https://www.sgn.org en-us 2026 Seattle Gay News 9/9/2026 EST https://www.sgn.org/rss https://www.sgn.org/story/169278/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/169278/Op-Ed Barely a week after the US Supreme Court decided that states may ban Transgender girls from participating in girls’ school sports under Title IX, the Heritage Foundation quietly released a report calling for something far more sweeping: the destruction of Title IX itself. The report argues that Title IX — the landmark civil rights law that opened school athletics to generations of girls — has gone too far. It paints women’s growing participation in competitive sports not as one of America’s greatest civil r Thu Aug 13 2026 11:31:06 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/169118/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/169118/Op-Ed I spend a lot of time thinking about collective liberation, as I imagine many of us do as community advocates, organizers, and leaders here in Seattle. We talk about collective and Trans liberation all the time. It’s in our mission statements. It’s in our grant proposals. It’s in our speeches. It’s become one of the defining values of our movements. But lately, I’ve found myself wondering if we’re all talking about the same thing. The more I reflect on it, the more I wonder if we’ve confused liberation with Mon Aug 10 2026 10:46:24 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/169116/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/169116/Op-Ed Since 2003, US leadership has been the defining force in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. At the height of the crisis, death tolls reached into the millions and healthcare systems collapsed under the weight of overwhelming need. President Festus Mogae of Botswana even warned that his nation faced extinction. American intervention turned the tide. That legacy is now at risk. Failure to include robust funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tubercu Mon Aug 10 2026 10:04:35 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168390/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/168390/Op-Ed Spend any time in the Emerald City and you’ll be sure to find those eager to espouse a doctrine of what is or isn’t proper Seattleite behavior. As our once secluded, hilly town on an isthmus has become more and more metropolitan, people’s attempts to assimilate (or even ward off) transplants with a laundry list of norms and etiquette — or even stranger purity tests — have gone too far. Culture is not static. What starts off as a novel trend can end up becoming a deep-seated tradition later, but people every Thu Jul 16 2026 10:54:23 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168000/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/168000/Op-Ed The United States of America commemorates its 250th anniversary of independence today, but I struggle as a Transgender American to find any reason to feel patriotic or celebratory about it. The country we all inhabit was founded on a contradiction — that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights — yet large swaths of our nation’s peoples were systematically denied, and continue to be denied, those rights by both the government and society. What mak Sat Jul 04 2026 17:58:55 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/167137/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/167137/Op-Ed As Transgender people across the country face escalating attacks in the areas of healthcare access, legal recognition, education, and public life, Washington has become both a refuge and a frontline. Recently, the Seattle LGBTQ Commission called on the City of Seattle to declare a civil emergency in response to increasing pressures facing LGBTQIA+ communities, particularly Transgender people seeking safety, stability, and support in Washington state. The proposal also reflects concerns that housing, healthc Tue Jun 09 2026 15:29:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/166573/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/166573/Op-Ed Monday - You open Instagram. The first thing you read is that a 19-year-old Trans UW student was stabbed to death on the night of Mother’s Day. You pause, then lock your phone. You have a meeting in a few minutes. You wonder if your Trans client earlier that day had already heard the news. Later, you reopen Instagram. You see this news turn national. You read that she was found on the floor of the laundry room in her off-campus apartment building. You see UW’s statement from the president address Fri May 22 2026 10:44:54 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/164784/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/164784/Op-Ed Black Americans are more likely than Americans of other races to live with chronic conditions like HIV. They also disproportionately struggle to afford the often expensive treatments needed to manage those conditions. So it's hardly surprising that Black voters care about politicians' proposals to bring down healthcare costs more than any other group. Most of those proposals are well-intentioned. But they are not all equally beneficial. Recent efforts to impose price controls on prescription drugs threaten Wed Apr 01 2026 10:55:21 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/164495/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/164495/Op-Ed The Seattle Art Museum has a new major exhibition on the third floor, “Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest,” curated by Theresa Papanikolas. It’s large, it’s beautiful — and the museum apparently does not want you to think of it as Gay. The title is a play on the 1953 LIFE magazine article, “Mystic Painters of the Northwest,” that defined the Northwest School and crowned four men its “mystics,” given this name for their connections to nature, as well as their frankly orientalist and appropriative use of Mon Mar 23 2026 11:53:05 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/164319/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/164319/Op-Ed When Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes agreed to come by the SGN office recently to have a conversation about the state of community relations, it marked a significant turning point in both Seattle’s LGBTQIA+ and police histories. Our collective endeavors as a community toward Queer liberation these last several decades have often been met with violence, harassment, and contempt at the hands of SPD officers. It’s a long and recurring tale that has been deeply woven into the fabric of Queer life in our city, Wed Mar 18 2026 10:53:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/164247/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/164247/Op-Ed The house is quiet tonight. There’s just one lamp on, trying its best to hold back the darkness, but honestly, it feels like the darkness is winning. Outside, life rolls on — cars pass by, someone walks their dog, and I can even hear a television down the hallway. But here in my condo, the silence feels heavy, like the home is holding its breath right along with me. Two days ago, they put in my PICC line. It’s still sore, taped to my left upper arm, a constant reminder that this is real — that chemo isn’t j Mon Mar 16 2026 14:28:35 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/163287/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/163287/Op-Ed Helen Lewis, a staff writer at The Atlantic, has been no stranger to Trans rights criticism over the years. Although her Wikipedia page seems to portray her as an ally of Trans people, once you look into the dozens of pieces she has penned on Trans issues, her writing tells a vastly different story. In a June 2025 article, she attempted to argue that her position was the middle ground between the Trump administration’s complete erasure of Trans people and that of “Transgender advocates.” She expressed that Tue Feb 17 2026 09:22:47 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/162187/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/162187/Op-Ed Seattle loves to call itself a progressive city. We paint rainbow crosswalks, host one of the largest Pride celebrations in the country, and issue statements of solidarity when tragedy strikes. However, beyond its symbolism, a more difficult reality emerges: Seattle tends to react to issues rather than prevent them, particularly when addressing the needs of LGBTQIA+ people who also face challenges related to race, immigration, disability, unstable housing, and financial insecurity. A city that waits for har Thu Jan 15 2026 14:52:30 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/162061/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/162061/Op-Ed It was a cold and rainy walk to the Seattle waterfront, where my girlfriend and I attended the vigil for Queer wife and mother Renee Nicole Good, who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7. I have rarely in my life felt as angry as I have these past few days. Every day, new footage turns up, new angles of the same awful moment that make it ever more abundantly clear that Renee was murdered in cold blood. Instead of a call against politicizing violence or respect for the dead, as was done aft Mon Jan 12 2026 10:44:38 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/160850/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/160850/Op-Ed Seattle residents, lawmakers, and community leaders often see themselves as nationwide leaders of equitable and inclusive policies and actions that champion the dignity of every resident who calls this city home. Yet even within the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC), our laws contain outdated, gendered, and grammatically incorrect language. Tue Dec 02 2025 15:27:20 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/160843/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/160843/Op-Ed For too long, conversations about HIV have centered primarily on preventing transmission. While that’s important, it often leaves out another vital part of the story: the health, well-being, and dignity of people with HIV themselves, especially those from underrepresented communities who rarely see their stories reflected back to them. That’s where Choose UTM comes in. This new initiative from Gilead Sciences was created with one goal in mind: to elevate the stories and lived experiences of people with HIV Tue Dec 02 2025 12:52:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/160838/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/160838/Op-Ed Even with decades of scientific research in HIV, a major challenge faced by people with HIV (PWH) continues to be HIV drug resistance. HIV can change or mutate over time, and HIV can develop something called a resistance mutation. When this happens, some HIV treatments may not work as well. Sometimes, HIV can already have a resistance mutation when it’s transmitted, or it can develop while someone is on treatment. But taking HIV treatment as your doctor prescribes can help lower the risk of resistance. Tue Dec 02 2025 11:24:48 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/161190/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/161190/Op-Ed Technology and creativity aren't just working together -- they've basically become best friends. And honestly? The arts world is changing so fast it's hard to keep up. I've been watching these shifts happen, and there are five big trends that really stand out. They're not just tweaking how we experience entertainment. They're completely flipping the script on how artists create their work. Fri Nov 28 2025 11:53:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/159841/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/159841/Op-Ed The White House’s recent memorandum, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” represents a dangerous expansion of state power that threatens Trans people and organizations. The memo frames “extremism” as views or actions that conflict with “traditional American” values, including those about family, religion, and morality — explicitly naming “extremism on … gender” and hostility toward those who deviate from “traditional” views. The memo also expands the definition of “domestic ter Sun Nov 02 2025 13:02:33 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/158528/Op-Ed https://www.sgn.org/story/158528/Op-Ed After deep consideration of the circumstances Transgender Americans have been experiencing in the United States, I, both as managing editor of the SGN and an out-and-proud Transgender woman, have decided to preface this issue with a statement: Thu Sep 25 2025 19:37:34 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)