lgbtQnews - nw_gaynews

Historic Magic Valley Pride builds bridges in So. Idaho

JamesTidmarsh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:19:56 -0700

By James Tidmarsh, Photos by Nicki Abraham
reposted with permission from ©2009 PrideDEPOT.com

TWIN FALLS, ID — “Building Bridges.” That was the theme of the first ever Magic Valley Pride festival, organized by the Southern Idaho Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (SIGLBT) Community Center. The week long Pride events included a media training workshop, reception for the Community Center, legislative breakfast, an Idahoans for Fairness meet and greet, film night, and walk/candlelight vigil. The week’s events culminated on Saturday with a barbecue/potluck held at Cascade park in Twin Falls.

Keynote speaker Idaho State Senator Nicole LeFavour, Idaho’s first openly gay lawmaker, told the crowd of about sixty at the SIGLBT Community Center reception Tuesday that she believes that equality for the LGBT community is possible, but that it’s going to take the average citizen to make it happen. LeFavour stressed that it’s events like “Magic Valley Pride” that are going to help further the dialog in communities like the conservative Magic Valley area.

“There is no other place that I would rather be tonight.” LeFavour, told the audience. “What you guys are doing here is so amazingly historic, I can’t tell you how touched I am by your dedication and perseverance.”

Also speaking at the reception was Monica Hopkins, Executive Director of ACLU of Idaho, and Twin Falls Democratic Party organizer Dixie Siegal, who introduced Sen. LeFavour.

Magic Valley Pride spokeswoman, and SIGLBT Community Center Treasure, Nicki Abraham says the week long celebration served a two-fold purpose. “First to reach out to those LGBT individuals who feel alone and isolated, and secondly to dispel the myths, misconceptions and prejudices many still have in the Magic Valley about the LGBT community.”

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Supreme Court lets stand ruling that school can’t endorse exclusionary ‘faith’ club

newseditor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:15:51 -0700

The US Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear a case brought by a right wing legal group on behalf of two students at a suburban Seattle-area high school who sued after the school refused to let them set up a group that would have accepted only openly declared Christians as voting members.

A appeals court said the school’s student council was justified in denying a charter to the proposed group that would have been open only to students who signed a “statement of faith”. Because the high court will not hear the case, the appellate ruling stands.

The case started in September, 2001 when Sarice Undis, then a junior at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash., and Julianne Stewart, then a sophomore, asked school's student council to charter a group a student group called “Truth Bible Club”. Truth members, who originally could be students of any faith, would read a Bible verse over the school's intercom system once a week and decorate the school once a month, Seattle Times reports.

After a ruling in a separate Washington court case said that schools could recognize faith-based student groups, Undis and Stewart applied for formal recognition of their group which, according to its proposed charter, would have required voting members to sign sign a “statement of faith” accepting Jesus Christ as their “personal savior” and the Bible as “the only infallible, authoritative Word of God”, according to the Times.

That charter was unanimously denied by the student council – the Associated Student Body, or ASB, which said the membership rule was discriminatory, KPLU reports.

“This group wanted to receive public funds, wanted to be an ASB club. To be an ASB club, your membership must be open to all students,” said Kent Schools general counsel Chuck Lind.

Backed by the conservative Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), Undis and Stewart sued the school district, but lost in both the trial court and in a subsequent appeal.

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Video: Straight guy from Renton, WA declares crush for David Hasselhoff

robinev — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:08:43 -0700

A friend of his explains in a comment at AfterElton.com that America’s Got Talent contestant David Johnson “is happily married to a woman”. The explanation was required because Johnson, a bank loan officer, took his first few minutes of fame-like-notoriety to sing about his lust for… (wait for it) AGT judge David Hasselhoff.

Watch video at Hulu

AfterElton’s review below More...

Oregon AG: No evidence that Portland’s ‘Mayor Sam’ kissed 17-year-old

newseditor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:26:30 -0700

Source: Oregonian, Willamette Week, Portland Mercury, Portland Business Journal

Beau Breedlove, onetime boyfriend of Portland Mayor Sam Adams, was paid to pose shirtless for the May issue of Unzipped magazine

Portland, Oregon’s out gay mayor, Sam Adams, won’t face criminal charges for an alleged 2005 kiss, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger said today, but that won’t stop a drive to recall the mayor, according to the campaign’s chairman Jason Wurster who said a report clearing the mayor “doesn’t effect the recall whatsoever.”

“This has always been focused on Adams’s ethical transgressions against the city,” Wurster said, according to Portland Business Journal. “The AG coming back with no charges doesn’t mean things weren’t found that were wrong. It just means he’s confident he can’t successfully prosecute him.”

In a 17-page report, Kroger's staff said they couldn't find any independent evidence to confirm an account by Beau Breedlove that he kissed Adams twice romantically in 2005 when the younger man was underage, the Oregonian reports.

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LGBT Pride parades in Kalispell, Mont. for the first time

newseditor — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:37:56 -0700

Source: Missoulian, Kalispell Daily Interlake, KECI TV

Montana Pride Celebration, 2009 photo at bottom by Michael Jamison/Missoulian

About 550 people paraded along the main street in downtown Kalispell, Montana Saturday in the city’s first-ever LGBT Pride parade. Hundreds more cheered from the sidewalks.

Reporter Michael Jamison edged toward the poetic as he described the scene for the Missoulian:

June's gray rain clouds parted for a spell on Saturday morning, the sun shone through and hundreds of rainbows danced from one end of Kalispell to the other.

The entire spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - washed the street in a festival of color, a peacock of a pageant celebrating all the variety of light after the storm.

“We are all in this parade together,” said Jonathan Laurin. “All of us - gay, straight, bi, you name it. There's one creator for us all, and that creator looks down upon all people and sees a fine line of equality in everybody. Equality means that, regardless of belief, there is no one person better than another.”

Marchers – including children and a few brightly costumed drag queens – walked, danced with umbrellas, beat on drums, or carried a massive pride flag. A few rode rainbow-decorated bicycles through the others. Members of the Humane Society marched with shelter dogs looking for homes.

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Nationwide walk shines light on needs of queer homeless youth

newseditor — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:17:50 -0700

Source: QSaltLake, YouthNoise, Seattle Gay News, PFLAG blog

Images from the first "Shine" event held at Westlake Park (lower image) and elsewhere in Seattle in May, at the start of a journey throughout the country to shine a light on the needs of homeless queer youth. Photos via PrideWalk2009 Facebook group

Late last month, Chloe Michelle Noble, Jill Hardman, and Nicole Tomlin embarked on a 6,000 mile cross-country journey. The Salt Lake City women plan to walk at least half of the way, live out of their backpacks, and document their trek through video, and blog updates, Facebook photos, and Twitter posts.

They plan to speak in cities and towns along their route in parks, at gay and transgender community centers, and other forums about the struggles and needs of queer homeless youth.

In March, Noble told QSaltLake magazine, “We are walking because we believe that our youth should not have to live on the streets, sleeping in the cold, wondering where their next meal is going to come from.”

She explained that she is interested in helping homeless queer youth in part because she spent periods of her 20s on the streets.

Noble, who came out at age 20, said that her devout Mormon parents could not accept her sexuality or her interest in “bending gender norms.”

Youth often end up on the street, she told QSaltLake, because being homeless is often safer than staying with family who are physically, emotionally, or sexually abusive when a youth comes out as gay or transgender.

Noble told Seattle Gay News that educating parents is a core cause of their journey. “The parents need to understand there is nothing wrong with their child and that with the right amount of nurturing and support they can thrive,” said Noble.

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Names of gay city employees private for now, but Seattle argues they must be released

newseditor — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:00:27 -0700

Source: Seattle PI, Seattle Times, KING TV
The names of Seattle municipal employees who belong to an LGBT affinity group will not be released for at least a week, but the city argued yesterday before a King County judge that state law requires it to release the names to an anti-gay activist who has requested the list.

Philip Irvin, a city employee and right-wing activist who claims he’s been barred from attending the club’s meetings because he is heterosexual and opposed to gay rights, has requested that the city release the names of employees who belong to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning and Friends (LGBTQF) Club at Seattle City Light, a municipal electric utility.

Private lawyers for LGBTQF members, have asked the court to order the city not to release their names.

After a hearing yesterday, Judge John Erlick continued a temporary restraining order that blocks release of the names until at least next week when both sides will be back in court. Erlick could decide then what and how much should be released, KING 5 reports.

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Headlines: San Antonio’s gutsy mayor; Seattle Pride’s bad debts; + headlinks

newseditor — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:34:42 -0700

::: Despite a coordinated campaign of hate-filled emails prompted by a right-wing talk-show host in San Antonio, Texas, the city’s newly elected mayor insists he will not back down from a commitment he made in March to serve as grand marshall of the San Antonio LGBT Pride parade on July 4. “San Antonio is a big city,” Mayor Julian Castro, 34, told the Express-News. “It's a 21st century city, and we're in an inclusive city. My goal is not to take a stand on behalf of the city of San Antonio on any side, though I'm pleased with the progress the gay and lesbian community has made in combating discrimination. They're on the right side of history.” Sam Sanchez, publisher of QSanAntonio.com, an online news magazine that serves the LGBT community, says getting politicians involved in the parade has been difficult. “San Antonio has been notoriously homophobic. Other cities have grown out of it. Our big Catholic base, the Latino population, the conservative white population have brought a conservative attitude to all social issues.”

::: The group that produces Seattle’s LGBT Pride parade has finally agreed to a payment plan for a $100,000 debt the group rang up with the city for a botched festival attempt in 2006. Prior to the 2006 Pride events, the board of the group that runs the parade, Seattle Out & Proud (SOAP), made a controversial decision to move the parade and a festival that follows it away from the city’s “gayborhood” on Capital Hill to downtown. They scheduled an elaborate festival at Seattle Center, a large city park that includes a large number of performance venues, but fell far short of attracting the audiences they’d expected. After the debts they’d racked up became obvious, SOAP dropped its involvement in the post-parade festival. A private party-production company stepped in and has run successful post-parade festivals at Seattle Center since then, but SOAP continues to produce the annual parade. According to a press release this week from the group, “SOaP is agreeing to pay $85,000 over the course of 6 years, starting with a $10,000 payment in 2009 followed by annual payments of $15,000 through 2014. The City has agreed to waive all accrued interest and penalties provided that payments are made in a timely fashion.” [disclosure: this item links to posts written in 2006 and 2007 by this author, Robin Evans, for one of this site’s predecessors, the ttca.org blog)

Headlinks:

law: DOJ Moves to Dismiss First Fed Gay Marriage Case [AP / ABC News]
marriage equality: DC Panel Hears Arguments On Gay Marriage Referendum [Washington Post]
penguins: Bill O'Reilly and Dennis Miller Didn't Make Up the Gay Penguin Story [Towleroad]
workplace: An Impassioned Speech About Gay Rights From Obama's Employment Chief [Atlantic Online]
marriage equality: SD County apologizes to married gay couple [San Diego Union Tribune]
India: Law minister signals rethink on anti-gay law [Times of India]

Charges of ‘hypocrisy’ fly as Seattle LGBT employees try to block release of their names

newseditor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:32:28 -0700

Reports: Seattle PI
A man associated with a right wing group that has prominently criticized an independent group of LGBT activists in Washington for saying they would republish public documents on a web site has filed a request to get non-public names of city employees who belong to an LGBT support group.

The man’s request is supported by a prominent anti-gay activist who has, nonetheless, deemed the LGBT activists’ use of public records to be a form of “intimidation”.

In April, Seattle City Light employee Philip Irvin, 58, filed a request with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) for the names of employees who are members of the department’s “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Friends” group.

Irvin has long been opposed to the LGBT group at City Light, a municipally-owned electric utility. In May 2006, members of the LGBT affinity group filed a complaint against Irwin with the Equal Employment Opportunities commission, because of an email he sent from his city account complaining in offensive language about an invitation that the LGBT group sent to other City Light employees asking them to join the group at the annual Seattle Pride parade.

A note from Irvin about the complaint was posted by Gary Randall on May 25, 2006 on his “Faith & Freedom” website. Randall is now leading the effort to pass Referendum 71, a ballot measure that would strip out the recently passed additions to the state’s domestic partnership laws.

Seattle Public Utilities gave Irvin some of the public records that he requested about the group, but did not give him a list of members, or other items, including meeting sign-in sheets, that he had requested and that would have shown who belongs to the group.

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Transgender woman attacked in Seattle; suspect to be charged with hate crime

newseditor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:19:07 -0700

The brutal mid-afternoon attack of a transgender woman by a group of youths at a Seattle bus stop Saturday was clearly motivated by hate, Seattle police say, according to Seattle Times.

Prosecutors said a newly changed section of the state’s malicious harassment or hate-crimes law might be used in the prosecution.

A group of teens beat the woman and threatened to kill her Saturday near a bus stop on Rainier Avenue, according to Seattle police, Seattle PI reports.

During the confrontation, several of the victim's assailants uttered a slur for a gay man as they struck and kicked the victim, then knocked her to the ground, a police report says, according to the PI.

The attack occurred at 4:42 pm at a bus stop near Franklin High School in south Seattle. The 36-year-old victim told police that she is in the process of changing her "name and appearance from a man to a woman,"according to the police report.

The victim, who told police that she sometimes wears a skirt, said the attack was a result of that, the police report stated.

The attacking youths also tried to pull off her backpack. The group then fled, with one of the attackers climbing onto a nearby Metro bus. After witnesses directed police to the bus, it stopped, and the teen got off and tried running away, but police caught and arrested him.

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