Issue 41 Volume 41
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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
New poll gives Murray commanding lead
Challenger holds 24-point advantage with less than a month to go Robin Stein
david ryder
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A PPP poll released October 8 shows Ed Murray with a commanding 52%-to-28% lead over incumbent Mike McGinn in the race for Seattle Mayor. The latest numbers correspond closely to a SurveyUSA poll released September 16. That poll showed Murray ahead 52% to 30%. The PPP poll was an inhouse survey commissioned by Washington Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Murray. The SurveyUSA poll was commissioned by KING 5 News. According to PPP, McGinn enjoys a mere 30% job approval rating, down from the 37% that SurveyUSA found last month. The PPP poll shows Murray leading across all demographics, and seems to refute assumptions about who supports incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn. YOUTH APPEAL For example, McGinn is said to enjoy strong support from younger voters, but PPP’s crosstabs show
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn (l) and mayoral candidate Ed Murray
otherwise. According to PPP, 60% of likely voters in the 18-29 age group disapprove of McGinn’s performance in office – the highest disapproval rating among all age groups in the survey. Murray, on the other hand, has a 47% favorable rating among the youngest group of voters, as opposed to only 20% unfavorable. When asked who they plan to vote for, this age group breaks heavily for Murray, 53% to 20%. Because PPP’s sample of 18-to29-year-old voters was small – only 9% of the total sample of 570 likely voters – these numbers may be less accurate then those for other age groups, but there are good reasons for Murray to be more popular than McGinn among young voters. First, the campaign for marriage equality, with Murray at the center of it, certainly captured the imagination of young voters like no other issue in recent times. Second, McGinn’s clash with the federal Justice Department and City Attorney Pete Holmes over courtsee murray page 5
Christie loses appeal Matthew Shepard, 15 years later How his parents are keeping his memory alive – of equality ruling and creating a better world AP Photo / The Star-Ledger, Tony Kurdzuk
allow the state to continue to violate the equal protection rights of New Jersey same-sex couples, which can hardly be considered a public interest,” Judge Mary Jacobson wrote in a ruling issued October 10. According to Jacobson, offering Gay and Lesbian couples the opportunity to enter into a civil marriage would not “cause the State to suffer irreparable harm.” She added that Judge Mary Jacobson delaying the issuby Mike Andrew ance of marriage licenses would, SGN Staff Writer however, hurt same-sex couples by making them “suffer many The New Jersey judge who ruled hardships of constitutional magniin favor of marriage equality on tude.” September 28 has now denied a re“In making this argument [for quest from Gov. Chris Christie to a stay],” Jacobson wrote, “… the stay the ruling pending an appeals State ignores the largely abstract hearing. “Granting a stay would simply see new jersey page 21
file photo
NJ judge won’t delay same-sex marriages, set to begin Oct. 21
Flowers left at the site of Matthew Shepard’s murder
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Dennis Shepard. That’s not a name that is as common in households across the nation as Matthew Shepard. In fact, his wife, Judy Shepard, is better known for the couple’s advocacy work on hate
crimes legislation and for serving as executive director at the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Dennis, of course, is Matthew’s father. Recently, Dennis received an inquiry from a cast member of The Laramie Project (a well-known theater piece inspired by the murder and how it impacted Laramie,
Wyoming) in Amsterdam, who asked him about how speaking to the court before the sentencing of one of Matthew’s murderers made him feel. Dennis recalled he felt “anger because the murderers had the opinion that they would not be see shepard page 8
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25 years of Freely Speaking Pioneering group helped hundreds of Gays find their voice
club brought together Freely Speaking members and guests for a luncheon on Sunday, September 29. “I had become interested in Toastmasters and had previewed other clubs,” said club president Irene Calvo in her welcome address. “It was when I came to Freely Speaking that I felt at home.” Over the years the club has welcomed hundreds of members representing all of the diversity to be found in Seattle. Bill Sanders, the only founding member who is still active in the club, said, “It was as important to me 25 years ago as it is today to have a diverse and welcoming place to learn and grow. I will always appreciate Freely Speaking for that.” As other members shared their thoughts and remembrances, the words “thanks,” “fun,” and “learning” were said repeatedly. With 24 members the club continues to go strong. Freely Speaking Toastmasters meets every Monday night (except holidays and vacation periods in August and December) from 7 to 8:30 pm at Fred Lind Manor on Capitol Hill. Guests are welcome. Those In 1988, George H.W. Bush was elected intent of supporting the LGBT and allied interested in more information can go to president, Sweden became the first nation to community. http://freelyspeaking.org. – Submitted by pass legislation protecting the rights of Gay The 25th anniversary celebration of the Freely Speaking Toastmasters people, and Freely Speaking Toastmasters was chartered in Seattle. Toastmasters International is an organization that helps individuals build public speaking and leadership skills. Freely Speaking was one of the first clubs of Toastmasters anywhere to be created with the ANOTHER TAKE ON LIONS French Foreign Legion, the fight choreography was way too phony, unbelievable, With regard to Eric Andrews-Katz’s re- and unrealistic. True it was fantasy, but even view of Secondhand Lions [SGN, Oct. 4], fantasy needs to be believable. I’m not sure we saw the same show. True, The book by Rupert Holmes needs to be the actors and performances were spot-on tighter and the humor needs punching up. I and highly professional and polished, with found very little to laugh at, and it is a musia few exceptions. The sets were creative cal comedy! and functional. However, there were several All in all, I much preferred the movie. major flaws. If this show is to make it to Broadway, it The real-time action takes place in Texas needs major rewrites, some kind of musical and, with the exception of the opening num- theme, better fight choreography and tightber, there was not one other country-style ening the first act. Otherwise, I don’t see song. And that opening number was the New York audiences putting up with it past only one hummable after leaving the the- opening night. ater. It was hard to distinguish any type of musical thread throughout the show. Ronald G. Talbert During the fantasy scenes that took place Seattle with the sultan, in the harems, and in the
October 11, 2013
Celebrating 40 Years!
Concern growing over Hill heroin use First responders say OD cases are on the rise
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Late last month, Seattle Fire guided a 911 caller through CPR being administered to the victim of a reported drug overdose at a Summit Avenue apartment in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. When police and fire personnel arrived at the scene, they found one man dead and a 31-year-old woman suffering from a possible heroin overdose. The woman was transported to Harborview Hospital, where her condition was stabilized. Neither SPD officials nor SFD officials were surprised by the call. They’ve seen this before. And they will no doubt see it again. Heroin has made its way back into the veins of its victims at a rising rate – and there’s already been a steady increase in overdose cases right here in Seattle. In August, a 911 caller reported that one of a group of three men seen using needles to inject drugs in an alley in the 500 block of East Republican Street was overdosing. “It’s been a busy summer of similar anecdotes around Capitol Hill,” reported CHS Blog (www.capitolhillseattle.com). “Seattle Fire Department medics responded to a heroin overdose call earlier in July when two men in their early 20s had both overdosed while sitting in a van at 11th and Pine. A week before just a few blocks away medics responded to two other heroin overdoses within 24 hours of each other.” The exact number of heroin overdoses is unknown, but an SFD spokesperson said medic units have seen a rise in heroin-related calls in the Capitol Hill area. Often, when one thinks of heroin, a drug that is so vile and responsible for the deaths and destruction of so many lives, scenes from seedy Hollywood movies or indie cult classics come to mind. The guy shooting up in the alley or park bathroom would seem a perfectly stereotypical user. But officials say that this year, they are seeing something different. Medics have been called to ODs in apartment buildings and single-family residences on the Hill more often than not. Sadly, officials say, overdoses in the neighborhood follow a trend of increased ODs among people under 30 in Seattle and around the rest of the state. ONE HORRIFYING CASE A father and his four-year-old son in Redmond were found overdosed on heroin in their home last month. Eric Lehtinen, 37, was upset that his wife had finalized their divorce after a sixyear marriage, so he allegedly attempted to murder their son by injecting the boy with
the drug. On September 24, Lehtinen’s ex-wife discovered him and his son unconscious in their home, a heroin-filled syringe still on the child’s chest. Firefighters arrived on the scene and were unable to get Lehtinen and his son to respond. Both were rushed to a hospital and doctors found heroin, ketamine, morphine, and codeine in the child’s blood. Lehtinen’s wife had filed for divorce because of his unwillingness to remain off of
prescription opiates has led to the recent surge in heroin abuse, especially among young people. “I think a lot of young people may have experimented with pharmaceutical opiates like Oxycodone, Oxycontin or Vicodin, Hydrocodone, things like that, codeine, that were much more widely available up until recent times – I’d say within the last two or three years,” Martin said. In fact, the number of people dying from heroin overdose doubled in the past three
“It’s all of our problem. We all need to own it and we all need to do something about it.” drugs. However, she allowed her son to stay with Lehtinen because she was going to a job interview. Lehtinen was taken to jail after he was released from the hospital. His bond was set at $3 million and he was charged with attempted murder. If convicted, Lehtinen could face 15 years in prison. The potential damage injecting a fouryear-old can do is unknown because no one, not even the police or medical professionals, had ever heard of it happening before. LASTING DAMAGE “Sometimes after an overdose, if someone has had a long period without oxygen to the brain, their heart will survive but the brain can be damaged so we’ll have to see how he does. We hope that he will recover but at this point it’s not absolutely sure if he will recover completely or not,” Washington Poison Center Associate Medical Director Dr. Thomas Martin told Seattle’s Q13 News. Martin has studied and treated heroin addicts for more than three decades and says he knows better than most the devastation it can cause. “It causes terrible health consequences because of sharing needles and because of contaminates they’re injecting into their body. There’s a whole variety of complications that can occur from injecting heroin – medical complications as well as the social problems and social disasters it causes for the individual and for their family,” Martin said Martin claims that tighter restrictions on
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years and no one is immune. DEA Special Agent In Charge Matthew Barnes told media, “This is middle-class, soccer moms, high school [students] and athletes, that are falling into that trap.”
murray
continued from cover ordered police reform angered the mayor’s more left-leaning supporters. And third, McGinn’s failure to deliver on extending bar and nightclub hours was a disappointment both to patrons of those businesses and to many neighborhood activists, who believed the proposal would reduce problems associated with the 2 a.m. “pushout.” MINORITIES FAVOR MURRAY? The new poll also appears to refute the assertion that McGinn is popular among Seattle’s communities of color. In fact, Murray beats McGinn in all racial and ethnic categories, with his largest margin being among African American voters. While both candidates have lined up endorsements from key African American leaders, an astonishing 62% of African Americans surveyed by PPP said they would vote for Murray, as opposed to only 18% for McGinn. While African American voters disapprove of the incumbent 57% to 14%, they view Murray favorably by a margin of 46% to 5%. The only downside for
October 11, 2013
EPIDEMIC AT STANWOOD Officials at Stanwood High School outside Seattle are battling heroin addiction. ABC News reports nearly 50 students at the school are hooked. Abigail Achison, 17, dropped out of Stanwood and gave into the drug. “After the first time, I was completely hooked,” Achison told KOMO News. “Some people start out slowly with other drugs. I just did heroin once and I couldn’t stop.” School officials and community members organized a town hall meeting to raise awareness and rally around their teens. “It’s all of our problem,” Lloy Schaaf, assistant superintendent of the StanwoodCamano School District, said. “We all need to own it and we all need to do something about it.” The problem of heroin addiction in Seattle, reports ABC News, is growing. A middle-school janitor was found earlier this year with 60 bags of heroin. Two other dealers were arrested weeks later near a suburban soccer field in Seattle. CHEAPER AND STRONGER One of the driving factors of an increased use of the drug is that it’s cheap. As little as $5 can keep a user high all day, and it’s more pure and more potent than ever before. Drug Enforcement Agency officials are reporting that today’s heroin is 60% stronger than 1970s heroin. The potency, and ease with which users are buying the drug, is especially dangerous “if they take it in combination with other sedative hypnotics like alcohol or sleeping pills or tranquilizers or muscle relaxers – all those things work together with heroin to make it more likely you will stop breathing,” Martin said. “If you’ve never used heroin, don’t start,” he said, and because some people get hooked on heroin after taking legitimately prescribed painkillers, he added, “People should use only the amount necessary [of legal painkillers] to control pain and get off of it as soon as possible, to minimize the risk of becoming addicted.” And the problem continues to persist on Capitol Hill. Another report of a heroin overdose on Capitol Hill brought Seattle Fire and police to Miller Community Center on 19th Avenue October 2. Medics responded to a 9 p.m. report of a female victim suffering from an apparent overdose inside the facility. The victim refused medical attention but police were called in to remove her for treatment after it was determined her condition was life-threatening, reports CHS Blog.
Murray among Black voters is the relatively large number of respondents who were “not sure” what they thought of him – 49% of the sample. The number of African Americans surveyed was only 4% of the total sample, however, so the accuracy of results for this group will not be as great as for the survey as a whole. PPP also showed Murray winning among Asian/Pacific Islanders 59% to 23%, and among Hispanics 45% to 33%. Gender does not seem to play a big role in this election. Murray takes 52% of both men and women voters, with women expressing slightly more dissatisfaction with McGinn and more favorable attitudes towards Murray than male voters do. Murray wins substantial majorities of Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters, with Democrats having an especially good opinion of him – a 63% favorable rating against only 13% unfavorable. Democrats disapproved of McGinn, albeit by a narrower margin (43% to 34%). PPP (Public Policy Polling) surveyed voters over the October 4-6 weekend. Of the 570 Seattle voters who participated, 96% said they were “very likely” to vote in the mayoral election.
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national news
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling striking down Virginia’s sodomy law. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli contended that the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas invalidating state laws against consensual oral and anal sex did not apply to the specific crime at issue. In the Virginia case, William Scott MacDonald was convicted of soliciting oral sex from an underage 17-year-old girl under the state sodomy statute, which stayed on the books even after the Lawrence ruling. MacDonald’s attorneys appealed, saying that their client could have been convicted of soliciting sex from a minor, but not of the more serious sodomy charge, because the sodomy statute has been ruled unconstitutional. In March, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, explicitly invalidating Virginia’s outdated law. Cuccinelli then asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, hoping to salvage the statute. “This case was about using a law that has been repeatedly upheld by Virginia courts to protect a minor from a 47-year-old repeat
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Supreme Court tells Virginia, no more sodomy law appeals
sexual predator,” said Cuccinelli spokesperson Brian Gottstein. “We appealed to the Supreme Court to save a tool Virginia law enforcers use regularly to prosecute child predators. With its October 8 decision not to hear the case, however, the high court allowed the circuit court decision to stand. LAWMAKERS FALL BEHIND James Parrish, executive director of the LGBT rights organization Equality Virginia, said the state’s General Assembly had 10 years since the Lawrence decision to revise its sodomy law and bring it into line with the Supreme Court’s ruling, but it had not done so. “In our view, this was already decided, and the Supreme Court just echoed that” on October 8, Parrish said. “I’m sure most Virginians would like to see the General Assembly clean up our code.” Cuccinelli, now running for governor of Virginia against former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, has made the sodomy statute an issue in the campaign, trying to portray McAuliffe as a protector of child molesters. McAuliffe, however, has called on the Virginia legislature to update the law so that it refers only to sexual acts with minors and not to consensual acts between adults.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
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Toward justice for all Transgender activists join call for humane immigration reform by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) joined dozens of labor and immigrants’ rights organizations October 4 in calling for commonsense immigration reform. On the heels of the House introduction of an immigration bill, NCTE issued a new report outlining the barriers and harms Transgender immigrants face while navigating the U.S. immigration system. On the significance of the House immi-
• Employment Insecurity: Undocumented Transgender people are severely limited by living in the dual shadows of transphobia and their undocumented status. They are often unable to obtain legally authorized work in the U.S., and face exploitation when they do manage to find employment. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 39% of undocumented Transgender people had lost jobs due to bias compared to U.S. citizens (26%). • Income and Housing Insecurity: Employment insecurity results in high levels of
“We need reform because people are hurting without it, and in our country we stand together to stop that.“ gration reform proposal, NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling said, “Immigration reform is important to Transgender people because many Transgender people are undocumented, but that’s really only part of its significance. We need reform because people are hurting without it, and in our country we stand together to stop that. All people, including undocumented immigrants, deserve dignity and respect, and we’re proud to join national advocates in a unified call for immediate relief to every undocumented person struggling to make ends meet, care for their families, and contribute to our communities.” The new report, “Our Moment for Reform: Transgender People and Immigration,” identifies four key challenges facing Transgender immigrants:
poverty and homelessness among undocumented Transgender people. Despite being more likely to have a college-level education, undocumented Transgender people are far more likely than Transgender U.S. citizens to live in poverty, and many more times as likely as the general population to live on less than $10,000 a year. Income insecurity paired with anti-Transgender bias has resulted in over one in five undocumented Transgender people (21%) having being evicted at least once due to bias, twice the rate reported among all Transgender people. • Lack of Health Care Access: Like their non-Transgender counterparts, undocumented Transgender immigrants experience a high rate (36%) of being uninsured. This is more than twice the rate of the general population. Like all Transgender people,
Mississippi town faces lawsuit over Gay bar
undocumented Transgender people who can obtain insurance coverage regularly face discrimination in the scope of their coverage. Four percent of undocumented Transgender people report having experienced physical assault in a medical setting, twice the rate of the overall sample. • Creating a Pathway to Citizenship: Of the 267,000 undocumented LGBT people living in the U.S. today, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 are Transgender. For Transgender and non-Transgender immigrants alike, a pathway to citizenship would provide legal certainty that they will not be deported or separated from their families and communities, while improving their ability to earn a living and continue contributing to society. BARRIERS TO ASYLUM Harper Jean Tobin, NCTE’s director of policy and co-author of the report, said, “I wanted to write this report because of the horrific stories of Transgender undocumented people out there. I think about Johanna, for example, who is a survivor of three sexual assaults. The first attack led her to seek asylum in the U.S. But when she missed a one-year filing deadline, she fell out of legal status, which led to her arrest. Without a lawyer to help her, and faced with suffering indefinitely in immigration detention, she resigned herself to deportation.”
Tobin added, “Johanna’s experience is a too-frequent occurrence for undocumented Transgender people and we must bring our immigration laws in line with our country’s basic sense of dignity and respect for all people.” The report also identifies key failings in our current immigration system that can have especially harsh effects on Transgender immigrants and their loved ones. Many Transgender people come to the U.S. fleeing violence and persecution because of who they are. Most are unaware that it is possible to seek asylum based on their Transgender status and find their claims blocked by an arbitrary one-year filing deadline. Many are eventually swept into immigration detention for months, without access to legal counsel. Transgender detainees face high rates of abuse in detention, yet often the only response is to automatically place them in indefinite solitary confinement – which, medical experts say, is yet another form of abuse. The report calls for commonsense reforms that address these problems and that limit, rather than expand, our already massive, costly, and unnecessary use of detention. For the full report and other information, visit NCTE’s website, http://transequality. org.
courtesy splc
and liquor license. In her court filing, Newton says she poured thousands of dollars and countless hours into upgrading the bar and preparing for its opening. However, when Newton asked local officials about obtaining a town business license, she ran into roadblocks, she says.
Newton’s filing also cites repeated latenight phone calls telling her she would never be able to open the bar, and suggesting she leave town. Newton’s attorneys are seeking an injunction allowing her to open the business, an award of damages, and any attorney fees and costs.
HOSTILE RECEPTION The town’s mayor, Ronnie Hallmark, told her to submit an application and attend a Board of Aldermen meeting on June 4, when the board would vote on her application. Newton thought the hearing would be routine, but instead she encountered a hostile crowd of 30 to 40 people.
NATIONWIDE IMPACT “It’s important, obviously, to [Newton] personally but it’s also important for her and us to show the country that everyone deserves to be treated equally, whether that’s in New York, San Francisco, or rural Mississippi,” said David Dinielli, deputy legal director for the SPLC.
“Folks in the LGBT community from small towns have to drive a long ways to a city where they can find a place to be themselves, and we need something like this.”
Pat Newton
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has filed a federal lawsuit against the town of Shannon, Mississippi, for denying a business license to a Lesbian who wants to open a bar there. Shannon, a town of some 1,750 inhabitants in the northeast corner of the state, was
one of the locales for the 2006 film Small Town Gay Bar by Malcolm Ingram. Rumors, the bar featured in the film, is now closed, leaving Shannon without a Gay bar. The business license applicant, Pat Newton, ran a bar called O’Hara’s in Shannon from 1994 to 1998, catering to a mainly Gay clientele. After receiving numerous requests to reopen her bar, she signed a lease last May and obtained a state business license
The mayor asked her to justify why she should be permitted to open the bar. Newton said she wanted to provide a safe place for the LGBT community to come together, and that she had been asked by community members to return. The mayor then asked the aldermen and citizens to raise their concerns. Newton says she was confronted with questions laced with insults from both citizens and officials. One resident asked how Newton could call herself a Christian. Another asked whether she would let her daughter go into “a bar like that.” At the end of the hearing, City Attorney Gary Carnathan informed the board that Newton had met all the requirements for her application, but that the application could be denied on public health and safety concerns. The board then denied the application by a vote of 4 to 1, although no evidence of health and safety risks had been presented.
“It is important to show that you can’t violate people’s rights and freedom,” Newton added. “Folks in the LGBT community from small towns have to drive a long ways to a city where they can find a place to be themselves, and we need something like this.” One town alderman told the SPLC that he would rather fight a federal lawsuit than allow a Gay bar to operate within the town’s boundaries. Newton’s complaint quotes him as saying that he is looking forward to the lawsuit because litigation would likely delay the opening of O’Hara’s even longer. The SPLC was founded in 1971 as a civil rights law firm helping mainly African American clients recover damages after Ku Klux Klan assaults. It has since branched out to tackle discrimination against a number of communities and has become one of the country’s leading human rights activist organizations.
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continued from cover arrested because it was just a ‘fag’ that they killed.” “They believed that no one in law enforcement cared if a member of the Gay community was robbed, beaten, or murdered,” said Dennis. “Fortunately, they were wrong.” THE ‘SCARECROW’ Fifteen years ago this week, on October 12, 1998, Dennis and Judy lost their son to hate. Matthew Shepard died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, from
THE TRIAL So much of the evidence, statements made by the defendants, and more has been contested by the folks who knew Shepard, McKinney, and Henderson that nobody really can say they’ve got a handle on why such a terrible crime took place. What is known is that Shepard met McKinney and Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. It was decided that McKinney and Henderson would give Shepard a ride home, but instead they drove the car to a remote, rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. According to their court testimony, his at-
file photo
shepard
“Most Americans still don’t understand how bad it can be for youth who are struggling to embrace their own identity at a time when they see hate around them.” severe head injuries he sustained from an anti-Gay attack on the night of October 6-7. He was just 21 years old. His attack and death changed the national conversation about hate crime, which had, until then, been something of a phantom phrase. And as strange as it might now seem, before 1998, most Americans had never spoken the words “hate” and “crime” together. Regardless of how people felt about this (somewhat) new concept, or whether or not they would support hate-crime legislation at the state or federal level that included sexual orientation and gender identity, most people believed that what Matthew endured was horrific. His murder put Laramie on the map, but for reasons the townsfolk were resentful of: Gay bashing. After all, this kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen “around here,” the citizens of Laramie said over and over again to the media. It’s as if they thought that somehow, by repeating those words, paired with the phrase “live and let live,” the nightmare would somehow go away. Of course, it never did. And some would argue that it never will. There’s no denying it. Matthew Shepard’s robbery-turned-murder was every bit as horrific as one could imagine. Perhaps the mystery that (still) surrounds the case is what had driven so many to pay attention to the news reports about Matthew’s condition when he was on life support and to tune in during the trial that resulted in the conviction of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson.
tackers also discovered Shepard’s address and intended to steal from his home. Matthew, still tied to the fence, alive but in a coma, was discovered 18 hours later by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. He had suffered fractures to the back of his head and in front of his right ear as well as severe brainstem damage, which affected his body’s ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature, and other vital functions. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face, and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Matthew never regained consciousness and remained on full life support, with no way of knowing that while he lay in intensive care, candlelight vigils were held around the world by people who hoped and prayed he would somehow make it and that justice would be delivered to the Shepard family. Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly after the attack. The bloody gun and Matthew’s shoes and wallet were found in the back of the truck they used to drive Matthew to that awful place that night. Henderson and McKinney unsuccessfully tried to persuade their girlfriends to provide alibis for them. During the trial, Kristen Price, McKinney’s girlfriend at the time of the murder, testified that Henderson and McKinney had “pretended they were Gay to get [Shepard] in the truck and rob him.” McKinney and Henderson went to the Fireside Lounge and selected Shepard after he arrived. McKinney alleged that Shepard asked them for a ride home. Price’s testimony was crucial for the prosecution of the case. The Shepards’ lawyers alleged that McKinney and Henderson had pretended to be Gay in order to gain Matthew’s trust, so he would leave the bar with them. At trial, McKinney offered various excuses in an attempt to justify his actions. He originally pleaded the so-called Gay panic defense, arguing that he and Henderson were driven to temporary insanity by Matthew’s alleged sexual advances. At another point, McKinney’s lawyer stated that they had wanted to rob Shepard but never intended to kill him. What neither McKinney nor Henderson denies is that they took him to a remote area
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Matthew Shepard
outside of Laramie where they robbed him, assaulted him severely, and tied him to a fence with a rope from McKinney’s truck while Matthew pleaded for his life. It was reported that Shepard was beaten so brutally that his face was completely covered in blood, except where it had been partially washed clean by his tears. In another important win for the prosecution, McKinney and Henderson’s girlfriends testified that neither of the accused was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the attack. THE OUTCOME: GUILTY Regardless of the courtroom drama that unfolded during the trial, the fact remains that McKinney and Henderson did commit the crime of which they were convicted – felony murder. Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999 and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he received two consecutive life sentences. The jury in McKinney’s trial found him guilty of felony murder. As they began to deliberate on the death penalty, Dennis and Judy Shepard brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. The world watched the case unfold on cable news networks, read about it in the news, and talked about it in classrooms, homes, and at work. The conversation – the most important piece of any movement to change hearts and minds – had begun. The world was introduced to Dennis and Judy Shepard, Matt’s parents. Fortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time we would hear from them. THE FOUNDATION Dennis and Judy are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and advocate for LGBT rights. Created to honor Matthew in a manner appropriate to his dreams, beliefs, and aspirations, Judy and Dennis say the foundation seeks to “Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion, and Acceptance” through its varied educational, outreach, and advocacy programs and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story. Although Judy, who personifies the saying “Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned,” became the “face” of the foundation, Dennis has always played a very active and vital role. However, he is more comfortable working behind the scenes. Judy, on the other hand, has been a very visible leader in
the fight for hate-crime legislation. Judy became a New York Times bestselling author in 2009 when she shared her memories of Matt in her book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed. Schools across the country use the book to talk about diversity and inclusion. Judy Shepard has spoken to more than a million people worldwide, including addressing the United Nations and a hatecrimes conference at the Polish Parliament. She has spoken more than 65 times to faith communities or on campuses of religiously affiliated colleges and universities. Even Notre Dame, a very conservative Catholic school with a controversial history regarding LGBT students, has hosted Judy twice. For the Matthew Shepard Foundation, making The Laramie Project plays an educational experience and not just an evening of theater has been a cornerstone of the program from the beginning. Since the February 2000 premiere of The Laramie Project in Denver, the foundation has worked with countless productions of the play in theaters large and small, from high schools and universities to community, regional, and professional theaters. Dennis and Judy created Matthew’s Place, a website for LGBT and allied youth to access resources about living happy and healthy lives. MatthewsPlace.com has grown into a vibrant community where young people around the world share their own personal stories in the hope that they could inspire others’ lives. “Someday, we hope the Foundation can quietly go away,” say the Shepards in a statement on the foundation’s website, “but unfortunately, that’s not today.” They report that 70% of LGBT youth report being bullied or harassed in school. “Most Americans still don’t understand how bad it can be for youth who are struggling to embrace their own identity at a time when they see hate around them.” THE SHEPARD ACT Although their son’s killers were sentenced to prison, many would argue that more than ten years would pass before Dennis, Judy (and Matt) finally saw justice. The Shepards worked tirelessly to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was signed into law by President Obama on October 28, 2009.
Celebrating 40 Years!
“This is the culmination of a struggle that has lasted more than a decade,” President Obama said before signing the act into law. “Time and again, we faced opposition. Time and again, the measure was defeated or delayed. Time and again we’ve been reminded of the difficulty of building a nation in which we’re all free to live and love as we see fit. But the cause endured and the struggle continued, waged by the family of Matthew Shepard, by the family of James Byrd, by folks who held vigils and led marches, by those who rallied and organized and refused to give up, by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought so hard for this legislation, and all who toiled for years to reach this day.” In the fall of 2012, Judy and Dennis Shepard, at the request of the State Department, went on a five-country tour of Central and Eastern Europe. During the tour, Judy and Dennis met with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia; U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein; Viktors Makarovs, the Latvian Foreign Ministry’s parliamentary secretary; and with parents of LGBTs, LGBT youth, and classrooms full of students. LOOKING BACK Fifteen years after Shepard’s death, because one of the actors from an upcoming production of The Laramie Project had reached out to him, Dennis Shepard challenged himself to put into words the importance of that moment when he addressed the judge and jury during the trial to convict the men who murdered his son. “How did I feel in the courtroom that day? Well, first of all, I felt exhausted,” Dennis said. “I flew in from Saudi Arabia the night before the case was to be given over to the jury for a decision. With the 10-hour time difference plus working all day and flying out late that night, I was up about 50 hours without sleep (have never been able to sleep on a plane, especially in economy class). Got to bed late that night and then I got up
about four in the morning and wrote my court statement, the one that you’ll be quoting from.” In the courtroom, Dennis says he felt incredible emotions. “First of all, extreme anger that my son had been murdered just because he was considered different. Angry because the two murderers, who had never met Matt before, chose him because he was small, well-dressed, and ‘looked’ Gay. Angry because they decided to be judge, jury, and executioners without having any right to do so,” he said. “I also felt extreme loneliness because I’d never get to see or talk to Matt again,” said Dennis. “Never argue with him, never see his smile and twinkling eyes as he harassed me about something I’d done or said. Never discuss politics or go fishing with him again. Never play games with him, his mother, and his brother.” Dennis said he also felt a great amount survivor’s guilt because he was alive and Matthew was not. “Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around,” he said. “Even worse was the guilt I felt because I wasn’t there that night to protect my son ... to get him away from that fence, to protect him, to hug him, and tell him that everything would be OK,” said Dennis. “Ever since it happened, I’ve wondered if he called out to me to protect him while he was being beaten. I’ll never know. “It made for an extremely emotional time for me when I got up to speak and read my statement,” he continued. “It was easy to ignore the defendant. I just focused on the jury and the judge.” “I focused on not breaking into tears. I focused on making Matt proud of me one more time,” said Dennis. “As proud of me as I was of him. I focused on telling everyone about what made my smart, good-
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SOCIAL JUSTICE FILM FESTIVAL OCTOBER 10-13 www.socialjusticefilmfestival.org SEATTLE LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL OCTOBER 10-20 www.threedollarbillcinema.org
PUDDLETOWN SQUARES – “FIDDLE AROUND TOWN” ADVANCED & CHALLENGE SQUARE DANCE FLY-IN OCTOBER 11-13 On Friday, October 11 through Sunday, October 13, at Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center (17620 International Blvd.), Puddletown Squares hosts “Fiddle Around Town,” an Advanced and Challenge-level Square Dance Fly-In (convention) for accomplished LGBT square dancers from around the U.S. and Canada. www. puddletownsquares.org. ARTS CRUSH OCTOBER 1-31 www.artscrush.org LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS INSTITUTE – “HELLO DARLINS” THRU OCTOBER 26 “Hello Darlins” honors comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley. Billed as “The Funniest Woman in the World” Mabley was a pioneer in her field and a black woman who pushed the boundaries of taste, politics, and race. Her career spanned from the 1920s on the Chitlin’ Circuit well into the 1970s, leaving behind a legacy of over 20 albums and memorable appearances on many of the popular variety and talk shows of the day, including Ed Sullivan and The Smothers Brothers. Written by Seattle playwright Dan Owens, directed by Artistic Director, Jacqueline Moscou and starring Josephine Howell as “Moms,” “Hello Darlins” will take you on a journey fraught with challenging material, raucous humor, and surprises about who this woman was. Performance dates: Thursdays-Sundays thru October 26, at 7 p.m., with Saturday/ Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., at Langston Hughes Performing Art Institute (104 17th Ave. S.), Saturday and Sunday, September 28 & 29; Thursdays-Sundays, October 10-26. Tickets: $20/$15-general; $10-student/senior. www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/431678. LESBIAN COMEDIAN ERIN FOLEY: “LOWER THE BAR COMEDY TOUR” On Friday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Lesbian actress, comedian, and writer Erin Foley brings her “Lower the Bar Comedy Tour” to the Theatre Off Jackson (409 7th Ave. S.) with special guests Susan Jones, Abbey Drake, and Cory Michaelis. Tickets: $20 & $30 VIP. For more details, visit www.theatreoffjackson.org. 18+. THEATRE 22 – “5TH OF JULY” THRU OCTOBER 26 On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays thru October 26, at 8 p.m.(with pay-what you-can industry night performance on Tuesday, October 22), at West of Lenin (203 N 34th St.), Theatre 22 launches their inaugural season with openly-Gay playwright Lanford Wilson’s celebrated play, “5th of July.” At a sprawling farmhouse in rural Missouri, Ken, a legless Vietnam veteran and his lover, Jed, welcome a disparate group of colorful old friends and family for an impromptu reunion. As they reminisce, revealing lost dreams and buried resentments; they expose the shattered hopes of their college days at Berkeley and the unhealed trauma of the Vietnam War. At once poignant and marvelously funny, “5th of July” is a 16 Seattle Gay News
compassionate portrait of a generation that is trying to transcend the disillusionment of the seventies, learn what can be salvaged from the past, and find the courage to begin anew. The play is sharp and funny and, in the final essence, deeply revealing of lost hopes and dreams and of the bitterness that must be fought back, if one is to perceive the good that life can offer. Tickets: $20-general; $12-student/military/senior (62+). www.brownpapertickets. com/event/395944; www.theatre22.org SEATTLE SINGS 2013 On Friday, October 11, from 7-9:30 p.m., and Saturday, October 12, from 10 a.m.-9 p.m., at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral (1245 10th Ave. E.), enjoy Seattle Sings 2013, a FREE choral festival of the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium, featuring 27 Northwest choral ensembles and Northwest composers. www.seattlesings.org PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETY – 2013 WILD MUSHROOM SHOW On Saturday, October 12, from noon7 p.m., and Sunday, October 13, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at Magnuson Park (7700 Sand Point Way NE), the Puget Sound Mycological Society presents their annual Wild Mushroom Show, featuring scientific displays of hundreds of locally foraged and identified wild mushrooms. There will also be educational displays and activities. You are also invited to bring in any fungi specimens you would like to have identified. Admission: $10-general, $5 students and seniors. www.psms.org.
PEOPLE’S MEMORIAL END-OF-LIFE PLANNING WORKSHOP On Saturday, October 12, from 1:304:30 p.m., at Seattle First Baptist Church (1111 Harvard Ave.), People’s Memorial hosts a special program for the LGBTQ community to help you get your affairs in order. This free workshop will include presentations on legal, financial, and final arrangement planning. Learn how to make sure your wishes are carried out at the end of your life. RSVP to 206-325-0489 or info@ peoplesmemorial.org. www.peoplesmemorial.org; www.funeralinformation.org. OUT FOR SUSTAINABILITY – FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION! On Sunday, October 13, from 4-7 p.m., at Impact HUB Seattle (220 Second Ave. S.), OUT for Sustainability invites you to celebrate their five-year anniversary. OUT4S is thrilled to announce Marsha Botzer as their 2013 honoree, celebrating her work as a social sustainability advocate and a champion of a broader sense of LGBTQ rights, identity and community. Enjoy seasonal hors d’oeuvres, sip local wine and beer, and support the organization with a fabulous local auction. “Join us in celebrating our impact so far, and dream with us as we share our next five years based on the vision of a thriving and inclusive human and natural world for all. Tickets: $45 & $75. www.out4s.org SKI BUDDIES – SEASON-OPENING POTLUCK On Sunday, October 13, from 6-8 p.m., at The Summit on Pike (420 E. Pike St.), enjoy great food, mingle with members and new friends and hear trip coordinators present the 2013-14 Ski Buddies season lineup. Trip sign-ups for the new season will continue with the most popular likely to fill quickly, so please come prepared to reserve your spots! Alcohol is BYOB; soft drinks will be provided. Park FREE in the attached garage – enter on Summet Ave. side of the building. www.skibuddies.org NORTHWEST NETWORK – COMMUNITY ACTION: HATE VIOLENCE – COMMUNITY DISCUSSION & ACTION PLANNING
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compiled by Rick McKinnon SGN Staff Writer
On Tuesday, October 15, from 6:30-8 p.m., at All Pilgrims Church (500 Broadway E.), join the Northwest Network of LGBT Survivors of Abuse for a conversation to discuss anti-LGBT hate and bias-related violence. What do you think are the most pressing issues surrounding anti-LGBT hate violence? Come share your concerns, experiences and most importantly your vision. In communities across the country, we are seeing an increase in reports of hate and bias attacks and harassment against LGBTQ people. Not only do these reports show an increase in the number of incidents, but an increase in the intensity of violence and harm, especially against Transgender people. We believe that it is important for our communities to come together to engage with each other about our experiences and our visions of communities free from violence. Please join us the third Tuesdays of the month in October, November and December to participate in these critical conversations. (NOTE: November and December meetings will be held at Queer Youth Space (911 E. Pike St.).) www.nwnetwork. org
Tickets: $48, $38 & $28. 206-388-1400; www.flyinghouse.org. DIGNITY/SEATTLE – 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION On Saturday, October 19, at 6 p.m., at China Harbor Restaurant (2040 Westlake Ave. N.), Dignity/Seattle (LGBT Catholics), the local chapter of Dignity/USA will celebrate its 40th anniversary of service and ministry to Seattle’s progressive Catholic community. All former members, supporters and friends from all faith communities are invited to this celebration dinner. The cost is $40 per person and “business casual” attire is appropriate. The guest speaker is Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA’s Executive Director, from Boston. Please mail a check for $40 by October 15 to: Dignity/Seattle, PO Box 20325, Seattle WA 98102. For further information, email dignity.seattle@gmail.com or call 206-6595519. www.dignityseattle.org.
RAINBOW CITY BAND – “A TRIBUTE TO HEROES” On Saturday, October 19, at 7 p.m., at Edmonds Center for the Arts (410 4th Ave. N., Edmonds), join Rainbow City Band as they perform music honoring heroes in evSEATTLE AUTO SHOW – ery form they take. This concert will feaCENTURYLINK FIELD ture: “Today is the Gift” by Samuel Hazo, EVENT CENTER “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron OCTOBER 16-20 Copland, “Soaring with John Williams” arwww.SeattleAutoShow.com ranged by R.W. Smith, “Olympic Fanfare” by John Williams, “The Symphonic Duke” SEATTLE GAY & LESBIAN arranged by Newson and more. Tickets: BOOK CLUB – ROUGH MUSIC $20-general; $15-seniors and children 10 & The Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club under. www.rainbowcityband.com meets every Wednesday from 6-7:15 p.m., at Seattle Area Support Groups Community ELEKTROPOP – Center (303 17th Ave. E. at E. Thomas St.). “SIN CITY: In October, the club will discuss Rough WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...” Music by British author Patrick Gale. (NoA BENEFIT FOR vember will be The Two Hotel Francforts, a SOCIAL OUTREACH SEATTLE new novel by David Leavitt.) On Saturday, October 19, from 10 All GLBTQ folks are welcome to par- p.m.-2 a.m., at Fred Wildlife Refuge (128 ticipate in this FREE book club. For more Belmont Ave. E.), ElektroPOP presents a information, visit http://faculty.washington. Vegas-themed night of drinking, dancing edu/swittet/SGLBookClub/. and entertainment featuring Morgan McMichaels (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Mayhem PILCHUCK ON DISPLAY: Miller (Los Angeles), and Robbie Turner AN EXHIBITION (Seattle), with guest performances by Betty OF INTERNATIONAL GLASS Rage, Kylie Koyote, and Jessica ParadisOn Thursday, October 17, from 6-8 co. With games, raffles, prizes, and more! p.m., at The Westin Seattle (1900 5th Ave.) FREE admission - donations to SOSea enview over 300 contemporary glass artworks couraged. www.socialoutreachseattle.com by internationally renowned and emerging artists at this FREE public event. DocentGAY CITY ARTS – led tours will highlight various glassmak“FLAWED/DIGITAL WEAVINGS” ing techniques, as well as the history of BY SYNVIA WHITNEY Pilchuck Glass School. Enter a raffle to win Through November 11, Gay City Arts a 2013 Annual Auction centerpiece. Tours: (517 E. Pike St.) presents “FLAWED/digi6:15 p.m., 6:45 p.m., 7:15 p.m. www.pil- tal weavings” by Syniva Whitney. chuck.com. “FLAWED” started with taking digital images of moles, wrinkles and aberrations GAY CITY – of the internal and external bodies of the MEET THE AUTHOR: artist and friends and family. Then woJAIMEE GARBACIK ON ven by hand along with disposable party “GENDER & SEXUALITY ribbons, cheap holiday tinsel, industrial FOR BEGINNERS” plastics, VHS tape, soft cottons, wire and On Thursday, October 17, at 7 p.m., wool. Relationships develop between the Gay City Health Project, Calamus Audito- microscopic and the macroscopic, the conrium (517 E. Pike St.), presents Seattle au- structive and destructive, the party and the thor Jaimee Garbacik as she reads from her day after. These pieces tell stories, threaten book, Gender & Sexuality for Beginners, health, and define identities. They are part which interweaves neurobiology, psychol- of a whole, and yet can be exploded by their ogy, feminist, Queer, and Trans theory, as role in a person’s body: a mark that invokes well as historical Gay and Lesbian activ- a sexual power, a scar that is a reminder of ism, to offer new perspectives on gender in- a violent past, or a cluster of interior cells equality and to ultimately point to the ways that slowly takes over, a presence as hard to in which the inadequate sex-gender system imagine as the far reaches of the universe.... oppresses us all. www.gaycity.org. “FLAWED” is presented in conjunction with Gay City Arts, through which Gay City SEATTLE WOMEN’S CHORUS – collaborates with local LGBT artists to gal“HALLOWS IN THE CATHEDRAL” vanize an audience for Queer arts, foster the On Fridays & Saturdays, October 18 development of LGBT artists, and facilitate & 19 and 25 & 26, at 8 p.m. (except Sat- artistic excellence across a wide range of urday October 26 at 2 p.m.), Seattle Wom- disciplines, including theater, music, dance, en’s Chorus returns to St. Mark’s Cathedral film, spoken word, literary and visual arts. (1245 10th Ave. E.) for a spine-tingling con- www.gaycity.org. cert featuring creepy classics and modern day monster mashes. Envelop yourself in the spooky atmosphere and enjoy this Hallowrific treat perfect for the entire family.
Celebrating 40 Years!
What is Francis up to now? Pope blesses Gay group, calls special bishops’ meeting by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer One week after meeting with the so-called “G8” – the group of eight cardinals who are to advise him on reforming the Catholic Church – Pope Francis called for a special meeting of Catholic bishops to discuss marriage and family issues. On October 8, the Vatican announced that the Pope will host an “Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.” The Second Vatican Council introduced synods, or formal meetings of Catholic bishops, in 1965 to help the Pope keep in touch with the Church beyond the Vatican bureaucracy. Regular synods are convened every couple of years, but “extraordinary” synods are rare. In fact, there have only been two since the institution was established: the first, in 1969, discussed cooperation between the Vatican and local bishops, and the second was called in 1985 to commemorate the anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. The fact that the Pope has called for an “extraordinary” synod means he attaches special importance to the topic to be discussed: “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” “It is very important that an extraordinary synod has been convoked on the theme of the pastoral of the family,” Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi said. “This is the way in which the Pope intends to promote reflection and to guide the path of the
community of the Church, with the responsible participation of the episcopate from different parts of the world.” The meeting will take place in Rome, October 5-14, 2014, and will include the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches, presidents of bishops’ conferences, and heads of curial offices – the managers of the Vatican bureaucracy. GAYS ON THE AGENDA? Vatican insiders say the touchy issue of divorced and remarried Catholics will almost certainly be on the table. Whether topics for discussion will also include Gay and Lesbian relationships is unclear. Critics have complained that synods often avoid real consultation, that conclusions sometimes appear determined in advance, and that too much time is wasted on speechmaking. According to the National Catholic Reporter, Vatican sources say that the Pope and his advisors envision a multiphase process involving widespread opportunities for input at the local level, including use of the Internet to collect suggestions. After a first meeting in Rome, a draft set of proposals would be sent to the Pope, and also back to local dioceses for further reaction and discussion and would only be formally adopted in a second session. “Those of us who want to see real change,” one cardinal told the NCR on background, “have reason to be optimistic.”
Persian Gulf states to ‘test’ foreigners for Gayness Kuwaiti officials said on October 7 that they would begin “medical tests” to determine if foreigners seeking entry are Gay, and would begin to bar Gays from coming into the country. The tests may be adopted by all the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), of which Kuwait is a member, along with Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The GCC will meet in November to decide whether all its member states should follow Kuwait’s lead. Yousouf Mindkar, director of public health at the Kuwaiti health ministry, said that the routine clinical screening of foreigners coming into the GCC will include tests to identify LGBT people, who will then be banned from entering the country. “Health centers conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries,” he told local daily Al Rai. “However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect Gays, who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states.”
LGBT communities. In 2010 Kuwait banned a screening of the Egyptian film Bedon Rakaba (“Out of Control” or “Uncensored”), saying that it “encouraged debauchery.” The film focused on young people using drugs and having Lesbian sex. A member of the censorship board said that some of the scenes were “too hot” and that the Lesbian theme was “too bold.” In 2012, Kuwaiti police officers arrested two men for having sex in a car parked near a cafe in Kuwait City. Police also found the men had a four-year-old “marriage contract” and were planning to travel abroad to obtain a legal marriage certificate. Traditional Islamic marriage contracts are said to be common among Gay couples in the Gulf. In the same year, 127 Gay men were arrested in Bahrain for what authorities called a “depraved and decadent” party. On October 6 of this year, a Saudi court sentenced four members of its security forces to prison terms of up to 10 years and corporal punishment of as many as 2,000 lashes after they were convicted of dancing naked on the hood of their car. They had been careless enough to post a video of the incident online, where it attracted the attention of the Saudi morals police.
HOW WOULD IT WORK? Mindkar did not specify how applicants for entry into Kuwait would be “tested,” but in other countries, such so-called “medical tests” have involved intrusive and humiliating rectal examinations. Same-sex sexual relations are illegal in all the GCC states, and in Saudi Arabia they are a capital crime. Several GCC countries have made recent attempts to crack down on their
ACTIVISTS CRY FOUL Richard Lane, of the British LGBT rights group Stonewall, condemned the Kuwaiti proposal. “These proposals are not only futile but contrary to international human rights law,” he said. “Many Gulf states have gone to great lengths to market themselves as open for international business. Their leaders should
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
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of response” from the Vatican. One Kairos member told the newspaper that the Pope had also assured the group of his blessing. Kairos also said they had received a letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State, which informed them that Pope Francis “really enjoyed” their letter to him and the way it was written, calling it an act of “spontaneous confidence.” The Vatican has not commented on the reports. In a now-famous September interview with the Italian Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, the Pope warned that Catholic authorities often come off as self-righteous scolds. “It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” Francis said, referring to contraception and sexual issues like same-sex attrac-
KAIROS: POPE BLESSED US According to Italy’s La Reppublica newspaper, Pope Francis has personally responded to a letter from a Gay Catholic group and assured them of his blessing. In June, the group Kairos, based in Florence, Italy, wrote to the Pope asking him to be open to dialogue with LGBT Catholics. Being closed to discussion “always feeds homophobia,” they noted. The group said they were “stunned” when the Pope replied personally. One leader of the group told La Repubblica that before Francis, “no one had ever even given a nod
tions. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the Church are not all equivalent. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. “We have to find a new balance, otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.” At the same time, the Pope referred to the church’s catechism, which holds that LGBT people are “objectively disordered.”
think long and hard about putting forward measures to restrict freedom of movement and further prohibit the best talent from doing business in the region simply because of their sexual orientation.” British civil rights activist Peter Tatchell called on the soccer federation FIFA to reschedule the 2022 World Cup Games, now planned to be held in Qatar. “There is no known medical test to detect homosexuality,” Tatchell told Pink News. “I wonder what quackery the Kuwaiti authorities plan to invent in their vain attempt to identify Gay men. It simply won’t work. “Banning Gay people from entering the country will deter foreign investors and companies. They won’t want to subject their employees to such barbaric, medieval humiliations. “The proposal that this Gay ban will apply across all Gulf Cooperation Countries
will mean that Gay players and spectators will be banned from attending the football World Cup in Qatar in 2022. This contradicts previous assurances given to FIFA by the Qatar government that everyone will be welcome and that there will be no discrimination. “FIFA now has no option but to cancel the World Cup in Qatar. Allowing it to go ahead in these circumstances would involve FIFA colluding with homophobic discrimination.” The U.S. State Department warns LGBT travelers that “consensual same-sex sexual conduct between males and cross-dressing are illegal in Kuwait,” and advises that “LGBT travelers should carefully consider the laws and biases of their international destination and decide how open one can be regarding one’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
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health and medicine BC adopts new, improved HIV test by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer British Columbia will become the first Canadian province to adopt a new, more accurate test for HIV. The decision follows the publication of a study documenting the test’s performance. The nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) was developed by U.S. scientists, and can detect new HIV infections within seven to fourteen days of exposure. Standard tests may show false negatives up to four weeks after exposure to the virus. The Canadian study, published October 9 in AIDS Journal, found that NAAT greatly improved the diagnosis of early or acute HIV infection, according to a joint press release by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and the Provincial Health Services Authority. The study estimated that between 25 and 75 new HIV infections were avoided since April 2009 as a result of a pilot program that used NAAT at six clinics serving Gay and Bisexual men in Vancouver. “The test allows you to pick up infections very early – as soon as one to two weeks after a person is infected with HIV,” said study co-author Dr. Mark Gilbert, a physician epidemiologist, sexually transmitted infections, at the BCCDC. “And we know that when people find out
they’re HIV-positive, they take steps to ensure they don’t pass it on to others. So, by letting people know they have HIV in the first two weeks after infection, at a time when they have the highest chance of passing on the virus, this means a great opportunity to reduce the spread of HIV.”
SPREADING THE WORD The study also concluded that combining the new test method with social media campaigns was highly effective in almost doubling the rate of acute HIV detection in the clinics, resulting in a 12% increase in the total number of HIV diagnoses. The social media campaigns sought to promote the new test technology and inform at-risk Gay men, or men initiating new relationships, of the increased transmission risk from undiagnosed acute HIV infections. In total, researchers said, 25 men with acute HIV were diagnosed by NAAT who otherwise would have received a false negative result. Gilbert said that while the study was a pilot project, it would now be expanded to other clinics in the province. The only downside to the new method, Gilbert noted is that “it’s a more expensive test, so the best way [to use it] is to identify targeted settings where it will have the most impact.” The study was funded by the Canadian
SPORTS
Institutes of Health Research and with additional support from the provincial STOP HIV/AIDS program. “Our government is committed to reducing the spread of HIV by ensuring those living with HIV/AIDS have access to the best care and treatment, and it is very exciting that this groundbreaking research is going on right here in B.C.,” said provincial Health Minister Terry Lake in a statement.
INFECTION RATE DECLINING According to the press release, 238 cases of HIV were diagnosed in B.C. in 2012, the lowest number on record since the high point of 929 cases in 1987. Men having sex with men continue to make up the highest percentage of new HIV diagnoses in the province, accounting for 63% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2012.
by Albert Rodriguez SGN A&E Writer Five years from now, the City of Light will become the City of Action. Gay action, that is. As in, Gay athletes from all over the world traveling to Paris to compete in the premier LGBT sporting event: the Gay Games. The French capital beat out London and Limerick, Ireland, in the final tallying conducted during the Federation of Gay Games (FGG) general assembly this week, to host the 10th edition of this quadrennial event. Although each finalist bidding to host the global event was considered carefully, it was Paris that impressed the voting committee of about 150 delegates the most. Kelly Stevens, the FGG’s communications officer and a member of its board, was one of two delegates from Seattle who attended the selection ceremony in Cleveland this week. “I think that all three were capable of hosting it,” Stevens told SGN by phone. “But Paris really doubled their efforts in planning for this bid. Paris bid previously in 2005 to host the 2010 Gay Games and lost to Cologne, Germany. So they really have been working for 10 years to do this. They really crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s, and they put on probably the most lively presentation, full of Paris flair.” Stevens is optimistic that the number of participants for Gay Games X will increase. “There’s no reason not to expect it to go well over 12,000. It will go higher, probably,” he said. “We’ll expect larger turnout
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FGG
Paris wins bid to host 2018 Gay Games from Central Europe and a huge turnout from Paris and all of France.” He is particularly excited about some of the already-revealed plans for the weeklong event. “They are setting up their Athletes’ Village, which is similar to a Pride Festival. It’s a giant stage going on all day into the evening with music and announcements and video screens recapping things – they’re doing that right in the center of Paris. It’s going to be really, really centralized.” A FAVORITE DESTINATION The choice of Paris as host of the 2018 Gay Games was celebrated within and outside the Gay sports community, and will certainly impact a city that has long been a favorite destination of LGBT travelers. “We are very honored that Paris has been chosen as the site of the 2018 Gay Games,” declared Marion Fourestier, communications director for the U.S. at Atout France, the official French tourism office, in New York. “It will reaffirm to all that since Oscar Wilde (and earlier) to the present day (the French National Assembly voted Gay marriage into law in April 2013) that France and its capital are a very Gay-friendly destination. Historically, it has put into practice the French Republic’s motto since the French Revolution of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” – welcoming outcasts, whether from the Gay community or artists of the African American community, and other refugees from prejudice or repression.” Fourestier points out a few things that separate Paris from other places. “Paris
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Paris bidding committee for Gay Games
offers the obvious iconic sites that no one else has: the Eiffel Tower, the Seine River, the Louvre, and Bertrand Delanoë, the first openly Gay mayor of Paris. There’s just so many things to see and do. If you’ve never been there before, you have to see what Paris is famous for.” Tom Nobbe, executive director of Gay Games IX, being staged in Cleveland and Akron next August, points out that the task of assembling the Paris event starts right away. “They begin immediately with raising awareness – they would begin to hire staff because right now it’s been a very, very passionate group of volunteers who put together the bid. Now it is reality – they are the hosts of the 2018 Gay Games – and they move forward. They still have five years, which now seems like a long time, but this is an event the size of the Summer Olym-
pics in terms of the number of participants involved, and planning takes years.” MEET YOU AT THE Q The 2014 Gay Games are expected to attract 11,000 participants. As of September 30, the number of registered athletes has reached 2,000. “It’s exactly where we wanted to be,” confirmed Nobbe. “We’re looking to have an additional 3,000 by the end of the year, which would make 5,000 and then between January through August we’ll get the rest.” The opening ceremony for the 2014 Gay Games is scheduled for Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena (commonly known as the “Q”), which can seat up to 20,000 people. Live entertainment for the kickoff gala is likely to be announced by years’ end.
Celebrating 40 Years!
Emilio by Beau Burriola SGN Contributing Writer “I’ve lived in Paris since I was 19,” Emilio said, staring out at the pond. About a dozen ducks floated in front of us looking at us hopefully, giving an audience to his story. The story was deep, short, heavy. “I had sex at least twice a day. I would go to the parks, to the bars, to the saunas, or meet guys on the Internet. I just wanted to feel close to someone. I had a lot of sex, but I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never been lucky like you.” The “like you” seemed resentful, angry. “Lucky?” I asked him, a little confused. I’m not sure about luck, but it isn’t every day you come across a guy who is 34 years old, has lived in a major Gay city and has never, ever, had a boyfriend. For me, Emilio is the first. “Yeah, lucky. I never had the luck you had to find a boyfriend.” Emilio was, to me, very beautiful in the way only Spanish/French guys can be. He’s fit, he’s got deep eyes, a flavor for life, and
a decent job. He’s a little dramatic, but as a story collector, I appreciate the color. But I don’t want to date him. At 34 years old, my life can be broken down into three long-term relationships. My first was when I was open to pretty much any kind of love I could find. My second was when I was slightly more picky, but not mature enough to meet my own expectations. The last was the longest and even when it ended, I felt confident that how it ended was right. But here is a guy who has had sex with (by his count) thousands of men from all over the world and not found a single one who could become a boyfriend. As a story collector, I’m fascinated. As a potential partner, I am running from all the warning bells and alarms. He is either the pickiest guy on earth or there are more layers than I am seeing. We watched the ducks for a while, lost in our own thoughts before he threw this out: “You think I’m in another caste.” I was quiet at first, because I wasn’t sure about the French word for caste. When I understood it, I got a chill. Did I? Did I think
because he had sex with thousands of guys, that he was in another category I didn’t want to touch? Did that take him immediately out of consideration? Kind of. Yeah. I suddenly felt very ugly. But even if I didn’t think that meant he was untouchable, I did feel like that meant the potential risk outweighed most of the gains I could get here. That’s the difference for me dating at 34 versus dating at 20. I want kids, a family, a future. I know myself and imagine I know enough about who I want to date to make smart decisions about it. We sat in the grass there talking for two hours – our lives, our pasts, our hopes for the future, and how we looked at different things in the world. As a storyteller and as a feeling person, I admired the raw honesty of his story. I appreciated the way his family life was hard, how his mother and he still don’t talk, and how the only family in his life is an uncle. As a story, he reminds me
of a French movie I once saw with an ending that left me feeling unsure, grasping for meaning and unable to process in my small American mind the motivation for such a script or the characters. But that was that. Thirty-four-year-old me had made my judgment and moved on, and felt awful the whole time. I still feel awful now. But I’m no less sure of my tradeoff. I was judgmental, quick to decide, uncompromising in my decision, and uninterested in pushing that limit. I can only hope with every fiber of my being – for all my hopes for the future – that this is wisdom and not cynicism. “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” – journalist Norman Cousins Beau Burriola is a Brussels-based Gay expat, rediscovering dating in the middle thirties. Contact him at beaubrent@gmail. com.
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shepard
continued from page 9 looking, caring son so special and to let the world know that it was a loss for everyone, everywhere.” THE STATEMENT According to transcripts from the court, Dennis Shepard said in his statement, “My son – a gentle, caring soul – proved that he was as tough as, if not tougher than, anyone I have ever heard of or known. On October 6, 1998, my son tried to show the world that he could win again. On October 12, 1998, my first-born son – and my hero – lost. On October 12, my first-born son – and my hero – died 50 days before his 22nd birthday. He died quietly, surrounded by family and friends, with his mother and brother holding his hand. All that I have left now are the memories. “It’s hard to put into words how much Matt meant to family and friends and how much they meant to him. Everyone wanted him to succeed because he tried so hard. The spark that he provided to people had to be experienced. He simply made everyone feel better about themselves. Family and
friends were his focus. He knew that he always had their support for anything that he wanted to try. “Matt’s gift was people. He loved being with people, helping people, and making others feel good. The hope of a better world free of harassment and discrimination because a person was different kept him motivated. All his life he felt the stabs of discrimination. Because of that he was sensitive to other people’s feelings. He was naive to the extent that, regardless of the wrongs people did to him, he still had faith that they would change and become ‘nice.’ Matt trusted people, perhaps too much. Violence was not a part of his life until his senior year in high school. He would walk into a fight and try to break it up. He was the perfect negotiator. He could get two people talking to each other again as no one else could. “Matt loved people and he trusted them. He could never understand how one person could hurt another, physically or verbally. They would hurt him, and he would give them another chance. This quality of seeing only good gave him friends around the world. He didn’t see size, race, intelligence, sex, religion, or the hundred other things that people use to make choices about people. All he saw was the person. All he want-
ed was to make another person his friend. All he wanted was to make another person feel good. All he wanted was to be accepted as an equal.” Dennis ends his letter to the actor by challenging him to do something that he believed would make a profound impact on him. “In order to get the full flavor of the [court] statement, I recommend that you find and print the statement to the court (if you haven’t done so already), and read it out loud in front of a mirror. However, instead of using Matt’s name, I want you to substitute the name of a family member, such as a brother, sister, cousin, or perhaps a close friend. Imagine that you are reading this statement to the jury about that person. I think it will make it more realistic and meaningful to you.” Dennis wished the actor “good luck with the play production” and said, “I know you and the rest of the cast and crew will do a fine job.” “It will change you, the audience, and everyone connected to it,” said Dennis. “Please extend a warm hello to all of them from Judy and me.” STOP THE HATE A lot has changed since the world first learned of Matthew Shepard. Fifteen years is a long time and aside from the passage of the hate-crime legislation, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military’s failed policy on Gay and Lesbian servicemembers, was repealed in December 2010 and a new policy of inclusion was implemented in September of the following year. Marriage equality is marching across the nation. One by one the hypothetical “dominos” that leaders in the Gay rights movement have been talking about aren’t so hypothetical anymore. It’s happening. We are winning. But, as is the case with Matthew Shepard, our victories have not come without a price. Each year in the U.S., the number of reported hate crimes has increased. Officials say the number is on the rise mainly because victims feel safer to report the crime, as more and more people become accepting of the LGBT community, but I think we can all agree that one such incident is one too many. In 2004, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police were founded on perceived sexual orientation. Sixty-one percent of those attacks were against Gay men, 14% against Lesbians, 2% against heterosexuals, and 1% against Bisexuals, while attacks against LGBT people at large made up 20%. Violence based on perceived gender identity was not recorded in the report. The FBI reported that for 2006, hate crimes against Gays increased to 16% from 14% in 2005, as a percentage of total docu-
mented hate crimes across the U.S. The 2006 annual report, released on November 19, 2007, also said that hate crimes based on sexual orientation are the third most common type, behind race and religion. In 2008, 17.6% of hate crimes were based on the victim’s perceived sexual orientation. Of those crimes, 72.23% were violent in nature. Racial bias accounted for 4,704 crimes, and 1,617 were committed due to sexual orientation. Of these, only one murder and one forcible rape were committed due to racial bias, whereas five murders and six rapes were committed based on sexual orientation. In 2011, the FBI reported 1,572 hate crime victims targeted based on a sexual orientation bias, making up 20.4% of the total hate crimes for that year. Of the total victims, 56.7% were targeted based on antimale homosexual bias, 29.6% were targeted based on anti-homosexual bias, and 11.1% were targeted based on anti-female homosexual bias. Currently, the number of attacks against Gays is on the rise in New York City, with 68 reported anti-Gay incidents this year, 41 of which were assaults and six of which were felonies. That’s double the previous year’s total. And even though Seattle was just named the number-one city for same-sex couples to live in the nation, anti-Gay attacks have increased in our very own neighborhood of Capitol Hill. WHAT’S THE MOTIVE? UCLA psychologist Dr. Edward Dunbar is examining from a clinical and forensic perspective what drives hate-crime perpetrators. With a team of graduate students, he’s spent countless hours at the Los Angeles Police Department profiling about 550 perps, examining such factors as motivation, childhood histories, and levels of pathology. Those who commit hate crimes are not mentally ill in the traditional sense – they’re not diagnosably schizophrenic or bipolar, Dunbar is finding. What they do share, however, is a high level of aggression and antisocial behavior. “These people are not psychotic, but they’re consistently very troubled, very disturbed, very problematic members of our community who pose a huge risk for future violence,” Dunbar notes. Childhood histories of these offenders show high levels of parental or caretaker abuse and use of violence to solve family problems, he adds. People who commit bias crimes are also more likely to deliberate on and plan their attacks than those who commit more spontaneous crimes, Dunbar says. Gay-bashers, for instance, commute long
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Celebrating 40 Years!
distances to pursue their victims in spots they’re likely to find them, suggesting a strong premeditative component to these crimes. In addition, those who commit hate crimes show a history of such actions, beginning with smaller incidents and moving up to more serious ones, Dunbar notes. There is still a lot to be done to keep LGBT people safe from attacks like the one Matthew Shepard died from. But nobody can deny the power of his story and the bravery that Dennis and Judy have displayed over the years. It is important to note that whenever anyone is murdered they are survived by someone. In this case, Dennis and Judy were left to pick up the pieces. Not only did they do that, but they also set out to change the world and how we view hate crimes, anti-Gay attacks, and more. Matthew Shepard, like the Stonewall Uprising, has gone down in history as a critical point in our movement for full equality. But the true heroes out of this tragedy are Dennis and Judy. They display resilience, excellence, and the willingness to change peoples’ views on hate crimes and the LGBT community, and to demonstrate compassion whenever they get the chance. Dennis is right – parents aren’t supposed to bury their kids. But they had to. And instead of curling up in a ball and wishing they were dead themselves, they got to work and developed the Matthew Shepard Foundation into one of the best-known and most visited LGBT resource websites today. The legacy that Matt left us continues to grow under the leadership and care of Dennis and Judy Shepard.
new jersey
continued from cover nature of the harm it alleges, which pales in comparison to the concrete harm caused to Plaintiffs by their current ineligibility for many federal marital benefits, and the significant litigation burden they would have to shoulder to challenge federal denial of marital benefits to civil union couples.” The judge also said the state would most likely lose its appeal of her original decision that New Jersey’s civil unions were discriminatory and not equal to civil marriage. In her September 28 decision, Jacobson set October 21 as the date for same-sex marriages to begin in New Jersey. FURTHER APPEALS LIKELY While Christie is almost certain to appeal Jacobson’s denial of a stay, her ruling moves New Jersey a step closer to actual marriage equality. “Momentum is with us,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality, on Thursday. “All couples in New Jersey need the dignity of marriage, and they need it now. We look forward to seeing many of them, who have been denied that dignity for too long, marry in the coming weeks.” “This is wonderful news!” said Hayley Gorenberg, deputy legal director of Lambda Legal. “The court’s decision once again confirms that the hardships of not being able to marry are real and immediate. Every day does count. Allowing same-sex couples to marry helps many New Jersey families and hurts no one else.”
MOST SAY ‘MOVE ON’ On the same day that Jacobson denied Christie’s request for a stay, a Quinnipiac poll revealed that a large majority of New Jersey’s likely voters don’t want their governor to appeal the ruling. Sixty-one percent of respondents said Christie should drop the appeal, compared to only 32% who wanted him to pursue it. Fifty-nine percent also wanted the state legislature to override Christie’s veto of a 2012 marriage equality bill. Only 33% wanted lawmakers to sustain the governor’s veto. Democratic leaders say they are close to assembling the two-thirds majority necessary to override the veto. They have until January 2014 to do so. “New Jersey likely voters support same-
sex marriage any way they can get it. By almost 2-1, including a lot of Republicans, they want Gov. Christie to drop his appeal of a judge’s ruling so same-sex couples can marry in the Garden State,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “And if Christie won’t get out of the way, voters say, the State Legislature should push him aside by overriding his veto of legislation which passed both houses in February 2012.” Christie, who is running for re-election this fall, seems to have escaped from the marriage controversy with his popularity undimmed, however. The same Quinnipiac poll put him 29 points ahead of his Democratic challenger, Barbara Buono.
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Celebrating 40 Years!
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Seattle Gay News 23