https://www.sgn.org en-us 2026 Seattle Gay News 9/9/2026 EST https://www.sgn.org/rss https://www.sgn.org/story/168854/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168854/ Many people are excited to finally see the world premiere of Freak the Mighty, a musical coproduction between the Seattle Rep and the Cleveland Play House. Maxwell Kane, a shy boy with learning disabilities, and Kevin “Freak” Avery, who has physical disabilities, feel like outcasts that don’t fit in — until they find each other. Armed with big imaginations, sharp humor, and rebellious spirits, the teens become “Freak the Mighty,” a duo ready to take on the world. Freak the Mighty is based on the 1993 best-s Thu Jul 30 2026 09:20:58 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168819/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168819/ Forty years after Little Shop of Horrors first charmed audiences with its irresistible blend of comedy, horror, romance, and unforgettable music, Ellen Greene still speaks about Audrey with the same warmth and affection that made the character an icon. As the actress who originated the role off-Broadway in 1982 and reprised it in Frank Oz’s beloved 1986 film, Greene remains at the heart of one of musical theater’s greatest cult classics. On August 18 at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, fans will have the rare Wed Jul 29 2026 10:03:26 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168782/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168782/ We are asking voters to choose “Yes” on City of Seattle Proposition 1! At a time when misinformation about and bans on LGBTQIA+ materials are accelerating across the country, the Seattle Public Library has served as a bastion of information, gathering, and archiving — and not just for Seattle residents. Despite what some may argue (Seattle Times editorial board, we’re looking at you), the proposed $480 million levy renewal for the Seattle Public Library is an overall straightforward matter in terms of what Tue Jul 28 2026 12:12:40 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168779/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168779/ Our endorsement for the 7th Congressional District of Washington is Pramila Jayapal! The only incumbent in our endorsement guide, Rep. Jayapal has been one of the biggest champions to date for Trans and Queer rights (as well as progressive policies) in the US House of Representatives. With LGBTQIA+ protections being undermined left and right under President Trump, she has been defiantly standing up against it all. Although most of our 2026 endorsement guide has been oriented around progressive challengers s Tue Jul 28 2026 12:03:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168776/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168776/ The fifth annual Vashon Island Film Festival kicks off August 13 with a gala screening of director Matt Johnson’s Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony and concludes on August 16 with presentation of the 2026 Tribeca award-winner Labrador — Autopsy of Silence directed by Rodrigue Jean. In between are a series of shorts, narrative features, and documentaries, all of them showcased in the island’s iconic, single-screen movie palace, the Vashon Theater. This year’s VIFF also boasts the return of the popular ShortCUTZ p Tue Jul 28 2026 11:52:25 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168742/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168742/ Our endorsement for the Washington State Senate 37th District is Tatiana Brown! As the underdog in a race against Rep. Chipalo Street, we chose Brown due to her unabashed commitment to environmental and social justice. With Rebecca Saldaña leaving to run for King County Council, her 37th District Senate seat is now up for grabs. Soon after Saldaña announced her intention to run, Rep. Street announced his bid for the newly opened position. Street’s campaign did not respond to our request for an interview, wh Mon Jul 27 2026 10:22:29 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168738/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168738/ Our endorsement for the Washington Senate 43rd District is Hannah Sabio-Howell! Sabio-Howell has advocated and organized for the rights of working-class and marginalized people in our state. A Queer Filipina woman, she is looking to unseat Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen. Although she has not held office and is still relatively new to the political scene, her policy platform and campaign has tapped into the frustrations of younger people struggling to get by in the district. The popularity of her cand Mon Jul 27 2026 09:58:19 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168638/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168638/ Our endorsement for Washington House of Representatives 29th District Position 2 is Erin Chapman Smith! Chapman-Smith has spent a decade as a housing advocate for Queer and Trans youth, and now hopes to enact policy as a state legislator to help tackle the issues that those struggling with housing and affordability face in her district. As a Transgender woman with a passion for community care, Chapman-Smith has worked for over ten years in shelters around the Puget Sound area, helping LGBTQIA+ people finall Thu Jul 23 2026 12:28:25 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168637/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168637/ Our endorsement for Washington House of Representatives 37th District Position 2 is Jaelynn Scott! As a longtime LGBTQIA+ community activist and executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, Scott has shown time and again her commitment to tackling the systemic issues that marginalized communities face. She now intends to take that to the next level as a state legislator. Scott is an articulate and passionate civil rights advocate. As a community leader, she has been at the forefront of challenging the Thu Jul 23 2026 12:25:34 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168630/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168630/ Our endorsement for King County Council District 2 is Rebecca Saldaña! Her decade of Washington State Senate experience, along with her commitment to coalition building and progressive policies, is ultimately what led us to choose her as the best option for the county council seat. As far as political track records are concerned, Saldaña has accrued an impressive résumé of policy achievements that would be hard for most to match. Since taking over the 37th District Senate seat in 2017 from Pramila Jayapal a Thu Jul 23 2026 08:55:23 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168558/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168558/ Our endorsement for Seattle City Council District 5 is Nilu Jenks! Among the candidates, Jenks stood out in part because of her comprehensive and nuanced platform to tackle the wide array of problems residents in the district face, including affordable housing, surveillance, immigration, and expanding the city’s LGBTQIA+ resources. Jenks is a first-generation Iranian American, born in Oklahoma to undocumented parents who arrived in the US to escape the 1979 revolution there. As her parents became naturalize Tue Jul 21 2026 15:13:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168554/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168554/ Our endorsement for the 9th Congressional District of Washington is Kshama Sawant! On Seattle City Council, Sawant was a driving force behind progressive policies and government accountability that made our city a better place. Sawant’s candidacy against Rep. Adam Smith as an independent socialist might be the change we need in Washington, DC. for the last two years of Trump’s presidency. Love her or hate her, none can dispute that Sawant has been an effective grassroots campaigner who has moved the needle Tue Jul 21 2026 11:56:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168543/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168543/ Originally published in 2001 and quietly fading into the background, Tramps Like Us has been reissued — with an insightful introduction by Eileen Myles — and it demands to be read. This isn’t just a novel; it’s a fictionalized memoir, a raw, frank reflection of a bygone era in Queer history. Joe Westmoreland’s narrative follows a young Gay man named Joe, who escapes a difficult childhood in Missouri and spends nearly a decade wandering across the United States — to Miami, New York, New Orleans, and San Fran Tue Jul 21 2026 09:55:30 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168513/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168513/ Our endorsement for the 37th Legislative District Position 1 is Kelabe Tewolde! Tewolde has a life's experience and working-class politics that are as rooted in the 37th as they come. Looking to challenge incumbent Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, Tewolde offers a boldly progressive and grassroots alternative for the district. Tewolde is another younger, progressive challenger looking to replace a 28-year incumbent and shake up the status quo in Olympia. Raised in Seattle by an Eritrean refugee single mother, Te Mon Jul 20 2026 14:13:34 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168422/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168422/ Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight) achieves something monumental and magnificent with his robust, stridently adrenalized adaptation of Homer’s eighth-century BCE epic poem The Odyssey. In this modern interpretation that still pays exhilarating homage to old-school sword-and-sandal classics like Jason and the Argonauts and Ben-Hur, the writer-director uses a mixture of gritty realism and unabashed melodramatic excess to bring his saga to life. The film’s three-hour running time vanishes in the Fri Jul 17 2026 12:36:51 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168421/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168421/ Michael Gerard Stegmann died in Seattle on July 11, 2026, following a head injury, surrounded by his family and close friends. He was 65. Mike grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, and graduated from Saguaro High School in 1979. He moved to Seattle in 1987 and made the city his home for the rest of his life. For decades, Mike worked as a waiter in some of Seattle's best-loved restaurants, including The Surrogate Hostess, Café Septieme (in both Belltown and Capitol Hill), St. Cloud's, and Redwing Cafe. He was love Fri Jul 17 2026 12:33:40 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168393/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168393/ On July 15, King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung ruled against neighborhood group Denny Blaine Park for All’s request to ban nudity or fully close down a historically LGBTQIA+ park and beach along Lake Washington. Although Denny Blaine Park will remain open, the judge did grant the group’s request to further abate what its members see as “public nuisance” activities. In July 2025, Denny Blaine Park for All’s request for an abatement planwas granted, after homeowners adjacent to the park (including Thu Jul 16 2026 13:18:14 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168390/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168390/ 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/168370/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168370/ Among all the Hollywood biographies and histories I’ve read, this book truly stands out. I was genuinely impressed by the depth of research and the behind-the-scenes revelations I had never encountered. It’s a compelling and exciting read. Even the famous Bette Davis–Joan Crawford feud pales in comparison to the Norma Shearer–Joan Crawford rivalry that explodes off the pages. That rivalry is just one of the treasures buried inside Jungle Red! The Making of MGM’s The Women, the new book by actress, writer, Wed Jul 15 2026 14:52:08 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) https://www.sgn.org/story/168340/ https://www.sgn.org/story/168340/ Michael Alan Ramey, born August 2, 1938, in Washington. DC, died peacefully, as he wished, on June 12, 2026, in Seattle, after voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), supported by loving friends and the wonderful people at A Sacred Passing. Mike lived by the philosophy of “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew phrase that means “repairing the world” through social justice and ethical behavior. Mike’s advocacy for social justice extended in many directions. He took a studied approach and worked to find merit in vi Wed Jul 15 2026 09:28:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)