Celebrating 42 Years! Issue 49 Volume 44
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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Compromise on defense Drain the swamp? spending bill removes Trump appoints crocodiles to Treasury and Commerce anti-LGBT language departments
Photo courtesy of snopes.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with-
(l) Steve Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary & Wilbur Ross for Commerce Secretary – Photos by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez (Mnuchin) & Carolyn Kaster, AP (Ross)
out controversial language that would have eliminated protections for LGBT employees, will soon go to a vote in Congress. The NDAA authorizes $618.7 billion in see NDAA BILL page 10
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer In spite of earlier promises to “drain the swamp” of Washington insiders, Don-
ald Trump announced appointments of his campaign finance chair, Steve Mnuchin, as Treasury Secretary and a former business associate, Wilbur Ross, as Secretary of see DRAIN SWAMP page 16
NC gubernatorial race: Trump’s HHS pick Democrats now 10,000 threatens Obamacare, votes ahead, margin Medicare, Medicaid blocks recount
(l) Democrat Roy Cooper leads incumbent Pat McCrory – Photos courtesy of huffpost.com and AP Photo/Gerry Broome, Pool
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer As of November 29, Democratic challenger Roy Cooper was more than 10,000 votes ahead of Republican incumbent Pat McCrory in the race for North Carolina
governor, blocking McCrory from asking for a recount. Cooper led by a narrow margin since Election Day, despite GOP-sponsored voter suppression measures restricting the see NC GOVERNOR page 10
Tom Price – Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Donald Trump announced on November 29 that he would name Georgia Rep. Tom Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Trump’s choice
was immediately denounced by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Price is best known as the author of the so-called “Empowering Patients First Act,” one of the dozens of Republican bills to see HHS PICK page 15
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Celebrating 41 Years!
Seattle will continue to be a “welcoming city,” mayor says by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed an executive order on Thanksgiving Day reaffirming that Seattle will continue to be a “welcoming city.” The order states that City employees will not ask about the immigration status of residents and that all City services will be available to all residents. Murray’s order also creates an Inclusive and Equitable City Cabinet that will coordinate City efforts to protect the civil liberties and civil rights of all Seattle residents. In addition, the City will set aside $250,000 to address the needs of undocumented immigrant students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools and their families. “Except for our Native peoples, we are all from someplace else, and we are strong because of our diversity,” Murray said in a statement. “It is my commitment that Seattle will remain a welcoming city, not a place where children and their families live in fear. This
Thanksgiving we reaffirm our values of inclusion and equity, and our City policies that reflect them. All our friends, neighbors, colleagues, and families should feel safe and welcome when they need services, contact our police and fire departments, or interact with the City in other ways. And we will work to provide our immigrant students with the support they and their families need.” Murray’s action reinforced a 2003 City ordinance designating Seattle a “sanctuary city,” shielding residents from federal immigration authorities. The ordinance instructed the Seattle Police Department (SPD) not to ask residents about their immigration status without “a reasonable suspicion” that the person had “previously been deported from the United States” and is or had “committed a felony criminal-law violation.” Reaffirming Seattle’s status as a “welcoming” or “sanctuary” city may jeopardize millions of dollars in federal funding if Donald Trump is serious about his threat to cut off money to cities that fail to cooper-
ate with his plans to deport undocumented immigrants. For example, Seattle and King County received a record $28 million in federal homeless assistance grants last January. That included $3.6 million to create new housing opportunities. The City’s 2017-18 budget plans increased spending on homelessness services that could be jeopardized by loss of federal money. One of the tasks for the planned Inclusive and Equitable City Cabinet will be to “review potential implications on City departments of any new initiatives and [the] intent of the incoming Presidential administration” – in other words, how to deal with a possible loss of federal funds. In addition, the group will “develop public awareness efforts around hate speech and crimes” and “collaborate with immigrant and refugee communities to identify areas of need and new or expanded efforts for partnership.”
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signs the executive order stating that Seattle will remain a “Welcoming City” – Photo courtesy of skyvalleychronicle.com
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Gender Justice League and partners hosts name and gender marker change legal clinic Dec. 18 Gender Justice League in partnership with Q-Law Legal Foundation, Teller and Associates, U.T.O.P.I.A., and King County Bar Association held a name and gender marker change legal clinic on November 30 and will be holding a clinic on December 18 and January 3 prior to the presidential inauguration. The clinic is in response to requests by hundreds of Transgender community members who have expressed concerns about the incoming administration making access to accurate identification and changes in gender markers or names more difficult. The purpose of this clinic is to provide expedited legal services for the 4 out of 5 trans and gender-diverse people without accurate identification documentation. The clinic provides access to volunteer attorneys who will help fill out and understand the necessary paperwork and medical providers who will consult with patients and
Danni Askini – Photo by Lindsey Wasson/The Seattle Times
write same-day-letters at no cost for gender marker changes. People who meet the income guidelines will receive financial as-
sistance with their applications. The clinic will be held at Agnes Underground at 1433 12th Avenue A1 in Capitol Hill, Seattle from 6:30-9pm. The building is ADA accessible. The clinic is also providing Spanish language and ASL interpretation. More than 160 people made an RSVP for the first legal clinic on November 30. To RSVP for the upcoming clinics, contact the Gender Justice League via email at info@genderjusticeleague.org or visit http://www.genderjusticeleague.org/. Gender Justice League aims to raise $40,000 by January 20th in order to provide financial assistance to those who cannot afford the fees associated with changing one’s identity documents. Services provided include assistance with name change in King County, driver’s license changes, immigration document changes, social security changes, birth certificate changes, and passport changes. Costs for changes
range from $20.00 for name changes on birth certificates to $171.00 for a King County name change. Together, the average cost is nearly $500 per person. Additionally, the clinic will be taking on-site passport photos. Gender Justice League and its partners believe that having legal and up-to-date identification documentation is a vital step in protecting the trans and gender-diverse community’s safety in a time of increasing hate-crimes against the LQBTQIA community. Many in the trans community fear that the incoming federal administration will make gender marker changes on ID significantly more difficult. Without upto-date ID documentation, the trans and gender-diverse community faces increased chances of housing, employment, travel, and education challenges. Courtesy of Gender Justice League
The 13th Annual Stronger Together World AIDS Day Breakfast brings triumph and hope by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer On Thursday morning, December 1, the LGBTQ and allies community came together for the 13th Annual Stronger Together World AIDS Day Breakfast. After over a decade at the Washington State Convention Center, it moved next door to the Seattle Sheraton Hotel this year. After an incredible performance of the “The Sacred Music” by Victor Janusz, the program featured welcoming remarks from KOMO 4 News anchor Molly Shen and messages from Gay City’s Fred Swanson and Seattle Counseling Service Executive Director, Ann McGettigan.
This year’s honorees were, long-time HIV/AIDS community activist Tony Radovich, and Phyllis Little-Epamynonda from the People of Color Against AIDS Network (POCAAN). (Last year, the honor went our own publisher, George Bakan,) This year’s keynote speaker was Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman, who recognized accomplishments in our state in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including the first state to promote PrEP. Beneficiaries of the breakfast were Gay City: Seattle’s LGBTQ Center, Seattle Counseling Service, and CareTeams, a program of Samaritan Center of Puget Sound.
Fidel Castro Ruz (1926-2016) by Jesse Monteagudo SGN Contributing Writer When I learned about the death of Fidel Castro, I immediately thought about my father, who died 25 years ago. Like other Cuban exiles of his generation, my dad looked forward to the day when Cuba’s communist government would fall; and he and his family would return to a free Cuba. It did not happen. My father had all the faults of a Cuban man of his generation; and he could never accept the fact that his only son would never be the man that he wanted him to be. But Dad was a man who would do anything for his family; and he and Mom thought nothing of giving up their home and all their possessions to take their children to America, away from Castro’s revolution. I immediately phoned Mom, who is still alive, and she agreed that Papá would have been happy to witness this great event. To Mamá, Castro’s death was long overdue; a belief that I am sure was shared by all of Miami’s padres and abuelos (parents and grandparents) who, like my own parents, sacrificed so much for their families’ freedom.
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Next to my parents, Fidel Castro was the most important person in my life. Because of his revolution, everything that happened to me after 1962, the year the Monteagudos came to America, changed drastically from what it might have been. If not for Castro, I would have lived my life in Havana, sexually discreet and outwardly Catholic. My writing, if there was any, would have dealt with different topics, written for different media, and of course in Spanish. I would even have a different name. More importantly, without Castro I would never have met the three men who shared my life in succession since 1976; all American-born sons or grandsons of eastern European Jews. Castro changed their lives, as he did so many others. Fidel Castro, through his Cuban Revolution, changed the island of Cuba, for better and for worse, more than any human being except Christopher Columbus. But Castro also changed the United States, for better and for worse. The Cuban Diaspora sent to America hundreds of thousands of Cubans who, like the Monteagudos, sought to
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escape Castro’s brave new world. Many of us eventually settled in Miami, a city that our presence transformed beyond belief. What used to be a sleepy southern town, if not God’s waiting room, became the unofficial financial and cultural capital of Latin America (outside of Cuba). On the statewide level, Cuban exiles and their descendants became part of the Republican coalition that ruled Florida since the ’90s. Generations of Cuban-Americans, the children or grandchildren of the original exiles, have made important contributions to American politics, business, education, religion, science, literature, journalism and the arts, both within and outside of the LGBT community. For decades Cubans on both sides of the Straits of Florida have been pawns in the Cold War; and the United States has held a grudge against “the Castro regime” longer than any other country, except North Korea or Iran. (If we approve of a foreign government, it is a government. If we do not approve, it is a regime.) Though Cuban-American politicians like Senator Marco Rubio or Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen continued to carry the torch, anti-Castro sentiment laid low in South Florida while President Barack Obama restored US relations with Cuba. Castro’s death led to an almost unexpected wave of celebration and joy in Little Havana and elsewhere, not only from the first, “greatest generation” of Cuban exiles but from their children and their grandchildren as well. As Cuban as I am, I sympathize with their sentiments, though I also agree with Obama’s efforts to restore relations and oppose our outdated and ridiculous embargo against the island. Castro’s revolution brought universal education and health care to the Cuban people and made Cuba its own nation after decades as an American puppet. But he turned the island into a totalitarian state that oppressed everyone who did not conform to his ideas of the revolution. Though Castro’s brother and successor Raúl has made some reforms, Cuba remains to this day what it has been for more than 55 years. Though we could not imagine a world without Fidel Castro, the world would have been better off if he had never been born.
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We’re in your neighborhood! Swedish proudly supports the LGBTQ community Mill Creek Campus
We’re in your neighborhood!
Edmonds Edmonds Campus
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Cherry Hill Campus First Hill Campus
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Beacon HIll Primary Care West Seattle Primary Care Children’s Clinic-West Seattle
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Learn more at Swedish.org/primarycare or 1-800-SWEDISH.
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Celebrating 41 Years!
Swedish Medical Center and the LGBTQ Community: A year-end wrap up Dr Kevin Wang MD Faculty Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency Program Special to the SGN I can’t believe it has been a year since Swedish and Seattle Gay News started this incredible partnership. Over the past year, we’ve covered diabetes, colon cancer screening, health education, Swedish’s involvement in our community, basic LGBTQ health, the quagmire with e-cigarettes and Swedish doulas supporting our pregnant LGBTQ community. If you didn’t get the opportunity to see those articles, here are the links: January – Introduction http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_01/ page11.cfm February – Diabetes http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_06/ page8.cfm March – Colorectal Cancer Screening http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_10/ page10.cfm April – Health Education http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_14/ page10.cfm May – Building Community Benefit http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_19/ page9.cfm June – LGBTQ Health Part I http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_23/ page10.cfm July – LGBTQ Health Part II http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_27/ page9.cfm August – E-cigarettes http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_32/ page18.cfm October – Doula Support for LGBTQ Families http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_41/
Dr Kevin Wang – Photo courtesy of Swedish Medical
page9.cfm November – Pain Management http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews44_45/ page9.cfm This year marked a significant shift in our focus in building relationships with the LGBTQ community and the programs that support us. We’ve worked hard to provide additional clinical support by providing Basic Life Support training and medical supplies to the amazing group at Camp Ten Trees in an effort to provide a safe environment for the LGBTQ youth campers along with providing screening services at this year’s Rainbow Health Fair. We also worked hard to solidify relationships with Seattle Pride, Lifelong AIDS Alliance,
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END AIDS Walk to support the great work our LGBTQ organizations do in our community. We’re also working to help provide a more welcoming environment for our LGBTQ patients by working to create systemwide training for LGBTQ cultural competency training, implementing Q Cards and gender neutral bathrooms in our clinics and hospitals while making changes to our electronic health record system to make it more inclusive in areas of gender identity. I’m also proud to announce that Swedish will be holding its first LGBTQ conference for patient care providers. This will be held in April 2017 to teach providers the basics to lesbian, gay and bisexual health along with education in the basics to trans care and how to provide hormone therapy. We’ll have a patient panel that will speak
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to our providers on how to set up a safe environment along with an opportunity for our audience members to ask questions in a judgment-free arena. And, most importantly, our amazing community programs and organizations will have an exhibition area to educate our system in the fantastic services they provide our LGBTQ community. I want to end this article by quoting part of what I wrote in January to emphasize why I feel so strongly about this and why I’m so grateful Swedish is supporting us. “We’re doing this so that we can continue to support our patients’ journeys towards emotional and physical well-being in a collaborative and culturally competent way.” Can we do better? Absolutely. But we’re working hard to provide my LGBTQ family the care that you’re looking for in a healthcare system. We’re hoping that, by continuing to work with the Seattle Gay News and our LGBTQ community groups, we can give you important health updates and to let you know what Swedish Medical Center is doing to become a better provider of health care to you and me. If you have any questions or would like to respond to any issues raised in this column, I can be reached in care of the Seattle Gay News at sgn2@sgn.org – with ATTN: DR. KEVIN in the subject line. Thank you for this great opportunity – we look forward to another year! If you’re looking for a family medicine provider, please feel free to meet us at any of our residency clinics: 1. Swedish Family Medicine – First Hill, 1401 Madison St., Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 386-6111. 2. Swedish Family Medicine – Ballard (Swedish Community Health), 1801 NW Market St., Suite 403, Seattle, WA 98107. (206) 297-5100. 3. King County Public Health – Downtown Family Medicine, 2124 4th Ave., Seattle, WA 98121. (206) 477-8222. Swedish Medical Group has a number of other primary care clinics in the Greater Seattle area as well. Visit www.swedish.org or call 1 (800) SWEDISH / 1-800-793-3474 for additional details and locations.
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New deputy national security advisor shunned Gay brother dying of AIDS Central Park with my kids, and he was increasingly living – there was no secret about it – he was openly gay,” she recalled. “I had no problem with that; I loved him. But I was increasingly concerned because he talked about a very promiscuous lifestyle. And it saddened me a great deal.” McFarland admitted to the Times that she did not see her brother even once during the last two years of his life, even while he was dying in the hospital. She later regretted it, she claimed. “Do I wish I spent more time with him? Of course I do,” she said in 2006. “It’s the great regret that I have of my adult life, that I didn’t spend more time with him, that I was not with him in his final months.” After the publication of the newspaper article, McFarland reportedly tried to do damage control by releasing an additional statement blaming the reporter for uncovering her callousness. “In seeking to put a painful past behind me, I wrote two candid letters to my parents in 1992 at the advice of a counselor,” she said. “Now, in the midst of a political campaign, those letters have found their way into the hands of a magazine reporter.”
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Fox News talking head KT McFarland, soon to be Donald Trump’s deputy national security advisor, outed her Gay brother in a letter to their parents and then shunned him as he died of AIDS in 1995. McFarland’s brother, Michael Troia, died June 8, 1995. “Have you ever wondered why I have never had anything to do with Mike and have never let my daughters see him, although we live only fifteen minutes away from each other?” McFarland wrote to their parents in 1992. “He has been a lifelong homosexual, most of his relationships brief, fleeting onenight stands.” The letter was made public in a 2006 New York Times profile of McFarland when she was mentioned as a possible Republican nominee to challenge Hillary Clinton for the US Senate. Although McFarland lived near her brother for 10 years, she avoided seeing him because of his sexual orientation, she told the newspaper. “I was really living a life of going to
NC GOVERNOR continued from cover
number of polling places and requiring photo ID. McCrory became notorious for sponsoring a draconian anti-LGBT bill that repealed local nondiscrimination ordinances and barred Transgender people from gender-appropriate restrooms. As North Carolina’s attorney general, Cooper refused to defend the law in court. McCrory has challenged more than 90,000 ballots in Durham County, where Cooper ran up a substantial lead, alleging voting “irregularities.” As Cooper’s lead
KT McFarland – Photo by Gage Skidmore
widened, McCrory added challenges in a number of other counties, but local voting officials strenuously denied any problems. McCrory also said he would seek a statewide recount, but Cooper is now far enough ahead in the ballot count that state officials are not obligated to honor his request. On November 30, the State Board of Elections took up a request filed by a Republican attorney for a hand recount of all North Carolina ballots, and it ordered a recount in a dozen precincts in Durham County. The Durham elections board already rejected the attorney’s previous request, but McCrory’s campaign emailed supporters urging them to contact the state board and
say they want the recount. North Carolina law does allow county election officers to order recounts on their own. Cooper’s campaign cited their widening margin of victory to call once again on McCrory to concede. McCrory told the Associated Press on November 30 that he is “going to respect the process and respect the results” and expects others to do the same. Meanwhile, the Charlotte Observer denounced McCrory’s demands as a political ploy to support future voter suppression efforts. “[McCrory] and his fellow scaremongers have disrespected democracy and honest election workers of both parties while
slandering innocent North Carolina citizens by recklessly accusing them of felonies,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial. “In doing so, he has further tarnished his already-stained legacy and will be remembered always for the lack of grace he showed in what may be his final election. “His behavior is so incomprehensible – he fights in the face of virtually certain defeat – that it suggests there is an alternative goal. Like President-elect Donald Trump’s, McCrory’s creation of phantom election cheats tills the ground for future voter suppression efforts. Flimsy though the allegations are, they are all legislative leaders would need in their efforts to justify politically motivated restrictions.”
NDAA BILL
continued from cover military spending and is considered “must pass” legislation. Senior Congressional staff members told reporters on November 29 that Democrats and Republicans had reached agreement on final language that preserves LGBT protections put in place by the Obama administration. In 2014 President Obama signed an executive order adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories for companies that do business with the federal government. Since all major US companies get federal contracts, the order gave federal protection to millions of LGBT employees. Republican Rep. Steve Russell attached an amendment to the NDAA that would have created a “religious exemption” to the nondiscrimination order. Democrats objected that the Russell amendment would have allowed employers to discriminate against LGBT employees, and refused to support the NDAA with the amendment added. Negotiations between the two sides went on for months before a compromise version was put together. In 2009, then-state Rep. Russell introduced a bill that would have instructed Oklahoma officials to opt out of reporting anti-LGBT hate crimes to the federal gov-
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Republican Rep. Steve Russell – Photo courtesy of mediad.publicbroadcasting.net
ernment, because, he said, it would hinder the state’s prosecution of necrophilia. “The federal government should not be creating a special class of people, and that is just what they did when they passed and signed this bill,” Russell said at the time. “All crimes against another person have some level of hate in them, and people can
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be assured that our laws that protect people against crimes such as murder are sufficient to protect everyone.” “The law is very vague to begin with,” Russell said. “Sexual orientation is a very vague word that could be extended to extremes like necrophilia.” Russell added that he worried the fed-
eral government would prosecute religious leaders who spoke out on moral issues. He said he was concerned that if an LGBT person were killed, the blame might be placed onto a religious leader who preached out against the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Seattle Sounders advance to first MLS Cup Final on December 10 by Albert Rodriguez SGN A&E Writer It’s the most wonderful time of the year for soccer fans, and this year particularly for Seattle Sounders faithful. The Sounders advanced to their first ever MLS Cup Final, the soccer equivalent of the Super Bowl, by defeating the Colorado Rapids in a two game Western Conference Championship series that ended with Seattle outscoring its opponent 3-1. The team won both contests convincingly, 2-1 on November 22 at CenturyLink
Field and 1-0 on November 27 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver, to face either Montreal or Toronto for the championship. A win by Montreal would allow the Sounders to host the MLS Cup Final at CenturyLink Field by virtue of a better overall season record, however a Toronto win would send Seattle to Eastern Canada for the match. Playing for the MLS Cup is icing on a big delicious cake for Seattle, which at one point this year posted a disappointing 5-132 record, before the club made some crucial adjustments – i.e. replacing its head coach
– and then turned things around completely in the latter half of the season. They weren’t expected to be in the championship, but now they’re a match away from the title. Brad Evans, team captain of the Seattle Sounders FC, interviewed twice with Seattle Gay News – in June ahead of the club-sponsored “Pride Day” and two weeks ago, along with teammate Hercules Gomez – to preview the Western Conference finals. The Sounders have one of the most devoted fan bases of any sport, known globally for their pre-game festivities and record attendance at CenturyLink Field, and among
their admirers is a substantial and growing percentage of LGBT fans. At press time, the final Montreal-Toronto match had not been played. Should the Sounders host the MLS Cup Final, visit the team’s official website, SoundersFC. com, for ticket information. If the match is played in Toronto, look for it to be televised on December 10 and check your local cable listings for broadcast time.
Sounders celebrate their victory against the Colorado Rapids, advancing them to their very first MLS Cup Final – Photo courtesy of usatoday.com
HHS PICK
continued from cover repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). According to Vox magazine, Price is “the HHS secretary you’d pick if you were dead serious about dismantling the law.” Trump says Price “is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible health care to every American,” but he is likely to terminate coverage for millions of people now insured under the ACA. Price’s plan, which will now become government policy after Trump is sworn in, would replace the ACA with a plan that
does more to benefit healthy, wealthy, and young Americans at the expense of the sick, old, and poor. While it would not automatically terminate the ACA provision that insurance providers cover people with preexisting conditions – HIV for example – Price’s plan would allow insurance companies to charge them much more unless they maintained what is called “continuous coverage.” In other words, if an individual changed jobs and therefore insurance policies, or lost their job, resulting in a gap in insurance coverage, their new insurance company could raise premiums without any restrictions. The “continuous coverage” provision is also a key part of the ACA replacement advocated by House Speaker Paul Ryan, so it
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is very likely to be a part of future national health care proposals. Price’s plan also calls for the full repeal of the Medicaid expansion, a program that currently covers millions of low-income Americans. Price has a 0 rating from HRC, meaning that he opposed LGBT rights at literally every opportunity, and an equally low rating from Planned Parenthood. “Just lies,” Sanders says No sooner did Trump name Price to the HHS spot than Bernie Sanders denounced him. “Donald Trump asked workers and seniors to vote for him because he was the only Republican candidate who would not cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – programs that are of life-and-death
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importance for millions of Americans,” Sanders said in a November 29 statement. “Now, he has nominated a person for secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price, who has a long history of wanting to do exactly the opposite of what Trump campaigned on.” Trump should publicly admit that his promises “were just lies,” Sanders added. “Rep. Price has a long history of wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. What hypocrisy! Mr. Trump needs to tell the American people that what he said during the campaign were just lies, or else appoint an HHS secretary who will protect these programs and do what Trump said he would do,” he said.
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HIV criminalization laws are outdated and disproportionately affect marginalized communities by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor According to the Williams Institute, outdated HIV criminalization laws in California do not reflect the highly effective medical advances for reducing the risk of HIV transmission and extending the quantity and quality of life for people living with HIV. “HIV criminalization” describes laws that either criminalize otherwise legal conduct or that increase the penalties for illegal conduct based upon a person’s HIV-positive status. California has four HIV-specific criminal laws. In “HIV Criminalization in California: Evaluation of Transmission Risk,” researchers Amira Hasenbush and Dr. Brian Zanoni suggest that these HIV criminal laws in California are not in line with medical science and technology related to HIV and may, in fact, work against best public health practices. “Nine out of ten convictions under an HIV-specific criminal law or sentence enhancement have no proof of exposure to HIV, let alone transmission,” said Hasenbush. “No HIV criminal laws in California require transmission for a conviction.” Key findings include: • From 1988 until June 2014, 379 incidents resulted in convictions for an HIV-specific felony or sentence enhancement. Of those,
California courtroom – Photo courtesy of nachtlewis.com
100% required no actual transmission of HIV, 98% did not require intent to transmit HIV, and 93% involved no specific allegation of conduct that is likely to have transmitted the virus. • Ninety percent of convictions were in solicitation incidents in which it is unknown whether any contact beyond a conversation or an exchange of money was initiated, thus possibly not leading to any exposure to HIV.
• Three percent of incidents involved oral sex, a sex act whose transmission risk is estimated as “low” by the CDC. • Only 7% of incidents involved vaginal or anal sex by definition of the crime. According to the Williams Institute, HIV criminal laws have been disproportionately applied to sex workers. “This has a disproportionate impact on women and people of color. Since solicitation by definition
includes survival and subsistence sex work, these laws are also likely to disproportionately impact LGBT youth and transgender women of color.” The institute says that laws that criminalize conduct of a person who knows that they are HIV positive may disincentivize testing and work against best public health practice.
DRAIN THE SWAMP continued from cover
Commerce. Both picks come from the world of investment capital and both have records of making big money at the expense of ordinary working people. Before Mnuchin was involved with Trump’s campaign, he was a Goldman Sachs executive – following his father, who also worked for the investment firm – and then a venture capitalist and mortgage banker. Mnuchin left Goldman Sachs in 2002, and in 2004 founded the hedge fund Dune Capital Management. His company invested in at least two Trump real estate developments before Trump sued him. He and Trump subsequently settled without – apparently – any hard feelings. After the 2008 economic crash, Mnuchin bought the bankrupt mortgage bank IndyMac, renamed it OneWest, and launched an orgy of home foreclosures. MSNBC estimates that Mnuchin’s bank foreclosed on at least 36,000 homeowners. According to the New York Times, OneWest “was involved in a string of lawsuits over questionable foreclosures, and settled several cases for millions of dollars.” Through so-called “shared loss agreements” that Mnuchin secured from the FDIC when he bought IndyMac, he was able to get paid by federal regulators for foreclosing on people’s homes, as well reselling the properties afterwards. According to FDIC reports, as of December 2014 the agency had already paid out over $1 billion to OneWest for the costs of failed loans that resulted in foreclosures. The FDIC estimated it would have to pay out another $1.4 billion to OneWest before the end of 2019. Fair-housing groups also filed a complaint with the federal gover nment, charging that OneWest was not meeting its legal obligation to make loans in minority neighborhoods. Mnuchin bought IndyMac/OneWest for
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Gary Cohn – Photo courtesy of bloomberg.com
$1.6 billion and subsequently sold it to the CIT Group in 2015 for $3.6 billion, more than doubling his original investment. According to Bloomberg, Mnuchin retains $97 million in CIT stock. Wilbur Ross, nominated to be Secretary of Commerce, also made his money investing in failing companies. In the late 1990s, Ross started a $200 million fund at Rothschild Inc., where he worked as an investment consultant, to buy up distressed assets. Later, on April Fools’ Day 2000, Ross raised an additional $450 million to invest in failing companies. Like Mitt Romney and other “vulture capitalists,” Ross made money off bankrupt firms through what are called “leveraged buyouts.” In a leveraged buyout, the buyers put up the assets of the company they want to buy as collateral for the loan to buy it.
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Once they’ve bought the company, they then start to sell off parts of the business, shut down unprofitable plants, and lay off workers. If the remaining parts of the business turn into something profitable, they make money. But even if they can’t turn the business around, they can liquidate all the assets and still make money because they didn’t risk any of their own capital in the original purchase. Ross and Trump have an existing business relationship dating back to the early 1990s, when Ross invested in Trump’s failing Atlantic City casinos and helped him shed a substantial portion of his debts by the strategic use of bankruptcy laws. Ross made most of his estimated net worth of $2.9 billion gaming the financial system in that way, but that didn’t stop him from chiseling his business partners.
In February 2014, for example, Ross settled a lawsuit brought by investors in South Carolina for $81 million. Again, in August this year, Ross agreed to reimburse investors $11.8 million and pay a fine of $2.3 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into his company’s misappropriation of fees. In addition to Mnuchin and Ross, who have already been selected, Trump is reportedly considering Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn for a senior post, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Cohn met with Trump on November 29. If appointed to the OMB, Cohn would be in charge of Trump’s budget policy after he takes office in January.
Celebrating 41 Years!
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December 2, 2016
Celebrating 41 Years!
Hotline dedicated to LGBT elders launched by SAGE by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), the country’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ older adults, has launched the country’s first hotline dedicated to LGBT elders. The SAGE LGBT Elder Hotline is operated by the GLBT National Help Center and staffed entirely by LGBT volunteers. SAGE says that the new program responds to the fact that many LGBT people live in parts of the country that lack community support. “Prioritizing the needs of LGBT older people is at the core of our mission,” said SAGE CEO Michael Adams. “Vulnerable elders need us, no matter where they live in the country. The SAGE LGBT Hotline will help ensure that we reach more isolated LGBT elders than ever before.” SAGE officials say the holidays can be a lonely time, “especially for older LGBT people, who are less likely to have children and more likely to suffer from social isolation.” The hotline was established to provide support, as well as information and referrals, to LGBT older people no matter where they live. The hotline is live and ready to take calls at 1-888-234-SAGE. It is open Monday through Friday from 4:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern time, and on Saturday from noon to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. LGBT elders can also contact the hot-
line at SAGE@GLBThotline.org. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBT older adults and their caregivers; advocates for public
policy changes that address the needs of LGBT older people; and provides education and technical assistance for aging providers and LGBT organizations through its National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, and cultural competence training through
SAGECare. With offices in New York City, Washington, DC, and Chicago, SAGE coordinates a growing network of 30 affiliates in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Learn more at sageusa.org and lgbtagingcenter.org.
South Africa recruiting for HIV vaccine study by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer South African researchers are enrolling subjects for what they describe as the largest HIV vaccine study since 2009. According to BBC News, South Africa’s Medical Research Council plans to enroll 5,400 sexually active young men and women in the study. About seven million people in South Africa are living with the virus, which is one reason why the trial is taking place there. The vaccine regimen being tested is based on one used in a trial in Thailand in 2009, which had a protection rate of about 30%. Results from South Africa are expected in four years. “It will tell us whether the initial success observed [at a smaller scale] will bear fruit in the form of a safe and effective HIV vaccine designed for the people of southern Africa,” lead researcher Dr. Glenda Gray said. As part of the study, participants will receive a total of five injections over one year, says the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is co-sponsoring the trial. Participants who become HIV positive during the trial will be referred to local medical providers for care and treatment, the NIH adds, and will be advised on how to reduce their risk of transmitting the virus. Awethu Benenengu, a 20-year-old construction worker, who is one of the participants, told BBC reporter Nomsa Maseko that he volunteered for personal reasons. “I decided to get involved because I don’t like the way my HIV-positive cousin is treated,” Benenengu said. “There is so much stigma. I want to be part of a generation that changes this,
Doctors (l) Larry Corey & Glenda Gray talk to a study participant (middle) at the Setshaba Research Centre – Photo courtesy of mrc.ac.za
and I want my children to be proud one day of their father for getting involved in making history.” According to the United Nations, more than 30 million people have died from
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AIDS since the 1980s. Recent breakthroughs in antiretroviral treatments have improved the life span of AIDS patients, but the only effective prevention is expensive pre-exposure prophy-
laxis (PrEP) treatment, or the use of barrier methods such as condoms. Researchers said they hope the vaccine will be “the final nail in the coffin” for HIV.
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Seattle Gay News 19
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Celebrating 41 Years!
Australian teens replicate Daraprim, undercut Martin Shkreli by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A group of Australian high school students has created 3.7 grams of pyrimethamine, the active ingredient in the drug Daraprim. While the students spent about $20 on their experiment, the quantity of pyrimethamine they manufactured would sell for at least $35,000 – and as much as $110,000 – in the US market. Daraprim was the drug acquired by pharmaceutical tycoon Martin Shkreli in 2015. After buying rights to the drug, Shkreli hiked the price from $13.50 per dose to $750. The drug is used to treat parasitic infections in patients with weak immune systems, especially people with HIV and pregnant women. In most countries, including Australia, Daraprim is sold for between $1 and $2 per pill. A second US-based company, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, has made an alternative compound to Daraprim, which could be sold for as little as $1 per dose, but the drug is not FDA approved. The 17-year-old students at Sydney
Sydney Grammar School students (l) Brandon Lee & Milan Leonard – Photos courtesy of abc.net
Grammar School worked in their school laboratory to create Daraprim cheaply in order to draw attention to its inflated price
overseas, which student Milan Leonard said was “ridiculous.” Shkreli is currently awaiting trial on
multiple securities fraud counts arising from disputes with former partners in his various pharmaceutical businesses.
WEEKLY PETS: Adoption Center Sunday – Wednesday | 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Thursday – Saturday | 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Phone: (425) 649-7563 Email: adoption@seattlehumane.org
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Meet Sobe, a 1-year-old American Pit Bull mix. She’s a happy girl who loves a good long play. She will cheerfully follow you anywhere with her tail forever wagging. When Sobe is feeling affectionate, she’ll lean up against you and roll over for tummy rubs. She’s sure to be a sweet and loyal member of your family. If you have room in your heart and home for this happy girl, then come meet her today at Seattle Humane! Introduce to children 10 years and older. Resident dogs are required to meet Sobe prior to adoption. Cat free home.
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Meet Clarice, a sweet 2 year-old grey and white female kitty. This reserved and loyal gal likes to work undercover to keep an eye on the household, slipping into the shadows as she investigates. But once Clarice knows you, she’ll come out and be your personal purring machine. If you need a loyal cat that knows how to stay out of trouble and will always keep your secrets, come down to Seattle Humane and see if Clarice is the cat for the job.
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December 2, 2016
Celebrating 41 Years!
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Seattle Gay News 23