Q-Seattle events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

This blog has moved to a new "Q"ey home

2007-10-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

The eagle-eyed among our readers -- if there are any -- might have noticed a line at the bottom of the admittedly rare recent posts here, "Post mirrored from seaQwa.com".

"Huh?" you might reasonably have said.

Well, here's what's been happening: This blog -- and only the blog -- is moving to a new home at a new website called seaQwa.com. There's more to the overall site and I encourage you to check it out, but the blog part of it is at seaqwa.com/blogs/Qblog, which is the new home for what you've read here for the past couple of years.

[If you read this post in a feed-reader (and if you don't know what that is, then don't worry about this) please subscribe to this feed of the blog's new home. If you'd also like to get regular updates on news items of LGBTQ insterest, subscribe to this news feed. If you prefer to get updates by email, you'll find a subscription form on all seaQwa pages that have a feed.]

The seaQwa site is still in what I'm calling "preview" mode -- meaning that there's still a bunch of work that has to be completed on the thing. The pages are occasionally inexcusably slow. For that, I apologize. I'm working on a solution.

But you can, nonetheless, see much of what it will become from its current state. In addition to the continuation of this blog in a new setting, the site includes many of the things ~~that I~~ (or, to maintain this blog's persona) that we, your webwrangler, have been doing for the past couple of years on those Squidoo.com pages listed just under the promo box to the right of this column. A big part of what I've been doing there is the news digest. That frequently-updated digest will continue on Squidoo, but it now has its new homebase on the home page of seaQwa.com and, in blog format, on Qnews.

On the home page, you'll also find a "Qticker" of recent blog post headlines from a myriad of bloggers.

I thank everyone who has stopped by here at blog.ttca.org over the years we've been on these green pages and I hope you'll come visit us at our new, blue, and Q-filled home. Oh, and please don't be as shy as you've been on these pages. Add a comment to anything that strikes your fancy (anonymous is OK). You could even add your own posts to the Qyou blog.

What does that mean for this site?

Everything else about this site is staying right here at ttca.org, where it's been for over twelve years now. (And that, is a long, long time in web years.)

Your webwrangler will continue to update this site at his accustomed leisurely pace. Sunny Bruce will continue to greet you on these pages (have you ever noticed that he says something a bit different up in the rose-colored bar on almost every page?) and he will still bring you the latest Cruise alerts in the summer on the mailing list. We might even browse through our extensive galleries and throw up a picture every now and then to this blog.

Please drop by for a visit. Oh, and tell your friends. Thanks.

ERW urges calls to support inclusive ENDA

2007-10-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Equal Rights Washington (ERW) has issued what they're calling an "urgent" notice for Washingtonians to their representaves about ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) legislation in the House. In this particular case, even calls to Seattle's Rep. Jim McDermott would be useful, according to ERW.

Like most (but not quite all) LGBT activist groups, ERW is opposed to the version of the bill that was passed last week by a House committee. That version (what we've been calling LGB-No-T ENDA) includes job protections for "sexual orientation", but not for "gender identity".

ERW's take:

[T]he bill being voted on (HR 3685) is a stripped-down version which does not include protection based on gender identity. Not only is this bad for transgender workers, it leaves everyone who does not conform to rigid gender stereotypes vulnerable to workplace discrimination. The original version (HR 2015) included protection based on gender identity.
Things are moving quickly and we need your help today.
At this critical juncture in the struggle for equality, we must tell Congress to do the right thing for all Americans--LGBT and straight. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly LGBT member of Congress elected as a non-incumbent, has announced her plan to offer an amendment to HR 3685 that will restore gender identity protections. The Baldwin Amendment is our best hope to offer protection based on gender identity.

They're urging calls even to McDermott because -- although he's a usually reliable vote on the ERW-type side of most issues like this -- this particular activist v. politics issue has been more devisive.

They recommend this kind of approach:

Please call Rep. McDermott's office at (206) 553-7170. Please be polite and remember that your congressperson is not the problem. We need his leadership. The purpose of your call is to convey how important it is to you that gender identity be included in the ENDA.

When calling, feel free to use the following script outline:
Introduce yourself & then let them know why you're calling:
It is vital that the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) include gender identity. As your constituent, I'm asking you not only to support the Baldwin Amendment, which would add gender identity protections to HR 3685 (the new version of the ENDA), but also to speak to your collegues and encourage them to support it as well. If the Baldwin Amendment fails I would ask Rep. McDermott not to support final passage of HR 3685. We would rather take the time to build support for HR 2015, the original and inclusive ENDA, of which Rep. McDermott is an original cosponsor.

Then ask the following questions:

Question 1. Is Rep. McDermott planning to vote for the Baldwin Amendment to HR 3685?

Question 2. Has Rep. McDermott decided how he will vote on HR 3685 if the Baldwin Amendment fails?

End the call with a thank you:

If you live outside of Seattle, a call to your congressman would be even more vital on this issue.

And, frankly, we'll leave it up to you to decide what you'd like to see happen if the Baldwin amendment doesn't pass and LGB-No-T ENDA comes up for a vote. But that's an issue for another day. The vote on the amendment is at least a test of where things will go with this activist dustup.

[post mirrored from seaQwa.com]

Responding to hate with a loving church service

2007-10-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Activists from throughout Snohomish County (where Lynnwood is) and King County (where Seattle is) have come together to stage an alternative to the violently anti-gay Watchmen conference scheduled for the Lynnwood Convention Center this weekend. [Click for all of our Watchmen coverage, or here for Hutcherson coverage.]

The Sunday afternoon even will feature a gathering of speakers, including members of the clergy, and a special free screening of Inlaws & Outlaws, a local-produced documentary featuring the real-life stories of Washington LGBT people.

Everyone is welcome to participate.

Details:

Love and Pride: Lynnwood Responds to Hate

Sunday, October 21, at 3pm
Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, 8109 224th Street, Edmonds, Washington [get directions]

Equal Rights Washington had this to say today in a press release about the Watchmen gathering:

We're concerned about this group's activities. They have a radical agenda that seeks to roll back rights for members of the LGBT community and a record of violence is associated with the watchmen. Activists from Lynnwood along with many groups are hosting an alternative event to show support and concern for the LGBT community.

Note: Post mirrored from seaQwa.com

Seattle Black Pride does Halloween Carnivale

2007-10-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Still not sure where to show off that fabulous costume you're preparing on the long weekend/week of Halloween. Well, be sure to add another destination -- or even your main destination down in Belltown at Jai Thai [get directions], 2132 First Ave. at Blanchard.

That's where Seattle Black Pride will present this year's Halloween Carnivale from 9:30 pm until 2 am on Saturday, October 27.

SBP urges you to "Be Creative, Be Sexy, Be Scary. Just Be There." And, of course, there will be prizes for the most creative costumes with cash prizes of $150, $100, and $50 for the top three contestants.

But to really get an idea of what the party is likely to be like, check out SBP's great gallery of party pics from last year's Carnivale. We can't link to the gallery directly, but you can find it on the SBP home page at the bottom of the "Events" menu.

To further confuse yourself with the wealth of Halloween options, be sure to check out Bill W's typically comprehensive Halloween listing in the left column at GaySeattle.blogspot.com.

Note: This post is mirrored from seaQwa.com.

Protest Watchmen on Saturday

2007-10-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

David Schmader at Slog has the official announcement of an unofficial protest planned for 9:30am this Saturday, October 20, at the Lynnwood Convention Center [get directions].

Excerpts:

Yes, it is happening this weekend and NO they are NOT welcome in our community! Let?s let them know it! RAIN OR SHINE!!! LOUD and PROUD!!!
A peaceful protest is planned for this Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007. It is our goal to surround the Convention Center located at 3711 196 St. SW, Lynnwood, 98036 at 9:30 a.m. Their conference begins at 11:00 and we want to greet them as they arrive. ...
DO NOT stoop to the their level of hatred. Try not to be offensive and DO NOT be physical with any conference attendee.
DO wear bright colors and draw attention to our cause
Children are welcome (so let?s set a good example for them)
Bring banners, signs, balloons, & any creative way to express your opinion

(No website for info that we've been able to find.)

post mirrored from seaQwa.com

Lynnwood promoters get themselves mixed up with Latvian + Euro politics

2007-10-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

UK Gay News is a website that has -- along with its wonderfully inclusive daily summery of gay-related news stories -- done more than any other to recount the frightening flowering of often-violent homophobia that has accompanied the re-emergence of religious institutions in the countries of the former Soviet bloc.

This week, their focus turned slightly to the west as Eastern European homophobes prepare to meet with some of their American fellow-travelers in Lynnwood.

UK Gay News combines a summary of the week's developments here with one of those lessons in Latvian politics that has become so oddly relevant in the Pacific Northwest.

The Russian-language preacher, Alexey Ledyaev, who is scheduled to be here for the weekend conference, runs his radio ministry -- called New Generation Church -- from Latvia's capital city Riga. Ledyaev is closely allied with a right-wing party that is part of a coalition that controls the government there.

While the quasi-governmental body that runs Lynnwood's convention center still insists that booking a radical hate group at the facility was the proper thing to do, European officials haven't been so willing to tolerate the intolerance that characterizes the group that will be here.

According to the UK Gay News story, Euro human rights officials recently refused invite one of Ledyaev's political cronies to a meeting even though the Latvian politician -- Janis Smits -- holds the official ministry position that makes him responsible for human rights issues in the country.

This week, Andreas Gross, rapporteur of the Judicial and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe?s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), was in Latvia and invited the Latvian Parliamentary Social Affairs and Human Rights Committee to lunch.
Well, not quite all of the committee. Excluded was chairperson Janis Smits, whose homophobic outbursts are legendary. ...
Janis Smits is no stranger to "anti-gay" demonstrations in Latvia. While he is not known to have been seen wearing one of the "No Pederasts" t-shirts, he has been seen ? even photographed ? with placards containing the "No Pederasts" symbol at anti-gay pride rallies.

The Council of Europe group that's more familiar with what Ledyaev, Smits, and their cohorts are doing in Europe judged Smits unworthy of contributing to a discussion about human rights.

The folks in Lynnwood might have been -- as some of them are now claiming -- confused about the group's name and about its purpose, but Hutcherson's involvement with the conference should have allowed them to figure it all out if only they'd done a bit of research.

: post mirrored from seaQwa.com

Hey look! Cruise pictures (finally)

2007-10-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

We (your editorially plural but otherwise singular WebWrangler) were so embarrassed by the delay in getting pictures up from this year's Queen City Cruise, that we almost let this weekend's mass drop of photos go by without comment.

After all, Fall has come way early this year and it's difficult by now to even imagine the spirit of such an event. But there they are. Remember that? Ahh! Summertime. To make up for our insufferable delay and to account for the recent explosion of cameras, we've made this year's collection bigger than ever.

It's a great collection. We thank everyone who sent us images, and especially Antonio Gonzales (definitely not the xAG AG) who gave us a wonderful group to choose from this year. You'll also find images from Dan Lane, Jim Cash, Marcy Kraft, Tom Poppie, Scott Cammack, Emo, Jeff Thompson. "Neil" NLM sent us some great ones (which, to be fair, have been displayed since early September) including that great shot of Moms Finley. And -- yeah -- Robin Evans contributed, too.

And, yes, we probably missed a few of the great shots in the collections. We'll probably go through again and maybe add a fourth index, but we're not promising anything.

Lynnwood Center claims 700 will attend hate-group conference

2007-10-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

Lynnwood Convention Center

According to figures posted on the Lynnwood Convention Center's website, organizers of the hate-group conference scheduled for the center over the weekend expect 700 people to attend the event.

They'll be sharing the center with "Cruise Center's Annual Cruise Show" expected to attract about 200 people with "free admission." But they all will likely be swamped by the 2000 people expected over the weekend to attend the "Digital Photo Expo."

At least we can expect that there will be plenty of photos if anything of note happens at the center.

Violently anti-gay 'Watchmen' group to hold Lynnwood conference this week

2007-10-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

The violently anti-gay group 'Watchmen on the Walls' will hold a conference this week in Lynnwood, reports the blog BoxTurtle Bulletin. What the organizers are calling a "human rights" conference starts Friday and runs through the weekend at the Lynnwood Convention Center [get directions, just in case... well, you know].

The Watchmen organization was founded by a group of homophobic extremists that includes Redmond's pastor Ken Hutcherson, Oregon activist Scott Lively, and Pastor Alexei Ledyaev of Riga, Latvia. The three of them will address the conference along with Bothell preacher and political-activist Joseph Fuiten and fringe-right Sacramento radio host Vlad Kusakin who also edits a Russian-language newspaper in Seattle, according to Casey Sanchez's superb report on the Watchmen.

The Watchmen claim credit for several demonstrations that have turned violent toward gay people, including protests against gay gathering in Riga, Latvia, and Kiev, Ukraine. Gay activists in Sacramento blame the summer death of a young man there at least partly on the spirit of intolerance that had been generated in that city by Kusakin and local preachers at Slavic churches.

BoxTurtle's Jim Burroway discovered a transcript of a speech Scott Lively had given at an earlier Watchmen conference in which Lively offers this preposterously inaccurate tale of the Sacramento death:

...[W]e've come to a place in the United States where the homosexuals have achieved very high power. And they?ve begun to punish... They?ve begun to cause the political powers to punish anyone who says that homosexuality is wrong.

There was a situation in Sacramento a few weeks ago in a public park. There was a group of homosexuals and they were very drunk and one of the homosexual men was taking off his pants. And there were children in the park. And a Russian man went over to these homosexuals and he was rebuking them and there started a fight. And the Russian man punched the homosexual. ...
Now the Russian man has been accused of murder and the FBI is seeking him. And all of the powers in Sacramento have been accusing all of the Russian community of being murderers. And the goal is to silence everyone who speaks against homosexuality. And this is a very dangerous situation because we don?t want homosexuals to be killed. We want them to be saved. Amen?

Could have fooled us, Scott.

But this is one of the man who will be in Lynwood next weekend to talk at a "human rights" conference.

BoxTurtle offers this Google translation of the Lynnwood conference announcement.

Related items we'd missed:

David Schmader posted a scary summary on Slog of the Watchmen sent him by BoxTurtle's Jim Burroway here, along with links to prior Slog coverage of the conference.
Pam Spaulding today offers a summary of the conference at Pandagon.
She points to a post about the conference at Orcinus:

The Watchmen movement's strategy for combating the "disease" of homosexuality calls for aggressive confrontation. "We church leaders need to stop being such, for lack of a better word, sissies when it comes to social and political issues," Lively argues in a widely-circulated tract called Masculine Christianity. "For every motherly, feminine ministry of the church such as a Crisis Pregnancy Center or ex-gay support group we need a battle-hardened, take-it-to-the-enemy masculine ministry like [the anti-abortion group] Operation Rescue."

Lively identifies "the enemy" as not only homosexuals, but also what he terms "homosexualists," a category that includes anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, who "actively promotes homosexuality as morally and socially equivalent to heterosexuality as a basis for social policy."

And one more: A Salon blog, "Bartholomew's Notes on Religion" has a review of the Lively/Latvia nexus that we've detailed here with some choice new links and quotations.

Oh, and had I not been a bit too busy of late with the nerdish underpinnings of "our" new blog site, I would surely have noticed this post by Postman that links to the Slog posts about the conference.

Rainbow City Band goes to the movies this week

2007-10-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Seattle's LGBT community band, Rainbow City Band, is going to the movies on Thursday. "So what?" you might respond. "The Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is in full swing, so a lot of folks are going to the movies."

True, but this is something else entirely. The Band's fall concert on Thursday, October 18th at 7:30 pm is a tribute to the music that sets the mood of any film, good or bad. They've picked the best of the good. The one-night concert, called A Night at the Movies, is at Broadway Performance Hall [get directions]. Tickets are $16.36 for general admission or $11.24 for seniors, students, or children.

There's precious little information on the band's website about the concert, but band-member jarrow272 comes to the rescue with this informative post on LiveJournal:

Allow me to casually mention our program list *ahem*
Star Wars
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Pirates of the Caribbean
Schindler's List
The Simpsons
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
and a medley of Danny Elfman pieces that's basically a snapshot of Tim Burton's career including:
Beetlejuice
Edward Scissorhands
The Nightmare Before Christmas
and the non-Burton Spiderman and Tales From the Crypt

He assures us that the concert will be "awesome" and a "fandom concert". So... pull yourselves away from the festival schedule for an evening to enjoy movie music without the movie.

Pride news in the fall: SOAP fundraiser, SOAP seeks input; new group for festival.

2007-10-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of significant Pride Week news bits have come along while your webwrangler was off doing other things.

SOAP fundraiser
SOAP, the producers of the downtown parade, will hold a Halloween-night fundraiser called Pajama Party at the W Hotel [get directions] on October 31 from 7pm until midnight. Suggested donation at the door is $15. Proceeds benefit SOAP and the BRA Show for Breast Cancer Awareness.

The party will include a no-host bar, complementary appetizers, music for dancing, and an informal fashion event for men and women that will include the W Hotel's own loungewear line as well as bra's from Seattle's own BRA Show, and bras designed by Seattle local designers including Le Mare, Jessica Lovelace, Zombie Hearts, Cintli, and Lisa Doran.

And there's likely to be fascinating fashion from the crowd because a prize will be awarded to the attendee sporting the most creative PJs.

SOAP seeks Pride Parade theme suggestions
The official theme of the 2007 SOAP parade was -- somewhat wistfully -- "Come Together". They're now seeking suggestions from folks in the community about what their parade theme should be for 2008. Deadline for suggestions is January 1. The person submitting the theme chosen by SOAP's board will win a one-night stay at Seattle's Hotel Monaco.

Email your suggestions to info[at]seattlepride.or snail-mail them to 1605 12th Ave, Suite 2, Seattle WA 98122, Attn: Theme 2008. Include name, mailing address, and phone number with your suggestion.

SOAP seeks board members
SOAP is looking for board members to help guide the organization. Send an email to the same address if you think you have what it takes to perform what's often a thankless job. And, hey, you might be able to help choose the theme that way. But this is not for the feint of heart. Applicants should be willing to work tirelessly on next year's downtown parade and be willing to suffer criticism from some among us who might not SOAP's mission an entirely admirable one.

New non-profit for Seattle Center Pride festival
Egan Orion of OneDegree Events last year pulled on one of the most remarkable feats of event production ever seen when he and his staff pulled together a major Pride Sunday festival at Seattle Center, after others had proved incapable of meeting that considerable challenge.

Although there are few details yet, Orion announced in an email to the OneDegree mailing list that a 501(c)3 [i.e. tax exempt] non-profit will be formed to oversee future iterations of the festival. He promises more details real soon now.

Hurry for Bump tickets

2007-10-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Bump DJ Blaine

It goes without saying that tickets to Bump, Seattle's hottest and longest-running Halloween party are, well... hot. They're on sale now, so if you plan to be at EMP [get directions] on October 27 for the big party, get your tickets now.

Ticket prices range from $45 for general admission to $145 for a "Platinum Access" pass to the party and a private hosted bar. The night's mixes will be supplied by hunky Dallas-based DJ Blaine. You can find samples of his work at his homepage, or visit his MySpace page (which, remarkably, is free of auto-sounds).

The party starts at 9pm and runs until 2am at EMP. It will be followed, once again this year, by OneDegree's after-hours party Tribe, the street at Level 5. That party, running from 2am until 8am, features Vancouver's DJ Rob C. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased along with your Bump tickets.

But what's Halloween without costumes? You can expect many of them, from the incredibly elaborate to the amazingly skimpy at the Bump. And there will be prizes for the best of them. The first-place winner gets $1,000 in cold, hard cash. Second place winner gets round trip tickets on the Victoria Clipper to BC, with night's stay in The Oswego Hotel. The third-place costume winner will be awarded a gift certificate for dinner at El Gaucho and a night's stay at Seattle's Vintage Park Hotel.

All proceeds from BUMP go to support the services provided at Gay City Health Project, as well as the Travel Fund for the Seattle Men's Chorus / Seattle Women's Chorus.

This could, by the way, count as the 25th anniversary of the party since the first one -- then using the original full and wordy name Things That Go Bump In the Night -- was held October 30, 1982. It was at the Spacearium at Pacific Science Center.

Seattle groups join activist protest over ENDA compromise

2007-10-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're too late mentioning this (as we have been with just about everything) for you to get to the rally, but it's still worth noting that Seattle's activist groups have joined with almost all of their national cohorts to oppose a Congressional bargain that would move forward next week with a version of ENDA -- the Employment Non-Discrimination Act -- that would offer job protection based on sexual orientation.

The activist groups object to the legislation because it would exclude job protections based on gender identity. It's a compromise being pushed by the chamber's only out gay male member, Rep. Barney Frank, and by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because they claim it's the only way to get the long-delayed rights bill passed.

A rally will be held this afternoon at the Seattle LGBT Center at 2pm. It's sponsored by Ingersoll Gender Center, Seattle LGBT Center, and Equal Rights Washington. Its purpose:

THIS RALLY IS FOR YOU! WE ARE MAKING OUR VOICES HEARD

Hundreds of organizations from around the country have joined the UnitedENDA.org coalition. Togeher in a matter of days we have generated tens of thousands of constituebnt contacts. The Democratic leadership is listening. Now we must prove that we can deliver votes, remained unified and educate the public about the importance of passing ENDA that includes gender identity.

This is a classic battle between activists and politicians. The politicians insist that a compromise is necessary if something important is to get done. The activists insist the the political compromise makes the whole effort meaningless.

You can pick your side on this one, but if you would like to add your voice to those of the activists, you can do it by visiting this link. which will help you send an email on the issue to your congress-critter.

Tieing together Hutcherson-Lively-Russophone anti-gay cabal

2007-10-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

AlterNet offers a great report today by Casey Sanchez of Intelligence Report. The extensive report begins and ends with the tragic death of a Sacramento man. In between, Sanchez ties together the international anti-gay evangelical cabal spearheaded by Lativia-based preacher Alexey Ledyaev. It's a movement -- centered in the US in Sacramento -- from which Redmond pastor Ken Hutcherson and Oregon anti-gay activist Scott Lively draw considerable support.

In addition to Lively and Robertson, Ledyaev has cultivated the support of Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the African-American founder of Antioch Bible Church, a Seattle-area megachurch. ...

One of Ledyaev's nephews saw Hutcherson speak in Seattle at a March 2006 debate on gay rights and arranged a meeting with the Latvian pastor. By the end of the year, Hutcherson, Ledyaev and Lively had teamed up with Vlad Kusakin, the editor of The Speaker, to form an international alliance to oppose what Hutcherson characterizes as "the homosexual movement saying they're a minority and that they need their equal rights."

We've mentioned Ledyaev before in posts about Hutcherson's Lativian nexus, but the Sanchez's article offers a wealth of new details, including this odd detail:

At 56, Ledyaev is still youth-oriented enough to promote his vision of global theocracy through elaborate, large-scale Christian rock operas that Ledyaev writes, directs and stars in, and which are replete with lasers, smoke machines, and spandex-clad actors in ghoulish makeup. One of the rock operas, which young Russian-speaking anti-gay activists promote on video-sharing websites, features a hero character wearing a tuxedo battling men in black tights armed with tiki torches. Over heavy-metal guitar riffs, a military-like chorus sings of "victory over the gays."

More significantly, however, the article gives details of the theological underpinnings of the pastor's homophobia:

The New Generation theology Ledyaev preaches borrows heavily from R.J. Rushdoony, the late founding thinker of Christian Reconstruction. Pastor Ledyaev's 2002 book, New World Order, calls for evangelical Christians around the world to influence the wealthy and powerful in their home countries to implement biblical law in order to stave off a supposed alliance of gays and Muslims hell-bent on destroying Christianity. ...

They took the name Watchmen on the Walls from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, in which the "watchmen" guard the reconstruction of a ruined Jerusalem. The cities they guard over today, say the contemporary Watchmen, are being destroyed by homosexuality. ...

During the past year, the Watchmen have met twice in the United States, first in Sacramento, then in Bellevue, Wash. They gathered to strategize against same-sex marriage and build a political organization to fight "gay-straight alliances" in public schools and push for the boycott of textbooks that mention homosexuality in any context other than total condemnation.

The group has also convened outside America. In the summer of 2006, the Watchmen and their supporters gathered in Riga, Latvia, to "protect the city from a homosexual invasion." Gay rights activists in Europe counter that it's gays who need protection from the Latvian capital, not the other way around. ...

The Watchmen portray the battle against gay rights as nothing less than a biblical clash of civilizations. "The homosexual sexual ethic" and "family-based society" are at war, Lively proclaimed in his letter to The Washington Times. "One must prevail at the expense of the other."

That sort of militant rhetoric is standard among Watchmen followers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Speaking to his American counterparts in a Watchmen video, a Latvian anti-gay activist intones: "Your generation beat the Nazis, and our country beat the Communists. Together we will defeat the homosexuals!"

Unfortunately, it's an article well worth reading around here because we have two of the movement's leaders in our backyard.

[8:20am. Updated lede.]

Get your tickets now for Seattle's queer film fest

2007-10-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

Tickets for the more than 165 movies and videos that will be shown during the 2007 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival are now on sale. Buy them online (click the "Buy tickets" button on the schedule) or at Ticket/Ticket locations.

Pick up a paper version of the schedule at many locations including the LGBT Center, Changes in Wallingford, Bailey/Coy Books, Broadway Video, Kaladi Brothers Coffee, On 15th Video [most of which are on our map]. But the festival's website offers superb schedule tools that make a paper version almost superfluous.

The festive festival opens Friday October 12 with a gala premier showing of The Walker followed by a party in SLU (which is, of course, one of several names for the new neib in the South Lake Union area.) It's one of four movies+parties that are part of the festival. You can get privileged access to all of them with a $70 Party Pass.

Read more about the Festival. PlanetOut offers this summary.

And if you'd like to work for your tickets to festival shows, consider becoming a volunteer. An online form allows you to pick your shifts. Volunteers serve as ushers, setup and breakdown events, staff the will call and membership tables, greet guests at the hospitality center and festival receptions, and more.

Season tickets for the choruses now on sale

2007-10-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Seattle Men's Chorus and Seattle Women's Chorus are now selling season tickets to their 2007-2008 seasons that are kicked off with the traditional Holiday concerts by each group.

The much-traveled choruses celebrate their love of excursions to places and moods near and far with this season's concert series, collectively entitled Wanderlust.

Singer/songwriter Judy Collins and another so-far unnamed "special guest" will join the Men's Chorus at Benaroya Hall [get directions] for their first concert called Home for the Holidays. There will be six performances starting December 1 and concluding December 22.

PBS travel host Rick Steves is special guest of the Men's Chorus for its spring concert on March 29 and 30 as create A Foreign Affaire at McCaw Hall [get directions]. The concert will take its audience "across Europe with folk songs, classical music, and cultural postcards."

The men of Flying House promise to offer songs, skits, and surprises during their Pride Week shows on June 27 and 28, also at McCaw Hall. Called Comedy Tonight!, the concert will feature material from Shakespeare, Gilbert & Sullivan, Sondheim, Mel Brooks, and more. Leslie Jordon, who played Beverley Leslie on Will & Grace will join the chorus for the rollicking show.

Season tickets for the Men's Chorus concerts range in price from $179 for prime seats to $69 for "Seating Plan D".

For its holiday concert, Celestial Greetings, Seattle Women's Chorus welcomes glass-harmonica virtuoso Dennis James. With tongue firmly in cheek, the chorus warns that "resistance is futile" as they offer "carols from galaxies far, far away and carols from terra firma." The three shows at Meany Theater [get directions] will be staged December 14-16.

Vixen Fiction/Siren Song is the alluring double theme of the Women's Chorus's springtime concert held April 12 and 13 at Meany Theater. The women of the chorus will take a fond and hilarious look at the "spicy novels that captured the attention of the underground lesbian community in the 50s and 60s." Chris Williamson will join the Chorus for an exploration of the early women's music scene.

Season tickets for the Women's Chorus concerts range in price from $100 to $35.

Seattle Black Pride gets grant for health program

2007-10-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Seattle Black Pride (SBP) has been awarded a grant to provide HIV prevention and sexual-health programming focusing on black men who have sex with men (MSM). The $200,000 grant from Seattle/King County Public Health Dept. will allow the group to continue and expand its "Body and Soul" program that was implemented over the past year.

SBP explains in an email press release

These funds will allow us to continue and expand this program over the next two years so that we can reach more people in our community with important information about their sexual health in a way that appreciates and recognizes our culture as black gay men and MSM.

It is, as they say in their press release, a "significant milestone" for the group that was started in 2005. Since then, they've sponsored three major Black Pride events in the summer, and have built up an impressive calendar of community events.

Just a year ago, a group of local black leaders gathered to discuss ways to help slow the rate of HIV in the black community. At the time, King County Executive Ron Sims said

"Until we have a vaccine or a cure for HIV, prevention is our best plan of action," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "I commend our local leaders for owning the growing problem of HIV in the African American community and stepping up to work for a lasting solution. Ending this epidemic requires a community-wide response based on knowledge, action and compassion."

SBP responded to the challenge with their "Body & Soul" program. But the group says that it won't stop there.

We recognize that this is only the beginning of programming as the organization must be inclusive of all the diversity and issues we face in Seattle Black LGBT community. However, in our second year as an organization, this is absolutely an honor and a step in the right direction.

See also: Seattle Black Pride Reaches New Milestone on Jasmyne Cannick's blog.

Tonight: 'Speed, Sex & Sanity' forum

2007-09-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

A provocative forum to discuss the relationship between Seattle gay/bi men and crystal methamphetamine will be presented tonight -- Wednesday, Sept. 26 -- at 7 pm by Seattle Counseling Service and Gay City Health Project.

The forum offers an opportunity for gay/bi men to vocalize their real thoughts and feelings about this issue and how it relates to relationships, health, and to our communities in general. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event.

The public forum -- Speed, Sex & Sanity - LIVE -- will take place at Freehold Theatre, 1525 10th Ave. [get directions]. Resources, including information on related groups, are available on the Project NEON website.

News bites: Ahmadinejad says 'no homosexuals' in Iran

2007-09-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

During an address at Columbia University Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued the truly bizarre assertion that there aren't any lesbian or gay folk in Iran.

From the New York Times live-blog of the address:

In response to a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad was initially evasive, instead talking about the death penalty, which, he pointed out, exists in the United States: "People who violate the laws by using guns, creating insecurity selling guns, distributing guns at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran. Very few of these punishments are carried out in the public eye."

Pressed by Dean Coatsworth on the original question about the rights of gay men and lesbians in Iran, Mr. Ahmadinejad said: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country."

The audience booed and hissed loudly.

"In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon," Mr. Ahmadinejad continued, undeterred. "I do not know who has told you that we have it. But as for women, maybe you think that maybe being a woman is a crime. It's not a crime to be a woman. Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran."

As the audience immediately recognized, that's a surprising assertion since human rights campaigners have repeatedly reported executions of gay men in Iran.

International gay rights campaigners have also said that homosexual men were among the executed. Homosexuality is a capital offence in Iran, along with adultery, espionage, armed robbery, drug trafficking and apostasy.

[Update, 9/26] There have, of course, been plenty of incredulous responses to the Iranian president's statements that there are no homosexuals in Iran, including this from Fox News (of all sources):

"When I first heard his comments yesterday, I laughed," said Arsham Parsi, founder of the Toronto-based Iranian Queer Organization.

"But after I thought about it, I realized this is really a very strong statement. By denying we exist, he does not even acknowledge that we have human rights." ...

According to Iranian law, consensual gay sex in any form is punishable by death. Violators are reportedly given a choice of four methods of execution: hanging, stoning, halving by sword -- or being dropped from the highest perch.

Ironically, Parsi says the truth is that Iranian officials actually know quite a bit about homosexuals in Iran. Gay men in Iran are allowed medical dispensations from mandatory military service, for example, and the country's secret police constantly monitor gay activities through Internet chat rooms and other electronic methods.

According to Edge, some have questioned whether the live translation of the speech from Farsi to English properly conveyed Ahmadinejad's meaning, but that argument seems strained when taken in the context of this Pink News report that his comments about homosexuality were stripped from the official transcript of the speech.

Arizona Star offers a full transcript of the address, introduction, and Q&A for those who want to read the comments in full context.

[[And, if I may offer an offhand recommendation: Anyone who read just enough philosophy in college to be dangerous might want to take a look at the beginning of the speech where the prez tries to assume on his pre-political role as a college professor. It all sounded surprisingly gnostic to me -- what with the whole "'science' means 'illumination'" theme. I hadn't realized that Shiism allows for that sort of thing, but a web search revealed this page that ties together Shiite gnosticism with Heideggerian phenomenology.

"Professor" Ahmadinejad lectured to the students gathered at Columbia:

If we accept that "science" means "illumination," then its scope supersedes the experimental sciences, and it includes every hidden and disclosed reality. One of the main harms inflicted against science is to limit it to experimental and physical sciences; this harm occurs even though it extends far beyond this scope.

Realities of the world are not limited to physical realities. And the material is just a shadow of supreme realities, and physical creation is just one of the stories of the creation of the world. Human being is just an example of the creation that is a combination of the material and the spirit.

Playing a kind of "six degrees of separation" game with this, we could tie the Iranian president to Leo Strauss and through him to the neoconservatives and Dick Cheney. The connection works by stretching out the kind of distinction that Ahmedenijad makes between what we could call the 'exoteric' and the 'esoteric'. So, see: Ahmadinejad is a Straussian neoconservative, just like Dick Cheney.]]

News bites: Response on gay support expected tomorrow from Episcopal bishops

2007-09-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

After a week of intense meetings in New Orleans, US Episcopal bishops are expected to release a response tomorrow to demands from some fellow bishops in the Anglican communion that the American church abandon its support for lesbian and gay church members.

The American bishops are widely expected to reject calls for them to adopt the anti-gay policies of Anglican churches in some other areas -- particularly the "global south" including Africa and South America. The spiritual leader of the Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, traveled to New Orleans for discussions with the American bishops.

Williams expressed hope that some sort of compromise could be reached that would avoid a schism among Anglican churches. Williams insisted in a press conference that a schism among the mostly-independent national churches that comprise the communion is not 'imminent'. But London's Telegraph -- whose reports tend to support the anti-gay global south position -- described Williams' mission to New Orleans as hoping for a "miracle".

[B]y the time he headed for the city's Louis Armstrong International Airport ... the archbishop appeared to have accepted that on Tuesday the 159 bishops of the Episcopal Church, as the two-million-strong Anglican congregation is called in the United States, are almost certain to support a bigger role for gays.

American bishops at the summit have been quick to declare their support for Bishop Robinson, who had been so upset by an earlier call from Dr Williams for a choice to be made between gays and the communion that he accused the archbishop of "dehumanising" homosexuals.

In a document seen by The Sunday Telegraph, the US bishops have rejected plans for an Anglican covenant -- or rulebook -- that Dr Williams had hoped could keep the communion together and which dictated a tougher line on homosexuality.

The Americans' document, The Constitutional Crisis, says that "if the Anglican Communion decides to read scripture literally or impose conformity to a single interpretation without attempting objective regard for critical scholarship, it will be a different church".

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola obstinately insisted last week that Episcopal bishops are being "obstinate and intransigent" for not accepting Ankola's intransigent interpretation of scripture.

The most powerful leader of evangelical Anglicans worldwide has issued a last-minute plea to the US Episcopal bishops over their pro-gay liberal agenda, to save the Church from schism.

The Archbishop and Primate of Nigeria, Dr Peter Akinola, was speaking to The Times as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, met US bishops in New Orleans in a last-ditch attempt to avert a split.

Dr Akinola, who heads the Global South group of Anglican provinces from Asia, Africa and Latin America, said the Anglican Church worldwide was in a state of "broken communion".

He said the crisis arose from the "intransigence and obstinacy"of The Episcopal Church in the US, which had pursued a liberal line on same-sex blessings and the consecration in 2003 of the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson. "They were warned not to do this," he said. "Now province after province has declared a state of broken communion with them."

Akinola traveled to the US this week to promote his message of intolerance and schism at a Chicago-area chapel.

Though Akinola did not mention the gathering in New Orleans or Anglican differences over homosexuality, the Nigerian archbishop said that the church is clearly divided and that those divisions stem from a failure to obey the word of God.

"Fornication is fornication. Adultery is adultery. ... These are the areas of primary evangelism," Akinola said.

Outside the chapel, a group of about 20 protesters held signs that read: "Reverend Akinola is a dangerous bigot" and "Akinola preaches hate and division." Many demonstrators criticized Akinola's past comments on gays, in which he has stated homosexuality is contrary to the teachings of the Bible and "a perversion of human dignity."

The archbishop also supports a bill in Nigeria that would make homosexual sex and any public expression of homosexual identity a crime punishable by imprisonment.

Akinola and other African bishops have anointed anti-gay US priests as bishops despite Anglican rules discouraging that kind of interference between national churches. They've encourage Episcopal parishes in the US to split off from the national church.

In Washington, two Episcopal parishes have split off from the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia.

Poulsbo and Oak Harbor congregations have quit the diocese but continued to occupy church buildings.

In Oak Harbor, dissident self-described "Anglicans" and Episcopal loyalists hold worship services in the same building: Anglicans dictate the terms of sharing.

"The church canons are unambiguous," Lee said. "People can leave the Episcopal Church. Parishes can't. People cannot take property with them. That is theft!"

The Rev. Gregory Rickel, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, said a separation between the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion may be inevitable.

Rickel was chosen as bishop of the statewide diocese whose headquarters church, St. Mark's Cathedral on Capitol Hill, is run by an out gay priest, Rt. Rev. Robert Taylor.

Rickel wants to see firsthand the arrangement that has two churches aligned with a conservative Brazilian bishop meeting on properties in Poulsbo and Oak Harbor that the Olympia diocese owns.

"What's on the paper looks great to me," he said. "But I want to know how it's working on the ground. I think the property issue is key."

He describes himself as "on the progressive side of theology," but also says it is his "fervent hope" that the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion do not break over scriptural interpretation on issues such as homosexuality.

Rickel says he is comfortable continuing Bishop Warner's stance of letting individual priests decide whether to perform blessing ceremonies for same-sex unions.

Akinola and his fellow anti-gay bishops seek to silence tolerant churches like St. Mark's, but the views of the anti-gay clerics do not appear to be universally accepted even within the global south.

The recently appointed Dean of Central Africa, the Rt. Rev. Trevor Musonda Mwamba, believes Anglican churches will soon return to their grassroots mission to alleviate poverty, disease and injustice and abandon their current "fixation" on homosexuality.

His words of optimism come against a background of growing concern that the on-going "rights for gays" debate in the 75 million-strong worldwide Anglican community could wreck unity in that church throughout Africa before next year's Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England.

That's an interpretation of the church's mission similar to what Episcopal bishops have tried to emphasize, but it's too often drowned out by the emphasis on narrow and intolerant biblical interpretations.

The Very Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire whose consecration symbolizes the theological differences among Anglicans, last month compared intolerance of LGBT people to churches' earlier support for slavery:

Gene Robinson spoke openly about his view on the current controversy surrounding the Anglican Church.

"It's very painful for me," he said. "Coming out of the experience of the United States, where we treated people from Africa as less than human, where we used scripture to justify their slavery and their continued bondage.

"It's very, very painful to have those people in Africa in some sense using the same thinking against gay and lesbian people and against me."

When it was suggested that he might have stepped aside for the sake of the unity of the Communion, Bishop Robinson attributed a vocational call from God for his perseverance, despite the controversy he knew it would cause.

21st annual AIDS Walk next weekend

2007-09-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

The 21st Annual Seattle AIDS Walk will be held on Saturday, September 29. An opening ceremony hosted (as it has been since the first walk) by KING5 News anchor Jean Enersen will begin at 9 am. The AIDS Walk will begin and end at Volunteer Park [get directions], rain or shine. The one-mile walk will take a circular route from the park starting at 10 am, heading south on the wide and hill-free pavement of 12th Ave. to Thomas St. and then north on Broadway, returning to the park via the hill at Prospect St.

The Walk is both a way to remind folks of the still-daunting needs of people living with AIDS and HIV, and a major fundraiser for the area's primary AIDS service organization, Lifelong AIDS Alliance.

Whether you'll walk as an individual or as part of a team, pre-registration on the Walk website is encouraged. On-site registration for those who prefer standing in line opens at 8 am at the park.
On its impressive event website, Lifelong provides fundraising suggestions for walkers and creates a webpage and other virtual tool for pre-registered walkers to help them solicit donations. You can walk as an individual, join an existing team, or form your own team. A wide array of non-profit groups, and ad-hoc groups, along with companies large and small have formed teams (and, remember, many of the companies will match donations raised by an employee).

If you won't be in town or can't walk for other reasons but still want to raise funds, you can sign up as a virtual walker. You'll have access to all the same fundraising tools as physical walkers. Or consider making a donation directly to LLAA or sponsoring a walker or team.

Your donations and sponsorships will go directly to Lifelong AIDS Alliance. Lifelong is a comprehensive AIDS service organization (ASO) located in Seattle, offering a spectrum of care services, advocacy, and prevention education for people in Seattle/King County.

Care programs include information and referrals, case management, nutritional support including meals and groceries, housing, and medication adherence. Our insurance program is statewide, and helps people with HIV/AIDS pay their insurance premiums. The prevention education team works with some of the highest-risk populations in our area: men who have sex with men, transgendered women, and young people.

As Lifelong is the only ASO in the Northwest with a full-time advocacy team, our national advocacy also includes work on behalf of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. The advocacy team works at the local, state, and national levels to ensure that legislators and policy makers consider the unique needs of people living with HIV/AIDS in their decisions.

Lifelong hopes to raise $800,000 with this year's event. According to the fund thermometor on the site, they're at 43% of the total now with pledges of over $340,000.

A lesson for Southern Baptists' Richard Land: What legal marriage is all about

2007-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

Roger Winters' response to "A Constitutional Tipping Point on Marriage" by Richard Land on September 12, 2007 published in the blog of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Land is head of the Southern Baptist Convention's government affairs arm and host of three syndicated radio programs.

It is clear you have concluded -- and almost never question -- that legal marriages for same-sex couples will harm either the "institution of marriage" (an abstraction -- not one couple enters the institution of marriage, each couple enters their own marriage) or will negatively impact marriages of heterosexual couples.

I believe you think this in large part because you do not strictly distinguish the privileged legal relationship given to those who are married by the civil authority from the meaning you give to the term "marriage" by applying your religious doctrines. Becoming legally next of kin through civil, licensed marriage protects any couple in hundreds of ways. You don't even begin to see that there is a huge Constitutional question of equal protection of the laws here. Your religious focus clouds your ability to see the real constitutional issues.

How is "freedom to define marriage" a right, except one seeking to exclude and punish people who do not believe as you do about their homosexuality? Who owns this "freedom to define marriage?" Baptists? All Christians? Only those who vote? The majority! But majority (the greater number prevails) is nothing, morally, but "might makes right!" It is a decision-making principle, not a basis of right. Since majority views change, if majority rule is the basis of right, then right is always changing. (Similarly, "the will of the people" always changes with each vote, poll, or guess by whoever's pretending to know what it is!)

I believe hostility to homosexuality so blinds you that you cannot think clearly on this issue. Indeed, I believe your leaders want you to choose not to think clearly and logically. Only through that kind of willful blindness can give your church standing to object to the free choices by otherwise qualified adults to marry one another even if of the same sex.

Your church has opposed mixed-race marriages (laws punished those who married someone of a different race) -- Loving v. Virginia in 1967 is a parallel issue.

(Opponents of mixed-race marriages don?t speak up now, after the Loving case and social changes in America. My [non-Baptist] father often preached we would never get to the Moon because God had set the limits of our habitation as the Earth -- you can find the Scriptural citation for that. After the Moon landing, Dad never made that point in his sermons again. He never said he had been wrong -- he just stopped saying it.)

The marriage of a same sex couple in no way affects the marriage of any other couple, just as in religion, your ability to believe as you choose does not prevent me from having a similar ability. (Let's not get into absurdities like - what if you believe it's okay to kill babies? Certain conduct is proscribed by law for good reason based in general consensus and a clear distinction between belief and action.)

This matter is like discussing freedom of religion, so what Jefferson observed in Notes on Virginia in 1782 applies:

...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

A marriage by a same sex couple neither does others harm nor prevents them from the free exercise of their beliefs on how marriages should be. The legal content of marriage is the same for non-Baptists and Baptists. Legal marriage -- allowed for imprisoned criminals -- for anyone who are of opposite sexes and otherwise qualified.

Legal marriage does not address love, children, families, or anything but establishing the privileged kinship relationship for the couple. While marital status is used in relation to children, there is no requirement to have children, to have sex, or even be in love to execute a marriage license. The legal side is morally neutral -- with typical exclusions: age, insanity, no brother-sister-cousin marriages.

Finally... Try thinking about this issue again by focusing solely on the legal content of marriage in America. It is there that equality should be mandated and the emotionally-based, religion-based arguments apply only when you explain to other Baptists that the church doctrine requires that they should not marry persons of the same sex (even if other people do so because they believe differently).

Your wish to exclude same-sex couples from the protections of the law by changing the Constitution (and thereby getting that pesky "equality" idea out of the way) is immoral, I believe, and perpetuates an evil against many of your fellow citizens. I hope these considerations lead you to think again and I trust that if you really THINK again, you will reach a different conclusion.

Please welcome a new occasional voice to the blog

2007-09-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

As we prepare this blog for our now-delayed move to a new home, we've been trying to to add more voices to the blog. We hope to have even more exciting news about that in the next week or so, but we introduce one of those occasional voices today in the following post.

Roger Winters has agreed to write occasional essays for us in our new home, but we offer a hint of what's to come with a post by Roger here on our longtime location by reprinting a response he posted to one of those irritatingly predictable rants by opponents of marrige equality.

In a post on his blog, Richard Land -- a syndicated radio host and head of the government affairs arm of the Southern Baptist Convention -- expressed his alarm the decision of an Iowa judge that (briefly) lifted the ban in that heartland state on same-sex marriages:

Forbidding same-sex couples from marrying may be a constriction of their liberty, but more importantly, it is an expansion of the people?s liberty to define what constitutes marriage.

Roger was inspired to offer Land a lesson in the meaning of legal marriage in comments to the post. We reprint Roger's response.

Roger is President Emeritus of the Legal Marriage Alliance of Washington (LMAW), having served as volunteer president of that group from 2001-2006. He was also a co-founder of LMA in 1995. He has been an activist in the LGBT movement in Seattle since the 1970s.

Start planning now for next month's Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

2007-09-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Naked Boys Singing shows Sunday, October 14 at the Cinerama. "Shot at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theater, this film version of the flamboyant and unabashed show has an expanded cast and new arrangements of songs such as: 'Fight the Urge' (about locker-room anxiety); 'The Bliss of a Bris' (circumcision); 'Jack?s Song' (masturbation); and 'Window to Window' (a surprisingly touching number about voyeurism, cruising, and hooking up). The novelty songs are cheeky and fun; the love songs, sweet and poignant."

The weather in the past few days reminds us that we're moving again toward the indoor season when a nice warm dry movie house becomes a welcoming cacoon.

Each October, the creative folks at Three Dollar Bill Cinema fully satisfy that urge with the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. This year's fest runs October 12 through 21 featuring a schedule packed with filmic presentations from first- and only-run features, to shorts, to retro TV shows.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on September 25 online and at Ticket/Ticket locations, but you can jump to the front of the line by becoming a Three Dollar Bill member for at little as $33. Members can buy tickets to any showing right now.

The festival opens Friday, October 12 at The Cinerama on with the gala west coast premier of the Paul Schrader's new film, The Walker starring Woody Harrelson as the black sheep of a blue-blood American family and gay best friend to DC society matrons. The all-star ensemble cast of Schrader's political drama/noir thriller includes Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall and Kristin Scott Thomas as wealthy DC grande dames, along with Ned Beatty, Willem Dafoe, and Mary Beth Hurt.

Your $27 ticket to the premier also includes a spectacular party following the screening at the soon-to-be-repurposed Naval Reserve Building on Lake Union [get directions]. The party kicks off the festival in high style with beverages, delicious offerings from some of Seattle's finest restaurants and chefs, and dancing into the night to the DJ's beats. And you don't even need to drive. Round trips on a big bus between the Cinerama and the Naval Reserve Building will be provided.

The challenge, of course, is figuring out which of the films you want to see and are able to see. This is a Seattle-style festival, so you'll have to pick your faves since won't be able to see all of the 121 presentations on the busy schedule. Most of the films are split among four venues: the Cinerama downtown [get directions] and -- on Capitol Hill -- the Harvard Exit [get directions], Northwest Film Forum [get directions], and Broadway Performance Hall [get directions]. But the geographic challenge increases with other shows at SIFF Cinema at Seattle Center [get directions], Central Cinema on 21st Ave. [get directions], and the downtown library [get directions].

Films are scheduled from noon to night on weekends and from 5 pm into the night on weekdays.

Print out the schedule or pick one up at many places around town. The nifty festival website this year lets you not only buy tickets and see capsule summaries of the films, but also helps you make your decisions with a very nice personal calendar feature.

And there's more than just films to keep you busy. The schedule also includes parties, panel discussions, free workshops more to to choose from.

[[Blogger note: AWOL excuse]]

2007-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Your WebWrangler apologizes for being AWOL for longer than expected from these virtual pages. I visited family in Montana in early September and found my plans to keep up with things here more difficult than expected. But the real problem came from a scenic shortcut I tried to take during a stroll in beautiful Butte. (OK... well--)

It was a short little fence. Surely, I thought at the time, I could just step over the thing. Not really such a bad plan except that I didn't account for wider-than-necessary pants legs that got caught in a post and sent me tumbling. When I finally agreed to go to an emergency room, the ER doc told me, "I've never seen a knee disturbed in quite that way."

For the past week back in Seattle, I've been dealing with clinic-referral hell and have also been forced to learn that crutches aren't exactly an efficient means of locomotion. Sigh...

So anyway, I've fallen far behind on the usual slow rate of posts here and on other things related to the site. I'm slowly getting back up to my usual feeble speed, but Bill W. over at gayseattle.blogspot.com has been doing a great job of keeping up with local gay-related events. Check it out.