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Washington Attorney Second Lesbian couple General wants ban on harassed at Mariners assault-style weapons game; this time on LGBTQ night
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson – Photo courtesy of dailyrecordnews.com
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
In a bold move Wednesday, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said at a news conference that he will push lawmakers in January to end the sale of military-
Seattle couple Sara Hinton (l) and Mary McHale – Photo courtesy of gaynewsnetwork.com.au
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor SGN has learned of a second same-sex
see GUN BAN page 4
couple being harassed at a Seattle Mariners game for kissing – only this time the harassment took place on LGBTQ Night. The August 19 game was the first ever LGBTQ see MARINERS page 5
Former Seattle writer Lez-broz beat Drag Dominic Holden to receive Queens for 3rd year in a the 2016 NLGJA Journalist row at Bat’n Rouge 2016 of the Year award
Dominic Holden – Photo by Kathleen O’Toole
by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer In the fall of 2014, Seattle bid adieu to former Stranger News Editor, Dominic Holden as he made the move to New York City and was hired almost immediately at Buzzfeed as a National LGBT Reporter.
This Saturday, September 10, Holden will receive the 2016 Journalist of the Year award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalism Association at their annual convention being held in Miami South Beach, Florida this year. In a recent NLGJA press release, one judge wrote, “Holden presents a really
see HOLDEN page 4
2016 Lez-bros – Photo courtesy of Ceasar Hart
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor An LGBTQ Seattle staple, Bat n’ Rouge – which features Lesbians versus the Drag Queens playing softball – took place August 29 on Bobby Morris Playfield at Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park.
Originally, the crazy competition, in which members of the audience could pay to strike out a player, make them swing at the ball with a crooked bat, or pay for a point – all in the name of raising funds for the Capitol Hill Alano Club (CHAC) – took place in early June and was widely viewed as the official Seattle Pride kickoff party. see BAT’N ROUGE page 4
Nearly one third of people diagnosed with mental health issues also abuse substances. Please join the entire behavioral health community during National Recovery Month to spread the word, seek support, or reach out to those struggling in our community.
To learn more, visit Sound Mental Health at www.smh.org.
Strengthening our community one life at a time
2 Seattle Gay News
September 9, 2016
Celebrating 41 Years!
Labor pickets Space Needle on Labor Day Workers demand job security by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer “What we’re asking is very, very simple,” a Space Needle worker said. “We want to know we’ll have jobs in six months, in a year, in two years.” The worker, who asked not to be identified by name to avoid retaliation, was one of 100 Space Needle employees and supporters who picketed in front of the Needle on Labor Day, September 5. The iconic Seattle landmark has been embroiled in a labor dispute for the past five years, ever since the owners, the Wright family, let their labor contract with UNITE HERE Local 8 lapse. The union and the 200-plus Space Needle employees it represents have been fighting for a new contract ever since. In July, the company declared an impasse in negotiations and unilaterally imposed the contract terms it wanted. That resulted in the first raises Space Needle workers received in more than 1,100 days, but it also limited many of their job protections. The latest issue, and the cause of the Labor Day picket line, is the Wright family’s plan to close the Needle for renovations. There are no promises of job security for the existing workforce, however, and current Needle employees are worried that they may find themselves without jobs when the landmark reopens. “The contract has job security language, but only for six months,” UNITE HERE staffer Eunice How explained. “If it’s closed for longer than that, our members
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are not protected.” Given that their employer has done everything possible to stall negotiations on a new contract and break their union, Space Needle employees are genuinely concerned that the place will close for long enough to exceed the job security requirement, and
then reopen with a nonunion workforce. “They’re telling us they want the downtime to be as short as possible,” Garrett Olson told SGN in a pre-picket interview. “I hope that’s true. I’d like to come back and have a job after the renovation.” Olson has spent three and a half years as
a line cook in the Space Needle’s restaurant and he relies on the job, he explains, not only for income but also for health insurance for himself and his 16-year-old son. Other Space Needle workers also said they dread losing their health care coverage as much as their jobs. “I’m worried about how I’m going to afford insurance during the closure,” elevator operator Jessica Severance said at the picket line. “And many of my coworkers are also.” “They did give us raises,” she continued, “but what good are raises if tomorrow they come and say, ‘You have X amount of days before we’re going to subcontract your job. You can apply with the new company but we can’t guarantee that they’ll hire you.’” Joining the Space Needle workers at the picket line were members of several other unions who came from a Labor Day block party at the nearby Seattle Labor Temple. Seattle City Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Kshama Sawant and former State Rep. Jesse Wineberry were also on hand to lend their support. UNITE HERE has been one of the city’s most LGBT-friendly unions, endorsing marriage equality as far back as the Andersen Supreme Court case in 2006. The first hotel contract in the country to explicitly protect Transgender workers was negotiated by Local 8 at the Westin in 2007. Since then, the groundbreaking contract language has become standard for all UNITE HERE’s labor agreements and could be at risk – along with other protections – if the Space Needle closes and then reopens with a nonunion workforce.
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Seattle Gay News 3
Picketers at the Space Needle – Photo courtesy of thedignityvirus.com
Victor Janusz and K.C. Compton present “Bravo for Belonging” – a benefit concert for Lambert House to be held Monday, Sept. 26 “BRAVO FOR BELONGING” A BENEFIT FOR LAMBERT HOUSE UNEXPECTED PRODUCTIONS MARKET THEATER September 26 @ 7pm Victor Janusz, longtime Seattle piano man and cabaret artist extraordinaire, and K.C. Compton, a singer new to Seattle, team up for a concert to benefit Lambert House, Seattle’s internationally respected center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Bassist Dave Pascal, sax player Medearis Dixon and drummer Conor Apperson complete the ensemble that will rock a variety of styles including blues, jazz, ballads and originals, with veteran Kansas City musi-
HOLDEN
continued from cover strong mix of thoughtful trans stories, a good take on familiar subject matter, some really strong characters and good depth.” Holden additionally took second place in News Writing (Non-Daily) for “Why Are
BAT’N ROUGE continued from cover
However, CHAC handed over the reins to Seattle Area Support Groups and Community Center (SASG) a few years ago, and the event now takes place in August. Nobody seemed to mind the change, as the stands were packed with people from the LGBTQ community and others who
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continued from cover style semiautomatic rifles and limit highcapacity magazines throughout the state. This is a show of leadership that many people have been waiting for. If the rest of the nation doesn’t get it yet, fine, who cares, let’s show them how to get this done and make the ban stick. I don’t think rational adults should waste any more time trying to convince people who are worried about “the bad guys” getting guns while we are all left for slaughter. The sad and sick reality of it all is that we, US citizens, are the “bad guys” in these active shooting incidents. This is not a foreign problem. It’s a domestic problem. We better start treating it like the personal security threat it is before we see an average of two or more mass shootings in the US compared to the one mass shooting per day we already experience. Ferguson says the Second Amendment should come with restrictions. “Just as the First Amendment does not grant you the right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, the Second Amendment is not without limits,” Ferguson told Q13. In addition, Ferguson wants to limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds. Opponents argue that Ferguson’s measures are unconstitutional. But he is quick to say, “Assault weapons bans are constitutional.” In fact, three different US Court of Appeals decisions upheld assault weapons bans in other states. On June 20, the Supreme Court rejected challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and New York, in the aftermath of the shooting attack at Pulse, a Gay night-
4 Seattle Gay News
cian Martha Haehl and Seattle musical theater siren Christine Noel Riippi as special guests. The musicians are joining forces for this concert as a statement that LGBTQ kids belong to all of us and their welfare is in all our hands. LGBTQ young people are an especially vulnerable population, and communitybuilding is the primary prevention strategy Lambert House employs for an entire constellation of risks – homelessness, suicide, bullying, sexual exploitation and medical issues – that disproportionally affect these youth. All proceeds will be donated to the Lambert House capital campaign to purchase a house the center can call home, since the current landlords have said they plan to sell later this year.
“Bravo for Belonging” will be held on Monday, September 26, at Unexpected Productions’ historic Market Theater (1428 Post Alley – at the Gum Wall) at the Pike Place Market. The event kicks off with a cocktail hour meet & greet from 6-7pm, followed by the cabaret concert performance from 7-9pm. Tickets are $20 and are available in advance through Brown Paper Tickets – http://www.brownpapertickets. com/event/2601644 Unexpected Productions has generously donated the use of its historic Market Theater for the show. A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available in the theater lobby. To donate directly to Lambert House’s capital campaign, go to www.SaveLambertHouse.org. For more information about
Unexpected Productions, including directions to the theater and parking, see www. unexpectedproductions.org.
Black Transgender Women Getting Killed in Detroit?” I reached out to Holden for a comment and he responded: “This award is really a recognition of BuzzFeed’s overall smarts and dedication to LGBT issues. They haven’t treated this like a niche, but a beat worth investing time and energy in.” When asked about where he will be
keeping his award, Holden told the SGN, “I hadn’t even thought about that – or even thought they will have a physical object. It will probably live on my desk surrounded by mountains of notebooks and court briefs.” NLGJA is an organization of journalists, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news
industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ issues. NLGJA opposes all forms of workplace bias and provides professional development to its members. For more information, visit www.nlgja.org.
just seemed interested in the spectacle that is Bat ’n Rouge. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who is openly Gay, was on hand to throw the first pitch. Local entertainer David Marshall sang the national anthem. Ceasar Hart, team captain for the Lesbian team, the Lez-broz, told SGN that for the third year in a row, the Lez-broz took home the win, having bested the queens in
one of the most fun and memorable games in recent memory. (The event has been going 18 years strong.) To be honest, there is no real way to report what the score was because, well, it doesn’t matter in the end. Suffice to say the Lez-broz ran a number of victory laps as soon as they got word they had officially won, and the queens, well, the queens tried to (all in good fun) attack them.
To add more money to the fundraising pool, SASG raffled off prizes from local artist John Criscitello. SASG has not yet made public the amount of money it was able to raise at the game. SGN will post the amount on our Facebook page as soon as we get the word. Seriously, if you haven’t seen a Bat ’n Rouge before, don’t miss it next year!
club in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 people dead and 53 wounded. Gunman Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a pistol during the attack. He was killed in a shootout with police. Several states and the District of Columbia ban assault weapons: California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In addition, Minnesota and Virginia regulate assault weapons. (Maryland’s assault weapons ban is under review by different circuit, and the Supreme Court’s decision does not have bearing on that case.) In response to the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Connecticut and New York enacted bans on assault weapons and largecapacity magazines. The gunman in that attack, Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother and then drove to the elementary school where he gunned down the young victims with a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle. Lanza then killed himself. But let’s make no mistake – gun violence is a Washington problem too. The National Shooting Sports Foundation says in Washington, about 360,000 sporting rifles, including AR-15s, were sold between 1998 to 2015. Allen Ivanov, 19, allegedly used an AR15-style semiautomatic weapon that would be banned under Ferguson’s proposal. Police say Ivanov had outfitted the weapon with 30-round magazines, emptying one at a July 30 party in Mukilteo. He’s accused of storming into a home with plans to kill his former girlfriend and ex-classmates from Kamiak High School. Anna Bui, Jake Long, and Jordan Ebner all died. They were all 19 years old.
“The recent tragedy in Mukilteo drives home the need to act with urgency to end the availability of weapons designed with only one purpose – to kill people,” Ferguson said at the news conference on Wednesday. “I have a duty to protect the public, as well as uphold the Constitution. My proposal will ban some of the deadliest weapons, while respecting the Second Amendment right to bear arms.” Will Kramer was injured in the attack, and his parents spoke in favor of the ban at Wednesday’s news conference in Seattle. “These guns are not used in self-defense,” said Dr. Liz Raemont, Kramer’s mother. She added, “Without a ban on these guns, there will be more mass shootings.” Ivanov plotted the deadly ambush days in advance because he was upset that she was moving on without him. On July 25 he allegedly wrote that he planned to kill her. The day before the shootings, he texted a friend, saying, “If nothing happens, I’m going for it.” He reportedly indicated that he wanted to wait until after he took a gunsafety class so he wouldn’t “mess up.” Prosecutors say they believe Ivanov purchased the Ruger semiautomatic rifle four days before the shootings. Police said Ivanov described spending about 20 minutes reading the owner’s manual for the AR-15-type rifle before the attack. He needed to know how to load and ready the weapon to fire. At one point before the attack, he allegedly tweeted: “What’s Ruger gonna think?” The compared outcomes of two shootings involving suspects with Snohomish County ties speaks to the need for more education – not rhetoric – on the topic. The Mukilteo shootings involved an assault-style weapon; the shootings at Seattle Pacific University in 2014 involved a
Mountlake Terrace man allegedly armed with a shotgun. Aaron Rey Ybarra, 28, went on a shooting rampage at Seattle Pacific University, a private college in Seattle, and said he wanted to kill as many people as possible before taking his own life. He had a shotgun, a hunting knife, and at least 50 rounds of ammunition on him at the time of the attack. One man, John Meis, stopped Ybarra with pepper spray, putting an end to the rampage while the suspect was reloading. One man was killed and two others wounded. More people could have been killed if the weapon held more rounds and if it had the same type used in Mukilteo, Ferguson’s said. That’s not a stretch or spin or political grandstanding. That is a rational thought. At the press conference Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole insisted the legislature act. “Individuals should not have easy access to assault weapons,” O’Toole said. “This would be a wonderful prevention tool.” It is important to note that Congress passed a nationwide ban on assault weapons in 1994, but it expired in 2004. Jaime Smith, spokeswoman for Gov. Jay Inslee, said the governor, who voted for the 1994 assault weapons ban while in Congress, supported Ferguson’s proposal in concept. “The governor has a record of supporting this type of thing,” Smith said. “The attorney general’s proposal is one of many things that we should all be looking at to reduce gun violence.” Seattle Gay News publisher George Bakan has enthusiastically endorsed Ferguson’s proposal.
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One of Seattle’s busiest singer/pianists, Victor Janusz fronts the VJ Band, has headlined numerous cabaret shows, and has performed his one-man show Hands Solo: Pianoman in New York, Seattle (at ACT Theatre) and Palm Springs. K.C. Compton recently moved to Seattle from Kansas City where she was a member of Checkered Past, an acoustic singer/songwriter, Americana roots-music band. She was a founding board member of the Americana Music Academy in Lawrence, KS, which teaches all the music America makes.
MK Scott has been an active member of NLGJA since 2003.
Baltimore Sun reporter Erin Cox contributed to this article.
Celebrating 41 Years!
MARINERS
continued from cover Night sponsored by the Mariners. Either some of the staff at Safeco Field are incredibly bigoted or this is something that is a real issue and needs to be addressed by the greater LGBTQ community. In 2016, LGBTQ people should not have to worry about being thrown out of a professional sports match for kissing someone of the same sex. But so far, as this is the second such incident, that is exactly what we have to worry about if we attend a Mariners game. “We had a great time at the Mariners game. We are not big baseball fans but went because it was Pride Night,” Mary McHale told KOMO News. “And Sara turned to me, ‘oh we are having such a good time, what a great night’ and leaned over and kissed me,” remembered McHale. “And at that time a Safeco employee came out and said, ‘Ladies, I am going to have to ask you to stop.’” At first, the couple told KOMO News they thought it was a joke. Soon, however, they realized the employee was serious when he told them their behavior was against the “family-friendly policy.” (We all know what “family-friendly” means. Let’s be real. It means anti-LGBTQ. It means anything outside of opposite-sex affection is disgusting and kids shouldn’t see it. It is ridiculous and we, as a community, should not be putting up with it regardless of if they threw an LGBTQ Pride cel-
Mary McHale (l) and Sara Hinton – Photo courtesy of lgbtqnation.com
ebration or not.) “I asked, do you enforce this policy with heterosexual couples, and he said of course we do. And I said, what’s the punishment if
we kissed again? And he said, we are going to have to kick you out. We were already on the sidewalk outside the stadium so at that point I grabbed Sara and kissed her again,”
said McHale. The Mariners reached out to the couple, saying, “The Mariners have addressed the issue with the employee involved, and with the supervisor who was responsible for training the employee. Both have received disciplinary action. This very issue had been addressed with Mariners game-day supervisors routinely in the past, and emphasized earlier in the day on Friday, but the proper approach was ignored in this case. We have apologized to the couple. We deeply regret that this happened and that the actions of one person may have undone any of the goodwill that might have come from our Pride Night celebration on Friday.” “They reached out and apologized and said he was being disciplined,” said McHale. “It was swift and positive reaction, and I really appreciate the way they handled this.” McHale decided to speak out to take the opportunity to educate others. “I think the Mariners are willing to be more inclusive, but they have some work to do and they are willing to do that work, and I appreciate that,” McHale said. Others don’t think that sorry is enough. What’s to say this won’t happen again? SGN is working with community groups and individuals to schedule a kiss-in at the Mariners corporate offices. Check next week’s edition of SGN for more!
Lambda Award Winner Kate Carroll de Gutes along with authors Brenda Miller and Tarn Wilson to read at Elliott Bay Book Company on Monday, Sept. 19 A trio of writers, all published by the Port Townsend-based Ovenbird Books, read at Elliott Bay Book Company (1521 10th Avenue) on Monday, September 19th at 7pm. Founded by the late Judith Kitchen, Ovenbird Books is an innovative small press publishing experimental literary nonfiction. Kate Carroll de Gutes, winner of 2016 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Memoir, will read from her memoir in essays, Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, which has been called “... masterful writing with sentences that linger on the mind for days after, images and stories that unfold the sweet bitterness of loves lost and loves to come in a reflection of true humanity.” Brenda Miller, Pushcart Prize Winner and Professor of English at Western Washington, will read from her fifth essay collection, An Earlier Life, in which she writes of traveling from synagogue to sweat lodge and finding guidance in her four major creeds: Judaism, Home Improvement, the Grateful Dead, and Rescue Dogs. Finally, Tarn Wilson, Pushcart Prize Nominee, reads from her collage-memoir, Slow Farm, an account of growing up in a counterculture family on remote Texada Island, British Columbia. “Each of us has a unique connection with Ovenbird Books founder, Judith Kitchen,” says de Gutes, whose book was the final book chosen for the Judith Kitchen Select series for Ovenbird. Kitchen died just two days after finishing her edit of de Gutes’ manuscript. “For all of us, Kitchen served as editor and mentor, helping us refine and order both essays and, in my case, and Tarn Wilson’s case, editing and helping order our manu-
personal, challenging, engaging, and inventive, not by creating “facts” the way a novelist does, but by devising means to sift and shape the memories and moments that make up an individual life in order to open layers of truth that matter to all of us.” ABOUT THE AUTHORS Kate Carroll de Gutes’ book, Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear won the 2016 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Memoir. Her latest collection of essays, The Authenticity Experiment (Two Sylvias Press), is forthcoming in 2017. Learn more at katecarrolldegutes.com. Brenda Miller teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing and the MA program in English Studies at Western Washington University. Her work has received six Pushcart Prizes, and all six prize-winning essays are included in Listening Against the Stone. She is the author of seven books and her most recent, An Earlier Life, was released this year from Ovenbird Books. Learn more at brendamillerwriter.com
Kate Carroll de Gutes – Photo courtesy of laurelbookstore.com
scripts into a more cohesive whole.” Miller’s book, An Earlier Life, was the first book Ovenbird published postKitchen. Says Kitchen’s literary execu-
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tor Stan Sanvel Rubin in his introduction to the book, “An Earlier Life represents what Ovenbird founder Judith Kitchen envisioned as literary nonfiction at its best:
September 9, 2016
Tarn Wilson earned her MA in education from Stanford and her MFA in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop. Her work appears in Brevity, Defunct, Gulf Stream, River Teeth, and The Sun, among others, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her book, Slow Farm, was chosen by Judith Kitchen as part of the first three books in the Judith Kitchen Select series. Learn more at tarnwilson.com
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Texas commits voter fraud, feds charge by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The state of Texas is distributing “inaccurate or misleading information” to poll workers and would-be voters about ID requirements for the November elections, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged. “Limited funds are being spent on inaccurate materials,” the DOJ wrote in a September 6 legal filing. In its filing, the DOJ asked US District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to make the state “issue corrections to past press releases and other public statements” by Texas
officials and “update and redistribute all electronic resources to reflect that all voters” may participate in the election without having to show types of ID previously required by state law. A federal appeals court struck down a 2011 Texas law requiring that voters show at least one of seven types of photo ID. The law was discriminatory and too restrictive, the court said. Last month Judge Gonzales ordered Texas to spend $2.5 million to educate potential voters about the new, relaxed ID requirements, so that voters lacking the previously required forms of ID would know they were still entitled to vote.
Under Gonzales’s order, voters without photo ID can sign an affidavit certifying they are US citizens and present proof of residence, such as a utility bill, bank statement, or paycheck in place of the photo ID. Texas must provide these affidavits in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Texas officials said they were complying with the judge’s order, but the DOJ charged that they were issuing false information. According to the DOJ, Texas recast the language in Gonzales’s order by omitting the word “reasonably” and telling people that they can vote without picture ID only if they “cannot obtain” such identification.
“That standard is incorrect and far harsher than the Court-ordered standard it would displace,” DOJ argues. “By recasting the Court’s language, Texas has narrowed dramatically the scope of voters protected by the Court’s Order.” Texas refuses to change the language, the DOJ filing states, and therefore is depriving potential voters of their legal right to vote. Marc Rylander, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said his office is “currently reviewing the DOJ’s motion and will file a response by Friday [September 9].”
By improperly educating voters on ID requirements, Texas has deprived many legal voters of their vote – Photo courtesy of abcnews.go.com
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Celebrating 41 Years!
You must remain celibate, child-molesting priest told Gay Catholics by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has removed a priest from the two parishes he runs after he was accused of molesting a then-15-year-old boy some 30 years ago. The priest, Fr. Anthony Giuliano, had advised Gay Catholics that the Church required them to live “a celibate life” but apparently did not follow his own advice. On August 16, a 43-year-old man complained to New York City police that the priest had molested him in the late 1980s. According to the New York Daily News, the man told Bronx Special Victims Squad detectives that he was working in the rectory of Holy Rosary Church in Baychester in 1987 and 1988 when Giuliano befriended him. The two used to play-wrestle, he told officers. During one session, Giuliano told the teen that he was going to “take him to the back and give him a frontal,” according to police sources. The teen thought Giuliano was talking about a wrestling maneuver until the priest made him lie down, pulled the his pants and underwear down, and molested him, police sources told the Daily News. “The allegation has been found to be credible,” Rev. Gerald Walsh, the auxiliary
Father Anthony Giuliano, accused of molestation – Photo courtesy of nydailynews.com
bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, explained to Fr. Giuliano’s parishioners at St. John the Evangelist and St. Charles Borromeo churches. While the priest has been removed from his clerical duties, he will probably not face legal charges, because the statute of limitations on sex abuse allegations has already expired. New York law gives vic-
tims of child sexual abuse until the age of 23 to file a complaint. In June, New York state lawmakers failed to vote on the Child Victims Act, which would have made it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice against their abusers and the abusers’ employers – like the Catholic Church and religious schools. The long-stalled legislation would have
created an additional one-year window for past victims of abuse to bring charges against their abusers. The Catholic League called the legislation “a vindictive bill pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape the Catholic Church.” Church apologists like Catholic League President Bill Donohue accused the Daily News of anti-Catholic bias. “Up until recently, the Daily News had no record of spewing hatred toward the Catholic Church,” Donohue said in a statement. “That all changed when it was clear that the paper was nearly bankrupt. A decision was obviously made to gin up sales by attacking the Catholic Church.” Church critics charge that the Archdiocese of New York under Cardinal Timothy Dolan conceals information about child abuse allegations. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability, said the Archdiocese of New York is notorious for hiding information, preventing a more complete picture of the extent of abuse among priests in the state. “We know of very few accused priests in New York State,” Doyle said. “We know about more accused priests in the diocese of Manchester, N.H., than we do in the Archdiocese of New York.”
What is Aleppo? Libertarian Gary Johnson commits political suicide on morning news by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer September 8, 2016. That’s the day Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson ended all hope of being taken seriously as a potential president. In front of a largely friendly panel on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” TV news show, Johnson betrayed stunning ignorance of a major foreign policy problem facing the United States. Asked by reporter Mike Barnicle “What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?” Johnson looked blank and asked “And what is Aleppo?” “You’re kidding,” Barnicle replied incredulously. “No,” Johnson said, shaking his head. He shrugged at the camera. “Aleppo is in Syria,” Barnicle explained. “It’s the epicenter of the refugee crisis.” “OK, got it, got it,” Johnson replied. He then launched into a barely coherent answer that seemed to align him with Donald Trump’s pronouncements on the Syrian crisis. “With regard to Syria, I do think that it’s a mess. I think that the only way we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end,” Johnson said. “But when we’ve aligned ourselves, when we’ve supported the opposition of the Free Syrian Army – the Free Syrian Army is also coupled with the Islamists – and then the fact that we’re also supporting the Kurds, and it’s just a mess,” he added. Host Joe Scarborough, who in the past has touted Johnson as a potential alternative for fellow Republicans disenchanted with Donald Trump, was dumbfounded by Johnson’s ignorance.
Gary Johnson – Photo courtesy of krqe.com
“Aleppo is the center of a lot of people’s concerns across the planet about the terrible humanitarian crisis that is unfolding,” Scarborough told Johnson. “You asked, ‘What is Aleppo?’ Do you really think that foreign policy is so insignificant that somebody running for president of the United States shouldn’t even know what Aleppo is, where Aleppo is, why Aleppo is so important?” Scarborough asked. “Well, no, I do understand Aleppo and I understand the crisis that is going on,” Johnson responded. “My god, can you believe it?” Scarborough asked co-host Mika Brzezinski after a commercial break. “It would be
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like asking, ‘What is Sarajevo?’ in 1991 [during the civil war in Bosnia]. It is stunning!” Aleppo (Halab in Arabic) is Syria’s largest city and has been the site of ongoing battles between Syrian government forces and rebels since July 2012. Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians with chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombings. “I’m incredibly frustrated with myself,” Johnson confessed to MSNBC panelist and Bloomberg reporter Mark Halperin just after the interview with Barnicle and Scarborough. The implosion could not have come at a worse time for Johnson. He needs to
reach 15% in national polls to qualify for the presidential debates that begin later this month, and he has been increasing his showing recently to 10-12%. On September 7, past GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who – like Scarborough – has been flirting with Johnson as an alternative to Trump – called for him to be included in debates. Now it would seem to be impossible to make the case that Johnson is a serious candidate.
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Donald Trump is a messiah, rabbi says by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Donald Trump is “a messiah,” according to a New York rabbi who runs the TorahThinking website. According to Rabbi Mendel Kessin, Trump is “going to really be a tremendous president of the United States, tremendous.” Adolf Hitler was “a messiah of evil,” Kessin said in a video reposted on WorldNetDaily, but Trump will be a messiah for good who will “be fabulous with the Jewish people.” Kessin did not claim that Trump is “the” Messiah – the figure who will restore the Kingdom of Israel and rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem – but only “a” messiah who “turns a nation, basically that’s going awry, it’s collapsing with the evil and immorality, and turns it around…” Kessin’s theory also got support from Christian-right preacher Carl Gallups, who delivered the benediction at a Trump rally in January. “I think the main thrust of Rabbi Kessin’s message is that, somehow, Yahweh might be in the process of using Donald Trump to bring about some much-needed biblical reformation to the United States and, thus, the world,” Gallups told WorldNetDaily. “I think he is also hoping and praying, along with much of the Jewish and Christian world, that Trump might be used [by] God to restore the United States to being a great friend and protector of Israel. This is especially true as we see the miraculously returned Israel now surrounded with na-
Rabbi Mendel Kessin – Photo courtesy of charismanews.com
tions on every side that are plotting its ultimate demise.” Trump, Gallups said, has characteristics of a messiah, just as President Obama has “‘antichrist’ characteristics.” “[Rabbi Kessin is] looking at it in the same way that a number of Christians and even biblical scholars have examined Obama’s journey, candidacy, and eight-year
presidential legacy and point out his clearly ‘antichrist’ characteristics without ever believing him to be, or declaring him to be, the actual antichrist,” Gallups said. “I don’t think there is anything unbiblical about examining the times in which we live, and the world-impacting leaders of our times, and noting the biblical characteristics of those that Yahweh may be us-
ing for His ultimate purposes in our highly prophetic era.” According to Right Wing Watch, “Homosexuality has been a major focus of Gallups’ activism; he has repeatedly warned that same-sex marriage will completely destroy society by bringing about economic turmoil, severe persecution, the ‘enslavement’ of Christians and divine punishment.”
North Carolina governor attacks Trans students in TV ad by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, lagging about four points behind his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper, in his race for re-election, is now running a TV ad suggesting that Transgender students are a threat to the safety of other children. “You know, when we were raising average teacher pay, creating new jobs, and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girls’ locker rooms and showers. Are we really talking about this?” McCrory asks with an incredulous tone in the 30-second spot. “Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch. Our kids and teachers are my priority. This is North Carolina. Let’s do what’s right.” McCrory – once thought to be a sure bet for re-election – has fallen in the polls after national fallout from his support for HB 2, a draconian North Carolina law that repeals local civil rights protections for the state’s LGBT residents and bars Trans students from using gender-appropriate restrooms. A recent survey from Monmouth University found that 55% of North Carolinians disapprove of the law. And a whopping 70% of voters feel the law has been bad for North Carolina’s national reputation, according to the survey. “McCrory is trying to take control of the HB 2 debate with a new TV ad,” Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement accompanying the survey. “As of right now, though, North Carolina voters feel it has hurt the state, which is helping Cooper’s bid to unseat the incumbent.”
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North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory – Photo courtesy of wcnc.com
Cooper said early on that he believed HB 2 was unconstitutional and that his office would not defend it in court. Enforcement of the measure is currently
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blocked by a federal injunction, pending hearings on suits brought by North Carolina residents. The measure has already cost the state
millions of dollars’ worth of business, including the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. The NBA cited HB 2 in its decision to move the game from Charlotte to New Orleans.
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Payoff: The case of Donald Trump and Pam Bondi by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer “I’ve got to give [campaign contributions] to them, because when I want something, I get it,” Donald Trump boasted in January. “When I call, they kiss my ass. It’s true. They kiss my ass. It’s true.” New information about Trump’s relationship with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi illustrates what he meant. According to a September 1 Washington Post story, the Trump Foundation paid Bondi’s 2013 reelection campaign $25,000 and was fined $2,500 by the IRS for violating federal tax laws by doing so. The Post added that Bondi had said she was investigating fraud charges against Trump University in her capacity as Florida attorney general, but after the payment she dropped the investigation. According to the Huffington Post, Trump also hosted a $3,000-per-person fundraiser for Bondi at Mar-a-Lago, his 126-room Palm Beach mansion. In addition to the $25,000 donation from his foundation and the star-studded Mar-aLago event, Trump and his daughter Ivanka each gave $500 to Bondi’s campaign in the fall of 2013. The following spring, Ivanka and her father donated another $125,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, Bondi’s single biggest source of campaign funds. The Huffington Post also reported that in 2013, Trump gave $35,000 to Texas Attor-
Donald Trump with Pam Bondi – Photo courtesy of abcnews.go.com
ney General Greg Abbott – now the governor of the state – who had dropped his own investigation of Trump University. A former employee of Trump University, who requested anonymity because he has a nondisclosure agreement, told the Huffington Post that politics always played a role in how Trump University did business. “All we had to do is stroke a check to the committee to re-elect [the state attor-
ney general],” the individual said. “And the problems went away.” When Bondi took office in 2011, there were already fraud allegations pending against Trump University. The previous Florida attorney general, Bill McCollum, had received numerous complaints from attendees of Trump’s school, which was based in Florida. According to those attendees, Trump had
promised classes and mentoring that never materialized, and when customers complained, the organization refused to give refunds. Former student Carol Minto of Connecticut said the Trump Institute refused to honor her refund. She reported the matter to the attorneys general of both Florida and Connecticut but only heard back from the latter, who helped her get her money back. “Trump holds himself out to be this great person in real estate, and I wanted to learn how I could buy and sell properties just like him,” Minto told the Huffington Post. “And he didn’t even turn up. He just had a picture of himself [at the seminar].” Trump has denied trying to buy Bondi off the fraud case. “I never spoke to her,” Trump insisted. Meanwhile, Bondi claims that she personally called Trump to ask him for the donation and did not bring up the fraud investigation. “I am quite taken aback by the foundation making a political contribution to the Florida AG who was just about to investigate Trump University and then ending the investigation,” Trump’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton said. “There’s so many things that are questionable about that. And the IRS certainly thought so and said it was illegal and fined Trump for that set of facts.”
Ding dong, Phyllis Schlafly is dead by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Phyllis Schlafly, one of the iconic figures of the American ultra-right, died on September 5. She was 92. Schlafly was best known for her opposition to feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment, but her support for traditional “family values” led her to become a vocal enemy of the LGBT community as well. “Attacks on the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman come from the Gay Lobby seeking social recognition of their lifestyle,” she wrote in 2009. In 2010, she said of same-sex couples, “Nobody’s stopping them from shacking up. The problem is that they are trying to make us respect them, and that’s an interference with what we believe.” In 1992 her son John, then a 42-year-old attorney who still lived with his parents, revealed he was Gay. Schlafly said she considered the disclosure a deliberate attempt to embarrass her. John Schlafly defended his mother and refused to repudiate Republican politicians, like Pat Robertson, who had condemned the LGBT community. “Family values people” are “not out to bash Gays,” he said. Schlafly broke into politics in 1952, after Republicans had asked her husband, also named John, to run for Congress. When he turned them down, Schlafly volunteered to run instead. She won the Republican primary but lost the general election. She was, however, elected to a post in the Daughters of the American Revolution and went on a speaking tour on their behalf, which laid the basis for a growing network of conservative allies. In 1958, she and her husband started the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation, named for a Hungarian Catholic leader who had been arrested by local Communists. American sympathizers said Mindszenty was a heroic freedom fighter. Hungarian Communists called him an American spy. Many members of Schlafly’s founda-
Phyllis Schlafly – Photo courtesy of spokesman.com
tion were also members of the secretive right-wing group the John Birch Society. Although she always denied she was associated with them, the group’s founder, Robert Welch, once called Schlafly “one of our most loyal members.” Ironically, John Birch Society funding came from oil billionaire Fred Koch, father of right-wing financiers Charles and David Koch. Beginning in 1962, Schlafly hosted a 15-minute radio show on national security called “America, Wake Up.” It was carried by 25 Illinois stations. Schlafly hit the national scene in 1964, with the publication of her book A Choice,
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Not an Echo, promoting the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater. In the book, Schlafly charges that the GOP was run by “secret kingmakers” who rigged presidential nominations to suit themselves, a charge eerily reminiscent of Donald Trump’s primary campaign rhetoric. During the 1970s, Schlafly led the campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment. The amendment would have prohibited any gender-based distinctions in federal and state laws, and for several years it seemed to be on its way to ratification. Both houses of Congress had passed it by a vote of more than 90%, and 35 state legislatures – only three shy of the number
required for adoption – had approved it. But the amendment lost steam in the late 1970s under pressure from Schlafly’s volunteer brigades of church ladies. Despite an extension of the deadline, the amendment died on June 30, 1982. Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum in 1975 as a spinoff of her anti-ERA work. Earlier this year, she survived an attempt to wrest control of the organization away from her after she endorsed Donald Trump for the GOP nomination. Dissidents led by her daughter, Anne Cori, and her former protégé, Cathie Adams, wanted to endorse Ted Cruz.
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The Lady Chablis dead at 59 by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Long before RuPaul and her “Drag Race,” the world was introduced to another legendary queen who, aside from the likes of Divine, was arguably the most known drag queen on the planet. In 1994 The Lady Chablis – not to be confused with Seattle’s own Ladie Chablis – was featured in the best-seller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt and in the film version too. She was eccentric, gorgeous, and mysterious. Audiences fell in love with her. The straight world was intrigued and entertainer by her. And Gay men were madly in love with her for the visibility her talent as an actress, dedication as an activist, and celebrity as a superstar had given to the community’s then-stalled equality movement. The Lady Chablis died on Thursday in Savannah, Ga. She was 59 years old. According to friends she had been performing until about a month ago. The official cause of death was pneumonia, Cale Hall told the New York Times. Hall was a longtime friend to Chablis and a co-owner of Club One, where Chablis performed for three decades. It is important to note that Seattle’s legendary entertainer Ladie Chablis is not deceased. Due to similarities in both performers’ stage names, some concerned community members contacted SGN asking about the local drag icon as soon as news broke that the senior Chablis had passed. Seattle’s Ladie Chablis took to Facebook after she received a few calls from friends checking in on her health and wellbeing. “We both spell the first part of our name different,” she posted on the Ladie Chablis fan page. “Regardless Chablis was an icon. I remember her when she came to Seattle with Lady Bunny I believe at the Paramount Theatre. I actually own The Garden of Good and Evil. Very classy lady. RIP Lady Chablis.” The late Lady Chablis was a standout character in author John Berendt’s book, which introduced the world to Savannah and a few of the eccentric
The Lady Chablis – Photo courtesy of newsclip.com
people who live there. “She was The Lady Chablis from morning to night,” Berendt said. “She had a great repartee. She was sassy, and she had a way with words. She was creative.” Berendt and Chablis met under funny circumstances. According to Berendt, Chablis had just received her biweekly estrogen shots and was really feeling herself. Somehow, she ended up in Berendt’s car for a ride home. “She had both hands on her hips and a sassy half-smile on her face as if she had been waiting for me,” he wrote. Chablis went on to become the book’s most popular character and without hesitation, Berendt admits she was also his favorite, too.
“It’s not as if she died without knowing,” he added. “She knew. And she also knew she was everybody’s favorite.” After the book came out Chablis appeared on “Good Morning America” and “Oprah.” Readers from around the country went to see her at Club One. She published an autobiography, Hiding My Candy, in 1996 and the next year played herself in Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation of the Berendt book. She was born Benjamin Edward Knox in Quincy, Fla., on March 11, 1957, and never finished high school. She took the name Chablis as a teenager. As she recalled in Mr. Berendt’s book, her mother, inspired by a wine bottle label, had intended the name for a younger sister but had had a miscar-
riage. Ms. Chablis immediately expressed interest in the name. “I said, ‘Ooooo, Chablis. That’s nice. I like that name,’ ” she was quoted as saying in the book. “And Mama said, ‘Then take it, baby. Just call yourself Chablis from now on.’ So ever since then, I’ve been Chablis.” She had her name legally changed to The Lady Chablis. Survivors include two sisters, Lois Stevens and Cynthia Ponder; and two brothers, Charles Whiteside and John Fairley Jr. Chablis performed about once a month and never changed her risqué style. Her last performance was on August 6, to a packed house.
Trump stiffs advisors, they “melt away” by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Does it sound like Donald Trump is just winging it when he talks about policy issues? That may be because his policy advisors are “melting away” after being promised paychecks that never materialized. According to Washington Post reporter Josh Rogin, the Trump campaign assembled a significant stable of policy advisors in the spring and set them to work in an Alexandria, Va., think tank “writing policy memos, organizing briefings, managing surrogates, and placing op-eds.” Since the GOP convention, however, most of them have hit the road. “Although they signed nondisclosure agreements, several of them told me on background that the Trump policy effort has been a mess from start to finish,” Rogin writes in a September 8 article. “Three former members, all of whom quit in August, told me that as early as April they were promised financial compensation but were later told that they would have to work as volunteers.” Rogin says that the policy team leaders, Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn, told experts that they were to be paid but “were unable to deliver.” Dearborn is chief of staff for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), while Mashburn is the former chief of staff for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
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Turmp campaign spokesperson Jason Miller – Photo courtesy of tekkie.co
While most do not hold Dearborn and Mashburn responsible for the bait-andswitch, they decided that higher-ups in the Trump campaign were merely stringing them along. “It’s a complete disaster,” Rogin quotes one former adviser as saying. “They use and abuse people. The policy office fell apart in August when the promised checks weren’t delivered.”
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Trump campaign spokesperson Jason Miller denied that promises of pay were made to any advisor. “No such oral agreements were made,” Miller told Rogin. And although Miller admitted that the policy team was much smaller than it was before the Republican Convention, the effort was a success, he said. “The policy shop has been very suc-
cessful with the campaign. It’s been a large part of the reason Trump has gone on such a positive run over the month of August,” Miller said. “Following the convention, much of the activity has gravitated towards New York, simply because that’s where the full-time, multi-floored campaign operation was set up.”
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