SGN Jan 5, 2018 - Part 1

Jeremy Jordan to appear with Seattle Symphony in “Broadway Today” concerts

Spielberg’s

Seattle Gay News

WA DOH passes groundbreaking rule creating new gender option for birth certificates

Rule creates gender marker “X” for those who identify as a gender that is not exclusively male or female

‘X’ will soon be a gender marker option on Washington state birth certificates. – Photo courtesy of state of Washington

SEATTLE – [On January 4, 2018], the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) passed a new rule that simplifies the process for a person to change the gender listed on their birth certificate. The rule

also creates a gender marker “X,” which represents a gender that is not exclusively male or female (such as nonbinary, intersex, agender, genderfluid, genderqueer, see GENDER MARKER “X” page 5

A farewell editorial – Part 2

by Shaun Knittel Special to the SGN

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Three months ago, at the end of September, Seattle Gay News staff writer and associate editor Shaun Knittel and his husband Yee-Shin Huang pulled up stakes here in Seattle and have relocated to Shaun’s hometown of Las Vegas, where they are settling into a new groove. Following are Shaun’s farewell remarks and reflections on his eight years

of community activism in Seattle’s LGBTQ community. SGN wishes Shaun and YeeShin the best in their new life in Las Vegas and thank him profoundly for his community service here in Seattle and at the SGN.]

It has been a great honor and privilege to write about the modern LGBTQ equality movement, as it happened, for the pages of

see SHAUN KNITTEL page 14

DOJ backs down, dismissing appeal of order putting ban on Transgender service members on hold

SAN FRANCISCO – [On December 22, 2017], the Trump administration withdrew its appeal of a lower court ruling halting implementation of its discriminatory plan to ban transgender people from

serving openly in the US armed services. Today’s actions clear the way for open enlistment by transgender people scheduled to begin [on January 1] and also

TRANS BAN page 12

HRC celebrates swearing-in of Alabama’s US senator, Doug Jones

WASHINGTON, DC – [On January 3], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, celebrated the swearing-in of former civil rights prosecutor Doug Jones to the US Senate.

HRC – which opened offices in Alabama in 2014 and first launched its #NoMoore campaign against Roy Moore

in 2016 – engaged in a public education campaign about Roy Moore’s record during the Republican primary and endorsed Sen. Jones in Alabama’s hotly contested special election. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, HRC organized dozens of events, recruited hundreds of volunteers, and partnered with the NAACP of Alabama on statewide get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.

DOUG JONES page 8

What is TRUVADA for PrEP?

TRUVADA for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a prescription medicine that is used together with safer sex practices to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This use is only for HIV-negative adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1. To help determine your risk of getting HIV-1, talk openly with your healthcare provider about your sexual health.

Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP?

Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP:

® You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA for PrEP. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1. Do not take TRUVADA to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-negative.

® Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP:

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP?

Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you:

® Already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status. If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

® Also take certain medicines to treat hepatitis B infection. What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP?

® You must continue to use safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1.

® You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP:

® Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months.

® If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away.

Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include:

® Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA.

® Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

® To further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1:

® Know your HIV status and the HIV status of your partners.

® Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV to infect you.

® Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior, such as having fewer sex partners.

® Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

® If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects:

® Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

® Bone problems, including bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP?

® All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis.

® Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. TRUVADA is not approved to treat HBV. If you have HBV and stop taking TRUVADA, your HBV may suddenly get worse. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

® If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA.

® If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. If you become HIV-positive, HIV can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

® All the medicines you take, including prescription and overthe-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

® If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include certain medicines to treat hepatitis C (HCV) infection.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP

Before starting TRUVADA for PrEP:

• You must be HIV-1 negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-1 negative.

• Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include flu-like symptoms, tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. Tell your healthcare provider if you have had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP:

• You must continue to use safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1.

• You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you think you were exposed to HIV-1 or have a flu-like illness while taking TRUVADA for PrEP.

• If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

• See the “How To Further Reduce Your Risk” section for more information.

TRUVADA may cause serious side effects, including:

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. TRUVADA is not approved to treat HBV. If you have HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP

TRUVADA for PrEP is a prescription medicine used together with safer sex practices to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This use is only for HIV-negative adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1.

• To help determine your risk of getting HIV-1, talk openly with your healthcare provider about your sexual health.

Do NOT take TRUVADA for PrEP if you:

• Already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status.

• Take certain medicines to treat hepatitis B infection.

HOW TO TAKE TRUVADA FOR PrEP

• Take 1 tablet once a day, every day, not just when you think you have been exposed to HIV-1.

• Do not miss any doses. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• Use TRUVADA for PrEP together with condoms and safer sex practices.

• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months. You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP.

IMPORTANT FACTS

This is only a brief summary of important information about taking TRUVADA for PrEPTM (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. This does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your medicine.

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF TRUVADA FOR PrEP

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects, including:

• Those in the “Most Important Information About TRUVADA for PrEP” section.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.

• Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.

• Bone problems.

Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP include stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. These are not all the possible side effects of TRUVADA. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking TRUVADA for PrEP.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP.

BEFORE TAKING TRUVADA FOR PrEP

Tell your healthcare provider if you:

• Have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis.

• Have any other medical conditions.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. If you become HIV-positive, HIV can pass to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

• Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with TRUVADA for PrEP.

HOW TO FURTHER REDUCE YOUR RISK

• Know your HIV status and the HIV status of your partners.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior, such as having fewer sex partners.

• Do not share needles or personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them.

GET MORE INFORMATION

• This is only a brief summary of important information about TRUVADA for PrEP. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more, including how to prevent HIV infection.

• Go to start.truvada.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5

• If you need help paying for your medicine, visit start.truvada.com for program information.

Goals for the upcoming New Year

by Mark Segal Philadelphia Gay News

OK, someone has to say it. We’ve survived the first year of this administration, but it has done damage to both the country’s reputation and our community. And if you feel that way, 2018 is your year to correct that path.

This New Year’s, you have reason to celebrate because it is the year of resistance and you are a part of that resistance. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been to a demonstration, posted on your personal social

media, or protested any of the hate-filled actions of Donald Trump’s first year. None of that counts, but your action this year is how you do count.

Let’s take a phrase that many Republicans and right-wingers like to use and turn it on them: 2018 is the year we take our country back and, to make it clear, back to inclusion and appreciating diversity. And most importantly, let’s bring back our sanity and accountability.

Now, here’s where you come in. You only need to do one thing to make 2018 a stellar year.

Just vote.

And let’s be even clearer. Since many Republicans have been part of this country’s debauchery and have blocked any attempt at accountability, there is only one way that can change: You need to vote Democrat for both your Senate and

So there is no confusion, the election I’m referring to is the November election, not the primaries. The situation we are in now happened because few people came out to vote. If you want to be part of the resistance, or just want a solution to this madness, make voting in the 2018 General Election your New Year’s resolution. That will make it a great 2018.

Mark Segal, PGN publisher, is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media. His recently published memoir, “And Then I Danced,” is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or at your favorite bookseller

transgender, Two Spirit, and others). Washington is one of only three states and Washington, DC to acknowledge people outside the gender binary on government documents.

Gender equity and transgender rights advocates – including Gender Justice League, Legal Voice, Pride Foundation, and Ingersoll Gender Center – praised the DOH for taking steps to recognize all Washingtonians as who they are.

“This is a monumental step by the state to recognize that there are thousands of Washingtonians who are neither male nor female,” said Jeremiah Allen Director of TRANSform Washington. “This follows a growing international recognition of the rights of indigenous and gender-diverse people to be recognized fully for who they are by their governments.”

Currently, state law requires either a court order or a doctor’s letter if a person needs to change the gender listed on their birth certificate. Even then, the gender options are restricted to male and female. Under the new rule, adults will have the right to self-attest to the gender marker change, without a court order or doctor’s letter. However, minors will still need a

statement from an approved health care provider, and a parent or legal guardian will need to complete the application.

“We know that binary gender markers on government documents, including birth certificates, are insufficient both as a means to accurately reflect gender and to ensure equality,” said Danni Askini, executive director of Gender Justice League. “Today, the Department of Health took a critical step in eliminating social and legal barriers that undermine the health, safety, and equality of people because of their gender.”

The alternative to the binary designations applies only to minors and adults who apply to update their birth certificates. The gender marker options for newborns will still be male and female and undetermined. Further, the process for updating gender markers on other state identification – such as a driver license or ID card – remains unchanged.

“There are, of course, some logistics to work out, as the Department of Health is now the only state agency that allows a gender marker that is not strictly male or female,” says Karter Booher, executive director of Ingersoll Gender Center. “The US Department of State, which controls the passport process, also doesn’t recognize genders outside the gender binary. We are celebrating this initial victory and looking forward to a multiyear, multiagency effort to recognize people of all genders.”

More information on the rule can be found on the Department of Health website.

Gender Justice League is Washington state’s civil and human rights organization on gender and sexuality, whose work seeks to empower and transform our communities into places where people of all genders and sexualities can live their lives safely, true to themselves, and free from discrimination.

Legal Voice is a progressive feminist organization using the power of the law to make positive change for women and girls in the Northwest. Legal Voice uses groundbreaking litigation, legislative advocacy, and community education to fight gender oppression and injustice in the legal system.

Ingersoll Gender Center is an organization of, by, and for Transgender and genderdiverse people that provides mutual support through peer-led support groups, advocacy in navigating resources, community organizing, and education – all in the pursuit of collective self-determination.

TRANSform Washington is a public education campaign celebrating the dignity, diversity, and humanity of Transgender and gender-diverse people. We believe all Washingtonians deserve to be safe, to be their true selves, and to live free from discrimination. TRANSform Washington is supported by the Pride Foundation.

Courtesy of Legal Voice

New York City Council elects Poz Gay man as speaker

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

The New York City Council on January 3 elected an HIV-positive Gay man, Corey Johnson, as its speaker. The vote was 48-1. Johnson takes over from Melissa MarkViverito, who was term-limited out of the office.

Councilwoman Inez Barron, who mounted a last-minute bid for speaker to protest the lack of black candidates, was the only no vote.

Johnson has vowed to override any potential vetoes from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, which never happened under Mark-Viverito. Nevertheless, Johnson’s politics are said to align closely with the mayor’s progressive agenda.

Johnson’s election to head the New York City legislative branch caused some controversy, but not because of his HIV status or his sexual orientation.

According to the New York Daily News, Johnson got nearly $16,000 in bundled campaign donations from Jordan Roth, a major Broadway theater owner, and subsequently spoke against a proposed tax hike that targeted theaters.

At a January 24, 2017, hearing on the tax measure, Johnson grilled city officials who testified in support of the hike. The legislation would have made Broadway theatre owners benefiting from skyrocketing real estate prices contribute more to a fund that

supports smaller stage productions and boosts diversity in theaters.

While the community board that covers the Theater District backed the proposal, Johnson opposed it. Days after the hearing,

Mayor de Blasio’s administration scrapped the proposal.

Johnson campaign spokesperson Chris Coffey said the theater industry is a major employer offering solid, middle-class jobs.

“Corey was proud to support the industry from his first days in the City Council, and he will keep doing that as speaker,” he said.

HRC responds to failure of discriminatory and invasive “voter fraud” commission led by Mike Pence

WASHINGTON, D.C. — [On January 4, 2018], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, issued the following response after the Trump-Pence administration announced [it] would disband the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, led by Vice President Mike Pence, following numerous lawsuits and no real evidence of election fraud.

Last May, Mike Pence was named chairman of the newly created commission to prove [his] and Donald Trump’s claim that millions of black and Latino voters had cast ballots illegally in the 2016 election. It was disbanded on [January 3], largely due to the efforts of a coalition of organizations, including the Brennan Center, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (NAACP-LDF), the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, state chapters of the NAACP, the

DOUG JONES

continued from cover

“Thanks to hundreds of thousands of fair-minded Alabamians who rejected the politics of hate and fear, we have one more vote for equality and justice in the US Senate today,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “We look forward to working closely with Sen. Jones to advance LGBTQ equality. Let his victory in one of the reddest of states be a lesson to politicians everywhere: if you come after our rights and attack our families, we will organize, mobilize, and come after you on Election Day.”

HRC organized more than 20 GOTV events – including phone banks, canvasses, and community events – in the closing weeks of the campaign. For two months, more than 160 HRC volunteers and 11 HRC staff worked to reach the nearly

American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. HRC is proud to be part of this coalition.

“This is a victory for democracy,” said David Stacy, Government Affairs Director for HRC. “The Trump-Pence administration’s dangerous and false claims of election fraud were a farce from the start and a threat to the voting rights of all Americans, particularly citizens of color. Our government has an obligation to protect the right to privacy of all its citizens and ensure their fair and equal access to the ballot box. Mike Pence has failed miserably on all counts.”

After seven months and an earmarked budget of $250,000 for FY2017, Mike Pence has been unable to uncover significant evidence of voter fraud despite maintaining since December 2016 that millions of people had engaged in criminal conduct during the election.

200,000 “Equality Voters” across Alabama – a voting bloc comprised of not only the 60,000 LGBTQ voters in the state but also the thousands of additional allies HRC has identified statewide. HRC also partnered with allied civil rights organizations, including the NAACP of Alabama and others, to increase voter turnout. During the Republican primary earlier this fall, HRC launched direct mail, online ads, and robocalls targeting receptive voters to make them aware of Moore’s extreme views.

From the day HRC opened the doors of its Alabama office in 2014, the organization has engaged in a ground campaign against Roy Moore in an effort to stop his attacks on LGBTQ people across the state. In 2016, HRC Alabama initiated the #NoMoore campaign to remove Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to implement a ruling that brought marriage equality to Alabama. HRC, the Southern

The Commission immediately ran into trouble when [it] ordered election officials in all 50 states to hand over private voter data, including Social Security numbers and voting histories. This was met by the refusal and outcry of state election officials, including Mississippi Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who told the commission to “go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.”

In November, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a member himself, sued the commission, claiming it lacked transparency and expressing a fear that it would lead to policy recommendations that hadn’t been properly vetted. This followed an announcement by the Government Accountability Office that [it was] opening an investigation into the commission on the request of several senators.

Additionally, the NAACP-LDF has issued a FOIA request with the Department

Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and our in-state partners succeeded; following a review by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, Moore was suspended from the bench without pay for his actions – the second time that he was removed from that position for disobeying legal and ethical standards.

Moore’s opposition to marriage equality was not the only element of his crusade against LGBTQ people; over the course of his career, he attempted to deny a lesbian mother custody of her child, called for the criminalization of LGBTQ people, and repeatedly attacked the dignity of LGBTQ Alabamians. Moore supports banning transgender service members, has compared LGBTQ people to animals, and claimed LGBTQ people are unfit to be parents. Watch HRC’s video on Moore’s record [at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yn6qstJ8R8c].

In an effort to turn resistance into

of Homeland Security, [which] Trump has now tasked to take over the fraud panel, to see all work and communication done by the commission.

The fight to protect fair access to the ballot box will not end here. The Human Rights Campaign will continue to support efforts to protect voting rights.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of the HRC

action, last summer HRC launched the largest grassroots expansion and earliest deployment of resources in its 37-year history, through HRC Rising. HRC has already hired a dozen new staff to lead the effort, aimed at expanding and mobilizing its grassroots army of three million members to bolster pro-equality candidates and initiatives in key states across 2018. To get involved or learn more about HRC Rising, visit hrc.im/rising.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of HRC

TRANS BAN

prevent transgender service members from being discharged while litigation proceeds.

“We are relieved that we don’t have to hit pause on the constitutional rights of transgender people who are willing and able to serve our country,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn said. “Transgender service members have been serving openly and proudly for more than a year, and others are similarly ready to join their ranks. Federal district courts in DC, Maryland, Seattle, and Los Angeles have seen through the administration’s hollow arguments in support of discrimination and rejected them, as have the federal appeals courts. The war isn’t over, but the government has waived the white flag before this battle even got started. The administration clearly saw the writing on the wall and withdrew its desperate effort, for now, to block transgender people from openly enlisting in the armed services and serving their country.”

The administration’s withdrawal of its appeal is the latest step in the lawsuit brought by Lambda Legal and OutServeSLDN challenging the ban. Earlier this month, the US District Court for the Western District of Washington granted the motion filed by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN to preliminarily enjoin the government from taking actions inconsistent with the military policy that existed prior to July 26, 2017, under which transgender service members were allowed to serve openly, and transgender Americans seeking to join the military had a path forward for doing so.

“The decision shows that the government recognizes that its chances of reversing the district court were slim. We totally agree,” OutServe-SLDN Legal Director Peter Perkowski said. “There never was any rational justification for the exclusion of transgender people from serving openly, and one hopes the administration’s move this evening indicate it has taken the hint and will stop pursing a policy so clearly damaging to this nation’s military readiness.”

In the lawsuit, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN represent nine individual plaintiffs and three organizational plaintiffs – the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Seattle-based Gender Justice League, and the American Military Partner Association (AMPA) – who joined the lawsuit on behalf of their transgender members harmed by the ban.

In October, a US District Court judge in Washington, DC, granted a preliminary injunction in a similar lawsuit challenging the transgender military service ban filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). In November, a US District Court judge in Maryland granted a preliminary injunction in a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. And [recently], a US District Court judge in California granted a preliminary injunction in a case filed by Equality California, also joined by NCLR and GLAD. The DC and 4th Circuit Courts of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s efforts to secure stays on open enlistment in the two earlier cases.

The lawsuit is Karnoski v. Trump. Read more about the case here: https://www. lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/karnoskiv-trump

The Lambda Legal attorneys working on the case are: Peter Renn, Camilla B. Taylor, Tara Borelli, Natalie Nardecchia, Sasha Buchert, Kara Ingelhart, and Carl Charles. They are joined by co-counsel Peter Perkowski of OutServe-SLDN. Also on the legal team are pro-bono co-counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Newman Du Wors LLP.

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV through impact litigation, education, and public policy work.

Courtesy

of Lambda Legal

Genetically modified stem cells may provide HIV cure, study suggests

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Genetically modified stem cells may be able to suppress – or even eradicate –HIV infections, a new study by a team of researchers based at UCLA suggests.

The study, published on December 28, tested whether genetically engineered cells could be made to kill HIV-infected cells. The method is similar to an FDA-approved gene therapy for cancer.

While the study was small – only using two monkeys and cells grown in lab dishes – it appears to be promising, scientists said.

“The demonstration here that stem cells can be engineered to respond to AIDS virus–infected cells in an animal model is an impressive first step for harnessing the immune system to target HIV,” said Dr. Bruce Walker, director of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, who in the 1990s did pioneering research on the genetic engineering of immune cells to fight HIV and was not involved in the new study.

“The effect at this point is modest but clearly gives us something to build on.”

First, researchers genetically engineered stem cells that produce both the T-cells that attack HIV and other blood cells. The stem cells were then used to produce surface molecules, called chimeric antigen receptors or CARs, on the T cells that are able to recognize and attach to antigens on target cells. That antigen-receptor docking activates the CAR-T cells, causing them to kill the targeted cells.

Researchers were able to create an HIV-

specific CAR. One part of the CAR, called CD4, hunts down and binds the HIV, while an additional surface molecule, called C46, interferes with HIV’s ability to enter a T cell.

That allowed T cells to detect viruses without being infected themselves. It also let them find and destroy HIV-infected cells, which have some of the same T cell–attracting surface molecules as HIV itself.

The engineered T cells not only destroyed HIV-infected cells in both lab dishes and macaques, they also persisted for more than two years.

That suggests that they can “provide long-lasting HIV-killing,” said immunologist Scott Kitchen of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who led the study published in PLOS Pathogens “We think the stem cell approach has greater potential to suppress HIV long-term and even eradicate the virus.”

Clinical trials could begin in a couple of years, Kitchen said. He has been in talks with the private gene therapy company Calimmune and others about developing the approach.

Many barriers to developing a realworld HIV treatment still remain, however.

CAR-T therapy for cancer, using essentially the same clinical approach, is priced at nearly $500,000. An HIV treatment in that price range is clearly out of reach for most of the world, especially poorer countries, which have the majority of HIV/ AIDS cases. Some 17 million of the almost 37 million people living with HIV/AIDS aren’t even receiving relatively cheap antiretroviral therapy.

Price “is the main issue here,” Walker cautioned. “The only real viable role for this kind of therapy would be if it can eliminate the viral reservoir and cure infection, which has not been addressed in this paper. The price tag then could possibly be justified in that case, but given that one can lead a relatively normal life with one pill once a day, it is hard to see how CAR-T cell therapy could be justified just to replace” exist-

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

ing therapies. Engineered stem cells “would initially be an expensive approach but would hopefully save the necessity and expense of being on antiretroviral therapy for a lifetime,” Kitchen said. He said he and his colleagues are working on delivering the engineered cells like a vaccine, which might make the treatment more affordable.

Drag queen and 2 women to replace Three Kings in Madrid’s Epiphany parade

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer

Madrid’s traditional Epiphany parade will go on as usual on January 5, but with a twist. This year, instead of the Three Kings, the stars of the show will be a drag queen and two women performers.

The annual Three Kings parades are a beloved feature of Spanish Christmas celebrations, popular with children. Traditionally, three local men dress up as the Magi, or Three Kings, from the Christmas story and parade through their town or village, handing out sweets.

This year’s alternative version was proposed by the Orgullo Vallecano association, a Gay Pride collective in Madrid’s Vallecas neighborhood.

“We planned to do a parallel parade, but when we proposed it in the municipal council, they told us to join the main one,” a representative told El Mundo (in Spanish).

The “Three Queens” float will carry the rainbow flag, and a flag aimed at children with the words, “Participate, dream, and imagine.”

“It will be a giant chariot with mothers, fathers, children – and super diverse,” drag performer Dnoé Lamiss said.

“It’s yet another example of the diversity of Madrid,” said Carla Antonelli, an LGBT rights activist and Socialist Party politician.

The substitution of queens for kings was approved by Madrid’s mayor and city council – the first left-wing municipal government in Spain’s capital since 1989. Elected in 2015, Madrid’s city government is based on a coalition between the Madrid Ahora party – supported by the leftist Podemos coalition – and the Socialist Party.

The rightist People’s Party, which controls

Spain’s national government, and the centerright Citizens’ Party are in opposition.

Both parties complained that the addition of a drag queen marred the parade’s traditional form.

“We support Gay Pride and the rest of the celebrations, but we believe the Kings’ Day should be respected as a religious holiday,” said José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the People’s Party spokesperson for the Madrid City Council.

“Sometimes, a Cavalcade of Kings must simply be what the children expect it to be

– a Cavalcade of Kings,” tweeted Begoña Villacís, a council member for the Citizens’ Party.

Lamiss told the Spanish newspaper El País that it was odd to object to female kings when in the traditional parade, a white actor would put on blackface to play King Balthazar.

“Why can a white man paint himself black to play Balthazar, while I who am black cannot make Balthazar a magical queen or a page?” she asked.

Singer La Prohibida – also known as

“The parade is for children, and it will be a party for the children. There will be no glitter, no crowns, no different dresses… It is a festive thing, but it is neither the Carnival of the Canary Islands nor Gay Pride,” the drag queen told El Mundo

the Seattle Gay News. For almost a decade now, I’ve had the opportunity to see our community during unforgettable highs and gut-wrenching lows.

It has been said that history only makes sense when looking back. After bearing witness to this movement I would agree. Although I considered myself a cognoscenti at the time of reporting, I willingly admit that I had no true way of knowing the tremendous impact many of these events would collectively have on the community, myself, and our readers. Simply put: I am forever indebted to the fact that I got the chance to write our history as it happened. This fact is something that I take great pride in and probably will for the rest of my life.

In an effort to make sense of it all or to, at the very least, put it into perspective, the publisher of Seattle Gay News has graciously allowed me a two-part editorial of which I am happy to oblige. I will do my best to stick to a timeline that begins in April 2009, although I might jump around a bit. I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to my readers than this. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have had writing it

[Last week the SGN ran Part 1 of Shaun’s farewell editorial which reviewed the Washington state and national push for marriage equality, including a spotlight on Washington state’s R-71 and R-74, and the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, including profiles of Margarethe “Grethe” Cammermeyer and Margaret Witt. This week we continue with the second half of Shaun’s farewell editorial.]

A DANGEROUS WORLD

One of the first stories I worked on as a staff writer and photographer at Seattle Gay News when I arrived was an alarming one. Someone, either acting alone or in a group, mailed letters to 11 Capitol Hill bars warning patrons they would be poisoned. The attacker(s) said they had approximately 67 grams of ricin and would indiscriminately target at least five clients and “expect them to die painfully while in the hospital.”

Ricin is a poison that comes in white powder or liquid in crystalline form. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gives a possible minimum figure of 500 micrograms, equal to half a grain of sand, for a lethal dose of ricin in humans if exposure is from injection or inhalation.

The FBI and federal postal inspectors were called in. The mayor issued a statement. Locals organized a Gay Pub Crawl in which they packed the targeted bars full of people in a show of solidarity. Bar owners posted signs warning patrons not to leave their drinks unattended, and the party raged on in spite of the danger.

Luckily, nothing happened and no one was hurt. There’s just one problem: no one ever got caught. To this day, eight years later, the case remains unsolved.

Another unsolved case that really gets to me sometimes was the beating death of openly Gay hairdresser Danny Vega. On November 15, 2011, around 7:45pm, three men beat and robbed Vega near Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. and S. Othello St., stealing Vega’s cell phone, wallet, and jacket. Following the attack, Vega was able to make it home and was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he died from injuries sustained in the attack.

Not long after Vega’s death, detectives identified a group of three men captured on surveillance tape not far from where Vega was beaten as “persons of interest in the case,” who had previously been involved in several other robberies in the South End. In one incident in 2011, officers arrested two of the men for robbing a woman at a bus stop outside a rave just one block from where Vega was later mugged. According to police records, one of the men under investigation met with homicide detectives four days before Christmas, and admitted to using Vega’s cell phone, which was taken in the robbery. He also admitted being involved in other robberies in Seattle, but

“does not remember” robbing Vega.

Police have not arrested the three men for robbing Vega, but served a search warrant at a South Seattle home in December 2011, where they seized several pieces of clothing. Police are still investigating the case as a homicide and still ask anyone that might have knowledge of what happened and who did it to contact them.

Vega’s family and friends accused SPD of dragging their feet on the investigation and criticized the department for not updating them about what was going on. Vega’s roommate told me at a community meeting between the police and the general public that they were being made to feel like they just had to accept his death and that nobody would ever be brought to justice. Sadly, more than six years have passed; making his roommate’s suspicions correct.

There were three solved crimes that impacted me greatly over my time at Seattle Gay News

The first crime was the horrific rape and stabbing of Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, in their South Park home in the summer of 2009. Isaiah Kalebu, a homeless man in his 20’s, attacked the two women in their sleep. Butz and Hopper were raped, sexually brutalized and stabbed, and Butz died. A Lesbian couple planning their commitment ceremony, Butz and Hopper were chosen by their attacker because they’d left a window open for relief from the summer heat and Kalebu wandered by and saw his way in. According to reports of his history with mental illness, the young man was in the grip of worsening mental illness, which was variously diagnosed as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other possible personality disorders, including a hyper inflated sense of self and narcissism. In periods of delusion, he believed himself to be a king or emperor who was being treated unjustly by the world. Hopper says that the man took

turns raping each of them for more than 2 hours. He made them, at knifepoint, perform oral sex on him and each other. Towards the end of the attack he began to cut the women and then eventually starting stabbing them. Butz is credited with saving her partner’s life when she – just 5-foot-2 – kicked Kalebu off their bed and used a small table to break a window, through which she left. Kalebu ran out of the house, and Hopper left too, naked and covered in so much blood that she had trouble opening the front door of the home, authorities said. Before Butz died from a stab wound to her heart, she reportedly told a neighbor: “He told us if we did what he asked us to do, he wouldn’t hurt us. He lied, he lied.”

Kalebu was arrested after he was identified using DNA evidence and surveillance video from an earlier unsolved burglary at the City Hall in the suburb of Auburn. Kalebu’s arrest happened six days after he attacked the women and murdered Butz because a bus driver recognized him from news reports describing him and the pit bull that accompanied him, and alerted authorities of where he was.

The second solved crime that impacted me took place June 1, 2014 when Ali Muhammad Brown, who allegedly told detectives he was “just doing (his) small part” to exact revenge on the United States for its foreign policies in the Middle East, shot and killed Ahmed Said and Dwone Anderson-Young in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood because they were Gay. Less than a block away from Anderson-Young’s house, his mother was awakened by the gunshots that killed her son.

According to homicide investigators, Brown used a Gay hookup app to lure the

two men into a trap. Said and AndersonYoung picked Brown up and when they parked at the patch of grass near AndersonYoung’s house he pulled out a Smith & Wesson 9mm M&P semi-automatic pistol and executed both of the young men. He fled town, wanted for another murder in Seattle in addition to the two he had just committed, ending up in New Jersey where he killed again until good police work from both SPD and Newark, New Jersey PD, brought him into custody.

Investigative records filed in King County Superior Court said that Brown told King County and Seattle detectives that he was following his Muslim faith by killing people in retaliation for the United States’ policies regarding Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

“(If a) man sees evil then he must take action against that evil,” Brown said, according to court records.

Brown told an Essex County, New Jersey detective that the men he killed were “just kill” targets – not a woman, child or elderly person nor anyone accompanied by women, children or elderly people.

In response to the murders, Social Outreach Seattle (SOSea) worked with SPD and Mayor Ed Murray’s office to organize a candlelight vigil, attended by both families of the two Gay men who were murdered, held at the spot of the tragedy. The vigil is the first time in Seattle’s history that the East African, Muslim, Black and LGBTQ communities came together in such a way. It was a profoundly sad afternoon but there was some solace in the fact that justice would be served, the men have certainly not been forgotten, and groups of people that don’t normally come together to work on an issue were doing just that.

The third crime that impacted me the most out of the three listed here actually involved me in a way. About 15 minutes after midnight, on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2014, Musab Masmari poured gasoline on a stairway to the Neighbours Nightclub’s balcony and lit the fuel on fire. The fire was quickly doused with a fire extinguisher; and all 750 people in the club at the time had been evacuated without any injury. My husband and I had been serving champagne during the celebration when I smelled the fire and told him to get everyone out. As my husband and the club’s staff evacuated the nightclub full of people in the most skillful and organized way you could imagine, the video camera that I had was turned on and I documented the fire, its extinguishing, and the finding of the gasoline container he had left behind. Helping the general manager pinpoint who we thought started the blaze took hours but we did it. SPD did not want to name the man or put his photo out for fear he would run. But my logic was that this person is dangerous and he didn’t just start a fire – he attempted to murder 750 people. He needed to be ID’d and brought in as fast as possible. I gave SPD 24 hours to catch him or I would release the footage to media, which I ended up doing, and within hours he was ID’d and named as a person of interest. Masmari was arrested days later on his way to Sea-Tac Airport after buying a one-way ticket to Turkey.

It was announced that Masmari admitted to jumping the security gate at Neighbours, slipping through the lounge in front of the building with a container of gasoline hidden under a jacket tucked under his arm and then setting the blaze. He claimed that he was blackout drunk but had no problem with Gay people. It was also announced that he had struck a deal with the court and would only receive five years prison sentence. I was not having it. This was a hate crime and informants had even told the FBI and SPD investigators that Masmari had actually bragged about what he had done, that he had said he wanted to exterminate homosexuals,

and had said that he should get a gun and go finish the job. I contacted the prosecutor’s office and they agreed that I would be the only witness to address the court. I made my case before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez and told him about the significance of Gay bars in our community, the importance of who we could have potentially lost that night, and that the LGBTQ community was disgusted that Masmari was only going to be sentenced to five years. Martinez didn’t say much and thanked me for my testimony.

Then something amazing happened. Martinez, when sentencing Masmari, brushed aside his “I did it because I was drunk” assertions, concluded Masmari had set the fire because the club’s patrons were Gay, and said he would invoke his discretion to impose an exceptional sentence. He sentenced Masmari to mandatory drug and alcohol counseling while in federal prison for no less than 10 years and that he would be monitored by the feds for 5 years after his release as well. Masmari appealed the decision, but his appeal was not successful. He will not be a free man until 2025.

When Omar Mateen killed all of those people in Orlando, and injured scores more, I couldn’t help but think about the devastation that could’ve been us while I was grieving for the Orlando victims. It was overwhelming. I gave interview after interview to all forms of media because of the many similarities between Pulse Nightclub and Neighbours, as well as the fact that Masmari had targeted us because we were Gay. I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a weak stomach, but type NIGHTCLUB FIRE into a Google search and you will quickly see that in several instances all over the world a fire inside of a nightclub is more dangerous than a man with a gun inside of a nightclub. Now, that is not to say anything about how the victims were killed and how the wounded suffered in Orlando. It is a comparison to show how absurd it was that all the police and lawyers working on the Neighbours/Masmari case thought it was appropriate for him to settle for and receive five years as a sentence. I am proud that I had the strength and resolve to

speak out, leak the video footage leading to his being identified so detectives knew who to arrest, and then speak out in court inspiring the judge to double his agreed upon sentence. The smell of the fire and the bright flash of the flames is something that will always be with me.

PRIDE

Pride weekend in Seattle is amazing. There are so many events leading up to the actual celebration that if you don’t plan it right, you might just miss the parade and party Sunday night! During my time at SGN we covered some of the most successful years in the modern LGBTQ movement. So, naturally, when Pride would roll around everyone wanted to celebrate. But there were small controversies here and there that we covered as well that threatened to sometimes put a damper on the whole thing. Never happened though – anyway you look at it, Pride is a great time in Seattle.

When I first arrived in Seattle I quickly learned two things about Pride: The first was that a few years before, in 2007, the community was split over whether or not

Pride should stay on Capitol Hill with the parade’s festival happening at Volunteer Park or if it had outgrown the neighborhood and was better suited for downtown and Seattle Center. The second thing I learned about Seattle and its Pride was that the organization that moved the event from Capitol Hill to downtown and Seattle Center ran into money problems and owed the Seattle Center over $100,000 (which the organization has since repaid) and that the parade organizing committee was constantly plagued with issues. And it was. Working with some of the volunteers over the years to get simple things such as ad copy for space they paid for in the newspaper was like pulling teeth. Then there would be this weird corporate attitude that developed time and time again and the group would set out to produce the most sanitized version of Pride that anyone could think of while making sure to never ever say or do anything that might be political. Had they forgotten that Pride is more than a parade, that it is a political statement? It is about the LGBTQ community and our right to protest for civil see SHAUN KNITTEL page 16

rights that is on display, so making a statement, politically charged or not, is what it is all about.

The one saving grace, and I believe the real reason why the organization is never taken to task for its shortcomings, is because our community loves Pride as much as we do and we make the most of the weekend – ultimately having a good time, allowing our friends and allies to have a good time, and all is forgotten or forgiven until the next year.

When I think of Seattle Pride few things come to mind more than the community’s request that the Space Needle fly the rainbow Pride flag above the needle on Pride weekend. The difficulty started when, in 2010, the Space Needle made history by raising the Pride flag on top of the needle for the first time ever. The Space Needle is a private company so they can turn down anyone they want in terms of what flag they fly atop the needle. But many Seattleites proudly recognize the needle as a symbol of their beautiful city and thought that if

they had done it once then they shouldn’t refuse to do it again. In other words, people looked forward to seeing the flag above the needle annually.

LGBTQ activist Josh Castle said in a petition he created on Change.org in 2011, “Seattle has the country’s 2nd largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. When the Space Needle raised the Pride flag they made the LGBT community feel truly welcome in their home city. Not only did residents celebrate the Pride flag on the needle, but people rejoiced from around the world as news broke about the Space Needle’s strong support for LGBT people. The message was clear: Seattle is a welcoming city for all.”

When the Space Needle failed to announce plans to raise the Pride flag for Seattle 2011 Pride, Castle made the petition. He urged people to sign the petition and join him in thanking the Space Needle for raising the flag in 2010, and ask them to raise the Pride flag again in 2011.

It worked. The Space Needle flew the flag again in 2011, noting that they had turned down eight other communities or people and their requests for a certain flag but chose not to turn down Seattle’s LGBTQ community because of the support we showed for the flag to be raised. In addition, the Space Needle pledged to raise $50,000 for LGBTQ community causes.

But then they turned right back around in 2012 and said they would no longer fly the flag during Pride. The whole thing once again infuriated people and appeared as though the owners were making a statement about the upcoming vote to Approve Referendum 74 and bring marriage equality to Washington state. It got pretty ugly. People were really upset. It actually surprised me how much vitriol people seemed to have for the owners and board of directors at Space Needle. Needless to say the Space Needle did not fly the flag in 2012.

When 2013 Pride came up we had just won marriage equality and people thought the Space Needle would fly the flag for sure. But as the weekend approached they said they would, again, opt out of raising

the flag. It didn’t help that some members of the community tied the raising of the flag to an ongoing dispute about labor at the Needle with the flag raising. Space Needle officials felt that the community was overasking by saying “raise the flag” and telling them how to do business.

CEO Ron Sevart told SGN the Space Needle receives a range of requests from organizations and interest groups seeking to celebrate special occasions and causes, and that each is considered individually. But, “other than the American flag, we rarely fly other flags more than once … the Seahawks’ 12th Man flag and LGBTQ’s Pride flag being historical exceptions to that,” he said.

But, in a surprise move, on Pride Sunday morning Seattle Gay News and other community leaders who fought for marriage equality gathered on the roof of the Space Needle where a different flag,

featuring a marriage equality symbol over a map of the state of Washington, was hoisted on the tower of the Seattle landmark.

Since then, the Space Needle has flown the rainbow Pride flag annually during Pride weekend.

CALL OUT CULTURE AND THE MORAL HIGH GROUND

Language and the terms we use have always played an important role within our community. How we address each other and the way we express, in words, how we feel, what we need, or how we demand things of ourselves and others, can have long lasting consequences – both good and bad. When you get it right you win. Conversely, when you get it wrong a wedge is driven between “us” and “them.” During my time at Seattle Gay News I witnessed and reported on so many stories that have had language at their core as not only the subject of the debate

or discourse, but in some cases which meant longer jail time for people accused of committing hate crimes because of the passage of the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. I also worked to educate about the importance of properly gendering someone whether writing a story or speaking about them in a broadcast, and worked to educate the greater public about the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.

From early 2009 until present day, examples of significant changes in the way we verbally communicate include the evergrowing acronym (LGBTQIA) that identifies our community; the spirited and open debate over the usage of the (now considered inappropriate) word “Tranny” when talking about a member of the Transgender community; the resurgence of “Queer” which young LGBTQ folks have embraced;

“Gay for Pay” and its popularity in the porn industry; the debate over the use of the word “faggot” by some Gay men or members of the LGBTQ community likened to the old argument of whether it is permissible for a black person to say the N-word while white people should not; the usage of the word “Hate Speech” and so much more.

Most of the changes in how we speak, what words we use to describe ourselves and others and the bid to move in a direction where we say more kind things or accurate things in place of things that lead to misunderstandings, division, and in extreme examples, violence, have been good ones. However, some of the changes that have taken place aren’t all good either.

Some people argue that the policing of language by members of the Religious Right and the unofficial PC (Politically Correct) Leftwing Ultra-Liberals have become such powder-keg issues that freedom of speech is under attack in our country. Others argue that the language used by young activists’ ranges from too academic to too fluid, changing on a daily basis so nobody can keep up.

I tend to agree with all of those arguments. Disagreeing with someone should not automatically mean you are bigoted, freedom of speech means you will hear people say things that you don’t like but they have the right to say them just like you have the right to express your opinion, treating folks as if they are trying to oppress you because they accidentally misgendered you is in and of itself intolerant, talking down to someone or treating them like they are stupid because they are ignorant to the latest social justice buzz word is wrong, arrogant and shows a basic lack of understanding. The double standard that exists on both sides of the political and social spectrum in regards to who can say what and when they can say it, is just plain shameful.

The art of disagreeing is over as you can easily find videos on Youtube, read about it in news articles or personally witness unreasonable people saying outrageous things to each all because they disagree on a topic of discussion everywhere you turn. It pains me to see us go from a community that once rejected labels to labeling each other and everyone else. Being vocally opposed to segregation of any kind to selfsegregating and demanding that people respect that even though the space we have occupied is in a public building, public

square, or public school. We’ve moved from building coalitions from within our community to engaging in the shaming of others, horizontal oppression and even though we talked a good game about nonbullying we bully each other and get away with it by calling it “shade.”

People lie. I am a journalist, which means I will never agree to censorship of any kind. It is my job to question people. We question people who are accused, sometimes, of murder, assault, theft or rape. Why? Because journalistic integrity dictates you do not write or publish something that is an accusation, falsehood, or lie as though it is the truth. I cannot tell you the trouble that folks now give journalists when we are trying to get to the bottom of a story and they feel that nobody has the right to question anyone about anything – so long as they agree with or “like” the person you are questioning. It’s incredible. No, journalists – just like police officers, lawyers, etc. – can just believe (without questioning and investigating) someone who makes the accusation of rape, alleges they were attacked, says that they were not the murderer, etc., just because it might be upsetting to those who have been victimized before. While not everyone lies (by any stretch of the imagination) some do and so it is important to qualify any and all allegations with facts because absent of them, or witnesses, or definitive evidence suggesting they are telling the truth, we cannot report it as truth.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It kind of feels surreal to leave the newspaper. I have absolutely loved my time at Seattle Gay News. Like any writing job you want to pull your hair out some days, scream at the walls other days, and quit on the really bad days. You get hate mail. You get told you don’t know what you are talking about by perfect strangers who didn’t bother to read past the headline. You get shamed by people who invited you to an event that you could not make it to because you had to cover a different event because they didn’t think their event was worth missing out on which they wanted you to see and write about. But you don’t quit because for journalists there exists something inside of us that allows us to grow thick skin, take the bad and the ugly with a grain of salt, and the times we get to hear from people that we admire who say,

“Good job” or “You are a really good writer; thank you for covering us” – it makes it all worth doing for a little while longer. Since April of 2009 I can’t tell you how many thousands of hours I was privileged to spend at community events, interviewing important people doing amazing things, highlighting parts of our community that are forgotten or sometimes ignored, telling the LGBTQ story from the LGBTQ perspective and getting to know many of my readers by meeting them in person somewhere around town. It has been thrilling, rewarding and challenging all in one.

I received several community leadership awards for my role as founder and president of Social Outreach Seattle and I spoke at colleges and universities around the state and throughout the country on LGBTQ issues (anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in particular and police reform), made lifelong friendships with people I probably wouldn’t have met if I wasn’t reporting on something they are doing. I got invited to the White House by the Obama administration for work I had done to raise awareness about LGBTQ youth suicide. I covered Pride events from Vancouver, B.C. to Portland, Oregon. The first assignment I got at SGN was to go on a seven day Gay cruise from L.A. to Mexico and back (tough work, I tell ya, for sure!). I have interviewed everyone from Lady Gaga to Barney Frank, Cleve Jones to Joe Biden, and Dina Martina to RuPaul. I served on several task forces, committees, and boards of directors to better our community, keep us safe, and empower others to do the best they can.

I am not everyone’s cup of tea and I understand that. There are some people who just aren’t ever going to like you or understand why you do certain things or have made certain decisions or said certain things. I find the older I get and the more experience I gain mixed with wisdom bestowed on me by mentors and elders I can only say that it really is a waste of time to get mixed up in thoughts about what others think about you or what you are doing and what you stand for. I am not passive aggressive, I am frank and straight to the point, and I don’t turn the other cheek. I defend myself when I think it is necessary and ignore the bullshit when it is not. In one memorable such situation two years ago I was being raked over the coals for something I had put in a news article and called all kinds of asshole-this and unprofes-

sional-that, while being invited the next day by the Obama administration’s U.S. Justice Department to meet with then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to represent the LGBTQ community in Seattle on community-based safety because of the work I had done as community advisor to SPD and the programs SOSea had implemented to address self-defense classes and the creation of our safety shuttle. In those moments I am always reminded that perspective can be something of importance, nobody (including me) is an angel (nor should you claim to be) and while it is important to apologize when you are wrong, it is equally as important to not apologize when you aren’t wrong.

While our community is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it is, when all is said and done, ours to take care of, inspire, help grow, and make sure it remains in place for us when we get older and to act as a good example for the youth that are coming up after us.

Seattle has changed so much in the past few years it is, at times, literally unrecognizable to me as the city I first came to know nearly a decade ago. Capitol Hill is different. Downtown is different. Everywhere you look there are more and more people, higher rents, more crime, and a general anger in the air. That has bothered me, if I am being frank. The bubble that was protecting and shading the Gay community in the Gayborhood of Capitol Hill burst a long time ago and still people can’t seem to get it together and come to terms with the fact that change has happened and we should be defining what our community is or is not, where we call home and where we do not and so on. Being so reactionary to everything and having a straight-hating meltdown every five minutes is just sad. We are better than that.

Support LGBTQ businesses organizations and the people who support us. Really, it is important. Be kind to each other. Work to better yourself and in so doing you will ultimately better our community.

Keep reading Seattle Gay News

And lastly, THANK YOU for reading my byline week after week, supporting the work I did in the community, supporting the newspaper, cheering me on when I needed it, bursting my bubble when I needed it, and for being your authentic LGBTQ selves. It has been an honor.