Comments

1
Dan, I think many of these images should be below the fold. They might be triggering for people who suffer from PTSD. I know your goal is to expose the pogroms against gays in Russia in a way that we can't ignore, and I applaud you for it. Nonetheless, these images could be profoundly distressing to rape survivors and people who have been attacked for being gay.
2
The pictures are disturbing. State sponsored terror.
4
"So here we are: there's something the lesbian president of the Seattle City Council can do that might prevent this from happening to someone else..."

Criticize Sally Clark's motives if you like but don't kid yourself into thinking that the Seattle City Council's passing a resolution decrying the violence in Russia would do ANYTHING to stop the violence.

Personally I think it appropriate for the council to pass resolution in solidarity with the LGBT community in Russia but I am not so delusional to think it is anything more than moral support, which has value, but in the end won't change anything.
5
terrific piece, thanks for writing dan. kudos to godden, murray and our mayor for doing the right thing. fuck our POS city council (except you mr obrien).
6
@3: It isn't censorship. It is simply putting a warning that says that images below the fold may be traumatic to people who suffer PTSD. And to be honest, we aren't talking about "everyone's personal trauma". We are talking about a newspaper that caters to the LGBT community, many of whom have been assaulted, bullied, and raped. A trigger warning would be very well directed here.
7
@1,6
I guess it's only boobies, penises and other stuff that goes under the fold as NSFW.
When it comes to sadistic violence, fuck yeah!! I love playing mind games with my PTSD friends. Turn up the Sadism Danno!

Wait, Nudity=No, Violence=Yes ---- our society is fucked.
The Stranger is as ass backward as a Mississippi televangelist.
8
Christ, yes... this is all about a conspiracy against McGinn. This paper can't fucking help itself when it comes to that guy. Now that it's abundantly clear he's gonna lose, you guys are playing up the persecution complex.

If you gave two shits about the city council attacking this, you'd leave perceived political rivalries out of this and just ask them why they suddenly won't address this issue. Interjecting your McGinn crap pointlessly distracts from the main issue.
9
No surprise she is a terrible politician. Lots of good politicians going to be losing seats soon to come. Hope she is one of the first.

Sally Clark is worst type of politician. I usually don't comment just to be negative but she is so awful in every way. Waste of tax payers money. Fully. Lots of liberals prepared to do the job well.
10
On a side note, does anybody know if there is an organization dedicated to relocating LGBT people from Russia and getting them asylum in a safe country? I think Russia has found a scapegoat to vent their anger on. And since the violence is only increasing, now might be the time to organize to minimize the casualties.
11
"For four years members of the Seattle City Council have been playing this game: refuse to work with the mayor then turn around condemn the mayor for not getting anything done. When people notice what they're up to and attempt to draw attention to the game they're playing—when angry posts like this go up—accuse the mayor of being "divisive."

FTW. This should be the wikipedia entry describing Seattle politics over the past 4 years.
12
Seattle City Council : McGinn = US Congress : Obama
13
I just always assumed city councils were supposed to be at odds with mayors. It's why nothing ever gets done anywhere.
14
For Mayor McGinn to not be able to get five votes for a slam dunk resolution such as this says more about the Mayor's lack of political skill and capital than any issue with the Council. He has poisoned the well so badly over time that now that something's actually at stake, he can't get the votes. He should be able to pass this easily. This is a non-binding resolution on violence against gay people, something everyone agrees is abhorrent. Instead, no one wants to get near him, even on something as important as this.

At this point, it seems McGinn couldn't get a grant for a billion dollars passed through this Council. This is why he's a problem. I want my Mayor to be influential and persuasive. Instead, he's inert. This is a problem for me as a resident of this city. Even the hated Sidran could have passed this. If he can't pass this, he can't pass anything.
15
Wow. As rough a hit as it is, this is just what we needed. Way to cut through the bullshit of petty municipal politics, Dan.

@8 Keep on trollin', lil buddy! Who knows, one day you might even get your own show on fox news!
16
As far as City Hall dynamics, McGinn looks to be on his way out the door soon enough. I don't know how Clark playing keepaway serves any purpose. The mayor's already done himself all the damage needed the last four years.

She ought to let go and get out of that corner she's painted into. Somebody who knows her, please help her plot a course out, and soon.

Because Russian LGBTs need Dan fighting for them against their real foes, not distracted by this bullshit.
17

Haven't their been numerous attacks on gays on Capitol Hill.

How about focusing on that first?

Think Globally, Act Locally.

18
@17 "Haven't their been numerous attacks on gays on Capitol Hill. How about focusing on that first?"

Yes, because we can only do one thing at a time. Typical republican/conservative filth thinking.

Acting locally shouldn't preclude acting globally. Asswipe.
19
Agree with @14. No one works with McGinn because you believe a fucking word he says.
20
I started a fundraiser to get McGinn some beard relaxer and treatment for disassociative beard rejection disorder. The evil Chi of his beard has poisoned his mind. The roots of the beard are too close to the seat of "self". Understanding and tolerance are needed, McGinn is in a bad way.
21
18

'acting globally' probably doesn't mean what you imagine it does. but thanks for a laugh.
23
I cannot fathom how she can look herself in the mirror. Speaking out against the situation in Russia is almost literally the least she could do. It costs her nothing to do so, and is so demonstrably the right thing to do.
24
Wow Dan makes a, fuck election year politicking, we should do this because it is fucking right, post and this comment thread is the result?

*shakes head*
25
@22: I'm not trying to be a prick, but a trigger warning is a minor thing to do to prevent someone with PTSD from having an episode. Would you rather they hide themselves from the world and never engage? Is it too much to ask to have a little compassion?
26
@24 Agreed. The hostility in this comments section is going to give me PTSD.
27
@14, if you want your mayor to be influential and persuasive, I guess you won't be voting, because Murray certainly doesn't fit that description.
28
Sorry, 14.

But if people won't vote for an obviously worthwhile measure because it was proposed by the mayor, that points to their own inability to govern due to improper political or personal issues. A meritorious proposal doesn't lose its merit based on who proposed it.
30
Nope the pics should stay, posted front and foremost. I'm willing to accept the risk that a minuscule few might have their PTSD triggered, in the hopes that a minuscule few like our girlfriend Seattleblues might actually look at and think about what her philosophy/theology leads to. A horror that makes Jesus weep.

Those bloody noses, broken bones, glass filled anuses, tortured and beaten to death people.....our favourite church lady, Seattleblues she promotes that. She owns it.
31
Unfortunately @14 has a point, though that doesn't excuse Clark's behavior. She should still be ashamed. But Jesus...she's gay herself, and McGinn can't get her to back the measure? Seriously toxic relationship there.
32
Can we please agree that the Seattle City Council has no official business at all commenting on foreign policy? If McGinn wants to go protest on his own time, fine, but we really should put a stop to all this. Can we just declare that all the bullshit resolutions in the past are forgiven so long as we never have to listen to some pious crap from 4th Avenue on female genital mutilation in Sudan or Christian persecution in Saudi Arabia? Isn't Uganda or Iran worse than Russia on executing gays? And what about North Korea? There are a fuckload of barbaric shitholes in this world, got it. If the City Council were worried about every atrocity on the planet we would never have time to pave over the waterfront street car tracks and create a bunch of parking on Alaskan Way for single occupant vehicle cars (thanks, Mr. Mayor!).
33
I am writing you to request that you do everything that is within your authority and personal power to insure the following the actions are accomplished:

- request state department to prioritize and streamline process for Russian/eastern bloc LGBTQ people seeking to flee to be granted asylum in the US.

- set up safe houses for LGBTQ people seeking asylum here to provide them transitional housing and support services (naturalization, child support, psychological counseling, job training etc).

- raise funding to provide travel fare by any means possible (plan, ship, etc) to aid LGBTQ people seeking to flee Russian/eastern bloc countries.

- engage local faith-based communities to aid in these efforts.

- publicly re-affirm Seattle's status as a Sanctuary City and what that means for LGBTQ people seeking to flee Russian/eastern bloc countries.

Unfortunately not all can be saved from the horrors that are happening and the more that are coming, but we can save some, possibly more than we realize.

We must act now, not a year from now.

Where will you stand?

Sincerely,

Seattle resident

cc:
Governor Jay Inslee
Lt. Governor Brad Owen

Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Representative Adam Smith
Representative Jim McDermott

Representative Jamie Pedersen
Representative Frank Chopp
Senator Ed Murray
Representative Zack Hudgins
Representative Steve Bergquist
Senator Bob Hasegawa
Senator Adam Kline
Representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos
Representative Eric Pettigrew
Senator Sharon Nelson
Representative Eileen Cody
Representative Joe Fitzgibbon
Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles
Representative Reuven Carlyle
Representative Gael Tarleton
Senator David Frockt
Representative Gerry Pollet
Representative Jessyn Farrell
Representative Dave Upthegrove

Mayor Mike McGinn
Councilmember Sally Clark
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Tim Burgess
Councilmember Richard Conlin
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O'Brien
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen

SeattleLGBT Commission
Seattle Human Rights Commission
Seattle Womens Commission

George Bakan, Seattle Gay News
Louise Chernin, Greater Seattle Business Association
Dan Savage, The Stranger
Shaun Knittel, Social Outreach Seattle

************

USCIS [US Citizen & Immigration Services]
Mailing Address
12500 Tukwila International Boulevard
Seattle, WA 98168

Seattle Field Office
12500 Tukwila International Boulevard,
Seattle, WA, 98168

Refugees and Asylum info:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/m…

**************
35
@23
Somebody really needs to write something and get through to this Clark woman!
Quick, who knows more about writing than anyone?
Paul Constant!
Have him write a movie review of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" and get it off to Clark pronto!!
36
Jesus fucking H Christ, what can we do to stop this brutality?
37
Gay people in Russia say that doing this stuff and increasing visibility helps them. Why are you arguing with them that it isn't?

@35 - Um, what? You realize that the media landscape today worldwide is completely different from 1936 right? Oh who am I kidding, you're a conservative, why should logic get in the way of the moronic point you're trying to make.
38
@35 - Jesus Christ, you're an annoying fuck. Go guzzle your haterade in another thread.
39
Pridge, your such a darling. Did I hear right? Are you in fact Pope Peabrain's illegitimate child? Care to swashbuckle?
40
I agree that the Seattle city council should fix the streets before worrying about foreign policy, but this is a strange time to draw the line.
41
@34 It never ceases to amaze me the contorted positions the gay children of Reagan will twist themselves into.

The obvious answer to your weak objection is, SO FUCKING WHAT?.

If your willing to sit on your thumbs and do nothing while your neighbor gets beaten to death in the street because "well there was that time in my grand parents day that trying to do something didn't work"..... you've seriously lost your way.
42
Is it too late to launch a write-in campaign against Clark?
43
@34 Fuck you. Seriously, just get the fuck off you waste of human skin.

Lets recap shall we? Russian LGBT people are asking foreigners and foreign states to protest to show that the Russian Government and their cronies are being watched.

You: "meh wont make a difference. Why bother?"

See something there? Like how you, with zero knowledge of the situation is in fact telling off someone who have almost all of the knowledge on the situation.
Wtf is wrong with your brain and why are you even trying to use it?
47
@44: "Russian LGBT activists have called on gay people around the world to speak up on their behalf. "At this point, the more Russians know and the Kremlin knows that the world is watching, the safer we feel on the ground," Russian lesbian activist and author Masha Gessen said at a public meeting in New York City."

That is why "everybody [is] getting in a kerfuffle over a resolution that only provides...a statement of support." It is not a matter of providence, or diplomacy, or military action. It is a matter of direct humanitarian action and concerted humanitarian effort. If the council took time out to say no GMO salmon, they certainly can take the time show support to LGBT Russians who have told the world that just doing that much makes their homeland safer for them.
48
@35: You're mocking locals who care about human rights issues that you don't happen to for what, shits and giggles? It's enough to be callous and mean-spirited and condescending. You don't have to be useless as well.
50
@49: Why are you so absolutist about this? I don't see slippery slope as a valid argument against Seattle City Council becoming marginally involved in political action outside Washington. It has already been done, as detailed by Holden, without undue upset to the daily goings-on of the local government. If an action that has been proven to be effective by the testimony of the very people the action was meant to protect costs little or nothing in terms of time or resources to implement, why shit on it?
51
At least the Mayor wants to stand up against violence against gays in Russia. I mean he's fucking IGNORED violence against the gay on Capitol Hill since he's been mayor of the city Capitol Hill is located. But fuck man! He's gonna take a stand against violence against gays is another country! THAT'S some fucking BRILLIANT leadership!!!! FOUR MORE YEARS!!!!!
52
But it is disingenious to throw the death of gays and lesbians in Russia at the feet of Sally Clark. Actually, it's hackery usually reserved for the Rush Limbaughs and Jesse Helms of the world. And is symbiotic of someone who doesn't know how to channel rightful anger into meaningful action.

To sum up it's the actions of a 8 year old little boy who isn't getting his way. And for anyone who has met Dan and paid attention to him over the last couple of decades knows that for all the really amazing things he does he ends up offsetting it with stupid things like this.
53
Sally Clark is being a petty, mealy-mouthed politician when she could be helping people, and she's hiding behind a completely fabricated policy of local government to do it. Dan's not laying the deaths of LGBT people in Russia at her feet, he's pointing out that this is a cowardly, colossal dick move on her part- and he's right.
54
@50, because Raindrop's a concern troll who previously moonlighted as "Gay_Dude_for_Romney" during the election?
55
It's wrong to say it would have no effect. The Russian consulate has already noticed and responded strongly to the Mayor's presence at the protest.
56
Why isn't Dan pushing President Obama to do something about the suffering of GLBT people in Russia? It seems the President of the United States is in a far better position to do something than the Mayor of City Council of a small city in the US.

At least Carter had the balls to boycott the 1980 Olympics over Russia's human rights violations when they invaded a country we decided to invade 20 years later.
57
@56

Not sure what you're point is, perhaps other than that you're against the city taking any position, but actually, the President has done something--something fairly significant, in fact.

Since you weren't paying attention, here's a link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-5760…
58
Maybe the Russian mafia in town got to her. Oh, wait, the only mobster we've ever had was a small-time strip club owner. Nevermind.
59
There's a lot of supposition. And here say in this piece. Where's a quote from Clark?
60
John McCain only speaks up for gay rights in Russia but not America. He gets half a gold star.
62
@61: Unless you can prove an outside issue addressed by the council has proven itself disruptive to the process and wasteful to taxpayers, I respectfully reject your 'not our problem' stance. Actually, I also reject your 'not our problem' stance as a citizen of the world- even though you'll probably think I'm some kind of foolish idealist for evoking the concept. But urgently pressing worthy causes are almost never addressed- let alone resolved- by counting on the efficacy of proper bureaucratic channels.
63
I think we all agree that the council should make a statement condemning the treatment of LGBT in Russia, Raindrop included, don't we?

@35: Please do not speak to me. Thank you.
64
@55 nails it. The Russian reaction to McGinn's actions show that the City Council could have an effect. The more the Russians react, the more coverage there is and the more shame gets heaped on the Russians to do something about these horrors. And good for Ed Murray for saying he and McGinn are on the same page on this. Sally Clark needs to remember that the gays and lesbians in Russia are our brothers and sisters. What if she had been born in Russia? Wouldn't she want every possible voice in the world speaking out on this?
66
Raindrop your right a city council vote is the equivalent of lighting a candle. What you are wilfully ignoring (at best) denying (in effect) is.....

"You can blow out a candle but you can't blow out a fire, once the flame begins to catch the wind will blow it higher"

Seattle should do this, it matters it is not a waste of time. Why? Because.....Biko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLg-8Jxi5…
67
I also disagree that this is part of some conspiracy against McGinn. I like a good consiracy theory as much as the next guy but I think it is far more likely that Sally Clark just couldn't be bothered to do the work period.

Now, of course, she doesn't want to do it because she'd have to swallow her pride and admit she was just being a lazy good for nothing who couldn't be bothered to stand up for her own people (solidarity does know bounds after all, I guess).

Today's letter from Mr. Lakin addresses the latter far more tactfully than I could be trusted to do.
68
@39, 45 - I'm a fully legitimate child of Pope Peabrain. He's got more smarts and class in his peanky (lol!) finger than either of you. Or both of you put together for that matter.

@56 - Do you ever contribute anything worthwhile without Obama bashing in the process? Just curious.

@Alanmt - Everytime I see your icon, I feel a lil' somethin'... where can I get the full version of it?

@lolorhone & Lissa - You remain some of my favorite people on Slog. <3
70
@68: I so wish you would/could come to Slog Happy on Friday!
71
@Pridge and @Lissa:

Peace, love, and chicken grease, my friends : )
72
Just a point of clarification on the assault mentioned in the beginning of the post. The man was probably being targeted and assaulted because he was Uzbek. Brutalizing Central Asians (especially Uzbeks) is horrifyingly commonplace here. The gay bashing overtones to the assault might have been fueled by the current political furor, but honestly, Uzbeks and other Central Asians who move to Russia to find work have been victims of this sort of violence for years.

I'm not trying to detract from the point of the post, but I just wanted you to be aware that in this part of the world, incidents like this aren't first and foremost gay bashing. There are lots of skinhead/neo-Nazi groups in Russia that beat up and murder Central Asians, and they probably use the gay bashing style assaults on their victims because they see it as a way to degrade their victims even further.
73
Let Councilwoman Clark know how you feel by commenting on her Facebook page.

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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