Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 36 Volume 43
FRIDAY September 4, 2015 FREE!
25¢ in bookstores & newsstands
SEC 2 pg 1
Seattle Gay News
Kentucky county clerk jailed for contempt Deputies will issue licenses
SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
SPD accountability office screwed up Whitlatch investigation, police union charges Officer exempt from discipline because OPA took too long
union that represents police officers. Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) President Ron Smith said in a press release dated SeptemSeattle ber 1 that his police officer union’s conCynthia Whittract with the latch – accused City of Seattle of racist policstipulates that ing in an inciSPD may not dent involving discipline ofan elderly Afrificers if the can American investigation man – can’t of a complaint be disciplined against them for her actakes more Cynthia Whitlatch – nydailynews.com tions because the than 180 days. Police Department’s Office of Professional The investigation against Whitlatch, Accountability (OPA) allowed the investi- Smith says, took 323 days before being comgation to drag on too long, according to the see opa page 5 by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis – Timothy D. Easley/Ap Photo
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
After a September 3 hearing, U.S. District Judge David Bunning found Davis in contempt and sent her to jail until she agrees Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is in to comply with his August 12 order to issue jail and her deputy clerks say they will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. marriage licenses to all qualified applicants. see kim davis page 6
Attack on Gay sex Trans people ungodly, workers leads to Vatican rules national conversation about the nature of the business The Vatican – stpetersf.com/via Getty Images
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Transgender people do not live “a life according to the faith,” and therefore may not be godparents, an important Vatican office ruled on September 2. The Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Vatican watchdog on doctrinal matters – ruled Sex workers in Peru – tomfernandez28.com in a case referred to them by the Bishop of by Shaun Knittel Sometimes even when something seems Cadiz and Ceuta, Spain. SGN Associate Editor Alex Salinas, a Transgender man from dire, ridiculous or just plain wrong, there is Cadiz, wanted to be the godfather of his see sex worker page 8
nephew. He was initially accepted by his parish priest, but the priest was overruled by Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy. As fans of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather will recall, a godfather must promise to honor the Catholic faith in the name of his infant godchild, and therefore the Church requires that a godfather must be a Catholic in good standing. But a Trans person can’t be, Bishop Zornoza said, and his ruling was sustained by the Vatican. “Transsexual behavior reveals in a public see vatican page 16
2 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Labor Day, Walmart and me by Jackie Cote Special to the SGN
Labor Day is the traditional end of summer. For me it’s been a special summer with my wife Dee. Dee has ovarian cancer, and is now receiving hospice care at our home in New Bedford, Massachusetts. This spring we decided to start ticking items off her bucket list. We just spent some time in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with Dee’s son and daughter-in-law. There Dee got to dip her feet in the sand and the water, collect a few shells, and spend time with family. It was fantastic. Dee’s bucket list is pretty simple: next we’ll go to New Hampshire, where we’ll take the scenic train route around Lake Winnipesaukee. It’s been incredibly meaningful to both of us to spend this time together. In our 24 years together, we’ve been through thick and thin, and have always been each other’s rock. Now, when Dee is well enough, we venture out – and when she’s not, we are just making sure to appreciate every minute we have together. Labor Day is also the day we celebrate ordinary working people. That’s very much me and Dee. For the past 16 years, I’ve served as an associate at Walmart, and for many years Dee was also a Walmart associate. Unfortunately, on this Labor Day, I’m forced to think about how much employers respect – or disrespect – the people whose labor makes their businesses successful. That’s because when I most needed my employer to come through for my family, I was shocked and disappointed that Walmart would not step up and refused to treat my family with the respect it deserves. I had always been concerned about Dee’s health, since she had a history of cancer. When we got married (as soon as it was legal in Massachusetts!), Dee had been cancer-free for some time. And though we got married primarily for the same reason everyone does – because we love each other – it also meant we would be able to take care of each other financially and legally in the dozens of ways that straight married
Visit us online www.sgn.org
couples already could. Starting in 2008 and continuing through 2012, I tried to add Dee to Walmart’s health insurance plan during Walmart’s open enrollment period, in an effort to receive a benefit that was made available to all other married Dee (l) and Jackie – courtesy of Jacqueline Cote Dee and I want to be able to pay back Walmart employees. But when I entered Dee’s gender as “female,” the online system the medical professionals we owe money stopped me from going any further. So I to, and we want to be able to focus on Dee’s picked up the phone and called Walmart’s health without worrying about collection headquarters – and I was told that Walmart calls. We also want to be able to help other did not offer health insurance to the same- people who are in our situation – former or current Walmart employees married to sex spouses of Walmart employees. Soon, my inability to insure Dee became someone of the same sex, who were unable more than an insult, when Dee’s cancer re- to get their spouses covered by Walmart’s emerged in August 2012. Over a short peri- health insurance plan before January 1, od of time, we racked up medical bills in ex- 2014. That’s why we are working with lawyers cess of $150,000 that we were unable to pay. In addition to the nightmare of cancer, we at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defendendured the stress of being hounded by bill ers (GLAD) and the Washington Lawyer’s collectors. And Dee particularly felt guilty, Committee for Civil Rights and Urban being unable to pay the wonderful health Affairs to sue Walmart on behalf of all the workers who were providing her with such working families who were harmed by Walmart’s unlawful discrimination. We are good care. Effective January 1, 2014, Walmart hopeful that we can make things right for changed its policy to extend spousal health ourselves and for others. That would make insurance benefits to same-sex spouses a meaningful Labor Day. of Walmart employees. That’s a good step, Jackie Cote is the named plaintiff in the but it’s not enough. It’s not enough because Walmart didn’t address the fact that hun- class action lawsuit Cote v. Wal-Mart Stores, dreds or possibly thousands of people like Inc. that is pending in the federal court in me and Dee were greatly harmed when Boston, Massachusetts. Inquiries about the Walmart engaged in discrimination. And case, including from similarly situated emthe harms we suffered continue this day. ployees, can be directed to gladanswers@ It doesn’t address the fact that Walmart glad.org. changed its policy voluntarily, that Walmart Courtesy of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & claims it is lawful to discriminate against gay and lesbian workers, and that Walmart Defenders could change its policy to discriminate at any time.
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 3
Reflections on the county clerk in Kentucky To the Editor:
In the few hours since I read the article about this county clerk in Kentucky who was defying the federal law allowing gay marriage I have been thinking of a way to try and understand her reasoning. To be honest, I don’t have any idea as to what her reasoning was or is on this topic. I can accept the rights of the religious sector of this country to the freedom of religion, but when those rights delve into denying the rights of others I draw the line. This is the 21st century and not the 12th century, there are regulations of this country that must be obeyed or this country and this world will fall into chaos. These laws and regulations exist for a reason. That reason is that while there are many different points of view
throughout this country we all agree to abide by the laws of the land and there is no point of view that supersedes the laws of the land. Everyone who is a citizen of this country enjoys the freedoms and the responsibilities of this country and these responsibilities are not disregarded simply because you do not agree with a specific law or policy. If you don’t like or agree with a specific law or policy work within the guidelines of public comment and the way to change the law of the land is through the crucible of public opinion and the ballot box, not by standing up for an ideal that is so far out of date that it no longer has any bearing on modern society. What this clerk did was against federal law and she was rightly arrested for it. To me, the dogma of the far right of organized religion is simple bigotry. The
leaders of the far right of organized religion need a scapegoat or a pariah to show to their followers that their way is the only true way to religious enlightenment and advancement into heaven. I am a believer in a higher power, but the higher power that I believe in doesn’t dictate who should or should not live a good and moral life. Those decisions are up to the individual, not the church or religion. Allow each member of this great country to live the life that they choose in their own way and accept the individual on his or her own merits and not by some vastly outdated concept that has lost its meaning in this new century. Organized religion is struggling to maintain a loyal following when statistics show that organized religion is losing 2 to 4 percent of its following each year simply be-
cause of the unwillingness to accept change and the advancement of society as a whole. Mankind is on the verge of leaping into the universe and setting new habitats on other planets. But this glorious dream will not happen if mankind falls to arguing with each other over which way is the right way and are willing to go to war to prove their point is right and the hell with everyone else. These beliefs will lead to the destruction of this planet and all life on it. It is time to let loose the tired old beliefs of old and look forward to the beauty and majesty of the universe. Thank you for your time. Eric
Understanding our elders EDITOR: The older I become the more disgusted I get towards Gay Men in general, especially the Younger Gay Men, even those in their 30s-40s who brainlessly prance around “Here we are and here we stay” with their EFFORTLESS freedoms. Especially due [to the fact] that we older guys have fought and continuously fight for equal human rights and respect; but you don’t even have
respect for your elder gay men who have pre led the movements for your rights! Using myself as an example. I am not an old troll at sixty-one years old with greying hair. I just want to be a part of MY COMMUNITY! In the eighties I was an International Model, yet younger gays wrinkle up their noses as if I am an old warty troll trying to hit on them. NOT! Just being my friendly self and acknowledging they are “Family.”
I and my partner experience all of the time other gay men and couples who think “They must be invisible as gay men to the public” – [for] example, a couple together in a restaurant. Uh…HELLO OBVIOUS!!! It is very weird to pass or have contact with other gay men that don’t even offer a friendly acknowledgment nod back, alone just to another human? We know that gay men are insecure and assume their partner might be flirting just to nod or say hello to
other gay men. We mature guys enjoy conversations and activities with some of you younger guys, for we used to be those ages as well. And YOU TOO will be here someday and reminisce those bygone youthful years! Leon White Seattle
Lord Montagu dies at 88 Brit aristocrat helped legalize Gay sex
Lord Montagu – www.express.co.uk
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, the British aristocrat whose 1954 trial for “gross indecency” led to the legalization of Gay sex in Britain, died August 31 at the age of 88. In Britain at the time “gross indecency” was a catchall term for any physical intimacy between men. Montagu, whose full name – Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Mon-
4 Seattle Gay News
tagu – reveals his upper class pedigree, was convicted of the crime along with his cousin, Michael Pitt-Rivers, and journalist Peter Wildeblood, and sentenced to up to 18 months in prison. The case had its origins in a summer fling. Montagu invited his friend Wildeblood to a party at a riverfront cottage on his estate. Wildeblood brought two handsome young RAF men, and Pitt-Rivers also stopped by. British police were already interested in
September 4, 2015
Montagu because of previous complaints that he had sex with an under-age boy at the same cottage, and Montagu, Wildeblood, and Pitt-Rivers were arrested on charges of “buggery” – a quaint medieval term for Gay sex – and “conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons.” “There was this crash-bang, bang-bang on the door,” Montagu remembered. “The press had been tipped off, and were already there.” While the prosecution tried to portray the evening as a horrible Gay orgy, Montagu later said it had been pretty tame stuff. “We had some drinks, we danced, we kissed, that’s all,” he recalled. Wildewood remembered the night as “extremely dull.” The press played the story up with lurid headlines, but the publicity backfired on the prosecution. Although the government was able to get a conviction on the lesser charge of gross indecency, the public was sympathetic to the defendants. Within three years of the trial, the British government convened the Wolfendon Committee, named for its chairman Lord Wolfendon, to investigate why so many well-placed men were going to jail for Gay sex. The committee ultimately recommended that “homosexual behavior between
consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence.” Parliament did not act on the recommendation till 1967, however. After serving his sentence, Montagu went back to his aristocratic pursuits, becoming Britain’s leading collector of race cars. Wildeblood came out as Gay during their trial, but Montagu never discussed his sexuality in public until a 2000 interview with the Daily Echo newspaper, in which he identified as Bisexual. “My attraction to both sexes neither changed nor diminished at university and it was comforting to find that I was not the only person faced with such a predicament,” he told the reporter. “I agonized less than my contemporaries, for I was reconciled to my bisexuality, but I was still nervous about being exposed.” Montagu married twice and had three children. In a 2007 interview with the Evening Standard newspaper, Montagu explained why he felt unable to be out during his 1954 trial. “People can’t understand it now,” Montagu told the newspaper. “They can’t imagine the furtiveness. As someone said at the time, the skies over Chelsea were black with people burning their love letters.”
Celebrating 41 Years!
opa
continued from cover pleted on July 24. Whitlatch stopped then-69-year-old William Wingate on July 9, 2014, ordered him to drop the golf club he was using as a cane, and subsequently arrested him. A dashcam video shows that Whitlatch lied when she later claimed that Wingate assaulted her with the golf club. Whitlatch got into more trouble when she posted racially inflammatory remarks on her Facebook page, and she was ultimately fired by SPD. In a phone interview with SGN, Smith went out of his way to emphasize that he was not taking a position on Whitlatch’s guilt or innocence. “I’m just defending our contract,” Smith told SGN. “You sit down and you negotiate a contract, and if they don’t comply I have no choice. “It’s no different from teachers, or longshoremen. What we do here [at SPOG] is provide our members with due process rights. “By the letter of the contract OPA needed to complete their investigation in 180 days. If they couldn’t do that, they needed to ask for an extension. And they didn’t.” SPOG is required by their contract to
OPA Director Pierce Murphy – q13fox.com
grant all “reasonable” requests for extensions, Smith explained. According to SPOG’s press release, the first complaint against Whitlatch was made September 4, 2014, at a meeting involving community leaders and Whitlatch’s supervisors, Police Captain Pierre Davis and then-Assistant Chief Nick Metz. The formal OPA complaint against Whitlatch was not filed until January 28, 2015, but Smith argues that the timeline of the complaint should go back to the initial meeting with Davis and Metz.
“They should have taken the information and forwarded it to OPA,” he explained. “I don’t know why they didn’t. Maybe they felt the community members were heard and were satisfied. The community members certainly thought they were making a complaint.” When OPA finally got the complaint in January, Smith says, OPA Director Pierce Murphy should have realized he needed an extension on the 180-day deadline. “He should have looked at the file and
said, ‘Oh my God! I have two commanders who didn’t do what they should have done.’ And then he should have called me and asked for the extension,” Smith told SGN. This is not the first time Murphy has delayed investigations, Smith charged. “There have been multiple incidents,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s intentional or if [Murphy] is just not capable of running such a complex system. “The Mayor needs to look long and hard at the performance of Mr. Murphy. It looks like he’s not capable of doing his job.” Murphy’s office said he had received several calls from media, but would not comment on the story. Jason Kelly, press secretary for Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, did not return SGN’s phone calls for a comment. Smith told SGN he realizes some Seattle residents will believe he’s just trying to get Whitlatch off the hook, but he insists that Murphy is to blame. “I’m very mindful of community complaints,” he told SGN. “I’m mindful of our responsibility to treat people equitably across all lines – race, sexual orientation, everything. “I put it back on him [Murphy]. I look at the file in this case and it just jumps off the page at me.”
Labor Day special feature: Union-made beers by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Labor Day picnic is a traditional and beloved end-of-summer event, and no part of the event is more beloved than icecold beer. So if you like a beer or two – or more – on Labor Day, why not get into the spirit of the occasion and buy union-made beer? Our community’s history with union beer goes all the way back to 1973, when Harvey Milk teamed up with the Teamsters to boycott Coors beer – then an anti-union and anti-Gay company. Now you can enjoy union-made Coors with a clear conscience, knowing they treat their workers, including LGBT ones, as well as any employer in the industry. Here’s a short list of beers and ales made by members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), United Autoworkers (UAW), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), and International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA). You can also text BEER to 22555 to get the list on your phone. Not only do these unions represent expert beer-makers, canners, bottlers, and beer truck drivers, but they are among the most progressive, pro-LGBT unions in the country. 1845 Pilsner – IBT Alexander Keiths – IAM Anheuser-Busch – IBT/IAM Axehead – IBT Bass Ale – IAM Beck’s – IAM Black Eye Ale – IBT Black Hawk Stout – IBT Blue Heron Pale Ale – IBT Blue Moon – IUOE/IBT Boxer Ice, Lager and Light – IBT Budweiser brands – IAM/UFCW/IUOE/IBT
Visit us online www.sgn.org
Burger brands – IUE-CWA Busch – IAM/IBT Butte Creek brands – IBT Camo brands – IUE-CWA Carmel Wheat Beer – IBT Clear Creek Ice – IBT Coors – IBT Coors Light – IUOE/IBT Czechvar – IAM Double Dread Imperial Red Ale – IAM Dundee brands – IBT Duquesne brands – IUE-CWA Earthquake – IUE-CWA Eye of the Hawk Select Ale – IBT Flor de Jamaica – IAM Genesee brands – IBT Genny Light – IBT Goose Island – IBT Grain Belt Premium (Schell’s) – USW Green Valley Brewing Company – IAM/IUOE/IBT Hamm’s brands – UAW/IAM Henry Weinhard brands – IUOE/IBT Hoegaarden – IAM Honey Amber Rose – IBT Huber brands – IBT Hudy brands – IUE-CWA Humboldt Haze Imperial What IPA – IAM Hurricane – IUOE/IBT Icehouse – UAW/IAM Iron City brands – IUE-CWA Jamaica brands – IAM John Barleycorn Barleywine – IAM Johnny Appleseed – IUOE/IBT Keystone Light – IAM/IUOE Killians – IUOE/IBT King Cobra – IUOE/IBT Kingfisher Premium Lager – IBT Kirin – IAM Labatt’s brands – IUOE Landshark Lager – IAM/IUOE/IBT Latrobe – IUE-CWA Lazy Mutt Farmhouse Ale – IBT Leffe Blond – IAM Leinenkugel’s – UAW/IUOE/IBT Leinies brands – UAW/IUOE/IBT Lionshead – IUOE Lionshead Light – IUOE
Delicious fun beer – www.okcfox.com
Mad River – IAM Mendocino brands – IBT Michelob brands – IAM/IUOE/IBT Mickey’s brands – IUOE/IBT Miller brands – UAW/IAM/IUOE/IBT Milwaukee brands – IUE-CWA Minhas Oktoberfest – IBT Molson brands – IUOE/IBT Moosehead – IBT Mountain Crest Classic Lager – IBT Natural brands – IAM/IUOE/IBT O’Doul’s (non-alcoholic) – IAM/IUOE/IBT Old German – IUE-CWA Olde English 800 – IUOE/IBT Pabst – UAW Pennsylvania Style brands – IUE-CWA Peregrine Pilsner – IBT Perfect 10 – IBT Raptor Red Lager – IBT Red Dog – UAW/IUOE Red Stripe – IUE-CWA
September 4, 2015
Red Tail Ale – IBT Rolling Rock – IAM Saranac – IBT Schell’s – USW Schlitz – UAW Serious Madness Black Ale – IAM Sharp’s (non-alcoholic) – UAW/IAM Shock Top – IAM/IUOE/IBT SouthPaw Light – IUOE Sparks Malt – IUOE/IBT Staropramen – IAM Steel Reserve – IUOE/IBT Steelhead brands – IAM Stegmaier brands – IUOE Stella Artois – IAM Stoneys brands – IUE-CWA Swiss Amber – IBT Talon Extra Select Double IPA – IBT Third Shift (Miller/Coors) – IBT Thunderbolt – IBT Tilt – IUOE/IBT White Hawk Select IPA – IBT
Seattle Gay News 5
kim davis
continued from cover Davis refused to issue any marriage licenses at all after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Lesbian and Gay couples have a right to marry. Six couples – same-sex and opposite-sex – are suing her to force her to perform her duties as County Clerk. “The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order,” Judge Bunning said. “If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.” The ACLU, which filed the motion ask-
ing Bunning to find Davis in contempt, had asked that she not be jailed. Their proposal was that Davis should be fined until she was financially unable to continue denying marriage licenses to applicants. Davis asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay lower court orders requiring her to do her job and issue licenses, but the high court turned her down on August 31. The Sixth Circuit Court ruled against her on August 26. Davis’s deputy clerks said in an anonymous interview with a local reporter that they disagreed with her policy and want to issue marriage licenses to everyone who applies, but added that they are afraid Davis
will fire them if they do so. Judge Bunning gave the deputy clerks an opportunity to speak with public defenders prior to asking them formally if they intend to comply with his order to issue the licenses. Five of the six are reported to have told the judge they will issue licenses. Davis’s son Nathan, who is also one of her deputies, said he will not comply with Bunning’s order and may join her in jail. Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins said that Davis “does not represent” Rowan County and is not representative of its inclusive values. Watkins told the Kentucky Trial Court Review that he told Davis from the begin-
ning that he “will not and cannot support” her defiance of the federal courts. Watkins said he has no position on same sex marriage, but that established federal law must be followed. Meanwhile, a second Kentucky County Clerk has vowed to die rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Casey Davis – no relation to Kim – Clerk of Casey County, has also stopped issuing all marriage licenses since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. In an August 24 TV interview he said he would “fight and die” to preserve his freedom to discriminate against same-sex couples.
Tennessee judge refuses to grant straight couple divorce, says Obergefell overruled all marriagerelated laws
Tennessee Judge Jeffrey Atherton – www.joemygod.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A judge in Hamilton County, Tennessee, has denied a divorce petition from a
straight couple because, he claims, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away his state’s ability to determine what a marriage is and when it should end. Judge Jeffrey Atherton ruled on the pe-
tition of Thomas and Pamela Bumgardner, who married in 2002 and filed for divorce in September 2014. “The conclusion reached by this Court is that Tennesseans have been deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be incompetent to define and address such keystone/central institutions such as marriage, and, thereby, at minimum, contested divorces,” Atherton wrote. He later defended his ruling to reporters, but refused to clarify his reasoning. “I don’t want extraneous conversation,” he said. “I’ll have to stick with the words of the order.” Regina Lambert, one of the lawyers who represented Tennessee plaintiffs in the Su-
preme Court case, called Atherton’s reasoning irrelevant. “Overall, Tennessee has had a fantastic response to this Supreme Court decision,” Lambert said. She said the Supreme Court’s decision is about marriage equality – not divorce. “He is just making a statement,” she said. “I just think change is hard for people.” “I don’t know for sure,” Chattanooga attorney Mike Richardson told reporters, “but I suspect the U.S. Supreme Court did not intend to preempt divorce law.” Whether Atherton disagreed with the Supreme Court decision is beside the point, said Penny White, a former justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court and now a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law. “State court judges, regardless of their personal points of view, must defer to the Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretation,” she said in a written statement.
DNC approves marriage equality; RNC stands by freedom to discriminate by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
The DNC (Democratic National Committee) unanimously passed a resolution August 27 supporting the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing same-sex marriage. “Same-sex marriage is a constitutionally guaranteed right nationwide and can no longer be denied by state laws,” reads the resolution. “The ruling now recognizes same-sex marriages all across this nation and these families will now be protected under the law from the discrimination and mistreatment to which they have long been subjected.” The resolution also describes the ruling in the Obergefell case as “an important victory for the LGBT community” and “a monumental step forward for our nation.” “The Democratic National Committee applauds this Supreme Court decision and will continue its work in achieving real progress and supporting the LGBT community,” it reads. The DNC acted just two days after four
6 Seattle Gay News
Republican vs. Democrat – dailycaller.com
Republican presidential hopefuls – Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Santorum – signed onto a NOM pledge to overturn the high court’s decision. The RNC (Republican National Committee) also acted in August, approving a resolution supporting the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act, a measure to prevent the federal government from penalizing businesses and non-profits that discriminate against same-sex couples. The GOP resolution references a number of cases in which private business own-
September 4, 2015
ers have faced legal consequences for refusing to serve same-sex couples because businesses which provide public accommodations are barred from discriminating against customers on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. The ACLU has called the measure “a Pandora’s Box of taxpayer-funded discrimination against same-sex couples and their children.” The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has also come out against the legislation, saying it would undermine the rule of law
and promote taxpayer-funded discrimination. “The right to believe is fundamental, but the right to use taxpayer dollars to promote discrimination is not,” said JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs for the Human Rights Campaign. “It’s no wonder the RNC attempted to keep quiet its support for a reckless and irresponsible bill that would promote discrimination with taxpayers’ money and reward discriminatory actions by federal employees with taxpayer funding,” Winterhof added. “Those Republican candidates who choose not to speak out against this RNC resolution should not be shocked when LGBT Americans choose to not give them the benefit of the doubt next November.” Ellen Barrosse RNC chair of the Conservative Steering Committee and Delaware Mother of the Year, said the legislation has nothing to do with discrimination. It is “an attempt, for those of us who are people of faith, to protect religious organizations,” she claimed.
Celebrating 41 Years!
“It’s On Us” campaign launches new PSA, marks one-year since launch of “It’s On Us” campaign to end campus sexual assault
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Sexual assault on college campuses in the United States is a problem. So much so that on September 19, 2014, President Obama and Vice President Biden unveiled “It’s On Us,” in partnership with Generation Progress at the Center for American Progress. According to the White House, “It’s On Us” recognizes that the solution to sexual assault begins with all of us. It seeks to reframe the conversation surrounding sexual assault in a way that inspires everyone to see it as his or her responsibility to do something, big or small, to prevent it. In the last year alone, students have launched “It’s On Us “campaigns at over 300 schools and have hosted more than 650 “It’s On Us” events. Since the launch of “It’s On Us” last September, almost 220,000 people have taken the pledge to end sexual assault on college campuses. “It’s On Us” PSAs have had over 10 million views online and the campaign has generated over 3 billion media impressions. “It’s On Us” now has over 90 partners including media, sports leagues and conferences, sexual assault prevention organizations, non-profit organizations, and corporations. Earlier this week, the “It’s On Us” campaign released a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) that includes cameos from “It’s On Us” supporters and artists such as Zoe Saldana, John Cho, and Josh Hutcherson. This PSA, which is titled “The One Thing,” focuses on the importance of consent when engaging in sexual activity. The campaign is also announcing new “It’s On Us” partners including The Ad Council, Kering Foundation, Straight But Not Narrow, and Chegg. Starting today, the Ad
Council will distribute the PSA to its network of more than 20,000 media outlets nationwide. The ads will air and run in time and space donated to the “It’s On Us” campaign by media entities around the country, as well as current “It’s On Us” partners, including several of the major college sports conferences. The “It’s On Us” campaign is also working with the PVBLIC Foundation to distribute the PSA. ”The One Thing” marks the third PSA released by “It’s On Us” and comes just a few weeks before the one-year anniversary of the launch of “It’s On Us,” created to increase education and awareness around preventing sexual violence on college and university campuses. On September 2, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, delivered opening remarks at the National Sexual Assault Conference in Los Angeles, where she highlighted the PSA and progress made by the White House to combat sexual assault. President Obama and Vice President Biden have made it a national priority to root out sexual violence and domestic violence wherever they exist. Soon after taking office, the President created the White House Council on Women and Girls and named the first-ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women. Over the last six years, the President and Vice President have led the way in tackling the problem everywhere, from college and university campuses to the military to tribal lands and beyond. The one thing the campaign leaves out, however, is the LGBTQ community, in terms of specifically looking at the unique problems that we face as a community. Mainstream conversations about rape often fail to acknowledge sexual assaults that happen within the LGBTQ community. There are common myths that exist that help this line of thinking survive, but do nothing to help victims of sexual assault
Visit us online www.sgn.org
who are LGBTQ. Some of these myths include: A woman can’t rape another woman. While the majority of perpetrators of sexual assault are male, the idea that woman-on-woman sexual assault does not occur is only a product of gender role stereotypes that encourage the idea that women are never violent. Gay men are sexually promiscuous and are always ready for sex. Men who identify as Gay, like all people, have the right to say no to sex at any time and have that respected. Because of the stereotypes that many people have about Gay men’s sexual availability, however, it may be more difficult for a Gay man to convince others that he was assaulted. Bisexuals are kinky anyway, and sexual assault for them is just rough sex that got out of hand. Bisexuality reflects a sexual orientation, not sexual practices. Bisexuals, like heterosexuals, practice a wide range of sexual behaviors, and, for Bisexuals, like for heterosexuals, rough sex and a sexual assault are two very different things. Because of stereotypes about Bisexuals, they, too, may have difficulty being believed about a sexual assault. When a woman claims domestic abuse by another women, it is just a catfight. Similarly, when a man claims domestic abuse by another man, it is just two men fighting. The idea that women entice men to rape them or that they really want it is also not true. No person deserves to be raped, and no person asks to be raped or wants it. This myth again shows the extent to which sexual assault is sexualized in our society. Women may experience a sexual assault, no matter what they are wearing, and what the victim was wearing in no way makes her/ him responsible for the assault. As with all cases of sexual assault, these
myths can only be dispelled when they are replaced by truth. This requires that members of the LGBTQ community and heterosexual allies speak out and acknowledge sexual assault and domestic violence within the LGBT community, in order to both prevent future assaults and to provide competent and compassionate care to survivors. Lauren Paulk, National Center for Lesbian Rights Reproductive Justice Fellow, reports that “through a combination of stigma and myths, sexual assault in the LGBT community is often rendered invisible or dismissed outright, despite CDC statistics that show the sexual assault rate for LGBT individuals is comparable or higher than the sexual assault rate for heterosexual individuals.” Approximately 1 in 8 Lesbian women and nearly half of Bisexual women experience rape in their lifetime, and statistics likely increase when a broader definition of sexual assault is used. Nearly half of Bisexual men and 4 in 10 Gay men have experienced sexual violence other than rape in their lifetime, and though statistics regarding rape vary, it is likely that the rate is higher or comparable to heterosexual men. As with most hate-based violence, Transgender individuals are the most likely to be affected in the LGBT community. A staggering 64% of Transgender people have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime. Locally, if you have experienced sexual assault in the LGBTQ community you can reach out to the Northwest Network, a network of Bisexual, Trans, Lesbian and Gay survivors of abuse that works to end violence and abuse by building loving and equitable relationships in the community and across the country. For more information visit them online at http://nwnetwork.org.
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 7
Case dropped against big-time Gay donor Terry Bean off the hook by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A child sexual abuse case against political money-man and Gay rights activist Terry Bean was dismissed by Oregon Judge Jay McAlpin on September 1. Bean and his then-boyfriend, Kiah Lawson, were accused of hooking up with a 15-year-old boy on Grindr and having sex with him in a hotel room in September 2013. Bean helped found the HRC, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and the National Gay Games. He is also a fundraiser for the Democratic Party and its candidates, including President Obama. As expected, Judge McAlpin ruled that since the alleged victim in the case could not be located to testify against Bean, prosecutors had no case. All sides in the controversial court case then issued conflicting statements. Bean said that he “was falsely accused and completely innocent of every accusation that was made.” He thanked supporters and said “I look forward to being able to tell the story of this conspiracy of lies, deceit, blackmail, malicious prosecution, and homophobia now that this case has ended.” His attorney, Derek Ashton, told reporters that Bean was not present in the hotel room when the alleged sexual encounter happened in September 2013, a detail that had not previously been reported. Ashton went on to charge that Lawson – Bean’s ex-boyfriend – tried to set him up with an under-age date as part of an extortion scheme. “If we had our day in Court, we are certain Mr. Bean would have been found to be innocent of the charges based on four important facts,” the attorney’s statement said. “Terry Bean left the hotel room before
sex worker
continued from cover a silver lining that can be found. A lesson learned. An “ah ha” that appears on the horizon. I think that is what we are seeing in the case of the Office of Homeland Security’s raid on Gay website www.rentboy. com. With national media chiming in, sex worker activists mobilizing and becoming increasingly more vocal in their condemnation of the raid, it appears that the poor decision made by law enforcement to “crack down” on so-called illegal prostitution has moved the conversation to levels that haven’t been seen before. We might just be witnessing the beginning of the end for outlawing sex work. And it began with people defending a Gay website for sex. At the risk of sounding cliché, I submit to you that times have indeed … changed. THE STONEWALL OF SEX WORK On August 25, federal police in concurrence with the Department of Homeland Security raided Rentboy.com, the “world’s largest male escort site” (as touted by its company), because they say the website is actually an “Internet brothel,” prompting them to arrest its CEO and six more employees. Founded in 1997, Rentboy.com is a male escort advertising site that charges subscribers a “minimum monthly fee of $59.95 and up to several hundred dollars to adver-
8 Seattle Gay News
anything happened, after being set up there by Kiah Lawson. We had a witness who would have attested to the fact that he left. As proof that this was all about money in the first place, we have proof that Kiah Lawson led the police to this young man [the alleged victim] last year. But before he did, he and his accomplice Jeff Dickey had numerous contacts with him to get their stories straight and on their advice, the young man in question sought a civil attorney to make a financial claim before the police were ever involved.” Lane County Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman, one of two prosecutors in the case, later charged in an interview that Bean had offered to pay the alleged victim $200,000 to settle his complaint, but the deal had been vetoed by Judge Charles Zennache. This detail was also not previously known because Zennache cleared his courtroom before taking up the settlement offer and subsequently ordered records of the court hearing sealed. However, Hasselman’s fellow prosecutor, Clackamas County Deputy District Attorney Scott Healy, publicly accused Bean of paying off the alleged victim. Healy also said Bean could “potentially” face charges in connection with an unspecified, ongoing investigation. The alleged victim, now 17 and identified in court papers only as MSG, maintained through his attorney, Lori Deveny, that he did indeed have sex with Bean, but he refused to participate in the trial because he’d been mistreated by police and prosecutors. “My client is relieved this is finally over,” Deveny said in a statement. “He did not seek out this prosecution and made his unwillingness to testify known at every step in the process. The spe-
cial prosecutor, Mr. Healy, suggested to the court my client was unwilling to testify because he was being paid. This is completely false. My client was bullied and manipulated by Detective Myers. He was threatened with incarceration by Special Prosecutor Healy when he refused to be bullied into testifying. My client wants no part of this prosecution and never did.” Deveny told the court that MSG was “distraught” that his sexual orientation was disclosed to his family, friends and coworkers by the state’s lead investigator. “My client was outed by the detective in this case,” Deveny said. “That undermined his support system.” Kiah Lawson was 24 when he and Bean met in 2013. Bean courted him with trips to Palm Springs, the Dominican Republic, Italy, and a visit to President Obama at the White House. Lawson moved into Bean’s condo and was reportedly paid about $400 a week by Bean, according to Lawson’s at-
torney Jeffrey Dickey. Dickey alleged that Lawson began to have second thoughts about their relationship when he discovered that Bean was secretly taping their sexual encounters. Dickey and Lawson then sent Bean a letter seeking $40,000 from Bean, presented as damages for the surreptitious videotaping of their encounters. Dickey said he had reached a deal with Bean’s lawyer, but it fell apart after Willamette Week published a story about it in June 2014. Bean then went to police and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, charging that the letter from Dickey and Lawson amounted to an extortion plot. Lawson faces four counts of sex abuse in a separate case in which he allegedly had sex with a then-17-year-old boy in 2013.
tise sexual services,” according to the press release. Rentboy’s Twitter account has some 11,000 followers. Jeffrey Hurant, 50, the CEO of Rentboy. com, and the employees arrested with him were arraigned in Brooklyn federal court after their arrest Tuesday morning. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office for eastern New York, they have each been charged with “conspiring to violate the Travel Act by promoting prostitution.” “As alleged, Rentboy.com attempted to present a veneer of legality, when in fact this Internet brothel made millions of dollars from the promotion of illegal prostitution,” acting U.S. Attorney Kelly T. Currie said. The raid comes less than a week after leading U.S. LGBT advocacy organizations announced support for Amnesty International’s recent stance on the decriminalization of sex work. In addition, the raid also took place on #blacktransliberationTuesday. Unexpectedly, almost immediately mainstream media began to draw parallels to earlier raids on Gay bathhouses and Gay communities, and some journalists, advocates and sex workers have begun to call the raid on Rentboy.com the “Stonewall of Sex Work.” Hurant has staunchly defended his company and its operations the past 20 years. “I don’t think that we do anything to
promote prostitution,” Hurant said. “I think we do good things for good people, and we bring good people together.” But what does that mean exactly? I mean, you’d be foolish to think that the men on Rentboy.com are selling anything else other than sex. While a certain amount of Americans (myself included) don’t believe that there is anything wrong with that, the fact remains is that it is illegal to sell sex as your product, unless, of course, it is through pornography, which then (huh?) makes it legal. Hurant’s defense is that before entering the site, visitors must acknowledge a disclaimer that reads in part, “This site may not be used for the advertising of sexual services or to engage in activities requiring the payment of money for sex or other illegal activities.” The U.S. Attorney’s office says that that disclaimer is a scam, saying “Rentboy.com is designed primarily for advertising illegal prostitution.” “The facilitation and promotion of prostitution offenses across state lines and international borders is a federal crime made even more egregious when it’s blatantly advertised by a global criminal enterprise,” Glenn Sorge, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said to CNN shortly after the raid where federal authorities gathered boxes of documents and computer evidence from the company’s
New York office. The government also seized $1.4 million of alleged criminal proceeds from six bank accounts and restrained the domain name www.rentboy.com, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The company reportedly made over $10 million between 2010 and 2015. If convicted, Hurant and the six other defendants could be sentenced up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. In a well thought out feature in The New York Times, the newspaper’s Editorial Board reports, “The criminal complaint is so saturated with sexually explicit details, it’s hard not to interpret it as an indictment of Gay men as being sexually promiscuous.” “Based on my investigation,” Susan Ruiz, a Homeland Security special agent, wrote in the complaint, “I have learned that a sling, also known as a ‘sex sling,’ is a device that allows two people to have sex while one is suspended.” Later, she helpfully explained that “the term ‘twink’ is a slang term for a young, Gay man with an effeminate manner, thin build, and no body or facial hair.” The New York Times argues that prosecutors can credibly argue that the site’s operators were breaking the law. “But they have provided no reasonable justification for devoting significant resources, particu-
September 4, 2015
Terry Bean – lgbtqnation.com
see sex worker page 13
Celebrating 41 Years!
Visit us online www.sgn.org
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 9
MoSS Alley MotorS, Inc. SpecialiStS in VolVo, Honda, toyota and Subaru
932 12th ave. Seattle, Wa 98122 (206).325--.3992 www.mossalley.com Seattle’s most progressive auto shop!
10 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Visit us online www.sgn.org
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 11
12 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
sex worker continued from page 8
larly from an agency charged with protecting America from terrorists, to shut down a company that provided sex workers with a safer alternative to street walking or relying on pimps.” The New York Times Editorial Board also points out that the defendants have not been accused of exploiting sex workers, featuring minors on the website, financial crimes or other serious offenses that would warrant a federal prosecution. THE PINK SCARE Unfortunately, what is not new are attacks on sex work. It is something that (and I don’t know any of these people personally as I’m sure you do not either) some people just can’t get past. Their minds go directly to the dark. To them sex work or prostitution by their standards is akin to slavery, rape, and other forms of horrible abuse, oppression and struggle. They don’t understand that there are thousands of sex workers that like their job, choose to do this work willingly, are of sound mind, and have sadly been through this bullshit before. According to one sex worker who spoke out against the raid and shutdown of Rentboy.com, people in the business called a previous effort to stamp out money for sex the “Pink Scare.” In 2008 Craiglist’s began to charge $10 for posts during its “Adult Services” rebrand. This led to the implementation of fees, phone authentication and credit card-capturing requirements. Phone authentication reduced ads by 80%, Craigslist announced, and as a result 2.88 million U.S. posters left Craigslist to solicit clients elsewhere. It is estimated that there were 3.65 million adult services ads per year on Craigslist in 2008. Then in September 2010, Craigslist.com, giving in to state-by-state attorneys general, closed its “Adult Services” section, essentially putting thousands of sex workers out of a job. Craigslist’s closure of the section resulted in a 50% reduction in online advertising sales to people in the sex trades. Those who could afford the $59 monthly fee for Rentboy.com, used its services. However, according to Anonymous, who is a member of The #HookUp Collaborative, a loose working group of people who have advertised – and people in community with advertisers – on Rentboy.com, including lawyers, community members and organizers, said “Many of the people with whom I worked alongside for specific clients – particularly my co-workers who were transgender, gender non-conforming, bottoms and/or of color” did not go to Rentboy.com because they could not pay the fee. Here’s why: In a statistical study of escorts advertising on a premium platform in the U.S. similar to Rentboy, on average escorts charge $200 per hour for an outcall (a date with a client where they play the host). The comparative earnings of escorts on non-premium sites like Backpage or Craigslist have always been significantly less. Anonymous reasons, “Fortunately, the growth I’d achieved in my business because of Craigslist meant that I was able to squeak by most months and still meet the $59 monthly fee for Rentboy.com postings. Then again, I am a white, masculine-presenting top.” “I went to Rentboy.com with a higher fee already secured, the capital contribution for my first ad, a secondhand laptop to set up shop and a nest egg to lean on during the dry months,” said Anonymous, adding, “In New York City my going-rate on Craigslist
and Backpage was between $100 to $150 each visit (though I occasionally charged just $50 when my rent came due). It was always a fraction of the $200 to $250 I could reliably charge on Rentboy.” All of that has changed because of the feds’ raid on RentBoy on August 25. Anonymous says “They ended a reliable, safe way I had to find clients” and that it has essentially ripped up the “modicum of safety we’ve carved out on third-party platforms.” While Anonymous admits that crackdowns on third-party platforms will not result in a world-wide financial crisis in the formal economy, it will “destroy an informal economy that includes many of us whom are undocumented, or don’t have a degree or other means to surmount the high barriers of entry to an occupation in the formal economy.” Advertising sites like RentBoy represent the most equalizing force in the sex industry in generations, says Anonymous, because they allow for anyone to advertise their services for a small fee, from a position of safety and without paying 50% of their fees to agencies.
to the legions of the hand-wringingly pious,” said Anonymous. “It’s high time to circle the wagons. We must preserve the scraps of real estate that remain to us, whether on the street corners or ‘Internet brothels’ where we ply our trade, and keep the political scavengers at bay.” Anonymous said people who trade sex need better working conditions, living wage opportunities, shelter and long-term affordable housing options and the closing of the gender and race wage gaps and the homophobia and transphobia that fuel job discrimination in the formal economy. “What we don’t need is one more obstacle to the month’s rent or our children’s health insurance co-pays,” said Anonymous. In closing, Anonymous says, “The criminally self-serving publicity stunts represented by the closure of Rentboy.com and myRedBook are nothing but a knot in the ever-expanding dragnet of state violence. It is population control by other means, and it does nothing to improve our lives or our safety. Instead these enforcement actions line the pockets of an owning class and de-
prostitution as if they were the same thing has a long history in America. Legislation and social discussion blur or deny any difference, which only makes things worse rather than better for those involved. “The trafficking of women and children into sexual slavery is undeniably a gross abuse of human rights. Like all trafficking, it involves coercion or trickery or both,” said Ditmore. “Sex trafficking is an odious form of trafficking, but it is far from the only one. Men, women and children are also – and more commonly – trafficked routinely for purposes of household and farm labor as well as sweatshop manufacturing. Their lives may be less media-genic than those of sex trafficking victims, but they are no less brutal, dangerous and degraded.” Treating sex work as if it is the same as sex trafficking both ignores the realities of sex work and endangers those engaged in it. “Sex workers include men and women and transgender persons who offer sexual services in exchange for money,” she said. “The services may include prostitution (sexual intercourse) and other services such as phone sex. Sex workers engage in this for
Sex work protestors – Jeff Pauchoud/AFP/Getty
“These platforms are directly responsible for moving many of us into safer working conditions, while the mounting pressures of prohibitionist campaigns and prosecutorial whack-a-mole instead open us up to policing and labor exploitation,” said Anonymous. “The prosecution of Rentboy is only one symptom of law enforcement’s far larger and more insidious efforts to criminalize people in the sex trades’ networks of mutual support and safety,” continues Anonymous. “The latest e-raid on Rentboy is nothing compared to the daily street sweeps of street families, the Swat-team raids on massage parlors and shared apartments where we gather to increase our security, the constant interrogation and arrest of people who are or are profiled as trading sex for carrying condoms and the targeting of people of color for prostitution-related arrests and prosecutions every day, everywhere.” Anonymous says sex workers can’t afford to lose even one more tool that keeps them alive in this “economy of violence.” “There are already too few options for people in the sex trades to sacrifice another
Visit us online www.sgn.org
flate our earnings, so that the same prosecutors and politicians who persecute us can better afford to pay for our cake, eat it and screw us, too.” SEX WORK IS NOT THE SAME AS HUMAN TRAFFICKING The ultimate question that needs to be answered by the federal government is why is it that federal authorities spend time and money turning the sex worker website’s operators into felons while far more serious crimes, including human trafficking and sexual exploitation, go unpunished? Meanwhile, human trafficking, which is a real crime (often confused with sex work) continues every day. The two are not the same and this is something that needs to be talked about. “Even those who mean well sometimes confuse the human rights abuse of trafficking in persons with the human occupation of prostitution, or sex work. It’s understandable because of the history of the two fields, but it creates rather than solves problems,” alternet.org writer Melissa Ditmore says. The tendency to treat trafficking and
September 4, 2015
many reasons, but the key distinction here is that they do it voluntarily. They are not coerced or tricked into staying in the business but have chosen this from among the options available to them.” A key goal of sex worker activists is to improve sex-working conditions, but selforganization is impossible when sex work is regarded as merely another form of slavery. Then authorities and laws trying to stop true slavery (trafficking) get misapplied to sex workers, clients and others involved in the sex industry. “Law enforcement raids in the U.S. and abroad, for example, have led to little success identifying trafficked persons but instead have driven sex work underground,” she concludes. “This exposes sex workers to an increased risk of violence and denies them any protection of laws against assault or access to medical, legal and educational services. It denies them their human rights.”
Seattle Gay News 13
14 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Gay in Africa…. And thank you to Rplace and its patrons! by Barry Thorsness SGN Webmaster I am back in Malawi, the fourth time since 2010. As I am responsible for the SGN website every week, life in this poorest of countries can actually be quite stressful on the publishing/upload date(s) of Friday (and Saturday). Where I stay most of the time, in a village with a good friend and head teacher of a 650-student school, we have no power. Since the last time I was here, electricity now has been installed in the school office. So it is a morning and evening ritual to take my phone batteries and often my computer down to the office. For some strange reason, the phone Internet reception is better at the office… but that, at best, is often quite slow or even sometimes not available. Often I get up and head into town from here, a 45-minute combination walk to the highway and ride in a taxi (a private car, usually barely able to run, crammed with up to seven persons) into a town down on Lake Malawi. I use a computer centre where a friend teaches and it is right next to the cell tower, so the signal can be good and the Internet often functions reasonably well. But it seems the government likes to save money and very often turns off the power on Saturday. So then it is off to the closest city, if that is what you might call it. Perhaps an overgrown Omak, Washington of 50 years ago is closest to what you might picture it to be. I am often crammed in an old minivan with 17 others hurling along far too fast for these roads. I head off to a small business college that a friend has started (and where I have two students enrolled and pay their fees). There I sit to build the SGN, being careful that I hide the screen from all the students that come to chat with me. Often I go to a coffee shop that is the only place in town that resembles anything close to home and work there. And pray the Internet and the power work until I have the SGN online. I have traveled extensively in the last eight years and the SGN online has been published from obscure places and beaches all the way down the Mexican coast, all across South America, from 13,000 feet in a small town in the Andes to web cafes in Buenos Aires and Rio. Africa is hard, but Malawi is the hardest… but it has always gone online, and on time. For those of you who followed the weekly stories of Louis and I in the SGN in 2010, http://www.sgn.org/sgnafrica/index. cfm, we arrived on Likoma Island in the middle of Lake Malawi, and I had what I call my “Madonna Moment” and we met an orphan boy and put him into school. This was the beginning of Touch And Feel Africa (TAFA) and over the next four years, one student grew to over 50. I am back in Malawi for another 3 months, checking on our projects (we grow rice and maize), we started a used phone business, thanks to Rplace and it’s patrons, and now are partners with one of my recently graduated students in a sausage business and food & drink cart. We are also working on rabbit farming, and getting ready to launch a used clothing business. Although it was our “mission” in 2010 to meet the LGBT activists in every major city we traveled to, and write the stories in the SGN, I have been almost totally “closeted” with my nonprofit in Africa. As you may understand, “coming out” or being “Gay-
photo courtesy of Barry Thorsness
friendly” can be dangerous and certainly became aware of what a Gay refugee must makes one’s life difficult in many places in give up and what they encounter when they arrive in such a different society. I also Africa. One thing that I should point out is deeply pondered how the Christian Church that Malawi is known as the “warm heart on one continent “creates” Gay refugees and of Africa.” People here are truly the most the Christian Church in Canada sponsors friendly, enjoyable people I have ever met them and helps them integrate into Canaanywhere in the world. They are truly hos- dian society. Two months before I returned to Africa pitable and I get to travel from village to this year, Fred came over to visit me, bringvillage, town to town and stay with many ing three recent LGBT refugees from Uganof the students TAFA has been supporting da. As they sat on my couch, I did not know over the years. whether to be happy they were safe in CanMalawi, like much of Africa is largely a ada or just hold their hands and cry, know“Bible believer, fundamentalist” Christian ing they had lost their families, friends and country. The day Louis and I got married everything that had been important to in Stanley Park in 2010, before our first trip them. to Africa, Stephen and Tiwonge were senSo when President Obama on his visit tenced to 14 years hard labor for announcto Kenya last month, decided to talk about ing their engagement in Malawi. I spoke of LGBT issues, against much advice from it at my wedding with tears streaming down many people, I too thought it was time for my face. Never did I realize then, how Mame to say something. lawi was going to become such a huge part In past years, I have had a convention of my life. of all my students, with over 35 of them, In 2013, I often engaged my students in for two days and one night. It is held at the conversations about the Bible, Christianschool where my friend is the headmaster. ity and the Church. Most often I would tell Many of the students must spend the night, them that the largest Protestant Church in s l e e pi n g C anaon mats da, The on the United floor; the Church, food is has a Gay basic but leader good, and and was the conmarried versation to anothwon d e rer man ful. We who was all tell our a promistories n e n t of how politician TAFA has on the changed Van c ou things ver City photo courtesy of Barry Thorsness and we Council. write out our goals and plans for the next The comment was almost universal, “that is impossible Mr. Barry.” So on my return to year. This year was a bit different. Since we are Seattle and Vancouver that year, I bought a concentrating on becoming self-sustainable card, addressed it to the “Impossible Man” through business, I invited eight of my and took it to Gary Paterson at his church “graduate students” for a conference. A few in the West End of Vancouver. He laughed, of these students are actually in business and I tried to get him to return with me to school. Malawi. No such luck. I opened with a few “remarks” and then At that church service I saw a young cautiously stated that TAFA was “LGBT man, obviously from Africa, and I went supportive” and would support any student over to talk with him. His name was Fred, who found themselves in difficulty because and he told me he was a recent Gay refugee of their sexual orientation. I also emphatifrom Uganda. In the next months, helping cally suggested that there would be no “dishim find work and a place to live, I really
Visit us online www.sgn.org
September 4, 2015
crimination” of fellow TAFAians. I received somewhat of a blank stare back. So I related the story of the previous year, when a Gay student called me and told me he was unable to go to school for two weeks as he could not sit down. A bit embarrassed and obviously in pain, and somewhat scared, he related to me that he had been to a doctor and the doctor had told him he needed surgery to fix his problem. The problem was serious. And then the student was left to suffer. Upon hearing this, I made a few phone calls, talked to a friend who is with Human Rights Watch in Nairobi, who put me in touch with the LGBT support people in Malawi, who I had already met on previous travels. The student was picked up on a Friday morning, taken to an LGBT-friendly doctor, given antibiotics and was ready to go to school on Monday morning. This is being “Gay supportive.” Like most places in the world, discussing “Gay” seems to quickly become polarizing with often a 50-50 split on each side. Here it was no different. And the conversation went on for a couple of hours. Students said they refused to have Gay sex. I was so amazed at some of the comments, and kept saying, no one is being asked to be Gay or have sex. Clarification was difficult. When we had lunch, my friend that I stay with was most upset. How could I be bringing up this issue for discussion? Much of it had to do with the meeting of the Ugandan refugees. The other reason was because I thought it was time these students knew that “Gay people” in Seattle from Rplace were providing them funding through the donating of used phones and computers. I even asked for some of the phones back and then asked the students if they still wanted them, if they knew they were from Gay people. In most cases there were no problems. But in some cases, a few of the students that I really love and care for became “entrenched” in their “Bible belief ” and said they could accept none of this. The amazing part of “LGBT support” in Africa, is that much is done by married men or “totally straight” young men. What they risk is incredible. We had a couple of these young men at the conference. I was truly humbled by their incredible support and how they spoke with the others who were having a hard time to understand. This all gives me great hope for LGBT people in Africa. Things are changing here, too. And it wasn’t that long ago that going to a bar in Vancouver or Seattle meant a place with no name that was only identified with a light bulb over a “buzzer” door. I am still sorting out how best to deal with this. Feel free to send comments and questions to touchandfeelafrica@gmail. com. A big “Thank you!” to the patrons of Rplace, and Steve, for your continued donations of phones and computers. Please keep them coming!! It makes a huge difference to so many wonderful students, so they can succeed in their lives. Please understand that I have omitted names and places as it truly does make problems for people by association when this is online. I will have more to say about this in future writings about Gay in Africa.
Seattle Gay News 15
Pope doesn’t like Gay penguins after all Form letter misrepresented his views, Vatican says by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Sorry, but Pope Francis doesn’t think Gay penguins are cute, the Vatican said in an official statement released August 28. According to Catholic officials, a form letter sent by the Pope’s office to an Italian author led to media reports that Francis gave his blessing to children’s books depicting LGBT families in a favorable light. That could not be further from the truth, the Vatican said. The story began in June when newlyelected Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro banned books featuring same-sex couples from his city’s schools. More than 1,000 copies of And Tango Makes Three, about a Gay penguin couple raising a chick, were removed from circulation, along with 250 copies of Piccolo Uovo (Little Egg) by Italian author Francesca Pardi. Pardi’s book tells the tale of an egg who encounters a variety of family set ups including Gay penguins, Lesbian rabbits, a mixed-race dog couple, an inter-species adoption between kangaroos and polar bears, and a single parent hippo. Pardi responded to the ban by sending copies of several of her children’s books to Pope Francis with a letter explaining that she is part of a same-sex couple raising a child. She asked for the Pope’s support.
Monsignor Brian Wells, Councilor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See – essentially a papal secretary – then sent Pardi a thank you letter. “His Holiness is grateful for the thoughtful gesture and for the feelings which it evoked, hoping for an always more fruitful activity in the service of young generations and the spread of genuine human and Christian values,” the letter said. European media outlets then reported that the Pope had given his blessing to books depicting Gay families, and the story spread to LGBT websites world-wide. Not so fast, the Vatican said, the Pope was misquoted. “In no way is the letter from the Secretariat of State intended to endorse behaviors and teachings that are not in line with the Gospel,” Vatican spokesperson Father Ciro Benedettini wrote on August 28. “The Pope’s blessing at the end of the letter is to the person, and not to the teachings which are not in line with Church doctrine on gender theory, which in no way has changed, as the Holy Father has recently confirmed many times.” It was “completely out of place to manipulate the content of the letter,” he added. Pardi herself told reporters she was surprised to receive the letter from the Vatican, but added she didn’t think it meant that the Church’s stand against same-sex families
And Tango Makes Three – simonandschuster.com
had changed. “It’s not that I think that [the Pope] is for gay families, because there’s the Catholic doctrine, but we mustn’t think that we don’t have rights,” she said. In her original letter to Francis, she explained the problems she encountered as a Lesbian mother.
vatican
continued from cover way an attitude opposite to the moral imperative of solving the problem of sexual identity according to the truth of one’s own sexuality,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in its decision. “Therefore it is evident that this person does not possess the requirement of leading a life according to the faith and in the position of godfather and is therefore unable to be admitted to the position of godfather or godmother.” The Vatican office said it was not discriminating against Salinas because of his gender identity, but was merely recognizing “an objective lack of the requirements, which by their nature are necessary to assume the ecclesial responsibility of being a godfather.”
16 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
“Many parishes across the country are in this period sullying our name and telling falsehoods about our work which deeply offends us,” she wrote. “We have respect for Catholics … A lot of Catholics give back the same respect, why can’t we have the whole hierarchy of the church behind us?”
The current head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, is considered a liberal within the parameters of Catholic theology. He is known to be a friend and student of Gustavo Gutierrez, the originator of the Liberation Theology movement.
Celebrating 41 Years!
Legal Services MARTIN SJOLIE
www.sgn.org
Over 20 Years Experience
Last Will, Power of Attorney & Health Care Directive (Living Will)
$500.00/Person or $750.00/Couple for complete, personalized services.
(206) 841–1373 www.sjolielaw.com
Auto accidents, DUI, Small business needs.
www.sgn.org
Visit us online www.sgn.org
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 17
religion & spirituality
HOME & SPECIALIZED SERVICES
Gary D. TorGerson Co. Expert Painting and Repairs Rot Repair: siding, doors, windows, porches and decks. Lead-Safe Certified
See photographs of our work at www.TorgersonCompany.com Email: info@torgersoncompany.com Contractor Registration #: GARYDTC134CJ Phone: 206-781-0999
Health and Personal Services
www.sgn.org
18 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!
Visit us online www.sgn.org
September 4, 2015
Seattle Gay News 19
20 Seattle Gay News
September 4, 2015
Celebrating 41 Years!