includes four LGBTfriendly Catholic groups – New Ways Ministry, Dignity, Fortunate Families and Call to Action. All have had previous run-ins with the Catholic hierarchy. New Ways, for example, was permanently barred from pastoral work with the LGBT community by Pope John Paul II. Its founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick, was hounded out of her original community of nuns, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, by church officials, and she now belongs to the smaller Sisters of Loretto community.
Dignity was at the center of a controversy in Seattle in the 1980s, when local Catholic traditionalists complained to the Vatican that then-Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen had allowed the LGBT group to use church facilities. Hunthausen was relieved of administrative responsibilities in his archdiocese and ultimately forced to retire. Fortunate Families is a group of Catholic parents of LGBT children. It was explicitly rejected by the World Meeting of Families because it “advocates for parental acceptance of LGBT children and adolescents in such a way that ‘acceptance’ requires that parents must show full acceptance of both the person and the entirety of every aspect of the person’s gay or transgender lifestyle,” according to a letter the group received from the Catholic meeting’s program director. “From its inception, CTA had a dual focus,” says Dan Daley, CTA co-coordinator and a founding member. “One eye was on church institutions which needed reform and renewal, and the other eye was on the larger society and issues of justice and peace that ought to have church involvement. The emphasis has shifted from time to time.”
Young people more sexually fluid, Brit study finds by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Young people are much less likely than their mothers and fathers to define themselves as “100% straight,” a British study finds. The study, sponsored by YouGov website, interviewed 1,632 people ranging from 18 years to over 60 years in age. They were asked to rate their sexual identity on the Kinsey scale, with 0 meaning exclusively straight and 6 being exclusively Gay or Lesbian. Among the group of respondents as a whole, 72% of adults chose 0, with just 23% differing. Four percent ranked themselves as exclusively Gay or Lesbian, with 19% identifying as somewhere on the spectrum in between the two. However, among 18-24 year olds the results were astonishingly different. Just 46% of young people ranked themselves as 0, or exclusively straight, compared to 49% who picked something else. In contrast, 89% of respondents over 60 said they are either completely straight or completely Gay or Lesbian. Only 7% of the oldest group of respondents would rank themselves somewhere between 0 and 6 on the scale. While a larger number of young respondents identified as Gay or Lesbian – 6% as opposed to 4% for the survey group as a whole – that alone cannot explain the large differences between the younger generation and their elders. Instead, YouGov analysts said, the significant number is the 43% of younger respondents who identified themselves as
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somewhere between exclusively straight and exclusively Gay or Lesbian. “Clearly, these figures are not measures of active bisexuality – overall, 89% of the population describes themselves as heterosexual – but putting yourself at level 1 allows for the possibility of homosexual feelings and experiences,” YouGov said. “More than anything, it indicates an increasingly open minded approach to sexu-
August 21, 2015
ality. In a further set of questions asking if respondents could conceivably be attracted to, have sex with, or have a relationship with someone of the same sex (if the right person came along at the right time), level 1s were at least 35% more likely to say they could than level 0s.” Younger respondents were also more likely to have acted on same-sex attraction, the survey found. Almost a quarter of re-
spondents between 18 and 39 years of age reported having had at least one same-sex sexual experience, compared to just 9% of those over the age of 60. Interestingly, more men reported having had a Gay experience than women. One fifth of men, compared to only 14% of women, said they had participated in a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex.
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