Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

Next year at this time, the town's clubs, restaurants, hotels, and ball fields will be teeming with gay softball players. Emerald City Softball Assn. (ECSA) will host the 2008 Gay Softball World Series here from August 22 to August 30, 2008. ECSA is expecting more than 200 teams and about 3500 people to visit Seattle for the annual competition.

In addition to a busy tournament schedule of games, the Series will include splashy opening and closing ceremonies at locations to be announced.

Hosting something like this requires both a lot of time to organize things (which is provided by ECSA volunteers) and a lot of money. And it's that second item where you come in. ECSA is now offering "Gem Club" tickets for those who want to help with that vital second item. Buy your tickets now online to help ECSA prepare to showcase Seattle for visitors from around the country. With the top two tiers, you'll even get guaranteed entry to the opening and closing ceremonies. Other advantages are outlined in this pdf document.

Gem Club Level	One-Time Payment	4 Monthly Installments	10 Monthly Installments
Diamond Level	$ 500	$ 125	$ 50
Emerald Level	$ 300	$ 75	$ 30
Ruby Level	$ 150	$ 38	$ 15

Labels: fundraisers, gay organization, Gay Seattle, Seattle, sports

The comeback is one of the grand traditions of the entertainment world where they sometimes work. We see attempts even in politics (see, eg, Nixon) but the attempts rarely work out there. So here are a few recent news items that prompt a sense of "we've see that before..."

He's never really gone away, but Joe Fuiten, Bothell's rabidly anti-gay preacher/political activist is back under a new auspices. He formed his own group called after leaving Faith and Freedom Network. But now, he's folded that group into yet another new outfit called Family Policy Institute of Washington.

This one is under the philosophical umbrella (but not, they insist, the financial umbrella) of James Dobson's Focus on Family.

Fuiten's is also encouraging pastors throughout the state to get each member of their congrations to register to vote. Fuiten hopes to target legislators who voted for Washington's domestic partnership registry.
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And then there's Aubrey McClendon, the Sonics silent-partner co-owner, who helped bankroll one of Gary Bauer's anti-gay programs. Slog uncovered his funding of the Bauer project [background] at just about the time that the Sonics/Storm owners started threatening to move their teams away from Seattle -- both teams, including the Storm with its significant lesbian fanbase.

Well, McClendon stepped into it again with -- of all things -- a proposed real-estate development in Michigan. There are -- as often happens with these things -- a wealth of potential problems with the proposed beach-front development. Those potential problems have, of course, attracted a wealth of potential opponents of the development proposal. But, there's one extra problem for McClendon. It seems that his development proposal has drawn fire from an unlikely group -- gay folk in the area. Oops. McClendan bought an area of dunes and beach that is considered by locals to be the gay beach. Oh, boy...

McClendon's "people" gave a familiar response when asked about the opposition. "[B]ut after all, this is private property," said a spokesman.
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And imagine, if you will, being famous as member of a "gay group" when you were never gay. Oh, the horror, eh? Maybe it would drive you to drink and drugs. Well, it seems that that's exactly what happened to Victor Willis former lead singer and "cop" of the Village People. But don't cry too much for the singer/songwriter. While racking up arrests and rehabilitation stints since leaving the group in the early 80s, Willis has made over a million dollars in royalties on 'not gay' songs he wrote for the disco group, including "In the Navy", "YMCA", and "Macho Man".

Willis is clean and sober now according to his "people", and ready to mount some sort of comeback tour after releasing a promised tell-all book in the fall. And yes, there's a regional connection even here. Turns out Willis wrote "YMCA" in Vancouver. According to his publicist, "Victor Willis wrote about the YMCA and having fun there, but the type of fun he was talking about was straight fun."

We'll have to wait for that tell-all book to get the nitty-gritty about what kind of not-gay fun the guys at the Vancouver Y were having way back when.
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In other 'not gay' news, there's Matt Sanchez, that hot-looking Marine conservative activist from a few months back. Soon after making several appearances on Fox News programs and hob-nobbing with Ann Coulter, Sanchez was identified as a former actor in gay porn known as "Rod Majors" [background]. He said then that making those movies was just a "summer job." Although he's remained a popular search topic on blogs, Sanchez mostly disappeared from News Corp TV. But he's not been forgotten by the company's many media outlets.

Cpl. Matt "Rod Majors" Sanchez turned up again as an expert source in an article in News Corp's Weekly Standard magazine.

Sorry, no local connection to this story.

Labels: celebrities, gay news, news bites, politics, sports

According to a story in the News Tribune, the reaction at Sonics/Storm headquarters might have been more serious than the team let on this winter during the media storm that erupted when The Stranger's Josh Feit dug up the anti-gay political donations by Sonics/Storm co-owners and silent partners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon.

Meanwhile, in the wake of Feb. 26 revelations that two of [Seattle SuperSonics chairman Clay] Bennett's partners, Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon, bankrolled an anti-gay marriage group in 2004 with $1.1 million, [Seattle Storm chief operating officer Karen] Bryant made a pitch to Bennett to purchase the Storm.

According to sources, Bryant, the team's former general manager who was re-assigned within the organization when Anne Donovan was given total control, suggested that the team?s large lesbian fan base may make it uncomfortable for him as an owner if he kept the team. Bryant wants to keep the Storm in Seattle.

Bennett rejected Bryant's offer, sources say, because, while he may not want to relocate the Storm, he felt at the time it gave him more leverage with the Legislature.

"Did we have the conversation (regarding his intention for the team)? Yeah. But it was very early on and he said he had every intention of keeping the franchises together," Bryant said.

At the time, of course, Sonics/Storm spokespersons insisted that the donations were no big deal.
In oddly related news, Jim Roth, the openly gay Oklahoma City politician (the only such politician in state history, apparently), who came to the defense of his campaign contributors, oil company executives McClendon and Bennett, was given a plumb state job. Where? On the board that oversees the state's massive oil industry.

Labels: business, Seattle, sports

This is the big weekend for the Seattle Quake Rugby Team, as they host their annual tournament, Magnatude 15.07. The games take place on the fields of Marymoore Park in Redmond [get directions] all day Saturday. Look for the large tents pitched near the "pitch" (we figured out that that's what they call a field).

If you head over to the large eastside park, you'll be able to see plenty of games. Seattle Quake competes with teams from seven other cities -- Minneapolis Mayhem, Dallas Diablos, Portland Avalanche, San Francisco Fog, Pheonix Storm, Los Angeles Rebellion, and Vancouver Rogues. (Great names all, eh?)

Saturday's preliminary-round games feature 15-minute halves with games starting at 10 am, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15 pm, 1:30, and 2 pm. The winning teams then face off with 20-minute halves at 2:45 pm, 3:05, 3:30 and 4 pm.

But hey, it's a tournament of gay rugby teams, so there's more than just scrums on the pitch [or something like that]. There are plenty of parties, too, with the official ones happening at sponsor bars C.C. Attles, R Place, and The Cuff. [see bar map]

It starts tonight (Thursday) with a pre-festival informal get-together at CC's from 7 until 10 pm.

Registration is Friday at R-Place from 7 to 9 pm. Quake will set up a merchandise table to sell their sexy Quake gear.

The Cuff hosts the big post-match party Saturday from 7 to 10 pm. Tickets for the public (that's all the rest of us who aren't black-and-blue from the day's scrums [or whatever they call them]) are $10. There will be a kangaroo court, announcement and awards, and a closing ceremony.

It's still not over, though, because Quake will host a fundraiser Sunday at The Cuff from 4 to 8 pm featuring $3 burgers, brats, and brews, along with raffle tickets and Jello shots.

And just in case you're not familiar with Quake, here's the official boilerplate:

The Seattle Quake Rugby Football Club is a non-profit, community-based, amateur athletic organization.

The mission of the Seattle Quake RFC is to foster local, regional, national and international participation and competition in the game of Rugby Union Football and to create an environment where members of the community can learn the laws and practice of Rugby Union Football thereby improving their capabilities as players.

The Seattle Quake RFC is especially focused on providing opportunities for learning and playing competitive Rugby Union Football to communities traditionally under-represented in the sport, including gay men and men of color.

Labels: fundraisers, gay bar, gay organization, gay party, Gay Seattle, sports

Sonics/Storm co-owner Aubrey McClendon left it to team spokespersons to explain his political donations to an anti-gay group. But he himself responded to Duke's college newspaper, The Chronicle, when questions were raised there about the donations. McClendon and his wife are Duke alumnae who have given over $16 million to their alma-mater and have a campus building named after them.

One of McClendon's defenders in the local press was a gay Oklahoma City politician who suggested that the oilman, who also contributed to the gay councilman's campaign, might have supported Gary Bauer's anti-equality group mostly because it would benefit his oil business. McClendon confirmed that interpretation, but only as part of the reason.

"There were several gay marriage ballot initiatives in states like Missouri and Ohio in 2004," McClendon said. "I felt like I wanted to support those ballot initiatives, which would be in battleground states for the 2004 elections, and I was hoping there would be some advantage to increasing Republican turnout in states like that."

McClendon also gave a significant donation to a group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" that paid for ads during the 2004 campaign that misrepresented Sen. John Kerry's military record.

But McClendon said that his bankrolling of the Bauer group was about more than gaining a partisan advantage for his business.

"I am for the concept that a marriage should be between a man and a woman; on the other hand, I am for civil unions for gay couples," McClendon told The Chronicle Wednesday. "In my opinion, that does not make me anti-gay at all. Instead, it makes me pro-the traditional concept of marriage, and I do not believe the biblical sacrament should be between anyone other than a man and a woman."

That astounding statement drew this quick comment on the paper's web site,

I'm sick and tired of the fiction that one can refuse rights to gay people that everyone else has while not being "anti-gay." There is simply no way to be against gay marriage without being anti-gay.

The man is a bigot, pure and simple, and Duke ought not have any buildings named for bigots. Time to change the name of McClendon Tower.

Another commenter said the situation reminded him of another benefactor who had a campus building named after him while he was on the Boy Scouts board during its fight for their right to discriminate against gay members.

I concluded then, and conclude now, that development officers at Duke University should furnish the rest of us not only with buildings, but with nose clips for when we enter them.

Those commenters were in the minority, but a fascinating discussion of the meaning of "marriage" as a civil contract breaks out after a commenter says that McClendon is right to conflate "the biblical sacrament of marriage" with the civil contract that uses the same name.

Labels: Seattle, sports

While gay activists were complaining that a Super Bowl ad and supporting website for Snickers candy were obnoxiously homophobic, the FCC was getting a barrel full of complaints that the game broadcast was promoting gay sex. Oh, the horror!

Smoking Gun has compiled some of the stranger letters to the broadcast regulators. [via AOL Sports] Both the Snickers ad and the halftime performance by Prince shocked many of the letter writers who asked, "What about the children?"

One letter writer was convinced that the CBS broadcast of Prince's performance would turn her son gay because it included a shadowy outline of the singer with his guitar straddled at the hip. (Page 4):

It was obscene to show Prince, a HOMOSEXUAL person through a sheet, as to show his siluette [sic] while his guitar showed a very phallic symbol coming from his below-midriff section. I am very offended and I would preffer [sic] not to have showed it to my 4 children who love football. One of them has hoped to be a quarterback and now he will turn out gay. I am actually considering to check him for HIV. Thanks CBS for turning my son GAY.

My, my. Such dirty minds they have.

Labels: link bites, sports, youtube

PI columnist Robert Jamieson thinks that we should ignore the the anti-gay political contributions of Sonics co-owners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward in debate about funding their proposed sports palace. He says we should ignore it because, well... at least one of their good friends is gay.

The gay friend of Sonics managing partner Clay Bennett and co-owner McClendon is Jim Roth, an openly gay councilman for the county that includes Oklahoma City. Roth wrote a letter to the Seattle Times that was printed in today's sports section. Roth says that he's recieved support from both Bennett and McClendon

When I was elected in 2002, I became Oklahoma's first openly gay elected official. From the beginning, Clay and Aubrey initiated a genuine kindness and friendship toward my partner and me. They have publicly and consistently supported me, even pushing back when right-wing attacks have occurred. Their support is unconditional and has helped improve the overall climate for expanding tolerance here at home.

That support is significant because Roth faced considerable obstacles in winning his seat. The Washington Blade outlined it in a January profile of gay and lesbian office-holders in the heartland:

Oklahoma County Commissioner Jim Roth could be considered one of the most patient gay candidates on the campaign trail, having endured an anti-gay onslaught from his Republican opponent, David Mehlhaff, a Southern Baptist deacon.

"He came to see me in my office and challenged my faith," says Roth. "He got down on his knees, grabbed my leg and prayed for God to save my wretched soul my last year in office."

Mehlhaff also disparaged Roth publicly.

"He said I wasn't right with God and that I had a warped world-view based on my 'chosen lifestyle,'" he says.

Roth began his political career as chief deputy commissioner and staff attorney for his district in 1995. He was named deputy county clerk in 1999, and after being elected commissioner in 2002, he was reelected last November. His platform has included fiscal accountability, improved roadways and infrastructure, better care for senior citizens, home ownership, and job growth and economic development.

"We had a great track record based on what we?ve done for seniors and bringing humanity to the treatment of prisoners in the county jail," says Roth. "I received significant support from the Chamber of Commerce and business leaders, who also wanted to reject bigotry."

Roth says Mehlhaff tried to get black ministers to oppose him, but they ended up supporting him instead.

The PI's Jamieson talked to Roth about his letter to the Times.

As we spoke, Roth recalled a formal public ceremony soon after he took office where Bennett left the head table to visit Roth and his partner. "He said, 'I'm so thankful you are both here,' " Roth said. "He made us feel so welcome."

When Roth first ran for commissioner, his backing largely came from Democrats and gay rights advocates. When he ran for re-election last year Bennett & Co. stepped up to back Roth, prompting an Oklahoma paper's headline: "Unlikely Support."

Bennett donated more than $2,000 to Roth's campaign, according to news accounts, though Roth tells me the figure actually topped $4,000. McClendon gave $5,000. Bennett praised Roth for his "progressive ideas."

It's good to know that Bennett and McClendon, at least, aren't bigots. In his letter, Roth says that the contributions by McClendon and Ward to Bauer "were probably more about economic interests, ballot measures swaying Senate control and impact on the energy sector." Jamieson figures that's enough to end the discussion.

Some Seattleites, somewhat histrionically, liken the money contributions to financial support of the KKK.

Well, a lot of Americans do support traditional marriage, and they don't lynch gays, burn down their houses or march in parades.

But Jamieson surely knows that most of the politicians who benefited from the KKK in its heyday didn't lynch blacks or burn down their houses. They didn't do it themselves. But those politicians benefitted from the racism -- much of it deeply felt and "faith-based," by the way -- of that group. Those politicians used the racism of the KKK for thier own agendas, but, in doing so, contributed to the culture that prompted the lynchings and burnings.

Gary Bauer, whose group was financed by two of the Sonics/Storm co-owners, probably wouldn't even use the word "faggot" as Ann Coulter did the other day, to rousing applause from conservative activists. He wouldn't use the word that was also used last month by a kid in Detroit as he beat an old man to death. But the hate speech of Coulter and Bauer and of those who support them finanacially builds the culture of hate that powered the kid's arm to swung that pipe.

News that the Sonics ownership group might not believe actually in the cause of non-equality for gay folk doesn't make their contributions to an anti-gay campaign seem less like old-time support for the KKK. The news that they were using the contributions for non-related business purposes makes it sound more like that.

Labels: politics, Seattle, sports, Washington

While Sonics/Storm spokespersons try to convince us that the political activities of the team's new co-owners shouldn't be of concern to us "out here," anecdotal evidence from blogs and elsewhere indicates that it does matter.

We were sent a copy of an email sent by a gay man who lives on Beacon Hill to his senator, Margarita Prentice (D-11), who is prime sponsor of a "multi-purpose arena bill," Senate Bill 5986. The complicated measure could provide tax money for the construction of a new arena for the Sonics and Storm. It's a modification of a state law that currently provides funding for some arts programs, for retiring Kingdome debt, and for paying off debt incurred in building Qwest Field and Safeco Field.

Prentice's district is centered in Renton where the new $500 million basketball arena would be built, but stretches north to encompass much of Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The idea of getting a sports stadium in Renton on industrial land now owned by Boeing is popular among Renton officials, including Prentice. But her Beacon Hill constituent asks her to reconsider, given the anti-gay political activism of two of the team's owners.

Their values are so contrary to the values of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. At this point, I'm just fine with the prospect of the Sonics (and the Storm, if necessary) leaving town, rather than have my tax dollars subsidize wealthy business people who are homophobic bigots. I also believe it would do all professional sports some good if Seattle (as Los Angeles has done with football.) says no to the economic blackmail game of the franchise owners.

He urges Prentice to "disavow your sponsorship of the 'multi-purpose' arena bill. It tarnishes your fine reputation as a civic leader to be associated with these people."

The letter writer establishes his fan credentials before asking Prentice to disavow the arena deal.

I am a constituent of yours -- I live on west Beacon Hill -- and I?ve been a Sonics fan since their first season. I attended my first game in December of 1966, and I celebrated all night on Capitol Hill the night the Sonics won their only championship in 1979, with Gus, DJ, Downtown, et al. When I lived one block from the old Coliseum in the late 70s and early 80s, I attended several games a year and continued to do so into the mid-90s.

That was back when the tickets were affordable to anyone with a little bit of disposable income. That's not the case anymore. The business model for professional basketball is broken. A Sonics game now is only for people far more affluent than me, who go to watch multi-millionaires who are employed by mega-millionaires and billionaires. It simply doesn?t make sense to me that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars would be used to subsidize the profit-making ventures of such a non-essential enterprise.

Despite his frustrations with the team and with the NBA, the letter writer says he was willing to stay on the sidelines of the political battle over a new arena until he heard about McClendon's and Ward's political activism.

Up until now, I haven't been motivated to contact you to express myself on this issue. But now, I am motivated.

After learning about the huge political donations by Sonics co-owners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward to the religious bigot Gary Bauer's campaign against equality for sexual minorities, I must speak out. Why on earth would I, as an honorable gay man who was taught by my Christian, Republican parents to be honest and to work for justice for all people, ever want to support the efforts of people like Mr. McClendon and Mr. Ward? Why would you?

After an Olympia hearing on the stadiums bill Monday, Sonics/Storm managing partner Clay Bennett again instisted that the political donations of his co-owners shouldn't matter #.

Bennett brushed off the connection Monday night and said after the hearing that the reports were "unrelated to our process."

But this one letter and dozens of blog posts indicate, it does matter "out here" when owners of a team asking for $300 million in state tax money use their own money to support a bigot.

Labels: politics, Seattle, sports, Washington

Tacoma News Tribune reports that the NBA has clarified its position on anti-gay activities: It's OK for owners to pay other people to say hateful things about gay folk, but not OK for former players to say those things.

The NBA on Tuesday said it did not consider the antigay activities of two of the Seattle SuperSonics' owners the same as the antigay comments uttered by Tim Hardaway before the All-Star break.

On Monday, it was revealed that Sonics owners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward combined to contribute $1.1 million to the Christian conservative group Americans United to Preserve Marriage, a group led by Gary Bauer that opposes gay marriage.

Because that information came to light so closely after Hardaway said in a radio interview that he hates gay people -- comments that got him banned from the All-Star Game by NBA commissioner David Stern -- the issues were deemed analogous by many.

The NBA does not see it that way.

"The Hardaway situation was one that was filled with hateful language and bigotry," league spokesman Tim Frank said. "That is not the same as making political contributions."

A Sonics spokesperson again insisted that the contributions of the co-owners have no affect on the teams.

Karen Bryant, the team's chief operating officer who has said publicly that she markets the Storm to the gay community, said she does not take issue with McClendon's and Ward's views.

"Political contributions made by two of our owners have no bearing on how we operate and manage the Storm," Bryant said. "I'm proud to say that our Storm fan base represents the diversity of our community.

"Over the past seven seasons, we've demonstrated an environment of inclusiveness to all of our fans and that will continue to be our approach in building an audience for and marketing the Storm."

Bennett, the team's chairman who recruited McClendon and Ward into his investment group, the Professional Basketball Club, issued a release that did not specifically address his partners' political contributions or the effect they might have on the team?s pursuit of a new arena.

If the state does not grant the Sonics the $300 million, Bennett has said he will move the franchise, likely to Oklahoma City.

Labels: politics, Seattle, sports, Washington

The right wing anti-marriage-equality group, Americans United to Preserve Marriage, has taken down its website. This morning, the site included at least six press releases and a long biography of its founder Gary Bauer. Now it has only the graphic header on its home page with the statement, "under construction."

This is the group that was bankrolled by Seattle Sonics/Storm co-owners Aubrey McClendan and Tom Ward.

Perhaps this isn't the kind of publicity Bauer or Ward and McClendon wanted, eh? Aside from the obvious problems for NBA/WNBA owners like Ward and McClendon, it doesn't do Bauer much good to have it revealed that just two guys paid for one one of his operations.

Sample headlines:
Seattlest: Howard Schultz Sold the Sonics to Bigots
Supersonicsoul: Sonics New Owners: Jerks and Bigots
Down with Pants!: Go Sonics! and Take The Bigots With You
Dustbury: Backlash, or forelash?

Not everyone is hoping they'll make a quick exit back to Oklahoma. Lachlan at My So Called Blog says she "would like to flip the virtual bird to the owners and tell them to do their hate-mongering in Oklahoma," but pulls back with a repeat of this prior post about why the Storm are so important to her and many other lesbians in town:

Since the rumors and eventual sale of the Sonics and Storm began, I've had one thought about what it would mean to lose the Storm in particular:

Seattle's lesbian community would be devastated. Bayou and I have attended several games in the past, and two within the last month. Both times, I looked around, and thought: "Wow, I can't believe how many lesbians are here."

Everywhere, wall-to-wall dykes, couples, femmes, singles, sports dykes, families with one or more kidlets, goth riot grrrls. It was an absolutely diverse microcosm of gay women and their loved ones.

The blessing of the Storm games is the lack of 'meat-market' attitude. It's a great meeting place for friends and groups of friends. If the Storm leaves town, it will leave a big, gaping hole in the lesbian community here.

Hmm. Think they might be willing to sell the Storm and leave it here even if they take the Sonics to OKC?

Labels: politics, Seattle, sports

The PI today picked up on Josh Feit's reporting about Sonics/Storm owners support for an anti-marriage equality group run by right wing homophobe Gary Bauer. Without crediting Feit, the PI reporter repeated most of his enterprise reporting, but managed to add a response from a Sonics spokesman who insisted that the co-owners Oklahoma politics shouldn't matter "out here."

Sonics spokesman Jim Kneeland said the co-owners' contributions and political activity do not contradict the NBA's recent condemnation of bigotry.

"First of all, (Clay Bennett), who is the managing partner in this effort, is not involved in anyway," Kneeland said. "That's a key distinction.

"People are entitled to have their views, they are not views that I happen to agree with ... but they are not trying to impose them on anyone out here," Kneeland said.

"I won't argue that some of the owners may have more conservative political views than the norm out here; one of the things that they agreed to when they bought the team is that they would leave their politics at the state line," Kneeland said. "They have done that. They were not involved in the election cycle out here last year and have no intention of doing so."

Ward is the chief executive officer of an oil and natural gas production company. McClendon is chief executive of a natural gas production company. Both companies have headquarters in Oklahoma City. The ownership team of which they are a part also owns the WNBA's Seattle Storm.

Feit points out that Bauer's group, which lobbied for a federal discrimination amendment, was trying to impose their views "out here."

Um, that's the whole point of Americans United to Preserve Marriage. They're trying to impose their view that gays can't get married onto gay couples that want to get married.

Labels: politics, Seattle, sports, Washington

The Stranger's Josh Feit reports on Slog that the new owners of the Sonics and Storm bankrolled right-wing homophobe Gary Bauer. The Times' David Postman picks up on Feit's reporting with this summary:

It turns out that in 2004 and 2005 Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward ? principals in the ownership team ? were the top two donors to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, according to records at PoliticalMoneyLine. The group is led by conservative Christian activist and former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer.

Feit points out that the contributions from McClendon and Ward kept Bauer's group in business:

[T]he controversial group doled out $1,056,962 in the 2004 election cycle, which means Storm owners Ward and McClendon basically bankrolled the whole thing. Indeed, records show that between the 2004 and 2006 cycles the group spent $1.3 million total while Ward and McClendon?s donations total $1.1 million.

Storm, the women's basketball team, not only attracts a signficant lesbian fan base, but actively markets to lesbian and gay fans. As Feit notes, the team's owners might find that market less responsive having discovered where the management team sends its money.

These are the same folks who are now asking the legislature to approve $300 million in taxpayer money to finance a new stadium in Renton for their teams. Postman notes the political implications:

But the Oklahoma group's decidedly conservative political bent is likely to be of concern to many more in liberal Seattle than just Storm fans. And that could matter at a time when the team is looking to the Legislature to approve a taxpayer subsidy for a new arena. That's the same Legislature that is expected to approve benefits for domestic partnerships this year. And the NBA is the same league that recently banished a former player from All Star weekend because of his anti-gay comments.

Labels: Gay Seattle, politics, Seattle, sports

Soulforce v. Focus

Dotti Berry and Robynne Stapp, from Blaine, WA, were arrested yesterday after a polite sit-down protest at Focus on Family headquarters in Colorado Springs. The lesbian couple was there as part of the "Focus on Facts" campaign coordinated by the group Soulforce, "a national LGBT social justice organization founded on principles of nonviolence."

Soulforce explained the protest in a press release.

"I am here today because I believed Dr. Dobson's teachings for many years, and it almost led to my suicide. My healing came from my acceptance of myself and my acceptance that God loves me exactly as I am," said Sapp. Sapp and Berry have toured Focus on the Family twice before to dialogue with visitors and staff about LGBT individuals and families.

Dobson has consistently misrepresented LGBT families with misleading references to social science research. In recent months, several social scientists -- including Dr. Carol Gilligan of New York University and Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale -- have publicly rebuked him for mischaracterizing their research conclusions.

Dobson and other Focus spokespeople frequently discredit LGBT parenting with references to "more than 10,000 studies that have showed that children do best when they have a mom and a dad." According to the American Psychological Association (APA), such claims rely on "studies that simply do not address gay and lesbian parents and their children." Moreover, "no credible evidence shows that children raised by lesbian or gay parents differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents."

Berry and Sapp are the first participants in an ongoing campaign called "Focus on the Facts," which is modeled on Gandhi's Satyagraha campaigns in South Africa and India. In the words of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi "rightly believed in the efficacy of pitting the soul force of the Satyagraha against the brute force of the oppressor and in effect converting the oppressor to the right and moral point."

Soulforce made a video.

PI's Theil: Let Hardaway talk

Seattle PI's sports columnist Art Theil takes off where Steve Kelly, his uphill rival from the Times, left off last week in a column about ex-NBA star Tim Hardaway's self-admitted homophobia.

[NBA commissioner David] Stern immediately booted Hardaway from his All-Star Weekend appearances. Had he been an NBA employee, sanctions certainly would have followed.

Hardaway responded by backpedaling faster than Carmelo Anthony after throwing a sucker punch, retracting, apologizing, equivocating and rationalizing.

While the political correctness of Stern's action was predictable, it was too bad.

More of Hardaway's thoughts, and those of his like-minded peers, need to be shared.
Not because they need to be endorsed. But because they need to be known, discussed and engaged. And if necessary, avoided.

Whether such practices would enlighten Hardaway isn't the point. He's entitled to his views. But the rest of the world is not helped when ignorance is banished instead of addressed. It festers in darkness, withers in light.

Yes, there is risk when incendiary views are disseminated. But the reluctance to confront is, in the long term, worse. ...

Whether the cultural controversies of the day are racial integration, the politics of the Cold War (remember pingpong diplomacy as well as the 1980 Olympics boycott?) or gender equity, sports, mostly for good and sometimes for ill, is frequently the catalyst.

Simply because so many people care.

Please, let's hope no one thinks Congress, the Supreme Court, the president or most any other mainstream institution is capable of starting the discussion. ...

Speaking of hatas, let's hope Hardaway returns soon to public life with the courage of his convictions. I'm eager to hear how one of the NBA's strongest, toughest players feels so vulnerable and untrusting when he finds out with whom a teammate sleeps.

Gates Foundation to help build HIV research center in Canada

The Seattle-based Gates Foundation has pledged $28 million for building a research center somewhere in Canada to study HIV vaccines. Canada's Conservative government has pledged $188 million for the center.

Some Episcopal leaders would welcome schism

Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, the leader of the US Episcopal Church, calls for calm while some in her church call for schism after Monday's ultimatum issued by a global summit of Anglican leaders.

Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California, issued a statement strongly affirming his church's support for its lesbian and gay members:

The Diocese of California is a place within the Church -- not alone, but prominently -- where gay and lesbian people have been freer to offer their gifts: Both professional gifts and those of lay and ordained ministry. As a result, the Diocese of California has been immeasurably enriched. As bishop of this diocese, I know very well that the Christian rights of gay and lesbian people are intrinsic and must be supported, and that without these gifts, this diocese would be as immeasurably impoverished as it is now enriched -- immeasurably as the spiritual gifts of all God's people know no measure.

Labels: gay news, news bites, philanthropy, religion, sports

On the same day that a local sports columnist (of all people) presents a call to examine the genuine homophobia in the sports world and beyond comes this remarkable item from 365gay.com.

The leader of an organization that opposes homosexuality has condemned former NBA player Tim Hardaway for the language he used in attacking gay players.

"Hardaway's comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate," said Matt Barber, the policy director for Concerned Women of America.

"They provide political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition to the homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in 'hate.'"

But Barber then fires off his own anti-gay broadside.

"It's perfectly natural for people to be repelled by disordered sexual behaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral."

"All too often those behaviors are accompanied by serious physical, emotional, and spiritual pitfalls. However, the appropriate reaction is to respond with words and acts of love, not words of hate. Jesus Christ offers forgiveness and freedom for all sinners, and that is the heart of the Gospel message," Barber said.

But then added that gay activists are at least partly to blame.

"Hardaway's comments only serve to foment misperceptions of widespread homosexual 'victimhood' which the homosexual lobby has craftily manufactured," said Barber in a statement.

Yeah, sure.

And one wonders how Hardaway could think it's OK to let out the kind of rant he did. As Kelly, Amaechi and others have noted, at least Hardaway was honest about his bigotry.

In this attempt to get his political message across to his base, an activist like Barber can't even manage that level of honesty.

Labels: news bites, religion, sports, witch hunts

In the week since former NBA player John Amaechi came out on ESPN, coverage that combined "gay" and "NBA" in a single story had started to ramp down. That is, until Wednesday's broadcast homophobic rant by former NBA star Tim Hardaway.

Ameachi said he wasn't suprised to hear about Hardaway's comments, "I don't need Tim's comments to realize there's a problem," Ameachi told an AP interviewer. "People said that I should just shut up and go away -- now they have to rethink that."

Seattle Times sports columnist Steve Kelly addresses the issue in a must read column in today's paper.

Excerpts:

We had a feeling when former NBA player John Amaechi came out as a gay man, the story ultimately would not be about him, but about us. ...

The truth is, instead of cautious players throwing around code words like "trust," we needed some incendiary comments like those from former NBA point guard Hardaway to ramp up the debate. ...

There's nothing like an athlete, or ex-athlete, announcing he or she is gay to bring all of the village idiots out of the closet. ...

And, at least now, maybe we can begin the kind of wide-ranging, visceral talk that needs to be talked.

It's time for all the players to stop using code words and speak from the heart.

The reaction to Hardaway's comments shouldn't be, "You can't say that." It should be, "How can you think that?"

How can NBA players be so ignorant?

Kelly concludes

We shouldn't give a flying flip about the sexual orientation of John Amaechi or anyone else. But we do.

Even though I wish he'd made the announcement while he was still playing and really exploded some stereotypes, I applaud Amaechi's courage.

The fact that John Amaechi is gay shouldn't be news.

The real news is how we're dealing with that news.

So true.

But Dan Savage has some great advice over on SLOG for those dealing with that news:

But so long as we conflate liking us -- or believing that Jeebus loves us too -- with granting us our fundamental civil rights, we make winning those civil rights that much more difficult.

Of course as more and more of us live openly -- with or without our full civil rights --the hatred and fear that people like Hardaway espouse becomes less prevalent and less socially acceptable. But not everyone is going to like us or approve of us, whatever the law says, however socially tolerant our society becomes. And it is precisely these people?the haters, the Hardaways -- that have to be made to understand that no one is going to force them to change their minds.

What should the gays say about Hardaway? If I were the spokesperson for a big gay group I would say something like this:

"Mr. Hardaway is entitled to his opinions -- and his prejudices. He is not entitled to live in a world or a United States that's free from homosexuals. We are 'in the world,' we always have been, and we always will be. And gays and lesbians should not be subject to discrimination because some people are homophobic anymore than African Americans should be subject to discrimination because some people are racist. But if Mr. Hardaway doesn't care to know associate with gay people in his private life, that is his right. It is also his loss."

Labels: coming out, news bites, sports

One more, this one via Andrew Sullivan.

OutSports.com writer Jim Buzinski has a touching tribute to Anthony Castro, a young man who made it through a tough early life but died last week in a car crash.

Anthony was that rarest of people -- an athlete out to his team. In Anthony's case, he was out in high school to his football and wrestling teams, our two most macho team sports. It took guts to take such a step but Anthony never thought too much about it -- he was not ashamed of who he was and if you were uncomfortable, that was your problem.

[2/3/07:] ESPN.com has added another touching tribute to Castro in a superb column by LZ Granderson.

"He caught a lot of crap over the first six to nine months after coming out," says Phil Takacs, a Banning High counselor. "Sometimes he would come to my office and ask if he could just spend the rest of the day there. He would say that he couldn't take being called 'faggot' any more today and just needed a break. He even thought about quitting sports. But over time, Anthony just got tired of the other kids making him feel bad for who he was.

"One day he was in practice and one of the other wrestlers was giving him a bunch of crap about being gay. Anthony looked at the kid and said 'You have a problem with me; why don't we take this to the mat?' This guy wrestled in the heaviest division, but Anthony pinned him in less than 30 seconds. That guy never said anything else again."

...Takacs said that there are now 10 openly gay students at the school that he is aware of and that the community is a lot more tolerant.

"Anthony changed a lot of people's attitudes about gay people by simply having the strength to follow his heart," Takacs said.

Labels: coming out, gay news, link bites, sports